a letter from General Sheridan requesting him
to give me a fresh horse. He at once complied with the request.

After I had slept an hour and had eaten a lunch, I again jumped into the
saddle, and before sunrise I was once more on the road. It was
twenty-five miles to Fort Dodge, and I arrived there between nine and ten
o'clock, without having seen a single Indian.

After delivering the dispatches to the commanding officer, I met Johnny
Austin, chief of scouts at this post, who was an old friend of mine. Upon
his invitation I took a nap at his house, and when I awoke, fresh for
business once more, he informed me that the Indians had been all around
the post for the past two or three days, running off cattle and horses,
and occasionally killing a stray man. It was a wonder to him that I had
met with none of the red-skins on the way there. The Indians, he said,
were also very thick on the Arkansas River, between Fort Dodge and Fort
Larned, and making considerable trouble. Fort Dodge was located
sixty-five miles west of Fort Larned, the latter post being on the Pawnee
Fork, about five miles from its junction with the Arkansas River.

The commanding officer at Fort Dodge was anxious to send some
dispatches to Fort Larned, but the scouts, like those at Fort Hays,
were rather backward about volunteering, as it was considered a very
dangerous undertaking to make the trip. As Fort Larned was my post,
and as I wanted to go there anyhow, I said to Austin that I would carry
the dispatches, and if any of the boys wished to go along, I would like
to have them for company's sake. Austin reported my offer to the
commanding officer, who sent for me and said he would be happy to have
me take his dispatches, if I could stand the trip on top of all that I
had already done.

"All I want is a good fresh horse, sir," said I.

"I am sorry to say that we haven't a decent horse here, but we have
a reliable and honest government mule, if that will do you," said
the officer.

"Trot out your mule," said I, "that's good enough for me. I am ready at
any time, sir."

The mule was forthcoming, and at dark I pulled out for Fort Larned, and
proceeded uninterruptedly to Coon Creek, thirty miles out from Dodge. I
had left the main wagon road some distance to the south, and had traveled
parallel with it, thinking this to be a safer course, as the Indians
might be lying in wait on the main road for dispatch bearers and scouts.

At Coon Creek I dismo