Just before it grew dark several of the scouts and outposts who had been placed by Buffalo Bill rode into the fort, and reported that a very strong force of Indians was advancing over the prairie in three columns. Some of the men estimated that the war party numbered more than four thousand men, but others placed it at not over half that number. The colonel called Buffalo Bill and Hickok to him, and held a hasty council of war. “It is as I expected,” said the border king. “The Indians are fondest of attacking either at dusk or just at daybreak. They think sentries are likely to be less vigilant at those times, and I guess they are right, as a rule. “But luckily we are ready for them. If I might make a suggestion, colonel, I think it would be a good plan to pretend that we are much less numerous than we actually are. They are not likely to know our strength. “Let only fifty or a hundred men reply to their fire. Keep about four hundred in reserve, ready to pour a terrible volley into the redskins when they try to rush the fort, encouraged by what they suppose to be our weakness. “A surprise like that always knocks the heart out of an Indian. As soon as they recoil, we might make a sudden sortie and charge them vigorously. “By adopting this plan, I believe we shall have a good chance of inflicting a crushing defeat upon them, although they so greatly outnumber us.” “It’s a capital idea,” said the colonel, “and we will carry it out. I won’t let more than about seventy men reply to their first volleys, and I’ll tell the officers in charge of our four field guns not to fire until the redskins are swarming outside the walls.” He hurried away to give these orders, and by the time he had done so the redskin host appeared in sight. It numbered between two and three thousand men, and approached swiftly, for all the braves were mounted. They belonged to tribes which practically lived in the saddle--the Sioux, the Cheyennes, and the Crows. CHAPTER IV. A BATTLE WITH REDSKINS. There was still sufficient light to see the Indians more or less clearly as they deployed in four large columns until they completely encircled the little fort. They did not advance immediately to the attack, as the defenders expected. Instead, they sat on their horses like bronze statues, as soon as they had taken up their positions. The men of the little garrison, clutching their rifles tightly, waited impatiently for the fray behind the log walls where they lay concealed. In a few moments three men rode out from the Indian host, one of them, in the center, bearing a white flag, which he waved above his head as he approached the walls of the fort. He was a man of gigantic stature, and he rode a big horse which absolutely dwarfed the small ponies of his companions.