The Lieutenant formed his men in a triangle on the ridge, his
object being to pocket the Indians; in other words, to bunch them
up or prevent them from scattering. While he was forming his men
and giving instructions, I told my men where the horses were and
that we must get to them about the time the cavalry made the
attack on the Indians. I told them that no doubt the horses would
have ropes on them and the first one that I come to I would take
him and lead the way. "And when you hear the first shot, all raise
the yell, for by doing that we will be able to make the stampede,
and if nothing goes wrong we will keep the stock going until we
reach headquarters." When I got to the horses about the first one
I stumbled onto was a white one, with a long hair rope on; I
caught him and led the way, and he made a good leader for the
others to follow.
We got to the horses a few moments before the soldiers got to the
Indian camp, and at the first shot we all raised the yell, and as
I led the white pony away all followed, and we did not halt until
we were five or six miles off. Here we came to a small stream that
meandered through a little valley. There we stopped awhile to let
our horses drink and rest, and while there we counted our horses
and found that we had seventy-eight.
We reached camp about six o'clock the next morning, but the
soldiers did not get in until noon.
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