The Permian of Texas 225 



and detected the Indian smell which is left on every- 

 thing they touch ; but I made a brave attempt not to 

 show my disgust to my host. 



After breakfast, as I started out for the trail, a 

 boy of fourteen walked down with me and stood 

 talking, with his hands tangled in my pony's mane. 

 I had given him some tobacco, and he was smoking 

 a cigarette which he had made with a dry leaf. At 

 our feet the path divided and encircled a little 

 mound of earth covered with buffalo grass. When 

 the boy had finished his smoke, he threw the still 

 burning stump into this dead grass, which was damp 

 with dew and sent up a dense column of smoke. 

 This was all done so naturally that I thought 

 nothing of it until I got up on the level prairie, 

 where I could see for miles ahead. As far as the 

 eye could reach, column after column of smoke was 

 rising through the still morning air. It was thirty 

 miles from the crossing at Cach Creek to Fort Sill, 

 yet when I presented my letter to Major Guy Henry 

 in the office at nine o'clock the next morning, the 

 first question he asked was " Did you leave the 

 crossing at Cach Creek about sunrise yesterday 

 morning ? " And when I answered that I had, he 

 said that probably about ten or fifteen minutes after 

 I left the creek, the Comanche chief had received 

 notice by smoke signal that one man was coming 

 over the trail toward the Fort. 



