A-SA-HA-BE. 213 



were only seven in number. One of the soldiers told us that 

 there was a Comanche chief at the Post who might go with 

 us. He had, it seemed, quarrelled with his brother " Queen- 

 a-ha-be/' the war chief of the Comanches, and had to leave 

 the tribe in consequence. We sent for him, and found him 

 to be an immense man, standing six feet four and broad in 

 proportion, with a very ill-tempered and treacherous face, the 

 hair growing close down to the eyebrows. He seemed very 

 willing to go, saying that he knew the country well nearly to 

 Denver, and should we meet any of his tribe he thought that 

 he could protect us from them, and that he would fight for 

 us if necessary. It was at last agreed that we should take 

 him, and he was to receive on our getting through safely two 

 horses, a rifle and ammunition for it, a revolver, and twenty- 

 five dollars in money. At first he wished payment in advance ; 

 but this we positively refused, giving him a pair of blankets 

 and some ammunition only. We left Belknap on the eighth 

 day, and our next point was old Fort Cobb a deserted post, 

 about a hundred and forty miles further on. 



As we had now one more man it made the guards at iiight 

 much easier, each of us getting three clear nights in bed. It 

 took some time to make A-sa-ha-be understand how long he 

 was to remain on guard ; but he soon got into it, and used to 

 measure his two hours pretty correctly. We had been out 

 about six days when one of the men told us that he had gone 

 out of the tent during A-sa-ha-be's guard, and had found him 

 absent, so we spoke to him about it, when he replied that 

 having seen some suspicious sign that day, he had gone during 

 his guard to see what it meant. Now this was highly impro- 

 bable; for as the nights were very dark just then, he could 



