to me.

Silently and slowly we moved forward. The underbrush was thick on either
side of the narrow, stony way that wound between sheer cliffs. We had
torn up our blankets and shirts to muffle the horses' feet, that no
sound of hoofs, striking upon the rocky path, might reach the ears of
the Cheyenne and his allies crouching watchfully above us. At the head
marched Captain Jenness and Scout Pliley, each with his carbine for a
crutch and leaning on each other for support. Followed five soldiers as
front guard through the defile. And then four horses, led by careful
hands, bearing nine suffering, silent men upon their backs. Two of the
horses carried three, and one bore two, and the last horse, one--a dying
boy, whispering into my ear a message for his mother, as I held his
hand. Behind us came the sergeants with the remainder, for rear-guard.
And so we passed, mile after mile, winding in and out, to find some
sheltering spot where, sinking in exhaustion, we might sleep.

The midnight winds grew chill, and the tense strain of that slow march
was maddening, but not a groan came from the wounded men. The vanguards
of the plains knew how to take perilous trails and hold their peace.

When the sun rose on the second day the hills about us swarmed with
savages, whose demoniac yells rent the air. Leonidas had his back
against a rock at old Thermopylae, but our Kansas plainsmen fought in a
ring of fire.

At day-dawn, our brave scout, Pliley, slipped away, and, after long
hours among the barren hills, he found the main command.

Men never gave up hope in the plains warfare, but each of us had saved
one bullet for himself, if we must lose this game. The time for that
last bullet had almost come when the sight of cavalrymen on a distant
ridge told us that our scout was on its way to us again. It took a
hero's heart to thread unseen the dangerous trails and find our comrades
with the cavalry major and bring back aid, but Pliley did it for us--a
man's part. May the sod rest lightly where he sleeps to-day.

Meantime, on the day before, the main force of our cavalry, who had
given us up for lost, had had their own long, fearful struggle. In the
early morning, Lieutenant Stahl, scouting forward in an open plain,
rushed back to give warning of Indians everywhere. And they were
everywhere--a thousand strong against a feeble hundred caught in their
midst. They rode like centaurs, and their aim was deadly true as they
poured down, a m