aves, we constructed a latrine, and, north of the
rifle pit in the centre, a couple of men were told off by father to dig a
well for water.

In the mid-afternoon of that day, which was the second day, we saw Lee
again. He was on foot, crossing diagonally over the meadow to the north-
west just out of rifle-shot from us. Father hoisted one of mother's
sheets on a couple of ox-goads lashed together. This was our white flag.
But Lee took no notice of it, continuing on his way.

Laban was for trying a long shot at him, but father stopped him, saying
that it was evident the whites had not made up their minds what they were
going to do with us, and that a shot at Lee might hurry them into making
up their minds the wrong way.

"Here, Jesse," father said to me, tearing a strip from the sheet and
fastening it to an ox-goad. "Take this and go out and try to talk to
that man. Don't tell him anything about what's happened to us. Just try
to get him to come in and talk with us."

As I started to obey, my chest swelling with pride in my mission, Jed
Dunham cried out that he wanted to go with me. Jed was about my own age.

"Dunham, can your boy go along with Jesse?" father asked Jed's father.
"Two's better than one. They'll keep each other out of mischief."

So Jed and I, two youngsters of nine, went out under the white flag to
talk with the leader of our enemies. But Lee would not talk. When he
saw us coming he started to sneak away. We never got within calling
distance of him, and after a while he must have hidden in the brush; for
we never laid eyes on him again, and we knew he couldn't have got clear
away.

Jed and I beat up the brush for hundreds of yards all around. They
hadn't told us how long we were to be gone, and since the Indians did not
fire on us we kept on going. We were away over two hours, though had
either of us been alone he would have been back in a quarter of the time.
But Jed was bound to outbrave me, and I was equally bound to outbrave
him.

Our foolishness was not without profit. We walked, boldly about under
our white flag, and learned how thoroughly our camp was beleaguered. To
the south of our train, not more than half a mile away, we made out a
large Indian camp. Beyond, on the meadow, we could see Indian boys
riding hard on their horses.

Then there was the Indian position on the hill to the east. We managed
to climb a low hill so as to look into this position. Jed and I spent