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diff --git a/40497-8.txt b/40497-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 55a1c54..0000000 --- a/40497-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,3053 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's The Prairie Schooner, by William Francis Hooker - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The Prairie Schooner - -Author: William Francis Hooker - -Release Date: August 14, 2012 [EBook #40497] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PRAIRIE SCHOONER *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Bergquist, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - - - - - - - The Prairie Schooner - - By William Francis Hooker - - Copyright, 1918 - By SAUL BROTHERS - Chicago - - - To My Wife - MAMIE TARBELL HOOKER - A Pioneer of the - Jim River (Dakota) Valley - - - - -[Illustration: Illustration and Patent Color Process by J. D. Johnsen] - - - - -CONTENTS. - - - Page - - Introduction 11 - - I. Letters Pass Between Old Pards 15 - - II. Trains That Run Without Rails 27 - - III. Hunton and Clay--Bull-Train Magnates 43 - - IV. Guarding an Overland Freight Outfit 57 - - V. Rattlesnakes and Redskins 67 - - VI. Belated Grace for a Christmas Dinner 75 - - VII. The Fate of One-Eyed Ed. 85 - - VIII. Track-Layers Fought Redskins 99 - - IX. "Bill" Hickok, City Marshal 105 - - X. When Cheyenne Was Young 113 - - XI. The Lost Indian at Bedtick Creek 119 - - XII. A She-Bear and Her Cub 129 - - XIII. A Kick From a Playful Bullock--and a Joke 135 - - XIV. The Indian and the Trousers 143 - - XV. There's a Reason; This Is It! Conclusion 149 - - - - -INTRODUCTION - - -When the Union Pacific Railroad was completed from Omaha, Nebraska, to -Ogden, Utah, it passed through a territory about as barren of business -as one can imagine. It apparently was a great Sahara, and in fact some -of the territory now growing bumper crops of alfalfa, grains and fruits, -was set down in school text-books in the 70's as the "Great American -Desert." - -Its inhabitants were, outside of the stations on the railroad, largely -roaming bands of Indians, a few hundred soldiers at military posts, some -buffalo and other hunters, trappers, a few freighters, and many outlawed -white men. - -The railroad had no short line feeders, and there was, in the period of -which I write, no need for them sufficient to warrant their -construction. There were military posts scattered along the North -Platte, and other rivers to the north, and the government had begun, as -part of its effort to reconcile the Red Man to the march of civilization -started by the Iron Horse, to establish agencies for the distribution of -food in payment to the tribes for lands upon which they claimed -sovereignty. These oases in the then great desert had to be reached with -thousands of tons of flour, bacon, sugar, etc., consequently large -private concerns were formed and contracts taken for the hauling by -ox-teams of the provisions sent to the soldiers as well as the Indians. - -The ox was the most available and suitable power for this traffic for -the reason that he required the transportation of no subsistence in the -way of food, and was thoroughly acclimated. Usually he was a Texan--a -long horn--or a Mexican short horn with short stocky legs, although the -Texan was most generally used, and was fleet-footed and built almost on -the plan of a shad. - -Both breeds were accustomed to no food other than the grasses of the -country, upon which they flourished. These included the succulent bunch -grass. - -Oxen were used in teams of five, six and seven yokes and hauled large -canvas-covered wagons built for the purpose in Missouri, Wisconsin, -Illinois and Indiana. In the larger transportation outfits each team -hauled two wagons, a lead and a trailer, and frequently were loaded with -from 6,500 to 8,000 pounds of freight. These teams were driven by men -who were as tough and sturdy as the oxen. - -Most of the freighting was done in the spring, summer and fall, although -several disastrous attempts were made to continue through the midwinter -season to relieve food shortages at the army posts. - -It may seem strange, but it is nevertheless true, that Indians -frequently attacked the very wagon trains that were hauling food to -them, in Wyoming and Western Nebraska. Perhaps they were the original -anarchists; anyway, they often tried--seldom successfully--to destroy -the goose that laid the golden egg, but the course of civilization's -stream never was seriously turned, for it flowed rapidly onward, and -between 1870 and 1885, the country was quite thoroughly transformed from -a wild and uninhabited territory to one of civilization and great -commercial productivity. - -Cattle ranches with their great herds came first, then sheep, and by -degrees the better portions of the lands, where the sweet grasses grew, -and even on the almost bare uplands when water was made available by -irrigation projects, were tilled. Settlements followed quickly--towns -with schools and churches; then branch railroads, the development of the -mines of gold, silver, coal, etc., all came in natural order. And -finally, at a comparatively recent date, rich fields of oil were -discovered and made to yield millions of gallons for the world's market -and millions in wealth. - -It is difficult to realize that the now great territory was, in the day -of men still active, regarded as of little or no value--the home of -murderous, wandering tribes of savages in a climate and soil unfitted -for agriculture and containing little else of commercial value. - -But science and enterprising men and governments have wrought almost a -miracle. - -Go back with me to the days of the prairie schooner before the Wild West -was really discovered, and let me try to entertain you with just a -glimpse of things that are in such wonderful contrast to those of today. - -The freight trains with ox-team power have vanished, never to return, -and with them most of the men who handled them. - -The "color" of what follows is real, gathered when the Wild West _was_ -wild; and I make no excuse for its lack of what an Enos R. Mills or a -Walter Pritchard Eaton would put in it, for they are naturalists while I -am merely a survivor of a period in the development and upbuilding of a -great section of the golden west. - -In relating incidents to develop certain phases of pioneer life real -names of persons and localities have not always been used; and in some -of the narratives several incidents have been merged. - - - - -CHAPTER I - -LETTERS PASS BETWEEN OLD PARDS. - - -_My Dear Friend_: - -Can you put me in correspondence with any of the old boys we met when -the country was new, out in Wyoming? * * * Of the Medicine Bow range, or -Whipple, the man I gave the copper specimens to? * * * - -Have you forgotten the importance you felt while walking up and down the -long line of bovines, swinging your "gad" and cursing like a mate on a -river boat? You looked bigger to me than a railroad president when you -secured that job, as you used to say, breaking on a bull-train. I should -say you were an engineer, but I suppose you know best. Those were happy -days. When I recall the fool things we did to satisfy a boy's desire for -adventure, I wonder that we are alive. How we avoided the scalping -knife; escaped having our necks broken, or being trampled to death under -the feet of herds of buffalo is a mystery to me. * * * - -When the building of the Union Pacific road checked the buffaloes in -their passage from summer to winter feeding grounds, and they were -banked up along the line near Julesburg in thousands, I recall the -delight we took in watching them "get up and get." What clouds of dust -they would kick up when they got down to business! And such dust as the -Chalk Bluff would make never entered the eyes or lungs of man elsewhere. -Weren't we whales when we could divide or turn a herd? And how we would -turn tail-to, "spur and quirt" for our lives if the bunch did not show -signs of swerving from their course. How a cow-pony can carry a man -safely over such treacherous ground as the dog-towns is almost a -miracle. - -O! to have my fill of antelope steak or buffalo "hump" broiled on a cone -of buffalo chips! Nothing better ever entered my mouth on the plains. -The soothing song of the lone night-herder of the bull-train as he -circles and beds his stock is not more conducive to sweeter slumbers -than we enjoyed by the rippling streams in the hills of Wyoming. - -The difficulty we had in boiling beans until done in so high an -altitude; our hunt for a gun at old Dale Creek where "Shorty" Higgins -died suddenly; the fool act on my part when, afoot and alone, I -recovered the horse the Comanches had stolen from us. I wish we might -corral some of our old-time friends and go over the past before we leave -this land, "for when we die we will be a long time dead." - -The wild horse that roamed the West, among which was the stallion who so -valiantly guarded his harem on the Laramie Plains, was a model for a -Landseer. The great herds of buffalo that looked like shadows cast on -the plains by clouds passing the sun and the myriads of passenger -pigeons, are among the things that man will never see again, and as read -from the chronicles of history a few years hence, will be classed with -the Jonah and the Whale story. - -Old Man, when convenient, write me a long letter recalling some of the -old days, for-- - - "I'm growing fonder of my staff, - I'm growing dimmer in my eyes, - I'm growing fainter in my laugh, - I'm growing deeper in my sighs; - I'm growing careless in my dress, - I'm growing frugal with my gold, - I'm growing wise--I'm growing--yes, - I'm growing old." - - Sincerely yours, - _VAN_. - - * * * * * - -The reply: - -_My Dear Old Pard_: - -Your note concerning the events of long ago out on the Laramie Plains -and the Harney flats shoots across my vision events in the Cache de La -Poudre (the Poodre), the Chugwater country, old Cheyenne, Sherman, Fort -Laramie, Fetterman, Camp Carlin, both Plattes, the Medicine Bow waters -and range, Allen's "Gold Room," McDaniel's hurdy-gurdy, the -dust-stirring, dust-laden buffalo east of Chalk Bluffs, the deer and -antelope of the whole Wyoming territory, the sage-hens, and I don't know -what not. - -It makes me stop and lope back into the sagebrush. It makes me climb the -mountain sides and urge the bulls to fill their piņon yokes, tighten the -chains, and hurry along the four or five tons of bacon or flour or -shelled corn in gunny-sacks that Uncle Sam wants delivered somewhere -over the range, across the desert sweeps, through cactus-grown, prickly -pear sprinkled wastes, on through the dog-towns, in the heavy sand -sifting through the spokes, and falling off in a spiral fount from the -slow-turning hub. - -Ah, yes, old pard, and as I whack my bulls in the train that runs -without rails to the top of a long divide, I look for three things: -water, smoke and Indians. - -There were no railroads north of Cheyenne--nothing but the -"bull-trains." There away on the edge of the horizon, over the yellow -bunch grass, cured by the sun, is a strip of green. It is box-elder, and -underbrush. Standing out here and there like grim sentinels on guard are -the big, always dead and leafless cottonwoods, white as graveyard -ghosts, day or night. It seems to be only a flat surface haul to this -refreshing looking strip of green, and, as I have stopped the whole -wagon-train by making this observation, and the wagon boss is moving my -way on a big mule, I tap the off leader, who is thirty odd feet away, -with my long lash and yell: - -"Whoa, haw, Brownie," but not too loud at first; just an encouraging -word or two, and then string 'em out. My leaders are light of feet and -built like running horses. The pointers--or middle yokes--come in -reluctantly, but I attend to that, and with the butt end of my stock, -jab the near wheeler in the ribs, and away we go. - -But, old pard, inside of three minutes my strip of green is gone! In its -place is the quivering, broiling sun over the yellow bunch-grass; the -ashen stalks of the sage seem never to have had a drop of sap in -them--everything is dead. Even the jack-rabbit that stops for a look -seems bedraggled and forlorn, but I whistle, pick up a moss agate, throw -it in my jockey box, and jog along, for the surface is now hard as a -stone, though off ahead there I will unwind my lash and send its -stinging thongs to the backs of my noble beasts, touching only selected -spots where the hair has been worn away until the surface looks like the -head of the drum in a village band. - -Yes, I know they used to think us bullwhackers were brutes, but they (an -occasional tenderfoot) only saw the surface. They had never been -initiated; they didn't know the secrets. It was only when the load just -had to be yanked to the top without doubling teams or dropping trailers, -that we used the undercut which sent the long V-shaped popper upon the -tender spots of the belly, and then, Pard, the thing looked worse -because the Comanche-like language we hurled with it was so unusual to -ears that had been trained east of the Missouri River. It sure was -picturesque language! - -But we were all day reaching that green belt strung like a ribbon across -the face of central Wyoming, and from the time we first hove in sight of -it, until we pulled the pins from the steamy yokes, and dropped the -hickory bows at our feet, it appeared and disappeared so often that I -wonder that both man and beast did not go mad. However, inasmuch as this -was a daily programme for me for several years, I know that man can -stand a whole lot of hardship, if he only thinks so. - -And then ring in the change from the desert heat of midsummer to trifles -like thirty below in winter along the same landscape, when you see the -ghostly cottonwoods and anticipate your arrival among them some hours -later. Won't there be a roaring fire? And beans? And bacon? And pones of -bread for everyone? Wet stockings piled on inverted yokes or held on -pieces of brush, are drying, we are nursing our chilblains and -discussing the incidents of the day's drive, and not a weakling in the -outfit. Every man has been frozen or soaked all day, but he's as happy -as a lark. Sleep? You bet! You know it; but if you and I tell our -friends around our comfortable firesides now or in the lobby of an -onyx-walled Waldorf-Astoria, Belmont or Biltmore, that we just kicked a -hole in the snow, rolled into our blankets and dreamed of being roasted -to death, they would look at your well-shaven face, my biled shirt, and -then at your highly polished shoes, then at my black derby, and, dammit, -I believe they might be justified in forming the opinion that neither -one of us had ever been deprived of breakfast food, or bath tubs, or a -manicure artist's services.* * * - -You want to know if I can locate any of the old gang. Sure! Some sleep -in the sidehills along the swift-flowing waters of the North Platte, one -or two are parts of gravel beds down on the wild meadows--or what were -the wild meadows of hundreds of square miles between the North Platte -and the Poudre; but not a few, like you and I, stalk abroad on the face -of the earth--cheating first, as we did, tribes of Sioux, Arapahoe, -Cheyenne and the Comanches who swept up across Kansas and Nebraska; -escaping the blizzards, periods of starvation, cold, heat, fire, water, -whisky, and finally the surgeon's knife. I tell you, the world only -thinks it knows a thing or two about how the human body is made, and how -much it can stand. But to answer your questions: - -Jim Bansom, the last time I knew of him, in 1875, was headed east with a -fine span of hosses and a fair-to-middlin' wagon. - -Don't know where he went and don't know what he did with the hosses or -the wagon! 