d in an oval "dip" along
the crest and yet commanding the approaches in every direction. From
here they not only successfully "stood off" every attack until dark,
but prevented the Indians reaching the bodies of the slain and securing
the coveted trophy of their scalps, and covered the teamsters who were
sent down to unhitch and secure the mules. When night came a half-breed
scout slipped away with news of the "corral," and Hatton found that two
of his men were severely wounded and that few of them had any water in
their canteens. The river was full six miles to the south. Neither
stream nor spring was close at hand, and with characteristic
improvidence the teamsters had failed to fill their water-barrels at
the stockade before starting. "What was the use, with the Niobrara only
a few hours' march away?" Bitterly did Hatton reproach himself for his
neglect in having left so important a matter to the men themselves, but
there was no sense in fretting over the past. Something had to be done
at once to provide water for the morrow's siege. They heard the
exultant whoops of the savages, who, under cover of the darkness, had
crept out and succeeded in scalping the two dead soldiers. They knew
that very soon the Indians would be crawling out to the wagons in an
attempt to run them away or fire them. Hatton himself ventured down to
examine the water-barrels, and found not more than half a barrel of
dirty, brackish, ill-flavored fluid in all. The darkness grew black and
impenetrable. Heavy clouds overspread the heavens, and a moaning wind
crept out of the mountain-passes of the Big Horn range and came
sweeping down across the treeless prairie. Every now and then they
could hear the galloping beat of pony-hoofs, and knew that they were
closely invested in their hillock citadel, and at last, about ten
o'clock, a sergeant who had been sent with a couple of men to see what
was going on at the wagons, came running back breathless. The wagons
were gone! Every one of them had been run off by the Indians under
cover of the wind and darkness; and presently, half a mile over to the
south-east, a glare of flame arose, and the white tops became for a
moment visible, and dancing, capering naked forms around them, and then
the cotton duck attracted the eager, fiery tongues, and in another
moment the flames seemed to leap high in the air, but the performers in
the aboriginal ballet scurried for shelter. The soldiers sighted their
rifles for ni