CHAPTER XV 



BUFFALO AND DUCK SHOOTING 



Ward and I had arranged to leave Fort Sill 

 and the officers had given an all-night ball in our 

 honor when he suddenly decided to accept an in- 

 vitation to join the Red River expedition. 



I took the stage for a more than three hundred 

 mile ride to a railroad station in Kansas, but 

 couldn't stay in it through the second day's ride. 

 For from near a stage station called Skeleton 

 Creek I could see herds of buffaloes, thousands of 

 them, stretching out on the prairies to the horizon. 

 The temptation was not to be resisted, I hauled 

 my trunk off from the stage, said good-bye to the 

 driver, and made swift acquaintance with Isaac 

 Walker, the keeper of the station. He was a 

 quiet, likeable man who had come from the East 

 and chanced to know friends of mine. As we 

 were smoking after the good dinner he gave me 

 I asked if he were ever lonesome. 



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