and leave so much money in his bags with no one to
guard it; and he said he'd bet on it if I did it right. The captain had
had no luck tracking Indians that summer, and the regiment was laughing
at him. He knew they were scattering every which way now, and was eager
to strike them. All I had to do was to creep in excited-like, wake him
up sudden, and tell him I was sure I had heard an Indian drum and their
scalp-dance song out beyond the pickets,--that they were over towards
Battle Butte, and he could hear them if he would come out on the
river-bank. 'He'd go quick,' says Gower, 'and think of nothing.'

"And--I wouldn't believe it, but he did. He sprang up and went right out
with me, just flinging his overcoat round him; and he never seemed to
want to come in. The wind was blowing soft-like from the southeast, and
he stood there straining his ears trying to hear the sounds I told him
of; but at last he gave it up, and we went back to camp, and he took his
lantern and looked in his saddle-bags, and I shook for fear; but he
seemed to find everything all right, and in the next ten minutes he was
asleep, and Gower came and whispered to me, and I went with him, and he
gave me five hundred dollars, in twenties. 'Now you're bound,' says he;
'keep the sentries off while I get my horse.' And that's the last I ever
saw of him. Then a strange thing happened. 'Twas hardly daylight when a
courier came galloping up, and I called the captain, and he read the
despatch, and says he, 'By heaven, Clancy, you were right after all.
There _are_ Indians over there. Why didn't I trust your ears? Call up
the whole command. The Riflers have treed them at Battle Butte, and
Captain Rayner has gone with his battalion. We are to escort the wagons
to where the boat lies beyond the bend, and then push over with all the
horsemen we can take.' It was after daylight when we got started, but we
almost ran the wagons 'cross country to the boat, and there Captain Hull
took F troop and what there was of his own, leaving only ten men back
with the wagons; and not till then was Gower missed; but all were in
such a hurry to get to the Indians that no one paid attention. Mr. Hayne
he begged the captain to let him go too: so the train was left with the
wagon-master and the captain of the boat, and away we went. You know all
about the fight, and how 'twas Mr. Hayne the captain called to and gave
his watch and the two packages of money when he was ordered to charge.