ans were in confusion--he could see them by the dim light,
stampeding. They were running in brownish masses right around the
front of the hill where he stood. He ordered the bugles to blow the
charge.

The soldiers greeted the order with a yell--tired muscles, the
sleepless night, its seventy-five miles of hard riding, were
forgotten. The battle would be fought and won in less time than a man
takes to eat his breakfast.

Down the slope swept Custer's men to meet the fleeing foe.

But now the savages had ceased to flee. They lay in the grass and
fired.

Several of Custer's horses fell.

Three of his men threw up their hands, and dropped from their saddles,
limp like bags of oats, and their horses ran on alone.

The gully below was full of Indians, and these sent a murderous fire
at Custer as he came. His horses swerved, but several ran right on and
disappeared, horse and rider in the sunken ditch, as did Napoleon's
men at Waterloo.

The mad, headlong charge hesitated. The cottonwoods, the water and the
teepees were a hundred yards away.

Custer glanced back, and a mile distant saw Reno's soldiers galloping
wildly up the steep slope of the hill.

Reno's charge had failed--instead of riding straight down through the
length of the village and meeting Custer, he had gotten only fifty
rods, and then had been met by a steady fire from Indians who held
their ground. He wedged them back, but his horses, already overridden,
refused to go on, and the charging troops were simply carried out of
the woods into the open, and once there they took to the hills for
safety, leaving behind, dead, one-third of their force.

Custer quickly realized the hopelessness of charging alone into a mass
of Indians, who were exultant and savage in the thought of victory.
Panic was not for them.

-------------------------------------

They were armed with Springfield rifles, while the soldiers had only
short-range carbines.

The bugles now ordered a retreat, and Custer's men rode back to the
top of the hill--with intent to join forces with Reno.

-------------------------------------

Reno was hopelessly cut off. Determined Sioux filled the gully that
separated the two little bands of brave men.

Custer, evidently, thought that Reno had simply withdrawn to re-form
his troop, and that any moment Reno would ride to his rescue.

Custer decided to hold the hill.

The Indians were shooting at him from long