slow chant
and withdrew to the summit of the hill.

There they remained in council a little time and then cantered away
single file.

Fearing another trap, the white men remained for weary hours in their
hiding-place, but at last were compelled by thirst and hunger to come
out.

No Indians were visible, nor did any appear as, worn out and
dispirited, they dragged themselves to the camp of the soldiers. In the
forty-eight hours since he had been cut off from his command De Rudio
had undergone all the horrors of Indian warfare and a hundred times had
given himself up for dead.

Bullets had passed many times within a few inches of him. Half a dozen
times only a lucky chance had intervened between him and the horrible
death that Indians know so well how to inflict. Yet, save for the
bruises from his fall off his horse, and the abrasions of the brush
through which he had traveled, he had never received a scratch.

CHAPTER XI

Of all the Indians I encountered in my years on the Plains the most
resourceful and intelligent, as well as the most dangerous, were the
Sioux. They had the courage of dare-devils combined with real strategy.
They mastered the white man's tactics as soon as they had an
opportunity to observe them. Incidentally they supplied all thinking
and observing white commanders with a great deal that was well worth
learning in the art of warfare. The Sioux fought to win, and in a
desperate encounter were absolutely reckless of life.

But they also fought wisely, and up to the minute of closing in they
conserved their own lives with a vast amount of cleverness. The maxim
put into words by the old Confederate fox, Forrest: "Get there fastest
with the mostest," was always a fighting principle with the Sioux.

They were a strong race of men, the braves tall, with finely shaped
heads and handsome features. They had poise and dignity and a great
deal of pride, and they seldom forgot either a friend or an enemy.

The greatest of all the Sioux in my time, or in any time for that
matter, was that wonderful old fighting man, Sitting Bull, whose life
will some day be written by a historian who can really give him his
due.

Sitting Bull it was who stirred the Indians to the uprising whose
climax was the massacre of the Little Big Horn and the destruction of
Custer's command.

For months before this uprising he had been going to and fro among the
Sioux and their allies urging a revolt against the encroac