But come on; they don't mean fight right
now."
Belknap and Auberry took with them the sergeant and a dozen troopers. I
pushed in with these, and saw Orme at my side; and Belknap did not send
us back. We four rode on together presently. Two or three hundred yards
from the place where the Indians halted, Auberry told Belknap to halt
his men. We four, with one private to hold our horses, rode forward a
hundred yards farther, halted and raised our hands in sign of peace.
There rode out to us four of the head men of the Sioux, beautifully
dressed, each a stalwart man. We dismounted, laid down our weapons on
the ground, and approached each other.
"Watch them close, boys," whispered Auberry. "They've got plenty of
irons around them somewhere, and plenty of scalps, too, maybe."
"Talk to them, Auberry," said Belknap; and as the former was the only
one of us who understood the Sioux tongue, he acted as interpreter.
"What are the Sioux doing so far east?" he asked of their spokesman,
sternly.
"Hunting," answered the Sioux, as Auberry informed us. "The white
soldiers drive away our buffalo. The white men kill too many. Let them
go. This is our country." It seemed to me I could see the black eyes of
the Sioux boring straight through every one of us, glittering, not in
the least afraid.
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