elieve they were
over a mile from camp at this minute; Jim mounted his horse and went to
the herders and ordered them to corral the stock at once, at the same
time telling every man to get his gun and form in line for the Indians
were coming upon us, and the reader may be sure that everybody and every
animal in that train was moving lively for a few minutes.

As soon as the stock was corralled, Jim rode up to me with one of the
sticks that had a scalp on it in his hand. Handing it to me, he said,
"Here, Will, take this and ride out a little ways from the corral, and
when the Indians come where they can see you, wave it over your head so
they will be sure to see the scalps, and I will get another bunch and I
will stand close to you at the same time."

In a few minutes more the Indians hove in sight. They were in less than
a quarter of a mile of us before they could see the whole train. As soon
as they got a good sight of us the whole band stopped. The leader of
the band was a war chief. We knew this by his dress. As soon as they
stopped, Jim and I rode out towards them, waving the scalps like a flag.

The old chief looked at us a moment, then turned and seemed to be
talking with some of the other braves a few minutes. Then the whole
tribe pulled out in a westerly direction from us, and in a short time
they were out of our sight, and their pace was lively the reader may be
sure for the sight of the scalps had frightened them, as they feared
they would meet the same fate if they did not get away from us quick.

I followed them quite a distance to make sure that they had gone. When I
got back, everything had quieted down and the company was just sitting
down to supper.

After Jim and I had got through eating, two of the committee came to us
and as many as forty or fifty women, old and young, were with them. The
men said to us, "These women have asked us to come to you and tender
their most heartfelt thanks to you for what you have done for them
today, for we are all sure we would have fallen victims to the savages
if you had not been with us to protect us from them. It was the
easiest-won battle that I ever heard of, and all because you knew how to
fight the savages with their own weapon."

Jim answered, "Didn't I tell you that them scalps was worth an army of
soldiers to us, and hasn't this proved my words to be true? What would
a hundred soldiers have done with that whole tribe of Indians? There
wouldn't have been a