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534 The Book of Woodcraft people starved and shivered for five days and nights,^ but ■with no thought of surrender! Captain Wessells sent the interpreter to propose that the children be removed and fed, but this they refused; they said they preferred to die together. For five days and nights the barrack rang with shrill, terrible death chants. It was clear that they had resolved to die, and weakening fast indeed they were under the rigors of cold and hunger, weakening in all but spirit. The morning of the ninth of January, the fifth day of their compulsory fast, Captain Wessells again summoned Dull Knife, Old Crow, and Wild Hog to a council. Only the two latter came. Suspecting violence, the Indians refused to let their old chief leave the barrack. Asked if they were ready to surrender. Wild Hog replied that they would die first. The two chiefs were then ordered seized and ironed. In the struggle Wild Hog succeeded in seriously stabbing Private Ferguson of Troop A, and sounded his war cry as an alarm to his people. Instantly pandemonium broke loose in the Indian bar- rack. They realized the end was at hand. The war songs of the warriors rang loudly above the shrill death chants of the squaws. Windows and doors were quickly barricaded. The floor of the barrack was torn up and rifle-pits were dug beneath it. Stoves and flooring were broken into convenient shapes for use as war clubs. The twenty-odd rifles and pistols which had been smuggled into the barrack,- by slinging them about the waists of the squaws beneath their blankets, at the time of