I then scalped the five Indians and tied their scalps to my belt. They would be good evidence of my day's work when I should meet the Colonel at his quarters. This being done, I tied the five Indian horses together and started for headquarters, arriving there about noon the next day. Just as I had put the horses in the corral and before I had time to dismount, Col. Elliott's orderly came on the dead run, saying: "Col. Elliott wishes to see you at his quarters at once." I turned about and rode over to the Colonel's tent, and when I had saluted him, he said: "Sir, whose horses are those you just turned into that corral?" I said: "Sir, those are my horses, as I understand that any stock captured from the Indians by an independent scout, he is entitled to." "Mr. Drannan, do you tell me that you captured those horses from an Indian?" I said: "Col. Elliott, yes, sir; and here is something more I captured with them." At that I threw down the five scalps at his feet. He looked amazed as he gazed at the scalps, but said nothing for a few moments. About this time the orderly announced Jim Beckwith at the door. The Colonel said let him come in, and just as he entered the door, Col. Elliott said: "Beckwith, where do you suppose this scout got those scalps?" Jim picked up the scalps, examined them thoroughly, and said: "I'll bet my black horse that he took them from the heads of five Pah-Ute Indians." The Colonel smiled and said: "Drannan, if you will tell us all about the whole affair, I will treat." I related the adventure in brief. Dinner being ready, the Colonel set out the whiskey and cigars and told me to call on him that afternoon, as he wished to have a private conversation with me. I picked up the five scalps and started to dinner, and as I passed by the kitchen I threw them under the negro cook's feet and told him to cook them for dinner for my friend and me--referring to Jim Beckwith. When he saw the scalps he exclaimed: "Laws a massa, boss! whar you git dem skelps? Marse Meyers said dey wasn't an Injun in fifty miles o' hyar." While we were eating dinner, Jim said to me: "Don't you know them fellers didn't think you'd ever come back?" I asked him what fellows, and he said: "Why, those scouts. One of them told me you was the d--est fool he ever saw in his life, to go out scouting alone in a strange country, and that the Pah-Utes would get you, sure." I said I did not think it worth while to ask those scouts anything about Indians or anything else, for I didn't think they had been far enough from camp to learn anything themselves. That afternoon when I was announced at the Colonel's tent, I was met in a somewhat different manner by him to what I had been that noon, for he raised the front of the tent and said: "Come right in Drannan, why do you hesitate?"