'Taint none o' my bizness, neither! In those days it wasn't -customary to be too gol-darned inquisitive about such things, unless -you owned the hosses or the wagon, or a bit, or a halter, or something -of that sort you happened to loan to the outfit; and then, of course, -you could take the trail if you wanted to. - - * * * * * - -Sam Smith, old U. P. conductor, walked into my office a while ago, and, -as he closed the door behind him, I said, "Hello, Sam; haven't seen you -since 1875, but you're the same Sam!" Then I told him my name. - -And then Sam gasped and acted like maybe he might pull a gun, thinking -me an impostor; because when Sam saw me the last time, stretched out in -his caboose on the old mountain division of the U. P., and the train -sailing down the toboggan that slid us into Laramie City, past Tie -Siding and old Fort Saunders, my hair was black, and I had a different -look. - -Maybe I looked bad. I guess I did, for I carried a gun and a belt of -forty rounds, and a butcher knife in a scabbard, just as we all did, for -it was the custom of the country; and I had long hair, too, and it was -matted and dirty, mixed with pitch that came from camp-fires in the -hills. No doubt I looked wretched, but, old Pard, I didn't even feel -that way. I felt good, and I was as harmless as a pigeon. - -But I said something about a hatband of rattlers' rattles that I gave -his little girl at Cheyenne, as I rode up to his door aboard a cayuse, -and that settled it. We talked about snow-sheds, the Sherman hill, once -the highest railroad point in the world, and of old times in general. - -But what's the use? When you come to New York, I'll meet you at the -Waldorf and we'll talk about it all night, and wish the buffalo were -still there, and the sagebrush, and the bull-trains, and the other -things undisturbed by civilization. So long.... - -_BILL._ - -New York, August, 1917. - - [NOTE--The above letters are from the author's files. "Van" is a - multi-millionaire manufacturer living in a middle-western state. - For several years his pastime was buffalo hunting and "roughing it" - in the wild and woolly west. - - The author, when a boy of 16, was developing a case of tuberculosis - of the lungs, and to escape the fate that had overtaken other - members of his family, took Horace Greeley's advice, went west, and - grew up with the country. He had been a clerk in a railroad office, - and still is in the railroad business in New York City, more than - forty years after the events related in the following chapters. He - is the only survivor of a family of fourteen, including all of his - own children, eight in number.] - - - - -CHAPTER II - -TRAINS THAT RAN WITHOUT RAILS. - - -Before railroads were built in the country west of the Missouri River -there was, nevertheless, considerable doing in the transportation line. -And even after the Union Pacific was built from Omaha to Ogden to -connect with the Central Pacific, which carried the rails to the Golden -Gate, most of the transportation of the then great Wild West, in the -mountains, on the plains and the "Great American Desert," was done by -ox-teams. These were run in trains of from ten to fifty or sixty teams, -the teams consisting usually of from five to seven yokes of oxen and -lead and trail wagons built for the purpose. - -These wagons were called prairie schooners, because they were supplied -with canvas coverings. The first of these, made in St. Louis, were -called "Murphys," and were provided with iron axles. Later many of them -were made in Indianapolis, Chicago, and Kenosha, Wis., the latter known -as the Bain. The Schuttler and the Bain wagons were almost as big and -substantial as a box car and were well painted and put together to stand -hard knocks on mountain "breaknecks" or in Bad Land sands. - -The lead wagon would carry an average of 6,500 pounds, while the -trailer--fastened to the lead by a short tongue--had a capacity of -perhaps two tons. In a sandy place or on a mountain road, the -bullwhacker (teamster) would slacken his team, pull a coupling pin from -an iron half-circle arrangement on the axle of his lead wagon, drop his -trailer to one side of the road and proceed to the top of the hill, if -in the mountains, or to an "island" of hard ground in the desert, unhook -his wheelers and go back for the trailer. Sometimes a "bull outfit" -would spend a whole day doing this. Lead wagons were parked one at a -time and the trailers brought on later and hooked up. These parkings -were in the shape of an oval, called a corral, a narrow opening being -left only at each end. - -Inside this corral, when it came time to yoke up, the cattle were driven -in by the herders, if the camp had been for over night or a long mid-day -stop. Then the bullwhackers, carrying the heavy piņon yokes over their -left shoulders, hickory bows in their right hands and iron or wooden -pins with leather strip fastened to them in their mouths, would seek out -their teams, yoking them together and leading them to their wagons. - -When a "whacker" had his "wheelers," or pole oxen, in place, he would -bring on his "pointers," and the rest, including the leaders. The -wheelers were always the heavyweights, old and trained, and able to hold -back the load or their unruly teammates until the whackers could throw -on a brake or "rough lock," the last named a log chain fastened at one -end to the wagon, thrown through the wheel spokes in such a way as to be -between the ground and the wheel on the "near rear hind wheel" of the -lead wagon. - -New cattle just being trained to yoke were always put in the center of -the team, where they were easily managed with the assistance of the -"leaders," which were always light weights and most always long-horns -from Texas--long horns, long legs and bodies, thin as a razorback hog. -These leaders were always the best broken oxen, and would respond to the -low-spoken word of "haw" or "gee," especially if the word were uttered -in the peculiar musical tone of the whacker which cannot be described in -print, not only because it is impossible to convey sound in that manner -but because the language that goes with the music--the request to gee or -haw--would not be pleasant reading. Alone, the leaders would trot like -horses. - -The average person outside of Texas and the southwest and some of the -western states has a mental picture, perhaps, of the Texas steer of the -long-horn variety. Those who lived thirty or forty years ago, even in -the East, remember him as a member of the quadruped family consisting -largely of horn, for it was not an infrequent thing to see him in a -cattle car on a sidetrack. He was, as a matter of fact, also entitled to -a reputation for his legs, for they were unusually long. His body, too, -was slim, and he never was fat for the reason that while free to roam -the ranges at will he devoted most of his time to using his horns in -goring his mates and neglected to eat. He raced about from place to -place, whereas, if he had no horns he would have been a peaceful animal -and consequently much more valuable for the market. - -The old-time Texas steer often was as fleet-footed as a Kentucky -racehorse of the thoroughbred variety, and it took a good horse to catch -him when he made up his mind to run. - -Nevertheless, thousands of these Texas steers were broken to yoke, and -used in overland transportation; and once broken they were good workers, -even though their horns were always in the way, and the cause of a great -deal of trouble in a herd. - -While I have no authority for the statement, I believe practical -dehorning began with the bullwhackers of the plains, for they frequently -bored holes in the horns which in a few weeks caused the horns to drop -off. Then it was noted that if the dehorned cattle were kept separate -from those with horns, the dehorned ones, even when working hard every -day, took on flesh and were better workers. Finally nearly all the -work-oxen were dehorned, and they were as meek and quiet as lambs. - -The whacker always began his orders to his bulls in a low tone, -increasing it as the necessity for action presented itself, and ending -in a string of oaths that would make an old-time Mississippi steamboat -mate ashamed of his reputation. Frequently teams were stalled on a high -hill or in the sand, when it would be necessary to gee the team of seven -yokes at an almost right angle, with chains between each yoke slackened -and with "wheelers" filling their yokes. Then the whacker would walk out -half way to his leaders and soothingly coax them to come haw--toward -him--on a trot, until all the chains between the other yokes were -tightened. By this time, however, Mr. Whacker was back to his wheelers, -perhaps punching the near one in the ribs, and then throwing his -eighteen or twenty foot lash over the backs of any of the yokes that -were not clawing the sand properly. In this way the men often worked for -days at a time, making sometimes only a few rods by each repetition of -the operation. Then again, the wagon boss would order a doubling-up -process and two whackers and fourteen yokes of oxen would work on one -pair of wagons, taking them along perhaps a mile, and then returning, -repeat the process until the bad road was left behind. - -This was transportation in the old days, and "trains" of this kind first -hauled the heavy traffic from Leavenworth and Nebraska City to the -Pacific and intermediate settlements in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. -After the Union Pacific was built this bullwhacker transportation -increased, especially in the country between Utah and the Missouri -River, in both directions away from the railroad, for the government had -a line of forts on the North Platte River and Indian Agencies were -established in Western Nebraska, Wyoming and what is now South Dakota. - -Two of these agencies, Red Cloud, on White River, and Spotted Tail, -forty miles to the north, were big traffic points. Train loads of bacon, -flour, sugar and other things were hauled to these agencies on -government contract, the provisions being in payment to the Sioux and -other tribes for the land they occupied near the North Platte River. -Along the Platte there were forts--two famous in their day--Fort Laramie -at the junction of the Platte and Laramie Rivers, and Fort Fetterman, -one hundred miles west of Fort Laramie, on the Platte at Lapariel Creek. -Soldiers here depended upon the "bull outfits" for their provisions, -nearly all being hauled in over mountain range and plain by contractors. - -Those were wild and woolly days, and the man who lived the life of -out-of-doors was a rugged, devil-may-care, hungry, healthy, happy -fellow. He knew how to face a freezing blizzard, or a baking sun without -flinching; he knew how to take care of himself with a minimum of -discomfort under the most adverse circumstances. He was afraid of -nothing. It wouldn't do otherwise. He was there, usually beyond the arm -of any law other than ordinances made and provided by himself and -companions and enforced by the same law-givers. Stealing was a worse -crime than life-taking. There never was an excuse for the first, but -nearly always one could be trumped up for the latter. To take a man's -horse was worse than cold-blooded murder; to rob him of his gun or his -blankets was equally as bad a crime. But if he had been cheated in a -game of "freeze out," or called a name that reflected upon his origin it -was not uncommon for him to become judge and executioner then and there. - -So men who engaged in this early day transportation of food and fodder -for soldiers and their mounts and for the followers of Sitting Bull, Old -Red Cloud and other chiefs, were careful in their social intercourse, -and when the harsh word was passed, as frequently was the case, it was -no uncommon thing for men to settle their score with pistols; and the -winner in these duels seldom, if ever, was punished. But a cold-blooded -murder--a wanton killing--was never tolerated. In a fight with pistols -it was always considered that the man who did the killing was justified. - -Unlike the present day fliers, bull trains did not run on schedules, -although there was a pretense of regularity about the day's routine, and -it was about as follows: - -At break of day the night herder who had been out with the bulls all -night--it is always daybreak to him whether three o'clock or -five--drives his herd into the corral, usually singing some refrain of -his own composition, but always having for its motive the same that -animates the pestiferous alarm clock set by a master to disturb the -slumber of a tired servant. However, a half hour before the herder -appears the cook and his helper, both bullwhackers, doing their turn of -a week, have been on the job with the coffee and bacon, and as soon as -the herder sounds his first note, the cook takes up the song, which is -perhaps: - - Bacon in the pan, - Coffee in the pot; - Get up and get it-- - Get it while it's hot. - -And then, and it is always so, some of the lively stock, as it -approaches the corral, takes the notion that there is some nice sweet -buffalo bunch grass to the rear that looks better than a day's work, and -there is a bolt often approaching a stampede. Curses? You never heard -the like, for the wagon boss and an assistant are already in their -saddles helping the herder. If you tried to sleep just a minute longer -it would be impossible, therefore you roll out from your bed on the -ground, fold up your blankets, tie them with a strap and throw them on -your trail wagon. - -Coffee and bacon are swallowed in haste, and if you are like the -majority, you grab a piece of bacon and a chunk of bread, bang them -together into a huge sandwich and put them in the jockey box of your -wagon for a lunch at eight or nine o'clock. - -Yoking and stringing out the oxen is the next operation, and a short -one in a well regulated outfit. Twenty minutes, usually, from the time -the bulls are driven in, the lead team is moving, and when the "outfit," -as every train is called, is well under way, the lead wagon is perhaps a -half mile from the last one, which is the mess wagon, containing the -provisions, cooking utensils, levers for raising a load of four or five -tons, the iron jacks, extra tires, coils of rope, pulleys, wheels, extra -spokes, bars of iron, and almost always a small forge--a regular -wrecking outfit. - -In hot summer weather on fair roads a bull train would make four or five -miles before the sun was high enough to burn--usually nine o'clock. -Then, if the camp was to be a "wet" one--at a creek, river or -spring--there would be a "layover" until four o'clock in the afternoon, -during which time the boys could sleep under a wagon, wash their -clothes, or if in a creek or river bottom, shoulder a gun and look for -moccasin, lodge pole or bear tracks. - -All day long, however, the men who were on the cook trick would make -bread in Dutch ovens. And let me tell you, no bull outfit ever stopped -for a long mid-day rest without putting on a huge kettle of beans, for -the army or white bean was the staple food in those days; and there was -always, on these long mid-day stops, plenty of soup. - -Perhaps one of the boys in his meanderings up or down the creek would -bag a deer. If he wandered out upon the plain he was sure of an -antelope, if he was a good shot. The deer kept to the trees along the -rivers and the hills, while the antelopes' territory was the open plain, -hard to get at unless the plain were rolling, and the hunter could be in -the right place as regards the wind. - -Sometimes there were poker games, usually freeze-out, which the men -played with plug tobacco cut up into small cubes. Others would spend -their time braiding whips or mending clothing. - -The bullwhacker's whip not only made a tenderfoot open his eyes with -wonder, but it usually shocked him. It was something he had never seen -before, and if he had been told that a man of ordinary strength would be -able to wield it he would have been decidedly incredulous. - -Differing from a cowboy's or herder's whip, the bullwhip lash was -attached to a stalk of hickory or white ash three feet long upon which -the whacker could firmly plant both hands. The lash at the butt, which -was attached to the stick by a soft strip of buckskin, formed in a loop -or swivel, frequently was more than an inch thick. These lashes were -from eighteen to more than twenty feet long and were graduated in -thickness from this great bulk to the tip, which was the thickness of a -lead pencil. The number of strands in a bullwhip were also graduated. At -the butt there were as many strands as the maker--usually the -bullwhacker--could weave, often fourteen. At the tip, this number was -reduced to six. The top, and down to six or eight feet from the end, the -whip was made of leather, often old boot tops. The rest was of tough -buckskin or elkskin. But on the very tip of the whip--the business -end--was a "popper" of buckskin cut in the shape of a long V, the bottom -end of the V running into a strand which was braided into the tip. - -The bullwhacker, when using this instrument, first threw it out before -him upon the ground; then by the use of all his strength he swung it in -over his head, to the right, often whirling it several times before he -let it go upon the back of the bull he wanted to reach. - -To the man who never saw this operation before, there was a shock, for -as the whip landed on the bull the popper made a roar like the report of -a cannon. - -As a matter of fact the bull was uninjured, unless the bullwhacker was -careless and allowed his popper to strike a tender spot, the nose, an -eye or the belly. - -It was almost a crime for a bullwhacker to cut a bull and draw the -blood, and he seldom did it unless his popper had been wet and then -dried. The spot usually aimed for was the hip, and bulls that had been -in service any length of time had a spot on the rump that was hairless, -resembling the head of a drum. But the spot was tough. The noise of the -popper, however, was what startled the team and caused it to "dig in." - -Frequently in the summer the afternoon drive lasted until ten or eleven -o'clock, especially if there was a moon. You cannot imagine a more -impressive, weird, wild sight. The shadows, the rattle of the wagons, -perhaps the scream of a night bird or a wild cat--maybe the zip of an -arrow from a redskin's bow, or the report of a gun, all calculated to -keep even the hardened bullwhacker on his mettle. And for this the -bullwhacker got $75 to $100 a month and "grub." He usually spent his -money at the end of his trip much after the habit of the sailor who -rounds the Horn. - -In the cold weather the hardships were many. There were, remember, no -bridges and the roads crossed numerous streams, all of which had to be -forded; and there was but one way to cross, and that was to wade and -guide a team. - -Usually the heavy freighting was done before December, but often it was -necessary to fight through blizzards and zero weather. It was this kind -of work that tried the soul of even the hardy bullwhacker, and not -infrequently his hands, feet, ears or face were frozen. It was hard on -the cattle, too, although it was almost always possible to find plenty -of good feeding ground of buffalo grass, which grew in heavy bunches and -was very sweet in its dry state, for the wind usually kept places bare. -If not, the bulls would nose it out from under several inches of snow -and manage to get something approaching a meal. Otherwise, they went -hungry, for no feed of any kind was ever carried for them. - -Indians, usually, were too lazy to hunt the white man in winter, so -there was seldom any trouble from this source after the first snowfall. -But when the grass was green it was different, especially in the -mountains or foothills. Redskins seldom fought a real battle in the -open. To the bullwhacker he was nearly always an invisible foe, shooting -his arrows or his gun from behind a rock, or from the top of a bluff, -well out of range himself. When the Indians were known to be following -an outfit it was common practice to keep a couple of horsemen outriders -on each side of the train where possible. Frequently bull trains were -obliged to corral and put up a fight, and usually the Indian lost. