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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Crooked Trails, by Frederic Remington
+
+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: Crooked Trails
+
+Author: Frederic Remington
+
+Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7867]
+Posting Date: July 31, 2009
+Last Updated: March 16, 2018
+
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CROOKED TRAILS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Eric Eldred
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: 01 TEXAS RANGERS HOLDING UP CHAPPARAL BANDITS]
+
+
+CROOKED TRAILS
+
+
+By Frederic Remington
+
+Illustrated By Frederic Remington
+
+Author Of “Pony Tracks”
+
+First published in 1898
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+     HOW THE LAW GOT INTO THE CHAPARRAL
+
+     THE BLUE QUAIL OF THE CACTUS
+
+     A SERGEANT OF THE ORPHAN TROOP
+
+     THE SPIRIT OF MAHONGUI
+
+     THE ESSENTIALS AT FORT ADOBE
+
+     MASSAI'S CROOKED TRAIL
+
+     JOSHUA GOODENOUGH'S OLD LETTER
+
+     CRACKER COWBOYS OF FLORIDA
+
+     THE STRANGE DAYS THAT CAME TO JIMMIE FRIDAY
+
+     THE SOLEDAD GIRLS
+
+
+
+
+CROOKED TRAILS
+
+
+
+
+HOW THE LAW GOT INTO THE CHAPARRAL
+
+
+“You have heard about the Texas Rangers?” said the Deacon to me one
+night in the San Antonio Club. “Yes? Well, come up to my rooms, and I
+will introduce you to one of the old originals--dates 'way back in the
+'thirties'--there aren't many of them left now--and if we can get him to
+talk, he will tell you stories that will make your eyes hang out on your
+shirt front.”
+
+We entered the Deacon's cosey bachelor apartments, where I was
+introduced to Colonel “Rip” Ford, of the old-time Texas Rangers. I found
+him a very old man, with a wealth of snow-white hair and beard--bent,
+but not withered. As he sunk on his stiffened limbs into the arm-chair,
+we disposed ourselves quietly and almost reverentially, while we lighted
+cigars. We began the approaches by which we hoped to loosen the history
+of a wild past from one of the very few tongues which can still wag on
+the days when the Texans, the Co-manches, and the Mexicans chased one
+another over the plains of Texas, and shot and stabbed to find who
+should inherit the land.
+
+Through the veil of tobacco smoke the ancient warrior spoke his
+sentences slowly, at intervals, as his mind gradually separated and
+arranged the details of countless fights. His head bowed in thought;
+anon it rose sharply at recollections, and as he breathed, the shouts
+and lamentations of crushed men--the yells and shots--the thunder of
+horses' hoofs--the full fury of the desert combats came to the pricking
+ears of the Deacon and me.
+
+We saw through the smoke the brave young faces of the hosts which poured
+into Texas to war with the enemies of their race. They were clad in
+loose hunting-frocks, leather leggings, and broad black hats; had
+powder-horns and shot-pouches hung about them; were armed with
+bowie-knives, Mississippi rifles, and horse-pistols; rode Spanish
+ponies, and were impelled by Destiny to conquer, like their remote
+ancestors, “the godless hosts of Pagan” who “came swimming o'er the
+Northern Sea.”
+
+“Rip” Ford had not yet acquired his front name in 1836, when he enlisted
+in the famous Captain Jack Hayes's company of Rangers, which was
+fighting the Mexicans in those days, and also trying incidentally to
+keep from being eaten up by the Comanches.
+
+Said the old Colonel: “A merchant from our country journeyed to New
+York, and Colonel Colt, who was a friend of his, gave him two
+five-shooters--pistols they were, and little things. The merchant in
+turn presented them to Captain Jack Hayes. The captain liked them so
+well that he did not rest till every man jack of us had two apiece.
+
+“Directly,” mused the ancient one, with a smile of pleasant
+recollection, “we had a fight with the Comanches--up here above San
+Antonio. Hayes had fifteen men with him--he was doubling about the
+country for Indians. He found 'sign,' and after cutting their trail
+several times he could see that they were following him. Directly the
+Indians overtook the Rangers--there were seventy-five Indians. Captain
+Hayes--bless his memory!--said,' They are fixin' to charge us, boys, and
+we must charge them.' There were never better men in this world than
+Hayes had with him,” went on the Colonel with pardonable pride; “and
+mind you, he never made a fight without winning.
+
+“We charged, and in the fracas killed thirty-five Indians--only two of
+our men were wounded--so you see the five-shooters were pretty good
+weapons. Of course they wa'n't any account compared with these modern
+ones, because they were too small, but they did those things. Just after
+that Colonel Colt was induced to make bigger ones for us, some of which
+were half as long as your arm.
+
+“Hayes? Oh, he was a surveyor, and used to go out beyond the frontiers
+about his work. The Indians used to jump him pretty regular; but he
+always whipped them, and so he was available for a Ranger captain. About
+then--let's see,” and here the old head bobbed up from his chest, where
+it had sunk in thought--“there was a commerce with Mexico just sprung
+up, but this was later--it only shows what that man Hayes used to do.
+The bandits used to waylay the traders, and they got very bad in the
+country. Captain Hayes went after them--he struck them near Lavade, and
+found the Mexicans had more than twice as many men as he did; but he
+caught them napping, charged them afoot--killed twenty-five of them, and
+got all their horses.”
+
+“I suppose, Colonel, you have been charged by a Mexican lancer?” I
+inquired.
+
+“Oh yes, many times,” he answered.
+
+“What did you generally do?”
+
+“Well, you see, in those days I reckoned to be able to hit a man every
+time with a six-shooter at one hundred and twenty-five yards,” explained
+the old gentleman--which no doubt meant many dead lancers.
+
+[Illustration: 02 A BEARER OF CIVILIZATION]
+
+“Then you do not think much of a lance as a weapon?” I pursued.
+
+“No; there is but one weapon. The six-shooter when properly handled is
+the only weapon--mind you, sir, I say _properly”_ and here the old eyes
+blinked rapidly over the great art as he knew its practice.
+
+“Then, of course, the rifle has its use. Under Captain Jack Hayes sixty
+of us made a raid once after the celebrated priest-leader of the
+Mexicans--Padre Jarante--which same was a devil of a fellow. We were
+very sleepy--had been two nights without sleep. At San Juan every man
+stripped his horse, fed, and went to sleep. We had passed Padre Jarante
+in the night without knowing it. At about twelve o'clock next day there
+was a terrible outcry--I was awakened by shooting. The Padre was upon
+us. Five men outlying stood the charge, and went under. We gathered, and
+the Padre charged three times. The third time he was knocked from his
+horse and killed. Then Captain Jack Hayes awoke, and we got in a big
+_casa._ The men took to the roof. As the Mexicans passed we emptied a
+great many saddles. As I got to the top of the _casa_ I found two men
+quarrelling.” (Here the Colonel chuckled.) “I asked what the matter was,
+and they were both claiming to have killed a certain Mexican who was
+lying dead some way off. One said he had hit him in the head, and the
+other said he had hit him in the breast. I advised peace until after the
+fight. Well--after the shooting was over and the Padre's men had had
+enough, we went out to the particular Mexican who was dead, and, sure
+enough, he was shot in the head and in the breast; so they laughed and
+made peace. About this time one of the spies came in and reported six
+hundred Mexicans coming. We made an examination of our ammunition, and
+found that we couldn't afford to fight six hundred Mexicans with sixty
+men, so we pulled out. This was in the Mexican war, and only goes to
+show that Captain Hayes's men could shoot all the Mexicans that could
+get to them if the ammunition would hold out.”
+
+“What was the most desperate fight you can remember, Colonel?”
+
+The old man hesitated; this required a particular point of view--it was
+quality, not quantity, wanted now; and, to be sure, he was a
+connoisseur. After much study by the Colonel, during which the world
+lost many thrilling tales, the one which survived occurred in 1851.
+
+“My lieutenant, Ed Burleson, was ordered to carry to San Antonio an
+Indian prisoner we had taken and turned over to the commanding officer
+at Fort McIntosh. On his return, while nearing the Nueces River, he
+spied a couple of Indians. Taking seven men, he ordered the balance to
+continue along the road. The two Indians proved to be fourteen, and they
+charged Burleson up to the teeth. Dismounting his men, he poured it into
+them from his Colt's six-shooting rifles.  They killed or wounded all
+the Indians except two, some of them dying so near the Rangers that they
+could put their hands on their boots. All but one of Burleson's men were
+wounded--himself shot in the head with an arrow. One man had four
+'dogwood switches' [Arrows.] in his body, one of which was in his
+bowels. This man told me that every time he raised his gun to fire, the
+Indians would stick an arrow in him, but he said he didn't care a cent.
+One Indian was lying right up close, and while dying tried to shoot an
+arrow, but his strength failed so fast that the arrow only barely left
+the bowstring. One of the Rangers in that fight was a curious
+fellow--when young he had been captured by Indians, and had lived with
+them so long that he had Indian habits. In that fight he kept jumping
+around when loading, so as to be a bad target, the same as an Indian
+would under the circumstances, and he told Burleson he wished he had his
+boots off, so he could get around good”--and here the Colonel paused
+quizzically. “Would you call that a good fight?”
+
+[Illustration: 03 THE CHARGE ANP KILLING OF PADRE JARANTE]
+
+The Deacon and I put the seal of our approval on the affair, and the
+Colonel rambled ahead.
+
+“In 1858 I was commanding the frontier battalion of State troops on the
+whole frontier, and had my camp on the Deer Fork of the Brazos. The
+Comanches kept raiding the settlements. They would come down quietly,
+working well into the white lines, and then go back a-running--driving
+stolen stock and killing and burning. I thought I would give them some
+of their own medicine. I concluded to give them a fight. I took two
+wagons, one hundred Rangers, and one hundred and thirteen Tahuahuacan
+Indians, who were friend-lies. We struck a good Indian trail on a stream
+which led up to the Canadian. We followed it till it got hot. I camped
+my outfit in such a manner as to conceal my force, and sent out my
+scouts, who saw the Indians hunt buffalo through spyglasses. That night
+we moved. I sent Indians to locate the camp. They returned before day,
+and reported that the Indians were just a few miles ahead, whereat we
+moved forward. At daybreak, I remember, I was standing in the bull-wagon
+road leading to Santa Fe and could see the Canadian River in our
+front--with eighty lodges just beyond. Counting four men of fighting age
+to a lodge, that made a possible three hundred and twenty Indians. Just
+at sunup an Indian came across the river on a pony. Our Indians down
+below raised a yell--they always get excited. The Indian heard them--it
+was very still then. The Indian retreated slowly, and began to ride in a
+circle. From where I was I could hear him puff like a deer--he was
+blowing the bullets away from himself--he was a medicine-man. I heard
+five shots from the Jagers with which my Indians were armed. The painted
+pony of the medicine-man jumped ten feet in the air, it seemed to me,
+and fell over on his rider--then five more Jagers went off, and he was
+dead. I ordered the Tahuahuacans out in front, and kept the Rangers out
+of sight, because I wanted to charge home and kind of surprise them.
+Pretty soon I got ready, and gave the word. We charged. At the river we
+struck some boggy ground and floundered around considerable, but we got
+through. We raised the Texas yell, and away we went. I never expect
+again to hear such a noise--I never want to hear it--what with the
+whoops of the warriors--the screaming of the women and children--our
+boys yelling--the shooting, and the horses just a-mixin' up and
+a-stampedin' around,” and the Colonel bobbed his head slowly as he
+continued.
+
+[Illustration: 04 WE STRUCK SOME BOGGY GROUND]
+
+“One of my men didn't know a buck from a squaw. There was an Indian
+woman on a pony with five children. He shot the pony--it seemed like you
+couldn't see that pony for little Indians. We went through the camp, and
+the Indians pulled out--spreading fanlike, and we a-running them. After
+a long chase I concluded to come back. I saw lots of Indians around in
+the hills. When I got back, I found Captain Ross had formed my men in
+line. 'What time in the morning is it?' I asked. 'Morning, hell!' says
+he--'it's one o'clock!' And so it was. Directly I saw an Indian coming
+down a hill near by, and then more Indians and more Indians--till it
+seemed like they wa'n't ever going to get through coming. We had struck
+a bigger outfit than the first one. That first Indian he bantered my men
+to come out single-handed and fight him. One after another, he wounded
+five of my Indians. I ordered my Indians to engage them, and kind of get
+them down in the flat, where I could charge. After some running and
+shooting they did this, and I turned the Rangers loose. We drove them.
+The last stand they made they killed one of my Indians, wounded a
+Ranger, but left seven of their dead in a pile. It was now nearly
+nightfall, and I discovered that my horses were broken down after
+fighting all day. I found it hard to restrain my men, they had got so
+heated up; but I gradually withdrew to where the fight commenced. The
+Indian camp was plundered. In it we found painted buffalo-robes with
+beads a hand deep around the edges--the finest robes I have ever
+seen--and heaps of goods plundered from the Santa Fe traders. On the way
+back I noticed a dead chief, and was for a moment astonished to find
+pieces of flesh cut out of him; upon looking at a Tahuahuacan warrior I
+saw a pair of dead hands tied behind his saddle. That night they had a
+cannibal feast. You see, the Tahuahuacans say that the first one of
+their race was brought into the world by a wolf. 'How am I to live?'
+said the Tahuahuacan. 'The same as we do,' said the wolf; and when they
+were with me, that is just about how they lived. I reckon it's necessary
+to tell you about the old woman who was found in our lines. She was
+looking at the sun and making incantations, a-cussing us out generally
+and elevating her voice. She said the Comanches would get even for this
+day's work. I directed my Indians to let her alone, but I was informed
+afterwards that that is just what they didn't do.”
+
+At this point the Colonel's cigar went out, and directly he followed;
+but this is the manner in which he told of deeds which I know would fare
+better at the hands of one used to phrasing and capable also of more
+points of view than the Colonel was used to taking. The outlines of the
+thing are strong, however, because the Deacon and I understood that
+fights were what the old Colonel had dealt in during his active life,
+much as other men do in stocks and bonds or wheat and corn. He had been
+a successful operator, and only recalled pleasantly the bull quotations.
+This type of Ranger is all but gone. A few may yet be found in outlying
+ranches. One of the most celebrated resides near San Antonio--“Big-foot
+Wallace” by name. He says he doesn't mind being called “Big-foot,”
+ because he is six feet two in height, and is entitled to big feet. His
+face is done off in a nest of white hair and beard, and is patriarchal
+in character. In 1836 he came out from Virginia to “take toll” of the
+Mexicans for killing some relatives of his in the Fannin Massacre, and
+he considers that he has squared his accounts; but they had him on the
+debit side for a while.  Being captured in the Meir expedition, he
+walked as a prisoner to the city of Mexico, and did public work for that
+country with a ball-and-chain attachment for two years. The prisoners
+overpowered the guards and escaped on one occasion, but were overtaken
+by Mexican cavalry while dying of thirst in a desert. Santa Anna ordered
+their “decimation,” which meant that every tenth man was shot, their lot
+being determined by the drawing of a black bean from an earthen pot
+containing a certain proportion of white ones. “Big-foot” drew a white
+one. He was also a member of Captain Hayes's company, afterwards a
+captain of Rangers, and a noted Indian-fighter. Later he carried the
+mails from San Antonio to El Paso through a howling wilderness, but
+always brought it safely through--if safely can be called lying thirteen
+days by a water-hole in the desert, waiting for a broken leg to mend,
+and living meanwhile on one prairie-wolf, which he managed to shoot.
+Wallace was a professional hunter, who fought Indians and hated
+“greasers”; he belongs to the past, and has been “outspanned” under a
+civilization in which he has no place, and is to-day living in poverty.
+
+[Illustration: 05 PRISONERS DRAWING THEIR BEANS]
+
+The civil war left Texas under changed conditions. That and the Mexican
+wars had determined its boundaries, however, and it rapidly filled up
+with new elements of population. Broken soldiers, outlaws, poor
+immigrants living in bull-wagons, poured in. “Gone to Texas” had a
+sinister significance in the late sixties. When the railroad got to
+Abilene, Kansas, the cow-men of Texas found a market for their stock,
+and began trailing their herds up through the Indian country.
+
+Bands of outlaws organized under the leadership of desperadoes like Wes
+Hardin and King Fisher. They rounded up cattle regardless of their
+owners' rights, and resisted interference with force. The poor man
+pointed to his brand in the stolen herd and protested. He was shot. The
+big owners were unable to protect themselves from loss. The property
+right was established by the six-shooter, and honest men were forced to
+the wall. In 1876 the property-holding classes went to the Legislature,
+got it to appropriate a hundred thousand dollars a year for two years,
+and the Ranger force was reorganized to carry the law into the
+chaparral. At this time many judges were in league with bandits;
+sheriffs were elected by the outlaws, and the electors were
+cattle-stealers.
+
+The Rangers were sworn to uphold the laws of Texas and the United
+States. They were deputy sheriffs, United States marshals--in fact, were
+often vested with any and every power, even to the extent of ignoring
+disreputable sheriffs. At times they were judge, jury, and executioner
+when the difficulties demanded extremes. When a band of outlaws was
+located, detectives or spies were sent among them, who openly joined the
+desperadoes, and gathered evidence to put the Rangers on their trail.
+Then, in the wilderness, with only the soaring buzzard or prowling
+coyote to look on, the Ranger and the outlaw met to fight with tigerish
+ferocity to the death.  Shot, and lying prone, they fired until the
+palsied arm could no longer raise the six-shooter, and justice was
+satisfied as their bullets sped.  The captains had the selection of
+their men, and the right to dishonorably discharge at will. Only men of
+irreproachable character, who were fine riders and dead-shots, were
+taken. The spirit of adventure filled the ranks with the most prominent
+young men in the State, and to have been a Ranger is a badge of
+distinction in Texas to this day. The display of anything but a perfect
+willingness to die under any and all circumstances was fatal to a
+Ranger, and in course of time they got the _moral_ on the bad man. Each
+one furnished his own horse and arms, while the State gave him
+ammunition, “grub,” one dollar a day, and extra expenses. The enlistment
+was for twelve months. A list of fugitive Texas criminals was placed in
+his hands, with which he was expected to familiarize himself. Then, in
+small parties, they packed the bedding on their mule, they hung the
+handcuffs and leather thongs about its neck, saddled their
+riding-ponies, and threaded their way into the chaparral.
+
+[Illustration: 06 HOW THE LAW GOT INTO THE CHAPARRAL]
+
+On an evening I had the pleasure of meeting two more distinguished
+Ranger officers--more modern types--Captains Lea Hall and Joseph Shely;
+both of them big, forceful men, and loath to talk about themselves. It
+was difficult to associate the quiet gentlemen who sat smoking in the
+Deacon's rooms with what men say; for the tales of their prowess in
+Texas always ends, “and that don't count Mexicans, either.” The bandit
+never laid down his gun but with his life; so the “la ley de huga”
+ [Mexican law of shooting escaped or resisting prisoners.] was in force
+in the chaparral, and the good people of Texas were satisfied with a
+very short account of a Ranger's fight.
+
+The most distinguished predecessor of these two men was a Captain
+McNally, who was so bent on, carrying his raids to an issue that he paid
+no heed to national boundary-lines. He followed a band of Mexican
+bandits to the town of La Cueva, below Ringgold, once, and, surrounding
+it, demanded the surrender of the cattle which they had stolen. He had
+but ten men, and yet this redoubtable warrior surrounded a town full of
+bandits and Mexican soldiers. The Mexican soldiers attacked the Rangers,
+and forced them back under the river-banks, but during the fight the
+_jefe politico_ was killed. The Rangers were in a fair way to be
+overcome by the Mexicans, when Lieutenant Clendenin turned a Gatling
+loose from the American side and covered their position. A parley
+ensued, but McNally refused to go back without the cattle, which the
+Mexicans had finally to surrender.
+
+At another time McNally received word through spies of an intended raid
+of Mexican cattle-thieves under the leadership of Cammelo Lerma. At
+Resaca de la Palma, McNally struck the depredators with but sixteen men.
+They had seventeen men and five hundred head of stolen cattle. In a
+running fight for miles McNally's men killed sixteen bandits, while only
+one escaped. A young Ranger by the name of Smith was shot dead by
+Cammelo Lerma as he dismounted to look at the dying bandit. The dead
+bodies were piled in ox-carts and dumped in the public square at
+Brownsville. McNally also captured King Fisher's band in an old log
+house in Dimmit County, but they were not convicted.
+
+Showing the nature of Ranger work, an incident which occurred to my
+acquaintance, Captain Lea Hall, will illustrate. In De Witt County there
+was a feud. One dark night sixteen masked men took a sick man, one Dr.
+Brazel, and two of his boys, from their beds, and, despite the imploring
+mother and daughter, hanged the doctor and one son to a tree. The other
+boy escaped in the green corn. Nothing was done to punish the crime, as
+the lynchers were men of property and influence in the country. No man
+dared speak above his breath about the affair.
+
+Captain Hall, by secret-service men, discovered the perpetrators, and
+also that they were to be gathered at a wedding on a certain night. He
+surrounded the house and demanded their surrender, at the same time
+saying that he did not want to kill the women and children. Word
+returned that they would kill him and all his Rangers. Hall told them to
+allow their women and children to depart, which was done; then,
+springing on the gallery of the house, he shouted, “Now, gentlemen, you
+can go to killing Rangers; but if you don't surrender, the Rangers will
+go to killing you.” This was too frank a willingness for midnight
+assassins, and they gave up.
+
+Spies had informed him that robbers intended sacking Campbell's store in
+Wolfe City. Hall and his men lay behind the counters to receive them on
+the designated night. They were allowed to enter, when Hall's men,
+rising, opened fire--the robbers replying. Smoke filled the room, which
+was fairly illuminated by the flashes of the guns--but the robbers were
+all killed, much to the disgust of the lawyers, no doubt, though I could
+never hear that honest people mourned.
+
+The man Hall was himself a gentleman of the romantic Southern soldier
+type, and he entertained the highest ideals, with which it would be
+extremely unsafe to trifle, if I may judge. Captain Shely, our other
+visitor, was a herculean, black-eyed man, fairly fizzing with nervous
+energy. He is also exceedingly shrewd, as befits the greater
+concreteness of the modern Texas law, albeit he too has trailed bandits
+in the chaparral, and rushed in on their camp-fires at night, as two big
+bullet-holes in his skin will attest. He it was who arrested Polk, the
+defaulting treasurer of Tennessee. He rode a Spanish pony sixty-two
+miles in six hours, and arrested Polk, his guide, and two private
+detectives, whom Polk had bribed to set him over the Rio Grande. When
+the land of Texas was bought up and fenced with wire, the old settlers
+who had used the land did not readily recognize the new regime. They
+raised the rallying-cry of “free grass and free water”--said they had
+fought the Indians off, and the land belonged to them. Taking nippers,
+they rode by night and cut down miles of fencing. Shely took the keys of
+a county jail from the frightened sheriff, made arrests by the score,
+and lodged them in the big new jail. The country-side rose in arms,
+surrounded the building, and threatened to tear it down. The big Ranger
+was not deterred by this outburst, but quietly went out into the mob,
+and with mock politeness delivered himself as follows:
+
+“Do not tear down the jail, gentlemen--you have been taxed for years to
+build this fine structure--it is yours--do not tear it down. I will open
+the doors wide--you can all come in--do not tear down the jail; but
+there are twelve Rangers in there, with orders to kill as long as they
+can see. Come right in, gentlemen--but come fixed.”
+
+The mob was overcome by his civility.
+
+Texas is to-day the only State in the Union where pistol-carry ing is
+attended with great chances of arrest and fine. The law is supreme even
+in the lonely _jacails_ out in the rolling waste of chaparral, and it
+was made so by the tireless riding, the deadly shooting, and the
+indomitable courage of the Texas Rangers.
+
+
+
+
+THE BLUE QUAIL OF THE CACTUS
+
+
+THE Quartermaster and I both had trouble which the doctors could not
+cure--it was January, and it would not do for us to sit in a “blind “;
+besides, I do not fancy that. There are ever so many men who are
+comfortable all over when they are sitting in a blind waiting on the
+vagrant flying of the ducks; but it is solemn, gloomy business, and, I
+must say, sufficient reason why they take a drink every fifteen minutes
+to keep up their enthusiasm. We both knew that the finest winter resort
+for shot-gun folks was in the Southwest--down on the Rio Grande in
+Texas--so we journeyed to Eagle Pass. As we got down from the train we
+saw Captain Febiger in his long military cloak by a lantern-light.
+
+“Got any quail staked out for us, Feb?” asked the Quartermaster.
+
+“Oodles,” said Febiger; “get into my trap,” and we were rattled through
+the unlighted street out to the camp, and brought up by the Captain's
+quarters.
