Then, here, there and in a score of places along the bank and
again at the edge of the cottonwoods, men had been assigned their
stations and bidden to find cover for themselves without delay. Many
burrowed in the soft and yielding soil, throwing the earth forward in
front of them. Others utilized fallen trees or branches. Some two or
three piled saddles and blanket rolls into a low barricade, and all,
while crouching about their work, watched the feathered warriors as they
steadily completed their big circle far out on the prairie. Bullets came
whistling now fast and frequently, nipping off leaves and twigs and
causing many a fellow to duck instinctively and to look about him,
ashamed of his dodge, yet sure of the fact that time had been in the
days of the most hardened veteran of the troop when he, too, knew what
it was to shrink from the whistle of hostile lead. It would be but a
moment or two, they all understood, before the foe would decide on the
next move; then every man would be needed.
Meantime, having stationed Field on the north front, with orders to note
every movement of the Sioux, and having assigned Clayton to the minor
duty of watching the south front and the flanks, Ray was moving cheerily
among his men, speeding from cover to cover, suggesting here, helping
there, alert, even joyous in manner.
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