ghter; he never quit a trail and he liked to travel fast and light,
and strike the enemy. He knew that while he waited, the Sioux were
gaining strength and choosing positions. Finally, on the night of July
5, he determined to send out a scouting detachment, and see if he could
not locate the whereabouts of the nearest Sioux village.

Young Second Lieutenant Frederick William Sibley, born in Texas and
appointed to West Point from Georgia, was selected to command the
detachment. He was under twenty-five, had graduated from the Military
Academy in 1874 and been assigned to the Second Cavalry. But although
of only two years' service, he was no longer a "shave-tail"; he had the
name of being a fine, thorough officer and soldier. Everybody liked
Lieutenant Frederick Sibley, Troop E, Second Cavalry; many of the older
officers remembered his father, General C. C. Sibley, who after
thirty-six years in the uniform had died two years ago.

Lieutenant Sibley was directed to take twenty-five picked men, from his
regiment, and two scouts; reconnoiter northwestward along the base of
the Big Horn Mountains, and find the Sioux village if he could.
General Crook was exceedingly anxious to know where Chief Crazy Horse
lived when at home. The Battle of the Rosebud had been an unpleasant
surprise.

The two scouts were Frank Gruard and Baptiste Fourier. Scout Gruard
had been born in the Sandwich Islands. He had ridden pony express in
Montana. Chief Crazy Horse's Sioux had captured him, and had thought,
by reason of his dark skin and straight black hair, that he was a
Sioux, himself. So instead of abusing him, they rejoiced, and kept
him, in order that he might learn the Sioux language again.

He stayed with Chief Crazy Horse, until a chance of escape came. Then
he got away, and for a number of years he was one of the most valuable
scouts in the army. He knew Wyoming and Montana like a book, and could
read sign and weather as well as any Indian. And he was brave.

Baptiste Fourier was half French, half Sioux. He was called "Big Bat,"
to separate him from another Baptiste guide and trailer--"Little Bat,"
a half-Sioux boy at Fort Fetterman. "Little Bat" was now with General
Merritt's Fifth Cavalry.

Packer John Becker of the pack-mule outfit, a frontiersman who had been
a guide in the country, was added to the scouts. At the last moment
John F. Finerty, a plucky newspaper man who was reporting the campaign
for the Chicago