midday
Occasionally as an Indian exposed himself to fire , a swift bullet from a beaver-man 's long rifle crashed into his head , rolling him back with oozing brains . The slugs and ounce balls slapped into the dirt from the muskets of the creole _ engages _ and they were losing warrior after warrior . By cutting the dirt with their knives the Indians dug into the banks , avoiding a fire which raked the washout ; and by throwing the dirt up on either side they protected their heads as they raised to fire . A man walking over the flats by midday would have seen nothing but feeding ponies and occasional flashes of fire close to the grass , but a flying raven would have gloated over a scene of many future gorges . It would have seen many lying on their backs in the ditch -- lying quite still and gazing up at his wheeling flight with stony gaze . The white men had no means of knowing how successful had been the rifle-fire and they hesitated to crawl closer . Each party in turn taunted the other in unknown tongues , but they well knew that the strange voices carried fearful insult from the loud defiance of the intonation .