ng
"Forward!"

And half an hour later there came jogging wearily into camp, guided for
a time only by the call, and finally met and escorted by the picket, a
sergeant and trumpeter from old Tintop himself, and the letter they bore
put an end even to Chrome's inertness. In brief, terse words it told the
story. He and his command had had a sharp, stubborn fight with a big
force of hostiles that very day, with considerable loss to both. "If you
had been here with your men," Tintop said, "I believe we could have
cleaned them out entirely." The main body, however, had retired toward
the agency at the head of Spirit River, but a band of Uncapapas and
Minneconjous, that had cut loose from all, had gone on down the Ska,
making for a junction with some of Red Dog's people at the confluence of
the streams. Tintop held that Chrome must be there by this time, but if
detained from any cause this was to tell him to strike, strike hard and
instantly with every man at his back, and that he, Winthrop, would
support as soon as possible.

Fording the Ska above the narrows of the valley, the faithful messengers
had plunged into the open country to the east, so as to keep well in
rear of the fleeing Indians, then sounding officers' call, the night
signal of the --th, as they came, rode eastward through the starlight,
scouring the broad prairies for the comrade column.

Half an hour later the command was saddling. Coffee had been hurriedly
served. The packers were lashing their bulky sacks and boxes to the
_apparejos_ and turning loose the patient little burden-bearers. Old
Thunder Hawk, grave and dignified, had been standing in consultation
with Chrome and his troop commanders. He knew the point where the
hostiles were probably in camp, and placed it, as did Tintop's scouts,
close to the confluence of the Wakpa Wakon and the Ska. Thunder Hawk was
of the Ogallallas, therefore not a tribesman of the renegades, but he
was a Sioux, and therefore a brother. He had counselled peace to his
people, and they had rewarded him with taunts and jeers. He had
accompanied the column, formally enrolled as a scout, and he would be
guide and adviser to the white chief, yet shrank from personal part in
the coming battle. He had been asked how many miles it was to the forks
and replied fifteen, "but," said he, "it is much farther by the way the
chief should go."

"We want to go the shortest way," was Chrome's short reply. "The
quickest way to reach and st