The next morning the articles agreed upon as the price of the horses
were packed on Jerry's pony, and they went out to the meeting-place.

"It is twenty minutes early," Jerry said, as Tom consulted his watch,
"and the red-skins won't be here till it is just twelve o'clock. A
red-skin is never five minutes before or five minutes after the time he
has named for a meeting. It may have been set six months before, and at
a place a thousand miles away, but just at the hour, neither before nor
after, he will be there. A white man will keep the appointment; but like
enough he will be there the night before, will make his camp, sleep, and
cook a meal or two, but he does not look for the red-skin till exactly
the hour named, whether it is sunrise or sunset or noon. Red-skins ain't
got many virtues,--least there ain't many of them has, though I have
known some you could trust all round as ready as any white man,--but
for keeping an appintment they licks creation."

A few minutes before twelve o'clock three Indians were seen coming down
the valley on horseback. They were riding at a leisurely pace, and it
was exactly the hour when they drew rein in front of Tom and his
companion. Jerry had already unloaded his pony and had laid out the
contents of the pack. First he proceeded to examine the two ponies, to
make sure that they were the same he had chosen.

"That is all right," he said; "they would hardly have tried to cheat us
over that--they would know that it would not pay with me. There, chief,
is your exchange. You will see that the blankets are of good quality.
There is the keg of powder, the bar of lead, ten plugs of tobacco, the
cloth for the squaws, and all the other things agreed on."