un through the grass, his broad pantaloons
flapping about his feet. The captain gazed anxiously till he saw
that the horse was caught; then he sat down, with a countenance of
thoughtfulness and care.

"I tell you what it is," he said, "this will never do at all. We shall
lose every horse in the band someday or other, and then a pretty plight
we should be in! Now I am convinced that the only way for us is to have
every man in the camp stand horse-guard in rotation whenever we stop.
Supposing a hundred Pawnees should jump up out of that ravine, all
yelling and flapping their buffalo robes, in the way they do? Why, in
two minutes not a hoof would be in sight." We reminded the captain that
a hundred Pawnees would probably demolish the horse-guard, if he were to
resist their depredations.

"At any rate," pursued the captain, evading the point, "our whole system
is wrong; I'm convinced of it; it is totally unmilitary. Why, the way
we travel, strung out over the prairie for a mile, an enemy might attack
the foremost men, and cut them off before the rest could come up."

"We are not in an enemy's country, yet," said Shaw; "when we are, we'll
travel together."

"Then," said the captain, "we might be attacked in camp. We've no
sentinels; we camp in disorder; no precautions at all to guard against
surprise. My own convictions are that we ought to camp in a hollow
square, with the fires in the center; and have sentinels, and a regular
password appointed for every night. Besides, there should be vedettes,
riding in advance, to find a place for the camp and give warning of an
enemy. These are my convictions. I don't want to dictate to any man. I
give advice to the best of my judgment, that's all; and then let people
do as they please."

We intimated that perhaps it would be as well to postpone such
burdensome precautions until there should be some actual need of
them; but he shook his head dubiously. The captain's sense of military
propriety had been severely shocked by what he considered the irregular
proceedings of the party; and this was not the first time he had
expressed himself upon the subject. But his convictions seldom produced
any practical results. In the present case, he contented himself,
as usual, with enlarging on the importance of his suggestions, and
wondering that they were not adopted. But his plan of sending out
vedettes seemed particularly dear to him; and as no one else was
disposed to second his views on