fort was located in an open basin, surrounded by gentle
hills. He directed the men of the other camp to come in at the first
sign of trouble.

The Sioux were at hand. Red Cloud had been merely waiting for the
soldiers to march out and make it worth his while to descend. He was
resolved to destroy Fort Kearney this year, before the snows.

It seemed to him that again he had the soldiers where he wanted them.
Word of the flimsy little corral spread a laugh among his two thousand
warriors. The squaws and old men were summoned from the allied Sioux
and out-law Cheyenne village, to come and see and be ready with their
knives.

On the morning of August 2 he so suddenly attacked the unfortified wood
camp that he cut it off completely. Two hundred of his men captured
the mule herd; five hundred of them attacked the wagon train there,
burned the wagons and drove the soldiers and teamsters and choppers who
were outside the corral, in flight to Fort Kearney. Scalps were taken.

Now it was the turn of the puny corral, and the rest of the soldiers.

He could see only the low circle of wagon-boxes. They were covered
with blankets; underneath the blankets there were soldiers--few and
frightened.

The hill slopes around were thronged with his people, gathered to watch
and to plunder. He felt like a great chief indeed. And at wave of his
hand eight hundred of his cavalry dashed in a thundering, crackling
surge of death straight at the silent circle.

On they sped, and on, and on, and were just about to dash against the
circle and sweep over, when suddenly such a roar, and sheet of flame,
struck them in the face that they staggered and melted. Now--while the
guns were empty! But the guns were not yet empty--they belched without
pause. Veering right and left around a bloody lane the warriors,
crouching low, tore for safety from the frightful blast.

Red Cloud could not understand. His own men were well armed, with
rifles and with muskets captured from the soldiers during the past year
or supplied at the trading post. It seemed to him that there were more
soldiers under those blankets than he had reckoned. But he knew that
his men were brave; his people were watching from the hills; he had no
mind for defeat.

In the corral Captain Powell had told his twenty-six soldiers and four
civilians to fight for their lives. The poor shots were ordered to
load guns and pass them as fast as possible to the crack shots.

R