We rode perhaps a quarter of a mile from the Ford, where we could get plenty of sage brush to make fires, dismounted and staked our horses out to grass, and it was not long until our meal was ready to eat.  As soon as the meal was over, the Captain came to me and inquired if I had ever been over this country before.  I told him I had a number of times.  He said, “I am a stranger in this country; will you please tell me where the main body of the Comanches are at this time of the year?”

I told him that the main body of the Comanche tribe was at least a hundred miles down the river.

“They go down there to shoot the Buffalo as they cross the river on their winter’s feeding ground.  You will find the Indians very numerous all through that part of the country.  Sometimes there are from two to three hundred wigwams in one village, and the Indians will stay there for nearly a month yet before they go farther south.”

The Capt. then asked if I was acquainted with any of the Comanche Chiefs.  I told him that I was, and that I had traded with pretty near all of them.

“The Comanches are all great friends with Kit Carson, and as I have visited them and traded with them in company with him, they extend their friendship to me.”

The Capt. thought a moment and then said, “I am mighty afraid that we are going to have trouble with the Comanches from the fact that that Government train is at least two hundred miles from here, and there are forty wagons in it, and they have no escort, only their drivers and herders, and I am weak myself; you see, I have only twenty men with me.  Five days before I received this order, I sent all of my men, except the twenty with me, to Fort Worth, Texas to protect the settlers in that country as the Comanches are on the war path there, and the few men we have with us now will not be as much as a drop in a bucket as far as protecting the train is concerned if the Comanches attack it.”

I answered, “Captain, if we can reach the train before the Indians do, I believe we can get the train through to Santa Fe without firing a gun.”

This seemed to surprise him, for he looked at me as though I was insane in making such a remark and said, “What do you mean, young man?”

I answered:  “Capt.  McKee, all the Comanche tribe know me, and they also know that I have for several years been closely associated with Kit Carson, and they think that all Kit Carson does or says is right, for they both love him and fear him, and they have the same feeling for the boy Carson raised, and furthermore I have in this pack,” and I pointed to my pack which was laying on the ground near me, “more protection, in my estimation, than a hundred soldiers would be to the train.”

He said, “Explain what you mean, for I do not understand.”

I then unrolled my pack and, taking out the Indian scalps and the Ute Chief’s war bonnet, I showed them to him and told him how I had used them to protect an emigrant train when I only had twelve men to help me that were of any use in a fight with the Indians.