+
+In the morning we unpacked our trunks, and had everything on the floor
+where we could see it, after the fashion with men. Captain Febiger's
+baby boy came in to help us rummage in the heaps of canvas clothes,
+ammunition, and what not besides, finally selecting for his amusement a
+loaded Colt's revolver and a freshly honed razor. We were terrorized by
+the possibilities of the combination. Our trying to take them away from
+the youngster only made him yell like a cavern of demons. We howled for
+his mother to come to our aid, which she finally did, and she separated
+the kid from his toys.
+
+I put on my bloomers, when the Captain came in and viewed me, saying:
+“Texas bikes; but it doesn't bloom yet. I don't know just what Texas
+will do if you parade in those togs--but you can try.”
+
+As we sauntered down the dusty main street, Texas lounged in the
+doorways or stood up in its buggy and stared at me. Texas grinned
+cheerfully, too, but I did not care, so long as Texas kept its hand out
+of its hip pocket. I was content to help educate Texas as to personal
+comfort, at no matter what cost to myself. We passed into Mexico over
+the Long Bridge to call on Senor Munos, who is the local czar, in hopes
+of getting permits to be let alone by his chaparral-rangers while we
+shot quail on their soil. In Mexico when the people observe an Americano
+they simply shrug their shoulders; so our bloomers attracted no more
+contempt than would an X-ray or a trolley-car. Senor Munos gave the
+permits, after much stately compliment and many subtle ways, which made
+us feel under a cloud of obligation.
+
+[Illustration: 07 LUNCHEON IN THE DESERT]
+
+The next morning an ambulance and escort-wagon drove up to the Captain's
+quarters, and we loaded ourselves in--shot-guns, ammunition, blankets,
+and the precious paper of Senor Munos; for, only the week before, the
+custom-house rangers had carefully escorted an American hunting-party a
+long distance back to the line for lack of the little paper and red
+seals. We rattled over the bridge, past the Mexican barrack, while its
+dark-skinned soldiery--who do not shoot quails--lounged in the sunshine
+against the whitewashed wall.
+
+At the first outpost of the customs a little man, whose considerable
+equatorial proportions were girted with a gun, examined our paper, and
+waved us on our way. Under the railroad bridge of the International an
+engineer blew his whistle, and our mules climbed on top of each other in
+their terror.
+
+We wound along the little river, through irrigating ditches, past dozens
+of those deliciously quaint adobe houses, past the inevitable church,
+past a dead pony, ran over a chicken, made the little seven-year-old
+girls take their five-year-old brothers up in their arms for protection,
+and finally we climbed a long hill. At the top stretched an endless
+plain. The road forked; presently it branched; anon it grew into twigs
+of white dust on the gray levels of the background. The local physician
+of Eagle Pass was of our party, and he was said to know where a certain
+tank was to be found, some thirty miles out in the desert, but no man
+yet created could know which twig of the road to take. He decided on
+one--changed his mind--got out of the ambulance, scratched his head,
+pondered, and finally resolution settled on his face. He motioned the
+driver to a certain twig, got in, and shut his mouth firmly, thus
+closing debate. We smoked silently, waiting for the doctor's mind to
+fog. He turned uneasily in his seat, like the agitated needle of a
+compass, and even in time hazarded the remark that something did not
+look natural; but there was nothing to look at but flat land and flat
+sky, unless a hawk sailing here and there. At noon we lunched at the
+tail of the ambulance, and gently “jollied” the doctor's topography. We
+pushed on. Later in the afternoon the thirsty mules went slowly. The
+doctor had by this time admitted his doubts--some long blue hills on the
+sky-line ought to be farther to the west, according to his remembrance.
+As no one else had any ideas on the subject, the doctor's position was
+not enviable. We changed our course, and travelled many weary miles
+through the chaparral, which was high enough to stop our vision, and
+stiff enough to bar our way, keeping us to narrow roads. At last the
+bisecting cattle trails began to converge, and we knew that they led to
+water--which they did; for shortly we saw a little broken adobe, a
+tumbled brush corral, the plastered gate of an _acequia,_ and the blue
+water of the tank.
+
+[Illustration: 08 SUPPER IN THE CORRAL]
+
+To give everything its due proportion at this point, we gathered to
+congratulate the doctor as we passed the flask. The camp was pitched
+within the corral, and while the cook got supper we stood in the
+after-glow on the bank of the tank and saw the ducks come home, heard
+the mud-hens squddle, while high in the air flew the long line of
+sand-hill cranes with a hoarse clangor. It was quite dark when we sat on
+the “grub” chests and ate by the firelight, while out in the desert the
+coyotes shrilled to the monotonous accompaniment of the mules crunching
+their feed and stamping wearily. To-morrow it was proposed to hunt ducks
+in their morning flight, which means getting up before daylight, so bed
+found us early. It seemed but a minute after I had sought my blankets
+when I was being abused by the Captain, being pushed with his
+foot--fairly rolled over by him--he even standing on my body as he
+shouted, “Get up, if you are going hunting. It will be light
+directly--get up!” And this, constantly recurring, is one reason why I
+do not care for duck-shooting.
+
+But, in order to hunt, I had to get up, and file off in the line of
+ghosts, stumbling, catching, on the chaparral, and splashing in the mud.
+I led a setter-dog, and was presently directed to sit down in some damp
+grass, because it was a good place--certainly not to sit down in, but
+for other reasons. I sat there in the dark, petting the good dog, and
+watching the sky grow pale in the east. This is not to mention the
+desire for breakfast, or the damp, or the sleepiness, but this is really
+the larger part of duck-hunting. Of course if I later had a dozen good
+shots it might compensate--but I did not have a dozen shots.
+
+The day came slowly out of the east, the mud-hens out in the marsh
+splashed about in the rushes, a sailing hawk was visible against the
+gray sky overhead, and I felt rather insignificant, not to say
+contemptible, as I sat there in the loneliness of this big nature which
+worked around me. The dog dignified the situation--he was a part of
+nature's belongings--while I somehow did not seem to grace the solitude.
+The grays slowly grew into browns on the sedge-grass, and the water to
+silver. A bright flash of fire shot out of the dusk far up in the gloom,
+and the dull report of a shot-gun came over the tank. Black objects fled
+across the sky--the ducks were flying. I missed one or two, and grew
+weary--none came near enough to my lair. Presently it was light, and I
+got a fair shot. My bird tumbled into the rushes out in front of me, and
+the setter bounded in to retrieve. He searched vehemently, but the
+wounded duck dived in front of him. He came ashore shortly, and lying
+down, he bit at himself and pawed and rolled. He was a mass of
+cockle-burs. I took him on my lap and laboriously picked cockle-burs out
+of his hair for a half-hour; then, shouldering my gun, I turned
+tragically to the water and anathematized its ducks--all ducks, my
+fellow-duckers, all thoughts and motives concerning ducks--and then
+strode into the chaparral. “Hie on! hie on!” I tossed my arm, and the
+setter began to hunt beautifully--glad, no doubt, to leave all thoughts
+of the cockle-burs and evasive ducks behind. I worked up the shore of
+the tank, keeping back in the brush, and got some fun. After chasing
+about for some time I came out near the water. My dog pointed. I glided
+forward, and came near shooting the Quartermaster, who sat in a bunch of
+sedge-grass, with a dead duck by his side. He was smoking, and was
+disgusted with ducks. He joined me, and shortly, as we crossed the road,
+the long Texas doctor, who owned the dog, came striding down the way. He
+was ready for quail now, and we started.
+
+[Illustration: 09 ON THE SHORE OF THE TANK--MORNING]
+
+The quail-hunting is active work. The dog points, but one nearly always
+finds the birds running from one prickly-pear bush to another. They do
+not stand, rarely flush, and when they do get up it is only to swoop
+ahead to the nearest cover, where they settle quickly. One must be sharp
+in his shooting--he cannot select his distance, for the cactus lies
+thick about, and the little running bird is only on view for the
+shortest of moments. You must overrun a dog after his first point, since
+he works too close behind them. The covey will keep together if not
+pursued with too much haste, and one gets shot after shot; still, at
+last you must run lively, as the frightened covey scurry along at a
+remarkable pace. Heavy shot are necessary, since the blue quail carry
+lead like Marshal Massena, and are much harder to kill than the
+bob-white. Three men working together can get shooting enough out of a
+bunch--the chase often continuing for a mile, when the covey gradually
+separate, the sportsmen following individual birds.
+
+[Illustration: 10 RUNNING BLUE QUAIL]
+
+Where the prickly-pear cactus is thickest, there are the blue quail,
+since that is their feed and water supply. This same cactus makes a
+difficulty of pursuit, for it bristles with spines, which come off on
+your clothing, and when they enter the skin make most uncomfortable and
+persistent sores. The Quartermaster had an Indian tobacco-bag dangling
+at his belt, and as it flopped in his progress it gathered prickers,
+which it shortly transferred to his luckless legs, until he at last
+detected the reason why he bristled so fiercely. And the poor dog--at
+every covey we had to stop and pick needles out of him. The haunts of
+the blue quail are really no place for a dog, as he soon becomes
+useless. One does not need him, either, since the blue quail will not
+flush until actually kicked into the air.
+
+Jack and cotton-tail rabbits fled by hundreds before us. They are
+everywhere, and afford good shooting between coveys, it being quick work
+to get a cotton-tail as he flashes between the net-work of protecting
+cactus. Coyotes lope away in our front, but they are too wild for a
+shot-gun. It must ever be in a man's mind to keep his direction, because
+it is such a vastly simple thing to get lost in the chaparral, where you
+cannot see a hundred yards. Mexico has such a considerable territory
+that a man on foot may find it inconvenient to beat up a town in the
+desolation of thorn-bush.
+
+There is an action about blue-quail shooting which is next to buffalo
+shooting--it's run, shoot, pick up your bird, scramble on in your
+endeavor to keep the skirmish-line of your two comrades; and at last,
+when you have concluded to stop, you can mop your forehead--the Mexican
+sun shines hot even in midwinter.
+
+Later in the afternoon we get among bob-white in a grassy tract, and
+while they are clean work--good dog-play, and altogether more
+satisfactory shooting than any other I know of--I am yet much inclined
+to the excitement of chasing after game which you can see at intervals.
+Let it not be supposed that it is less difficult to hit a running blue
+quail as he shoots through the brush than a flying bob-white, for the
+experience of our party has settled that, and one gets ten shots at the
+blue to one at the bob-white, because of their number. As to eating, we
+could not tell the difference; but I will not insist that this is final.
+A man who comes in from an all day's run in the brush does not care
+whether the cook gives him boiled beans, watermelon, or crackers and
+jam; so how is he to know what a bird's taste is when served to a tame
+appetite?
+
+[Illustration: 11 TOO BIG GAME FOR NUMBER SIX]
+
+At intervals we ran into the wild cattle which threaded their way to
+water, and it makes one nervous. It is of no use to say “Soo-bossy,” or
+to give him a charge of No. 6; neither is it well to run. If the
+_matadores_ had any of the sensations which I have experienced, the gate
+receipts at the bull-rings would have to go up.  When a big long-horn
+fastens a quail-shooter with his great open brown eye in a chaparral
+thicket, you are not inclined to “call his hand.” If he will call it a
+misdeal, you are with him.
+
+We were banging away, the Quartermaster and I, when a human voice began
+yelling like mad from the brush ahead. We advanced, to find a
+Mexican--rather well gotten up--who proceeded to wave his arms like a
+parson who had reached “sixthly” in his sermon, and who proceeded
+thereat to overwhelm us with his eloquence. The Quartermaster and I
+“_buenos dias-ed_” and “_si, senor-ed_” him in our helpless Spanish, and
+asked each other, nervously, “What de'll.” After a long time he seemed
+to be getting through with his subject, his sentences became separated,
+he finally emitted monosyllables only along with his scowls, and we
+tramped off into the brush. It was a pity he spent so much energy, since
+it could only arouse our curiosity without satisfying it.
+
+In camp that night we told the Captain of our excited Mexican friend out
+in the brush, and our cook had seen sinister men on ponies passing near
+our camp. The Captain became solicitous, and stationed a night-guard
+over his precious government mules. It would never do to have a bandit
+get away with a U.  S. brand. It never does matter about private
+property, but anything with U. S. on it has got to be looked after, like
+a croupy child.
+
+We had some good days' sport, and no more formidable enterprise against
+the night-guard was attempted than the noisy approach of a white
+jackass. The tents were struck and loaded when it began to rain. We
+stood in the shelter of the escort-wagon, and the storm rose to a
+hurricane. Our corral became a tank; but shortly the black clouds passed
+north, and we pulled out. The twig ran into a branch, and the branch
+struck the trunk near the bluffs over the Rio Grande, and in town there
+stood the Mexican soldiers leaning against the wall as we had left them.
+We wondered if they had moved meanwhile.
+
+
+
+
+A SERGEANT OF THE ORPHAN TROOP
+
+
+WHILE it is undisputed that Captain Dodd's troop of the Third Cavalry is
+not an orphan, and is, moreover, quite as far from it as any troop of
+cavalry in the world, all this occurred many years ago, when it was, at
+any rate, so called. There was nothing so very unfortunate about it,
+from what I can gather, since it seems to have fought well on its own
+hook, quite up to all expectations, if not beyond. No officer at that
+time seemed to care to connect his name with such a rioting,
+nose-breaking band of desperado cavalrymen, unless it was temporarily,
+and that was always in the field, and never in garrison. However, in
+this case it did not have even an officer in the field. But let me go on
+to my sergeant.
+
+This one was a Southern gentleman, or rather a boy, when he refugeed out
+of Fredericksburg with his family, before the Federal advance, in a
+wagon belonging to a Mississippi rifle regiment; but nevertheless some
+years later he got to be a gentleman, and passed through the Virginia
+Military Institute with honor. The desire to be a soldier consumed him,
+but the vicissitudes of the times compelled him, if he wanted to be a
+soldier, to be a private one, which he became by duly enlisting in the
+Third Cavalry. He struck the Orphan Troop.
+
+Physically, Nature had slobbered all over Carter Johnson; she had
+lavished on him her very last charm. His skin was pink, albeit the years
+of Arizona sun had heightened it to a dangerous red; his mustache was
+yellow and ideally military; while his pure Virginia accent, fired in
+terse and jerky form at friend and enemy alike, relieved his natural
+force of character by a shade of humor. He was thumped and bucked and
+pounded into what was in the seventies considered a proper frontier
+soldier, for in those days the nursery idea had not been lugged into the
+army. If a sergeant bade a soldier “go” or “do,” he instantly “went” or
+“did”--otherwise the sergeant belted him over the head with his
+six-shooter, and had him taken off in a cart. On pay-days, too, when men
+who did not care to get drunk went to bed in barracks, they slept under
+their bunks and not in them, which was conducive to longevity and a good
+night's rest. When buffalo were scarce they ate the army rations in
+those wild days; they had a fight often enough to earn thirteen dollars,
+and at times a good deal more. This was the way with all men at that
+time, but it was rough on recruits.
+
+So my friend Carter Johnson wore through some years, rose to be a
+corporal, finally a sergeant, and did many daring deeds. An atavism from
+“the old border riders” of Scotland shone through the boy, and he took
+on quickly. He could act the others off the stage and sing them out of
+the theatre in his chosen profession.
+
+There was fighting all day long around Fort Robinson, Nebraska--a
+bushwhacking with Dull-Knife's band of the Northern Cheyennes, the
+Spartans of the plains. It was January; the snow lay deep on the ground,
+and the cold was knife-like as it thrust at the fingers and toes of the
+Orphan Troop. Sergeant Johnson with a squad of twenty men, after having
+been in the saddle all night, was in at the post drawing rations for the
+troop. As they were packing them up for transport, a detachment of F
+Troop came galloping by, led by the sergeant's friend, Corporal
+Thornton. They pulled up.
+
+“Come on, Carter--go with us. I have just heard that some troops have
+got a bunch of Injuns corralled out in the hills. They can't get 'em
+down. Let's go help 'em. It's a chance for the fight of your life. Come
+on.”
+
+Carter hesitated for a moment. He had drawn the rations for his troop,
+which was in sore need of them. It might mean a court-martial and the
+loss of his chevrons--but a fight! Carter struck his spurred heels,
+saying, “Come on, boys; get your horses; we will go.”
+
+The line of cavalry was half lost in the flying snow as it cantered away
+over the white flats. The dry powder crunched under the thudding hoofs,
+the carbines banged about, the overcoat capes blew and twisted in the
+rushing air, the horses grunted and threw up their heads as the spurs
+went into their bellies, while the men's faces were serious with the
+interest in store. Mile after mile rushed the little column, until it
+came to some bluffs, where it drew reign and stood gazing across the
+valley to the other hills.
+
+Down in the bottoms they espied an officer and two men sitting quietly
+on their horses, and on riding up found a lieutenant gazing at the
+opposite bluffs through a glass. Far away behind the bluffs a sharp ear
+could detect the reports of guns.
+
+“We have been fighting the Indians all day here,” said the officer,
+putting down his glass and turning to the two “non-coms.” “The command
+has gone around the bluffs. I have just seen Indians up there on the
+rim-rocks. I have sent for troops, in the hope that we might get up
+there. Sergeant, deploy as skirmishers, and we will try.”
+
+[Illustration: 12 MILE AFTER MILE RUSHED THE LITTLE COLUMN]
+
+At a gallop the men fanned out, then forward at a sharp trot across the
+flats, over the little hills, and into the scrub pine. The valley
+gradually narrowed until it forced the skirmishers into a solid body,
+when the lieutenant took the lead, with the command tailing out in
+single file. The signs of the Indians grew thicker and thicker--a
+skirmisher's nest here behind a scrub-pine bush, and there by the side
+of a rock. Kettles and robes lay about in the snow, with three “bucks”
+ and some women and children sprawling about, frozen as they had died;
+but all was silent except the crunch of the snow and the low whispers of
+the men as they pointed to the telltales of the morning's battle.
+
+As the column approached the precipitous rim-rock the officer halted,
+had the horses assembled in a side canon, putting Corporal Thornton in
+charge. He ordered Sergeant Johnson to again advance his skirmish-line,
+in which formation the men moved forward, taking cover behind the pine
+scrub and rocks, until they came to an open space of about sixty paces,
+while above it towered the cliff for twenty feet in the sheer. There the
+Indians had been last seen. The soldiers lay tight in the snow, and no
+man's valor impelled him on. To the casual glance the rim-rock was
+impassable. The men were discouraged and the officer nonplussed. A
+hundred rifles might be covering the rock fort for all they knew. On
+closer examination a cutting was found in the face of the rock which was
+a rude attempt at steps, doubtless made long ago by the Indians. Caught
+on a bush above, hanging down the steps, was a lariat, which, at the
+bottom, was twisted around the shoulders of a dead warrior. They had
+evidently tried to take him up while wounded, but he had died and had
+been abandoned.
+
+After cogitating, the officer concluded not to order his men forward,
+but he himself stepped boldly out into the open and climbed up. Sergeant
+Johnson immediately followed, while an old Swedish soldier by the name
+of Otto Bordeson fell in behind them. They walked briskly up the hill,
+and placing their backs against the wall of rock, stood gazing at the
+Indian.
+
+With a grin the officer directed the men to advance. The sergeant,
+seeing that he realized their serious predicament, said:
+
+“I think, lieutenant, you had better leave them where they are; we are
+holding this rock up pretty hard.”
+
+[Illustration: 13 THE HORSES ASSEMBLED IN A SIDE CANYON]
+
+They stood there and looked at each other. “We's in a fix,” said Otto.
+
+“I want volunteers to climb this rock,” finally demanded the officer.
+
+The sergeant looked up the steps, pulled at the lariat, and commented:
+“Only one man can go at a time; if there are Indians up there, an old
+squaw can kill this command with a hatchet; and if there are no Indians,
+we can all go up.”
+
+The impatient officer started up, but the sergeant grabbed him by the
+belt. He turned, saying, “If I haven't got men to go, I will climb
+myself.”
+
+“Stop, lieutenant. It wouldn't look right for the officer to go. I have
+noticed a pine-tree, the branches of which spread over the top of the
+rock,” and the sergeant pointed to it. “If you will make the men cover
+the top of the rim-rock with their rifles, Bordeson and I will go up;”
+ and turning to the Swede, “Will you go, Otto?”
+
+“I will go anywhere the sergeant does,” came his gallant reply.
+
+“Take your choice, then, of the steps or the pine-tree,” continued the
+Virginian; and after a rather short but sharp calculation the Swede
+declared for the tree, although both were death if the Indians were on
+the rim-rock. He immediately began sidling along the rock to the tree,
+and slowly commenced the ascent. The sergeant took a few steps up the
+cutting, holding on by the rope. The officer stood out and smiled
+quizzically. Jeers came from behind the soldiers' bushes--“Go it, Otto!
+Go it, Johnson! Your feet are loaded! If a snow-bird flies, you will
+drop dead! Do you need any help? You'd make a hell of a sailor!” and
+other gibes.
+
+The gray clouds stretched away monotonously over the waste of snow, and
+it was cold. The two men climbed slowly, anon stopping to look at each
+other and smile. They were monkeying with death.
+
+At last the sergeant drew himself up, slowly raised his head, and saw
+snow and broken rock. Otto lifted himself likewise, and he too saw
+nothing Rifle-shots came clearly to their ears from far in front--many
+at one time, and scattering at others. Now the soldiers came briskly
+forward, dragging up the cliff in single file. The dull noises of the
+fight came through the wilderness. The skirmish-line drew quickly
+forward and passed into the pine woods, but the Indian trails scattered.
+Dividing into sets of four, they followed on the tracks of small
+parties, wandering on until night threatened. At length the main trail
+of the fugitive band ran across their front, bringing the command
+together. It was too late for the officer to get his horses before dark,
+nor could he follow with his exhausted men, so he turned to the sergeant
+and asked him to pick some men and follow on the trail. The sergeant
+picked Otto Borde-son, who still affirmed that he would go anywhere that
+Johnson went, and they started. They were old hunting companions, having
+confidence in each other's sense and shooting. They ploughed through the
+snow, deeper and deeper into the pines, then on down a canon where the
+light was failing. The sergeant was sweating freely; he raised his hand
+to press his fur cap backward from his forehead. He drew it quickly
+away; he stopped and started, caught Otto by the sleeve, and drew a long
+breath. Still holding his companion, he put his glove again to his nose,
+sniffed at it again, and with a mighty tug brought the startled Swede to
+his knees, whispering, “I smell Indians; I can sure smell 'em,
+Otto--can you?” Otto sniffed, and whispered back, “Yes, plain!” “We are
+ambushed! Drop!” and the two soldiers sunk in the snow. A few feet in
+front of them lay a dark thing; crawling to it, they found a large
+calico rag, covered with blood.
+
+[Illustration: 14 THE TWO MEN CLIMBED SLOWLY]
+
+“Let's do something, Carter; we's in a fix.” “If we go down, Otto, we
+are gone; if we go back, we are gone; let's go forward,” hissed the
+sergeant.
+
+Slowly they crawled from tree to tree.
+
+“Don't you see the Injuns?” said the Swede, as he pointed to the rocks
+in front, where lay their dark forms. The still air gave no sound. The
+cathedral of nature, with its dark pine trunks starting from gray snow
+to support gray sky, was dead. Only human hearts raged, for the forms
+which held them lay like black bowlders.
+
+“Egah--lelah washatah,” yelled the sergeant.
+
+Two rifle-shots rang and reverberated down the canon; two more replied
+instantly from the soldiers. One Indian sunk, and his carbine went
+clanging down the rocks, burying itself in the snow. Another warrior
+rose slightly, took aim, but Johnson's six-shooter cracked again, and
+the Indian settled slowly down without firing. A squaw moved slowly in
+the half-light to where the buck lay. Bordeson drew a bead with his
+carbine.
+
+“Don't shoot the woman, Otto. Keep that hole covered; the place is alive
+with Indians;” and both lay still.
+
+A buck rose quickly, looked at the sergeant, and dropped back. The
+latter could see that he had him located, for he slowly poked his rifle
+up without showing his head. Johnson rolled swiftly to one side, aiming
+with his deadly revolver. Up popped the Indian's head, crack went the
+six-shooter; the head turned slowly, leaving the top exposed. Crack
+again went the alert gun of the soldier, the ball striking the head just
+below the scalp-lock and instantly jerking the body into a kneeling
+position.
+
+Then all was quiet in the gloomy woods.
+
+After a time the sergeant addressed his voice to the lonely place in
+Sioux, telling the women to come out and surrender--to leave the bucks,
+etc.
+
+An old squaw rose sharply to her feet, slapped her breast, shouted
+“Lelah washatah,” and gathering up a little girl and a bundle, she
+strode forward to the soldiers. Three other women followed, two of them
+in the same blanket.
+
+“Are there any more bucks?” roared the sergeant, in Sioux.
+
+“No more alive,” said the old squaw, in the same tongue.
+
+“Keep your rifle on the hole between the rocks; watch these people; I
+will go up,” directed the sergeant, as he slowly mounted to the ledge,
+and with levelled six-shooter peered slowly over. He stepped in and
+stood looking down on the dead warriors.
