assion. Then he resumed the journey down one of those
sand-strewn depressions pointing toward the Rosebud, pressing the
refreshed ponies into a canter, confident now that their greatest
measure of safety lay in audacity.

Apparently his faith in the total desertion of these "bad lands" by the
Indians was fully justified, for they continued steadily mile after
mile, meeting with no evidence of life anywhere. Still the travelling
was good, with here and there little streams of icy water trickling
over the rocks. They made most excellent progress, Hampton ever
grasping the bit of Murphy's horse, his anxious thought more upon his
helpless companion in misery than upon the possible perils of the route.

It was already becoming dusk when they swept down into a little nest of
green trees and grass. It appeared so suddenly, and was such an
unexpected oasis amid that surrounding wilderness, that Hampton gave
vent to a sudden exclamation of delight. But that was all. Instantly
he perceived numerous dark forms leaping from out the shrubbery, and he
wheeled his horses to the left, lashing them into a rapid run. It was
all over in a moment--a sputtering of rifles, a wild medley of cries, a
glimpse of savage figures, and the two were tearing down the rocks, the
din of pursuit dying away behind them. The band were evidently all on
foot, yet Hampton continued to press his mount at a swift pace, taking
turn after turn about the sharp hills, confident that the hard earth
would leave no trace of their passage.

Then suddenly the horse he rode sank like a log, but his tight grip
upon the rein of the other landed him on his feet. Murphy laughed, in
fiendish merriment; but Hampton looked down on the dead horse, noting
the stream of blood oozing out from behind the shoulder. A stray Sioux
bullet had found its mark, but the gallant animal had struggled on
until it dropped lifeless; and the brave man it had borne so long and
so well bent down and stroked tenderly the unconscious head. Then he
shifted the provisions to the back of the other horse, grasped the
loose rein once more in his left hand, and started forward on foot.

CHAPTER VI

ON THE LITTLE BIG HORN

N Troop, guarding, much to their emphatically expressed disgust, the
more slowly moving pack-train, were following Custer's advancing column
of horsemen down the right bank of the Little Big Horn. The troopers,
carbines at knee, sitting erect in their saddles, the