r to order the reserves to break cover, and advance across the plain
to the support of Short Nose. This order he delivered by means of
signs and gestures, which were well understood and very promptly obeyed.

Rube then rode back to a spot where Kiddie had told him to wait, and it
was from here that he watched as much as could be seen of the progress
of the battle.

When the two conflicting sides were apart, he could realize the meaning
of all they did. He saw the Crows advancing to surround the van of
their enemy; he saw the Sioux turn sharply to confront them. And then,
with a loud thudding of horses' hoofs, the two contending armies rushed
one at the other in a rising cloud of prairie dust.

There was a crackle of rifle fire, mingled with thrilling war-cries and
wild, barbaric yells. Arrows flew from side to side, making a visible
arch between.

As the rifle fire lessened at close quarters the yells and shouts grew
louder and fiercer. And now Rube lost all power of distinguishing one
side from the other, for it was all one vast mass of horses and men,
swaying this way and that in wild confusion.

It seemed to Rube that even the horses were fighting, for they were
rearing and plunging, kicking and biting, as they forced themselves
through the crowd. Many of them fell, many were riderless. Some of
them had two or even three Indians mounted on their backs, wielding
their clubs and tomahawks.

Through the dust and powder-smoke Rube could see that the ground was
thickly strewn with killed and wounded horses and men. There were wide
gaps in what had been the ranks, but no order was kept, and the
combatants broke off into dense groups. Here and there a chief or
important warrior would draw off his section, rallying and forming them
into line for a new attack, again to become mixed up in a grand
scrimmage.

Rube could distinguish the chiefs by their feathered war bonnets, and
amongst them he thought he recognized the young chief Broken Feather
riding to and fro in the rear of his warriors as if urging them to new
movements or increased effort.

Kiddie was not so easily to be distinguished, as he wore only a very
simple head-dress, but Rube, knowing him by his piebald prairie pony,
saw him once or twice in the forefront of the battle, and again leading
a retirement to take up a fresh position on the field where the
fighting was most severe.

Then for a long time there was no sign of Kiddie, and Rube began t