Help seemed now at hand.

But just as they sprang forward to join their supposed comrades a fiendish yell broke from the horsemen.

In another instant the four unfortunates were rushing to cover, with a dozen Indians, all dressed in the clothing taken from dead soldiers, in hot pursuit.
The Indians had been planning a characteristic piece of Sioux strategy.
As fast as it could be accomplished they had been stripping the clothing from dead and wounded soldiers and garbing themselves in it with the purpose of deceiving the outposts of Reno's command and surprising the Americans as soon as day broke.

Had it not been for the accidental discovery of the ruse by De Rudio's party it might have succeeded only too well.
The lieutenant and his companions managed to get away safely and to find shelter in the woods.

But the Indians immediately fired the underbrush and drove them further and further on.