"I don't half like that going one by one of warriors to the medicine tepee. If Red Hatchet is in there he is plotting mischief, that is certain," said Kit Carey to Captain Wallace, who met the lieutenant coming from a closer inspection of the Indian camp than could be obtained from the position occupied by the soldiers.
There was an air of triumph among the soldiers that night in the camp.
A feeling of satisfaction that the famous Chief Big Foot, with his band had been surrounded, and the morning would find them submissive captives.
Still there were those wearing the shoulder-straps of an officer who were not so wholly satisfied that all would go well on the morrow.
Old Indian fighters had their doubts about the pledges, and an officer, whose hair was turning gray, and who was a bachelor by reason of a fair one's broken pledge to him in the long ago, said in a cynical tone:
"I would no sooner trust an Indian's pledge than I would a woman's. They may mean what they say at the time, but let the opportunity offer and the promise is cast to the winds."
Among those who held the same views as the old bachelor officer, as to the Indians, but not to women, was Kit Carey.
He seemed to dread trouble, and he kept a watch upon every movement of the savages.
He wished to discover who was in the tent with the medicine man of Big Foot's band, for he felt sure that it was Red Hatchet.
But this fact he could not discover, and he went to the tent, where he was quartered during his stay with the command, determined to be up bright and early in the morning, and see if Red Hatchet could be found in the camps.
The day dawned and found the soldiers in camp, and position as well.
Colonel Forsythe had arrived, and noting the able placing of the troops by Major Whiteside, made little changes in the plans of that officer.
There was a silence resting upon the Indian camp that seemed ominous.
None of the soldiers knew just what their colonel intended to do, but all felt certain that the Indians were to be disarmed.
Major Whiteside had distributed rations among them the day before, and received full assurance from the chiefs that no further resistance was intended, that they were, in truth, glad to be captured.