nable obstacle to travel, and without any real roads, and you can
understand the sort of a ride I had that night. I was mighty glad to
see the dawn break, and to be able to pick my way a little more
securely, although I could not increase the pace at which I had driven
my horse through the long, dark night.

There was no present prospect of carrying this out, however. After I
had taken lunch, General Terry asked me if I would carry some
dispatches to General Whistler, and I replied that I would be glad to
do so. Captain Smith, Terry's aide-de-camp, offered me his horse, and I
was glad to accept the animal, as my own was pretty well spent. He
proved to be a fine mount. I rode him forty miles that night in four
hours, reaching General Whistler's steamboat at four in the morning.
When Whistler had read the dispatches I handed him he said:

"Cody, I want to send information to General Terry concerning the
Indians that have been skirmishing around here all day. I have been
trying to induce some member in my command to carry them, but no one
wants to go."

"Get your dispatches ready, general," I replied, "and I'll take them."

He went into his quarters and came out presently with a package, which
he handed me. I mounted the same horse which had brought me, and at
eight o'clock that evening reached Terry's headquarters, just as his
force was about to march.

As soon as Terry had read the dispatches he halted his command, which
was already under way. Then he rode on ahead to overtake General Crook,
with whom he held a council. At General Terry's urgent request I
accompanied him on a scout for Dry Fork, on the Missouri. We marched
three days, a little to the east of north. When we reached the buffalo
range we discovered some fresh Indian signs. The redskins had been
killing buffalo, and the evidences of their work were very plain. Terry
now called on me to carry dispatches to Colonel Rice, who was still
encamped at the mouth of Glendive Creek on the Yellowstone. This was
about eighty miles distant.

Night had set in with a storm. A drizzling rain was falling, which made
the going slippery, and made the blackness of the Western Plains still
blacker. I was entirely unacquainted with the section of the country
through which I was to ride. I therefore traveled all night and
remained in seclusion in the daytime. I had too many plans for the
future to risk a shot from a hostile redskin who might be hunting white
men along my wa