, reared and
plunged violently, the rider seeming vainly to strive to check him.
Almost instantly three mounted warriors were seen tearing madly away
northeastward out of the gully, their feathers streaming in the wind.
Field spurred away to join his men. Ray whirled about in saddle, and
swung his broad-brimmed scouting hat high above his head, in signal to
Clayton; then shouted to Field. "Forward to the cottonwoods. Gallop!" he
cried. "We need them first of all!"

CHAPTER XI

A FIGHT WITH A FURY

The noonday sun was staring hotly down, an hour later, on a stirring
picture of frontier warfare, with that clump of cottonwoods as the
central feature. Well for Ray's half hundred, that brilliant autumn
morning, that their leader had had so many a year of Indian campaigning!
He now seemed to know by instinct every scheme of his savage foe and to
act accordingly. Ever since the command had come in sight of the Elk
Tooth the conviction had been growing on Ray that Stabber must have
received many accessions and was counting on the speedy coming of
others. The signal smokes across the wide valley; the frequent essays to
tempt his advance guard to charge and chase; the boldness with which the
Indians showed on front and flank; the daring pertinacity with which
they clung to the stream bed for the sake of a few shots at the foremost
troopers, relying, evidently, on the array of their comrades beyond the
ridge to overwhelm any force that gave close pursuit; the fact that
other Indians opened on the advance guard and the left flankers, and
that a dozen, at least, tore away out of the sandy arroyo the moment
they saw the line start at the gallop;--all these had tended to convince
the captain that, now at last, when he was miles from home and succor,
the Sioux stood ready in abundant force to give him desperate battle.

To dart on in chase of the three warriors would simply result in the
scattering of his own people and their being individually cut off and
stricken down by circling swarms of their red foes. To gather his men
and attempt to force the passage of the Elk Tooth ridge meant certain
destruction of the whole command. The Sioux would be only to glad to
scurry away from their front and let them through, and then in big
circle whirl all about him, pouring in a concentric fire that would be
sure to hit some, at least, exposed as they would be on the open
prairie, while their return shots, radiating wildly at the swift