rth from the "jaws of death." As at Balaklava, "some
one had blundered," not once, but many times, and Custer's command
discharged the entire debt with their lifeblood.

When the news of the tragedy reached the main army, preparations
were made to move against the Indians in force. The Fifth Cavalry was
instructed to cut off, if possible, eight hundred Cheyenne warriors
on their way to join the Sioux, and Colonel Wesley Merritt, with five
hundred men, hastened to Hat, or War-Bonnet, Creek, purposing to reach
the trail before the Indians could do so. The creek was reached on the
17th of July, and at daylight the following morning Will rode forth to
ascertain whether the Cheyennes had crossed the trail. They had not, but
that very day the scout discerned the warriors coming up from the south.

Colonel Merritt ordered his men to mount their horses, but to remain out
of sight, while he, with his adjutant, Charles King, accompanied Will
on a tour of observation. The Cheyennes came directly toward the troops,
and presently fifteen or twenty of them dashed off to the west along the
trail the army had followed the night before. Through his glass Colonel
Merritt remarked two soldiers on the trail, doubtless couriers with
dispatches, and these the Indians manifestly designed to cut off. Will
suggested that it would be well to wait until the warriors were on the
point of charging the couriers, when, if the colonel were willing, he
would take a party of picked men and cut off the hostile delegation from
the main body, which was just coming over the divide.

The colonel acquiesced, and Will, galloping back to camp, returned with
fifteen men. The couriers were some four hundred yards away, and their
Indian pursuers two hundred behind them. Colonel Merritt gave the word
to charge, and Will and his men skurried toward the redskins.

In the skirmish that ensued three Indians were killed. The rest started
for the main band of warriors, who had halted to watch the fight, but
they were so hotly pursued by the soldiers that they turned at a point
half a mile distant from Colonel Merritt, and another skirmish took
place.

Here something a little out of the usual occurred--a challenge to a
duel. A warrior, whose decorations and war-bonnet proclaimed him a
chief, rode out in front of his men, and called out in his own tongue,
which Will could understand:

"I know you, Pa-has-ka! Come and fight me, if you want to fight!"

Will rode forwa