It was some little time before they dared approach, but
after they had looked carefully around, I suppose they thought it
had been campers who had stopped, built a fire and then pulled
out, for it was not the custom of scouts to build a fire, which
the Indians well knew, they finally ventured up to the fire and
were warming themselves. Seeing that they were both armed with
rifles, and the chances were they both had pistols, we made up our
minds not to take any chances, so I proposed to George that we
should shoot them down, just as they would have done us if we had
not understood their signal.
Of course if it had been daylight it would have been quite
different, but three jumps away from the fire and they would have
been safe from us. We were sitting side by side not more than
forty yards from them. I told George to take the one on the right
and I would take the one on the left, and when he gave the word I
would fire with him. We raised our guns, and when he gave the word
we both fired, and the two Indians fell to the ground. We waited
about five minutes to see whether they would rise or not, and
believing we had killed them both, we approached them. One of them
was dead and the other was just about dead, so we took their guns
and pistols and reported to Gen. Wheaton.
The next morning he said it was a mystery how the Indians would
get out and the men on picket would not see them.
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