The Permian of Texas 221 



left a few days before for the Indian Territory. I 

 was told, moreover, that the nearest place at which I 

 could get a meal was back on Coffee Creek, which 

 I had left in the morning. When I complained of 

 being cold and hungry and of not liking to sleep in 

 my saddle blanket on the ground without supper, the 

 cowboy replied that he had not had a morsel to eat 

 for three days and that he had slept for three nights 

 in his saddle blanket. After that I said no more. 



I was unwilling to return all the way back to the 

 hospitable roof that had sheltered me the night be- 

 fore, and continued my journey, with no expecta- 

 tion of coming upon a human habitation until I 

 reached Red River the next night. It is hard to 

 express my delight, therefore, when, upon reaching 

 the divide between Beaver Creek and Red River, I 

 saw a lot of tents, some distance to the right of the 

 trail. I hurried to the encampment, and found that 

 it belonged to the locating engineer of the Denver 

 and Fort Worth Railroad. When I told the young 

 man from whom I had obtained this information 

 that I wanted to see the engineer, he grinned (I was 

 not a very pleasant-looking individual, covered as 

 I was with the dust of travel), but he opened the 

 door of the tent and said, " Here's a man who wants 

 to see you." 



As the occupant of the tent came forward, I 

 presented to him my letter of introduction from the 



