Only Mrs.Hastings, who had lost her husband and father, made much trouble.
She cried and screamed out, and it took the other women a long time to quiet her.
On the low hill to the east the Indians kept up a tremendous powwowing and yelling.

But beyond an occasional harmless shot they did nothing.
"What's the matter with the ornery cusses ?" Laban impatiently wanted to know.

"Can't they make up their minds what they're goin' to do, an' then do it ?" It was hot in the corral that afternoon.

The sun blazed down out of a cloudless sky, and there was no wind.

The men, lying with their rifles in the trench under the wagons, were partly shaded; but the big rifle pit, in which were over a hundred women and children, was exposed to the full power of the sun.