They had not remained silent more than a few seconds before they heard an almost noiseless pad of hoofs on the turf of the prairie. The scouts knew that Indian ponies were always unshod, and they realized in a moment that another fight was ahead of them. Rifle in hand, they waited for the enemy. The darkness was so intense that they could hardly see ten yards ahead of them. Suddenly, out of the gloom, half a dozen mounted figures emerged. The scouts saw at a glance that they were Indians, even if they had not known, as they did the next moment, by the startled war whoop that broke from the lips of the redskins. Buffalo Bill galloped toward them, revolver in hand, and before the redskins fully understood their peril he had shot down two of them and broken through the party. Wild Bill and Nick Wharton followed close behind him, and in their passage they each sent an Indian to join his forefathers in the happy hunting grounds. The two remaining redskins hastily fired their rifles at random, and fled into the darkness at top speed. Wild Bill was eager to pursue them, but the border king reminded him of the necessity of reaching Fort Hays, and the scouts resumed their adventurous journey. Shortly before dawn they reached the fort and were sharply challenged by one of the sentries. News of the Indian rising had been carried thither, and a vigilant watch was being maintained. Buffalo Bill cried out that they were friends, and in a few moments they stood within the gates of the fort and in the presence of the commandant, who was hastily summoned from his bed, where he had lain down to take a couple of hours’ sleep after a night of anxious watching. The news of the victory over the Indians at Fort Larned caused great rejoicing, and the daring feat of the three scouts in riding through a territory infested with Indians made the commandant exhaust his vocabulary of compliments. “Do you think the Indians will accept battle with the combined garrison of the two forts?” asked the commandant. “I doubt it,” replied Buffalo Bill. “They have lost a good many men, and they will not care to fight in the open until they get reënforcements. Unless you move swiftly and make a junction with the troops from Fort Larned, they will escape to the hills and scatter, until fresh war parties can be brought up from the villages of the three tribes. Meanwhile the most important thing that I and my two companions can do is to ride down to New Mexico and help Red Cloud to prevent the Navahos from joining the confederacy. If they do so, other tribes may join it, too, and the whole frontier would be ablaze. That must be prevented, at any cost.” The commandant agreed, and, after a brief rest at the fort, Buffalo Bill and his two friends started on their long ride down to New Mexico, taking with them spare horses and provisions, as they did not wish to waste time by hunting on the way. CHAPTER VIII.