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -HUNTON AND CLAY, BULL-TRAIN MAGNATES. - - -Among the bull-train magnates of the early 70's were Charley Clay, said -to be a relative of the famous statesman, and Jack Hunton. They were -pioneers of Wyoming who have no doubt been quite forgotten, though in -their day none in the then sparsely settled frontier territory was -better known. They were not only pioneer freighters, but among the very -first of the daring frontiersmen to go beyond the limits of -civilization, and into the stamping grounds of the warlike tribes of -Indians to establish homes. Both built ranches in the Chugwater country -along the trail leading from Cheyenne to Fort Laramie. Clay's log house -was directly under one of the famous landmarks of the territory--chimney -rock--a chalky butte formed, geologists say, by erosion. Hunton built -his ranch on the northwest end of the Chugwater at a point near Goshen's -Hole, a great basin, where the Laramie trail wheeled directly north to -Eagle's Nest, another butte. At Hunton's a trail less used branched off -to the northwest, across what was then considered a desert and reaching -Fort Fetterman, perhaps 125 miles away on the North Platte river at -Lapariel creek. This part of Wyoming is now, I understand, a vast -wheatfield. To a bullwhacker of the early 70's this is almost a miracle. - -Both Hunton and Clay used their ranches to range their work cattle in -off seasons, although both had beef herds and lots of horses. These -ranch houses were protected from Indians by less than a dozen men at any -time; but these men were fighters and were known to be such by the -chiefs of the tribes that frequently roamed the territory south of the -Platte, although in a treaty with the Federal government they had -promised to stay north of the famous stream, the consideration being, on -the part of Uncle Sam, a contribution of hundreds of tons of flour, -bacon, tobacco and other things. Strictly speaking, this food was in -payment for land south of the Platte. - -Both Hunton and Clay had a knack of dealing with these roaming bands, -however, that prevented any serious raids, although at one time, when -Clay had closed a contract with the government and found himself in -Cheyenne with his big bull outfit, consisting of a couple of hundred -head of oxen and thirty or forty men, word was brought to him that on -his return trip to his Chugwater quarters, a band of Sioux would attack -him. So he left Cheyenne one night, and taking a course almost due east -avoided the Laramie trail, and by a circuitous route reached the -Chugwater without having traveled a mile on a trail. - -Hunton's and Clay's ranch houses were loaded with firearms, looked like -armories, and at the height of the shoulder in the log walls were fort -holes through which guns could be fired. These were used several times, -but none of the skirmishes approached in any degree the present-day -pictures one sees in the movies, and I doubt if they ever did, in the -West. In the first place, while the Sioux, Cheyenne and other redskins -were considered especially bloodthirsty, none of them was fond of -exposing his worthless carcass to a shower of bullets, even though -outnumbering the whites 100 to 1. The Indian of that day--of the day -that history was making on the frontier--was a most miserable coward -when dealing with frontiersmen of the Hunton or Clay calibre. - -Of course, there were open battles with United States troops, but even -then only when, as in the case of Custer and his Seventh Cavalry, the -troops were outnumbered and trapped. Even Sitting Bull's band, which has -wrongly been represented by some historians as brave, were entitled to -no credit of that kind. Custer was trapped in a big bowl and his 300-odd -fighters surrounded on all sides by several thousand well mounted and -well-armed young bucks. The Custer and the earlier so-called Indian -battles both at old Fort Phil Kearney and earlier in Minnesota, were not -battles at all--simply massacres. There is no record of an even fight -between redskins and whites in the settlement of the country between the -Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains. The Modocs fought for months in -the lava beds, but seldom did a soldier see a Modoc. So it was with old -Geronomo and his Apache followers. They fought from cover, never in the -open unless overtaken and surrounded. - -Nevertheless, the raiding bands of Ogalala Sioux that slipped over the -Platte in the season of good grass were a problem for these pioneer -ranchmen and transportation outfits, and it was not an uncommon thing -for a bullet or an arrow to reach a vital spot in a bullwhacker from -some hiding place just in range of the road. When this happened it was -the common practice for members of the outfit to mount their saddle -horses, with which every bull-train was well supplied, and give chase -unless the lead of the Indians was too great, and usually it was. - -Once in a while, however, the Indian made a miscalculation, and the -bullwhacker would return to the temporarily corralled outfit with a -scrubby Indian pony, a few rawhide thongs, and an Indian's ear freshly -amputated for use as evidence at the first camp of bullwhackers or army -post that one more "Good Indian" had been put on the list. - -This cutting off of ears was reprisal, for the Indians scalped their -white victims and mutilated their bodies when they had a chance. Hunton -and Clay hauled with their big outfits, at one time, about everything -that was sent to the northern line of forts by Uncle Sam. Clay's -contracts were largely confined to Port Laramie, although Hunton hauled -a good deal of the provisions to that post. Hunton and others supplied -Fort Fetterman, the principal route being from Medicine Bow station on -the Union Pacific across the mountain range of the same name. - -It took several days to load the prairie schooners from the freight cars -on a sidetrack that was laid upon the sod; and while this work was going -on there was sometimes a good deal of drinking and many gun fights. - -It was while a bull outfit was loading for one of the fall trips to -Fetterman that the first billiard table came to Medicine Bow. I think it -was the only one in the territory outside of Cheyenne and Laramie City, -both division points on the Union Pacific. There were no women in -Medicine Bow, good or bad, at the time and not more than 100 regular -residents, yet the town had a saloon because the bull outfits, Hunton's -and others, in their occasional trips, and a few adventurers who were -prospecting south and west of the "Bow," furnished ample patronage to -make the enterprise profitable. It was this saloonkeeper who conceived -the idea of importing a billiard table, and also a back bar and mirror. - -The bullwhackers watched the installation of the new furniture, and that -night informed the saloonkeeper that as there were no women in the camp -it had been decided to have a stag dance in the saloon. He protested, -but it did no good. A few drinks in a dozen leaders was followed by a -deliberately aimed shot which shattered the mirror, after which the -operation of removing the billiard table began. It was a rough job, and -would have given a Brunswick-Balke man a chill. The table went out onto -the prairie in sections, and the sections were not always separated at -the regulation point. The green cover was ruined. - -Then the dance began. The German saloonkeeper smiled his protests, but -when he became too much concerned about what was going on, someone would -snuff a light or plug a barrel of whisky with a bullet. So the night's -debauch continued, and it did not end until daybreak. The place was a -wreck, and the saloonkeeper was in despair when the wagon boss came -along with a roll of money as big around as a ship's cable, saying: - -"What's the damage, Fritz?" - -"Ach," he replied, "the table cost me $500; a barrel of whisky and -cigars, beer, my fine mirror--everything is gone?" - -"Yes, I see, the whole bizness," said the boss. - -"Well," said Fritz, "the boys spent $600 mit me, so I make it $600 more; -maybe I can repair the table." - -So the bill was paid, the wagons were loaded, and the outfit sallied -forth across the plains, the bridgeless rivers, and the mountain passes -to Fetterman where there was a pay-day. Deductions pro-rata were made -from every man's wage to even up the score with Fritz, and every -bullwhacker paid his share willingly, saying it was cheap sport for the -price. There was no feeling against Fritz because Fritz had not shown -fight. If he had--well, most of the men in the outfit were wild and -woolly, and rough, but not killers. Still one or two could not be -trusted. - -Hunton put up a log house, a forge and a charcoal kiln just outside the -south limit of the Fort Fetterman government reserve, a section five -miles square south of the Platte. Just before this plant was erected a -series of Indian depredations began; several men engaged in cord wood -chopping for a government contractor were murdered by small bands of -Sioux, and many saddle horses stolen. There were also several raids in -the Lapariel bottoms; and one day a small band of Sioux, well mounted, -forded the Platte almost in sight of the fort, stampeded a herd of mules -and drove them far into the Indian country before a company of soldiers -took up the chase. - -A military telegraph line ran from Fort Fetterman to Fort D. A. Russell -at Cheyenne, and the northwestern end of the line was down most of the -time, the Indians taking the wire away to use in ear and nose rings and -for other purposes, although the line was destroyed many times, no -doubt, for pure cussedness. One time I traveled for fifty miles on -horseback along this telegraph line, and in places the wires were -connected with insulators which were mounted on buffalo horns. In many -places the wire was on the ground. - -It was said at the time of the running off of the mules that the Fort -Fetterman commandant was unable to follow the Indians without orders -from Washington via Fort Russell. However, this was not confirmed. -Anyway, on this and many other occasions the army moved slowly and was -past understanding on the part of the few citizens in the country. -Nevertheless, the soldiers of those days, whenever in conflict with the -redskins, usually gave a good account of themselves. - -Things got so warm one spring in the vicinity of Fort Fetterman that the -thirty or forty citizens camping outside the military reservation -organized a secret society known as the Buckskin Militia, and determined -to avenge the deaths of several men, Jesse Hammond, a woodchopper, and -others, if opportunity should present itself. The only qualification for -membership in the Buckskins was a willingness to take the oath, which -was as follows: - - I, John Smith, do solemnly swear that I will shoot on sight any - male Indian, no matter whether he is attacking me or other white - men, stealing or attempting to steal my property or the property of - others, or whether he is approaching or moving from me. - Furthermore, I will answer any call from another member of this - band or any other good white citizen, for assistance in the - destruction of any male Indian found on the south side of the North - Platte river; and will join in any raid upon an Indian camp when - called upon by the Chief Buckskin. So help me God. - -This oath was taken while standing on the stump of a cottonwood tree in -the Lapariel bottoms, the candidate being loaded down with as many log -chains as he could hold, and the ceremony, usually taken on a moonlight -night, was as weird a sight as one can imagine. - -The raids from the north continued nearly all summer. Several more white -men were killed, one a lone prospector who thought there was mineral in -the hills southwest of Fort Fetterman and near old Fort Caspar. - -[Illustration: "Whistled to Give His Quarry the Chance He Would Give a -Mad Dog, and No More."] - -One of the Buckskins hunting antelope one day in the vicinity of La -Bonte Creek crossed the trail of a single tepee or family, and three -ponies. This he knew from the lodge pole tracks made by a horse dragging -the poles over the ground. The Buckskin took the trail, keeping well out -of sight, but finally cut off a lone Indian who had dismounted to drink -from a spring, allowing his young buck sons to go on. Buckskin whistled -to give his quarry the chance he would give a mad dog--and no more. Then -he put a bullet in his head. He remained on the spot from which he -fired, waiting to hear from the rest of the tepee, which he did in a few -minutes, although the young bucks kept out of sight. They fired a few -shots before Buckskin decided to make a dash, and when he did it was a -race of ten miles to a ford in the Platte. The young bucks escaped. -Buckskin returned to his "Good Indian," removed a lock of his hair, took -his gun and ammunition and a greasy card from the folds of his blanket -upon which some white man had written: - - This is Cut Nose, a "Good" - Sioux Indian; but he is a - Murderer and Thief. - -There was a big session of the Buckskin Militia a few nights later, and -great rejoicing. Cut Nose was a whole tribe of Indians in himself, and -many dark crimes had been laid at his door by the white men who were -engaged in freighting food to the Indian agencies and army posts. - -It must be understood that there were no settlers or settlements or -families in this section of Wyoming at this time, therefore there were -never any of those horrible affairs common farther East a hundred years -or more ago. There were no women and children for these red devils to -kill, and year in and year out the fight was between bullwhackers, a few -ranchmen, not more than half a dozen, government woodchoppers, and a few -prospectors. - -The professional hunters usually "stood in" with the red man, being -possessed of some kind of magic that was never fully explained. In those -days beaver, bear, buffalo, deer, antelope and other game abounded. The -hunter usually had a hut or "dug-out" near a beaver dam, and it usually -was well supplied with food and sometimes a squaw was the hunter's -companion. Her relatives were sure of good treatment, and I presume for -that reason the relatives were able to give the "squaw man" hunter -protection. Still hunters were murdered, but not often. - -Finally, along in July, after the grass had lost its sap and turned -brown, one of the Buckskins saddled up his pinto horse one day, strapped -a blanket, a pone of bread and a piece of bacon to his saddle, and -giving free play to his Rowell spur, waved his hat and yelled as he -dashed away: - -"Good-bye, boys; see you again in a few days. I'm goin' to put an end to -these raids." - -His brother Buckskins thought he was crazy--some of them did. But one or -two winked and looked wise; and about sixty hours later, when some of -the "militia" had almost forgotten him, Buckskin rode up, unsaddled his -pinto, pitched him in the ribs and said: "There now, old boy, go up the -creek and enjoy yourself. Eat yourself to death, and I'll know where to -find you when I want you. No Indian will get you." - -When the boys crowded around him he vouchsafed this much information: - -"From a point twenty miles east of this spot to a spot twenty miles west -of Fort Laramie--on the north side of the Platte--as far as the eye can -reach in a northerly direction, and you know that's considerable -distance, there is just one charred mass--every blade of grass has been -burned." - -There was no more trouble that season. No feed for the Indian ponies -within a hundred miles of the fort to the north of the river. