On our arrival there we found that all the scouts had got into camp except the squad that went east, and in a few minutes, they came riding in as fast as their horses could bring them shouting at the top of their voices, “The Indians are after us.”

Jim ordered the stock all corralled at once, and the men were not long in obeying orders.  While these were attending to the stock, Jim was placing the other men in a position to protect the train, and as good luck, or rather Jim’s forethought, had it, he had stuck the scalps we had used for the same purpose before on the wagons the night before, saying as he did it, “We don’t ever know when they will be needed.”

I with all my scout force rode out to meet the coming Indians.  About two hundred yards from the corral there was a little hill which the Indians would have to climb before they came in view of our camp.  I told the men that we would meet them at the top of the hill and give them as warm a welcome as we could, and then we would get back to the train as quickly as possible, and I then told them to shoot with their rifles first and then to pull their pistols and to let the savages have all there was in them, and then wheel their horses and make for camp.

We heard them coming before we reached the top of the hill.  When we got on the crest, they were not more than thirty or forty yards from us.  Every one of my men fired together, and I saw a number of Indians fall from their horses, and after we emptied our pistols among them, we wheeled our horses and sped back to camp.

The Indians just rounded the top of the hill where they could barely see the train, and then they stopped.  Seeing the wagons with the scalps on them and all in seeming waiting for them seemed to take them by surprise.  Bridger was making arrangements to make an attack on them when they all gave the war whoop and wheeled their horses and went back the way they had come.

Myself and scouts went to the top of the hill to see if the Indians were still in the neighborhood, but finding no signs of them we went back to camp.  When I told Jim that there were no Indians in sight, he sprang up and laughed as loud as he could and clapped his hands together and said, “Another battle won by Will’s Indian scalps.  Didn’t I tell you all that them scalps was worth more to us than all the soldiers we could get around us?  They have won two good strong battles for us, and we will not have any more trouble here.  Them scalps is worth a hundred dollars apiece to this train.”

My men and I now went back over the hill to see how many Indians we had shot in our first meeting them, and strange to say we did not find a dead Indian, but there was plenty of blood all around where they were when we fired on them.  I knew by the blood that we had killed some of them, but their comrades had taken their bodies on their horses and carried them with them, which the Indian always does if he can.