ty came to
each one in turn, every three or four nights, according to the number of
sentinels required, and on a night of duty each one was obliged to keep
watch "two hours on and four off." That is, if Binney or Glen went on
duty at six o'clock, he would be relieved at eight, and allowed to sleep
until midnight, when he would stand guard again at one of the several
posts beyond the camp limits, until two. Then he might sleep until six,
when, if camp was not already broken, he must again go on duty until it
was, and the wagon-train was in motion.

Binney declared this was all nonsense. It was well enough, he said, to
talk about Indians attacking a small party, or a stage station here and
there; but as for bothering a large, well-armed party like this, they
simply wouldn't think of doing such a thing. There was as much danger of
their attacking Fort Riley! The idea of waking a fellow up at midnight,
and sending him out on the prairie to listen to coyotes and screech-owls
for two hours! It was ridiculous! He might as well be enlisted in the
army and have done with it! So he growled and grumbled, and tried, in
every way possible, to shirk this guard duty, though generally without
success.

Even Glen wondered if it were necessary to keep so many men on guard,
and if the disagreeable duty did not come oftener than it need. At
length, however, something happened to convince these boys that no guard
against the wily foes surrounding them could be too strong or too
carefully kept.

They had been out a week, and were in the heart of the Indian country,
far beyond the most advanced settlements, when, one evening, camp was
pitched on a level bit of valley, bounded on one side by bluffs that
separated it from the higher plains. On the other side flowed a creek
bordered by a growth of cottonwoods, red willows, and tall, rank grass.
Beyond the creek rose still other bluffs, forming the eastern boundary
of this pleasant valley. From time immemorial the place had been a
favorite resort of Indians, as was shown by the abandoned wick-i-ups,
lodge-poles, and quantities of bleached buffalo bones found in a grove
of great cottonwoods a short distance up the stream. There was, however,
nothing to indicate that they had occupied the place recently, and so,
though the one topic of conversation about the camp-fires at supper-time
was Indians, it was rather of those belonging to other times and places
than to the present.

Suddenly, from th