back
that very afternoon. I tell the story of his trip as he has often told
it to me, and as he has written it in his autobiography.

"I accordingly saddled up my mule and set out for Fort Larned. I
proceeded on uninterruptedly until I got about halfway between the
two posts, when, at Pawnee Rock, I was suddenly jumped by about forty
Indians, who came dashing up to me, extending their hands and saying,
'How! How!' They were some of the Indians who had been hanging around
Fort Larned in the morning. I saw they had on their war-paint, and were
evidently now out on the war-path.

"My first impulse was to shake hands with them, as they seemed so
desirous of it. I accordingly reached out my hand to one of them, who
grasped it with a tight grip, and jerked me violently forward;
then pulled my mule by the bridle, and in a moment I was completely
surrounded. Before I could do anything at all, they had seized my
revolvers from the holsters, and I received a blow on the head from a
tomahawk which nearly rendered me senseless. My gun, which was lying
across the saddle, was snatched from its place, and finally the Indian
who had hold of the bridle started off toward the Arkansas River,
leading the mule, which was being lashed by the other Indians, who were
following. The savages were all singing, yelling, and whooping, as only
Indians can do, when they are having their little game all their own
way. While looking toward the river, I saw on the opposite side an
immense village moving along the bank, and then I became convinced that
the Indians had left the post and were now starting out on the war-path.
My captors crossed the stream with me, and as we waded through the
shallow water they continued to lash the mule and myself. Finally they
brought me before an important-looking body of Indians, who proved to be
the chiefs and principal warriors. I soon recognized old Satanta among
them, as well as others whom I knew, and supposed it was all over with
me.

"The Indians were jabbering away so rapidly among themselves that I
could not understand what they were saying. Satanta at last asked me
where I had been. As good luck would have it, a happy thought struck me.
I told him I had been after a herd of cattle, or 'whoa-haws,' as they
called them. It so happened that the Indians had been out of meat for
several weeks, as the large herd of cattle which had been promised them
had not yet arrived, although they expected them.

"The mom