of some Mexican hacienda.

Besides these a war bow, a quiver of arrows, their points dipped in the
subtle poison used by the Camanches, and a tomahawk and scalping-knife
were given me. These completed my offensive equipments.

For defense, besides all these, I received a circular shield made of the
tough hide of the buffalo bull stretched upon a wooden frame, and dried
and hardened until it was almost of the consistency of iron. To provide
me with a horse was the next thing in order, and this did not promise to
be very difficult, as more than two thousand mustangs were grazing upon
the plain.

The renegade, however, was not easily suited in his choice of a horse.
Thorough horse jockeys as all the Camanches are, Hissodecha seemed the
sharpest of the tribe in this particular. Of this fact I had become
aware long before, for in the races which the Indians so frequently
indulged in, he was almost invariably the winner, thus showing that he
possessed rare knowledge and judgment of the points of a good horse.

On this occasion I began to think that he would exhaust the supply
before he found one to his mind, but after rejecting about forty for one
fault or another, most of which blemishes I was entirely unable to
discover, he fixed upon a large piebald mustang as the one who should
have the honor of bearing me upon my first war-path.

Leading the horse back towards the village, we soon reached the spot
where the warriors who were to form the expedition had already picketed
their horses for the night, so as to be ready for an early start on the
morrow. Staking my new acquisition out upon the plain, we returned to
the lodge, and my strange friend, handing me a hair bridle and a buffalo
robe and leathern girth, told me to get some food and return to his
lodge in an hour, and he would "paint" me for the war-path. I was too
much excited to eat much, and my simple meal was soon dispatched.

On entering the temple, I had looked around apprehensively, expecting to
meet Wakometkla, and rather dreading to encounter him, feeling uncertain
what sort of a reception I would meet with. The old medicine man,
however, was not to be seen, and I wandered through the various
apartments with which I had become so familiar during the long years of
my captivity, wondering if this was really to be my last look at them,
or if my desperate scheme was to result in failure, and end in my being
brought back, perhaps to torture and death.

It was