with our horses--only six men
all told--the chief of the band, called Running Bull Sheep, got on the
bluff bigger than a wolf and demanded six horses. Well, that Texan
wasn't looking for any particular Injun that day to give six of his
own dear horses to. So we just drove on, paying no attention to Mr.
Bull Sheep. About half a mile farther up the trail, the chief overtook
us with all his bucks, and they were an ugly looking lot. Well, this
time he held up four fingers, meaning that four horses would be
acceptable. But the Texan wasn't recognizing the Indian levy of
taxation that year. When he refused them, the Indians never parleyed a
moment, but set up a 'ki yi' and began circling round the herd on
their ponies, Bull Sheep in the lead.

"As the chief passed the owner, his horse on a run, he gave a special
shrill 'ki yi,' whipped a short carbine out of its scabbard, and shot
twice into the rear of the herd. Never for a moment considering
consequences, the Texan brought his six-shooter into action. It was a
long, purty shot, and Mr. Bull Sheep threw his hands in the air and
came off his horse backward, hard hit. This shooting in the rear of
the horses gave them such a scare that we never checked them short of
a mile. While the other Indians were holding a little powwow over
their chief, we were making good time in the other direction,
considering that we had over eight hundred loose horses. Fortunately
our wagon and saddle horses had gone ahead that morning, but in the
run we overtook them. As soon as we checked the herd from its scare,
we turned them up the trail, stretched ropes from the wheels of the
wagon, ran the saddle horses in, and changed mounts just a little
quicker than I ever saw it done before or since. The cook had a saddle
in the wagon, so we caught him up a horse, clapped leather on him, and
tied him behind the wagon in case of an emergency. And you can just
bet we changed to our best horses. When we overtook the herd, we were
at least a mile and a half from where the shooting occurred, and there
was no Indian in sight, but we felt that they hadn't given it up. We
hadn't long to wait, though we would have waited willingly, before we
heard their yells and saw the dust rising in clouds behind us. We quit
the herd and wagon right there and rode for a swell of ground ahead
that would give us a rear view of the scenery. The first view we
caught of them was not very encouraging. They were riding after us
like