FROM THE STREET TO THE WILDS 245 



prairie to the relief of whoever might be in the 

 balloon. He said that he carried the United 

 States mail and had no right to leave his route. 

 I proposed to take one of his horses and ride to 

 where the balloon had fallen, but he refused, add- 

 ing that we w r ere in an Indian country where it 

 wasn't safe for a white man to travel alone. 

 Long afterward I was sorry that I had not been 

 more insistent for I read of the discovery of the 

 collapsed balloon and I believe the body of one 

 of the aeronauts. 



At Fort Sill I heard with dismay that Ward 

 and the officers had been gone with the Indians 

 for two days, that it was not likely that they 

 could be found, and that it would not be safe to 

 attempt it since there was trouble with the Kio- 

 was and there were plenty of them in the coun- 

 trv where the hunt was to be. General David- 

 son advised me not to go, but I was urgent and 

 he good-natured and he told me I could have the 

 best horse at the post, that Jack Stillwell would 

 jump at the chance to go with me, and that he 

 could find the hunting party if any one living 



