Part 14 (1/2)
”See!” cried Al, too startled to reply, suddenly pointing ahead. ”There they are!”
Over the crest of a hill which the skirmish line was ascending, a dense, confused ma.s.s of mounted warriors came pouring like a torrent. Farther and farther to the right and left its flanks spread with lightning rapidity, breaking over the hill as an ocean roller curls and breaks upon a beach; farther and farther, till it stretched far beyond the utmost extremes of the line of battle. The hundreds of ponies were running at topmost speed, heads down and necks outstretched, the ground shaking beneath their thundering hoof-beats; the hundreds of warriors were brandis.h.i.+ng guns and revolvers and plumed lances above their heads, their many-colored war bonnets streaming behind them in the hurricane of the charge, their voices upraised in a tempest of terrific, blood-curdling yells. So the savage host came on, straight for the thin thread of skirmishers and the solid line of battle behind it, as if they would sweep over them both and engulf the whole army at once in utter destruction. It seemed that nothing could stand before them, and they towered above the skirmish line like a wall.
Wallace clutched Al's arm, exclaiming, hoa.r.s.ely,
”My G.o.d, what will the skirmishers do?”
”Watch them! Watch them!” answered Al, his whole mind centred on the impending collision.
The skirmish line came to a halt. Here and there it receded a little, then swung forward again, like a rope whipping back and forth. At one point and then at another a white puff of smoke spurted out, and in an instant they rippled all along the line, plain to the eye even before the spattering pop of the carbines reached the ear. It seemed a puny challenge to be flung in the face of that imposing ma.s.s of hors.e.m.e.n, but it was enough. They checked in their ponies, broke into fragments and either galloped back as they had come or else swung off to right and left and, running along in front of the line of battle, swept away beyond its flanks.
Al's pulses were pounding with excitement as he glanced at the General, riding now on his horse. Sully's face was as calm as if he were reviewing a dress parade. He stroked his beard slowly as he looked at the skirmish line and remarked,
”That was well done.” Then, turning to one of his aides, he said, in his usual tone, ”Tell Colonel Rogers to incline a little more to the left.
He is crowding Pope's battery.”
On up the hill just vacated by the Indians moved the main body of the army and down into the valley in front of it hurried the skirmishers. As the General and his staff reached the crest, a wonderful scene lay spread before them. It was a great plain, much cut up by ravines and hillocks but appearing from their position to be almost level, and it extended from the hill they were on to the base of another range, several miles away, which rose sheer from the valley in a mighty ma.s.s of abrupt ridges and rocky peaks from four hundred to eight hundred feet high. It was Tahkahokuty, or Kill-deer, Mountain. From base to summit it was covered with brush and timber; and among the trees on its top as well as on the low ridge along its base could be seen hundreds upon hundreds of Indian lodges, the women and children, the horses and dogs, running about among them, mere specks in the distance. To the left of the advancing army, a sharp upheaval of hills fell away from the flank of Tahkahokuty, lower than the main ridge but still formidable; and in front of this, in front of the mountain itself and of the camps at its base and extending far away to the right, the plain was covered with thousands of mounted warriors, some scattered and some in ma.s.ses, but nearly all of them in rapid motion toward the small, compact army marching steadily forward upon their stronghold.
Again and again as the line of battle pressed on, the ma.s.ses of warriors hurled themselves upon its front, only to break and retire before the deadly fire poured into them. But ever farther the red hors.e.m.e.n overlapped the flanks; in spite of the fact that the line of battle was being constantly extended to meet them. The soldiers, parched with the heat of the day and the exertion of marching and fighting over the rough ground, often at the double-quick, were suffering with thirst, but no water was to be found. As the army approached nearer and nearer to Tahkahokuty, the Indians began to fight with more stubbornness. They galloped up close to the lines, halted and fired, then dashed away again. Now and then a soldier fell and was lifted by some of his comrades and carried back to an ambulance.
