"Yes," I replied, "I was in at the death and had an opportunity to have done the killing myself that day, but Lieutenant Bayard came up and took the job off my hands. You see, I was one of the first to mount and start in chase of the Indian after he'd escaped from the ranch, mounted his horse, and was racing across the level prairie north of the ranch. I was riding that speedy little bay horse that we called 'Greased Lightning,' that the officers used in making races. I'd got the start of Bayard and the rest, overtook the Indian in about a mile and was right alongside of him, with Lieutenant Bayard coming up just behind me, and when I called back to the lieutenant to ask whether I should shoot the Kiowa he replied, 'No, let me speak to him,' and I gave way and let Bayard come in between me and Pawnee. Bayard called on him a couple of times to halt, on the second demand firing a shot in front of the Indian as a warning, and when he found that the Indian only jeered and made faces at him the lieutenant reined in a little and let the Kiowa go ahead, and, as he did so, dropped his pistol to Pawnee's back, saying, 'Take it, then,' and let him have it--shooting him through the heart. Pawnee threw up his hands and fell off his horse dead."
"Well, by rights," said Jack, "you'd overtook the Injun first an' had the best right to have done that job, but Bayard took advantage of his bein' an officer over you to hog the honors."
"I didn't consider that there was any particular honor in killing that Indian, under the circumstances," I replied, "but I should have done so if the lieutenant had said the word. But Bayard seemed to think that the Indian would halt and surrender on his demand, and when the Kiowa not only refused to yield but defied him, why, there was nothing else to do but to kill him. We thought it strange at first that Pawnee should act so defiantly when we had the drop on him, but Peacock told us when we got back to the ranch that this Indian carried a medicine or charm hung around his neck that was supposed to protect him from a white man's bullet, and when the lieutenant fired a shot and missed him he was sure he was bullet-proof; but Bayard's bullet killed him so quick that he hardly had time to feel disappointed."