+
+A yelling in broken English smote the startled sergeant. “Tro up your
+hands, you d---- Injun! I'll blow the top off you!” came through the
+quiet. The sergeant sprang down to see the Swede standing with carbine
+levelled at a young buck confronting him with a drawn knife in his
+hands, while his blanket lay back on the snow.
+
+“He's a buck--he ain't no squaw; he tried to creep on me with a knife.
+I'm going to kill him,” shouted the excited Bordeson.
+
+“No, no, don't kill him. Otto, don't you kill him,” expostulated
+Johnson, as the Swede's finger clutched nervously at the trigger, and
+turning, he roared, “Throw away that knife, you d------Indian!”
+
+The detachment now came charging in through the snow, and gathered
+around excitedly. A late arrival came up, breathing heavily, dropped his
+gun, and springing up and down, yelled, “Be jabbers, I have got among om
+at last!” A general laugh went up, and the circle of men broke into a
+straggling line for the return. The sergeant took the little girl up in
+his arms. She grabbed him fiercely by the throat like a wild-cat,
+screaming. While nearly choking, he yet tried to mollify her, while her
+mother, seeing no harm was intended, pacified her in the soft gutturals
+of the race. She relaxed her grip, and the brave Virginian packed her
+down the mountain, wrapped in his soldier cloak. The horses were reached
+in time, and the prisoners put on double behind the soldiers, who fed
+them crackers as they marched. At two o'clock in the morning the little
+command rode into Fort Robinson and dismounted at the guardhouse. The
+little girl, who was asleep and half frozen in Johnson's overcoat, would
+not go to her mother: poor little cat, she had found a nest. The
+sergeant took her into the guard-house, where it was warm. She soon fell
+asleep, and slowly he undid her, delivering her to her mother. On the
+following morning he came early to the guard-house, loaded with trifles
+for his little Indian girl. He had expended all his credit at the
+post-trader's, but he could carry sentiment no further, for “To horse!”
+ was sounding, and he joined the Orphan Troop to again ride on the
+Dull-Knife trail. The brave Cheyennes were running through the frosty
+hills, and the cavalry horses pressed hotly after. For ten days the
+troops surrounded the Indians by day, and stood guard in the snow by
+night, but coming day found the ghostly warriors gone and their
+rifle-pits empty. They were cut off and slaughtered daily, but the
+gallant warriors were fighting to their last nerve. Towards the end they
+were cooped in a gully on War-Bon-natt Creek, where they fortified; but
+two six-pounders had been hauled out, and were turned on their works.
+The four troops of cavalry stood to horse on the plains all day, waiting
+for the poor wretches to come out, while the guns roared, ploughing the
+frozen dirt and snow over their little stronghold; but they did not come
+out. It was known that all the provisions they had was the dead horse of
+a corporal of E Troop, which had been shot within twenty paces of their
+rifle-pits.
+
+[Illustration: 15 BRAVE CHEYENNES RUNNING THROUGH THE FROSTY HILLS]
+
+So, too, the soldiers were starving, and the poor Orphans had only
+crackers to eat. They were freezing also, and murmuring to be led to
+“the charge,” that they might end it there, but they were an orphan
+troop, and must wait for others to say. The sergeant even asked an
+officer to let them go, but was peremptorily told to get back in the
+ranks.
+
+The guns ceased at night, while the troops drew off to build fires, warm
+their rigid fingers, thaw out their buffalo moccasins, and munch
+crackers, leaving a strong guard around the Cheyennes. In the night
+there was a shooting--the Indians had charged through and had gone.
+
+The day following they were again surrounded on some bluffs, and the
+battle waged until night. Next day there was a weak fire from the Indian
+position on the impregnable bluffs, and presently it ceased entirely.
+The place was approached with care and trepidation, but was empty. Two
+Indian boys, with their feet frozen, had been left as decoys, and after
+standing off four troops of cavalry for hours, they too had in some
+mysterious way departed.
+
+[Illustration: 16 THROUGH THE SMOKE SPRANG THE DARING SOLDIER]
+
+But the pursuit was relentless; on, on over the rolling hills swept the
+famishing troopers, and again the Spartan band turned at bay, firmly
+intrenched on a bluff as before. This was the last stand--nature was
+exhausted. The soldiers surrounded them, and Major Wessells turned the
+handle of the human vise. The command gathered closer about the doomed
+pits--they crawled on their bellies from one stack of sage-brush to the
+next. They were freezing. The order to charge came to the Orphan Troop,
+and yelling his command, Sergeant Johnson ran forward. Up from the
+sage-brush floundered the stiffened troopers, following on. They ran
+over three Indians, who lay sheltered in a little cut, and these killed
+three soldiers together with an old frontier sergeant who wore long
+hair, but they were destroyed in turn. While the Orphans swarmed under
+the hill, a rattling discharge poured from the rifle-pits; but the troop
+had gotten under the fire, and it all passed over their heads. On they
+pressed, their blood now quickened by excitement, crawling up the steep,
+while volley on volley poured over them. Within nine feet of the pits
+was a rim-rock ledge over which the Indian bullets swept, and here the
+charge was stopped. It now became a duel.
+
+Every time a head showed on either side, it drew fire like a flue-hole.
+Suddenly our Virginian sprang on the ledge, and like a trill on a piano
+poured a six-shooter into the intrenchment, and dropped back.
+
+Major Wessells, who was commanding the whole force, crawled to the
+position of the Orphan Troop, saying, “Doing fine work, boys. Sergeant,
+I would advise you to take off that red scarf “--when a bullet cut the
+major across the breast, whirling him around and throwing him. A
+soldier, one Lannon, sprang to him and pulled him down the bluff, the
+major protesting that he was not wounded, which proved to be true, the
+bullet having passed through his heavy clothes.
+
+The troops had drawn up on the other sides, and a perfect storm of
+bullets whirled over the in-trenchments. The powder blackened the faces
+of the men, and they took off their caps or had them shot off. To raise
+the head for more than a fraction of a second meant death.
+
+Johnson had exchanged five shots with a fine-looking Cheyenne, and every
+time he raised his eye to a level with the rock White Antelope's gun
+winked at him.
+
+“You will get killed directly,” yelled Lannon to Johnson; “they have you
+spotted.”
+
+The smoke blew and eddied over them; again Johnson rose, and again White
+Antelope's pistol cracked an accompaniment to his own; but with movement
+like lightning the sergeant sprang through the smoke, and fairly shoving
+his carbine to White Antelope's breast, he pulled the trigger. A
+50-calibre gun boomed in Johnson's face, and a volley roared from the
+pits, but he fell backward into cover. His comrades set him up to see if
+any red stains came through the grime, but he was unhurt.
+
+[Illustration: 17 THIS TIME THE AIR GREW CLEAR]
+
+The firing grew; a blue haze hung over the hill. Johnson again looked
+across the glacis, but again his eye met the savage glare of White
+Antelope.
+
+“I haven't got him yet, Lannon, but I will;” and Sergeant Johnson again
+slowly reloaded his pistol and carbine.
+
+“Now, men, give them a volley!” ordered the enraged man, and as volley
+answered volley, through the smoke sprang the daring soldier, and
+standing over White Antelope as the smoke swirled and almost hid him, he
+poured his six balls into his enemy, and thus died one brave man at the
+hands of another in fair battle. The sergeant leaped back and lay down
+among the men, stunned by the concussions. He said he would do no more.
+His mercurial temperament had undergone a change, or, to put it better,
+he conceived it to be outrageous to fight these poor people, five
+against one. He characterized it as “a d---- infantry fight,” and
+rising, talked in Sioux to the enemy--asked them to surrender, or they
+must otherwise die. A young girl answered him, and said they would like
+to. An old woman sprang on her and cut her throat with a dull knife,
+yelling meanwhile to the soldiers that “they would never surrender
+alive,” and saying what she had done.
+
+Many soldiers were being killed, and the fire from the pits grew weaker.
+The men were beside themselves with rage. “Charge!” rang through the now
+still air from some strong voice, and, with a volley, over the works
+poured the troops, with six-shooters going, and clubbed carbines. Yells,
+explosions, and amid a whirlwind of smoke the soldiers and Indians
+swayed about, now more slowly and quieter, until the smoke eddied away.
+Men stood still, peering about with wild open eyes through blackened
+faces. They held desperately to their weapons. An old bunch of buckskin
+rags rose slowly and fired a carbine aimlessly. Twenty bullets rolled
+and tumbled it along the ground, and again the smoke drifted off the
+mount. This time the air grew clear. Buffalo-robes lay all about, blood
+spotted everywhere. The dead bodies of thirty-two Cheyennes lay, writhed
+and twisted, on the packed snow, and among them many women and children,
+cut and furrowed with lead. In a corner was a pile of wounded squaws,
+half covered with dirt swept over them by the storm of bullets. One
+broken creature half raised herself from the bunch. A maddened trumpeter
+threw up his gun to shoot, but Sergeant Johnson leaped and kicked his
+gun out of his hands high into the air, saying, “This fight is over.”
+
+
+
+
+THE SPIRIT OF MAHONGUI
+
+
+IT is so I have called this old document, which is an extract from the
+memoirs of le Chevalier Bailloquet, a Frenchman living in Canada, where
+he was engaged in the Indian fur trade, about the middle of the
+seventeenth century, and as yet they are unpublished.
+
+It is written in English, since the author lived his latter life in
+England, having left Canada as the result of troubles with the
+authorities.
+
+He was captured by the Iroquois, and after living with them some time,
+made his escape to the Dutch.
+
+My Chevalier rambles somewhat, although I have been at pains to cut out
+extraneous matter. It is also true that many will not believe him in
+these days, for out of their puny volition they will analyze, and out of
+their discontent they will scoff. But to those I say, Go to your
+microbes, your statistics, your volts, and your bicycles, and leave me
+the truth of other days.
+
+[Illustration: 18 THIS WAS A FATAL EMBARQUATION]
+
+The Chevalier was on a voyage from Quebec to Montreal; let him begin:
+
+The next day we embarqued, though not without confusion, because many
+weare not content, nor satisfied. What a pleasure ye two fathers to see
+them trott up and downe ye rocks to gett their manage into ye boat. The
+boats weare so loaded that many could not proceed if foul weather should
+happen. I could not persuade myself to stay with this concourse as ye
+weather was faire for my journie. Without adoe, I gott my six wild men
+to paddle on ye way.
+
+This was a fatal embarquation, butt I did not mistrust that ye Iriquoits
+weare abroad in ye forest, for I had been at ye Peace. Nevertheless I
+find that these wild men doe naught butt what they resolve out of their
+bloodie mindedness. We passed the Point going out of ye Lake St. Peter,
+when ye Barbars appeared on ye watter-side discharging their muskets at
+us, and embarquing for our pursuit.
+
+“Kohe--kohe!”--came nearer ye fearsome warre cry of ye Iriquoit, making
+ye hearts of ye poore Hurron & ffrench alike to turn to water in their
+breasts. 2 of my savages weare strook downe at ye first discharge &
+another had his paddle cutt in twain, besides shott holes through with
+the watter poured apace. Thus weare we diminished and could not draw
+off.
+
+The Barbars weare daubed with paint, which is ye signe of warre. They
+coming against our boat struck downe our Hurrons with hattchetts, such
+as did not jump into the watter, where also they weare in no wise saved.
+
+But in my boat was a Hurron Captayne, who all his life-time had killed
+many Iriquoits & by his name for vallor had come to be a great Captayne
+att home and abroad. We weare resolved some execution & with our gunns
+dealt a discharge & drew our cutlasses to strike ye foe. They environed
+us as we weare sinking, and one spake saying--“Brothers, cheere up and
+assure yourselfe you shall not be killed; thou art both men and
+Cap-taynes, as I myself am, and I will die in thy defense.” And ye
+afforesaid crew shewed such a horrid noise, of a sudden ye Iriquoit
+Captayne took hold about me--“Thou shalt not die by another hand than
+mine.”
+
+Ye savages layd bye our armes & tyed us fast in a boat, one in one boat
+and one in another. We proceeded up ye river, rather sleeping than
+awake, for I thought never to escape.
+
+Att near sunsett we weare taken on ye shore, where ye wild men encamped
+bye making cottages of rind from off ye trees. They tyed ye Hurron
+Captayne to a trunk, he resolving most bravely but dessparred to me, and
+I too dessparred. Nevertheless he sang his fatal song though ye fire
+made him as one with the ague. They tooke out his heart and cut off some
+of ye flesh of ye miserable, boyled it and eat it. This they wished not
+to doe att this time, but that ye Hurron had been shott with a ball
+under his girdle where it was not seen, though he would have died of his
+desperate wound. That was the miserable end of that wretch.
+
+Whilst they weare busy with ye Hurron, they having stripped me naked,
+tyed me above ye elbows, and wrought a rope about my middle. They afked
+me several questions, I not being able to answer, they gave me great
+blows with their fists, then pulled out one of my nails. Having lost all
+hopes, I resolved altogether to die, itt being folly to think otherwise.
+
+I could not flee, butt was flung into a boat att daylight. Ye boats went
+all abreaft, ye wild men singing some of their fatal songs, others their
+howls of victory, ye wild “Kohes,” beating giens & parchments, blowing
+whistles, and all manner of tumult.
+
+Thus did we proceed with these ravening wolves, God having delivered a
+Chriftian into ye power of Satan.
+
+I was nott ye only one in ye claws of these wolves, for we fell in with
+150 more of these cruels, who had Hurron captyves to ye number of 33
+victimes, with heads alsoe stuck on poles, of those who in God's mercie
+weare gone from their miseries. As for me, I was put in a boat with one
+who had his fingers cutt & bourned. I asked him why ye Iriquoits had
+broak ye Peace, and he said they had told him ye ffrench had broak ye
+Peace; that ye ffrench had set their pack of doggs on an olde Iriquoit
+woman who was eat up alive & that ye Iriquoits had told ye Hurron wild
+men that they had killed ye doggs, alsoe Hurrons and ffrench, saying
+that as to ye captyves, they would boyl doggs, Hurrons, and ffrench in
+ye same kettle.
+
+A great rain arose, ye Iriquoits going to ye watter-side did cover
+themselvs with their boats, holding ye captyves ye meanwhile bye ropes
+bound about our ancles, while we stood out in ye storm, which was near
+to causing me death from my nakedness. When ye rain had abated, we
+pursued our way killing staggs, & I was given some entrails, which
+before I had only a little parched corne to ye extent of my handfull.
+
+At a point we mett a gang of ye head hunters all on ye shore, dancing
+about a tree to which was tyed a fine ffrench mastiff dogg, which was
+standing on its hinder leggs, being lashed up against a tree by its
+middle. Ye dogg was in a great terror, and frantic in its bonds. I knew
+him for a dogg from ye fort att Mont-royal, kept for to give warnings of
+ye Enemy's approach. It was a strange sight for to see ye Heathen rage
+about ye noble dogg, but he itt was nevertheless which brought ye
+Barbars against us. He was only gott with great difficulty, having
+killed one Barbar, and near to serving others like-wise.
+
+They untyed ye dogg, I holding him one side, and ye other, with cords
+they brought and tyed him in ye bow of a boat with 6 warriors to paddle
+him. Ye dogg boat was ye Head, while ye rest came on up ye river singing
+fatal songs, triumph songs, piping, howling, & ye dogg above all with
+his great noise. Ye Barbars weare more delighted att ye captyve dogg
+than att all of us poore Christians, for that they did say he was no
+dogg. Ye doggs which ye wild men have are nott so great as wolves, they
+being little else & small att that. Ye mastiff was considered as a
+consequence to be a great interest. This one had near defeated their
+troupe & now was to be horridly killed after ye bloody way of ye wild
+men.
+
+Att camp they weare sleep most of ye night, they being aweary with ye
+torture of ye Hurron Captayne previously. Ye dogg was tyed & layd nott
+far off from where I was alsoe tyed, butt over him weare 2 olde men, who
+guarded him of a fear he would eat away his ropes. These men weare
+Elders or Priests, such as are esteemed for their power over spirits, &
+they did keep up their devil's song ye night thro.
+
+I made a vertue of necessity & did sleep, butt was early cast into a
+boat to go on towards ye Enemy's countrie, tho we had raw meat given us,
+with blows on ye mouth to make us ye more quickly devour itt. An
+Iriquoit who was the Captayne in our boat, bade me to be of a good
+courage, as they would not hurt me. Ye fmall knowledge I had of their
+speech made a better hope, butt one who could have understood them would
+have been certainly in a great terror.
+
+Thus we journied 8 days on ye Lake Champlaine, where ye wind and waves
+did sore beset our endeavors att times. As for meate we wanted none, as
+we had a store of staggs along ye watter-side. We killed some every day,
+more for sport than for need. We finding them on Isles, made them go
+into ye watter, & after we killed above a score, we clipped ye ears of
+ye rest & hung bells on them, and then lett them loose. What a sport to
+see ye rest flye from them that had ye bells!
+
+There came out of ye vast forest a multitude of bears, 300 at least
+together, making a horrid noise, breaking ye small trees. We shott att
+them, butt they stirred not a step. We weare much frightened that they
+stirred nott att our shooting. Ye great ffrench dogg would fain
+encounter them notwithftanding he was tyed. He made ye watter-side to
+ring with his heavy voise & from his eyes came flames of fyre & clouds
+from out his mouth. The bears did straightway fly which much cheered ye
+Iri-quoits. One said to me they weare resolved nott to murder ye dogg,
+which was a stone-God in ye dogg shape, or a witch, butt I could nott
+fully understand. Ye wild men said they had never heard their fathers
+speak of so many bears.
+
+When we putt ye kettle on, ye wild man who had captured me, gave me of
+meate to eat, & told me a story. “Brother,” says he, “itt is a thing to
+be admired to goe afar to travell. You must know that tho I am olde, I
+have always loved ye ffrench for their goodness, but they should have
+given us to kill ye Algonkins. We should not warre against ye ffrench,
+butt trade with them for Castors, who are better for traffic than ye
+Dutch. I was once a Captayne of 13 men against ye Altignaonan-ton & ye
+ffrench. We stayed 3 whole winters among ye Ennemy, butt in ye daytime
+durst not marche nor stay out of ye deep forest. We killed many, butt
+there weare devils who took my son up in ye air so I could never again
+get him back. These devils weare as bigg as horriniacs, [moose] & ye
+little blue birds which attend upon them, said itt was time for us to go
+back to our people, which being resolved to do, we came back, butt nott
+of a fear of ye Ennemy. Our warre song grew still on our lipps, as ye
+snow falling in ye forest. I have nott any more warred to the North,
+until I was told by ye spirits to go to ye ffrench & recover my son. My
+friend, I have dreamed you weare my son;” and henceforth I was not
+hurted nor starved for food.
+
+We proceeded thro rivers & lakes & thro forests where I was made to
+support burdens. When we weare come to ye village of ye Iriquoits we lay
+in ye woods because that they would nott go into ye village in ye night
+time.
+
+The following day we weare marched into ye brough [borough] of ye
+Iriquoits. When we came in fight we heard nothing butt outcryes from one
+side, as from ye other. Then came a mighty host of people & payd great
+heed to ye ffrench dogg, which was ledd bye 2 men while roundabout his
+neck was a girdle of porcelaine. They tormented ye poore Hurrons with
+violence, butt about me was hung a long piece of porcelaine--ye girdle
+of my captor, & he stood against me.  In ye meanwhile, many of ye
+village came about us, among which a goode olde woman & a boy with a
+hattchett came neere me. Ye olde woman covered me, & ye boy took me by
+my hand and led mee out of ye companie. What comforted me was that I had
+escaped ye blowes. They brought me into ye village where ye olde woman
+fhowed me kindness. She took me into her cottage, & gave me to eat, butt
+my great terror took my stum-ack away from me. I had stayed an hour when
+a great companie came to see me, of olde men with pipes in their mouths.
+For a time they sat about, when they did lead me to another cabbin,
+where they smoked & made me apprehend they should throw me into ye fyre.
+Butt itt proved otherwise, for ye olde woman followed me, speaking
+aloud, whome they answered with a loud _ho,_ then shee tooke her girdle,
+and about me she tyed itt, so brought me to her cottage & made me to
+sitt downe. Then she gott me Indian corne toasted, & took away ye paint
+ye fellows had stuck to my face. A maide greased & combed my haire, & ye
+olde woman danced and sung, while my father bourned tobacco on a stone.
+They gave me a blew coverlitt, stockings, and shoes. I layed with her
+son & did what I could to get familiarity with them, and I suffered no
+wrong, yet I was in a terror, for ye fatal songs came from ye poore
+Hurrons. Ye olde man inquired whether I was Afferony, a ffrench. I
+affured him no, faying I was Panugaga, that is of their nation, for
+which he was pleased.
+
+[Illustration: 19 THE OMEN OF THE LITTLE BLUE BIRDS]
+
+My father feasted 200 men. My sisters made me clean for that purpose,
+and greased my haire. They tyed me with 2 necklaces of porcelaine &
+garters of ye same. My father gave me a hattchett in my hand.
+
+My father made a speech, showing many demonstrations of vallor, broak a
+kettle of cagamite with a hattchett. So they sung, as is their usual
+custom. Ye banquette being over, all cryed to me “Shagon, Orimha”--that
+is “be hearty!” Every one withdrew to his quarters.
+
+Here follows a long account of his daily life among the Indians, his
+hunting and observations, which our space forbids. He had become
+meanwhile more familiar with the language. He goes on:
+
+My father came into ye cabbin from ye grand castle & he sat him downe to
+smoke. He said ye Elders had approved after much debate, & that ye
+ffrench dogg was not a witch, but ye great warrior Mahongui, gone
+before, whose spirit had rose up into ye ffrench dogg & had spyed ye
+ffrench. Att ye council even soe ye dogg had walked into ye centre of ye
+great cabbin, there saying loudly to ye Elders what he was & that he
+must be heard. His voice must be obeyed. His was not ye mocking cryes of
+a witch from under an olde snake-skin, butt a chief come from Paradise
+to comfort his own people. My father asked me if I was agreed. I said
+that witches did not battile as openly as ye dogg, butt doe their evil
+in ye dark.
+
+[Illustration: 20 YE SPIRIT DOG STRODE FROM YE DARKNESS]
+
+These wild men are sore beset with witches and devils--more than
+Christians, as they deserve to be, for they are of Satan's own
+belonging.
+
+My father dreamed att night, & sang about itt, making ye fire to bourne
+in our cabbin. We satt to listen. He had mett ye ffrench dogg in ye
+forest path bye night--he standing accross his way, & ye forest was
+light from ye dogg's eyes, who spake to my father saying, “I belong to
+ye dead folks--my hattchett is rust--my bow is mould--I can no longer
+battile with our Ennemy, butt I hover over you in warre--I direct your
+arrows to their breasts--I smoothe ye little dry sticks & wett ye leaves
+under ye shoes--I draw ye morning mist accross to shield you--I carry ye
+'Kohes' back and fore to bring your terror--I fling aside ye foeman's
+bulletts--go back and be strong in council.”
+
+My father even in ye night drew ye Elders in ye grand cabbin. He said
+what he had seen and heard. Even then the great ffrench dogg gott from
+ye darkness of ye cabbin, & strode into ye fyre. He roared enough to
+blow downe caftles in his might & they knew he was saying what he had
+told unto my father.
+
+A great Captayne sent another night, & had ye Elders for to gather at ye
+grande cabbin. He had been paddling his boat upon ye river when ye dogg
+of Mahongui had walked out on ye watter thro ye mist. He was taller than
+ye forest. So he spake, saying “Mahongui says--go tell ye people of ye
+Panugaga, itt is time for warre--ye corne is gathered--ye deer has
+changed his coat--there are no more Hurrons for me to eat. What is a
+Panugaga village with no captyves? Ye young men will talk as women doe,
+& ye Elders will grow content to watch a snow-bird hopp. Mahongui says
+itt is time.”
+
+Again att ye council fyre ye spirit dogg strode from ye darkness & said
+itt was time. Ye tobacco was bourned by ye Priests. In ye smoke ye
+Elders beheld ye Spirit of Mahongui. “Panugaga--Warre.”
+
+Soe my father saw ye ghost of ye departed one. He smoked long bye our
+cabbin fyre. He sang his battile song. I asked him to goe myself, even
+with a hattchett, as I too was Panugaga. Butt he would in no wise
+listen. “You are nott meet,” he says, “you sayest that your God is
+above. How will you make me believe that he is as goode as your black
+coats say? They doe lie & you see ye contrary; ffor first of all, ye Sun
+bournes us often, ye rain wetts us, ye winde makes us have shipwrake, ye
+thunder, ye lightening bournes & kills us, & all comes from above, & you
+say that itt is goode to be there. For my part, I will nott go there.
+Contrary they say that ye reprobates & guilty goeth downe & bourne.
