George Woods in the left shoulder, inflicting only a slight wound, however, and several lodged in the bodies of the dead mules; otherwise they did us no harm.  The Indians finally galloped off to a safe distance, where our bullets could not reach them, and seemed to be holding a council.  This was a lucky move for us, for it gave us an opportunity to reload our guns and pistols, and prepare for the next charge of the enemy.  During the brief cessation of hostilities, Simpson extracted the arrow from Woods’ shoulder, and put an immense quid of tobacco on the wound.  Woods was then ready for business again.

The Indians did not give us a very long rest, for with another desperate charge, as if to ride over us, they came dashing toward the mule barricade.  We gave them a hot reception with our yagers and revolvers.  They could not stand or understand the rapidly repeating fire of the revolver, and we checked them again.  They circled around us once more and gave us a few parting shots as they rode off, leaving behind them another dead Indian and a horse.

For two hours afterward they did not seem to be doing anything but holding a council.  We made good use of this time by digging up the ground inside the barricade, with our knives, and throwing the loose earth around and over the mules, and we soon had a very respectable fortification.  We were not troubled any more that day, but during the night the cunning rascals tried to burn us out by setting fire to the prairie.  The buffalo grass was so short that the fire did not trouble us much, but the smoke concealed the Indians from our view, and they thought they could approach close to us without being seen.  We were aware of this and kept a sharp lookout, being prepared all the time to receive them.  They finally abandoned the idea of surprising us.

Next morning, bright and early, they gave us one more grand charge, and again we “stood them off.”  They then rode away half a mile or so and formed a circle around us.  Each man dismounted and sat down, as if to wait and starve us out.  They had evidently seen the advance train pass on the morning of the previous day, and believed that we belonged to that outfit and were trying to overtake it; they had no idea that another train was on its way after us.

Our hopes of escape from this unpleasant and perilous situation now depended upon the arrival of the rear train, and when we saw that the Indians were going to besiege us instead of renewing their attacks, we felt rather confident of receiving timely assistance.  We had expected that the train would be along late in the afternoon of the previous day, and as the morning wore away we were somewhat anxious and uneasy at its non-arrival.