at
their officers' commands. They climbed off their horses and walked them.

Otto Wegner rode up and dismounted.

"General Atkinson is going to encamp the rest of the army outside
Prophet's Town, sir," he said, giving Raoul his usual vigorous salute,
nearly dislodging the big hunting knife sheathed in a pocket of his
leather shirt.

Raoul returned the salute carelessly, went back to Banner and took
another swallow from the whiskey canteen.

Surprising that Atkinson should decide to set up camp here, when the day
was only half over. Well, Henry Atkinson had a reputation for going
slowly. Raoul had heard from friends among the regular officers that
Atkinson had already received a sharply worded letter from the Secretary
of War in Washington City reprimanding him for not moving fast enough to
crush the Indians.

_If I get a chance to take a crack at them I sure as hell won't be
slow._

The early arrivals already had their tents up. Officers' tents were of
white canvas, six feet from the ground to their peaked tops. Enlisted
men set up pup tents just large enough to cover two men lying down. Most
men didn't bother to carry tents and slept out in the open, rolled up in
the coarse blankets they all carried.

Men were wandering through Prophet's Town peering into the lodges. They
walked with slow caution, rifles ready.

Raoul watched Justus Bennett, in civilian life Smith County's land
commissioner, ordering two privates in buckskins and coonskin caps to
put up a tent for him. Bennett was always trying to make himself as
comfortable as possible. His packhorse carried his tenting, a big bag
full of fancy clothes, and a couple of heavy law books. Why on earth a
man would think he needed such things in the wilderness, Raoul had no
idea.

"Bennett!" Raoul called. "Take charge of the guard on those Indians."

Bennett looked annoyed, but gave some final instructions to the men
putting up his tent and slouched over to the four Indians. A
round-shouldered man of slight build, he looked decidedly unmilitary,
but he'd explained to Raoul that for anyone who wanted to get ahead in
politics, a war record would be a godsend.

Raoul called out, "Levi, you leave off guarding the Indians and get my
tent up."

A crowd of men had gathered in a circle around the Indians. Maybe they
wanted to give the redskins a few licks of their own.

"Afternoon, Colonel."

Raoul was used to looking down at other men, but he had to look up, a