+They are mistaken; all is goode heare. Do nott you see that itt is ye
+Earthe that nourishes all living creatures--ye waiter, ye fishes, & ye
+yus, and that corne & all other fruits come up, & that all things are
+nott soe contrary to us as that from above? Ye devils live in ye air &
+they took my son. When you see that ye Earthe is our Mother, then you
+will see that all things on itt are goode. Ye Earthe was made for ye
+Panugaga, & ye souls of our warriors help us against our Ennemy. Ye
+ffrench dogg is Mahongui's spirit. He tells us to goe to warre against
+ye ffrench. Would a ffrench dogg doe that? You are nott yett Panugaga to
+follow your father in warre.”
+
+
+
+
+THE ESSENTIALS AT FORT ADOBE
+
+
+THE Indian suns himself before the door of his tepee, dreaming of the
+past. For a long time now he has eaten of the white man's lotos--the
+bimonthly beef-issue. I looked on him and wondered at the new things.
+The buffalo, the warpath, all are gone. What of the cavalrymen over at
+Adobe--his Nemesis in the stirring days--are they, too, lounging in
+barracks, since his lordship no longer leads them trooping over the
+burning flats by day and through the ragged hills by night? I will go
+and see.
+
+The blistered faces of men, the gaunt horses dragging stiffly along to
+the cruel spurring, the dirty lack-lustre of campaigning--that, of
+course, is no more. Will it be parades, and those soul-deadening “fours
+right” and “column left” affairs? Oh, my dear, let us hope not.
+
+Nothing is so necessary in the manufacture of soldiers, sure enough, but
+it is not hard to learn, and once a soldier knows it I can never
+understand why it should be drilled into him until it hurts. Besides,
+from another point of view, soldiers in rows and in lines do not compose
+well in pictures. I always feel, after seeing infantry drill in an
+armory, like Kipling's light-house keeper, who went insane looking at
+the cracks between the boards--they were all so horribly alike.
+
+Then Adobe is away out West in the blistering dust, with no towns of any
+importance near it. I can understand why men might become listless when
+they are at field-work, with the full knowledge that nothing but their
+brothers are looking at them save the hawks and coyotes. It is different
+from Meyer, with its traps full of Congressmen and girls, both of whom
+are much on the minds of cavalrymen.
+
+In due course I was bedded down at Adobe by my old friend the Captain,
+and then lay thinking of this cavalry business. It is a subject which
+thought does not simplify, but, like other great things, makes it
+complicate and recede from its votaries. To know essential details from
+unessential details is the study in all arts. Details there must be;
+they are the small things that make the big things. To apply this
+general order of things to this arm of the service kept me awake. There
+is first the riding--simple enough if they catch you young. There are
+bits, saddles, and cavalry packs. I know men who have not spoken to each
+other in years because they disagree about these. There are the sore
+backs and colics--that is a profession in itself. There are judgment of
+pace, the battle tactics, the use of three very different weapons; there
+is a world of history in this, in forty languages. Then an ever-varying
+_terrain_ tops all. There are other things not confined to cavalry, but
+regarded by all soldiers. The crowning peculiarity of cavalry is the
+rapidity of its movement, whereby a commander can lose the carefully
+built up reputation of years in about the time it takes a school-boy to
+eat a marsh-mallow. After all, it is surely a hard profession--a very
+blind trail to fame. I am glad I am not a cavalryman; still, it is the
+happiest kind of fun to look on when you are not responsible; but it
+needs some cultivation to understand and appreciate.
+
+I remember a dear friend who had a taste for out-of-doors. He penetrated
+deeply into the interior not long since to see these same troopers do a
+line of heroics, with a band of Bannocks to support the role. The
+Indians could not finally be got on the centre of the stage, but made
+hot-foot for the agency. My friend could not see any good in all this,
+nor was he satisfied with the first act even. He must needs have a
+climax, and that not forthcoming, he loaded his disgust into a trunk
+line and brought it back to his club corner here in New York. He there
+narrated the failure of his first night; said the soldiers were not even
+dusty as advertised; damned the Indians keenly, and swore at the West by
+all his gods.
+
+There was a time when I, too, regarded not the sketches in this art, but
+yearned for the finished product. That, however, is not exhibited
+generally over once in a generation.
+
+At Adobe there are only eight troops--not enough to make a German
+nurse-girl turn her head in the street, and my friend from New York,
+with his Napoleonic largeness, would scoff out loud. But he and the
+nurse do not understand the significance; they have not the eyes to see.
+A starboard or a port horseshoe would be all one to them, and a crease
+in the saddle-blanket the smallest thing in the world, yet it might
+spoil a horse.
+
+When the trumpets went in the morning I was sorry I had thought at all.
+It was not light yet, and I clung to my pillow. Already this cavalry has
+too much energy for my taste.
+
+“If you want to see anything, you want to lead out,” said the Captain,
+as he pounded me with a boot.
+
+[Illustration: 21 THE ADVANCE]
+
+“Say, Captain, I suppose Colonel Hamilton issues this order to get up at
+this hour, doesn't he?”
+
+“He does.”
+
+“Well, he has to obey his own order, then, doesn't he?”
+
+“He does.”
+
+I took a good long stretch and yawn, and what I said about Colonel
+Hamilton I will not commit to print, out of respect to the Colonel. Then
+I got up.
+
+This bitterness of bed-parting passes. The Captain said he would put a
+“cook's police” under arrest for appearing in my make-up; but all these
+details will be forgotten, and whatever happens at this hour should be
+forgiven. I had just come from the North, where I had been sauntering
+over the territory of Montana with some Indians and a wild man from
+Virginia, getting up before light--tightening up on coffee and bacon for
+twelve hours in the saddle to prepare for more bacon and coffee; but at
+Adobe I had hoped for, even if I did not expect, some repose.
+
+In the east there was a fine green coming over the sky. No one out of
+the painter guild would have admitted it was green, even on the rack,
+but what I mean is that you could not approach it in any other way. A
+nice little adjutant went jangling by on a hard-trotting thoroughbred,
+his shoulders high and his seat low. My old disease began to take
+possession of me; I could fairly feel the microbes generate. Another
+officer comes clattering, with his orderly following after. The fever
+has me. We mount, and we are off, all going to stables.
+
+Out from the corrals swarm the troopers, leading their unwilling mounts.
+The horses are saying, “Damn the Colonel!” One of them comes in arching
+bounds; he is saying worse of the Colonel, or maybe only cussing out his
+own recruit for pulling his _cincha_ too tight. They form troop lines in
+column, while the Captains throw open eyes over the things which would
+not interest my friend from New York or the German nurse-girl.
+
+The two forward troops are the enemy, and are distinguished by wearing
+brown canvas stable-frocks. These shortly move out through the post, and
+are seen no more.
+
+Now comes the sun. By the shades of Knickerbocker's _History of New
+York_ I seem now to have gotten at the beginning; but patience, the sun
+is no detail out in the arid country. It does more things than blister
+your nose. It is the despair of the painter as it colors the minarets of
+the Bad Lands which abound around Adobe, and it dries up the company
+gardens if they don't watch the _acequias_ mighty sharp. To one just out
+of bed it excuses existence. I find I begin to soften towards the
+Colonel. In fact, it is possible that he is entirely right about having
+his old trumpets blown around garrison at this hour, though it took the
+Captain's boot to prove it shortly since.
+
+[Illustration: 22 HORSE GYMNASTICS]
+
+The command moves out, trotting quickly through the blinding clouds of
+dust. The landscape seems to get right up and mingle with the
+excitement. The supple, well-trained horses lose the scintillation on
+their coats, while Uncle Sam's blue is growing mauve very rapidly. But
+there is a useful look about the men, and the horses show condition
+after their long practice march just finished. Horses much used to go
+under saddle have well-developed quarters and strong stifle action. Fact
+is, nothing looks like a horse with a harness on. That is a job for
+mules, and these should have a labor organization and monopolize it.
+
+The problem of the morning was that we as an advance were to drive the
+two troops which had gone on ahead. These in turn were to represent a
+rapidly retiring rear-guard. This training is more that troops may be
+handled with expedition, and that the men may gather the thing, rather
+than that officers should do brilliant things, which they might
+undertake on their own responsibility in time of war, such as pushing
+rapidly by on one flank and cutting out a rear-guard.
+
+Grevious and very much to be commiserated is the task of the feeling
+historian who writes of these paper wars. He may see possibilities or
+calamities which do not signify. The morning orders provide against
+genius, and who will be able to estimate the surgical possibilities of
+blank cartridges? The sergeant-major cautioned me not to indicate by my
+actions what I saw as we rode to the top of a commanding hill. The enemy
+had abandoned the stream because their retreat would have been exposed
+to fire. They made a stand back in the hills. The advance felt the
+stream quickly, and passed, fanning out to develop. The left flank
+caught their fire, whereat the centre and right came around at top
+speed. But this is getting so serious.
+
+The scene was crowded with little pictures, all happening
+quickly--little dots of horsemen gliding quickly along the yellow
+landscape, leaving long trails of steely dust in their wake. A scout
+comes trotting along, his face set in an expectant way, carbine
+advanced. A man on a horse is a vigorous, forceful thing to look at. It
+embodies the liveliness of nature in its most attractive form,
+especially when a gun and sabre are attached.
+
+[Illustration: 23 JUMPING ON A HORSE]
+
+When both living equations are young, full of oats and bacon, imbued
+with military ideas, and trained to the hour, it always seems to me that
+the ghost of a tragedy stalks at their side. This is why the polo-player
+does not qualify sentimentally. But what is one man beside two troops
+which come shortly in two solid chunks, with horses snorting and sending
+the dry landscape in a dusty pall for a quarter of a mile in the rear?
+It is good--ah! it is worth any one's while; but stop and think, what if
+we could magnify that? Tut, tut! as I said before, that only happens
+once in a generation. Adobe doesn't dream; it simply does its morning's
+work.
+
+The rear-guard have popped at our advance, which exchanges with them.
+Their fire grows slack, and from our vantage we can see them mount
+quickly and flee.
+
+After two hours of this we shake hands with the hostiles and trot home
+to breakfast.
+
+These active, hard-riding, straight-shooting, open-order men are doing
+real work, and are not being stupefied by drill-ground routine, or
+rendered listless by file-closer prompting or sleepy reiteration.
+
+By the time the command dismounts in front of stables we turn longingly
+to the thoughts of breakfast. Every one has completely forgiven the
+Colonel, though I have no doubt he will be equally unpopular to-morrow
+morning.
+
+But what do I see--am I faint? No; it has happened again. It looks as
+though I saw a soldier jump over a horse. I moved on him.
+
+“Did I see you--” I began.
+
+“Oh yes, sir--you see,” returned a little soldier, who ran with the
+mincing steps of an athlete towards his horse, and landed standing uip
+on his hind quarters, whereupon he settled down quietly into his saddle.
+
+Others began to gyrate over and under their horses in a dizzy way. Some
+had taken their saddles off and now sat on their horses' bellies, while
+the big dog-like animals lay on their backs, with their feet in the air.
+It was circus business, or what they call “short and long horse”
+ work--some not understandable phrase. Every one does it. While I am not
+unaccustomed to looking at cavalry, I am being perpetually surprised by
+the lengths to which our cavalry is carrying thus Cossack drill. It is
+beginning to be nothing short of marvellous.
+
+In the old days this thing was not known. Between building mud or log
+forts, working on the bull-train, marching or fighting, a man and a gun
+made a soldier; but it takes an education along with this now before he
+can qualify.
+
+[Illustration: 24 A TAME HORSE]
+
+The regular work at Adobe went on during the day--guard mount, orders,
+inspection, and routine.
+
+At the club I was asked, “Going out this afternoon with us?”
+
+“Yes, he is going; his horse will be up at 4.30; he wants to see this
+cavalry,” answered my friend the Captain for me.
+
+“Yes; it's fine moonlight. The Colonel is going to do an attack on
+Cossack posts out in the hills,” said the adjutant.
+
+So at five o'clock we again sallied out in the dust, the men in the
+ranks next me silhouetting one after the other more dimly until they
+disappeared in the enveloping cloud. They were cheerful, laughing and
+wondering one to another if Captain Garrard, the enemy, would get in on
+their pickets. He was regarded in the ranks as a sharp fellow, one to be
+well looked after.
+
+At the line of hills where the Colonel stopped, the various troops were
+told off in their positions, while the long cool shadows of evening
+stole over the land, and the pale moon began to grow bolder over on the
+left flank.
+
+I sat on a hill with a sergeant who knew history and horses. He
+remembered “Pansy,” which had served sixteen years in the troop--and a
+first-rate old horse then; but a damned inspector with no soul came
+browsing around one day and condemned that old horse. Government got a
+measly ten dollars--or something like that. This ran along for a time;
+when one day they were trooping up some lonely valley, and, behold,
+there stood “Pansy,” as thin as a snake, tied by a wickieup. He greeted
+the troop with joyful neighs.  The soldiers asked the Captain to be
+allowed to shoot him, but of course he said no. I could not learn if he
+winked when he said it. The column wound over the hill, a carbine rang
+from its rear, and “Pansy” lay down in the dust without a kick. Death is
+better than an Indian for a horse.  The thing was not noticed at the
+time, but made a world of fuss afterwards, though how it all came out
+the sergeant did not develop, nor was it necessary.
+
+Night settled down on the quiet hills, and the dark spots of pickets
+showed dimly on the gray surface of the land. The Colonel inspected his
+line, and found everybody alert and possessed of a good working
+knowledge of picket duties at night--one of the most difficult duties
+enlisted men have to perform. It is astonishing how short is the
+distance at which we can see a picket even in this bright night on the
+open hills.
+
+I sat on my horse by a sergeant at a point in the line where I suspected
+the attack would come. The sergeant thought he saw figures moving in a
+dry bottom before us. I could not see. A column of dust off to the left
+indicated troops, but we thought it a ruse of Garrard's. My sergeant,
+though, had really seen the enemy, and said, softly, “They are coming.”
+
+[Illustration: 25 THE PURSUIT]
+
+The bottom twinkled and popped with savage little yellow winks; bang!
+went a rifle in my ear; “whew!” snorted my big horse; and our picket
+went to the supports clattering.
+
+The shots and yells followed fast. The Colonel had withdrawn the
+supports towards the post rapidly, leaving his picket-line in the air--a
+thing which happens in war; but he did not lose much of that line, I
+should say.
+
+It was an interesting drill. Pestiferous little man disturbed nature,
+and it all seemed so absurd out there on those quiet gray hills. It made
+me feel, as I slowed down and gazed at the vastness of things, like a
+superior sort of bug. In the middle distance several hundred troops are
+of no more proportion than an old cow bawling through the hills after
+her wolf-eaten calf. If my mental vision were not distorted I should
+never have seen the manoeuvre at all--only the moon and the land doing
+what they have done before for so long a time.
+
+We reached Adobe rather late, when I found that the day's work had done
+wonders for my appetite. I reminded the Captain that I had broken his
+bread but once that day.
+
+“It is enough for a Ninth Cavalry man,” he observed. However, I
+out-flanked this brutal disregard for established customs, but it was
+“cold.”
+
+In the morning I resisted the Captain's boot, and protested that I must
+be let alone; which being so, I appeared groomed and breakfasted at a
+Christian hour, fully persuaded that as between an Indian and a Ninth
+Cavalry man I should elect to be an Indian.
+
+Some one must have disciplined the Colonel. I don't know who it was.
+There is only one woman in a post who can, generally; but no dinners
+were spoiled at Adobe by night-cat affairs.
+
+Instead, during the afternoon we were to see Captain Garrard, the
+hostile, try to save two troops which were pressed into the bend of a
+river by throwing over a bridge, while holding the enemy in check. This
+was as complicated as putting a baby to sleep while reading law; so
+clearly my point of view was with the hostiles. With them I entered the
+neck. The horses were grouped in the brush, leaving some men who were
+going underground like gophers out near the entrance. The
+brown-canvas-covered soldiers grabbed their axes, rolled their eyes
+towards the open plain, and listened expectantly.
+
+[Illustration: 26 THE ATTACK ON THE COSSACK]
+
+The clear notes of a bugle rang; whackety, bang--clack--clack, went the
+axes. Trees fell all around. The forest seemed to drop on me. I got my
+horse and fled across the creek.
+
+“That isn't fair; this stream is supposed to be impassable,” sang out a
+lieutenant, who was doing a Blondin act on the first tree over, while
+beneath him yawned the chasm of four or five feet.
+
+In less than a minute the whole forest got up again and moved towards
+the bridge. There were men behind it, but the leaves concealed them.
+Logs dropped over, brush piled on top. The rifles rang in scattered
+volleys, and the enemy's fire rolled out beyond the brush. No bullets
+whistled--that was a redeeming feature.
+
+Aside from that it seemed as though every man was doing his ultimate
+act. They flew about; the shovels dug with despair; the sand covered the
+logs in a shower. While I am telling this the bridge was made.
+
+The first horse came forward, led by his rider. He raised his eyes like
+St. Anthony; he did not approve of the bridge. He put his ears forward,
+felt with his toes, squatted behind, and made nervous side steps. The
+men moved on him in a solid crowd from behind. Stepping high and short
+he then bounded over, and after him in a stream came the willing
+brothers. Out along the bluffs strung the troopers to cover the heroes
+who had held the neck, while they destroyed the bridge.
+
+Then they rode home with the enemy, chaffing each other.
+
+It is only a workaday matter, all this; but workaday stuff does the
+business nowadays.
+
+
+
+
+MASSAI'S CROOKED TRAIL
+
+
+IT is a bold person who will dare to say that a wilder savage ever lived
+than an Apache Indian, and in this respect no Apache can rival Massai.
+
+He was a _bronco_ Chiricahua whose _tequa_ tracks were so long and
+devious that all of them can never be accounted for. Three regiments of
+cavalry, all the scouts--both white and black--and Mexicans galore had
+their hack, but the ghostly presence appeared and disappeared from the
+Colorado to the Yaqui. No one can tell how Massai's face looks, or
+looked, though hundreds know the shape of his footprint.
+
+The Seventh made some little killings, but they fear that Massai was not
+among the game. There surely is or was such a person as Massai. He
+developed himself slowly, as I will show by the Sherlock Holmes methods
+of the chief of scouts, though even he only got so far, after all.
+Massai manifested himself like the dust-storm or the morning mist--a
+shiver in the air, and gone.
+
+The chief walked his horse slowly back on the lost trail in disgust,
+while the scouts bobbed along behind perplexed. It was always so. Time
+has passed, and Massai, indeed, seems gone, since he appears no more.
+The hope in the breasts of countless men is nearly blighted; they no
+longer expect to see Massai's head brought into camp done up in an old
+shirt and dropped triumphantly on the ground in front of the chief of
+scouts' tent, so it is time to preserve what trail we can.
+
+Three troops of the Tenth had gone into camp for the night, and the
+ghostly Montana landscape hummed with the murmur of many men. Supper was
+over, and I got the old Apache chief of scouts behind his own ducking,
+and demanded what he knew of an Apache Indian down in Arizona named
+Massai. He knew all or nearly all that any white man will ever know.
+
+“All right,” said the chief, as he lit a cigar and tipped his sombrero
+over his left eye, “but let me get it straight. Massai's trail was so
+crooked, I had to study nights to keep it arranged in my head. He didn't
+leave much more trail than a buzzard, anyhow, and it took years to
+unravel it. But I am anticipating.
+
+“I was chief of scouts at Apache in the fall of '90, when word was
+brought in that an Indian girl named Natastale had disappeared, and that
+her mother was found under a walnut-tree with a bullet through her body.
+I immediately sent Indian scouts to take the trail. They found the
+tracks of a mare and colt going by the spot, and thinking it would bring
+them to the girl, they followed it. Shortly they found a moccasin track
+where a man had dismounted from the mare, and without paying more
+attention to the horse track, they followed it. They ran down one of my
+own scouts in a _tiswin_ [An intoxicating beverage made of corn] camp,
+where he was carousing with other drinkers. They sprang on him, got him
+by the hair, disarmed and bound him. Then they asked him what he had
+done with the girl, and why he had killed the mother, to which he
+replied that 'he did not know.' When he was brought to me, about dark,
+there was intense excitement among the Indians, who crowded around
+demanding Indian justice on the head of the murderer and ravisher of the
+women. In order to save his life I took him from the Indians and lodged
+him in the post guard-house. On the following morning, in order to
+satisfy myself positively that this man had committed the murder, I sent
+my first sergeant, the famous Mickey Free, with a picked party of
+trailers, back to the walnut-tree, with orders to go carefully over the
+trail and run down the mare and colt, or find the girl, dead or alive,
+wherever they might.
+
+[Illustration: 27 NATASTALE]
+
+“In two hours word was sent to me that the trail was running to the
+north. They had found the body of the colt with its throat cut, and were
+following the mare. The trail showed that a man afoot was driving the
+mare, and the scouts thought the girl was on the mare. This proved that
+we had the wrong man in custody. I therefore turned him loose, telling
+him he was all right. In return he told me that he owned the mare and
+colt, and that when he passed the tree the girl was up in its branches,
+shaking down nuts which her old mother was gathering. He had ridden
+along, and about an hour afterwards had heard a shot. He turned his mare
+loose, and proceeded on foot to the _tiswin_ camp, where he heard later
+that the old woman had been shot and the girl 'lifted.' When arrested,
+he knew that the other scouts had trailed him from the walnut-tree; he
+saw the circumstances against him, and was afraid.
+
+“On the night of the second day Mickey Free's party returned, having run
+the trail to within a few hundred yards of the camp of Alcashay in the
+Forestdale country, between whose band and the band to which the girl
+belonged there was a blood-feud. They concluded that the murderer
+belonged to Alcashay's camp, and were afraid to engage him.
+
+[Illustration: 28 THE ARREST OF THE SCOUT]
+
+“I sent for Alcashay to come in immediately, which he did, and I
+demanded that he trail the man and deliver him up to me, or I would take
+my scout corps, go to his camp, and arrest all suspicious characters. He
+stoutly denied that the man was in his camp, promised to do as I
+directed, and, to further allay any suspicions, he asked for my picked
+trailers to help run the trail. With this body of men he proceeded on
+the track, and they found that it ran right around his camp, then turned
+sharply to the east, ran within two hundred yards of a stage-ranch,
+thence into some rough mountain country, where it twisted and turned for
+forty miles. At this point they found the first camp the man had made.
+He had tied the girl to a tree by the feet, which permitted her to sleep
+on her back; the mare had been killed, some steaks taken out, and some
+meat 'jerked.' From thence on they could find no trail which they could
+follow. At long intervals they found his moccasin mark between rocks,
+but after circling for miles they gave it up. In this camp they found
+and brought to me a fire-stick--the first and only one I had ever
+seen--and they told me that the fire-stick had not been used by Apaches
+for many years. There were only a few old men in my camp who were
+familiar with its use, though one managed to light his cigarette with
+it. They reasoned from this that the man was a bronco Indian who had
+been so long 'out' that he could not procure matches, and also that he
+was a much wilder one than any of the Indians then known to be outlawed.
+
+“In about a week there was another Indian girl stolen from one of my
+hay-camps, and many scouts thought it was the same Indian, who they
+decided was one of the well-known outlaws; but older and better men did
+not agree with them; so there the matter rested for some months.
+
+“In the spring the first missing girl rode into Fort Apache on a fine
+horse, which was loaded down with buckskins and other Indian finery. Two
+cowboys followed her shortly and claimed the pony, which bore a C C C
+brand, and I gave it up to them. I took the girl into my office, for she
+was so tired that she could hardly stand up, while she was haggard and
+worn to the last degree. When she had sufficiently recovered she told me
+her story. She said she was up in the walnut-tree when an Indian shot
+her mother, and coming up, forced her to go with him. He trailed and
+picked up the mare, bound her on its back, and drove it along. The colt
+whinnied, whereupon he cut its throat. He made straight for Alcashay's
+camp, which he circled, and then turned sharply to the east, where he
+made the big twisting through the mountains which my scouts found. After
+going all night and the next day, he made the first camp. After killing
+and cooking the mare, he gave her something to eat, tied her up by the
+feet, and standing over her, told her that he was getting to be an old
+man, was tired of making his own fires, and wanted a woman. If she was a
+good girl he would not kill her, but would treat her well and always
+have venison hanging up. He continued that he was going away for a few
+hours, and would come back and kill her if she tried to undo the cords;
+but she fell asleep while he was talking. After daylight he returned,
+untied her, made her climb on his back, and thus carried her for a long
+distance. Occasionally he made her alight where the ground was hard,
+telling her if she made any 'sign' he would kill her, which made her
+careful of her steps.
+
+“After some miles of this blinding of the trail they came upon a white
+horse that was tied to a tree. They mounted double, and rode all day as
+fast as he could lash the pony, until, near nightfall, it fell from
+exhaustion, whereupon he killed it and cooked some of the carcass. The
+bronco Indian took himself off for a couple of hours, and when he
+returned, brought another horse, which they mounted, and sped onward
+through the moonlight all night long. On that morning they were in the
+high mountains, the poor pony suffering the same fate as the others.
