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 the post demanded that the murderers be given up.  The chiefs said that they were very sorry, that this could not be done, but that they were willing to pay over any reasonable number of ponies to make amends for the death.  This offer was of course promptly refused, and the commander notified them that if they did not surrender the murderers by a certain time he would hold the whole tribe responsible and would promptly move out and attack them.  Upon this the chiefs, after holding full counsel with the tribe, told the commander that they had no power to surrender the murderers, but that the latter had said that sooner than see their tribe involved in a hopeless struggle they would of their own accord come in and meet the troops anywhere the latter chose to appoint, and die fighting.  To this the commander responded:  “All right; let them come into the agency in half an hour.”  The chiefs acquiesced, and withdrew.