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -GUARDING AN OVERLAND FREIGHT OUTFIT. - - -Driving seven yoke of oxen hauling two wagons attached by a short rig -similar to that used in coupling cars, along a desert road, is enough to -keep an able-bodied ox-train brakeman busy. But when, in addition to -keeping his wild "leaders" in the road and his "wheelers" filling their -yokes, he has to keep an eye on a distant bad land bluff or a roll in -the surface, he has his hands more than full. - -This was the situation when the bull outfit, from Cheyenne to Spotted -Tail, was slowly moving along north of the Platte river in August, -1875--a time when Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies were nearly -deserted, and all the young bucks were chasing antelope and incidentally -collecting scalps of white men when they could find a white man alone -and unprepared to defend himself; or when they could outnumber a bull -outfit one hundred or two hundred to one and get its members in a -"pocket," which was not often. - -At this particular time a young man who, a couple of years previous, had -never known anything less comfortable than a feather bed, or a job -harder than writing railroad way-bills, was one of two in the -cross-country freighter crew who had been assigned by Wagon-boss Watson -to mount a "pinto" pony and ride all day at least 1,000 yards away from -the trail and keep to the high places where he could see what was going -on, if anything, in the vicinity. He had been told to dismount and -examine any signs of life on the ground where it was bare, or in the -grass, and when found to fire one shot from his revolver to let the -bullwhackers know that they had "company" not far off; and if he saw one -Indian or a hundred to shoot not once but three times in rapid -succession and then gallop to the wagon train with details. - -The movement across the desert-like country this day began at four a. -m., and continued until ten a. m. The featherbed youngster was well -equipped with an army Springfield of large calibre, forty rounds in his -belt, two Remington revolvers and a butcher knife with a five-inch blade -for the possibility of close quarters. He had a bottle of spring water -and a saddlebag full of sandwiches of bread and fried sowbelly and -plenty of chewing and smoking tobacco. - -Maybe you think this youngster thought of his soft bed at home or a pot -shot from ambush that would leave his skeleton bleaching in a sandy -desert sun after it had been stripped of its flesh by wolves; or that he -wished someone else had been chosen to guard one side of the overland -train of flour, bacon, corn and sugar and its custodians, but that is -not so. It was one of the proudest days of his life and I know he will -never forget it. He was highly honored by Watson and he appreciated it, -for the reason that only two years before he had come to Wyoming a green -city boy and was then known in the parlance of the plains as a -"tenderfoot," which was a truthful description of any man or boy when he -first entered upon the life of the bullwhacker, the then popular master -of transportation between civilization and its outposts. He never -dreamed of death when he got his orders, because he was young and -foolish. Sometimes it is called bravery, but that isn't the right word. -It can't be described unless it is called blind or reckless -indifference. Perhaps that isn't it; anyway the youngster, as he mounted -and galloped away and waited on a neighboring knoll for the outfit to -string out along the sandy trail, hoped he wouldn't be disappointed. He -wanted an eventful day and he fairly prayed for it. "I hope," he -ruminated to himself half aloud, "that I cross a tepee trail, at least, -even if I don't get my eye on an Indian." - -It wasn't long until he began to wonder, for it was still barely -daylight, if it wouldn't be possible for a buck of good aim to pick him -off, especially if the buck practiced the usual tactics of concealing -himself behind a sand-dune or a butte. He wasn't afraid--he didn't know -the word--but he wondered. For this reason he kept his pony moving, -reasoning that it is easier to hit a stationary target than a swiftly -whirling one. But the pony appeared to be a dead one even when a spur -was roughly rubbed upon his belly, until, as the train had gotten well -out of camp and the teams strung along for a mile, he found his pony to -be interested in something, for he insisted on frequent stops and moved -his ears back and forward and snorted lightly. - -Finally it seemed next to impossible to get him to move, and Featherbed -was sure the pony had been owned by Indians at some time and was of the -trick variety, being trained to a brand of treachery that meant delivery -of his mount into the hands of the reds. - -And while these things were passing through the youngster's brain his -only concern was that the train was leaving him, and that he was not -guarding it. He heard a coyote's mournful note, but that was a common -occurrence, although he wondered if it couldn't be possible that an -Indian was doing the howling. It sounded like an imitation. - -The pony snorted some more, and then Featherbed, finding his blunt -pointed spurs were not getting him anywhere, unsheathed his -butcher-knife and pricked his cayuse on the back. He tried to buck, but -he wore a double cinch--one fore and one aft--and it kept him on all -fours. - -Things were getting worse and the voices of the bullwhackers yelling at -their teams grew fainter and fainter as the outfit slowly but surely put -distance between Featherbed and his companion, when there was a sound -that resembled the dropping of a stick in the water preceded by a -distinct swish as if it had been thrown through the air like a -boomerang. - -Then the pinto got busy. It was an arrow! - -There were several more, and one of them clipped the pommel of the -saddle before Featherbed thought of his orders to fire once on sight of -disturbed grass or a moccasin track on bare ground; or, upon sighting an -Indian, to fire three times. - -Then he let go with his Springfield in the supposed direction of the -enemy, and headed for the trail, which he readily found, and soon caught -up with the mess-wagon which always formed the rear guard with one -whacker, the night herder inside, and the extra herd horses tied behind. -Featherbed met Watson galloping toward the rear. - -"What is it, boy?" he shouted. - -"They got a piece of my Texas pommel," he replied, "but I don't know -where the arrow came from. I'll go back and see." - -He wheeled his pony to go and would have been off to take up his station -a thousand yards from the trail had not Watson said, laughingly: - -"You're crazy--wait a minute till I send word up ahead to corral." - -"You (to the mess wagon driver) untie them hosses, saddle 'em up and -wait for Blucher Brown and Archer; they'll be back in a minute." - -Featherbed, as the sun peeped over a rise in the land, waited -impatiently. So did the pony, for the miserable Indian-bred cuss had a -good nose that was keen to the smoky smell of an Indian, or to the odor -of another horse, especially of his own breed, and he was all animation -and ready to go. - -When the party finally got away Watson, turning to Featherbed as they -galloped side by side along the high spots near the back trail, said: - -"If yer not afraid, pull out ahead with that pony and lead the way." - -Featherbed pressed the Rowell spur to the pony's side and he responded -like a real cow-pony, much to Featherbed's surprise, and before Watson -could gather his breath to call the youngster back he led them by 200 -yards. Finally he did manage to yell between his laughter: - -"Hold on, you danged idiot--I didn't mean--" - -But he didn't finish the sentence, although he continued yelling, this -time expressing himself to the effect: - -"My hoss has been creased in the neck--dismount, give me your hoss and -lead mine back to the outfit; we'll take care of these galoots." - -Featherbed protested, but it was no use, and he returned and joined the -whackers who had corralled and gathered the bulls inside the wagons, -forming two half circles on a high spot near the trail. There were -several other horses in the outfit, so Featherbed quickly slipped the -boss' fine $200 rig on the back of a buckskin of the cow-puncher variety -and sped back to the scene of action. - -But it was all over. The sneaking Indians had disappeared, and the only -evidence of their presence was a spot of crumpled grass behind a knoll -where several of them had lain in complete safety while they tried to -send Featherbed to the Happy Hunting Ground. - -The sun was too high for the Indians, so they disappeared, skulking at -safe distance to wait for darkness and perhaps other prey. - -Featherbed, after another shift of mounts and saddles and bridles, again -took his post 1,000 yards from the trail, smoked his pipe, munched his -sandwiches and drank the spring water. - -At ten o'clock camp was struck for the mid-day stop close to a creek of -sweet cold water that ran through some small hills covered with stunted -pines, a few miles from a range of black mountains out of the bad lands -and sand. - -Featherbed was here promoted to the position of assistant wagon boss, -presented with a big sorrel horse called "America" (because he was not -Indian-bred) and given the lead team to drive in the outfit. This meant -that, in co-operation with the "big boss," he would help select the -camps, govern the speed of the "train," look after the manifests, act -as check clerk in loading and unloading, and besides wear a red sash to -designate his official position. - -Featherbed took his honors modestly, in fact he was surprised and -couldn't understand it until someone told him the "old man" was pleased -when he (Featherbed) took the wounded horse back to the train, saddled -up another and returned to help find where the arrows came from. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -RATTLESNAKES AND REDSKINS. - - -The night-herder's song awoke me at four a. m.--the first streak of -day--and I didn't have time to pull on my boots before the bulls were -inside the corral; so, in bare feet, I yoked my fourteen head and then -proceeded to pull on the cowhides, roll up my blankets and throw them on -my trail wagon. Due to the haste--for nearly everyone else in the outfit -was ready to "pull out" in response to the assistant wagon boss' -order--I proceeded to pull on the left boot without the usual -precautions. My fingers were in the straps as I sat on the ground,[1] -and in another minute my toes would have been in the boot. But the -rattler that had spent the night in it stuck out his head. I shook him -out, first calling my pard to come with his whip. - -[Footnote 1: This was in the center of a prairie dog town covering -perhaps twenty acres; and the "town" was inhabited not only by these -marmots but rabbits, owls and rattlesnakes, apparently living in perfect -peace and harmony in the same burrows.] - - * * * * * - -After the rattler was dead I plucked off eleven beautifully graduated -white rattles and a black button, later on adding them to a hatband of -several hundred which I had sewn together, using silk thread and a -cambric needle. The other boot was tenantless. - -The blankets, in a neat roll secured by a heavy leather strap, were -thrown on top of the freight in the trailer, and away we went for a dry -camp in the bad lands, where we spent six hours of the middle of the day -hiding under our wagons to escape the hot rays of the sun. - -A late afternoon start ended at nine p. m., in a moonlit camp on a creek -that ran swiftly through chalk-like bluffs--perhaps the headwaters of -the Niobrara river. In those days none but a geographer or a government -surveyor knew the names of many of the waterways, if they had names. It -had been a hard drive through deep sand most of the way, and after the -bulls had been relieved of their yokes and the chains that held the -teams together, all hands raced for the water, both for internal and -external purposes. - -Our night camp was on a flat between the bluffs and a few yards from the -stream in a most inviting spot, the edge of the crooked channel being -lined with stunted and gnarled box-elder, while farther back were a few -dozen dead and gaunt cottonwoods. Some small bushes grew in clumps here -and there, but our camp commanded a good view, even in the night, of the -country for a mile in at least two directions--north and south. - -Though tired, it was too nice a night even in this wilderness to go to -bed; for a youngster who had acquired two revolvers, a Winchester -rifle, a butcher knife and other weapons believed the crumpled grass he -had seen at the edge of the creek indicated the presence not far away of -others of the human family, and he intended to find out about it. He had -confided this suspicion to one other youth of the outfit, and as the -supper camp-fire died down to a bed of coals and a cool wind began to -fan the hot earth these boys stole out of camp, waded the creek, and -carefully examined the earth up and down its margin until they came upon -a distinct moccasin, pony and lodge pole trail. They followed it along -the bottoms for two miles to a jutting bluff where around the corner -they saw six tepees, near which were picketed several ponies. - -All was silent as the boys, concealed in a safe spot, viewed the scene. -Then there was a sound, low at first, like the crooning of a mother to a -babe, which grew louder and louder, until finally there emerged from one -of the tepees a big buck who stood silently for a full minute, -listening. He wore nothing but a breech-clout, and over his shoulder -hung a buckskin strap upon which was attached the arrows for the big bow -held in his hand. He did wear a bonnet and it consisted principally of -feathers that looked exactly like some of the creations worn by women of -the present day. - -When he had located the sound he moved toward the hiding boys but -stopped at the nearest tepee. The crooning grew to a lamentation. Then -other tepees showed signs of life, and in a few moments bucks, squaws -and papooses were running hither and thither in a bewildering way. But -the boys remained silent, for there was no sign of a movement of camp -and not an indication that there was an outside alarm. Then what could -it be? What was all this fuss about? The lamentations became louder and -louder and the excitement apparently greater. - -Finally a number of squaws who had gone to the creek bottom appeared in -the center of the little camp. They carried bundles of green willows, -dozens of large hard-head boulders and rawhide receptacles filled with -water; also a bundle of dry faggots. - -After the stones had been piled in a neat heap a fire was built upon -them which was allowed to burn briskly for half an hour. Then the coals -and ashes were brushed off and a tent-like covering put over a quickly -woven basket-like structure that had been built over the stones. Then -the water was dashed upon the stones and the steam began to ascend. - -Presently out from a tepee came a squaw with a bundle which she gently -shoved under the elkskin covered cauldron of steam. - -"Say," said one of the boys, "are you on?" - -"Sure enough," the other whispered, "they are giving that kid a Turkish -bath." - -And that's what they were doing; but it wasn't Turkish-just Injun. - -Returning to camp the boys proceeded to slip into their blankets -quietly, say nothing about what they had seen, and go to sleep. They -believed the straggling band of Arapahoes were not on the war-path and -had work for the "medicine-man"--the big buck they first saw come out of -his tepee. - -You have no idea how cautiously the boys went about getting the blankets -off the wagon so as not to disturb the boss, a man they feared. So they -moved noiselessly. - -One threw his roll of blankets from the top of the trailer and the other -caught the bundle and proceeded to flatten it out into a comfortable bed -when he heard a familiar noise, and forgetting that they were to be -silent, the youth on the ground yelled: - -"Look out--a rattler!" - -It woke up the whole camp. The snake had occupied the blankets from four -a. m., at least, until this time--midnight. Perhaps he had slept with -the boy until four a. m.; I think he did; anyway, he had rolled him up -and put him where found. