Col.  Bent asked me if I thought I could take twenty pack horses and go to the Indian village and trade for and load them up with the help of two men and get back to the Fort in fifteen days.  I told him I thought I could and was willing to try it anyway.  “But, Col., I want you to send the quickest and best packers in your employ to help me.”  He answered, “I have two men that are number one packers, and you can rely on them in every particular.”  I said, “All right, we will be off tomorrow morning.”

We commenced to pack the goods that I was to trade for the Buffalo robes which consisted of knives, rings and beads.  We put each kind in boxes by themselves.  When I thought we had enough packed to trade for what robes the horses could carry, Col.  Bent said, “Here, Will, take some more,” and he threw several knives and some rings, and a bunch of beads into one of the boxes.  “Maybe you will want a few to give some of the squaws that are such friends to you down there.  Such little gifts are never lost among the Indians, you know, Will.”

Col.  Bent then sent some of his men out to gather up the pack horses so he could pick out enough for a train.

The next morning Capt.  McKee said he wanted to have a talk with me when I was at leisure.  I said, “Now is your time, Capt.”  So we started out for a walk.  We walked in silence.  The Capt. seemed to be thinking.  At last he said, “Mr. Drannan, have you made any definite arrangements with Col.  Chivington regarding taking the train through the Comanche country?” I answered, “No sir, I have not.”

“What will you charge him if you take the job?”

I said, “Capt., I am not anxious to take the job, but if I take it, I shall charge five hundred dollars for my services this time, and I would like you to tell the Col. so when you go back to Santa Fe.  I think this amount will be very reasonable from the fact that there will be no more expense.  If he had to feed forty or fifty men and pay them wages besides, he would find quite a difference, and after all, they would be no protection to the train, and they and the drivers also would be scalped before they had passed one Indian village.  So taking all things into consideration I think that Col.  Chivington acted rather close with me, more close than I shall allow him to do again.”  Capt.  McKee said that he thought my charges were very modest, and he continued, “There is another thing I want to talk to you about, provided you go with this train.  What do you propose doing when you come back?”

I answered, “I am open for anything that is honorable and has enough money in it to pay me.”

He said, “I intended to make up a company soon to go down on the Pan Handle country in Texas, and I expect to go down as far as Fort Worth.  I would like you to join me.  What do you think of the idea, Mr. Drannan?”