ot
far from us.

I rode back to camp and told Capt. McKee what I had learned. He said,
"The Indians must be very sure that no one will be after them now. What
do you think is the best plan to adopt?"

I told him that I thought we had better travel down the stream that the
Indians seemed to make a pathway of, for one day at least, and go into
camp at night, and I would scout around the country and find their main
trails, for I was satisfied that only a part of the band came to this
settlement. "And what we want to do, Capt., is to cripple them so they
would let this settlement alone, and we can do it if we can catch the
main band."

We pulled down this little stream and traveled in that direction.

All day we saw lots of Indian sign all the way, but none of them was
fresh. As we were going into camp that evening, I told Capt. McKee that
my scouts and I would take a circle around the camp and see if there
were any Indian camp fires to be seen.

We rode about three miles on top of a high ridge, and looking off to the
west we saw a large Indian camp. I knew this by the number of fires they
had burning. I pointed to the fires and said to the boys, "There they
are. We have found the main camp. But now the difficulty will be to get
to them without being discovered by them."

As the darkness was coming on, I could not see well enough to tell how
far the Indian camp was from where we stood, but we struck out towards
the fires. I told the boys to ride carefully and keep close together,
and for each man to keep a close watch in every direction.

We rode about two miles, and almost before we were aware of it, we were
close to the Indian camp. I tried my best to count them, but I could not
make out the number of Indians there were in the camp. Their horses were
staked all around them, and I could not count them either.

I said, "Now boys, we will go back and report to Capt. McKee and see
what he thinks is best to do."

It was late when we got back to camp, and they were awaiting our return.
Before turning in for the night, I told the Capt. what we had found, and
the position of the Indian camp, and that I thought they were about five
miles from us.

He sat in thought a few minutes and, turning to me, said, "What plan
have you in your mind about making an attack on that camp, Mr. Drannan?"

I said, "They are so scattered that in my opinion it would be impossible
to get them all, and I think the best way to make an attack