here they did it, not one
time, but many.

Dick believed that if he were to die that moment the picture of
that terrible scene would be found photographed upon his
eyeballs. It had now but little form or feature for him. All he
could see was the ring of his own blue-clad people in the center
and everywhere around them the howling thousands, men mostly
naked to the breechclout, their bodies wet with the sweat of
their toiling, and their eyes filled with the fury of the savage
in victorious battle--details that he could not see, although
they were there. Alike over the small circle and the vast one
inclosing it the smoke drifted in great clouds, but beneath it
the field was lit up by the continuous red flash of the rifles.
Dick wondered that anybody could live where so many bullets were
flying in the air; yet there was Custer's force, cut down much
more, but the core of it still alive and fighting, while the
Sioux were so numerous that they did not miss their own warriors
who had fallen, although there were many.

The unbroken crash of the rifle fire had gone on so long now that
Dick scarcely noticed it, nor did he heed the great howling of
the squaws farther up the stream. He was held by what his eyes
saw, and he did not take them from the field for an instant. He
saw one charge, a second and third hurled back, and although he
was not conscious of it he shouted aloud in joy.

"They'll drive them off! They'll drive them off for good!" he
exclaimed, although in his heart he never believed it.

The wind after a while took another change, and the dense clouds
of smoke hung low over the field, hiding for the time the little
white army that yet fought. Although Dick could see nothing now,
he still gazed into the heart of the smoke bank. He did not know
then that a second battle was in progress on the other side of
the town. Custer before advancing had divided his force, giving
a little more than half of it to Reno, who, unconscious of
Custer's deadly peril, was now being beaten off. Dick had no
thought for anything but Custer, not even of his own fate. Would
they drive the Sioux away? He ran his tongue over his parched
lips and tugged at the bonds that held his wrists.

The wind rose again and blew the smoke to one side. The
battlefield came back into the light, and Dick saw that the white
force still fought. But many of the men were on their knees now,
using their revolvers, and Dick feared the terrible