When All These Arrangements Were Completed We Saddled Our
Horses And Were Preparing To Leave The Fort, When Looking Round We
Discovered That Our New Associate Was In Fresh Trouble.
A man was
holding the mule for him in the middle of the fort, while 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 equipments were by this time
lamentably worn and battered, and our weapons had become dull and
rusty.
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