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -BELATED GRACE FOR A CHRISTMAS DINNER. - - -After fighting through a ten-hour blizzard that swept across the plains -from the Elk Mountain country our wagon-train reached the foothills of -the Medicine Bow range, where there was shelter for the work cattle -along a swift running stream. The snow was piled in great drifts -everywhere except upon exposed high spots, and it seemed impossible for -us to proceed farther, for we knew that along the government trail just -beyond, and 1,000 feet higher, that the drifts would be so deep that a -long camp where we had stopped would be necessary. - -Ten men were tolled off by the wagon-boss to chop down young quaking -aspen trees, the bark and small twigs of which furnished appetizing -fodder for the bulls. Another gang climbed a sidehill and with axes -felled a group of stunted pines for the side walls of a cabin; still -others were sent into a "burnt and down" piece of timber to gather well -seasoned dead pitch pine for firewood. - -The storm lasted until six o'clock in the evening, then continued as an -old-fashioned heavy snowfall with no wind, increasing the level of the -snow to the tops of the wheels of our corraled wagons. Apparently they -were doomed to stay where they were until spring. - -Next morning there was a let-up. Then the blizzard began again in all -its fury--only such a blizzard as one can see in but one other place on -earth, judging from Dana's description of his experience in going around -the Horn. The cattle, with almost human intelligence, 200 head of them, -crowded toward the big bonfires of pitch, and with long faces looked -mournfully upon the scene. They seemed to know, as we did, that the -prospects were not bright for our cavalcade. Certainly there was no -grass in sight now, not even on the round-topped knolls bordering our -little valley, for the night fall of snow was heavy and damp, and -finally, when the thermometer registered a few degrees below zero, the -grass was sealed against the tough noses and even the hoofs of the -hungry bulls. An attempt was made by a scouting party to find a clear -feeding place on the back trail, but a day's investigation resulted in -failure. Not a blade of grass could be found--all sealed with a heavy -crust that would, in most places, carry a horse and rider. - -The storm continued, after an eight-hour let-up, the temperature rising. -Two feet more fell on top of the crust, then came another freeze and a -new crust. After twenty-four hours another blizzard from the north, -consisting of sleet and snow and some rain, was like a sandstorm in -summer on the plains below. It was fierce, nearly freezing and blinding -both men and cattle. The poor bulls were more forlorn than ever. They -gnawed the very wood of the aspens, and there wasn't enough of that. - -On the last crust of all this snow and sleet it was finally found -possible to take the oxen farther along into the mountains, where four -men drove them. Others went ahead with axes and for two weeks cut aspens -and sought out hidden protected places in the valleys where there were a -few blades of grass and some succulent underbrush. - -One day, when the sun was shining brightly on the white mantle and the -distant peaks of the majestic mountains of blue stood out like a -painting, Nate Williams, wagon-boss, spoke: - -"Do you know," he said to the fellows who were carving the carcass of a -faithful old bullock, "that tomorrow is Christmas?" None had thought of -it. - -"And," he continued, "do you know we are liable to stay where we are -until the Fourth of July, if we don't get a move on?" - -There were no suggestions. - -"Furthermore," added Williams, "we haven't much else to eat but -beef--there are just five 100-pound sacks of flour in the mess wagon--no -bacon nor canned goods. Its a case of shoveling a road to Crane's Neck." - -Crane's Neck was a mountain twist in the road, a mile from camp. If the -road could be cleared to that point there would be fair hauling for five -miles in the range to another stretch that had been filled in places -with from ten to twenty feet of snow, while one spot was covered by a -slide from a mountain to a depth of forty feet and for a considerable -distance along the trail. - -For three hours plans were discussed, and it was finally determined to -go to work with shovels and picks, but not until after Christmas. Our -caravan included a blacksmith's forge, also a regular wrecking outfit, -and in a short time big wooden shovels were made from blocks of pine -with handles stoutly attached with iron bands. - -The cook was a youth of twenty and had all the enthusiasm of the -adventurer. He had spent a year on a whaler and knew what it meant to -drift in the ice north of Point Barrow. This present situation, he said, -was a picnic; so was the one in the Arctic. It couldn't be so bad that -he wished to be snuggled away in a feather bed somewhere east of the -Missouri River. That would be too ordinary. - -"If I could sit down to a table at the best hotel in the land," he said, -"I'd prefer to eat the dinner that I'm going to cook for you fellows -tomorrow." - -Williams sneered. "Yes," he said, "we put old Tex (a long-horn bull) out -of his starving misery and the boys have found his liver to be O. K. -Maybe you can give us a liver pie." - -"I'll do better than that," said the boy; "I'll not only give you a beef -stew, but a pudding that you can't buy outside of London or -Liverpool--a plum duff--and a cake. Old Tex will also be on the menu in -several places, for his tenderloin looks good, and there are a few -steaks which, when properly treated with a maul on the top of a stump, -will be as good as you will get in a 'Frisco water front lodging, and -better than any of you fellows have had since we hit the drifts." - -I have eaten meals that mother used to cook, I've been famished during a -sea voyage, and devoured a Norwegian sailor's pea soup; I've -participated in several real banquets in New York; I've dined at -Delmonico's and at Sherry's, at Young's in Boston, and I've feasted in a -circus cook tent; but my Christmas dinner in the foothills of Wyoming in -1874, under the circumstances I have but faintly described, still is a -fond memory and holds the record as the best meal I ever ate. It was as -follows: - - MENU - Marrowbone Soup--"Tex" Water Cress - Beef Stew--"Tex" - Hamburg Steak--"Tex" - Planked Porterhouse Steak--"Tex" - Tenderloin Steak-"Tex" Roast Beef--"Tex" - Corn Bread Wheat Bread - English Plum Pudding--Hard and Soft Sauce - Raisins Cake Coffee Tea - (No butter or milk) (Lots of salt and pepper) - -The corn bread was made from meal milled by the cook from shelled corn -in the cargo. The "plums" were raisins, of which the cook had a few -pounds. He used wheat flour, baking powder and grease saved from the -final ration of the bacon which gave out a week before Christmas. The -hard sauce was made with sugar and grease and a flavoring extract. The -soft or liquid sauce contained a "remedy" requisitioned from a -homeopathic quantity found in the wagon-boss' medicine chest--a few -spoonfuls of brandy. The watercress was found two miles away at a -spring. The boys called it "pepper grass." There it was fresh and green, -protected by spring water which never freezes, and in some places it was -peeping out from the edge of the snow at the brookside. - -And now about whisky. There were sixty men in this camp, and in one of -the big wagons were three barrels of whisky, but it belonged to the post -trader at Fort Fetterman, and it was a tradition not even broken on this -exceptional passage from Medicine Bow on the U. P. to Fort Fetterman on -the North Platte that a consignment of hard liquor was as safe in a bull -train as it would be anywhere on earth, and that it would reach its -destination untouched. Few men drank intoxicants on these trips. It was -a crime to be found with whisky, punishable by banishment from camp, and -that might have meant death. But at both ends of the journey--that's -another story. - -The plainsman and mountaineer, the bullwhacker and the stage-driver, -when chilled, drank water. Whisky caused him to perspire, and that was -bad. He did not often use it when on duty. - -One of the peculiar things about this Christmas dinner is the fact that -there were no mountain grouse, no sage hen, no antelope, deer, nor elk -for the menu. The truth is the storm drove everything of the kind in -another direction--the direction in which we were slowly moving--and -some time later, when we emerged upon the other side of the range with -our ox-power so greatly reduced that we made less than a mile of -progress a day, the herds of elk stampeded a dozen times past our camps, -and the "fool grouse" sat a dozen in a group upon the pine boughs in the -mountains and refused to move, allowing us to kill them, if so disposed, -one at a time; but we did it only once, just to prove that it could be -done. (Colonel Roosevelt, please note!) - -It took us a couple of weeks to shovel our way out, and while the sun -shone in the middle of the day hardly a flake of the snow melted. The -air was at times biting cold, but invigorating, and every man, including -the boss and the cook and even the night herder, fell to the work with a -will that finally meant victory. In places we operated in the drifts as -you see the excavators in a city cellar or subway operate, digging down -to the surface and then benching as the open-ground miners or cellar -excavators do, the men below tossing the blocks of snow up to the bench -above and they in turn passing it to the top of the drift. - -Once or twice, in narrow passages, it was necessary to build several -benches. In one place we began to tunnel, but the plan was given up, for -our wagons, the regulation prairie schooners, would require a passage -big enough for a railroad furniture car to pass through. - -After the high plateau was reached--the land that represented the -watershed of the Platte Valley--it was clear sailing, and while -food--wild game--was plentiful, and we ate lots of it, the memory of our -Christmas dinner remained to remind us after all that in the midst of -greatest hardships and suffering we often find something to be thankful -for, something to bring us to our senses when we grumble or complain of -our ill-luck or misfortunes. - -Had I been as appreciative when I partook of this mountain dinner as I -am today for the blessings of Divine Providence, I would have been able -to say, in relating this story, that we properly gave thanks to Him who -is responsible for all our blessings and who chasteneth us for our -wickedness; but I was not properly appreciative, neither were my rough -but honest companions. Therefore, I take this opportunity to say grace -more than forty years late: - -_Thank God for that snowbound Christmas dinner._ - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -THE FATE OF ONE-EYED ED. - - -From the cross-tree of a telegraph pole hung the body of a man when the -9:30 Union Pacific Overland Express stopped for a "slow" order across a -bridge that a band of Comanche Indians had tried to burn. - -A Massachusetts woman enroute to 'Frisco stuck her head out of a car -window and exclaimed, "How awfully terrible!" - -Yes, it was. - -Ed Preston was a one-eyed man. I don't know how he lost the other one, -but I do know that he was a dead shot with the one eye that he slanted -along the barrel of his pistol or buffalo rifle, the latter a sawed-off -Springfield and the first mentioned an old-time army Remington. - -Preston's marksmanship cost him his life. They hung Preston, the boys -did, because he killed a man just for the meanness of it, or, as one of -them said, because he was spoiling for trouble. - -One day as we were camped on the north bank of the North Platte near the -eastern line of Wyoming, Preston, full of liquor, lurched up to a bunch -of bullwhackers and asked if anyone present thought he was a "dead -shot." Of course, all hands admitted that his reputation was -unquestioned. - -"But you never saw me shoot," he said, "so what the ---- do you know -about it?" Then he pulled his gun and backed off, saying, as he pointed -to a heap of discarded tomato cans: - -"Hey, you Charley, heave one o' them cans in the air--hurry up." - -Observing his apparent quarrelsome attitude, Charley Snow, a youthful -member of the outfit, obeyed without protest. Snow had been assigned by -Martin, the wagon-boss, to help the cook and the cook had made him -responsible for the proper boiling of a pot of beans. Snow left the -beans and threw a can as far away from himself as he could, and before -it hit the ground it was perforated by a bullet. - -"Now throw one straight up in the air," commanded Preston, and Snow -obeyed. Preston put two shots into that "on the wing." Snow attempted to -resume his duties at the mess fire, but Preston's shooting had drawn a -dozen or more of the men of the outfit to the scene, and he was in the -humor to show off; therefore as Snow was the youngest and possibly the -most inoffensive man in the party, Preston decided to eliminate the bean -question by ordering Snow, with a flourish of his gun, to remove the -beans from the fire. This done, he continued: - -"Now you throw the cans and be lively about it." - -Snow did as ordered. One, two, three, ten cans went into the air. -Preston missed none. Finally the boy threw, at Preston's command, two at -a time and both were plugged before they came down. Then as Snow picked -up another one Preston shot it out of his hand, and he tried to quit and -return to the bean kettle, whereupon Preston bored a hole through Snow's -sombrero without cutting off a hair or bruising his scalp, although it -was plain to see that while Snow was no fresh tenderfoot from the effete -East, but a seasoned young bullwhacker and plainsman, he was more than -uneasy. The boy said afterward that while he had a whole lot of -confidence in Preston's marksmanship he knew he had drunk at least a -pint of whisky--the worst of the squirrel variety at that--for had he -not taken the last swig out of a flask, thrown it almost at Snow and -sent its splinters in every direction by a shot from his Remington? -Sober, said Snow, Preston would not have been so bad, but drunk--he -objected to further participation in the William Tell business and he -entered his protest. When he discovered that the chambers of Preston's -revolver were temporarily empty, Snow quietly took a rifle from its -leather fastenings on the side of a prairie schooner. His move looked -ominous to his tormentor. - -Preston was a coward, as were all of that class of killers in those -days. He was an engineer of a bull team of seven yokes and a good man at -his business, but a bully, a braggart and a coward, whose victims -usually were known to be peaceful and who were unarmed or unprepared to -defend themselves. He was not the heroic figure of the almost forgotten -wild west--the brave and big-hearted fellow who fought sometimes for his -rights or what he considered his rights. Preston was just a plain -murderer, who had taken a place among rough but honest frontiersmen, -chased from an orderly community somewhere in God's country--then east -of the Missouri, now anywhere from the Atlantic to the Pacific--because -of some dark crime he had committed, no doubt. - -All day long we had been fording the North Platte at this point--Sidney -crossing--a distance of at least a half a mile, including a small island -of sand and a few bushes. It was the last trainload of provisions for -the season we were taking north to the government's beneficiaries--the -Ogalala Sioux and the Cheyennes. We had seventy teams, each of seven -yokes, and two wagons, and as the Platte is a swift-running stream at -this point and there is quicksand between the south shore and the -island, it was necessary to "jack up" on blocks some of our loads on the -wagons and double and treble teams, sometimes using as many as -twenty-five yokes of oxen on one wagon and a half dozen men, belly deep -in the mush ice, punching the bulls. The water was in places up to the -tops of the wheels. It was a sun-up to sun-down job from corral to -corral. - -Someone had whisky, but it was not apparent until late in the afternoon, -when the target shooting incidents began. The boys were a sober lot--the -good, honest kind, and not a desperado among them, barring One-Eyed Ed. -Others there were, sure enough, who might be considered hardly fit for -even the most humble society, for they looked like pirates--all of -them--hair long, clothes weather-beaten and rough, faces unshaven and -grizzled, and language or topics of conversation not what would be -called cultured by any means. Yet there was in this outfit a -predominance of good, honest hearts, most of them measuring life from a -standard never understood if ever known in "God's Country." These -sailors of prairie schooners, these pioneer transportation men of the -virile, virgin West, knew little law or order or justice, as we know -them; they frequently violated what is known as the law, but they didn't -know it. They had but one degree of murder. It wasn't murder for them to -fight and kill with pistols. It was the custom. Murder was something -else. It was to kill a man who was not "heeled" or when his back was -turned, or to mount another man's horse and ride away. This was murder -in the first degree--the same as if the owner of the horse had been shot -to death while asleep. In those days some things were as necessary, as -indispensable as life--a horse, a saddle, a pair of blankets, a gun and -ammunition and a butcher knife--perhaps a small bag of salt. The last, -however, would be termed a luxury, although nearly every man in those -days had a little salt stored away in a weather-proof pocket or saddle -bag for the sage hen, antelope, deer, or buffalo beef he might have for -dinner or breakfast. - -But let me tell you how Preston spent the rest of his day. It was early -in the afternoon when he perforated Snow's sombrero, but it was sun-down -when he shot and killed Tom Sash, the boss herder, a splendid Texan, who -had charge of an Indian contract beef herd which had come up the trail -from the Lone Star state to the Platte Valley guided by a half dozen -range men in charge of Sash, and were being grazed along the Platte -bottoms previous to being doled out as per agreement with Uncle Sam to -the clouted redskins at the White River Agency at Red Cloud. - -All during the previous summer, as the wagon trains passed to and from -Sidney and the northern forts and agencies, Sash had told the wagon -bosses not to go hungry for lack of veal. "We are anxious to fatten -these cattle," he would say, "and you are welcome to a calf or two any -time you want it." Sash was all right and the bullwhackers couldn't sing -his praises loud enough. - -It was at the close of Snow's engagement with Preston that the wagon -boss told Preston to try his hand on some Indian veal. So Preston -disappeared down the river, returning at suppertime with the admission -that he had not only veal but "yearling steak." And he had some of it -with him. - -The beans had been boiled and eaten, the tin dishes and cups, pots and -kettles and iron ovens dumped into the mess wagon, and two crews of men -were at work jacking up wagons and greasing axle skeins, when the space -at the north mouth of the corral was suddenly filled by as fine a -horseman as ever galloped over the plains. It was