came upon
the entire Crow force, the women and children with their tepees being
off to one side beyond a little stream while almost all the warriors
of the tribe were gathered in front. Sword-Bearer started to repeat
his former ride, to the intense irritation of the soldiers. Luckily,
however, this time some of his young men could not be restrained. They
too began to ride near the troops, and one of them was unable to refrain
from firing on Captain Edwards' troop, which was in the van. This gave
the soldiers their chance. They instantly responded with a volley, and
Captain Edwards' troop charged. The fight lasted but a minute or two,
for Sword-Bearer was struck by a bullet and fell, and as he had
boasted himself invulnerable, and promised that his warriors should be
invulnerable also if they would follow him, the hearts of the latter
became as water and they broke in every direction. One of the amusing,
though irritating, incidents of the affair was to see the plumed and
painted warriors race headlong for the camp, plunge into the stream,
wash off their war paint, and remove their feathers; in another moment
they would be stolidly sitting on the ground, with their blankets over
their shoulders, rising to greet the pursuing cavalry with unmoved
composure and calm assurance that they had always been friendly and
had much disapproved the conduct of the young bucks who had just
been scattered on the field outside. It was much to the credit of the
discipline of the army that no bloodshed followed the fight proper. The
loss to the whites was small.

The other incident, related by Lieutenant Pitcher, took place in 1890,
near Tongue River, in northern Wyoming. The command with which he was
serving was camped near the Cheyenne Reservation. One day two young
Cheyenne bucks, met one of the government herders, and promptly killed
him--in a sudden fit, half of ungovernable blood lust, half of mere
ferocious lightheartedness. They then dragged his body into the brush
and left it. The disappearance of the herder of course attracted
attention, and a search was organized by the cavalry. At first the
Indians stoutly denied all knowledge of the missing man; but when it
became evident that the search party would shortly find him, two or
three of the chiefs joined them, and piloted them to where the body lay;
and acknowledged that he had been murdered by two of their band, though
at first they refused to give their names. The commander of t