CHAPTER XL 



ARRIVAL OF JOE BLANEY. KILL AN ARAPAHO. 

 START FOR THE RENDEZVOUS. 



I DID not expect that my friend Joe Blaney could 

 reach me within three weeks. Therefore I was astonished 

 one clear evening to see the well-known mules emerge 

 from a grove on the banks of the stream, a short distance 

 from my camp. Joe was mounted. His thin, gaunt face 

 bpre the marks of his terrible battle, and he looked rather 

 weakly. But he dismounted easily, and as he did so, I 

 gave him three lusty* cheers for a welcome. He seemed 

 to be in very good spirits, for he replied by a loud 

 cock-a-doodle doo. 



"Not gone under yet, Percy, my boy," he exclaimed. 



" Not exactly, but you look a kind of streaked," I re- 

 plied. " However, throw off your packs, while I make 

 camp room, and then we can talk and eat at the same 

 time. There's first-rate pasture for the mules, and they 

 look as if they wanted a taste of that sort of thing. 

 (82) ' 



