ile he tried to put the saddle on her
back, but she kept stepping sideways and moving round and round in
a circle until he was almost in despair. It required some assistance
before all his difficulties could be overcome. At length he clambered
into the black war saddle on which he was to have carried terror into
the ranks of the Mexicans.

"Get up," said Tete Rouge, "come now, go along, will you."

The mule walked deliberately forward out of the gate. Her recent conduct
had inspired him with so much awe that he never dared to touch her with
his whip. We trotted forward toward the place of meeting, but before he
had gone far we saw that Tete Rouge's mule, who perfectly understood
her rider, had stopped and was quietly grazing, in spite of his
protestations, at some distance behind. So getting behind him, we drove
him and the contumacious mule before us, until we could see through the
twilight the gleaming of a distant fire. Munroe, Jim, and Ellis were
lying around it; their saddles, packs, and weapons were scattered about
and their horses picketed near them. Delorier was there too with our
little cart. Another fire was soon blazing high. We invited our new
allies to take a cup of coffee with us. When both the others had gone
over to their side of the camp, Jim Gurney still stood by the blaze,
puffing hard at his little black pipe, as short and weather-beaten as
himself.

"Well!" he said, "here are eight of us; we'll call it six--for them two
boobies, Ellis over yonder, and that new man of yours, won't count for
anything. We'll get through well enough, never fear for that, unless the
Comanches happen to get foul of us."

CHAPTER XXIII

INDIAN ALARMS

We began our journey for the frontier settlements on the 27th of August,
and certainly a more ragamuffin cavalcade never was seen on the banks of
the Upper Arkansas. Of the large and fine horses with which we had left
the frontier in the spring, not one remained; we had supplied their
place with the rough breed of the prairie, as hardy as mules and almost
as ugly; we had also with us a number of the latter detestable animals.
In spite of their strength and hardihood, several of the band were
already worn down by hard service and hard fare, and as none of them
were shod, they were fast becoming foot-sore. Every horse and mule had
a cord of twisted bull-hide coiled around his neck, which by no
means added to the beauty of his appearance. Our saddles and all our
eq