der a wagon and despite
the noise on all sides of him, fell instantly asleep. He had "set
hisself" to awaken at eleven o'clock, which he would do almost on the
minute and be thoroughly wide awake.

Fearing for the alertness of the sentries that night, a number of
plainsmen and older traders agreed upon doing duty out of their turns
and followed Hank's example, "settin'" themselves to awaken at different
hours; and despite these precautions had a band of Pawnees discovered
the camp that night they most certainly would have been blessed with
success; and no one understood why the camp had not been discovered, for
the crawling train made a mark on the prairie that could not be missed
by savage eyes miles away.

Because of the height and the luxuriance of the grass within the corral
the morning feeding, beyond the time needed for getting ready to leave,
was dispensed with and the train got off to an early start, fairly
embarked on the eastern part of the great buffalo range and a section of
the trail where Indians could be looked for in formidable numbers.

This great plain fairly was crowded with bison and was dark with them as
far as the eye could see. They could be numbered by the tens of
thousands and actually impeded the progress of the caravan and
threatened constant danger from their blind, unreasoning stampedes which
the draft animals seemed anxious to join. Because of the matted hair in
front of their eyes their vision was impaired; and the keenness of their
scent often hurled them into dangers which a clearer eyesight would have
avoided. So great did this danger become shortly after the train had
left the valley of the Walnut that the rear guard, which had grown
slightly as the days passed, now was sent out to protect the flanks and
to strengthen the vanguard, which had fallen back within a few hundred
feet of the leading wagons. Time after time the stupid beasts barely
were kept from crashing blindly into the train, and the wagoners had the
most trying and tiring day of the whole journey.

Several bands of Indians at times were seen in the distance pursuing
their fleeing game, but all were apparently too busy to bother with the
caravan, which they knew would stop somewhere for the night. No longer
was there any need to freight buffalo meat to the wagons; for so many of
the animals were killed directly ahead that the wagoners only had to
check their teams and help each other butcher and load. This constant
sto