shot-range of the enemy. The
Arapahoes were as well-mounted as the Utahs; and perceiving their
inferiority in numbers, they would have refused to fight, and ridden
off, perhaps, without losing a man.

The strategic manoeuvre of the Utah was meant to force the Red-Hand to a
conflict. This was its purpose, and no other. It was likely to be
successful. For the Arapahoes, there appeared no alternative but stand
and fight. The attack, coming from four points at one and the same
time, and by superior numbers must have caused them fear. How could it
be otherwise? It failed, however, to create any remarkable confusion.
We could see them hurrying around the butte, in the direction of their
_cavallada_: and, in an incredibly short space of time, most of the
warriors had leaped to their horses, and with their long spears towering
high above their heads, had thrown themselves into an irregular
formation.

The plain at this moment presented an animated spectacle. He upon the
summit of the butte, if still alive, must have viewed it with singular
emotions. The painted Arapahoes clustered around their chief, and for
the moment appearing in a close crowd, silent and immobile: from north,
south, east, and west, the four bands of the Utahs approaching in rapid
gallop, each led by its war-chief; while the "Ugh! aloo!" pealing from
five hundred throats, reverberated from cliff to cliff, filling the
valley with its vengeful echoes! The charge might have been likened to
a chapter from the antique--an onslaught of Scythians! Would the
Arapahoes await the shock of all four divisions at once? All were about
equally distant, and closing in at equal speed. Surely the Red-Hand
would not stay to be thus attacked.

"_Carrambo_! I wonder they are not off before this!" shouted Archilete,
who was galloping by my side. "Ha, yonder!" added he, "a party on foot
making from the grove of _alamos_! They are waiting for those to come
up--that's what's been detaining them. _Mira_!"

As the Mexican spoke, he pointed to a small tope of cotton-woods, which
grew isolated about three or four hundred yards from the mound. Out of
this was seen issuing some fifteen or twenty Arapahoes. They were on
foot--except three or four, who appeared to be carried by the others.

"Their wounded!" continued the trapper. "They've had them under the
bushes to keep the sun off them, I suppose. _Mira_! they are meeting
them with horses! They mean flight then