"Just at moondown the next night, which, from the description given me, I suppose was about eleven o'clock, Quanah and one of his friends met Weckeah at the door of her father's tepee and conducted her to the edge of the camp, where their horses and twenty-one other young men were waiting.
"Then began the most remarkable elopement, and, in some respects, at least, the most remarkable ride ever known on the plains, among either whites or Indians.
"Quanah took the lead with Weckeah next behind him, and the twenty-two young men following in single file. For seven hours they did not break a lope, except to water their ponies in crossing streams. At daylight they stopped to graze their ponies and make a repast on dried buffalo meat. Here Weckeah saw with pride and increasing confidence that many of those twenty-two tall sinewy young men carried guns, and all of them revolvers, shields, bows, and quivers full of arrows, and were mounted and equipped throughout as a select war party.
"Stopping only a few hours, they changed their course, separated and came together again at a designated place at sunset. There they stopped again until moondown, and then resuming their journey, traveled together all night.
"They were now in Texas, and dared not travel any more in daylight. When night came on they changed their course again, separated into couples, and traveled that way several nights, coming together at a place which, from the description, I think probably was Double Mountain, in Scurry County, Texas. There they stopped several days to recruit their ponies, subsisting themselves on game, which then abounded in that region. From that place they traveled in couples from high point to high point until they came to a river, which I suppose, from the description, was one of the main branches of the Concho, and there they established their rendezvous, and, as Quanah expressed it, 'went to stealin' hosses.'
"It has been said—indeed, I believe it has been universally conceded—that the Comanches, before their subjugation, were 'the finest horse thieves the world ever saw.' Whether this has been conceded or not, I am sure no one who knew them then will deny that it was a well-deserved 'compliment.' And I doubt not that Quanah and his bridal party, or bridle party, whichever it may seem most appropriate to call it, contributed generously to the weaving of that wreath for the tribal brow.
"Eckitoacup's band being utterly unable to follow the trail, the fugitives remained undiscovered in that region for more than a year, and, in Quanah's own candid and comprehensive language, 'just stole hosses all over Texas.' In a few months they had a large herd, including many valuable American horses and mules.
"But it was not long until the young men began to sigh for the girls they had left behind them, and to venture back, a few at a time, to see them, and always with laudations of their chief, and glowing accounts of the magnitude and 'profits' of their 'business.' They invariably returned with their sweethearts, and many other Indians, of both sexes, also. With Quanah's encouragement their visits became frequent, and at the end of a year his band numbered several hundred.
"But through these visits old Eckitoacup had heard of the fugitive, and was now coming with a large war party to punish him and take Weckeah. Weckeah again became badly frightened. She would get behind Quanah from the direction of Tannap's approach, clasp her arms around him and beg him not to give her up. But her entreaties were wholly unnecessary. Quanah, of his own accord, was ready to die rather than suffer her to be taken from him.
"Eckitoacup found Quanah's band posted for battle. He was astounded at their numbers and became so alarmed for his own safety that he was glad to agree to an offer of compromise, rather than risk the hazard of battle. Four chiefs were sent from each side to meet half way between the two bands and arrange the compromise. After a great deal of smoking and haggling Eckitoacup's men proposed to accept nineteen horses, the pick of Quanah's herd, in full satisfaction of all demands. Quanah promptly approved the agreement with the cheerful and significant observation that he knew a ranch where he could get nineteen others just as good in a few hours. "This gave Quanah the right to return to the tribe, and as the Texans had him pretty well 'located' in that rendezvous and were becoming quite 'impudent' and inhospitable to him, and his band was now too large to be longer concealed anywhere in the State, he followed close after Eckitoacup. Continuing in the territory, to receive accessions from the other bands, including Eckitoacup's, he soon became the acknowledged chief of the tribe, and as a war-chief, before being overpowered and conquered, he had achieved great renown for prowess, enterprise, sagacity and true military genius, his sway perhaps never being greater, or even as great, as it is at the present day. He lives in a picturesque valley on the south side of the Wichita Mountains, where he owns a good home, a hundred horses, perhaps a thousand cattle, and has two hundred and fifty acres of land in cultivation, though I doubt if he has ever plowed a furrow himself, or would do it if he could. Weckeah presides over his household, happy and contented, proud of her husband, with immunity from burdensome duties, and provided with all the comforts and luxuries befitting her station in life. But there is a good deal of Brigham Young, or the Sultan of Turkey, in this untutored Comanche, and instead of Weckeah being his only wife, she is merely one of a harem of five—his devotion to her, which has always been constant and unquestioned, not precluding him from the polygamous custom of the tribe. It must be said to his credit, however, that Weckeah is still his favorite. This is quite evident to those who see much of them, and on one occasion, when something was said of the possibility of the Government arbitrarily divorcing all the Indians from their plural wives, I asked him which of his he would choose to retain if that were done. Without a moment's hesitation he said Weckeah."