At length two great ma.s.ses of Indians began gathering, one out beyond the left flank, the other, beyond the right, and both near the front of the camps along the mountain's base. General Sully, as calm as ever, surveyed them deliberately through his gla.s.ses. Then suddenly he lowered his hand, straightened up in his saddle and spoke to an aide with a ring in his voice which had not been there before. The decisive moment had come. Pointing a steady finger at the crowd of Indians on the right, he cried,
”Tell Major Brackett to charge those fellows with the sabre! Tell him to drive it home; clear the valley and force them up the ridge.”
Like a flash he turned to another officer and, pointing to the ma.s.s on the left, said,
”Order Colonel McLaren to charge that party and drive them to the ridge, and not to stop till he has forced them clear away from their camps.”
Once more his words flashed out like a whip-lash, and Wallace Smith, quivering to be off, caught them as they came from his lips,
”Tell Captain Pope to advance at a gallop through the skirmish line and give them sh.e.l.l. Tell him to clear the valley and sweep the ridge in front of Brackett and McLaren.”
Wallace dashed away and the General relapsed into his former att.i.tude of silent, intent watchfulness. All his officers and orderlies were now gone somewhere with orders, excepting Al and Lieutenant Dale, who still rode behind him. But he paid no more heed to them than to the gra.s.s under his horse's feet. His whole attention was concentrated on the great game he was playing with living men for p.a.w.ns, as the skilful chess player centres his thought upon the board before him at the crisis of the game.
Far to the right and left fronts, beginning in a low rumble and rising rapidly to a steady, pounding thunder above the crackle of the musketry, sounded the hoof-beats of McLaren's and Brackett's squadrons as they pa.s.sed from the trot to the gallop and from the gallop to the charge and, a forest of flas.h.i.+ng sabres circling above their heads, bore down with fierce cheers upon the foe. Straight ahead, through the gap in the battle line, could be seen the guns of the Prairie Battery, going forward, the cannoneers clinging to the limbers, the cavalry escort galloping furiously on either side. A moment more, and the boom of a howitzer rose above the lesser noises of battle, followed by another and another, and the sh.e.l.ls, circling high, burst like great, white flowers against the rugged, dark green front of Tahkahokuty. A terrified commotion could be seen among the people in the camps on its crest. Here and there fires burst out among the lodges and smoke began to pour aloft through the foliage.
”'But see! Look up! On Flodden bent The Scottish foe has fired his tent!'”
quoted Lieutenant Dale, pointing upward, and Al, catching the inspiration of the great poet of border warfare, who had thrilled him since childhood, went on,
”'And sudden, as he spoke, From the sharp ridges of the hill All downward to the banks of Till Was wreathed in sable smoke!'”
Before the resistless rush of the Minnesotans, the savages on either flank broke and fled wildly back to the higher ground, the cavalry hard on their heels. Here, backed literally against their camps, they turned amid the rocks and trees and ravines, like wolves at bay, to protect for a few minutes the squaws and children, who were frantically striking the tepees and running or driving their travois up the ravines and into the impenetrable mountain fastnesses beyond. Farther and still farther along the crest of the lower ridge puffed out the little, cotton-like jets of carbine and rifle smoke. At length, nearly at the foot of the mountain on the right they began to increase in rapidity until they were floating off in a ma.s.s of thin vapors, while the sound of the fire became a shrill, continuous rattle. Above it rose the yells of the Indians, answered now and then by a disjointed cheer. General Sully's eyes narrowed, and his jaws set hard.
”Brackett's struck a hornet's nest,” he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed. ”By George, that begins to sound like Fair Oaks!”
He wheeled his horse and galloped back to Captain Jones, whose battery was a short distance behind him.
”Captain,” he cried, pointing to the spot where the heaviest fight seemed to be raging, ”get out there as quick as the Lord'll let you, close to the base of the mountain, and sh.e.l.l out those redskins in front of Brackett.”