resting and chatting, while
squaws were pitching tents, making beds, carrying in poles, and cooking
the noonday meal.

A brief look was all these brave officers dared risk, for they feared
detection, and hastily lowering themselves to the ground, they lost no
time in regaining their own camp.

A brief dispatch was sent off to the General, the receipt of which by
him has already been referred to, advising him of their discovery, and
the remainder of the day was spent in impatient awaiting his arrival.

CHAPTER III.

At 10 o'clock at night the officer of the guard spoke to the General in
a whisper, and he arose with the alacrity of a youth who goes forth to
engage in the sports of a holiday. The men were called at once, and in
whispered orders the line of march was speedily formed. All were
instructed to preserve the most profound silence from that moment until
the signal should be given to open fire on the enemy, and, under the
guidance of Joe Blodgett and Lieutenant Bradley, the little band filed
silently down the winding trail, threading its way, now through dark
groves of pine or fir; now through jungles of underbrush; now over
rocky points; frequently wading the cold mountain brook, waist deep,
and tramping through oozy marshes of saw-grass; speaking only in
whispers; their rifles loaded, eyes peering into the starlit night, and
ears strained to catch the slightest sound that might indicate the
hiding-place of any lurking foe who might perchance be on an outpost to
announce to his followers the approach of danger.

Five miles were thus stealthily marched without giving an alarm. Then
the valley in which the troops had been moving opened out into what is
known as the Big Hole, that is, the valley of the Big Hole River. This
is a beautiful prairie basin, fifteen miles wide, and sixty miles long,
covered with rich bunch-grass and surrounded by high mountains. In the
edge of this valley the soldiers saw the smoldering camp-fires of the
enemy; heard the baying of his hungry dogs responding to the howls of
prowling coyotes, and saw, by the flickering lights, the smoky lodges
of the warriors. The men crept up to within a few hundred yards of the
slumbering camp, when they again crossed the creek down which they had
been marching, and ascended its eastern bluff. Here they encountered a
large herd of ponies, some of whom neighed anxiously as the strange
apparition filed past them, but luckily did not stampede.