“What is your object in going down there, Capt.?” I asked.  He said, “Western Texas is settling up very fast, and the Apache Indians are very bad there.  They are murdering the white people every day, and something must be done to protect them from the Red fiends.  I have seen enough of your methods with the Indians to satisfy me that you understand them and how to manage them better than anyone I have ever met with, and I am sure you would suit me better than anyone that I know.  If you will join me in this undertaking, the state of Texas will pay us well for what we do towards protecting the settlers.  I believe the Apache Indians are the most vicious as well as the most treacherous of any tribe of Indians that ever infested the frontier from the fact that they are so mixed with the Mexicans and never have been conquered.”

I said, “Capt.  McKee, if I take the train back and you are not gone when I come back here, I will join you in this trip to Texas, or if you will leave word where I can find you, if it is within two or three hundred miles of here, I will come to you.”

We turned back to the Fort with the understanding that, in case he left the Fort without me, he would leave word where I could come to him.

CHAPTER VIII

The next morning my packers and myself were up early and ready to be off for the Indian village.  I told the boys to be sure and take a plenty of rope as all the hides would have to be baled before they could be packed on the horses.  One man said, “I have four sacks full of rope, and I reckon that will be enough.”

Col.  Bent asked me how many hides I thought I could pack on the horses.  I told him I could put twenty hides on each horse, and that would make four hundred and forty hides in all.  He said, “That would be a big load, and I am afraid you cannot do it.  Besides, it is early in the season for the Indians to have so many robes.  But do the best you can, and I shall be satisfied.”  I bid the Col. and Capt.  McKee good bye, and we were off.

The second night out we camped near a little village.  I told the boys to get supper, and I would go over to the village, and have a talk with the Indians.  As soon as the Indians saw me, they thought I had come to trade with them.  I told them that I was on the way to the main village and for them to come there tomorrow, and I would be ready to trade with them.

[Illustration:  The next morning we struck the trail for Bent’s Fort.]

We landed at the main village about noon the next day, making the trip in a half a day less than I had planned to do.  We camped near the old Chief’s lodge.  The boys commenced to get dinner, and I took the two knives that I had promised the Chief and went to his wigwam.  I greeted him with a handshake and handed him the knives wrapped in a paper.  He opened the package, and I never saw such a smile on a face before as the one that beamed on that Indian’s.  He examined the knives carefully, and then he told me how proud he was of them and said in his own language he would always be white brother’s friend.