a lieutenant, holding up a lantern and
looking curiously at the two bare-headed, brown, and half-wild
youths who stood before him in their rough attire of tanned
skins. They might readily have passed in the darkness for young
Sioux warriors.

"I am Dick Howard," replied Dick, standing up as straight as his
weakness would let him, "and this is my brother Albert. We were
with an emigrant trail, all the rest of which was massacred two
years ago by the Sioux. Since then we have been in the
mountains, hunting and trapping."

The lieutenant looked at him suspiciously. Dick still stood
erect and returned his gaze, but Albert, overpowered by fatigue,
was leaning against the earthwork. A half dozen soldiers stood
near, watching them curiously. From the woods toward the river
came the sound of more rifle shots.

"Where have you come from to-night? And how?" asked the
lieutenant sharply.

"We escaped from the Sioux village," replied Dick. "I was in one
part of it and my brother in another. We met by chance or luck
in the night, but in the afternoon I saw all the battle in which
the army was destroyed."

"Army destroyed! What do you mean?" exclaimed the officer.
"We were repulsed, but we are here. We are not destroyed."

The suspicion in his look deepened, but Dick met him with
unwavering eye.

"It was on the other side of the town," he replied. "Another
army was there. It was surrounded by thousands of Sioux, but it
perished to the last man. I saw them gallop into the valley, led
by a general with long yellow hair."

"Custer!" exclaimed some one, and a deep groan came from the
men in the dusk.

"What nonsense is this!" exclaimed the officer. "Do you dare
tell me that Custer and his entire command have perished?"

Dick felt his resentment rising.

"I tell you only the truth," he said. "There was a great battle,
and our troops, led by a general with long yellow hair, perished
utterly. The last one of them is dead. I saw it all with my own
eyes."

Again that deep groan came from the men in the dusk.

"I can't believe it!" exclaimed the lieutenant. "Custer and
whole force dead! Where were you? How did you see all this?"

"The Sioux had tied me to a tree in order that the Indian boys
might amuse themselves by grazing me with arrows--my brother and
I had been captured when we were on the plains--but they were
interrupted by the appearance of troops in the valley. Then the
battle began. It las