off the plains at the specified time they all entered into an agreement
to protect the boy at any sacrifice if he was permitted to accompany
them on the hunt. In their language they took the oath to protect the
boy, each one sworn in separately, and it was agreed that Satanta would
send two of his warriors to the nearest army post every week to tell his
father that the boy was all right. The boy always wrote brilliantly of
his travels in the wild western country. His father considered with much
pride reserved all these boyish letters which are masterpieces of
landscape and scenic description. Copies of these letters are still on
file in the war libraries and are set aside as "things of beauty."

Young Leavenworth in talking to me about his travels with Satanta told
me that they got into the mountains about thirty days after they left
Fort Leavenworth and located in about where Cripple Creek is now
located. He said the Indians found and gathered considerable gold. In
two places in particular the gold in the sands of the creek bed was very
rich. They gathered gold for him and put it in a buckskin sack. What
this gift amounted to in dollars and cents I have forgotten, but it
amounted to several hundred dollars. He was gone three months. That was
the last time he ever saw Satanta. He was sent East after that to a
military school. At the time he was crossing the trail with me he had
only recently become a colonel in the Union army and was ordered to Fort
Union to take charge of some New Mexico troops.

John Flournoy of Independence, Missouri, was one of the drivers on the
Long Route. When we were at Fort Larned, Colorado, Leavenworth inquired
of John if he knew where Satanta or any of his tribe were. John told him
they were on the Arkansas river not far from old Fort Dodge.

We stopped at Big Coon Creek to get our supper, that was twenty-two