"The ol' feller was dreadful uneasy for fear the jayhawkers would find out that we'd gone on out to the plains an' that there was really no company of cavalry behind us and then would come back. But I tol' him not to worry about that, for I believed there would be a company of cavalry here from Fort Leavenworth before long in answer to that letter he had written to General Hunter. "I put another idea into his head, tellin' him that he could help the soldiers to capture or break up the gang by havin' a man foller their trail an' find out just where they locate. He took up with the idea right away, an' the farmer said he'd foller the trail. When he gets 'em located he's to come back an' guide the soldiers to the jayhawkers' camp." As we passed through the strip of timber at the crossing of the little creek where the jayhawkers had planned to get the drop on us we noticed that it would have been an admirable place for such a manoeuvre, and Jack and I commented on the possibilities of an encounter with the enemy here. "You're wastin' your wind," interrupted Tom impatiently. "I had it all planned out to take a by-road that leads off from the house where we camped, which crosses the creek--so the storekeeper had told me--about a quarter of a mile below this crossin', comin' into the main road again in the prairie beyond. In that way we'd have left the jayhawkers 'holdin' the sack,' like the feller that went a-snipe huntin'." CHAPTER IX BUFFALO NEAR THE BIG BEND That afternoon we reached Council Grove, on the west bank of Neosho River. It was then a place of less than a hundred and fifty inhabitants but an important business point--the outpost of Kansas settlements and the last town, going westward, until Denver, Colorado, was reached. Travellers going to the plains usually halted here to lay in any requisites for their trip that might have been overlooked in starting from the Missouri River and also for last repairs on wagons and for horseshoeing. The tires on our hind wheels had become a little loose, and we decided to have them shrunk and reset, so we camped by a blacksmith shop near the centre of the village, and soon had the blacksmith at our work, which he finished before dark. Making an early start next morning, we rolled out, nooned at Diamond Springs, fifteen miles from the Grove, where there was but one family, and at evening camped at Lost Springs, thirty miles from Council Grove, where Jack Costillo's ranch was the only habitation. So long as the road and weather were fine we wished to make up the time lost in being delayed by the jayhawkers and lengthened our drives accordingly. We were now fairly launched on the plains and would see little more timber and no habitations of white men except an occasional trading ranch at the crossing of some creek along the road. We were nearing the eastern edge of the buffalo range.