+
+“They stayed here two days, he tying her up whenever he went hunting,
+she being so exhausted after the long flight that she lay comatose in
+her bonds. From thence they journeyed south slowly, keeping to the high
+mountains, and only once did he speak, when he told her that a certain
+mountain pass was the home of the Chiricahuas. From the girl's account
+she must have gone far south into the Sierra Madre of Old Mexico, though
+of course she was long since lost.
+
+“He killed game easily, she tanned the hides, and they lived as man and
+wife. Day by day they threaded their way through the deep canons and
+over the Blue Mountain ranges. By this time he had become fond of the
+White Mountain girl, and told her that he was Massai, a Chiricahua
+warrior; that he had been arrested after the Geronimo war and sent East
+on the railroad over two years since, but had escaped one night from the
+train, and had made his way alone back to his native deserts. Since then
+it is known that an Indian did turn up missing, but it was a big band of
+prisoners, and some births had occurred, which made the checking off
+come straight. He was not missed at the time. From what the girl said,
+he must have got off east of Kansas City and travelled south and then
+west, till at last he came to the lands of the Mescalero Apaches, where
+he stayed for some time. He was over a year making this journey, and
+told the girl that no human eye ever saw him once in that time. This is
+all he ever told the girl Natastale, and she was afraid to ask him more.
+Beyond these mere facts, it is still a midnight prowl of a human coyote
+through a settled country for twelve hundred miles, the hardihood of the
+undertaking being equalled only by the instinct which took him home.
+
+[Illustration: 29 SCOUTS]
+
+“Once only while the girl was with him did they see sign of other
+Indians, and straightway Massai turned away--his wild nature shunning
+even the society of his kind.
+
+“At times 'his heart was bad,' and once he sat brooding for a whole day,
+finally telling her that he was going into a bad country to kill
+Mexicans, that women were a burden on a warrior, and that he had made up
+his mind to kill her. All through her narrative he seemed at times to be
+overcome with this blood-thirst, which took the form of a homicidal
+melancholia. She begged so hard for her life that he relented; so he
+left her in the wild tangle of mountains while he raided on the Mexican
+settlements. He came back with horses and powder and lead. This last was
+in Winchester bullets, which he melted up and recast into .50-calibre
+balls made in moulds of cactus sticks. He did not tell how many murders
+he had committed during these raids, but doubtless many.
+
+“They lived that winter through in the Sierras, and in the spring
+started north, crossing the railroad twice, which meant the Guaymas and
+the Southern Pacific. They sat all one day on a high mountain and
+watched the trains of cars go by; but 'his heart got bad' at the sight
+of them, and again he concluded to kill the girl. Again she begged off,
+and they continued up the range of the Mogollons. He was unhappy in his
+mind during all this journey, saying men were scarce up here, that he
+must go back to Mexico and kill some one.
+
+“He was tired of the woman, and did not want her to go back with him,
+so, after sitting all day on a rock while she besought him, the old wolf
+told her to go home in peace. But the girl was lost, and told him that
+either the Mexicans or Americans would kill her if she departed from
+him; so his mood softened, and telling her to come on, he began the
+homeward journey. They passed through a small American town in the
+middle of the night--he having previously taken off the Indian rawhide
+shoes from the ponies. They crossed the Gila near the Nau Taw Mountains.
+Here he stole two fresh horses, and loading one with all the buckskins,
+he put her on and headed her down the Eagle Trail to Black River. She
+now knew where she was, but was nearly dying from the exhaustion of his
+fly-by-night expeditions. He halted her, told her to 'tell the white
+officer that she was a pretty good girl, better than the San Carlos
+woman, and that he would come again and get another.' He struck her
+horse and was gone.
+
+[Illustration: 30 THE CHIEF OF SCOUTS]
+
+“Massai then became a problem to successive chiefs of scouts, a bugbear
+to the reservation Indians, and a terror to Arizona. If a man was killed
+or a woman missed, the Indians came galloping and the scouts lay on his
+trail. If he met a woman in the defiles, he stretched her dead if she
+did not please his errant fancy. He took pot-shots at the men ploughing
+in their little fields, and knocked the Mexican bull-drivers on the head
+as they plodded through the blinding dust of the Globe Road. He even sat
+like a vulture on the rim-rock and signalled the Indians to come out and
+talk. When two Indians thus accosted did go out, they found themselves
+looking down Mas-sai's.50-calibre, and were tempted to do his bidding.
+He sent one in for sugar and coffee, holding the brother, for such he
+happened to be, as a hostage till the sugar and coffee came. Then he
+told them that he was going behind a rock to lie down, cautioning them
+not to move for an hour. That was an unnecessary bluff, for they did not
+wink an eye till sundown. Later than this he stole a girl in broad
+daylight in the face of a San Carlos camp and dragged her up the rocks.
+Here he was attacked by fifteen or twenty bucks, whom he stood off until
+darkness. When they reached his lair in the morning, there lay the dead
+girl, but Massai was gone.
+
+“I never saw Massai but once, and then it was only a piece of his G
+string flickering in the brush. We had followed his trail half the
+night, and just at daylight, as we ascended a steep part of the
+mountains, I caught sight of a pony's head looking over a bush. We
+advanced rapidly, only to find the horse grunting from a stab wound in
+the belly, and the little camp scattered around about him. The shirt
+tail flickering in the brush was all of Massai. We followed on, but he
+had gone down a steep bluff. We went down too, thus exposing ourselves
+to draw his fire so that we could locate him, but he was not tempted.
+
+“The late Lieutenant Clark had much the same view of this mountain
+outlaw, and since those days two young men of the Seventh Cavalry, Rice
+and Averill, have on separate occasions crawled on his camp at the break
+of day, only to see Massai go out of sight in the brush like a blue
+quail.
+
+“Lieutenant Averill, after a forced march of eighty-six miles, reached a
+hostile camp near morning, after climbing his detachment, since
+midnight, up the almost inaccessible rocks, in hopes of surprising the
+camp. He divided his force into three parts, and tried, as well as
+possible, to close every avenue of escape; but as the camp was on a high
+rocky hill at the junction of four deep canons, this was found
+impracticable. At daylight the savages came out together, running like
+deer, and making for the canons. The soldiers fired, killing a buck and
+accidentally wounding a squaw, but Massai simply disappeared.
+
+“That's the story of Massai. It is not as long as his trail,” said the
+chief of scouts.
+
+
+
+
+JOSHUA GOODENOUGH'S OLD LETTER
+
+
+THE following letter has come into my possession, which I publish
+because it is history, and descends to the list of those humble beings
+who builded so well for us the institutions which we now enjoy in this
+country. It is yellow with age, and much frayed out at the foldings,
+being in those spots no longer discernible. It runs:
+
+ALBANY _June_ 1798.
+
+TO MY DEAR SON JOSEPH.--It is true that there are points in the history
+of the country in which your father had a concern in his early life, and
+as you ask me to put it down I will do so briefly. Not, however, my dear
+Joseph, as I was used to tell it to you when you were a lad, but with
+more exact truth, for I am getting on in my years and this will soon be
+all that my posterity will have of their ancestor. I conceive that now
+the descendents of the noble band of heroes who fought off the indians,
+the Frenche and the British will prevail in this country, and my
+children's children may want to add what is found here in written to
+their own achievements.
+
+To begin with, my father was the master of a fishing-schooner, of
+Marblehead. In the year 1745 he was taken at sea by a French man-of-war
+off Louisbourg, after making a desperate resistence. His ship was in a
+sinking condition and the blood was mid-leg deep on her deck. Your
+grandfather was an upstanding man and did not prostrate easily, but the
+Frencher was too big, so he was captured and later found his way as a
+prisoner to Quebec. He was exchanged by a mistake in his identity for
+Huron indians captivated in York, and he subsequently settled near
+Albany, afterwards bringing my mother, two sisters, and myself from
+Marblehead.
+
+He engaged in the indian trade, and as I was a rugged lad of my years I
+did often accompany him on his expeditions westward into the Mohawk
+townes, thus living in bark camps among Indians and got thereby a
+knowledge of their ways. I made shift also to learn their language, and
+what with living in the bush for so many years I was a hand at a pack or
+paddle and no mean hunter besides. I was put to school for two seasons
+in Albany which was not to my liking, so I straightway ran off to a
+hunters camp up the Hudson, and only came back when my father would say
+that I should not be again put with the pedegogue. For this adventure I
+had a good strapping from my father, and was set to work in his trade
+again.  My mother was a pious woman and did not like me to grow up in
+the wilderness--for it was the silly fashion of those times to ape the
+manners and dress of the Indians.
+
+My father was a shifty trader and very ventur-some. He often had trouble
+with the people in these parts, who were Dutch and were jealous of him.
+He had a violent temper and was not easily bent from his purpose by
+opporsition. His men had a deal of fear of him and good cause enough in
+the bargain, for I once saw him discipline a half-negro man who was one
+of his boat-men for stealing his private jug of liquor from his private
+pack. He clinched with the negro and soon had him on the ground, where
+the man struggled manfully but to no purpose, for your grandfather soon
+had him at his mercy. “Now,” said he, “give me the jug or take the
+consequences.” The other boat paddlers wanted to rescue him, but I
+menaced them with my fusil and the matter ended by the return of the
+jug.
+
+In 1753 he met his end at the hands of western Indians in the French
+interest, who shot him as he was helping to carry a battoe, and he was
+burried in the wilderness. My mother then returned to her home in
+Massassachusetts, journeying with a party of traders but I staid with
+the Dutch on these frontiers because I had learned the indian trade and
+liked the country. Not having any chances, I had little book learning in
+my youth, having to this day a regret concerning it. I read a few books,
+but fear I had a narrow knowledge of things outside the Dutch
+settlements. On the frontiers, for that matter, few people had much
+skill with the pen, nor was much needed. The axe and rifle, the paddle
+and pack being more to our hands in those rough days. To prosper though,
+men weare shrewd-headed enough. I have never seen that books helped
+people to trade sharper. Shortly afterwards our trade fell away, for the
+French had embroiled the Indians against us. Crown Point was the Place
+from which the Indians in their interest had been fitted out to go
+against our settlements, so a design was formed by His Majesty the
+British King to dispossess them of that place. Troops were levid in the
+Province and the war began. The Frenchers had the best of the fighting.
+
+Our frontiers were beset with the Canada indians so that it was not safe
+to go about in the country at all. I was working for Peter Vrooman, a
+trader, and was living at his house on the Mohawk. One Sunday morning I
+found a negro boy who was shot through the body with two balls as he was
+hunting for stray sheep, and all this within half a mile of Vrooman's
+house. Then an express came up the valley who left word that the
+Province was levying troops at Albany to fight the French, and I took my
+pay from Vrooman saying that I would go to Albany for a soldier. Another
+young man and myself paddled down to Albany, and we both enlisted in the
+York levies. We drawed our ammunition, tents, kettles, bowls and knives
+at the Albany flats, and were drilled by an officer who had been in her
+Majesty's Service. One man was given five hundred lashes for enlisting
+in some Connecticut troops, and the orders said that any man who should
+leave His Majesty's service without a Regular discharge should suffer
+Death. The restraint which was put upon me by this military life was not
+to my liking, and I was in a mortal dread of the whippings which men
+were constantly receiving for breaches of the discipline. I felt that I
+could not survive the shame of being trussed up and lashed before men's
+eyes, but I did also have a great mind to fight the French which kept me
+along.  One day came an order to prepare a list of officers and men who
+were willing to go scouting and be freed from other duty, and after some
+time I got my name put down, for I was thought too young, but I said I
+knew the woods, had often been to Andiatirocte (or Lake George as it had
+then become the fashion to call it) and they let me go. It was dangerous
+work, for reports came every day of how our Rangers suffered up country
+at the hands of the cruel savages from Canada, but it is impossible to
+play at bowls without meeting some rubs. A party of us proceeded up
+river to join Captain Rogers at Fort Edward, and we were put to camp on
+an Island. This was in October of the year 1757. We found the Rangers
+were rough borderers like ourselvs, mostly Hampshire men well used to
+the woods and much accustomed to the Enemy. They dressed in the fashion
+of those times in skin and grey duffle hunting frocks, and were well
+armed.  Rogers himself was a doughty man and had a reputation as a bold
+Ranger leader. The men declaired that following him was sore service,
+but that he most always met with great success. The Fort was garrissoned
+by His Majesty's soldiers, and I did not conceive that they were much
+fitted for bush-ranging, which I afterwards found to be the case, but
+they would always fight well enough, though often to no good purpose,
+which was not their fault so much as the headstrong leadership which
+persisted in making them come to close quarters while at a disadvantage.
+There were great numbers of pack horses coming and going with stores,
+and many officers in gold lace and red coats were riding about directing
+here and there. I can remember that I had a great interest in this
+concourse of men, for up to that time I had not seen much of the world
+outside of the wilderness. There was terror of the Canada indians who
+had come down to our borders hunting for scalps--for these were
+continually lurking near the cantanements to waylay the unwary. I had
+got acquainted with a Hampshire borderer who had passed his life on the
+Canada frontier, where he had fought indians and been captured by them.
+I had seen much of indians and knew their silent forest habits when
+hunting, so that I felt that when they were after human beings they
+would be no mean adversaries, but I had never hunted them or they me.
+
+[Illustration: 31 NOT MUCH FITTED FOR BUSH-RANGING]
+
+I talked at great length with this Shankland, or Shanks as he was called
+on account of his name and his long legs, in course of which he
+explained many useful points to me concerning Ranger ways. He said they
+always marched until it was quite dark before encamping--that they
+always returned by a different route from that on which they went out,
+and that they circled on their trail at intervals so that they might
+intercept any one coming on their rear. He told me not to gather up
+close to other Rangers in a fight but to keep spread out, which gave the
+Enemy less mark to fire upon and also deceived them as to your own
+numbers. Then also he cautioned me not to fire on the Enemy when we were
+in ambush till they have approached quite near, which will put them in
+greater surprise and give your own people time to rush in on them with
+hatchets or cutlasses.  Shanks and I had finally a great fancy for each
+other and passed most of our time in company. He was a slow man in his
+movements albeit he could move fast enough on occassion, and was a great
+hand to take note of things happening around him. No indian was better
+able to discern a trail in the bush than he, nor could one be found his
+equal at making snow shoes, carving a powder horn or fashioning any
+knick-nack he was a mind to set his hand to.
+
+The Rangers were accustomed to scout in small parties to keep the Canada
+indians from coming close to Fort Edward. I had been out with Shanks on
+minor occasions, but I must relate my first adventure.
+
+A party... (here the writing is lost)... was desirous of taking a
+captive or scalp. I misdoubted our going alone by ourselvs, but he said
+we were as safe as with more. We went northwest slowly for two days, and
+though we saw many old trails we found none which were fresh. We had
+gone on until night when we lay bye near a small brook. I was awakened
+by Shanks in the night and heard a great howling of wolves at some
+distance off togther with a gun shot. We lay awake until daybreak and at
+intervals heard a gun fired all though the night. We decided that the
+firing could not come from a large party and so began to approach the
+sound slowly and with the greatest caution. We could not understand why
+the wolves should be so bold with the gun firing, but as we came neare
+we smelled smoke and knew it was a camp-fire. There were a number of
+wolves running about in the underbrush from whose actions we located the
+camp. From a rise we could presently see it, and were surprised to find
+it contained five Indians all lying asleep in their blankets. The wolves
+would go right up to the camp and yet the indians did not deign to give
+them any notice whatsoever, or even to move in the least when one wolf
+pulled at the blanket of a sleeper. We each selected a man when we had
+come near enough, and preparing to deliver our fire, when of a sudden
+one figure rose up slightly. We nevertheless fired and then rushed
+forward, reloading. To our astonishment none of the figures moved in the
+least but the wolves scurried off. We were advancing cautiously when
+Shanks caught me by the arm saying “we must run, that they had all died
+of the small-pox,” and run we did lustilly for a good long distance.
+After this manner did many Indians die in the wilderness from that
+dreadful disease, and I have since supposed that the last living indian
+had kept firing his gun at the wolves until he had no longer strength to
+reload his piece.
+
+[Illustration: 32 THE MARCH OF ROGERS'S RANGERS]
+
+After this Shanks and I had become great friends for he had liked the
+way I had conducted myself on this expedition. He was always ar-guying
+with me to cut off my eel-skin que which I wore after the fashion of the
+Dutch folks, saying that the Canada indians would parade me for a
+Dutchman after that token was gone with my scalp. He had.... (writing
+obliterated).
+
+Early that winter I was one of 150 Rangers who marched with Captain
+Rogers against the Enemy at Carrillion. The snow was not deep at
+starting but it continued to snow until it was heavy footing and many of
+the men gave out and returned to Fort Edward, but notwithstanding my
+exhaustion I continued on for six days until we were come to within six
+hundred yards of Carrillion Fort. The captain had made us a speech in
+which he told us the points where we were to rendevoux if we were broke
+in the fight, for further resistence until night came on, when we could
+take ourselvs off as best we might. I was with the advance guard. We lay
+in ambush in some fallen timber quite close to a road, from which we
+could see the smoke from the chimneys of the Fort and the Gentries
+walking their beats. A French soldier was seen to come from the Fort and
+the word was passed to let him go bye us, as he came down the road. We
+lay perfectly still not daring to breathe, and though he saw nothing he
+stopped once and seemed undecided as to going on, but suspecting nothing
+he continued and was captured by our people below, for prisoners were
+wanted at Headquarters to give information of the French forces and
+intentions. A man taken in this way was threatened with Death if he did
+not tell the whole truth, which under the circumstancs he mostly did to
+save his life.
+
+The French did not come out of the Fort after us, though Rogers tried to
+entice them by firing guns and showing small parties of men which
+feigned to retreat. We were ordered to destroy what we could of the
+supplies, so Shanks and I killed a small cow which we found in the edge
+of the clearing and took off some fresh beef of which food we were sadly
+in need, for on these scouts the Rangers were not permitted to fire guns
+at game though it was found in thir path, as it often was in fact. I can
+remember on one occassion that I stood by a tree in a snow storm, with
+my gun depressed under my frock the better to keep it dry, when I was
+minded to glance quickly around and there saw a large wolf just ready to
+spring upon me. I cautiously presented my fusee but did not dare to fire
+against the orders. An other Ranger came shortly into view and the wolf
+took himself off. We burned some large wood piles, which no doubt made
+winter work for to keep some Frenchers at home. They only fired some
+cannon at us, which beyond a great deal of noise did no harm. We then
+marched back to Fort Edward and were glad enough to get there, since it
+was time for snow-shoes, which we had not with us.
+
+The Canada indians were coming down to our Forts and even behind them to
+intercept our convoys or any parties out on the road, so that the
+Rangers were kept out, to head them when they could, or get knowledge of
+their whereabouts. Shanks and I went out with two Mohegon indians on a
+scout. It was exceedingly stormy weather and very heavy travelling
+except on the River. I had got a bearskin blanket from the indians which
+is necessary to keep out the cold at this season. We had ten days of
+bread, pork and rum with a little salt with us, and followed the indians
+in a direction North-and-bye-East towards the lower end of Lake
+Champlain, always keeping to the high-ground with the falling snow to
+fill our tracks behind us. For four days we travelled when we were well
+up the west side. We had crossed numbers of trails but they were all
+full of old snow and not worth regarding--still we were so far from our
+post that in event of encountering any numbers of the Enemy we had but
+small hope of a safe return and had therefore to observe the greatest
+caution.
+
+As we were making our way an immense painter so menaced us that we were
+forced to fire our guns to dispatch him. He was found to be very old,
+his teeth almost gone, and was in the last stages of starvation. We were
+much alarmed at this misadventure, fearing the Enemy might hear us or
+see the ravens gathering above, so we crossed the Lake that night on
+some new ice to blind our trail, where I broke through in one place and
+was only saved by Shanks, who got hold of my eel-skin que, thereby
+having something to pull me out with. We got into a deep gully, and
+striking flint made a fire to dry me and I did not suffer much
+inconvenience.
+
+The day following we took a long circle and came out on the lower end of
+the Lake, there laying two days in ambush, watching the Lake for any
+parties coming or going. Before dark a Mohigon came in from watch
+saying that men were coming down the Lake. We gathered at the point and
+saw seven of the Enemy come slowly on. There were three indians two
+Canadians and a French officer. Seeing they would shortly pass under our
+point of land we made ready to fire, and did deliver one fire as they
+came nigh, but the guns of our Mohigons failed to explode, they being
+old and well nigh useless, so that all the damage we did was to kill one
+indian and wound a Canadian, who was taken in hand by his companions who
+made off down the shore and went into the bush. We tried to head them
+unsuccessfully, and after examining the guns of our indians we feared
+they were so disabled that we gave up and retreated down the Lake,
+travelling all night. Near morning we saw a small fire which we spied
+out only to find a large party of the Enemy, whereat we were much
+disturbed, for our travelling had exhausted us and we feared the pursuit
+of a fresh enemy as soon as morning should come to show them our trail.
+We then made our way as fast as possible until late that night, when we
+laid down for refreshment. We built no fire but could not sleep for fear
+of the Enemy for it was a bright moonlight, and sure enough we had been
+there but a couple of hours when we saw the Enemy coming on our track.
+We here abandoned our bear-skins with what provissions we had left and
+ran back on our trail toward the advancing party. It was dark in the
+forest and we hoped they might not discover our back track for some
+time, thus giving us a longer start. This ruse was successful. After
+some hours travel I became so exhausted that I stopped to rest, whereat
+the Mohigans left us, but Shanks bided with me, though urging me to move
+forward. After a time I got strength to move on. Shanks said the
+Canadians would come up with us if we did not make fast going of it, and
+that they would disembowel us or tie us to a tree and burn us as was
+their usual way, for we could in no wise hope to make head against so
+large a party. Thus we walked steadily till high noon, when my wretched
+strength gave out so that I fell down saying I had as leave die there as
+elsewhere. Shanks followed back on our trail, while I fell into a drouse
+but was so sore I could not sleep. After a time I heard a shot, and
+shortly two more, when Shanks came running back to me. He had killed an
+advancing indian and stopped them for a moment. He kicked me vigorously,
+telling me to come on, as the Indians would soon come on again. I got
+up, and though I could scarcely move I was minded diligently to
+persevere after Shanks. Thus we staggered on until near night time, when
+we again stopped and I fell into a deep sleep, but the enemy did not
+again come up. On the following day we got into Fort Edward, where I was
+taken with a distemper, was seized with very grevious pains in the head
+and back and a fever. They let blood and gave me a physic, but I did not
+get well around for some time. For this sickness I have always been
+thankful, otherwise I should have been with Major Rogers in his
+unfortunate battle, which has become notable enough, where he was
+defeated by the Canadians and Indians and lost nigh all his private men,
+only escaping himself by a miracle. We mourned the loss of many friends
+who were our comrades, though it was not the fault of any one, since the
+Enemy had three times the number of the Rangers and hemmed them in. Some
+of the Rangers had surrendered under promise of Quarter, but we
+afterwards heard that they were tied to trees and hacked to death
+because the indians had found a scalp in the breast of a man's hunting
+frock, thus showing that we could never expect such bloody minded
+villiains to keep their promises of Quarter.
+
+I was on several scouts against them that winter but encountered nothing
+worthy to relate excepting the hardships which fell to a Ranger's lot.
+In June the Army having been gathered we proceeded under Abercromby up
+the Lake to attack Ticonderoga. I thought at the time that so many men
+must be invincible, but since the last war I have been taught to know
+different. There were more Highlanders, Grenadiers, Provincial troops,
+Artillery and Rangers than the eye could compass, for the Lake was black
+with their battoes. This concourse proceeded to Ticondaroga where we had
+a great battle and lost many men, but to no avail since we were forced
+to return.
+
+The British soldiers were by this time made servicible for forest
+warfare, since the officers and men had been forced to rid themselvs of
+their useless incumbrances and had cut off the tails of their long coats
+till they scarcely reached below thir middles--they had also left the
+women at the Fort, browned thir gun barrells and carried thir provisions
+on their backs, each man enough for himself, as was our Ranger custom.
+The army was landed at the foot of the Lake, where the Rangers quickly
+drove off such small bodies of Frenchers and Indians as opposed us, and
+we began our march by the rapids. Rogers men cleared the way and had a
+most desperate fight with some French who were minded to stop us, but we
+shortly killed and captured most of them. We again fell in with them
+that afternoon and were challenged Qui vive but answered that we were
+French, but they were not deceived and fired upon us, after which a hot
+skirmish insued during which Lord Howe was shot through the breast, for
+which we were all much depressed, because he was our real leader and had
+raised great hopes of success for us. The Rangers had liked him because
+he was wont to spend much time talking with them in thir camps and used
+also to go on scouts.  The Rangers were not over fond of British
+officers in general.
