Here I lay in the sagebrush trying to devise some plan by which I could do away with them and capture their horses.

It was now about four o’clock in the afternoon, and this being about twenty miles from headquarters, I would not have time to ride there and return with soldiers before they wold break camp in the morning.

For me to attack them alone looked like a big undertaking.

There being a little grass for their horses, I now concluded they would remain until morning.  So I crept back to where my horse was tied, took out my lunch and sat down and ate it, at the same time debating in my mind the best course to pursue.

I remembered what Col.  Elliott had told Jim, that he did not have a scout that dared go fifteen miles from camp and now if I should return to camp and report what I had seen, he would start soldiers out, and by the time they could reach the ground the Indians would be gone, and there would be nothing accomplished, consequently I would, no doubt, be classed with the balance of the scouts in the opinion of the Colonel.  While on the other hand, should I be successful in laying a plan by which I could do away with the Indians and take their scalps to headquarters as evidence of my work, it would give me a reputation as a scout.

I was confident they had not seen me that day, and knowing, too, the Pah-Utes had not been disturbed by Col.  Elliott’s scouts, they would no doubt lie down when night came, and I might steal a march on them and amid their slumbers accomplish the desired deed.

Having been brought up by one of the bravest frontiersmen that traversed the plains at that time, and who always taught me to respect a brave man and hate a coward, I made up my mind to make the attack alone, provided the Indians did not put out guards that night.

After I had finished my lunch I examined both my single-shot pistols—­I still having the one presented to me by my old friend Joe Favor, three years before at Bent’s Fort, also the knife, which the reader will remember weighed two and one-fourth pounds—­ and creeping back to the top of the hill I watched them cook and eat the jack-rabbit.  As it grew dark I drew nearer, and when it was about as dark as it was likely to be that night, I crept up to within a few yards of them.  They had a little fire made of sagebrush and did not lie down until very late.

I was so near that I could hear them talking, but I could not understand their language, as I had never been among them, but I was confident they were Pah-Utes, because I was in their country.

After they had smoked and talked matters over, which I supposed was in regard to the next day’s scouting, they commenced to make preparations to sleep.  In the crowd, apparently, were three middle-aged warriors and two young ones, not yet grown.  The three older ones laid down together, while the two young ones made their beds about fifteen feet away from the other three.