210 BUFFALO LAND. 



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lore stored in his active brain that we wished to draw 

 out, and we at once seized the opportunity to ask 

 about the black pacer we had seen during the after- 

 noon, and his weird story of the bloody saddle. 



From Bill's narrative we gathered the following : 

 Something over a year before the era of our expedition a 

 train of government wagons left Fort Hays destined for 

 Fort Harker, and the Indians being troublesome, some 

 twenty soldiers were sent in the wagons, as a guard. 

 A few hours later there passed through Hays City a 

 man from the mountains riding a powerful black stal- 

 lion, while his family, consisting of a young wife and 

 her brother, occupied a covered wagon which followed 

 close behind. The stranger determined to take ad- 

 vantage of the protection afforded by the government 

 train, and the little party pushed out after it over the 

 plains. The day was a sultry one in midsummer, the 

 sun pouring down its flood of heat on the desolate 

 surface of the expanse that spread away on all sides. 

 The long train, a full mile from front to rear, dragged 

 its slow length sluggishly along, the mules sleepily 

 following the trail, while the teamsters and soldiers 

 dozed in the covered wagons. A driver, who hap- 

 pened to be awake, saw in the distance a beautiful 

 mirage, and in it, as he looked, strange objects, 

 like mounted men, were bobbing up and down. But 

 then he had often seen weeds and other small ob- 

 jects similarly transformed, by these wonderful illu* 

 sions of the plains, and even he forgot the bobbing 

 shadows and dozed away again on his seat. 



But there was danger near. Stealthily out of the 

 mirage, and bending low in their saddles, rode a 