+
+[Illustration: 33 THE STORMING OF TICONDEROGA]
+
+When the time had come for battle we Rangers moved forward, accompanied
+by the armed boatmen and the Provincial troops. We drove in the French
+pickets and came into the open where the trees were felled tops toward
+us in a mighty abbatis, as though blown down by the wind. It was all we
+could undertake to make our way through the mass, and all the while the
+great breast-works of the French belched cannon and musket balls while
+the limbs and splinters flew around us. Then out of the woods behind us
+issued the heavy red masses of the British troops advancing in battle
+array with purpose to storm with the bayonet. The maze of fallen trees
+with their withered leaves hanging broke their ranks, and the French
+Retrenchment blazed fire and death. They advanced bravely up but all to
+no good purpose, and hundreds there met their death. My dear Joseph I
+have the will but not the way to tell you all I saw that awful
+afternoon. I have since been in many battles and skirmishes, but I never
+have witnessed such slaughter and such wild fighting as the British
+storm of Ticondaroga. We became mixed up--Highlanders, Grenadiers, Light
+Troops, Rangers and all, and we beat against that mass of logs and maze
+of fallen timber and we beat in vain. I was once carried right up to
+the breastwork, but we were stopped by the bristling mass of sharpened
+branches, while the French fire swept us front and flank. The ground was
+covered deep with dying men, and as I think it over now I can remember
+nothing but the fruit bourne by the tree of war, for I looked upon so
+many wonderous things that July day that I could not set them downe at
+all. We drew off after seeing that human valor could not take that work.
+We Rangers then skirmished with the French colony troops and the Canada
+indians until dark while our people rescued the wounded, and then we
+fell back. The Army was utterly demoralized and made a headlong retreat,
+during which many wounded men were left to die in the woods. Shanks and
+I paddled a light bark canoe down the Lake next day, in the bottom of
+which lay a wounded British officer attended by his servant.
+
+[Illustration: 34 PADDLING THE WOUNDED BRITISH OFFICER]
+
+I took my discharge, and lived until the following Spring with Vrooman
+at German Flats, when I had a desire to go again to the more active
+service of the Rangers, for living in camps and scouting,
+notwithstanding its dangers, was agreeable to my taste in those days. So
+back to Albany I started, and there met Major Rogers, whom I acquainted
+with my desire to again join his service, whereat he seemed right glad
+to put me downe. I accordingly journeyed to Crown Point, where I went
+into camp. I had bought me a new fire-lock at Albany which was provided
+with a bayonet. It was short, as is best fitted for the bush, and about
+45 balls to the pound. I had shot it ten times on trial and it had not
+failed to discharge at each pull. There was a great change in the
+private men of the Rangers, so many old ones had been frost bitten and
+gone home. I found my friend Shanks, who had staid though he had been
+badly frosted during the winter. He had such a hate of the Frenchers and
+particularly of the Canada Indians that he would never cease to fight
+them, they having killed all his relatives in New Hampshire which made
+him bitter against them, he always saying that they might as well kill
+him and thus make an end of the family.
+
+In June I went north down Champlain with 250 Rangers and Light Infantry
+in sloop-vessels.
+
+The Rangers were.... (writing lost).... but it made no difference. The
+party was landed on the west side of the Lake near Isle au Noix and lay
+five days in the bush, it raining hard all the time. I was out with a
+recoinnoitering party to watch the Isle, and very early in the morning
+we saw the French coming to our side in boats, whereat we acquainted
+Major Rogers that the French were about to attack us. We were drawn up
+in line to await their coming. The forest always concealed a Ranger
+line, so that there might not have been a man within a hundred miles for
+all that could be seen, and so it was that an advance party of the Enemy
+walked into our line and were captured, which first appraised the French
+of our position. They shortly attacked us on our left, but I was sent
+with a party to make our way through a swamp in order to attack their
+rear. This we accomplished so quietly that we surprized some Canada
+indians who were lying back of the French line listening to a prophet
+who was incanting. These we slew, and after our firing many French
+grenadiers came running past, when they broke before our line. I took a
+Frenchman prisoner, but he kept his bayonet pointed at me, all the time
+yelling in French which I did not understand, though I had my loaded gun
+pointed at him. He seemed to be disturbed at the sight of a scalp which
+I had hanging in my belt. I had lately took it from the head of an
+Indian, it being my first, but I was not minded to kill the poor
+Frenchman and was saying so in English. He put down his fire-lock
+finally and offered me his flask to drink liquor with him, but I did not
+use it. I had known that Shanks carried poisoned liquor in his pack,
+with the hope that it would destroy any indians who might come into
+possession of it, if he was taken, whether alive or dead. As I was
+escorting the Frenchman back to our boats he quickly ran away from me,
+though I snapped my fire-lock at him, which failed to explode, it having
+become wet from the rain. Afterwards I heard that a Ranger had shot him,
+seeing him running in the bush.
+
+[Illustration: 35 THE CAPTURE OF THE FRENCH GRENADIER]
+
+We went back to our boats after this victory and took all our wounded
+and dead with us, which last we buried on an island. Being joined by a
+party of Stockbridge Indians we were again landed, and after marching
+for some days came to a road where we recoinnoitered St. John's Fort but
+did not attack it, Rogers judging it not to be takeable with our force.
+From here we began to march so fast that only the strongest men could
+keep up, and at day-break came to another Fort. We ran into the gate
+while a hay-waggon was passing through, and surprised and captured all
+the garrison, men women and children. After we had burned and destroyed
+everything we turned the women and children adrift, but drove the men
+along as prisoners, making them carry our packs. We marched so fast that
+the French grenadiers could not keep up, for their breeches were too
+tight for them to march with ease, whereat we cut off the legs of them
+with our knives, when they did better.
+
+After this expedition we scouted from Crown Point in canoes, Shanks and
+myself going as far north as we dared toward Isle au Noix, and one day
+while lying on the bank we saw the army coming. It was an awesome sight
+to see so many boats filled with brave uniforms, as they danced over the
+waves. The Rangers and Indians came a half a mile ahead of the Army in
+whale-boats all in line abreast, while behind them came the light
+Infantry and Grenadiers with Provincial troops on the flanks and
+Artillery and Store boats bringing up the Rear.
+
+Shanks and I fell in with the Ranger boats, being yet in our small bark
+and much hurled about by the waves, which rolled prodigious.
+
+The Army continued up the Lake and drove the Frenchers out of their
+Forts, they not stopping to resist us till we got to Chamblee, where we
+staid. But the French in Canada had all surrendered to the British and
+the war was over. This ended my service as a Ranger in those parts. I
+went back to Vroomans intending to go again into the indian trade, for
+now we hoped that the French would no longer be able to stop our
+enterprises.
+
+Now my dear son--I will send you this long letter, and will go on
+writing of my later life in the Western country and in the War of
+Independence, and will send you those letters as soon as I have them
+written. I did not do much or occupy a commanding position, but I served
+faithfully in what I had to do. For the present God bless you my dear
+son.
+
+JOSHUA GOODENOUGH.
+
+
+
+
+CRACKER COWBOYS OF FLORIDA
+
+
+ONE can thresh the straw of history until he is well worn out, and also
+is running some risk of wearing others out who may have to listen, so I
+will waive the telling of who the first cowboy was, even if I knew; but
+the last one who has come under my observation lives down in Florida,
+and the way it happened was this: I was sitting in a “sto' do',” as the
+“Crackers” say, waiting for the clerk to load some “number eights,” when
+my friend said, “Look at the cowboys!” This immediately caught my
+interest. With me cowboys are what gems and porcelains are to some
+others. Two very emaciated Texas ponies pattered down the street,
+bearing wild-looking individuals, whose hanging hair and drooping hats
+and generally bedraggled appearance would remind you at once of the
+Spanish-moss which hangs so quietly and helplessly to the limbs of the
+oaks out in the swamps. There was none of the bilious fierceness and
+rearing plunge which I had associated with my friends out West, but as a
+fox-terrier is to a yellow cur, so were these last. They had on about
+four dollars' worth of clothes between them, and rode McClellan saddles,
+with saddle-bags, and guns tied on before. The only things they did
+which were conventional were to tie their ponies up by the head in
+brutal disregard, and then get drunk in about fifteen minutes. I could
+see that in this case, while some of the tail feathers were the same,
+they would easily classify as new birds.
+
+[Illustration: 36 ABOUT FOUR DOLLARS WORTH OF CLOTHES BETWEEN THEM]
+
+“And so you have cowboys down here?” I said to the man who ran the
+meat-market.
+
+He picked a tiny piece of raw liver out of the meshes of his long black
+beard, tilted his big black hat, shoved his arms into his white apron
+front, and said:
+
+“Gawd! yes, stranger; I was one myself.”
+
+The plot thickened so fast that I was losing much, so I became more
+deliberate. “Do the boys come into town often?” I inquired further.
+
+“Oh yes, 'mos' every little spell,” replied the butcher, as he reached
+behind his weighing-scales and picked up a double-barrelled shot-gun,
+sawed off. “We-uns are expectin' of they-uns to-day.”
+
+And he broke the barrels and took out the shells to examine them.
+
+“Do they come shooting?” I interposed.
+
+He shut the gun with a snap. “We split even, stranger.”
+
+Seeing that the butcher was a fragile piece of bric-a-brac, and that I
+might need him for future study, I bethought me of the banker down the
+street. Bankers are bound to be broad-gauged, intelligent, and
+conservative, so I would go to him and get at the ancient history of
+this neck of woods. I introduced myself, and was invited behind the
+counter. The look of things reminded me of one of those great green
+terraces which conceal fortifications and ugly cannon. It was boards and
+wire screen in front, but behind it were shot-guns and six-shooters hung
+in the handiest way, on a sort of disappearing gun-carriage arrangement.
+Shortly one of the cowboys of the street scene floundered in. He was
+two-thirds drunk, with brutal, shifty eyes and a flabby lower lip.
+
+“I want twenty dollars on the old man. Ken I have it?”
+
+I rather expected that the bank would go into “action front,” but the
+clerk said, “Certainly,” and completed this rather odd financial
+transaction, whereat the bull-hunter stumbled out.
+
+[Illustration: 37 A CRACKER COWBOY]
+
+“Who is the old man in this case?” I ventured.
+
+“Oh, it's his boss, old Colonel Zuigg, of Crow City. I gave some money
+to some of his boys some weeks ago, and when the colonel was down here I
+asked him if he wanted the boys to draw against him in that way, and he
+said, 'Yes--for a small amount; they will steal a cow or two, and pay me
+that way.'”
+
+Here was something tangible.
+
+“What happens when a man steals another man's brand in this country?”
+
+“He mustn't get caught; that's all. They all do it, but they never bring
+their troubles into court. They just shoot it out there in the bresh.
+The last time old Colonel Zuigg brought Zorn Zuidden in here and had him
+indicted for stealing cattle, said Zorn: 'Now see here, old man Zuigg,
+what do you want for to go and git me arrested fer? I have stole
+thousands of cattle and put your mark and brand on 'em, and jes because
+I have stole a couple of hundred from you, you go and have me indicted.
+You jes better go and get that whole deal nol pressed;' and it was
+done.”
+
+The argument was perfect.
+
+“From that I should imagine that the cow-people have no more idea of law
+than the 'gray apes,'” I commented.
+
+“Yes, that's about it. Old Colonel Zuigg was a judge fer a spell, till
+some feller filled him with buckshot, and he had to resign; and I
+remember he decided a case aginst me once. I was hot about it, and the
+old colonel he saw I was. Says he, 'Now yer mad, ain't you?' And I
+allowed I was. 'Well,' says he, 'you hain't got no call to get mad. I
+have decided the last eight cases in yer favor, and you kain't have it
+go yer way all the time; it wouldn't look right;' and I had to be
+satisfied.”
+
+The courts in that locality were but the faint and sickly flame of a
+taper offered at the shrine of a justice which was traditional only, it
+seemed. Moral forces having ceased to operate, the large owners began to
+brand everything in sight, never realizing that they were sowing the
+wind. This action naturally demoralized the cowboys, who shortly began
+to brand a little on their own account--and then the deluge. The rights
+of property having been destroyed, the large owners put strong outfits
+in the field, composed of desperate men armed to the teeth, and what
+happens in the lonely pine woods no one knows but the desperadoes
+themselves, albeit some of them never come back to the little fringe of
+settlements. The winter visitor from the North kicks up the jack-snipe
+along the beach or tarponizes in the estuaries of the Gulf, and when he
+comes to the hotel for dinner he eats Chicago dressed beef, but out in
+the wilderness low-browed cow-folks shoot and stab each other for the
+possession of scrawny creatures not fit for a pointer-dog to mess on.
+One cannot but feel the force of Buckle's law of “the physical aspects
+of nature” in this sad country. Flat and sandy, with miles on miles of
+straight pine timber, each tree an exact duplicate of its neighbor tree,
+and underneath the scrub palmettoes, the twisted brakes and
+hammocks, and the gnarled water-oaks festooned with the sad gray
+Spanish-moss--truly not a country for a high-spirited race or moral
+giants.
+
+[Illustration: 38 FIGHTING OVER A STOLEN HERD]
+
+The land gives only a tough wiregrass, and the poor little cattle, no
+bigger than a donkey, wander half starved and horribly emaciated in
+search of it. There used to be a trade with Cuba, but now that has gone;
+and beyond the supplying of Key West and the small fringe of settlements
+they have no market. How well the cowboys serve their masters I can only
+guess, since the big owners do not dare go into the woods, or even to
+their own doors at night, and they do not keep a light burning in the
+houses. One, indeed, attempted to assert his rights, but some one pumped
+sixteen buckshot into him as he bent over a spring to drink, and he left
+the country. They do tell of a late encounter between two rival foremen,
+who rode on to each other in the woods, and drawing, fired, and both
+were found stretched dying under the palmettoes, one calling deliriously
+the name of his boss. The unknown reaches of the Everglades lie just
+below, and with a half-hour's start a man who knew the country would be
+safe from pursuit, even if it were attempted; and, as one man cheerfully
+confided to me, “A boat don't leave no trail, stranger.”
+
+That might makes right, and that they steal by wholesale, any
+cattle-hunter will admit; and why they brand at all I cannot see, since
+one boy tried to make it plain to me, as he shifted his body in drunken
+abandon and grabbed my pencil and a sheet of wrapping paper: “See yer;
+ye see that?” And he drew a circle O, and then another ring around it,
+thus: (O). “That brand ain't no good. Well, then--” And again his
+knotted and dirty fingers essayed the brand I O. He laboriously drew
+upon it and made E-O which of course destroyed the former brand.
+
+“Then here,” he continued, as he drew 13, “all ye've got ter do is
+this--313.” I gasped in amazement, not at his cleverness as a
+brand-destroyer, but at his honest abandon. With a horrible operatic
+laugh, such as is painted in “The Cossack's Answer,” he again
+laboriously drew (+) (the circle cross), and then added some marks which
+made it look like this: S(+)S. And again breaking into his devil's “ha,
+ha!” said, “Make the damned thing whirl.”
+
+[Illustration: 39 IN WAIT FOR AN ENEMY]
+
+I did not protest. He would have shot me for that. But I did wish he was
+living in the northwest quarter of New Mexico, where Mr. Cooper and Dan
+could throw their eyes over the trail of his pony. Of course each man
+has adjusted himself to this lawless rustling, and only calculates that
+he can steal as much as his opponent. It is rarely that their affairs
+are brought to court, but when they are, the men come _en masse_ to the
+room, armed with knives and rifles, so that any decision is bound to be
+a compromise, or it will bring on a general engagement.
+
+There is also a noticeable absence of negroes among them, as they still
+retain some _ante bellum_ theories, and it is only very lately that they
+have “reconstructed.” Their general ignorance is “miraculous,” and quite
+mystifying to an outside man. Some whom I met did not even know where
+the Texas was which furnishes them their ponies. The railroads of
+Florida have had their ups and downs with them in a petty way on account
+of the running over of their cattle by the trains; and then some
+long-haired old Cracker drops into the nearest station with his gun and
+pistol, and wants the telegraph operator to settle immediately on the
+basis of the Cracker's claim for damages, which is always absurdly high.
+At first the railroads demurred, but the cowboys lined up in the “bresh”
+ on some dark night and pumped Winchesters into the train in a highly
+picturesque way. The trainmen at once recognized the force of the
+Cracker's views on cattle-killing, but it took some considerable
+“potting” at the more conservative superintendents before the latter
+could bestir themselves and invent a “cow-attorney,” as the company
+adjuster is called, who now settles with the bushmen as best he can.
+Certainly no worse people ever lived since the big killing up
+Muscleshell way, and the romance is taken out of it by the cowardly
+assassination which is the practice. They are well paid for their
+desperate work, and always eat fresh beef or “razor-backs,” and deer
+which they kill in the woods. The heat, the poor grass, their brutality,
+and the pest of the flies kill their ponies, and, as a rule, they lack
+dash and are indifferent riders, but they are picturesque in their
+unkempt, almost unearthly wildness. A strange effect is added by their
+use of large, fierce cur-dogs, one of which accompanies each
+cattle-hunter, and is taught to pursue cattle, and to even take them by
+the nose, which is another instance of their brutality. Still, as they
+only have a couple of horses apiece, it saves them much extra running.
+These men do not use the rope, unless to noose a pony in a corral, but
+work their cattle in strong log corrals, which are made at about a day's
+march apart all through the woods. Indeed, ropes are hardly necessary,
+since the cattle are so small and thin that two men can successfully
+“wrestle” a three-year-old. A man goes into the corral, grabs a cow by
+one horn, and throwing his other arm over her back, waits until some
+other man takes her hind leg, whereat ensues some very entertaining
+Graeco-Roman style.
+
+[Illustration: 40 A BIT OF COW COUNTRY]
+
+When the cow is successful, she finds her audience of Cracker cowboys
+sitting on the fence awaiting another opening, and gasping for breath.
+The best bull will not go over three hundred pounds, while I have seen a
+yearling at a hundred and fifty--if you, O knights of the riata, can
+imagine it! Still, it is desperate work. Some of the men are so reckless
+and active that they do not hesitate to encounter a wild bull in the
+open. The cattle are as wild as deer, they race off at scent; and when
+“rounded up” many will not drive, whereupon these are promptly shot. It
+frequently happens that when the herd is being driven quietly along a
+bull will turn on the drivers, charging at once. Then there is a scamper
+and great shooting.  The bulls often become so maddened in these forays
+that they drop and die in their tracks, for which strange fact no one
+can account, but as a rule they are too scrawny and mean to make their
+handling difficult.
+
+So this is the Cracker cowboy, whose chief interest would be found in
+the tales of some bushwhacking enterprise, which I very much fear would
+be a one-sided story, and not worth the telling. At best they must be
+revolting, having no note of the savage encounters which used to
+characterize the easy days in West Texas and New Mexico, when every man
+tossed his life away to the crackle of his own revolver. The moon shows
+pale through the leafy canopy on their evening fires, and the mists, the
+miasma, and the mosquitoes settle over their dreary camp talk. In place
+of the wild stampede, there is only the bellowing in the pens, and
+instead of the plains shaking under the dusty air as the bedizened
+vaqueros plough their fiery broncos through the milling herds, the
+cattle-hunter wends his lonely way through the ooze and rank grass,
+while the dreary pine trunks line up and shut the view.
+
+[Illustration: 41 COWBOYS WRESTLING A BULL]
+
+
+
+
+THE STRANGE DAYS THAT CAME TO JIMMIE FRIDAY
+
+
+THE “Abwee-chemun” [Algonquin for “paddle and canoe.”] Club was
+organized with six charter members at a heavy lunch in the Savarin
+restaurant--one of those lunches which make through connections to
+dinner without change. One member basely deserted, while two more lost
+all their enthusiasm on the following morning, but three of us stuck. We
+vaguely knew that somewhere north of the Canadian Pacific and south of
+Hudson Bay were big lakes and rapid rivers--lakes whose names we did not
+know; lakes bigger than Champlain, with unnamed rivers between them. We
+did not propose to be boated around in a big birch-bark by two voyagers
+among blankets and crackers and ham, but each provided himself a little
+thirteen-foot cedar canoe, twenty-nine inches in the beam, and weighing
+less than forty pounds. I cannot tell you precisely how our party was
+sorted, but one was a lawyer with eyeglasses and settled habits, loving
+nature, though detesting canoes; the other was nominally a merchant, but
+in reality an atavie Norseman of the wolf and raven kind; while I am not
+new. Together we started.
+
+Presently the Abwees sat about the board of a lumbermen's hotel, filled
+with house-flies and slatternly waiter-girls, who talked familiarly
+while they served greasy food. The Abwees were yet sore in their minds
+at the thoughts of the smelly beds up-stairs, and discouragement sat
+deeply on their souls. But their time was not yet.
+
+After breakfast they marched to the Hudson Bay Company's store, knowing
+as they did that in Canada there are only two places for a traveller to
+go who wants anything--the great company or the parish priest; and then,
+having explained to the factor their dream, they were told “that beyond,
+beyond some days' journey”--oh! that awful beyond, which for centuries
+has stood across the path of the pioneer, and in these latter days
+confronts the sportsman and wilderness-lover--“that beyond some days'
+journey to the north was a country such as they had dreamed--up
+Temis-camingue and beyond.”
+
+The subject of a guide was considered.
+
+Jimmie Friday always brought a big toboggan-load of furs into Fort
+Tiemogamie every spring, and was accounted good in his business. He and
+his big brother trapped together, and in turn followed the ten days'
+swing through the snow-laden forest which they had covered with their
+dead-falls and steel-jawed traps; but when the ice went out in the
+rivers, and the great pines dripped with the melting snows, they had
+nothing more to do but cut a few cords of wood for their widowed
+mother's cabin near the post. Then the brother and he paddled down to
+Bais des Pierres, where the brother engaged as a deck hand on a
+steamboat, and Jimmie hired himself as a guide for some bush-rangers, as
+the men are called who explore for pine lands for the great lumber
+firms. Having worked all summer and got through with that business,
+Jimmie bethought him to dissipate for a few days in the bustling lumber
+town down on the Ottawa River. He had been there before to feel the
+exhilaration of civilization, but beyond that clearing he had never
+known anything more inspiring than a Hudson Bay post, which is generally
+a log store, a house where the agent lives, and a few tiny Indian cabins
+set higgledy-piggledy in a sunburnt gash of stumps and bowlders, lost in
+the middle of the solemn, unresponsive forest. On this morning in
+question he had stepped from his friend's cabin up in the Indian
+village, and after lighting a perfectly round and rather yellow cigar,
+he had instinctively wandered down to the Hudson Bay store, there to
+find himself amused by a strange sight.
+
+The Abwees had hired two French-Indian voyagers of sinister mien, and a
+Scotch-Canadian boy bred to the bush. They were out on the grass,
+engaged in taking burlaps off three highly polished canoes, while the
+clerk from the store ran out and asked questions about “how much bacon,”
+ and, “will fifty pounds of pork be enough, sir?”
+
+The round yellow cigar was getting stubby, while Jimmie's modest eyes
+sought out the points of interest in the new-comers, when he was
+suddenly and sharply addressed:
+
+“Can you cook?”
+
+Jimmie couldn't do anything in a hurry, except chop a log in two, paddle
+very fast, and shoot quickly, so he said, as was his wont:
+
+“I think--I dun'no'--”
+
+“Well, how much?” came the query.
+
+“Two daul--ars--” said Jimmie.
+
+The transaction was complete. The yellow butt went over the fence, and
+Jimmie shed his coat. He was directed to lend a hand by the bustling
+sportsmen, and requested to run and find things of which he had never
+before in his life heard the name.
+
+[Illustration: 42 THE LAWYER HAD BECOME A VOYAGER]
+
+After two days' travel the Abwees were put ashore--boxes, bags, rolls of
+blankets, canoes, Indians, and plunder of many sorts--on a pebbly beach,
+and the steamer backed off and steamed away. They had reached the
+“beyond” at last, and the odoriferous little bedrooms, the bustle of the
+preparation, the cares of their lives, were behind. Then there was a
+girding up of the loins, a getting out of tump-lines and canvas packs,
+and the long portage was begun.
+
+The voyagers carried each two hundred pounds as they stalked away into
+the wilderness, while the attorney-at-law “hefted” his pack, wiped his
+eyeglasses with his pocket-handkerchief, and tried cheerfully to assume
+the responsibilities of “a dead game sport.”
+
+“I cannot lift the thing, and how I am going to carry it is more than I
+know; but I'm a dead game sport, and I am going to try. I do not want to
+be dead game, but it looks as though I couldn't help it. Will some
+gentleman help me to adjust this cargo?”
+
+The night overtook the outfit in an old beaver meadow half-way through
+the trail. Like all first camps, it was tough. The lean-to tents went up
+awkwardly. No one could find anything. Late at night the Abwees lay on
+their backs under the blankets, while the fog settled over the meadow
+and blotted out the stars.
