The Indians moved away in awe at the spectacle. But they mustered courage enough to fire again, and once more came the strong blast of the bugle and the dancing and waving of arms. Then came a volley from a score of rifles, and some of the bullets found the framework of Tootsie’s image and the thing crumpled pitifully upon the rock above his head. But Tootsie was equal to the occasion, for he sent forth a weird, plaintive wail that died away in a moan and then kept up a series of nerve-rasping cries and wails. At the same time Buffalo Bill dropped a rock over the brink, which, descending with great good luck, landed fairly in the kettle of water, sending hot water and steam in all directions, breaking the kettle and extinguishing the fire, with much hissing and popping, all in one operation. The Indians could not see the rock descending, but they saw the dying figure on the brink of the precipice and the demolition of their offering, as if by magic. Then they fled, vaulting upon their ponies and urging the animals away across the plain with quirt and heel. When Buffalo Bill could speak, from laughing, he said: “The sound of a bugle will give those fellows nervous prostration for a long time to come. And the mysterious ‘bad medicine’ will be handed from party to party and tribe to tribe for generations, and whenever an Indian passes these buttes he will offer some present to propitiate the spirits.” CHAPTER XXXII. REVENGE OF PRICE. Before the final downfall of Price he had been deeply interested in the beautiful sister of the wife of Doctor Karl Griffin, of Bozeman. Although he received no encouragement from the young lady, Miss Dorothy Reed--called Dot--he took it upon himself to feel encouraged, and had been a frequent visitor at the doctor’s residence. Doctor Griffin had no love for the Indian agent, but as the latter had large influence and was constant in his manifestations of good will, he felt obliged to tolerate the agent’s presence in his household. The doctor’s wife and Miss Reed also were politely tolerant only. They had heard much of the character of Price, and concerning their approval or disapproval it is only necessary to say that both were highly respectable and intelligent young ladies. Both were graduates of an Eastern college and reared in a good old Virginia home. The doctor, after receiving his diploma from McGill University and serving a year in a New York hospital, married Miss Clarice Reed and went West for health and fortune, and to devote himself to his profession. Miss Dottie Reed, after graduation, had come to pay her sister an extended visit. She loved the big West with its possibilities. It made the East seem narrow, and pinched, and crowded. She loved the purple haze of mountains and the greenish brown of the plains. From Castle Rock to the gorges of the Bridger Range she loved the wild, free life with its crudeness and roughness of the unhewn block of civilization.