little surprised at
Wells's coming and the unwelcome news he bore. The ranchman was one of
the best-hearted fellows in the world, but he had a few infirmities of
disposition and one or two little conceits that sometimes marred his
better judgment. Having lived in the Chug Valley a year or two before
the regiment came there, he had conceived it to be his prerogative to
adopt a somewhat patronizing tone to its men, and believed that he knew
much more about the manners and customs of the Sioux than they could
possibly have learned.

The Fifth Cavalry had been stationed not far from the Chug Valley when
he first came to the country, and afterwards were sent out to Arizona
for a five-years' exile. It was all right for the Fifth to claim
acquaintance with the ways of the Sioux, Farron admitted, but as for
these fellows of the --th,--that was another thing. It did not seem to
occur to him that the guarding of the neighboring reservations for about
five years had given the new regiment opportunities to study and observe
these Indians that had not been accorded to him.

Another element which he totally overlooked in comparing the relative
advantages of the two regiments was a very important one that radically
altered the whole situation. When the Fifth was on duty watching the
Sioux, it was just after breech-loading rifles had been introduced into
the army, and before they had been introduced among the Sioux.

Through the mistaken policy of the Indian Bureau at Washington this
state of affairs was now changed and, for close fighting, the savages
were better armed than the troops. Nearly every warrior had either a
magazine rifle or a breech-loader, and many of them had two revolvers
besides. Thus armed, the Sioux were about ten times as formidable as
they had been before, and the task of restraining them was far more
dangerous and difficult than it had been when the Fifth guarded them.

The situation demanded greater vigilance and closer study than in the
old days, and Farron ought to have had sense enough to see it. But he
did not. He had lived near the Sioux so many years; these soldiers had
been near them so many years less; therefore they must necessarily know
less about them than he did. He did not take into account that it was
the soldiers' business to keep eyes and ears open to everything relating
to the Indians, while the information which he had gained came to him
simply as diversion, or to satisfy his curiosity.

S