I continued patting my animal and ordering him to quiet down, and Custer at length said: "You seem to be putting it over me a little today." When we reached a high ridge overlooking Pawnee Fork we again waited for our lagging escort.

As we waited I said: "If you want to send a dispatch to the officer in command at Fort Larned, I will be pleased to take it down for you.

You can follow this ridge till you come to the creek and then follow the valley right down to the fort." Custer swung around to the captain, who had just ridden up, and repeated to him my instructions as to how to reach the fort.

"I shall ride ahead with Cody," he added.

"Now, Cody, I am ready for you and that mouse-colored mule." The pace I set for General Custer from that time forward was "some going." When we rode up to the quarters of Captain Daingerfield Parker, commandant of the post, General Custer dismounted, and his horse was led off to the stables by an orderly, while I went to the scouts' quarters.