"As I expected, we picked up the Kiowas' trail over on the Smoky Hill, followed it up, an' found 'em in a snug-timbered camp over on the Solomon. They'd moved to this camp from another one a few miles up the river since the blizzard, because while that big snow was on the ground they'd had to chop down all the cottonwood-trees about that camp to furnish feed for their ponies and in case of another big snow catching 'em in the same camp, the feed there would have been pretty scarce. An' they'd just about got settled down in the new camp when this last snow come on. Me and Adkins were in luck, too, for this last snow come next day after we reached the Injun camp; an' during all the time it lay on the ground me and John were making ourselves as agreeable an' comfortable as possible in ol' Satank's lodge. I knew what a sour ol' cuss he is, an' the best way to get on the good side of him an' find out what he is up to was to go right to his tepee, an' let on that we'd come to pay him a special visit. "We found that the Injuns didn't have much of anything to eat but meat, so we brought out our sugar an' coffee an' hardtack an' bacon an' treated the ol' man an' his family to some extra good grub--for them; an' I'd took along some beads an' colored handkerchiefs an' trinkets for the women an' youngsters. But, sir, that durned old rascal would eat my chuck an' take presents, all right, but when I'd try to pump him he was the most ignorant Injun you ever saw--I couldn't get a thing out of him. But then I didn't expect to find out much from Satank himself, for I know him of old. "I made friends with Satanta and Big Tree, too, an' gave them some presents, an' now an' then invited 'em over to headquarters to smoke an' eat an' drink coffee with us, but they were pretty foxy, too, and didn't seem to know anything when I tried the pump on them. So when I found the head men were so close-mouthed I dropped them an' let on as though I wasn't seeking for information; but I made myself solid with the women by making them presents of a lot of little trinkets, an' I knew if I went about it in an offhand way they'd tell me all they knew, for, you know, I can talk their language just like a Kiowa. "It pleases them women for a white man to take notice of 'em an' talk to 'em an' be sociable like, for their own men don't pay 'em much attention. "I soon found out about all the women knew, which wasn't much, however; but from what I picked up amongst 'em, an' from the general signs, the head men ain't a-feeling very friendly toward the whites, an' as soon as grass comes in the spring I suspect we'll have trouble with 'em." "Do you think they'll go on the war-path, Bill?" I asked.