, if successful, they made their escape and
rode home. This especially was a Pawnee trick, and especially adept were
the Pawnees in creeping up to a herd of draft animals and stampeding the
whole bunch. More than one party of traders had thus been left afoot in
mid-prairie and forced to abandon what they could not carry on their
backs. While the Pawnee country was supposed to be north of the Platte,
up around the Loup Fork, they often raided in force well into the
Comanche and Apache country and were as much at home on the south side
of the Arkansas River as on any other part of the plains.

When the orders came to drive the animals inside the corral and hobble
them, there was a great deal of complaint. It was contended that they
could not get food enough in such a restricted space, crowded as it
would be with horses, oxen, and mules; that they would injure each
other; that there would be great trouble in each man getting his own in
the morning; that they would burst through some weak spot and wander
away during the night. To all these objections the captain remained
obdurate. Any man who left his animals outside the corral and lost them
would not be given replacements at the expense of other teams, and could
make what shift he thought best for the transportation of his
merchandise.

Tom and his trapper friends, with some of the more experienced traders,
went among the grumblers and labored with them, preaching that from now
on the utmost, unremitting vigilance would be necessary day and night,
for the danger of losing the animals would grow with every mile and
would not cease until the Mexican settlements were nearly in sight. And
the worse the weather was, the greater would be the need to be alert;
for with tumultuous Nature to arouse the excitability of the animals and
to mask the movements of the Indians, a savage raid would scarcely fail
to cause a wholesale stampede unless the strictest watch was maintained.
To make up for the poor grazing inside the corralled wagons, the
picketing outside the circle in the evening would be supplemented by
more grazing on the outside before leaving in the morning. This would
necessitate later starts, but it could not be avoided.

Tom and Hank were not quite through eating their evening meal when Pedro
paid them a visit.

"Ah, senores," he beamed, "I haf laughed thees day! Just like my Mexico
eet was to see thee _atejo_ that you haf! Thee _mulera_ weeth her seven
childr-ren mar