ng horror. The soles of
his mocassins were now red.

But he made progress. He was leaving the village farther behind,
and the hum of voices was not so loud. One of his greatest
wishes now was to find arms. He did not intend to be recaptured,
and if the Sioux came upon him he wanted at least to make a
fight.

A dark shape among some short bushes attracted his attention. It
looked like the form of a man, and when he went closer he saw
that it was the body of a Sioux warrior, slain by a distant
bullet from Custer's circle. His carbine lay beside him and he
wore an ammunition belt full of cartridges. Dick, without
hesitation, took both, and felt immensely strengthened. The
touch of the rifle gave him new courage. He was a man now ready
to meet men.

He reached another low hill and stood there a little while,
listening. He heard an occasional whoop, and may lights flared
here and there in the village, but no warrior was near. He saw
on one side of him the high hill, at the base of which the first
cavalrymen had appeared, and around which the army had ridden a
little later to its fate. Dick was seized with a sudden
unreasoning hatred of the hill itself, standing there black and
lowering in the darkness. He shook his fist at it, and then,
ashamed of his own folly, hurried his flight.

Everything was aiding him now. If any chance befell, that chance
was in his favor. Swiftly he left behind the field of battle,
the great Indian village, and all the sights and sounds of that
fatal day, which would remain stamped on his brain as long as he
lived. He did not stop until he was beyond the hills inclosing
the valley, and then he bent back again toward the Little Big
Horn. He intended to cross the river and return toward the
village on the other side, having some dim idea that he might
find and rescue Albert.

Dick was now in total silence. The moon and the stars were not
yet out, but he had grown used to the darkness and he could see
the low hills, the straggling trees, and the clumps of
undergrowth. He was absolutely alone again, but when he closed
his eyes he saw once more with all the vividness of reality that
terrible battle field, the closing in of the circle of death, the
last great rush of the Sioux horde, and the blotting out of the
white force. He still heard the unbroken crash of the rifle fire
that had continued for hours, and the yelling of the Sioux that
rose and fell.

But when he opened h