Sash, dressed in the -costume of the real cowboy of the long-horn cattle day--sombrero, chaps, -Rowell spurs, a Mexican lariat properly adjusted over the horn of his -elaborate double-cinched cutting-out saddle--everything was perfection. -He was astride a fine big black American horse--not a regulation cow -pony--a shiny, deep bay charger with a white left ankle half way to the -knee from the fetlock, and a spot of white the size of a hand on the -face. - -He came on a gallop and stopped so short at the corral mouth that, had -he not known his business, he would have been thrown over the chains. -But that was the style of riding. Plunge ahead to the object or point -desired--then stop short. He waved his hat to Martin, our wagon boss, to -come to the corral chains. - -"Someone from your outfit," shouted Sash, "has been out in one of our -herds and shot a half dozen yearlings and two three-year-old steers. -Aren't you satisfied with veal? Say, old man, who did this mean trick?" - -The acts of a coward are preceded by a queer train of thought, the -kingpin of which is fear. Preston knew his disreputable work of -butchering among the herd of cattle had been discovered. He knew that -Sash, a Texan, was a man of action, and that Sash was fortified with the -right on his side, and if justice were meted out it would be some kind -of punishment. The revolver in his holster was close to his hand and -fear--cowardly fear--overpowered his weak mind. - -Martin had no time to reply, and the first indication that the coward -was to act upon the impulse that would move him was the cry from a -bullwhacker: - -"Don't shoot--don't." - -Sash, who was looking straight over his horse's head, turned at hearing -this just in time to receive a bullet in the hollow spot under his left -ear. It passed clean through his head. Both arms flew into the air, his -horse sprang forward, and Sash laid upon the ground flat on his back, -with arms spread out from his body--dead. His face was ashen white, eyes -and mouth closed, both fists clinched. - -It was young Snow who tied the black charger to a wagon wheel, replacing -the bridle with a halter. The horse whinnied, pawed the dirt, and for a -time spun around as far as the halter strap would allow, and looked at -his prostrate master with what seemed to be almost human intelligence; -in fact, his body was soon in a white lather, necessitating a rub-down -and then a blanket. He trembled like a leaf and snorted and pawed the -earth for an hour. - -Sash's camp was on the south bank of the Platte. There Preston was -delivered by Wagon Boss Martin and a delegation of the bull outfit -fellows after he had tried to escape. - -That night, together with a negro boy, Snow stood guard over Sash's body -to protect it from the coyotes, for they were numerous, close at hand -and howled mournfully until break of day. - -None touched the body, as it had been determined to follow what was -believed to be the law, for this time the outfit was only fifty miles -from where at least a pretense of regularity was observed. - -A rider was dispatched to Sidney, then a scattered lot of board shanties -on the south side of the Union Pacific Railroad track. - -The second night there came to the bullwhacker camp two men in a light -road wagon. They took the body away. - -At the same time a dozen bullwhackers and nearly all the men from the -cow camp rode away to the south. Preston, silent as the Sphynx, sat -astride a horse, his hands tied behind him. They told him he was going -to Sidnev to have a trial. He smiled, but said nothing. It was just an -effort to appear brave. His life had been one of crime. He was a pest -of the plains, of the trails, of the camps--and he was on the way to the -end of a rope. He knew it, and did not plead for mercy or ask for -quarter; he did not in the long ride across the sand hills utter a word -of regret for what he had done. He was heartless, cruel, brutal, even in -the valley of the shadow. And he was silent even as death itself. He -showed no fear as we would describe fear. - -Entering Sidney the posse and the prisoner took the center one of three -coulees that ran down into the town, all three meeting at the level. It -was here that One-Eyed Ed met the court that was to try him, together -with the populace. The court consisted of fifty horsemen, half of whom -rode down the east coulee, the other half down the other, meeting the -prisoner and his escort as abruptly as one meets a person sometimes in -whirling around the corner of a city block. - -One long yi, yi, yi, yi, ye! was the "hear ye" of the plainsman court -crier--the signal understood by all the horsemen, and especially those -comprising the posse just emerging from the center coulee. As if by -magic the escort faded away and the prisoner, bareheaded, long hair -waving in the wind, his hands securely tied, sat upright--alone. - -Then from the east and west coulees dashed horsemen led by Jim Redding -swinging his lariat over and over and over his head until he was in the -right spot to spin it out. Preston's horse stood like a piece of -statuary, and to give the man on his back his proper meed of credit let -it be recorded that he had the appearance of a man bravely facing death, -for he sat erect and made no effort to dismount, which he might have -done, for he had not been fastened to the saddle, as that would have -made impossible the program mapped out to the minutest detail. - -When Redding spun his lariat for Preston's head--after he had ridden -past him two or three times while the horsemen lined up like a company -of cavalry and looked on--it landed around his shoulders. Redding -planted a spur into his cow pony, there was a jump and Preston's body -shot up and away from his mount and to the ground. - -[Illustration: Copyright by American Colortype Co., Chicago - -Track-Layers Fought Redskins--Chapter VIII.] - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -TRACK-LAYERS FOUGHT REDSKINS. - - -When the Union Pacific Railroad was being built the Indians were wild -and hostile. The appearance of the locomotive was unwelcome. Surveyors, -track-layers, bridge-builders and others if not properly guarded by -details of United States troops were attacked from ambush and often -killed. - -It was indeed an adventurous calling to be a railroader in those days, -no matter in what capacity; for if it wasn't Indians it was something -else that made it so in the then wilderness. Towns were built in a day -along the South Platte River and the populations were first made up -largely by the scum of the earth, consisting of criminals of all kinds -from all quarters of the globe, either engaged in gambling, highway -robbery or running saloons that were the toughest ever known in America. - -Dance halls and dives followed the work of railroad building from Omaha -to Ogden, and if the earth could speak it would tell a story of murder -that would make one shudder. Hundreds of men were shot either in brawls -or by robbers and their bodies buried in unmarked graves. - -At Julesburg alone, the story was told, after the temporary terminus -was moved on west 100 miles, there were 417 graves in one sidehill, and -among the lot not one grave in the so-called cemetery was filled by a -man who died a natural death. This may be an exaggeration--perhaps it -is--but it was not an uncommon thing for a man to be shot and killed in -a brawl while a dance was in progress without for a moment stopping the -festivities. - -But the "noble" Indian, so often represented in heroic portraits--and -always called a "brave" by writers who never saw an Indian of that -period--was not there, at least not numerously. He was a sneaking -sniper, hiding behind a sand hill or concealed in a clump of bushes in a -creek or river bottom, with a good chance to get away if attacked. He -seldom came out into the open to fight even a lone surveying party, but -waited for the cover of night, hid behind a rock and took a pot shot and -then rode his horse at top speed to a safe distance. He was a miserable -coward, and dirty. Perhaps the next day he would come meekly into some -camp where there were several hundred men, begging for sugar or bacon. -Artists have painted him in all his glory in sight of his enemy -discharging his arrows or his gun. Don't believe it. He didn't do it -more than a half dozen times, and when he outnumbered the white from 50 -or 100 to 1. It is too bad, I know, to destroy such beautiful fiction; -but it is necessary in order to keep these chronicles straight. - -However, it is the truth that a crew engaged in track-laying in the -vicinity of North Platte was one day almost overwhelmed by a band of -Comanches that came up from the south following a herd of buffalo across -the Republican River. There were less than fifty men in the gang, -including a locomotive engineer, fireman, conductor, foreman and -track-layers, among the rest two Chinese cooks. The Indians had come -upon the crew unexpectedly, for the buffalo herd, in passing near at -hand, kicked up such a cloud of dust that the crew was unseen until it -was too late for the Comanches to retreat without a fight. - -The buffaloes rushed on past the right-of-way of the road, and when the -Indians followed the first they knew of the locomotive was when the -engineer sounded his whistle to bring the scattered crew to the shelter -afforded by a train of flat cars and the engine. The country all about -was flat. The Indians scattered in a circle and at a distance of perhaps -500 yards began to shoot. The crew was well supplied with guns and -ammunition and the battle lasted for half an hour, resulting in the -death of one Indian and the wounding of not one white man. Still it had -all the elements of a movie show, and would have made a fine reel. In -another hour track-laying proceeded as usual. - -Outside of a few clashes of this kind the U. P. went its glorious way -without open battle with so-called redskins. Indians look good in -pictures, and they are picturesque--in pictures and paintings; but when -you were near them in those days you found them nearly always -good-for-nothing, insect-infested, diseased, hungry and cowardly, with -less nerve than a regular tramp. - -When the U. P. was building it should be remembered the Indians had been -seeing the pioneer going across the plains with wagons for many years. -The pony express rider, the bullwhacker and the California and Utah -emigrant had been his almost daily companion; therefore he had learned -to be circumspect. Those hardy people had shot straight and to kill, and -by the time track-laying began the Indian was about as cautious as a -mountain sheep. He knew the range of the white man's gun, the fleetness -of his big American horse, and he governed himself accordingly, devoting -all his time, when doing anything at all, to impede the progress of -railroad building, to pure and unadulterated murder from ambush. - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -"BILL" HICKOK, CITY MARSHAL. - - -"Wild Bill" Hickok, who had been city marshal at Abilene, Kan., blew -into Cheyenne in 1874 along with Texas Charley and a few more "bad men." -Things were booming in the Wyoming metropolis. Gold had been discovered -in the Black Hills, and the crowds of fortune-seekers from every point -of the compass had begun to flock in. Men were there from South Africa, -Brazil, California and Australia, intermingling with the New Englander, -the Middle Westerners, the cowboys and bullwhackers and others attracted -by the reports of fabulous discoveries. Cheyenne was the chief -outfitting point for a trip into the hills, although thousands tramped -through the sands of the Bad Lands to the new Eldorado via Fort Pierre. - -It meant big work for the small police force of Cheyenne, for there -were, besides the "killers" of the "Wild Bill" order, garroters and -other crooks from near and far to look after. Gambling didn't bother the -authorities at all, and such characters as "Canada Bill," the most -famous of all the confidence men, were, as a matter of fact, able to -ply their trade almost unmolested. - -"Canada Bill" had the appearance of a Methodist preacher of that period, -wearing a black broadcloth, long-tailed coat, trousers of the same -material, a black felt hat, "biled" shirt and black bow tie. He carried -an old-fashioned satchel made of oil cloth, a pattern of which is seen -nowadays only on the vaudeville stage. "Bill" was certainly an -innocent-looking individual--solemn-faced and perfectly -harmless--apparently. He spent most of his time on the U. P. passenger -trains between Omaha and Cheyenne and is said to have swindled travelers -out of an aggregate of $100,000 at three-card monte, a form of swindling -in great vogue at that time. Cheyenne was his headquarters and he was -almost as well known as any man in the town; but he followed his -profession practically undisturbed for several years, and I doubt if he -ever spent a day in jail. Has victims included some men who prided -themselves on their shrewdness. - -"Wild Bill" Hickok was perhaps the best known "character" in Cheyenne in -the 70's. He, too, was a ministerial-looking person, but was not a -confidence operator. He was just a plain gambler, and not a very good -one, but he managed to escape the halter every time he put a notch in -his gun. "Bill" killed no one in Cheyenne; in fact, his days there were -quiet and prosy. His killings were all done in Kansas at the time the K. -P. was being built from the Missouri to Denver. When in Cheyenne he was -on his last legs--had begun, as they say nowadays, to slow up. -Nevertheless, he was feared by a great many, owing to his reputation, -although among certain classes it was generally understood that he had -lost his nerve. This was demonstrated while the Black Hills excitement -was at its height. "Bill" was more than six feet tall, straight and -thin. He carried two big revolvers in his belt and they protruded -sometimes from the side of his long broadcloth coat. He also carried a -bowie knife. But for all this and his reputation, he weakened one night -when an undersized little California _buccaro_ challenged him to walk -into the street and fight a duel at twenty paces. "Bill" laid down, -saying his eyes had gone back on him and that his shooting days were -over. - -Shortly after this incident the Cheyenne authorities decided to rid the -town of a few of the worst criminals, so they tacked a notice on -telegraph poles containing a list of a dozen or more names of men, -headed by "Wild Bill," giving them twenty-four hours' time to get out of -town. When "Bill" saw the notice he smiled, and with his bowie knife cut -the notice into ribbons, and he stayed until he got ready to leave some -months later. He went to Custer City, then to Deadwood, where he met his -death at the hands of an avenger, who shot him in the back as he sat in -a poker game. His murderer claimed "Bill" had killed his brother in -Kansas and said he had followed him for two years, waiting for a chance -to kill him. "Bill" had a rule of life that he violated the night he -died, and that was never to sit with his back to a door or window. On -the fatal night he sat with his back to a half-open door into which the -avenger crept. - -"Wild Bill" was a "road agent" (a highwayman) long before the Black -Hills stampede and frequently entertained a crowd with descriptions of -the raids he and his pals made upon the Mormon emigrants when they were -enroute from Nauvoo, Ill., to Salt Lake. According to his own stories he -was a heartless brute. Many deeds, however, that have been laid at his -door, and others that he bragged about, were never committed. It has -been estimated that he murdered all the way from fifteen to thirty men, -but most of these were killed while he was marshal. - -One story that used to be told in Cheyenne, but which was not -authenticated, was that on one occasion at Abilene he entered a -restaurant for breakfast and ordered ham and eggs "turned over." The -waiter returned with the eggs fried on one side and "Bill" angrily said: - -"I told you to have them eggs turned over!" - -Whereupon the waiter playfully gave the dish a flip and turned them -over. This so angered "Bill" that he shot the waiter dead, and then -finished his meal, the poor waiter's body lying at his feet. - -There was so much garroting of men who came to Cheyenne to join the -rush into the hills that some of the wiser ones slipped outside the town -at night and slept on the prairie, while others, armed to the teeth, -either walked the streets or formed companies with guards for -protection. It was a condition of affairs that gave the authorities more -than they could handle at the start. However, after the first few months -of excitement Cheyenne began to be good, and soon the civilization and -order of older communities was apparent on every hand. - -The railroad shortened the distance between the frontier and "God's -Country," and before one could realize it Cheyenne was as orderly and -well behaved as Worcester, Mass. So it is today. "Wild Bill," "Texas -Jack," "Canada Bill" and the thieves and gamblers, with their guns and -daggers, are forgotten; and if some of them could come back and tramp -the streets again they would be as great curiosities as they would be on -Broadway, New York, or State Street, Chicago--and they would land in -jail or get out of town unless they walked a chalk-mark. - -Cheyenne has long been in "God's country," although at the time -discussed it was a long way over the line. - - - - -CHAPTER X - -WHEN CHEYENNE