On one occasion Wolf Tusk and his band swooped down on a settlement where they knew that all the defenders were away, and no one but women and chil-dren were left to meet them. Here one of the most atro-cious massacres of the West took place. Every woman and child in the settlement was killed under circumstanc-es of inconceivable brutality. The buildings, such as they were, were burnt down, and, when the men returned, they found nothing but heaps of smouldering ruin.