We can take care of our own situation, for we have four troops of cavalry here, but we cannot permit you to go to Sitting Bull's camp.

Not only would you be killed before you got halfway there, but your presence in the country would precipitate hostilities for which we are not in the least prepared.

I'm sorry, Cody, but it can't be done." More fully to persuade me of the truth of what he said he took me to the quarters of Colonel Brown, the commander of the troops at the Agency, and asked him to talk to me.

Brown listened to my statement of what I proposed and shook his head.
"I've heard of you, Cody, and of your nerve, but this is more than even you can do.

Sitting Bull's camp is forty miles away, and the country between here and there is swarming with Indians all ready to go on the warpath, and wholly beyond the sway of reason.