WAS YOUNG. - - -Let us suppose this is the year 1872, and that we are taking a trip -across the continent on the first railroad from the Missouri River to -the Golden Gate. We have passed through western Nebraska and its -uninhabited hills and plains and we are entering Cheyenne, on a vast -plain, yet situated at the foot of a range of the Rocky Mountains known -as the lower Black Hills. We are in sight of Long's and other Colorado -peaks of the Rockies and while apparently on a wide prairie for several -hours we have nevertheless been climbing a steep grade all the way from -Sidney, the last division point. - -Cheyenne is (in '72, remember) a city of boards, logs and canvas, but is -beginning to shake off the very first things of a "camp," and is -entering the brick age, with good prospects of acquiring fame as a -substantial city. - -But there are some hundreds of things here that are strange to the eyes -of an Eastern man. For example, in all his life he has never seen a man, -outside a military encampment, with a revolver strapped in a holster to -a belt around his waist. Perhaps he has never seen a faro game in his -life, and chuck-a-luck is as mysterious to him as the lingo of the -broad-hatted men who recommend it to the fortune-seeker instead of a -gold mine or honest toil of any kind. He has never seen, much less heard -of, a hurdy-gurdy where the men and the scarlet women "waltz to the bar" -to the tune of the "Arkansaw Traveler." - -He used to see his Uncle Cyrus plow with a slow-plodding team of oxen -among the cobble stones of a Vermont farm; but this is the first time in -his life that he ever saw seven yokes of oxen hitched together in front -of two big wagons and every team pacing a gait that would bring praise -from the judge's stand at a county fair. - -He starts down the main street and he sees "The Gold Room" in big -letters on a big wooden building. "This is where they keep it," he -muses, and he goes in. It is where they sell it--"forty-rod," "squirrel" -and the rest. But that is not all we see in the "Gold Room," run by Jack -Allen. We also see a woman called Madam Moustache dealing the game of -"twenty-one," at which "Wild Bill" Hickok, Texas Jack and a lot more -celebrities are "sitting in." Then in another corner is a faro game. Men -here are so eager to get their money on the cards that some of them are -standing on the back rungs of chairs and reaching over sitting players -to put stacks of golden twenties on the table, either "calling the turn" -or betting that the nine-spot or some other card will win or lose as -the dealer slips the paste-boards out of his silver box. - -It is night, of course, and after a while, when the gambling begins to -drag, the tables are shoved a little closer to the wall and the big -floor is given up to dancing, even though through it all--dancing and -gambling--a stage performance is going on. Some painted female person of -uncertain age, but positive reputation, is either shouting personalities -at characters in the crowd or bellowing and butchering a popular song in -a male voice. Smoke is thick and not fragrant to the nostrils of the -new-comer--the tenderfoot. The "Gold Room" roof is also occupied--that -is, the inside part of it--with boxes crowded with men and women, the -women being known as "beer jerkers." In the early hours of morning it is -difficult to find a sober man or woman. - -The same thing is going on in "McDaniels' Variety," opposite Tim Dyer's -Tin Restaurant. McDaniels, bald-headed and also smooth of voice, is -circulating around among his top-booted guests like a pastor among his -flock, and you wonder that such a fine-looking, well-spoken man is not -in a pulpit instead of a dive. - -But this is some of Cheyenne in 1872 to 1875. Go to Cheyenne today--and -what do you find? Nothing like this, that's certain. It is doubtful if -you will round up more than a handful of men who remember there ever was -such a place as Allen's "Gold Room" or the McDaniels' Variety, or even -Tim Dyer's Tin Restaurant--tin because the plates and cups were tin -when the big place was first opened. But see Cheyenne today. There isn't -a city 200 years old on the Atlantic coast that has more civilization, a -finer lot of railroad men, more culture and good order to the square -yard. - -Cheyenne had a bad reputation, but it soon reformed when the natural -resources of Wyoming began to be developed, and today, while we who -pioneered it there so many years ago spoke of it as a "desert -metropolis," are witnessing every little while either in agricultural or -horticultural shows its progress in wheatfield and orchard. - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -THE LOST INDIAN AT BEDTICK CREEK. - - -This Indian was lost--something that has rarely happened. No Indian -could use a compass if he had one, and he wouldn't if he could--not the -real Indian of the days of General Custer, Buffalo Bill and a few -others. Indian instinct beats any mechanical contrivance man has -invented for white sailors, hunters, explorers and lumber cruisers. - -But the full-blood of this story was lost and was bleating like a sheep -away from its flock, and just as timid and gentle. A lost Indian, and a -proud, high cheek-boned, breech-clouted, bronzed specimen, too; six feet -tall in his moccasins--hungry, unarmed, footsore, tribeless. - -He came into the camp of the wagon train at Bedtick Creek not far from -the site of the deserted and famous overland stage station run by Jules -Slade, whose life was saved by his wife, who rode 200 miles on a horse -from Julesburg to a gold camp in Montana just in time to stop the -lynching being conducted by the Vigilantes. - -And the day the Lost Indian was found was Christmas, a time when every -man--plainsman and mountaineer, far from civilization and living in the -open, as well as those toasting their shins at comfortable firesides in -snug homes in "God's country"--has a sense of something mysteriously -elevating in his soul. - -Everyone in the frost-bitten bunch of overland freighters knew his -program for the day was to have no change so far as the bill of fare of -bacon, beans and venison was concerned, and everyone thought it was -pretty good; but there was to be no Christmas tree or happy children--no -church services or anything else--everyone was contented, nevertheless, -and surely full of the spirit of the day, though far out of reach of -anything that would give the slightest flavor to a proper celebration, -even informally. - -The breakfast had been disposed of, the tin dishes washed and plans made -for a full day's rest for man and beast, for it was also Sunday, and the -wagon boss, old Ethrop, while loaded down with revolvers and bowie -knifes, was of a religious turn and was known as "The Parson." - -Far away to the south, across a rolling plain, was the blue-white -outlines of Laramie Peak. A long way this side, according to the -eagle-eye of Farley, driver of the lead team, something was winding a -crooked course toward camp. It was a mere dark object reflected against -the snow-covered surface, but when viewed through a field glass was -plainly discernible--it was a man, all agreed; but with the glass in -Farley's hands it was a buck Indian. - -So the boys watched and waited for an hour, and finally the Lost Indian -was within hailing distance and stopped, circled and began to close in. -Farley waved him to come on, and as insurance of friendliness went -through the ceremony of placing a rifle in its sling on the side of a -prairie schooner. Then the Lost Indian came forward at a trot and landed -at the camp-fire. - -Between grunts, motions and words on the part of the Lost Indian, and as -many from several plainsmen, none of which seemed to be clearer than -Hottentot, this was, in simple language, the story told by the Lost -Indian at Bedtick Creek: - -"Five moons ago, while at White River, where the Great Father has begun -to issue rations of beef on the foot to every head of a Sioux tepee. I -gave the Mountain Fox seventeen beaver pelts, a bale of buckskins, -twelve obsidian arrow points, one lame calico pony, a pipestone -peace-pipe, some kinnickinnic and an iron oven, found after the soldiers -left a camp at Clear Creek, and eleven bone buttons for the hand of his -second oldest daughter. This was all of my fortune, except one saddle -pony, a pack pony, one lodge-pole tepee and poles, four buffalo robes, a -coil of telegraph wire [stolen from the Overland], several hair-braided -halters, a lariat and my private store of scalps, none of which I took -myself, but which had been inherited from my father, a sub-chief known -as the Hawk, a brave man whose bones are now dry in an elevated grave -near the fast-running creek known to the whites as Ten, but which in -Sioux is Wickachimminy. This, with my bows and arrows and a Spencer -rifle, for which I had no ammunition, with my moccasins, a breech-clout -and jerked meat to last one moon, was all I had--not much, but -enough--and I was happy with my bride. - -"After the sun had risen and set three times Mountain Fox came to my -tepee and said I must give him still another horse, two blankets (which -I did not have and could not get), and which he said I had promised. - -"In our Sioux nation we never kill--that is, we do not kill Sioux. No -Sioux has yet killed a Sioux, and few Sioux have ever called another of -our tribe a liar. I called him a liar. He made a sign of anger and a -loud noise of distress. My bride, on his command, left the tepee with -him, telling me that under Sioux law, which I knew to be right, that the -contract had not been filled until one moon had elapsed and all members -of both families had smoked in celebration. What did I do? I rode away -in the night toward the tracks where the Iron Horse runs, twenty days -away, going and coming, to get from a white man's corral a horse and -perhaps the blankets. This was while the grass was still green. - -"I found the horse and the blankets and a gun; also food in cans. But I -found in a large bottle what I had heard of, but never tasted before. -After the first sun had set I stopped at Dry Canyon, which is never dry, -but full of roaring water, and there I drank nearly all from the bottle. -What I did then I only remember as a dream, but I saw in my dream my -bride and I wept. My pony and the horse I found in the white man's -corral at the trail of the Iron Horse, with the blankets and the food in -cans, and I--Big Jaw--waded Dry Canyon Creek, which I say was wet, for -nearly a day and left no trail. I drank more of the white man's poison -and then camped without a fire. - -"When the next sun came up I was ill and drank lots of water. Then came -six men from the corral at the trail of the Iron Horse, and they bound -my hands with small chains, tied me to my pony and took me back to the -trail of the Iron Horse, where I was kept in a log house with iron -windows until one night it burned, and I was taken out by the white man -in charge, who, three moons ago, blindfolded me, put me on a horse and -took me to another corral on the trail of the Iron Horse and locked me -in a large tepee made of stone, where they fed me well and gave me -medicine. - -"Then I was, one moon ago, put to work in a forest to chop trees, and I -ran away. - -"Have you seen my bride--she of the hair as black as a starless night -and teeth as white as the wing of a dove? - -"Oh, white man, tell me, have you seen her? I am a lost sheep--the trail -is covered to my eyes, with which I have wept almost constantly all the -moons I have been away. Have you seen her I seek? I am hungry, not in my -stomach, but in my breast and in my head; I must feast or die!" - -Then he wept like a child. - -"Crazy," said Rawhide Robinson. - -"As a loon," added Parker, the night herder. - -"Give him a pull at the Parson's bottle in the medicine chest," -suggested the Kid, as he gave the fire a stir under a pot of bean soup. - -"No," said the Parson, as he rode up on a mule and was told the -story--"no liquor, boys. Feed him up and well let him trail back with us -to Cheyenne and to the asylum. Poor cuss, he loved the squaw and he's -clean daffy, but hasn't a bit of Injun left in him." - -And so the Lost Indian, with a broken heart, brain tortured, went back -to the asylum--a child of the plains who bought his wife, but loved her -for all that. For the Sioux, while selling their daughters, never sold -them unless there was real evidence of true love. - -And while Big Jaw stole to make good his bargain, wasn't his deed an act -of old-time knighthood after all? - -Moreover, his undoing was not so much because of his own delinquency as -it was that of the white man's invention--whisky--that brought about -his downfall. - -A thief, yes; a red-skinned, uncivilized wild man of the plains and the -mountains. But can we classify him with the civilized white man who -commits a crime? - -If the Lost Indian did not recover and win his bride in civilization's -regulation way, perhaps it is just as well; and let us hope he is an -angel in the Happy Hunting Ground. - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -A SHE-BEAR AND HER CUB. - - -Before my feet were thoroughly toughened--that is to say, when I was -still to some extent a tenderfoot--I joined, single-handed, in an -undertaking which had more chances for failure than almost anything that -can be imagined. It wasn't a trip to the moon, neither was it an attempt -to wipe out the then powerful Sioux nation, but it was worse than either -of these. - -On Wagon-hound creek, one summer day, when our outfit was in camp for -several hours, I strolled away from camp alone. It was early summer, -probably July, and everything was green and fresh. Three miles from camp -I came upon signs of life--the limb of a wild plum tree broken and -hanging to the ground. The first impression was that there were prowling -Indians in the neighborhood. The grass had also been trampled. The plums -were only half ripe, and after gathering a few, I dropped over an -embankment into the creek bottom, where I saw a large track in the soft -silt; it was almost the shape of a human hand. There was a smaller one -of the same character. These I followed, clutching a small "pop-gun" of -the Derringer variety. After turning several curves of the creek I -suddenly came upon my quarry--a big she-bear and a cub. The former -snorted and made for me, and, sensibly pocketing my revolver, I lifted -myself out of the creek bottom by grasping a convenient overhanging root -of a tree; but almost simultaneously the she-bear was beside me. - -Then began as pretty a race as you ever witnessed. It is a pity none saw -it. - -Fortunately I had only a few nights before been a silent listener to -several camp-fire yarns of old-timers, one of which contained some -advice about a man who finds himself in the predicament I now was in. -Before me was a bald hill rising perhaps 200 or 300 feet, covered with -sage and other brush. Up I flew. My feet were like wings. But Mrs. Bear, -though heavy, was able to keep within ten feet of my heels until I -reached the top. Then as I almost felt her warm breath I wheeled and ran -down hill. This was tactics I had heard at the camp-fire and it saved -me, too, for Mrs. Bear, being set up heavier behind than in front, and -having long hind legs and short front ones, was obliged to come down -slowly and sidewise at that. - -Her cub had stayed at the bottom of the hill, whining, and as I reached -him I gave him a kick in the jaw and there was some more zig-zagging, -fast running and heart palpitation, although I felt somewhat relieved -when, looking over my shoulder, I saw Mother Bear licking her cub's -face. - -Later on I sneaked into camp and tried to keep my secret; but I looked -and acted queerly, and finally told the story. In ten minutes five of us -were on the way to the site of my encounter, all mounted. - -We soon discovered Mrs. Bear and her cub, and the boss insisted that I -should have the first shot at her with a Winchester. I took good aim and -fired, but saw the dirt fly a rod behind the old lady. It was a bad -miss. Then "Sailor Jack" Walton sent a bullet into her heart and the -rest of us lariated and captured the baby, which we took to Fort Laramie -and gave to an army officer's wife. