Stabber, fighting chief though he had been in the past, had had his
reason for opposing the plans of this new and vehement leader; but
public sentiment, stirred by vehement oratory, had overruled him, and he
had bolted the field convention in a fury. Lame Wolf, a younger chief
than Stabber, had yet more power among the Ogalallas, being Red Cloud's
favorite nephew, and among the Indians at least, his acknowledged
representative. Whenever called to account, however, for that nephew's
deeds, the wary old statesman promptly disavowed them. It was in search
of Lame Wolf, reasoned Ray, that Stabber had sped away, possibly hoping
to induce him to call off his followers. It was probably the deeper
strategy of Stabber to oppose no obstacle to Ray's advance until the
little troop was beyond the Elk Tooth ridge, where, on utterly
shelterless ground, the Indian would have every advantage. He knew Ray
of old; knew well that, left to himself, the captain would push on in
the effort to rescue the stage people and he and his command might
practically be at the mercy of the Sioux, if only the Sioux would
listen and be patient. Stabber knew that to attack the troopers now
entrenching at the cottonwoods meant a desperate fight in which the
Indians, even if ultimately triumphant, must lose many a valued brave,
and that is not the thoroughbred Indian's view of good generalship.
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