Stories of the West . dishing theirweapons. I instantly reined up and level plain where we were was of all placesthe one on which such an onslaught could bestbe met. In any broken country, or where thereis much cover, a white man is at a great disad-vantage if pitted against such adepts in the artof hiding as Indians; while, on the other hand,the latter will rarely rush in on a foe who, evenif overpowered in the end, will probably inflictsevere loss on his assailants. The fury of anIndian charge, and the whoops by which it isaccompanied, often scare horses so as to stam-pede the
Stories of the West . dishing theirweapons. I instantly reined up and level plain where we were was of all placesthe one on which such an onslaught could bestbe met. In any broken country, or where thereis much cover, a white man is at a great disad-vantage if pitted against such adepts in the artof hiding as Indians; while, on the other hand,the latter will rarely rush in on a foe who, evenif overpowered in the end, will probably inflictsevere loss on his assailants. The fury of anIndian charge, and the whoops by which it isaccompanied, often scare horses so as to stam-pede them; but in Manitou I had perfect trust,and the old fellow stood as steady as a rock,merely cocking his ears and looking round at thenoise. I waited until the Indians were a hun-dred yards off, and then threw up my rifle anddrew a bead on the foremost. The effect waslike magic. The whole party scattered out aswild pigeons or teal ducks sometimes do whenshot at, and doubled back on their tracks, the rf a a Ot—I &en. RED AND WHITE ON THE BORDER 209 men bending over alongside their horses. Whensome distance oiF they halted and gathered to-gether to consult, and after a minute one cameforward alone, ostentatiously dropping his rifleand waving a blanket over his head. When hecame within fifty yards I stopped him, and hepulled out a piece of paper—all Indians, whenabsent from their reservations, are supposed tocarry passes—and called out, How! Me goodIndian! I answered, How, and assuredhim most sincerely I was very glad he was agood Indian, but I would not let him come closer,and when his companions began to draw near,I covered him with the rifle and made him moveoff, which he did with a sudden lapse into themost uncanonical Anglo-Saxon profanity. Ithen started to lead my horse out to the prairie;and after hovering round a short time they rodeoff, while I followed suit, but in the opposite di-rection. It had all passed too quickly for me tohave time to get frightened; but during
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