+
+On the following day the stuff was all gotten through, and by this time
+the lawyer had become a voyager, willing to carry anything he could
+stagger under. It is strange how one can accustom himself to “pack.” He
+may never use the tump-line, since it goes across the head, and will
+unseat his intellect if he does, but with shoulder-straps and a
+tump-line a man who thinks he is not strong will simply amaze himself
+inside of a week by what he can do. As for our little canoes, we could
+trot with them. Each Abwee carried his own belongings and his boat,
+which entitled him to the distinction of “a dead game sport,” whatever
+that may mean, while the Indians portaged their larger canoes and our
+mass of supplies, making many trips backward and forward in the process.
+
+At the river everything was parcelled out and arranged. The birch-barks
+were repitched, and every man found out what he was expected to portage
+and do about camp. After breaking and making camp three times, the
+outfit could pack up, load the canoes, and move inside of fifteen
+minutes. At the first camp the lawyer essayed his canoe, and was
+cautioned that the delicate thing might flirt with him. He stepped in
+and sat gracefully down in about two feet of water, while the “delicate
+thing” shook herself saucily at his side. After he had crawled dripping
+ashore and wiped his eye-glasses, he engaged to sell the “delicate
+thing” to an Indian for one dollar and a half on a promissory note. The
+trade was suppressed, and he was urged to try again. A man who has held
+down a cane-bottom chair conscientiously for fifteen years looks askance
+at so fickle a thing as a canoe twenty-nine inches in the beam. They are
+nearly as hard to sit on in the water as a cork; but once one is in the
+bottom they are stable enough, though they do not submit to liberties or
+palsied movements. The staid lawyer was filled with horror at the
+prospect of another go at his polished beauty; but remembering his
+resolve to be dead game, he abandoned his life to the chances, and got
+in this time safely.
+
+[Illustration: 43 IT IS STRANGE HOW ONE CAN ACCUSTOM HIMSELF TO 'PACK']
+
+So the Abwees went down the river on a golden morning, their
+double-blade paddles flashing the sun and sending the drip in a shower
+on the glassy water. The smoke from the lawyer's pipe hung behind him in
+the quiet air, while the note of the reveille clangored from the little
+buglette of the Norseman. Jimmie and the big Scotch backwoodsman swayed
+their bodies in one boat, while the two sinister voyagers dipped their
+paddles in the big canoe.
+
+The Norseman's gorge came up, and he yelled back: “Say! this suits me. I
+am never going back to New York.”
+
+Jimmie grinned at the noise; it made him happy. Such a morning, such a
+water, such a lack of anything to disturb one's peace! Let man's better
+nature revel in the beauties of existence; they inflate his soul. The
+colors play upon the senses--the reddish-yellow of the birch-barks, the
+blue of the water, and the silver sheen as it parts at the bows of the
+canoes; the dark evergreens, the steely rocks with their lichens, the
+white trunks of the birches, their fluffy tops so greeny green, and over
+all the gold of a sunny day. It is my religion, this thing, and I do not
+know how to tell all I feel concerning it.
+
+The rods were taken out, a gang of flies put on and trolled behind--but
+we have all seen a man fight a five-pound bass for twenty minutes. The
+waters fairly swarmed with them, and we could always get enough for the
+“pot” in a half-hour's fishing at any time during the trip. The Abwees
+were canoeing, not hunting or fishing; though, in truth, they did not
+need to hunt spruce-partridge or fish for bass in any sporting sense;
+they simply went out after them, and never stayed over half an hour. On
+a point we stopped for lunch: the Scotchman always struck the beach
+a-cooking. He had a “kit,” which was a big camp-pail, and inside of it
+were more dishes than are to be found in some hotels. He broiled the
+bacon, instead of frying it, and thus we were saved the terrors of
+indigestion. He had many luxuries in his commissary, among them dried
+apples, with which he filled a camp-pail one day and put them on to
+boil. They subsequently got to be about a foot deep all over the camp,
+while Furguson stood around and regarded the black-magic of the thing
+with overpowering emotions and Homeric tongue. Furguson was a good
+genius, big and gentle, and a woodsman root and branch. The Abwees had
+intended their days in the wilderness to be happy singing flights of
+time, but with grease and paste in one's stomach what may not befall the
+mind when it is bent on nature's doings?
+
+[Illustration: 44 DOWN THE RIVER ON A GOLDEN MORNING]
+
+And thus it was that the gloomy Indian Jimmie Friday, despite his
+tuberculosis begotten of insufficient nourishment, was happy in these
+strange days--even to the extent of looking with wondrous eyes on the
+nooks which we loved--nooks which previously for him had only sheltered
+possible “dead-falls” or not, as the discerning eye of the trapper
+decided the prospects for pelf.
+
+Going ashore on a sandy beach, Jimmie wandered down its length, his
+hunter mind seeking out the footprints of his prey. He stooped down, and
+then beckoned me to come, which I did.
+
+Pointing at the sand, he said, “You know him?”
+
+“Wolves,” I answered.
+
+“Yes--first time I see 'em up here--they be follerin' the
+deers--bad--bad. No can trap 'em--verrie smart.”
+
+A half-dozen wolves had chased a deer into the water; but wolves do not
+take to the water, so they had stopped and drank, and then gone
+rollicking-together up the beach. There were cubs, and one great track
+as big as a mastiff might make.
+
+“See that--moose track--he go by yesterday;” and Jimmie pointed to
+enormous footprints in the muck of a marshy place. “Verrie big moose--we
+make call at next camp--think it is early for call.”
+
+At the next camp Jimmie made the usual birch-bark moose-call, and at
+evening blew it, as he also did on the following morning. This camp was
+a divine spot on a rise back of a long sandy beach, and we concluded to
+stop for a day. The Norseman and I each took a man in our canoes and
+started out to explore. I wanted to observe some musk-rat hotels down in
+a big marsh, and the Norseman was fishing. The attorney was content to
+sit on a log by the shores of the lake, smoke lazily, and watch the sun
+shimmer through the lifting fog. He saw a canoe approaching from across
+the lake. He gazed vacantly at it, when it grew strange and more unlike
+a canoe. The paddles did not move, but the phantom craft drew quickly
+on.
+
+[Illustration: 45 A REAL CAMP]
+
+“Say, Furguson--come here--look at that canoe.”
+
+The Scotchman came down, with a pail in one hand, and looked.
+“Canoe--hell--it's a moose--and there ain't a pocket-pistol in this
+camp,” and he fairly jumped up and down.
+
+“You don't say--you really don't say!” gasped the lawyer, who now began
+to exhibit signs of insanity.
+
+“Yes--he's going to be d----d sociable with us--he's coming right bang
+into this camp.”
+
+The Indian too came down, but he was long past talking English, and the
+gutturals came up in lumps, as though he was trying to keep them down.
+
+The moose finally struck a long point of sand and rushes about two
+hundred yards away, and drew majestically out of the water, his hide
+dripping, and the sun glistening on his antlers and back.
+
+The three men gazed in spellbound admiration at the picture until the
+moose was gone. When they had recovered their senses they slowly went up
+to the camp on the ridge--disgusted and dum-founded.
+
+“I could almost put a cartridge in that old gun-case and kill him,”
+ sighed the backwoodsman.
+
+“I have never hunted in my life,” mused the attorney, “but few men have
+seen such a sight,” and he filled his pipe.
+
+“Hark--listen!” said the Indian. There was a faint cracking, which
+presently became louder. “He's coming into camp;” and the Indian nearly
+died from excitement as he grabbed a hatchet. The three unfortunate men
+stepped to the back of the tents, and as big a bull moose as walks the
+lonely woods came up to within one hundred and fifty feet of the camp,
+and stopped, returning their gaze.
+
+Thus they stood for what they say was a minute, but which seemed like
+hours. The attorney composedly admired the unusual sight. The Indian and
+Furguson swore softly but most viciously until the moose moved away. The
+Indian hurled the hatchet at the retreating figure, with a final curse,
+and the thing was over.
+
+“Those fellows who are out in their canoes will be sick abed when we
+tell them what's been going on in the camp this morning,” sighed Mr.
+Furguson, as he scoured a cooking-pot.
+
+I fear we would have had that moose on our consciences if we had been
+there: the game law was not up at the time, but I should have asked for
+strength from a higher source than my respect for law.
+
+The golden days passed and the lake grew great.
+
+[Illustration: 46 ROUGH WATER]
+
+The wind blew at our backs. The waves rolled in restless surges, piling
+the little canoes on their crests and swallowing them in the troughs.
+The canoes thrashed the water as they flew along, half in, half out, but
+they rode like ducks. The Abwees took off their hats, gripped their
+double blades, made the water swirl behind them, howled in glee to each
+other through the rushing storm. To be five miles from shore in a seaway
+in kayaks like ours was a sensation. We found they stood it well, and
+grew contented. It was the complement to the golden lazy days when the
+water was glass, and the canoes rode upsidedown over its mirror surface.
+The Norseman grinned and shook his head in token of his pleasure, much
+as an epicure might after a sip of superior Burgundy.
+
+“How do you fancy this?” we asked the attorney-at-law.
+
+“I am not going to deliver an opinion until I get ashore. I would never
+have believed that I would be here at my time of life, but one never
+knows what a ---- fool one can make of one's self. My glasses are covered
+with water, and I can hardly see, but I can't let go of this paddle to
+wipe them,” shrieked the man of the office chair, in the howl of the
+weather.
+
+But we made a long journey by the aid of the wind, and grew a contempt
+for it. How could one imagine the stability of those little boats until
+one had tried it?
+
+That night we put into a natural harbor and camped on a gravel beach.
+The tents were up and the supper cooking, when the wind hauled and blew
+furiously into our haven. The fires were scattered and the rain came in
+blinding sheets. The tent-pegs pulled from the sand. We sprang to our
+feet and held on to the poles, wet to the skin. It was useless; the rain
+blew right under the canvas. We laid the tents on the “grub” and stepped
+out into the dark. We could not be any wetter, and we did not care. To
+stand in the dark in the wilderness, with nothing to eat, and a
+fire-engine playing a hose on you for a couple of hours--if you have
+imagination enough, you can fill in the situation. But the gods were
+propitious. The wind died down. The stars came out by myriads. The fires
+were relighted, and the ordinary life begun. It was late in the night
+before our clothes, blankets, and tents were dry, but, like boys, we
+forgot it all.
+
+Then came a river--blue and flat like the sky above--running through
+rushy banks, backed by the masses of the forest; anon the waters rushed
+upon us over the rocks, and we fought, plunk-plunk-plunk, with the
+paddles, until our strength gave out. We stepped out into the water, and
+getting our lines, and using our long double blades as fenders,
+“tracked” the canoes up through the boil. The Indians in their heavier
+boats used “setting-poles” with marvellous dexterity, and by furious
+exertion were able to draw steadily up the grade--though at times they
+too “tracked,” and even portaged. Our largest canoe weighed two hundred
+pounds, but a little voyager managed to lug it, though how I couldn't
+comprehend, since his pipe-stem legs fairly bent and wobbled under the
+enormous ark. None of us by this time were able to lift the loads which
+we carried, but, like a Western pack-mule, we stood about and had things
+piled on to us, until nothing more would stick. Some of the backwoodsmen
+carry incredible masses of stuff, and their lore is full of tales which
+no one could be expected to believe. Our men did not hesitate to take
+two hundred and fifty pounds over short portages, which were very rough
+and stony, though they all said if they slipped they expected to break a
+leg. This is largely due to the tump-line, which is laid over the head,
+while persons unused to it must have shoulder-straps in addition, which
+are not as good, because the “breastbone,” so called, is not strong
+enough.
+
+[Illustration: 47 THE INDIANS USED 'SETTING-POLES']
+
+We were getting day by day farther into “the beyond.” There were no
+traces here of the hand of man. Only Jimmie knew the way--it was his
+trapping-ground. Only once did we encounter people. We were blown into a
+little board dock, on a gray day, with the waves piling up behind us,
+and made a difficult landing. Here were a few tiny log houses--an
+outpost of the Hudson Bay Company. We renewed our stock of provisions,
+after laborious trading with the stagnated people who live in the lonely
+place. There was nothing to sell us but a few of the most common
+necessities; however, we needed only potatoes and sugar. This was
+Jimmie's home. Here we saw his poor old mother, who was being tossed
+about in the smallest of canoes as she drew her nets. Jimmie's father
+had gone on a hunting expedition and had never come back. Some day
+Jimmie's old mother will go out on the wild lake to tend her nets, and
+she will not come back. Some time Jimmie too will not return--for this
+Indian struggle with nature is appalling in its fierceness.
+
+There was a dance at the post, which the boys attended, going by canoe
+at night, and they came back early in the morning, with much giggling at
+their gallantries.
+
+The loneliness of this forest life is positively discouraging to think
+about. What the long winters must be in the little cabins I cannot
+imagine, and I fear the traders must be all avarice, or have none at
+all; for there can certainly be absolutely no intellectual life. There
+is undoubtedly work, but not one single problem concerning it. The
+Indian hunters do fairly well in a financial way, though their lives are
+beset with weakening hardships and constant danger. Their meagre diet
+wears out their constitutions, and they are subject to disease. The
+simplicity of their minds makes it very difficult to see into their life
+as they try to narrate it to one who may be interested.
+
+[Illustration: 48 TRYING MOMENTS]
+
+From here on was through beautiful little lakes, and the voyagers rigged
+blanket sails on the big canoes, while we towed behind. Then came the
+river and the rapids, which we ran, darting between rocks, bumping on
+sunken stones--shooting fairly out into the air, all but turning over
+hundreds of times. One day the Abwees glided out in the big lake
+Tesmiaquemang, and saw the steamer going to Bais des Pierres. We hailed
+her, and she stopped, while the little canoes danced about in the swell
+as we were loaded one by one. On the deck above us the passengers
+admired a kind of boat the like of which had not before appeared in
+these parts.
+
+At Bais des Pierres we handed over the residue of the commissaries of
+the Abwee-Chemun to Jimmie Friday, including personally many pairs of
+well-worn golf-breeches, sweaters, rubber coats, knives which would be
+proscribed by law in New York. If Jimmie ever parades his solemn
+wilderness in these garbs, the owls will laugh from the trees. Our
+simple forest friend laid in his winter stock--traps, flour, salt,
+tobacco, and pork, a new axe--and accompanied us back down the lake
+again on the steamer. She stopped in mid-stream, while Jimmie got his
+bundles into his “bark” and shoved off, amid a hail of “good-byes.”
+
+The engine palpitated, the big wheel churned the water astern, and we
+drew away. Jimmie bent on his paddle with the quick body-swing habitual
+to the Indian, and after a time grew a speck on the reflection of the
+red sunset in Temiscamingue.
+
+The Abwees sat sadly leaning on the after-rail, and agreed that Jimmie
+was “a lovely Injun.” Jimmie had gone into the shade of the overhang of
+the cliffs, when the Norseman started violently up, put his hands in his
+pockets, stamped his foot, said, “By George, fellows, any D. F. would
+call this a sporting trip!”
+
+
+
+
+THE SOLEDAD GIRLS
+
+
+“TO-NIGHT I am going down to my ranch--the Soledad--in my private car,”
+ said the manager of the Mexican International Railroad, “and I would
+like the Captain and you to accompany me.”
+
+The Captain and I were only too glad; so in process of time we awoke to
+find our car sidetracked on the Soledad, which is in the state of
+Coahuila, Mexico. The chaparral spread around, rising and falling in the
+swell of the land, until it beat against the blue ridge of the Sierra
+Santa Rosa, miles to the north. Here and there the bright sun spotted on
+a cow as she threaded the gray stretches; a little coyote-wolf sat on
+his haunches on a near-by hill-side, and howled protests at his
+new-found companions; while dimly through the gray meshes of the
+leaf-denuded chaparral we could see the main ranch-house of the Soledad.
+We were informed at breakfast by the railroad manager that there was to
+be that day a “round-up,” which is to say, a regular Buffalo Bill Show,
+with real cowboys, ponies, and cattle, all three of them wild, full of
+thorns, and just out of the brush.
+
+The negro porters got out the saddles of the young women, thus
+disclosing their intention to ride ponies instead of in traps. We
+already knew that they were fearless horseback-riders, but when the
+string of ponies which were to be our mounts was led up by a few
+Mexicans, the Captain and I had our well-concealed doubts about their
+being proper sort of ponies for young girls to ride. We confided in an
+imperturbable cowboy--one of those dry Texans. He said: “Them are what
+we would call broke ponies, and you fellers needn't get to worryin'
+'bout them little girls--you're jest a-foolin' away good time.”
+ Nevertheless, the broncos had the lurking devil in the tails of their
+eyes as they stood there tied to the wire fencing; they were humble and
+dejected as only a bronco or a mule can simulate. When that ilk look
+most cast down, be not deceived, gay brother; they are not like this.
+Their humility is only humorous, and intended to lure you on to their
+backs, where, unless you have a perfect understanding of the game, the
+joke will be on you. Instantly one is mounted, the humility departs; he
+plunges and starts about, or sets off like the wind, regardless of
+thorny bushes, tricky ground underfoot, or the seat of the rider.
+
+The manager's wife came out of the car with her little brood of three,
+and then two visiting friends. These Soledad girls, as I call them, each
+had a sunburst of yellow hair, were well bronzed by the Mexican sun, and
+were sturdy little bodies. They were dressed in short skirts, with
+leggings, topped with Tam o' Shanters, while about their waists were
+cartridge-belts, with delicate knives and revolvers attached, and with
+spurs and _quirts_ as accessories. They took up their men's saddles, for
+they rode astride, except the two visitors, who were older and more
+lately from Chicago. They swung their saddles on to the ponies, showing
+familiarity with the _ladigo_ straps of the Texas saddles, and proudly
+escaping the humiliation which alights on the head of one who in the
+cow-camps cannot saddle his own “bronc.” Being ready, we mounted, and
+followed a cowboy off down the road to the _rodeo-ground._ The manager
+and Madam Mamma rode in a buckboard, proudly following with their gaze
+the galloping ponies which bore their jewels. I thought they should be
+fearful for their safety, but after more intimate inspection, I could
+see how groundless was such solicitude.
+
+I must have it understood that these little vaquero girls were not the
+ordinary Texas product, fed on corn-meal and bred in the chaparral, but
+the much looked after darlings of a fond mother. They are taken South
+every winter, that their bodies may be made lithe and healthy, but at
+the same time two or more governesses crowd their minds with French,
+German, and other things with which proper young girls should be
+acquainted. But their infant minds did not carry back to the days when
+they had not felt a horse under them. To be sure, in the beginning it
+was only a humble donkey, but even before they knew they had graduated
+to ponies, and while yet ten years old, it was only by a constant watch
+that they were kept off unbroken broncos--horses that made the toughest
+vaqueros throw down their hats, tighten their belts, and grin with fear.
+
+From over the hills came the half-wild cattle, stringing along at a
+trot, all bearing for the open space in the waste of the chaparral where
+the _rodeo_ occurred, while behind them followed the cowboys--gay desert
+figures with brown, pinched faces, long hair, and shouting wild cries.
+The exhilaration of the fine morning, the tramp of the thousands, got
+into the curls of the three little Misses Golden-hairs, and they
+scurried away, while I followed to feast on this fresh vision, where
+absolutely ideal little maids shouted Spanish at murderous-looking
+Mexican cow-punchers done up in bright scrapes and costumed out of all
+reason. As the vaqueros dashed about hither and thither to keep their
+herds moving in the appointed direction, the infants screamed in their
+childish treble and spurred madly too. A bull stands at bay, but a child
+dashes at him, while he turns and flees. It is not their first _rodeo,_
+one can see, but I should wish they were with mamma and the buckboard,
+instead of out here in the brush, charging wild bulls, though in truth
+this never were written. These bulls frequently charge men, and a
+cow-pony turns like a ball off a bat, and a slippery seat in the saddle
+may put you under the feet of the outraged monarch of the range.
+
+[Illustration: 49 THE HALF-WILD CATTLE CAME DOWN FROM THE HILLS]
+
+Driving down to the _rodeo-ground,_ we all stood about on our ponies and
+held the herd, as it is called, the young girls doing vaquero duty, as
+imperturbable of mien as Mr. Flannagan, the foreman. So many women in
+the world are afraid of a dairy cow, even gathering up their skirts and
+preparing to shriek at the sight of one eating daisies. But these young
+women will grow up and they will be afraid of no cow. So much for a
+Soledad education.
+
+The top-ropers rode slowly into the dust of the milling herd, scampered
+madly, cast their ropes, and came jumping to us with a blatting calf
+trailing at their ropes' end. Two men seized the little victim, threw
+him on his back, cut a piece out of his ear with a knife, and still held
+him in relentless grip while another pressed a red-hot branding-iron on
+his side, which sizzled and sent up blue smoke, together with an odor of
+burned flesh. The calves bawled piteously. There was no more emotion on
+the faces of the Soledad girls than was shown by the brown cowboys. They
+had often, very often, seen this before, and their nerves were strong.
+Some day I can picture in my mind's eye these young girl vaqueros grown
+to womanhood, and being such good-looking creatures, very naturally some
+young man will want very badly to marry one of them--for it cannot be
+otherwise. I only hope he will not be a thin-chested, cigarette-smoking
+dude, because it will be a sacrilege of nature. He must undoubtedly have
+played forward at Princeton or Yale, or be unworthy.
+
+As we stood, a massive bull emerged from the body of the herd, his head
+thrown high, tail stiff with anger, eye rolling, and breath coming
+quick. He trotted quickly forward, and, lowering his head, charged
+through the “punchers.” Instantly a small Soledad girl was after him,
+the vaqueros reining back to enjoy the strange ride with their eyes. Her
+hat flew off, and the long curls flapped in the rushing air as her pony
+fairly sailed over the difficult ground. The bull tore furiously, but
+behind him swept the pony and the child. As we watched, the chase had
+gone a mile away, but little Miss Yellowcurls drew gradually to the far
+side of the bull, quartering him on the far side, and whirling on,
+headed her quarry back to her audience and the herd. The rough-and-ready
+American range boss sat sidewise in his saddle and thought--for he never
+talked unnecessarily, though appreciation was chalked all over his pose.
