when the animal suddenly reared up, uttering a wild human scream.
The shaggy hide was thrown aside, and a naked savage appeared, holding
up his arms as if pleading for mercy. His appeal was a vain one,
however, for the ruthless renegade pinned him to the earth with a thrust
of his lance, and, springing from his horse, finished him with his
tomahawk. He then scalped him, and, remounting his horse, directed some
of the warriors to scour the prairie, as they might find another "calf"
concealed in the long grass. With the rest of the party he rode up to
the _motte_, and they quickly formed in a circle, around it. Familiar as
I had become with Indian cruelty, I felt a sensation of horror and
disgust at this cool shedding of blood, and I halted irresolutely by the
body of the dead Indian. He lay stretched upon his back, naked to the
breech clout, the red stream flowing from the lance wound in his side.
His limbs quivered, but it was in the last spasm of departing life.

The hide in which he had been disguised lay near him, where he had flung
it at the moment he was discovered. Beside him were a bow and several
arrows. The latter were covered with blood, the feathers steeped in it
and clinging to the shafts. They had pierced the bodies of the
buffaloes, passing entirely through. Each arrow had taken many lives.

I was still contemplating the dead man, when a yell from the _motte_
attracted my attention, and I rode thither. I reached the spot just in
time to see the body of another Indian dragged out from the thick
undergrowth, and his fortunate slayer, who happened to be one of the
younger braves, took the scalp with great complacency, as it was his
first trophy of the kind. The Indians evidently believed that another of
the _Coyoteros_ or Wolf Apaches, for to this tribe the two dead savages
were declared to belong, was concealed in the thicket, for they were
formed in a sort of irregular circle around the copse, peering into it
from every direction. Hissodecha now ordered the warriors to close in
from every direction and search the thicket. In this manoeuvre I found
myself compelled to take part, as otherwise I would have incurred the
stigma of cowardice. We dismounted from our horses and pressed into the
thicket from all sides. For a few seconds nothing could be heard but the
cracking of the undergrowth as we forced our way through it. Suddenly a
yell arose from the side opposite to my position, and almost instantly a
third