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                               CAMPMATES

                        _A Story of the Plains_

                             By KIRK MUNROE

          _Author of_ "THE FLAMINGO FEATHER," "WAKULLA," "DORYMATES,"
                         "DERRICK STERLING" ETC.


_Illustrated_

HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
NEW YORK AND LONDON




[Illustration: "IT WAS A LIVE BABY."]




CONTENTS.


       I. A WEARY RIDE

      II. A RUDE BAPTISM

     III. A BOY WITHOUT A BIRTHDAY

      IV. "I JUST HATE TO STUDY"

       V. SWIMMING INTO A FRIENDSHIP

      VI. RECEIVING AN OFFER AND ACCEPTING IT

     VII. ACROSS THE MISSISSIPPI

    VIII. GLEN RUNS A LOCOMOTIVE

      IX. KANSAS CITY IN EARLY DAYS

       X. AT WORK WITH THE ENGINEER CORPS

      XI. ALMOST TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE

     XII. STARTING ACROSS THE PLAINS

    XIII. BINNEY GIBBS AND HIS MULE

     XIV. ON GUARD AT NIGHT

      XV. THE SUSPICIOUS MOVEMENTS OF CERTAIN COYOTES

     XVI. IN THE HANDS OF THE CHEYENNES

    XVII. ATTACKING A STAGE RANCH

   XVIII. BUFFALO AND THEIR USES

     XIX. GLEN'S ESCAPE FROM THE INDIANS

      XX. A PRESENT THAT WOULD PLEASE ANY BOY

     XXI. LAME WOLF, THE YOUNG CHEYENNE

    XXII. GLEN AND BINNEY GET INTO TROUBLE

   XXIII. FIGHTING THE FINEST HORSEMEN IN THE WORLD

    XXIV. CROSSING THE QUICKSANDS

     XXV. SWEPT AWAY BY A FRESHET

    XXVI. RUNNING THE LINE

   XXVII. "COVERED WITH MUD AND GLORY"

  XXVIII. LOST IN A MOUNTAIN SNOW-STORM

    XXIX. PLUNGING INTO A LAKE OF ICE-WATER

     XXX. DOWN THE LONELY CANON

    XXXI. KIT CARSON'S GOLD MINE

   XXXII. A NEW MEXICAN WEDDING

  XXXIII. IN THE VALLEY OF THE RIO GRANDE

   XXXIV. BAITING A WOLF-TRAP

    XXXV. EL MORO

   XXXVI. ZUNI, THE HOME OF THE AZTECS

  XXXVII. A PRACTICAL USE OF TRIGONOMETRY

 XXXVIII. DYING OF THIRST IN THE DESERT

   XXXIX. CROSSING THE SIERRA NEVADA

      XL. A HOME AND TWO FATHERS





ILLUSTRATIONS.


"IT WAS A LIVE BABY"

"TWO STALWART WARRIORS SEIZED HIM BY THE ARMS AND RAISED HIM BETWEEN
THEM AS THEY SWEPT PAST"

"THE STRANGE CRAFT WAS BORNE SLOWLY DOWN STREAM"

"'HEAD FOR THAT DARK SPACE, IT MARKS A VALLEY.... IF YOU FIND WATER,
FIRE YOUR PISTOL'"




_CAMP MATES._

_A Story of the Plains._




Chapter I.

A WEARY RIDE.


Slowly and heavily the train rumbled on through the night. It was called
an express; but the year was long ago, in the early days of railroading,
and what was then an express would now be considered a very slow and
poky sort of a train. On this particular night too, it ran more slowly
than usual, because of the condition of the track. The season was such a
wet one, that even the oldest traveller on the train declared he could
not remember another like it. Rain, rain, rain, day after day, for
weeks, had been the rule of that spring, until the earth was soaked like
a great sponge. All the rivers had overflowed their banks, and all the
smaller streams were raging torrents, red, yellow, brown, and sometimes
milky white, according to the color of the clays through which they cut
their riotous way. The lowlands and meadows were flooded, so that the
last year's hay-stacks, rising from them here and there, were veritable
islands of refuge for innumerable rabbits, rats, mice, and other small
animals, driven by the waters from their homes.

And all this water had not helped the railroad one bit. In the cuts the
clay or gravel banks were continually sliding down on the track; while
on the fills they were as continually sliding out from under it. The
section gangs were doubled, and along the whole line they were hard at
work, by night as well as by day, only eating and sleeping by snatches,
trying to keep the track in repair, and the road open for traffic. In
spite of their vigilance and unceasing labor, however, the rains found
plenty of chances to work their mischief undetected.

Many a time only the keen watchfulness of an engine-driver, or his
assistant, the fireman, saved a train from dashing into some gravel
heap, beneath which the rails were buried, or from plunging into some
yawning opening from which a culvert or small bridge had been washed
out. Nor with all this watchfulness did the trains always get through in
safety. Sometimes a bit of track, that looked all right, would suddenly
sink beneath the weight of a passing train into a quagmire that had been
formed beneath it,