Here we found buffalo plenty and enjoyed two days successful hunting, and I must say that a more jolly crowd I was never out with than those three men were on a trip of this kind.  Buffalo Bill, who was as good-natured a man as a person would wish to meet, was able to furnish amusement for the entire crowd.  Col.  Bent himself was no mean Nimrod, and Uncle Kit did not take a back seat on such occasions.

This was the last hunting expedition that it was ever my pleasure to go upon in company with Mr. Cody, and it was not my pleasure to meet him again for a number of years afterwards.

From here Uncle Kit and I returned to Taos, and I commenced making preparations for the trip to the waters of the Gila.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Face to face with A band of apaches.—­The death of Pinto.—­The closest call I ever had.—­A night escape.—­Back at fort Douglas.

On the arrival of Mr. Campbell and party we packed up and were off to the waters of the Gila.  Our crowd consisted of Green Campbell, of Missouri; Thomas Freeman and David Roberts, of Illinois, and Marlow Pease, of Massachusetts.

I took three saddle horses with me and they each took a saddle horse and three extra horses belonging to the company.  We did not lose any time getting across the main divide.  Being late in the fall we had great fear of becoming snow-bound on the trip.  We left the head of the Arkansas river some fifty miles to the north so as to be able to cross the river without having the snow to encounter.  After we were across the main divide I told them there would be no danger of being snowed in now.  So they would stop occasionally from half a day to three days in a place to prospect what they called the most favorable looking places for the yellow metal and most generally finding a little gold, but not as they considered in paying quantities, and while they were prospecting it was my business to scout all around the camp to prevent a surprise party by the reds and to kill game to live on.

We arrived at the Gila, striking the middle fork a little more southwest than I had ever been before.  I told them we were now in the Apache country and that those were the worst Indians we had to contend with.  We found a nice place for a camp and Mr. Campbell proposed to build a log cabin in order to protect ourselves against the Indians, but I told them I thought they had better prospect a week or ten days first, and if they found it to pay them we could build a cabin, and in the mean time I would try and locate the Indians and watch their movements.

The first four or five days I didn’t go very far away, but made an entire circuit of the camp every day.  After being here five or six days, I struck out in a southwesterly direction, intending to go about ten or fifteen miles from camp.