iterated as much as possible. Some of them will lead
over rocky ground, where the hoof of a pony will leave no imprint;
others will come to an abrupt termination on the bank of some stream;
and others still will end at a place where the prairie has been burned
over. When these war-parties break up in the way I have described, a
place of meeting is always agreed on beforehand; and if a scout
understands his business he can tell pretty nearly where that place is,
for it is sure to be on the straightest and most direct route to the
agency if the raiders belong to a 'friendly' tribe, or to their
principal village if they belong to a tribe that is openly hostile. If
these Kiowas take to the Staked Plains, they will probably enter it
directly north of here, at its widest part. Then this Mountain Mose, if
he is the scout he pretends to be, will leave their trail to take care
of itself and draw a bee-line for the nearest water; and it will take
thirty hours' rapid marching to reach it, too."

"How do you know? Have you ever been there?"

"No, but my herdsman Zeke has; and he has described the course to be
followed so minutely that I can go there any day the sun shines or any
night when the stars shine."

Bob did not say anything, but his friend noticed that he looked a little
incredulous.

"It is not so difficult as it appears to be at first glance," George
hastened to say. "Why, when a party of young Indians want to go into a
strange country for plunder and scalps, they gather around some old
warrior, who traces on the ground the direction in which they must
travel in order to reach that country, describes all the water-courses
and locates the principal landmarks to be found along the route; and
with nothing but these verbal instructions to guide them, these little
rascals, some of them not more than thirteen or fourteen years of age,
will make a journey of hundreds of miles through a region that none of
them have ever visited before. My bump of locality is not so large as an
Indian's, but still I have a pretty good memory, and I have travelled
many a mile through a strange country without going a step out of my
way."

"What sort of a looking place is Staked Plains, anyhow?" asked Bob. "I
have heard so many terrible stories told about it that I am almost
afraid of it. What gave it that name? Are there any _stakes_ there?"

Bob was inclined to be facetious when he said this, and consequently he
was not a little astonishe