g, chanting, and shouting down the slopes to the
south, rode in solemn phalanx until almost within rifle range, then,
bursting asunder like some huge human case-shot, scattered its wild
horsemen in mad career all over the open prairie, and in a minute
thereafter, amid the thunder of hoofs, half deadened by the rising pall
of dust, twenty-score in number, the yelling braves were circling the
agency, firing swiftly on the run.

Never a shot did they receive in reply. "Hold your fire till they come
in closer, and you get the word!" growled the sergeants. Never a match
did the besieged apply, for there was still no attempt to charge. It was
young Ray's first tussle with the Sioux, but many a time as a boy at his
father's knee had he begged for the stories of the old battles of the
--th, and listened with quickened heartbeat and panting breath. He knew
just how they would circle and charge, shout and shoot,--just what to
look for and how to meet it,--and there were only two things about the
defense that gave him the faintest worry.

East of the storehouse, barely fifty yards away, was the agent's modest
little home, a shelter to the warriors should they decide to turn loose
their ponies and collect two hundred strong behind it, ready for a rush
in force upon his doors and windows the moment a similar force could be
ready behind the shop and stable buildings at the corral. They probably
could not force an entrance even then. They would surely lose many
warriors in the attempt. But what they could do would be to rush upon
the storehouse, crouch low at the walls and under the floor of the
porch, where the rifles of the besieged could not reach them, and then
start fire all at once in a dozen places, crawl back under cover of the
smoke, and so burn out the defenders. Much as the mounted warrior hates
to fight afoot, this was too obvious an opportunity, and presently Ray
saw indication that something was coming. No time, therefore, had he or
his people for further compunction.

"The shops, first," said he. "Start them at once. Open the corral gates
and--get back," were his orders to the young corporal who stood ready to
carry his message. "Our horses will make a break for home. The Indians
will catch most of them, perhaps, but not all. Between them and the
smoke the fort will see that something's up, and--you all know the
colonel."

And so it happened that, just as the squadron, already alarmed, was
spattering through the sha