e
warriors that remained. In fifteen minutes, at the head of three hundred
mounted braves, Red Dog was riding straight for the agency, his escort
gaining numbers with every rod. Red Dog afraid, indeed!

Over the moonlit sweep of snow the watchers at the corral saw the coming
throng, a moving mass, black and ominous as the storm-cloud. Within the
buildings all hands were hastily barricading doors and windows and
bustling a few women and children, trembling and terrified, into the
cellars. Out in the corral in disciplined silence the troopers were
promptly mustering and forming line. Six or eight of the party that
arrived with Davies that morning having badly frozen fingers and toes
were told off to act as horse-holders. "We've simply to fight on the
defensive," said Boynton to his silent second in command, "and we'll
fight afoot. Thirty men can defend the corral and out-houses and the
front of the agency. The rest we'll put in the building. That's all
we've got."

Away from the excited group at the office door a horseman turned and
spurred full speed for the hills far to the southwest. "Tell 'em we're
attacked by overpowering numbers," said McPhail, "and want instant
help,--all they can send us." There was no time to write despatches; the
shouts and taunts and shrill defiance of the coming troop already rang
in their ears.

"Now then, McPhail," said Boynton, lunging up through the snow-drifts,
carbine in hand, "I've got my men at every loop and knot-hole, and those
beggars can't take this shop to-night. What I want is authority to
arrest that head devil the moment he gets here."

"It will only infuriate them and make matters worse," pleaded the
representative of the Indian bureau.

"Well, it's the only way to put an end to the row," said the soldier.
"The only thing in God's world those fellows respect is force and pluck.
You've temporized too long. Arrest him and tell his fellows to disperse
to their tepees in two minutes or we open fire."

"How can you arrest him in front of all that array?" was the tremulous
question. "Do you suppose they'll permit it?"

"That's my business," was Boynton's answer. "I don't mean to let that
gang come within three hundred yards, and you're a worse fool than I
thought if you overrule me. I'm going to ride out there now to halt them
at the creek. Then you order Red Dog forward with his interpreter and
bring him in here a prisoner. You've not an instant to lose," he
finished as a