g. And yet the great
war-chief of the Brules--Sintogaliska--Spotted Tail, the white man's
friend, gave solemn warning not to trust the Ogallallas. "Red Cloud's
heart is bad," he said. "He and his people are moving from the
reservations to the mountains. They mean trouble." Old traders like
Folsom heard and heeded, and Folsom himself hastened to Fort Frayne the
very week that Burleigh and his escort left for Warrior Gap. Visiting at
the ranch of his son in a beautiful nook behind the Medicine Bow
Mountains, the veteran trader heard tidings from an Indian brave that
filled him with apprehension, and he hurried to the fort.

"Is it true," he asked, "that the government means to establish a post
at Warrior Gap? Is it true that Major Burleigh has gone thither?" And
when told that it was and that only Captain Brooks's troop had gone as
escort, Folsom's agitation was extreme. "Colonel," said he, to the post
commander, "solemnly I have tried to warn the general of the danger of
that move. I have told him that all the northern tribes are leaguing
now, that they have determined to keep to themselves the Big Horn
country and the valleys to the north. It will take five thousand men to
hold those three posts against the Sioux, and you've barely got five
hundred. I warn you that any attempt to start another post up there will
bring Red Cloud and all his people to the spot. Their scouts are
watching like hawks even now. Iron Spear came to me at my son's ranch
last night and told me not ten warriors were left at the reservation.
They are all gone, and the war dances are on in every valley from the
Black Hills to the Powder. For heaven's sake send half your garrison up
to Reno after Brooks. You are safe here. They won't molest you south of
the Platte, at least not now. All they ask is that you build no more
forts in the Big Horn."

But the colonel could not act without authority. Telegraph there was
none then. What Folsom said was of sufficient importance to warrant his
hurrying off a courier to Laramie, fully one hundred miles southeast,
and ordering a troop to scout across the wild wastes to the north, while
Folsom himself, unable to master his anxiety, decided to accompany the
command sent out toward Cantonment Reno. He long had had influence with
the Ogallallas. Even now Red Cloud might listen if he could but find
him. The matter was of such urgency he could not refrain. And so with
the gray troop of the cavalry, setting forth with