Any attempt to even remotely refer to the causes
that led to his being ordered out with the detachment had been met with
chilling silence. Now, however, the foe had been seen and could be
counted on to resist if his rallied force much exceeded that of the
troop, or to annoy it by long-range fire if too weak to risk other
encounter. The command halted one moment at the crest to take one long,
lingering look at the now far-distant post beyond the Platte; then,
swinging again into saddle, moved briskly down into the long, wide
hollow between them and the next divide, well nigh three miles across,
and as they reached the low ground and traversed its little draining
gully, a muttered exclamation "Look there!" from the lips of the first
sergeant, called their attention again to the far left front. Stone,
the trooper who had reported the first Indian, had turned his horse over
to the second man, as had the corporal on that flank, and together they
were crouching up along the eastward face of a billowing hillock, while,
straight to the front Sergeant Scott, obedient to a signal from his left
hand man, was speeding diagonally along the rise to the north, for all
three advance troopers had halted and two were cautiously dismounting.
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