TRAVEL. 61 



to make the best possible speed to my station, Fort 

 Lincoln, which was about seventy-five miles off. Soon 

 after sunrise I reached the Guadalupe Eiver, and was 

 travelling quickly and comfortably along a small open 

 prairie, up to the stream, when my attention was attracted 

 by a thin column of smoke, rising apparently from the 

 bed of the river. 



Thinking of Indians, I darted at once into the thicket 

 which bordered the prairie, and, keeping well out of sight, 

 skirted around until I got above the smoke. My first 

 impulse was to put as much distance between myself and 

 it, and in as short a time, as possible ; but the idea 

 suddenly occurred to me that it might be the camp of 

 my command, and that I had better be dead at once 

 than have it known that I had run away from my own 

 camp. Acting on this I turned my mule, and cautiously 

 made my way back towards the smoke, but still above it, 

 on the river. The thicket was very dense. I suddenly 

 emerged from it to find myself almost in a herd of about 

 twenty horses and mules, w r hich were picketed in a small 

 open space not over thirty yards wide, and just on the 

 bluff bank of the river. To make my position worse, my 

 mule no sooner saw the animals than she lifted her voice 

 and sung out a bray, which I thought might have been 

 heard for miles. 



I tumbled off at once, and, thrusting my hand in her 

 mouth, stopped her music, then backed her out of sight 

 in the thicket. After fastening her I returned to the 

 open space. The animals did not belong to my party. 

 The camp was evidently just under the bluff. Crawling 

 most cautiously to the edge, I peeped over the bank, and 

 my scalp felt very loose, as I saw, not forty yards off, 

 seven Indians squatted around a pot eating their breakfast. 

 I got back to the thicket as quickly and cautiously as 

 possible. What to do was the question. My mule, 

 though strong, was very slow in a race. I had two 

 alternatives : either to make off at once on the mule, 



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