Soon afterward, he set out for camp. Midway there, he heard the rush of trampling hoofs, and looking up, his horrified gaze beheld a band of painted savages sweeping down upon him from out the west. Five minutes later, he lay upon the plain a mutilated corpse, and every pocket rifled. The Indians had fulfilled their threats. The trees which to them answered the same purpose that the marble monuments which we erect over our dead do among us, had been broken up by a stranger, and sold. They acted very much as white men would have done under similar circumstances, except that the purloined greenbacks were probably scattered on the ground, or fastened, for the sake of the pictures, on wigwam walls, instead of being put out at interest. Our little adventure gave rise to another evening of "vagabondizing." Each one of our men, including the Mexicans, had some Indian tale of thrilling interest to relate, in which he had been the hero. José, a cross-eyed child of our sister Republic, spun the principal yarns of the occasion. He had commenced outwitting Death while yet an infant, being content to remain quiet under a baker's dozen of murdered relations, that he might be rescued after the paternal hacienda had taken fire, by somebody who survived. After a careful analysis of several thousand remarkable stories which were told to us first and last during our journey, I have deemed it wise to repeat only those which we were able to corroborate afterward. Among the latter is a narrative that was given us by the guide on this occasion, having for its text a side remark to the effect that crazy Ann, the wild huntress whom we met above Hays, was not the first lunatic who had been seen wandering upon the plains. About the close of 1867, a small body of Kiowas appeared in the vicinity of Wilson's Station, a few miles above Ellsworth, being first discovered by a young man from Salina, who was herding cattle there. They rushed suddenly upon him, and he fled on his pony toward the station, a mile away. The chief's horse alone gained on him, and the savage was just poising his spear to strike him down, when the young man turned quickly in his saddle, and discharged a pistol full at his pursuer's breast, killing him instantly. Meanwhile, the half-dozen negro soldiers at the station had been alarmed, and now ran out and commenced firing. The Indians fled in dismay, without stopping to secure their dead chieftain, who was at once scalped by the station men, and left where he fell.