Scouts were hurriedly sent out to investigate the position and number of the enemy, and reported that they could not find any troops. Daylight revealed the great plain, instead of bristling with U. S. soldiery, as barren as the evening before. The Indians were mystified. They had heard the bugle call, the giving of orders, and the galloping of officers’ horses. Spies, too, had been in the camp by the dozen, according to the reports of those who had come in contact with Cody, and the ponies had been stampeded and scattered over the plain. The Indians felt great relief that the army had vanished, but they held a superstitious presentiment that the paleface riders and walkaheaps might drop from the clear sky, or arise out of the ground at any moment. Braves were sent out to round up the ponies, and a council of the chiefs decided that it would be better to move to the hills and find some spot where such a surprise would be impossible. Price and Bloody Ike hid in the timber until they heard the Sioux move away; then they came out and searched the camp ground for food. Some pieces of buffalo meat were found and broiled over the coals, and eaten without salt. “Pretty tough lug for you and me, Ike.” Ike growled his discontent. He felt that if he had refused to mix up with Price he would not be in such desperate circumstances. To be landed in the middle of a hostile country, with nothing but enemies on all sides, was no joke. To be there without a mount was doubly serious. Although the distance to the hills looked short, these men knew that it was a long and tiresome journey to those unfamiliar with pedestrianism. Price noted that the Sioux traveled in a southeasterly direction; he decided to proceed west, hoping to be able to find a remote ranch, from which they could steal food and horses. Almost any horse would be a relief from this leg-wearying march. And thus it came about that late that night two tired and hungry men, searching for a hiding and resting place among the bluffs and gashes of the ever-changing hills, came over the rim of a basin, to see a cheerful fire at its bottom and a group of men sitting around it. “Good!” almost shouted Price. “A party of gold seekers, who have crossed from the Black Hills. They are prospecting these hills and are no doubt well supplied with provisions and horses. Perhaps we can annex--with your knowledge of mining and my knack of tickling human nature.” “Safer to steal it and keep away from these fellows. If they lose a couple of horses and some duffle, they’ll lay it to the Indians.” “But this doesn’t look like an easy place to sneak out of, with a horse attached.” “That’s so, but in that case we’d better annex the grub, an’ wait for a better show. If ye mingle with these fellows it is just so many more who know where we are, and if any soldiers meet up with them and ask for you, they’ll connect.” “You’re right, Ike, but I’m so hungry I don’t believe I can wait to make a good steal.”