hether Comanche, Kiowa, or Lipan, likes his fire-water as much
as a white man, and as constantly carries it along with him. The only
peculiarity about these is that, while quaffing, they do not talk in the
Indian tongue, but English of the Texan idiom, with all its wild
swearing!

The place where they have halted is a bit of glade-ground, nearly
circular in shape, only half-encompassed by timber, the other half being
an embayment of the bluffs, twin to those on the opposite side of the
river bottom. It is shaded three-quarters across by the cliff, the moon
being behind this. The other quarter, on the side of the trees, is
brilliantly lit up by her beams, showing the timber thick and close
along its edge, to all appearance impassable as the _facade_ of rugged
rock frowning from the opposite concave of the enclosed circle.
Communicating with this are but two paths possible for man or horse, and
for either only in single file. One enters the glade coming up the
river bottom along the base of the bluff; the other debouches at the
opposite end, still following the cliff's foot. By the former the
Indians have entered; but by the latter it is evident they intend going
out, as their eyes are from time to time turned towards it, and their
gestures directed that way. Still they make no movement for resuming
their march, but stand in gathered groups, one central and larger than
the rest. In its midst is a man by nearly the head taller than those
around him: their chief to a certainty. His authority seems
acknowledged by all who address him, if not with deference, in tone and
speech telling they but wait for his commands, and are willing to obey
them. He, himself, appears waiting for something, or somebody else,
before he can issue them, his glance continually turning towards the
point where the path leads out upwards.

Impatiently, too, as ever and anon he pulls out a watch and consults it
as, to the time. Odd to see a savage so engaged; above all possessed of
a repeater! Still the Indians of to-day are different from those of
days past, and have learnt many of the white man's ways--even to wearing
watches. The man in question seems to know all about it; and has his
reasons for being particular as to the hour. He is evidently acting
upon a preconcerted plan, with the time fixed and fore-arranged. And
evident also that ten is the hour awaited; for, while in the act of
examining his dial, the old mission clock, restor