an investigation showed that a number of them had gone off on various pretexts—­the main one being to help along the women and children with the villages.  With this I suspected that they were playing me false, and my suspicions grew into certainty when Satanta himself tried to make his escape by slipping beyond the flank of the column and putting spurs to his pony.  Fortunately, several officers saw him, and quickly giving chase, overhauled him within a few hundred yards.  I then arrested both him and Lone Wolf and held them as hostages—­a measure that had the effect of bringing back many of the warriors already beyond our reach.

When we arrived at Fort Cobb we found some of the Comanches already there, and soon after the rest of them, excepting one band, came in to the post.  The Kiowas, however, were not on hand, and there were no signs to indicate their coming.  At the end of two days it was plain enough that they were acting in bad faith, and would continue to unless strong pressure was brought to bear.  Indeed, they had already started for the Witchita Mountains, so I put on the screws at once by issuing an order to hang Satanta and Lone Wolf, if their people did not surrender at Fort Cobb within forty-eight hours.  The two chiefs promised prompt compliance, but begged for more time, seeking to explain the non-arrival of the women and children through the weak condition of the ponies; but I was tired of their duplicity, and insisted on my ultimatum.

The order for the execution brought quick fruit.  Runners were sent out with messages, by the two prisoners, appealing to their people to save the lives of their chiefs, and the result was that the whole tribe came in to the post within the specified time.  The two manacled wretches thus saved their necks; but it is to be regretted that the execution did not come off; for some years afterward their devilish propensities led them into Texas, where both engaged in the most horrible butcheries.

The Kiowas were now in our hands, and all the Comanches too, except one small band, which, after the Custer fight, had fled toward the headwaters of the Red River.  This party was made up of a lot of very bad Indians—­outlaws from the main tribe—­and we did not hope to subdue them except by a fight, and of this they got their fill; for Evans, moving from Monument Creek toward the western base of the Witchita Mountains on Christmas Day, had the good fortune to strike their village.  In the snow and cold his approach was wholly unexpected, and he was thus enabled to deal the band a blow that practically annihilated it.  Twenty-five warriors were killed outright, most of the women and children captured, and all the property was destroyed.  Only a few of the party escaped, and some of these made their way in to Fort Cobb, to join the rest of their tribe in confinement; while others, later in the season, surrendered at Fort Bascom.