great frontiersman's successors, and he has had some experiences that
surpassed anything which fell to their lot.

He was born in Iowa, in 1845, and when barely seven years old his father
emigrated to Kansas, then far remote from civilization.

Thirty-six years ago, he was employed as guide and scout in an
expedition against the Kiowas and Comanches, and his line of duty took
him along the Santa Fe Trail all one summer when not out as a scout,
carrying despatches between Fort Lyon and Fort Larned, the most
important military posts on the great highway as well as to far-off Fort
Leavenworth on the Missouri River, the headquarters of the department.
Fort Larned was the general rendezvous of all the scouts on the Kansas
and Colorado plains, the chief of whom was a veteran interpreter and
guide, named Dick Curtis.

When Cody first reported there for his responsible duty, a large camp of
the Kiowas and Comanches was established within sight of the fort,
whose warriors had not as yet put on their war-paint, but were evidently
restless and discontented under the restraint of their chiefs. Soon
those leading men, Satanta, Lone Wolf, Satank, and others of lesser
note, grew rather impudent and haughty in their deportment, and they
were watched with much concern. The post was garrisoned by only two
companies of infantry and one of cavalry.

General Hazen, afterward chief of the signal service in Washington, was
at Fort Larned at the time, endeavouring to patch up a peace with the
savages, who seemed determined to break out. Cody was special scout to
the general, and one morning he was ordered to accompany him as far as
Fort Zarah, on the Arkansas, near the mouth of Walnut Creek, in what
is now Barton County, Kansas, the general intending to go on to Fort
Harker, on the Smoky Hill. In making these trips of inspection, with
incidental collateral duties, the general usually travelled in an
ambulance, but on this journey he rode in a six-mule army-wagon,
escorted by a detachment of a score of infantry. It was a warm August
day, and an early start was made, which enabled them to reach Fort
Zarah, over thirty miles distant, by noon. After dinner, the general
proposed to go on to Fort Harker, forty-one miles away, without any
escort, leaving orders for Cody to return to Fort Larned the next day,
with the soldiers. But Cody, ever impatient of delay when there was work
to do, notified the sergeant in charge of the men that he was going