"Winnebeg, Winnebeg," said Capt. Headley, solemnly, "how can we ever sufficiently repay you for your noble conduct to-day? Depend upon it, I shall not fail to make known to our Great Father that you have saved the lives of one third of the detachment; but let me remind you of the first part of our contract--the burial of the dead. There is plenty of daylight, and I wish to send out a dozen men for the purpose of digging one common grave for them all. Mr. Ronayne must, if not dead, be brought in on a litter; if, however, he is no more, no grave can be more honorable to him than that shared with his followers. You know, Corporal Collins, where the spades and picks are kept." "Yes, sir, I know where they are usually kept, and where it is not likely they have been disturbed. What men, sir, am I to take?" Almost every man in the detachment expressed his anxiety to be of the party; but the remainder of those who had been with the Virginian when he fell, and a few others, all unmarried men, were selected. "Do you not think, sir," said Lieutenant Elmsley, "that I should command this party and superintend the arrangements? Poor Ronayne must be delicately handled." "If you will do so, Mr. Elmsley, I shall be most glad; but not deeming it absolutely necessary, I did not propose it as a point of duty. But there is another thing to be considered: Winnebeg, what escort will you give to my people? You know your young men are excited, and many may not know of the conditions of our surrender." During this conversation, almost the whole of the Indians, to the number of eighteen or twenty, who have been alluded to as having plundered and offensively arrayed themselves in the dresses of the officers' wives, and who were evidently the most turbulent of the band, had been drawing gradually closer around the little party of prisoners. All were more or less ludicrously painted, and exhibited the most grotesque appearance. When the remnant of the detachment first entered the fort, it was remarked that one of them--a mere youth--had closely, almost impertinently, examined the features of the officers, and had followed, with most of his companions. When Captain Headley made his request for an escort, this individual suddenly went up to Winnebeg, tapped him on the shoulder, and said something, not in Pottowatomie but in Shawnee, accompanied by much gesticulation, which seemed to have great weight with the chief. "Give him escort, dis," said the latter in reply, as he glanced his eye quickly upon the group, and with seeming intelligence. "What! those men!" returned Captain Headley, with a shadow of remonstrance in his tone. "Yes, all good Pottowatomie--all brave warrior--no give him dis," and he pointed to those who had accompanied them from the field, "all too much tired with fight already--dis men stay here all day. No fight."