in the last two hunts, and one more man. And
another thing I want understood is that we four men will be exempt from
all camp duty and have the privilege of going and coming any time we
please without being interfered with."

He said, "All that suits me, and I will see that you are also exempt
from cooking. Your meals will be prepared for you from this on."

Capt. McKee now called the men I had selected, and one of the others to
come to him, and when they came, he told them of the arrangements we had
made and told them they must look to me for their instructions in the
future if they were willing to accept the positions as assistants. They
all said they were willing to undertake the job if I was willing to
teach them what I wanted them to do. One of them said, "Mr. Drannan,
when I make a mistake, I want you to tell me of it at once, for I want
to do right in everything as much as you will want me to."

I answered that we would commence by learning the private signals to
be used when in the Indian country, which I would teach them tomorrow
night.

After we went into camp the next morning, just as we were getting ready
to pull out, two men came and told us that the Indians were doing
a great deal of damage about seventy-five miles in a southwestern
direction from Fort Worth. He said they had been making raids on the
settlements every few days for several weeks and had killed several
people, and the settlers were kept in a constant fear day and night.

As the Capt. was well acquainted all over the country, he knew just
where to direct our course, and we pulled out in that direction making
as good time on the way as possible.

The second night after we left Fort Worth, we camped on the edge of one
of the settlements where the Indians had been making so much trouble. As
soon as we were settled in camp, I rode to a house that was perhaps a
half a mile from us to get some information regarding the Indians. The
man of the house said that the Indians had come every ten days and
sometimes oftener, and, said he, "The Indians do not try to kill the
people as much as they did to steal the stock or anything else that they
could get their hands on."

I asked him what direction the Indians came from, and he answered that
they invariably came from the west. I asked whether they were in large
or small bands. He said there were seldom more than thirty in a band,
and they always came up that river, and he pointed to a small stream n