I answered, "Capt., I thank you for your interest in me, and I will profit by it. I have another chance with the Col. if he employs me to take the train back through the Comanche country, which I feel confident he will."
The next morning we were up very early and ready to leave Santa Fe. I went and bid the wagon boss and the other men of the train good bye and told them of the arrangement now pending between the Col. and the people at Bent's Fort. This news seemed to please the boys very much, especially if I were to be their escort through the Indian country. The wagon boss was anxious to know how soon we would know what we were going to do. I told him we would know in eighteen or twenty days at the outside.
Capt. McKee and I now went to the Col's. quarters, and he paid me the two hundred and fifty dollars I had agreed to take. As we were leaving, the Col. said, "Mr. Drannan, if the Capt. makes the arrangement in regard to the freighting of the Buffalo robes, where can I find you?"
I answered, "I shall make Bent's Fort my headquarters from now on until next spring."
Capt. McKee and I now pulled out for Bent's Fort. He being well acquainted with the country, we did not take any road or trail, but took our way across the country by the most direct route, and we made good time all the way. As well as I can remember, it was called in the neighborhood of three hundred miles from Santa Fe to Bent's Fort, and we covered it in seven days on this trip.
When we landed at the Fort, Col. Bent and Mr. Roubedoux were both there. Capt. McKee informed them what he had come for at once, and they were more than anxious to close the deal with him, but they did not have robes enough on hand to load the train. They then inquired how long it would take the train to get there. The Capt. said he thought it would take about twenty-five days; Col. Bent then turned to me and said, "Mr. Drannan, will you take a pack train and go among the Indians and trade for robes for us?"
I said, "Yes, I will." He asked how many days it would take to go to the Indian village and get back. I answered, "To go to the main Indian village and do the trading and get back here will take fourteen or fifteen days."
Col. Bent asked me if I thought I could take twenty pack horses and go to the Indian village and trade for and load them up with the help of two men and get back to the Fort in fifteen days. I told him I thought I could and was willing to try it anyway. "But, Col., I want you to send the quickest and best packers in your employ to help me." He answered, "I have two men that are number one packers, and you can rely on them in every particular." I said, "All right, we will be off tomorrow morning."
We commenced to pack the goods that I was to trade for the Buffalo robes which consisted of knives, rings and beads. We put each kind in boxes by themselves. When I thought we had enough packed to trade for what robes the horses could carry, Col. Bent said, "Here, Will, take some more," and he threw several knives and some rings, and a bunch of beads into one of the boxes. "Maybe you will want a few to give some of the squaws that are such friends to you down there. Such little gifts are never lost among the Indians, you know, Will."
Col. Bent then sent some of his men out to gather up the pack horses so he could pick out enough for a train.