CHAPTER IX 

 BUFFALO NEAR THE BIG BEND 



^TpHAT afternoon we reached Council Grove, on 

 -*- the west bank of Neosho River. It was then 

 a place of less than a hundred and fifty inhabi- 

 tants but an important business point — the out- 

 post of Kansas settlements and the last town, going 

 westward, until Denver, Colorado, was reached. 

 Travellers going to the plains usually halted here 

 to lay in any requisites for their trip that might 

 have been overlooked in starting from the Mis- 

 souri River and also for last repairs on wagons 

 and for horseshoeing. 



The tires on our hind wheels had become a little 

 loose, and we decided to have them shrunk and 

 reset, so we camped by a blacksmith shop near the 

 centre of the village, and soon had the blacksmith 

 at our work, which he finished before dark. 



Making an early start next morning, we rolled 

 out, nooned at Diamond Springs, fifteen miles 

 from the Grove, where there was but one family, 

 and at evening camped at Lost Springs, thirty 

 miles from Council Grove, where Jack Costillo's 

 ranch was the only habitation. So long as the 

 road and weather were fine we wished to make up 



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