in, for a young Army
officer came down from that Post with the information that Colonel
Meriwether was not there. He had been ordered out to the Posts up the
Platte River, had been gone for three weeks; and no one could tell what
time he would return. The Indians were reported very bad along the
Platte. Possibly Colonel Meriwether might be back at Leavenworth within
the week, possibly not for a month or more!

This was desperate news for me, for I knew that I ought to be starting
home at that very time. Still, since I had come hither as a last resort,
it would do no good for me to go back unsuccessful. Should I wait here,
or at Leavenworth; or should I go on still farther west? Auberry decided
that for me.

"I tell you what we can do," he said. "We can outfit here, and take the
Cut-off trail to the Platte, across the Kaw and the Big and Little
Blue--that'll bring us in far enough east to catch the Colonel if he's
comin' down the valley. You'd just as well be travelin' as loafin', and
that's like enough the quickest way to find him."

The counsel seemed good. I sat down and wrote two more letters home,
once more stating that I was not starting east, but going still farther
west. This done, I tried to persuade myself to feel no further
uneasiness, and to content my mind with the sense of duty done.

Auberry, as it chanced, fell in with a party bound for Denver, five men
who had two wagons, a heavy Conestoga freight wagon, or prairie
schooner, and a lighter vehicle without a cover. We arranged with these
men, and their cook as to our share in the mess box, and so threw in our
dunnage with theirs, Auberry and I purchasing us a good horse apiece. By
noon of the next day we were on our way westward, Auberry himself now
much content.

"The settlements for them that likes 'em," said he. "For me, there's
nothing like the time when I start west, with a horse under me, and run
_au large_, as the French traders say. You'll get a chance now to see
the Plains, my son."

At first we saw rather the prairies than the Plains proper. We were
following a plainly marked trail, which wound in and out among low
rolling hills; and for two days we remained in touch with the scattered
huts of the squalid, half-civilized Indians and squaw men who still hung
around the upper reservations. Bleached bones of the buffalo we saw here
and there, but there was no game. The buffalo had long years since been
driven far to the westward. We took some