s! Sculp every
mother's son o' 'em. Hooza! hoozay!"

There was no time to make reply to these cries of encouragement. Enough
to know that it was our old comrade who gave utterance to them. It
proved he was still living; and, echoing his exulting shout, we galloped
onward.

It was a fearful sight to behold the two dark bands as they dashed
forward upon one another--like opposing waves of the angry ocean.
Through the horsemen in front of me, I could see the meeting, and hear
the shock. It was accompanied by wild yells--by voices heard in loud
taunting tones--by the rattling of shields, the crashing collision of
spear-shafts, and the sharp detonations of rifles. The band of Wa-ka-ra
recoiled for a moment. It was by far the weakest; and had it been left
to itself, would have sustained defeat in this terrible encounter. But
the Utahs were armed both with rifles and pistols; and the latter,
playing upon the ranks of the Arapahoes, were fast thinning them. Dusky
warriors were seen dropping from their horses; while the terrified
animals went galloping over the field--their wild neighs adding to the
uproar of the fight. There was but one charge--a short but terrible
conflict--and then the fight was over. It became transformed, almost in
an instant, to a disorderly flight. When the hot skurry had ended, the
remnant of the prairie-horsemen was seen heading down the valley,
followed by the four bands of the Utahs--who had now closed together.
Pressing onward in the pursuit, they still vociferated their wild _Ugh!
aloo_!--firing shots at intervals, as they rode within reach of their
flying foemen.

Neither Wingrove nor I had an opportunity of taking part in the affray.
It was over before we could ride up; and, indeed, had it been otherwise,
neither of us could have been of much service to our allies. Painted as
both were, and in full war-costume--in other words, naked to the
breech-clout--we could not have distinguished friends from foes! It was
partly this consideration that had occasioned us to halt. We drew up on
the ground where the collision had occurred with the band of Wa-ka-ra.
We looked upon a spectacle that might at any other time have horrified
us. A hundred bodies lay over the sward, all dead. There were Utahs as
well as Arapahoes; but, though we could not distinguish the warriors of
the two tribes in the confusion of the fight, there was no difficulty in
identifying their dead. There was a signal di