still feeding
undisturbed.

"We'd been kind o' scurse of fresh meat for a couple of weeks--ever
since we left the Platte--except a jack-rabbit or cottontail, and I
knowed the boys would be wanting to get a quarter or two of a good fat
cow, if we could find one in the herd, so that was the reason I pointed
'em out to 'em.

"The dew, you see, was mighty heavy, and the grass in the bottom was as
wet as if it had been raining for a month, and I didn't care to go down
whar the buffalo was just then--I knowed we had plenty of time, and as
soon as the sun was up it would dry right off. So I got on to one of
the ponies and led the others down to the spring near camp to water them
while the wench was a getting breakfast, and some o' the rest o' the
outfit was a fixing the saddles and greasing the wagon.

"Just as I was coming back--it had growed quite light then--I seed
Boyd and Thorp start out from camp with their rifles and make for the
buffalo; so I picketed the ponies, gets my rifle, and starts off too.

"By the time I'd reached the edge of the bottom, Thorp and Boyd was a
crawling up on to a young bull way off to the right, and I lit out for a
fat cow I seen bunched up with the rest of the herd on the left.

"The grass was mighty tall on some parts of the Arkansas bottom in them
days, and I got within easy shooting range without the herd seeing me.

"The buffalo was now between me and Thorp and Boyd, and they was
furtherest from camp. I could see them over the top of the grass kind
o' edging up to the bull, and I kept a crawling on my hands and knees
toward the cow, and when I got about a hundred and fifty yards of her, I
pulled up my rifle and drawed a bead.

"Just as I was running my eyes along the bar'l, a darned little quail
flew right out from under my feet and lit exactly on my front sight and
of course cut off my aim--we didn't shoot reckless in those days; every
shot had to tell, or a man was the laughing-stock for a month if he
missed his game.

"I shook the little critter off and brought up my rifle again when, durn
my skin, if the bird didn't light right on to the same place; at the
same time my eyes grow'd kind o' hazy-like and in a minute I didn't know
nothing.

"When I come to, the quail was gone, I heerd a couple of rifle shots,
and right in front of where the bull had stood and close to Thorp and
Boyd, half a dozen Ingins jumped up out o' the tall grass and, firing
into the two men, killed Thorp