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - -A KICK FROM A PLAYFUL BULLOCK--AND A JOKE. - - -Near Horse Creek lived a ranchman of the name of McDonald, a pioneer, -and I believe a religious and perfectly sane and honest Scotchman, -although I am not sure of his nativity; however, he had all the good -qualities of that race. One June morning I joined a bull outfit owned by -him and drove a team attached to the naked gears of two wagons into the -virgin parks on Laramie Peak, along the streams and upon the sidehills -of which grew the straightest aspen and small pine trees in all the -territory. No ax had ever desecrated this beautiful forest. The trip was -for the purpose of cutting some of these poles and building, while on -the mountain, two dozen hay racks upon which was to be hauled to an army -post the contract hay cut in the wild meadows. I was still something of -a tenderfoot, for I knew nothing of this kind of work, and I soon -discovered that I was regarded--much to my chagrin--as only a half-hand. -I complained to other drivers when McDonald indicated that he thought me -a burden because I had to learn how to use an adz and because I had -mishandled my team on a winding new trail we broke in the hills. - -One of the bulls, just before leaving the plain below, had playfully -reached me with one of his heavy but unshod hind hoofs and keeled me -over into a bed of prickly pears. For hours a kindly bullwhacker helped -me pluck the sharp and brittle brads from my back. McDonald took a -dislike to me, and naturally I lost any admiration I might have had for -him. And here is where I made a fatal mistake. I shouldn't have noticed -it; instead I took every opportunity offered to annoy him. One day, -while in camp, at the instigation of an older man, I remarked that we -were to have a change for supper. - -"And what will it be?" queried McDonald. - -"Bacon and coffee," I replied. - -"But we had that for breakfast," said he. - -"I know," said I, "but it was coffee and bacon--now it's bacon and -coffee!" - -The fact is there was no game in the hills, at least we got none. I knew -McDonald wouldn't like the joke, but I never believed it would be taken -as a personal affront. He was, as a matter of fact, a bountiful -provider, but expected to find plenty of grouse, venison, etc., on the -trip and had therefore provided only flour, bacon and coffee. - -I met McDonald fifteen years later in the Middle West on a railroad -train. He remembered me and hadn't forgotten the wound I inflicted by my -alleged wit, for he said: - -"Yes, I remember you, and you were a poor stick!" - -I sincerely hope the last twenty-five and more years has softened his -heart--if he lives--as it has softened mine, for I have only kindly -thoughts of him, and even hold no grudge against the bull that reduced -my efficiency by the playful caress he gave me with his hoof. - - * * * * * - -If you have ever tried to hoof it up a wild mountain stream running -through towering cliffs of shale, without a trail, you can well imagine -the task a bull-train outfit would have in working its way through the -same maze of trees, rocks and rushing waters, winding from bluff to -bluff. But these tasks were common undertakings for the men engaged in -the business of freighting. "Corduroy" bridges consisting of gravel and -poles had to be built, trees chopped down, fallen and dead trees -removed, brush cleared away or used at the fording places. - -A pioneer trip of this kind, and a fair example, was one which took our -outfit from Cheyenne to the headwaters of the Cache de la Poudre river -in what was known as the North Park, some years before Centennial Peak, -one of Colorado's principal mountains, was of enough consequence to be -christened by the government. - -Cheyenne was passing from the camp to the substantial town stage and -lumber was needed for building purposes. The North and Middle Park -regions were virgin forests, untouched by the woodman's ax, and the -earth and its precious store of gold hardly scratched by prospectors. -There were no mines, no ranchmen, nothing but nature undisturbed; lakes -of sweet, cold water, groves of white pines and other trees, wild and -untenanted except by blacktail deer, bear, cougar and other animals. The -Greeley colony, however, had been established many miles to the east in -the valley of the Poudre. This was the first great American irrigating -project and a few settlers had begun to till the soil. - -Beyond Fort Collins and Livermore the country was as new as an -unexplored country could be. Trout leaped at play along the narrow but -fast-running streams, and if a sportsman had ever cast his lines in -these places he must have been a red man or some daring white hunter who -preceded the stage of development now under way and who left no record -of his doings. - -It took several weeks to chop and dig a road through this wilderness and -set up in an open space a couple of sawmill outfits we had with us. Then -it required a couple of months of chopping, hauling and sawing of logs, -and loading of the green and heavy lumber upon our Murphy wagons. The -lumber was unloaded in Cheyenne a month later; some of it was quite dry, -but in much smaller quantities than would have been delivered had the -owners been willing to wait for it to dry where cut. - -But Cheyenne was in a hurry, and the boomers couldn't wait, consequently -many of the green joists in the new buildings shrunk and there were -several collapses. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV - -THE INDIAN AND THE TROUSERS. - - -When the first clothing was issued to the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians at -Red Cloud Agency the scene was better than a circus. If I am not -mistaken Carl Schurz was secretary of the interior, and after a -conference with some of the big chiefs it was decided to attempt to -abolish the breech-clout. The "Great Father" at Washington, represented -by members of Congress and some of the Pennsylvania Quakers and others, -discovered that Uncle Sam had a warehouse full of discarded or out of -date army coats and trousers, and it was decided to give these to -certain tribes of Indians as part payment for lands that were needed for -white settlement. - -The Indians were gathered by hundreds from far and wide the day of issue -at Red Cloud, and Agent McGillicuddy addressed them in their own tongue, -telling them the light blue trousers and coats were the same kind worn -by the brave men who fought heroic battles for their Great Father. His -words were received in silence, and after he had finished several chiefs -held a pow-wow, after which one of their number presented himself at the -delivery window of the big warehouse and received a coat and a pair of -trousers. Several white men helped him to adjust the trousers and coat, -and when he was fully rigged he started to walk toward his group of -red-skinned and breech-clouted companions. - -As though the stage had been set and every player had learned his part, -the show began. The up to this time silent Indians jumped into the air -and made a demonstration of guying that would be a credit to any -baseball crowd that ever sat in the bleachers at the Polo Grounds. They -danced and cavorted, they yelled and keeled over, and laughed. The -squaws and papooses thought it the greatest joke, and participated in -the hilarity. Finally the buck who wore the first suit managed to get it -off and resumed his breech-clout. - -This first attempt was a failure; but Mr. McGillicuddy was a resourceful -man and was implicitly trusted, especially by the leading men of the -Sioux nation, and he finally tried another plan which after a year or -two succeeded to some extent. He engaged several bucks to help him at -the agency warehouse, paying them in extra amounts of sugar, tobacco and -bacon, but insisted that while they were on duty they must be dressed in -the white man's garb, and finally he had a large number of bucks who -were willing to forego the jibes of their friends for the extra -allowances. - -Sooner or later these Indians began to circulate around among others of -the tribe in a lordly manner, and in the end it was not necessary to -bribe any of them, except the youngsters of Sitting Bull's band, to wear -clothing. - -At first the Indians insisted in cutting out entirely the seat of the -trousers. - -When the first beef on the hoof was issued at Red Cloud, a four-year-old -steer was allotted twice a month to the head of each tepee in the tribe. -It was "cut out" from the herd by a cowboy and turned over to the -Indians forming the tepee, or family, to do with as they pleased, and -what they pleased to do would not have the approval of a humane society. - -Always the animal was as wild as a buffalo, and if he did not -immediately start a small stampede on his own account a few -bloodcurdling yells from the Indians did the business. Selecting the -easiest path of escape the frightened steer made a dash, followed by the -bucks on their saddleless ponies. Some of the Indians had long spears, -all had bows and arrows, and some had guns, ranging in make from an old -Spencer rifle to a modern Winchester, although there were few of these. -Most of their weapons were bows and arrows and spears. The latter were -thrown with great accuracy, and fatal thrusts were never made until the -steer had become exhausted. The arrows were also used, perhaps for an -hour, as weapons of torture and shot with no other purpose into the -fleshy part of the steer than to increase his speed. The Indians could -have killed their steer at any time by a shot placed under the shoulder. -But the idea was to torture the beast and perhaps encourage him to turn -and fight for his life, which he often did when surrounded in a ravine. -This was Indian sport, and was indulged in for some time before the -Agency authorities required the government's wards to use civilized -methods. - -Usually when a steer had been chased up hill and down vale for an hour, -or until it was worn out, the Indians planned to round up the chase -close to their tepee where a final shot with arrow or bullet put an end -to the animal's misery. Then the squaws swarmed about the carcass with -their skinning knives. The hide, always badly damaged by the spears and -arrows, was removed in a workmanlike manner and carefully put away for -tanning later on. The flesh of the steer was taken away and the feast -began in a few minutes. Much of the meat was dried or "jerked." - - - - -CHAPTER XV - -THERE'S A REASON: THIS IS IT!--CONCLUSION. - - -And now let me answer questions that have no doubt arisen in the minds -of the readers who have waded through these chapters. "Why isn't this -record presented in the regulation way--as a novel with a love story -running through it;" or, "What is the moral?" - -Let me ask such readers to follow me a little farther. - -On March 22d, 1873, a description of a certain boy who left his -Wisconsin home to buffet with the world on his own responsibility would -have read as follows: - - Age, 16 years, 6 mos. and 7 days. Weight 109 pounds; black hair, - black eyes, smooth, pale face; well dressed; had, after paying for - one handbag, a Derringer revolver (pop-gun) and a few knick-knacks, - $85.00 in cash (a large sum for a youth of his age in those days). - - Carried trip pass from Milwaukee to Council Bluffs, Iowa, via the - Chicago & Northwestern Railway, personally given to him by Marvin - Hughitt, then superintendent; also letter of introduction from E. - J. Cuyler, to S. H. H. Clark, general manager of the Union Pacific - Railroad at Omaha, recommending him as a worthy boy looking for a - railroad office job, also requesting transportation favors. - -This description takes no account of a deep-seated cough, occasional -flashes of red in the pale face, and a fear expressed by friends that -he was taking a desperate means of escaping the fate that had overtaken -his dear mother but four months previously. It takes no account of his -life up to the time of his departure on the long journey, not yet ended; -though in the natural order of worldly things, the day is near at hand. -I might add that he had been a "call boy" at a big railroad terminal, -had advanced to a desk as a way-bill clerk, and when advised to seek a -dry climate and there live out-of-doors, was earning a man's wage. - -We will pass over briefly an encounter with one of the best men that -ever lived--S. H. H. Clark--in his office at Omaha. When asked for a -pass to Sherman, Wyoming, he said gruffly: - -"Haven't you got any money?" - -This was the reply: - -"Yes, sir, and I'll pay my fare, too, if you don't want to give me a -pass." - -"Well," he said, turning to look out of a window, "maybe I'll give you -an order for a half-fare ticket," which brought forth this: - -"I don't want to be impolite, Mr. Clark, because you are a friend of -good friends of mine--Mr. Hughitt and Mr. Cuyler--but I must say you -don't know me as well as you might--I'm no half-fare fellow. Good-bye." - -And then Mr. Clark laughed, and said he was not in earnest and gave the -pass freely and willingly. - -There was a nice chat after that between the pale-faced youth and the -big railroader, during which The Boy discovered that Mr. Clark liked his -nerve but questioned his physical ability to stand the rough knocks that -were coming. - -Later, after a season in a division railroad office The Boy, carried -away with the spirit of adventure that was everywhere about him, and -carrying out a plan he had made to live in the open, went to Cheyenne, -signed up with a bull-train, and began the life of out-of-doors. The -"train" was loaded and ready to leave Camp Carlin, at Fort Russell, for -Fort Laramie on the North Platte, but it was for a while impossible to -employ men enough to drive the teams. There had been an outbreak among -the Sioux, and things looked dark when The Boy asked for a job driving -bulls; and when he was hired by Nate Williams, the Missourian wagon -boss, it was almost a joke to Nate, who said afterward that he took one -chance in a million when he employed The Boy and took him to camp. Both -The Boy and Nate won on the long shot. - -A year later The Boy was driving a lead team, looked after the -manifests, kept the accounts, and shirked no duty, fair weather or foul. - -All this time the pale and flushed cheeks were giving place to bronze, -the thin arms and skinny legs were toughening and filling out, and the -cough had disappeared--weight after first year, 155. - -Before leaving Camp Carlin on this first trip The Boy had time to write -home and receive a reply. He told a relative what he had done, and the -reply was a stinging rebuke and almost a final farewell, for the -relative said nothing good could possibly result from quitting a job -with a railroad paying $100 a month and taking one as a teamster at the -same figure--"and you nothing but a sickly boy." But the relative was -wrong, although excusable. - -And now, after all the evidence is in, we find that the "sickly" -youngster is still in the land of the living, past three score years, -and with some prospects of another score! - -The letter left a sore spot, and The Boy foolishly decided that he was -cut off. So he did not write again for nearly two years. - -The middle of the second winter found him at Fort Fetterman, living in a -dug-out in the embankment of a creek bottom, waiting for the springtime -when he could again use his stout lungs in shouting at his bulls, but -his strong arms were not idle the while, for he chopped cottonwood, box -elder and pine logs for the Fetterman commissary. - -In those days there was naught but military law, and the civilians were -under more or less surveillance, and it was customary for them to report -at given periods to the sergeant who sat in the adjutant's adobe office -in the fort. - -On one of those occasions The Boy's attention was directed to a -bulletin board upon which was tacked a card carrying the caption in big -black types: - - "INFORMATION WANTED" - -Under this was The Boy's name, a detailed description of him when he -left Cheyenne, and the statement that "anyone knowing his whereabouts -will confer a favor upon his anxious father and sister and receive a -reward if word is sent to Thomas Jefferson, a friend of the family at -Sherman, Wyoming Territory," to whom an appeal had been made. It was -stated in the notice that he "weighs about 100 pounds, has black hair, -black eyes, and is pale and sickly." - -At this time The Boy weighed nearly 170, was brown as a berry, had -muscles of an athlete, and in no wise resembled the description. He had -no difficulty in convincing the sergeant that while the name was similar -to his own it evidently was the description of a tenderfoot, and he was -no tenderfoot--not then. - - * * * * * - -If I could pay any greater tribute than this to life in the open I would -do it; and if there were a possible love story in this record I would -ignore it because, while it might entertain and please some tastes, it -would not answer the main purpose of these tales, namely: - -To demonstrate that as long as there is life there is hope, especially -if the spark of life is properly fanned in a salubrious, glorious and -vigorous climate. - -"As long as there is life there is hope!" But after all is it not truer -to say "As long as there is hope there is life?" - -Hope is the centerpiece of the familiar trio--Faith, Hope and -Charity--and not the least one of these virtues. It is practical to be -hopeful and to order our lives in the spirit of hopefulness; the world -will be better for our hopefulness, especially in these depressing -times. Moreover, it is a Christian duty to be hopeful. - -"Hope," says the Rev. Julian K. Smyth, head of the Swedenborgian church -in the United States, "is an affection of the will, and the will is ever -in the desire to act; thus hope is not only a lively virtue, but a -heroic and even a practical one." - -It is a good rule of life never to be discouraged no matter what the -misfortune, disappointment or mistake. Life will have been a success to -one who lives in hopefulness, for life will have been lived happily -through many human failures and errors. Life in the world of the flesh -is a battle which, if well fought--if we have faith in the Divine -Providence--means a victory over what we call Death, for Death is in -truth not the End, but the-- - - BEGINNING. - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Prairie Schooner, by William Francis Hooker - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PRAIRIE SCHOONER *** - -***** This file should be named 40497-8.txt or 40497-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/0/4/9/40497/ - -Produced by Greg Bergquist, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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