"THE BUCKS WERE COMING UP ALARMINGLY FAST."  
"When General Forsyth arrived," continued the scout, in his description of the battle of Wounded Knee Creek, "he ordered the male Indians to come for a talk. They come out, scowling and sullen, and gathered in a half-circle in front of Big Foot's tent. The chief was inside, ill with pneumonia.
 
"The general told them they must surrender their arms in groups of twenty. By this time they were thoroughly enraged, but most of our boys thought they were so cowed they would obey without much trouble. I didn't like their looks, and told Jenkins at my side to hold himself ready, for I believed them fellows meant mischief, and a fight was sure.
 
"'I guess not,' he answered; 'they're obeying orders.'
 
"The first score slunk back without a word. We waited a long while, and by-and-by they came out agin, and how many guns do you 'spose they brought with 'em. Just two miserable pieces, worth so much old iron.
 
"The major was impatient because of the delay, and, when he saw this, he too was angry. He turned and talked a few minutes with General Forsyth, both speaking so low that I couldn't catch what they said, though I seen the general was as angry as the major, but he kept cool. You see, the major was managing the business, but he made sure that everything was done as General Forsyth wanted.
 
"The cavalry was now ordered to dismount, and they done so, forming a square about fifty feet back and closed in, standing within a half-dozen yards of the Indians that was in the centre.
 
"It was plain that the latter didn't mean to obey orders, though they pretended to. Accordingly a body of cavalry was sent to make the search themselves. When they came out, which they did in a few minutes, they brought sixty good rifles with 'em. That was doing the business up in style; but the general and the major didn't intend there should be any half-way work about it. The soldiers were directed to search the bucks themselves, for there was no doubt that all of 'em had their guns hid under their blankets.
 
"The Sioux stood scowling, ugly and savage. When about a dozen had been searched and their rifles brought out, they couldn't stand it. They were furious. Like a flash, the rest of 'em whipped out their guns from under their blankets and let fly at us. It was so sudden that before we knew what it meant, a hundred guns had been fired, and the reports sounded like one volley.
 
"It was all done in a twinkling. There we were, close enough almost to touch the redskins, and the flash of their rifles was right in our faces. I remember that I was looking into the muzzle of one of 'em, when the gun went off, and I felt the bullet nip my ear; but others weren't so fortunate, and the poor boys dropped as though so many thunderbolts had fallen among 'em.
 
"It didn't take us long, howsumever, to get in our work.
 
"I can tell you," added Scout Jackson, "there were lively times for twenty minutes or half an hour. During the battle we stood off some distance when firing at each other, but it was like you and me standing near enough almost to shake hands, and blazing away. Them redskins fought hard. It was bang, bang, with the soldiers dropping all around, and no saying when your own turn was to come.
 
"But the hostiles got the worst of it. Some of 'em, seeing how it was going, broke through our lines and dashed for the hills to the south-west. We followed 'em, and the fighting kept up as bad as ever, though the shots wasn't so rapid. We lost about thirty, and more than that wounded, and of them some are likely to die."
 
"Where were the squaws and children during the fight?" asked Brinton.
 
An expression of scorn passed over the face of the scout as he made answer—
 
"Where was they? Fighting like so many wild cats. You'll be told that we chased and shot down women and children. There's no question that a big lot of 'em was killed, and how was it to be helped? Them squaws was dressed so much like the bucks that you couldn't be certain which was which. From the way they fought, you might have believed each one was ten bucks rolled into one.
 
"But of course we cleaned 'em out, for that's what the Seventh always does, when it undertakes that sort of thing; from what I've told you, you'll know there was hot work for a time. A youngster about like yourself had charge of a Hotchkiss gun. and the way he handled that all through the fight made us feel like cheering, even when we didn't dare to stop shooting long enough to do so.
 
"When the Sioux fled, this youngster dragged his gun from the knoll where he had been stationed. Leftenant Hawthorne was at his side, and the fighting had become skirmishing on the crests of the ravines, where Big Foot's band had taken refuge. The bullets were singing and whistling through the air, but that boy wheeled his Hotchkiss to the mouth of the gulch, where the firing was the heaviest. The minute he done that, he and the men attached to the gun become the targets of the Indians, who was determined to shoot 'em down. The bullets splintered the wheels of the gun, and sent the dirt flying right and left and in the air. A ball struck Leftenant Hawthorne's watch, glanced off, and wounded him; but the youngster pushed the gun forward and shelled the pockets in the ravines.
 
"............