ees had not taken much interest in me, but while at this
camp I gained their respect and admiration by showing them how I killed
buffaloes. Although the Pawnees were excellent buffalo killers, for
Indians, I have never seen one of them who could kill more than four or
five in one run. A number of them generally surround the herd and then
dash in upon them, and in this way each one kills from one to four
buffaloes. I had gone out in company with Major North and some of the
officers, and saw them make a "surround." Twenty of the Pawnees circled a
herd and succeeded in killing only thirty-two.

"While they were cutting up the animals another herd appeared in sight.
The Indians were preparing to surround it, when I asked Major North to
keep them back and let me show them what I could do. He accordingly
informed the Indians of my wish and they readily consented to let me have
the opportunity. I had learned that Buckskin Joe was an excellent buffalo
horse, and felt confident that I would astonish the natives; galloping in
among the buffaloes, I certainly did so by killing thirty-six in less
than a half-mile run. At nearly every shot I killed a buffalo, stringing
the dead animals out on the prairie, not over fifty feet apart. This
manner of killing was greatly admired by the Indians who called me a big
chief, and from that time on, I stood high in their estimation."

CHAPTER XXII.

A DESPERATE FIGHT.

On leaving camp, the command took a westward course up the Republican,
and Major North with two companies of his Pawnees and two or three
companies of cavalry, under the command of Colonel Royal, made a scout to
the north of the river. Shortly after we had gone into camp, on the Black
Tail Deer Fork, we observed a band of Indians coming over the prairie at
full gallop, singing and yelling and waving their lances and long poles.
At first we supposed them to be Sioux, and all was excitement for a few
moments. We noticed, however, that our Pawnee Indians made no hostile
demonstrations or preparations towards going out to fight them, but began
swinging and yelling themselves. Captain Lute North stepped up to General
Carr and said:

"General, those are our men who are coming, and they have had a fight.
That is the way they act when they come back from a battle and have taken
any scalps."

The Pawnees came into camp on the run. Captain North calling to one of
them--a sergeant--soon found out that they had run across a par