+The manager and madam felt as though they were responsible for this
+wonderful thing. The Mexican cowboys snapped their fingers and eyes at
+one another, shouting quick Spanish, while the American part of the
+beholders agreed that it was the “limit”; “that as a picture,” etc.;
+“that the American girl, properly environed “; “that this girl in
+particular,” etc., was a dream. Then the bull and the girl came home;
+the bull to his fellows, and the girl to us. But she didn't have an idea
+of our admiration, because we didn't tell her; that would have been
+wrong, as you can imagine. Ten years will complicate little Miss
+Yellowcurls. Then she could be vain about such a thing; but, alas! she
+will not be--she will have forgotten.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Crooked Trails, by Frederic Remington
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diff --git a/7867-0.zip b/7867-0.zip
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@@ -0,0 +1,4632 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
+
+<!DOCTYPE html
+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      Crooked Trails, by Frederic Remington
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+    <!--
+    body { margin:5%; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+    -->
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Crooked Trails, by Frederic Remington
+
+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: Crooked Trails
+
+Author: Frederic Remington
+
+Release Date: July 31, 2009 [EBook #7867]
+Last Updated: March 16, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CROOKED TRAILS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Eric Eldred, and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /> <a name="linkimage-0001" id="linkimage-0001">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-1.jpg"
+       alt="01 Texas Rangers Holding up Chapparal Bandits " width="100%" /><br /></div>
+    <h1>
+      CROOKED TRAILS
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      By Frederic Remington
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      Illustrated By Frederic Remington
+    </h2>
+    <h4>
+      Author Of &ldquo;Pony Tracks&rdquo;
+     </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      First published in 1898
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <big><b>CROOKED TRAILS</b></big> </a><br /><br /><br />
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> HOW THE LAW GOT INTO THE CHAPARRAL </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> THE BLUE QUAIL OF THE CACTUS </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> A SERGEANT OF THE ORPHAN TROOP </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> THE SPIRIT OF MAHONGUI </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> THE ESSENTIALS AT FORT ADOBE </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> MASSAI'S CROOKED TRAIL </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> JOSHUA GOODENOUGH'S OLD LETTER </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> CRACKER COWBOYS OF FLORIDA </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> THE STRANGE DAYS THAT CAME TO JIMMIE FRIDAY
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2H_4_0011"> THE SOLEDAD GIRLS </a>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br /> <br />
+      </p>
+      <hr />
+      <p>
+        <br /> <br />
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <big><b>ILLUSTRATIONS</b></big>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br />
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0001"> 01 Texas Rangers Holding up Chapparal Bandits
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0002"> 02 A Bearer of Civilization </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0003"> 03 The Charge Anp Killing of Padre Jarante
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0004"> 04 We Struck Some Boggy Ground </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0005"> 05 Prisoners Drawing Their Beans </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0006"> 06 How the Law Got Into The Chaparral </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0007"> 07 Luncheon in the Desert </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0008"> 08 Supper in the Corral </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0009"> 09 On the Shore of The Tank&mdash;morning
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0010"> 10 Running Blue Quail </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0011"> 11 Too Big Game for Number Six </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0012"> 12 Mile After Mile Rushed the Little Column
+        </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0013"> 13 The Horses Assembled in a Side Canyon </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0014"> 14 The Two Men Climbed Slowly </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0015"> 15 Brave Cheyennes Running Through the Frosty
+        Hills </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0016"> 16 Through the Smoke Sprang The Daring
+        Soldier </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0017"> 17 This Time the Air Grew Clear </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0018"> 18 This Was a Fatal Embarquation </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0019"> 19 The Omen of The Little Blue Birds </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0020"> 20 Ye Spirit Dog Strode from Ye Darkness </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0021"> 21 The Advance </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0022"> 22 Horse Gymnastics </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0023"> 23 Jumping on a Horse </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0024"> 24 A Tame Horse </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0025"> 25 The Pursuit </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0026"> 26 The Attack on The Cossack </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0027"> 27 Natastale </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0028"> 28 The Arrest of The Scout </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0029"> 29 Scouts </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0030"> 30 The Chief of Scouts </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0031"> 31 Not Much Fitted for Bush-ranging </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0032"> 32 The March of Rogers's Rangers </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0033"> 33 The Storming of Ticonderoga </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0034"> 34 Paddling the Wounded British Officer </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0035"> 35 The Capture of The French Grenadier </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0036"> 36 About Four Dollars Worth of Clothes
+        Between Them </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0037"> 37 A Cracker Cowboy </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0038"> 38 Fighting over a Stolen Herd </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0039"> 39 In Wait for an Enemy </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0040"> 40 A Bit of Cow Country </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0041"> 41 Cowboys Wrestling a Bull </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0042"> 42 The Lawyer Had Become a Voyager </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0043"> 43 It is Strange How One Can Accustom Himself
+        to 'pack' </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0044"> 44 Down the River on a Golden Morning </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0045"> 45 A Real Camp </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0046"> 46 Rough Water </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0047"> 47 The Indians Used 'setting-poles' </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0048"> 48 Trying Moments </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#linkimage-0049"> 49 The Half-wild Cattle Came Down from The
+        Hills </a>
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      CROOKED TRAILS
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      HOW THE LAW GOT INTO THE CHAPARRAL
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have heard about the Texas Rangers?&rdquo; said the Deacon to me one night
+      in the San Antonio Club. &ldquo;Yes? Well, come up to my rooms, and I will
+      introduce you to one of the old originals&mdash;dates 'way back in the
+      'thirties'&mdash;there aren't many of them left now&mdash;and if we can
+      get him to talk, he will tell you stories that will make your eyes hang
+      out on your shirt front.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      We entered the Deacon's cosey bachelor apartments, where I was introduced
+      to Colonel &ldquo;Rip&rdquo; Ford, of the old-time Texas Rangers. I found him a very
+      old man, with a wealth of snow-white hair and beard&mdash;bent, but not
+      withered. As he sunk on his stiffened limbs into the arm-chair, we
+      disposed ourselves quietly and almost reverentially, while we lighted
+      cigars. We began the approaches by which we hoped to loosen the history of
+      a wild past from one of the very few tongues which can still wag on the
+      days when the Texans, the Co-manches, and the Mexicans chased one another
+      over the plains of Texas, and shot and stabbed to find who should inherit
+      the land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Through the veil of tobacco smoke the ancient warrior spoke his sentences
+      slowly, at intervals, as his mind gradually separated and arranged the
+      details of countless fights. His head bowed in thought; anon it rose
+      sharply at recollections, and as he breathed, the shouts and lamentations
+      of crushed men&mdash;the yells and shots&mdash;the thunder of horses'
+      hoofs&mdash;the full fury of the desert combats came to the pricking ears
+      of the Deacon and me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We saw through the smoke the brave young faces of the hosts which poured
+      into Texas to war with the enemies of their race. They were clad in loose
+      hunting-frocks, leather leggings, and broad black hats; had powder-horns
+      and shot-pouches hung about them; were armed with bowie-knives,
+      Mississippi rifles, and horse-pistols; rode Spanish ponies, and were
+      impelled by Destiny to conquer, like their remote ancestors, &ldquo;the godless
+      hosts of Pagan&rdquo; who &ldquo;came swimming o'er the Northern Sea.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rip&rdquo; Ford had not yet acquired his front name in 1836, when he enlisted
+      in the famous Captain Jack Hayes's company of Rangers, which was fighting
+      the Mexicans in those days, and also trying incidentally to keep from
+      being eaten up by the Comanches.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Said the old Colonel: &ldquo;A merchant from our country journeyed to New York,
+      and Colonel Colt, who was a friend of his, gave him two five-shooters&mdash;pistols
+      they were, and little things. The merchant in turn presented them to
+      Captain Jack Hayes. The captain liked them so well that he did not rest
+      till every man jack of us had two apiece.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Directly,&rdquo; mused the ancient one, with a smile of pleasant recollection,
+      &ldquo;we had a fight with the Comanches&mdash;up here above San Antonio. Hayes
+      had fifteen men with him&mdash;he was doubling about the country for
+      Indians. He found 'sign,' and after cutting their trail several times he
+      could see that they were following him. Directly the Indians overtook the
+      Rangers&mdash;there were seventy-five Indians. Captain Hayes&mdash;bless
+      his memory!&mdash;said,' They are fixin' to charge us, boys, and we must
+      charge them.' There were never better men in this world than Hayes had
+      with him,&rdquo; went on the Colonel with pardonable pride; &ldquo;and mind you, he
+      never made a fight without winning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We charged, and in the fracas killed thirty-five Indians&mdash;only two
+      of our men were wounded&mdash;so you see the five-shooters were pretty
+      good weapons. Of course they wa'n't any account compared with these modern
+      ones, because they were too small, but they did those things. Just after
+      that Colonel Colt was induced to make bigger ones for us, some of which
+      were half as long as your arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hayes? Oh, he was a surveyor, and used to go out beyond the frontiers
+      about his work. The Indians used to jump him pretty regular; but he always
+      whipped them, and so he was available for a Ranger captain. About then&mdash;let's
+      see,&rdquo; and here the old head bobbed up from his chest, where it had sunk in
+      thought&mdash;&ldquo;there was a commerce with Mexico just sprung up, but this
+      was later&mdash;it only shows what that man Hayes used to do. The bandits
+      used to waylay the traders, and they got very bad in the country. Captain
+      Hayes went after them&mdash;he struck them near Lavade, and found the
+      Mexicans had more than twice as many men as he did; but he caught them
+      napping, charged them afoot&mdash;killed twenty-five of them, and got all
+      their horses.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose, Colonel, you have been charged by a Mexican lancer?&rdquo; I
+      inquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh yes, many times,&rdquo; he answered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What did you generally do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, you see, in those days I reckoned to be able to hit a man every
+      time with a six-shooter at one hundred and twenty-five yards,&rdquo; explained
+      the old gentleman&mdash;which no doubt meant many dead lancers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0002" id="linkimage-0002">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:20%">
+      <img src="images/ct-2.jpg" alt="02 a Bearer of Civilization " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you do not think much of a lance as a weapon?&rdquo; I pursued.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; there is but one weapon. The six-shooter when properly handled is the
+      only weapon&mdash;mind you, sir, I say <i>properly&rdquo;</i> and here the old
+      eyes blinked rapidly over the great art as he knew its practice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then, of course, the rifle has its use. Under Captain Jack Hayes sixty of
+      us made a raid once after the celebrated priest-leader of the Mexicans&mdash;Padre
+      Jarante&mdash;which same was a devil of a fellow. We were very sleepy&mdash;had
+      been two nights without sleep. At San Juan every man stripped his horse,
+      fed, and went to sleep. We had passed Padre Jarante in the night without
+      knowing it. At about twelve o'clock next day there was a terrible outcry&mdash;I
+      was awakened by shooting. The Padre was upon us. Five men outlying stood
+      the charge, and went under. We gathered, and the Padre charged three
+      times. The third time he was knocked from his horse and killed. Then
+      Captain Jack Hayes awoke, and we got in a big <i>casa.</i> The men took to
+      the roof. As the Mexicans passed we emptied a great many saddles. As I got
+      to the top of the <i>casa</i> I found two men quarrelling.&rdquo; (Here the
+      Colonel chuckled.) &ldquo;I asked what the matter was, and they were both
+      claiming to have killed a certain Mexican who was lying dead some way off.
+      One said he had hit him in the head, and the other said he had hit him in
+      the breast. I advised peace until after the fight. Well&mdash;after the
+      shooting was over and the Padre's men had had enough, we went out to the
+      particular Mexican who was dead, and, sure enough, he was shot in the head
+      and in the breast; so they laughed and made peace. About this time one of
+      the spies came in and reported six hundred Mexicans coming. We made an
+      examination of our ammunition, and found that we couldn't afford to fight
+      six hundred Mexicans with sixty men, so we pulled out. This was in the
+      Mexican war, and only goes to show that Captain Hayes's men could shoot
+      all the Mexicans that could get to them if the ammunition would hold out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What was the most desperate fight you can remember, Colonel?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man hesitated; this required a particular point of view&mdash;it
+      was quality, not quantity, wanted now; and, to be sure, he was a
+      connoisseur. After much study by the Colonel, during which the world lost
+      many thrilling tales, the one which survived occurred in 1851.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My lieutenant, Ed Burleson, was ordered to carry to San Antonio an Indian
+      prisoner we had taken and turned over to the commanding officer at Fort
+      McIntosh. On his return, while nearing the Nueces River, he spied a couple
+      of Indians. Taking seven men, he ordered the balance to continue along the
+      road. The two Indians proved to be fourteen, and they charged Burleson up
+      to the teeth. Dismounting his men, he poured it into them from his Colt's
+      six-shooting rifles. They killed or wounded all the Indians except two,
+      some of them dying so near the Rangers that they could put their hands on
+      their boots. All but one of Burleson's men were wounded&mdash;himself shot
+      in the head with an arrow. One man had four 'dogwood switches' [Arrows.]
+      in his body, one of which was in his bowels. This man told me that every
+      time he raised his gun to fire, the Indians would stick an arrow in him,
+      but he said he didn't care a cent. One Indian was lying right up close,
+      and while dying tried to shoot an arrow, but his strength failed so fast
+      that the arrow only barely left the bowstring. One of the Rangers in that
+      fight was a curious fellow&mdash;when young he had been captured by
+      Indians, and had lived with them so long that he had Indian habits. In
+      that fight he kept jumping around when loading, so as to be a bad target,
+      the same as an Indian would under the circumstances, and he told Burleson
+      he wished he had his boots off, so he could get around good&rdquo;&mdash;and
+      here the Colonel paused quizzically. &ldquo;Would you call that a good fight?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0003" id="linkimage-0003">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-3.jpg"
+       alt="03 the Charge Anp Killing of Padre Jarante " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The Deacon and I put the seal of our approval on the affair, and the
+      Colonel rambled ahead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In 1858 I was commanding the frontier battalion of State troops on the
+      whole frontier, and had my camp on the Deer Fork of the Brazos. The
+      Comanches kept raiding the settlements. They would come down quietly,
+      working well into the white lines, and then go back a-running&mdash;driving
+      stolen stock and killing and burning. I thought I would give them some of
+      their own medicine. I concluded to give them a fight. I took two wagons,
+      one hundred Rangers, and one hundred and thirteen Tahuahuacan Indians, who
+      were friend-lies. We struck a good Indian trail on a stream which led up
+      to the Canadian. We followed it till it got hot. I camped my outfit in
+      such a manner as to conceal my force, and sent out my scouts, who saw the
+      Indians hunt buffalo through spyglasses. That night we moved. I sent
+      Indians to locate the camp. They returned before day, and reported that
+      the Indians were just a few miles ahead, whereat we moved forward. At
+      daybreak, I remember, I was standing in the bull-wagon road leading to
+      Santa Fe and could see the Canadian River in our front&mdash;with eighty
+      lodges just beyond. Counting four men of fighting age to a lodge, that
+      made a possible three hundred and twenty Indians. Just at sunup an Indian
+      came across the river on a pony. Our Indians down below raised a yell&mdash;they
+      always get excited. The Indian heard them&mdash;it was very still then.
+      The Indian retreated slowly, and began to ride in a circle. From where I
+      was I could hear him puff like a deer&mdash;he was blowing the bullets
+      away from himself&mdash;he was a medicine-man. I heard five shots from the
+      Jagers with which my Indians were armed. The painted pony of the
+      medicine-man jumped ten feet in the air, it seemed to me, and fell over on
+      his rider&mdash;then five more Jagers went off, and he was dead. I ordered
+      the Tahuahuacans out in front, and kept the Rangers out of sight, because
+      I wanted to charge home and kind of surprise them. Pretty soon I got
+      ready, and gave the word. We charged. At the river we struck some boggy
+      ground and floundered around considerable, but we got through. We raised
+      the Texas yell, and away we went. I never expect again to hear such a
+      noise&mdash;I never want to hear it&mdash;what with the whoops of the
+      warriors&mdash;the screaming of the women and children&mdash;our boys
+      yelling&mdash;the shooting, and the horses just a-mixin' up and
+      a-stampedin' around,&rdquo; and the Colonel bobbed his head slowly as he
+      continued.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0004" id="linkimage-0004">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-4.jpg" alt="04 We Struck Some Boggy Ground "   width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One of my men didn't know a buck from a squaw. There was an Indian woman
+      on a pony with five children. He shot the pony&mdash;it seemed like you
+      couldn't see that pony for little Indians. We went through the camp, and
+      the Indians pulled out&mdash;spreading fanlike, and we a-running them.
+      After a long chase I concluded to come back. I saw lots of Indians around
+      in the hills. When I got back, I found Captain Ross had formed my men in
+      line. 'What time in the morning is it?' I asked. 'Morning, hell!' says he&mdash;'it's
+      one o'clock!' And so it was. Directly I saw an Indian coming down a hill
+      near by, and then more Indians and more Indians&mdash;till it seemed like
+      they wa'n't ever going to get through coming. We had struck a bigger
+      outfit than the first one. That first Indian he bantered my men to come
+      out single-handed and fight him. One after another, he wounded five of my
+      Indians. I ordered my Indians to engage them, and kind of get them down in
+      the flat, where I could charge. After some running and shooting they did
+      this, and I turned the Rangers loose. We drove them. The last stand they
+      made they killed one of my Indians, wounded a Ranger, but left seven of
+      their dead in a pile. It was now nearly nightfall, and I discovered that
+      my horses were broken down after fighting all day. I found it hard to
+      restrain my men, they had got so heated up; but I gradually withdrew to
+      where the fight commenced. The Indian camp was plundered. In it we found
+      painted buffalo-robes with beads a hand deep around the edges&mdash;the
+      finest robes I have ever seen&mdash;and heaps of goods plundered from the
+      Santa Fe traders. On the way back I noticed a dead chief, and was for a
+      moment astonished to find pieces of flesh cut out of him; upon looking at
+      a Tahuahuacan warrior I saw a pair of dead hands tied behind his saddle.
+      That night they had a cannibal feast. You see, the Tahuahuacans say that
+      the first one of their race was brought into the world by a wolf. 'How am
+      I to live?' said the Tahuahuacan. 'The same as we do,' said the wolf; and
+      when they were with me, that is just about how they lived. I reckon it's
+      necessary to tell you about the old woman who was found in our lines. She
+      was looking at the sun and making incantations, a-cussing us out generally
+      and elevating her voice. She said the Comanches would get even for this
+      day's work. I directed my Indians to let her alone, but I was informed
+      afterwards that that is just what they didn't do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this point the Colonel's cigar went out, and directly he followed; but
+      this is the manner in which he told of deeds which I know would fare
+      better at the hands of one used to phrasing and capable also of more
+      points of view than the Colonel was used to taking. The outlines of the
+      thing are strong, however, because the Deacon and I understood that fights
+      were what the old Colonel had dealt in during his active life, much as
+      other men do in stocks and bonds or wheat and corn. He had been a
+      successful operator, and only recalled pleasantly the bull quotations.
+      This type of Ranger is all but gone. A few may yet be found in outlying
+      ranches. One of the most celebrated resides near San Antonio&mdash;&ldquo;Big-foot
+      Wallace&rdquo; by name. He says he doesn't mind being called &ldquo;Big-foot,&rdquo; because
+      he is six feet two in height, and is entitled to big feet. His face is
+      done off in a nest of white hair and beard, and is patriarchal in
+      character. In 1836 he came out from Virginia to &ldquo;take toll&rdquo; of the
+      Mexicans for killing some relatives of his in the Fannin Massacre, and he
+      considers that he has squared his accounts; but they had him on the debit
+      side for a while. Being captured in the Meir expedition, he walked as a
+      prisoner to the city of Mexico, and did public work for that country with
+      a ball-and-chain attachment for two years. The prisoners overpowered the
+      guards and escaped on one occasion, but were overtaken by Mexican cavalry
+      while dying of thirst in a desert. Santa Anna ordered their &ldquo;decimation,&rdquo;
+       which meant that every tenth man was shot, their lot being determined by
+      the drawing of a black bean from an earthen pot containing a certain
+      proportion of white ones. &ldquo;Big-foot&rdquo; drew a white one. He was also a
+      member of Captain Hayes's company, afterwards a captain of Rangers, and a
+      noted Indian-fighter. Later he carried the mails from San Antonio to El
+      Paso through a howling wilderness, but always brought it safely through&mdash;if
+      safely can be called lying thirteen days by a water-hole in the desert,
+      waiting for a broken leg to mend, and living meanwhile on one
+      prairie-wolf, which he managed to shoot. Wallace was a professional
+      hunter, who fought Indians and hated &ldquo;greasers&rdquo;; he belongs to the past,
+      and has been &ldquo;outspanned&rdquo; under a civilization in which he has no place,
+      and is to-day living in poverty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0005" id="linkimage-0005">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-5.jpg" alt="05 Prisoners Drawing Their Beans "   width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The civil war left Texas under changed conditions. That and the Mexican
+      wars had determined its boundaries, however, and it rapidly filled up with
+      new elements of population. Broken soldiers, outlaws, poor immigrants
+      living in bull-wagons, poured in. &ldquo;Gone to Texas&rdquo; had a sinister
+      significance in the late sixties. When the railroad got to Abilene,
+      Kansas, the cow-men of Texas found a market for their stock, and began
+      trailing their herds up through the Indian country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bands of outlaws organized under the leadership of desperadoes like Wes
+      Hardin and King Fisher. They rounded up cattle regardless of their owners'
+      rights, and resisted interference with force. The poor man pointed to his
+      brand in the stolen herd and protested. He was shot. The big owners were
+      unable to protect themselves from loss. The property right was established
+      by the six-shooter, and honest men were forced to the wall. In 1876 the
+      property-holding classes went to the Legislature, got it to appropriate a
+      hundred thousand dollars a year for two years, and the Ranger force was
+      reorganized to carry the law into the chaparral. At this time many judges
+      were in league with bandits; sheriffs were elected by the outlaws, and the
+      electors were cattle-stealers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Rangers were sworn to uphold the laws of Texas and the United States.
+      They were deputy sheriffs, United States marshals&mdash;in fact, were
+      often vested with any and every power, even to the extent of ignoring
+      disreputable sheriffs. At times they were judge, jury, and executioner
+      when the difficulties demanded extremes. When a band of outlaws was
+      located, detectives or spies were sent among them, who openly joined the
+      desperadoes, and gathered evidence to put the Rangers on their trail.
+      Then, in the wilderness, with only the soaring buzzard or prowling coyote
+      to look on, the Ranger and the outlaw met to fight with tigerish ferocity
+      to the death. Shot, and lying prone, they fired until the palsied arm
+      could no longer raise the six-shooter, and justice was satisfied as their
+      bullets sped. The captains had the selection of their men, and the right
+      to dishonorably discharge at will. Only men of irreproachable character,
+      who were fine riders and dead-shots, were taken. The spirit of adventure
+      filled the ranks with the most prominent young men in the State, and to
+      have been a Ranger is a badge of distinction in Texas to this day. The
+      display of anything but a perfect willingness to die under any and all
+      circumstances was fatal to a Ranger, and in course of time they got the <i>moral</i>
+      on the bad man. Each one furnished his own horse and arms, while the State
+      gave him ammunition, &ldquo;grub,&rdquo; one dollar a day, and extra expenses. The
+      enlistment was for twelve months. A list of fugitive Texas criminals was
+      placed in his hands, with which he was expected to familiarize himself.
+      Then, in small parties, they packed the bedding on their mule, they hung
+      the handcuffs and leather thongs about its neck, saddled their
+      riding-ponies, and threaded their way into the chaparral.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0006" id="linkimage-0006">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-6.jpg" alt="06 How the Law Got Into The Chaparral "   width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      On an evening I had the pleasure of meeting two more distinguished Ranger
+      officers&mdash;more modern types&mdash;Captains Lea Hall and Joseph Shely;
+      both of them big, forceful men, and loath to talk about themselves. It was
+      difficult to associate the quiet gentlemen who sat smoking in the Deacon's
+      rooms with what men say; for the tales of their prowess in Texas always
+      ends, &ldquo;and that don't count Mexicans, either.&rdquo; The bandit never laid down
+      his gun but with his life; so the &ldquo;la ley de huga&rdquo; [Mexican law of
+      shooting escaped or resisting prisoners.] was in force in the chaparral,
+      and the good people of Texas were satisfied with a very short account of a
+      Ranger's fight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The most distinguished predecessor of these two men was a Captain McNally,
+      who was so bent on, carrying his raids to an issue that he paid no heed to
+      national boundary-lines. He followed a band of Mexican bandits to the town
+      of La Cueva, below Ringgold, once, and, surrounding it, demanded the
+      surrender of the cattle which they had stolen. He had but ten men, and yet
+      this redoubtable warrior surrounded a town full of bandits and Mexican
+      soldiers. The Mexican soldiers attacked the Rangers, and forced them back
+      under the river-banks, but during the fight the <i>jefe politico</i> was
+      killed. The Rangers were in a fair way to be overcome by the Mexicans,
+      when Lieutenant Clendenin turned a Gatling loose from the American side
+      and covered their position. A parley ensued, but McNally refused to go
+      back without the cattle, which the Mexicans had finally to surrender.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At another time McNally received word through spies of an intended raid of
+      Mexican cattle-thieves under the leadership of Cammelo Lerma. At Resaca de
+      la Palma, McNally struck the depredators with but sixteen men. They had
+      seventeen men and five hundred head of stolen cattle. In a running fight
+      for miles McNally's men killed sixteen bandits, while only one escaped. A
+      young Ranger by the name of Smith was shot dead by Cammelo Lerma as he
+      dismounted to look at the dying bandit. The dead bodies were piled in
+      ox-carts and dumped in the public square at Brownsville. McNally also
+      captured King Fisher's band in an old log house in Dimmit County, but they
+      were not convicted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Showing the nature of Ranger work, an incident which occurred to my
+      acquaintance, Captain Lea Hall, will illustrate. In De Witt County there
+      was a feud. One dark night sixteen masked men took a sick man, one Dr.
+      Brazel, and two of his boys, from their beds, and, despite the imploring
+      mother and daughter, hanged the doctor and one son to a tree. The other
+      boy escaped in the green corn. Nothing was done to punish the crime, as
+      the lynchers were men of property and influence in the country. No man
+      dared speak above his breath about the affair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Captain Hall, by secret-service men, discovered the perpetrators, and also
+      that they were to be gathered at a wedding on a certain night. He
+      surrounded the house and demanded their surrender, at the same time saying
+      that he did not want to kill the women and children. Word returned that
+      they would kill him and all his Rangers. Hall told them to allow their
+      women and children to depart, which was done; then, springing on the
+      gallery of the house, he shouted, &ldquo;Now, gentlemen, you can go to killing
+      Rangers; but if you don't surrender, the Rangers will go to killing you.&rdquo;
+       This was too frank a willingness for midnight assassins, and they gave up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spies had informed him that robbers intended sacking Campbell's store in
+      Wolfe City. Hall and his men lay behind the counters to receive them on
+      the designated night. They were allowed to enter, when Hall's men, rising,
+      opened fire&mdash;the robbers replying. Smoke filled the room, which was
+      fairly illuminated by the flashes of the guns&mdash;but the robbers were
+      all killed, much to the disgust of the lawyers, no doubt, though I could
+      never hear that honest people mourned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man Hall was himself a gentleman of the romantic Southern soldier
+      type, and he entertained the highest ideals, with which it would be
+      extremely unsafe to trifle, if I may judge. Captain Shely, our other
+      visitor, was a herculean, black-eyed man, fairly fizzing with nervous
+      energy. He is also exceedingly shrewd, as befits the greater concreteness
+      of the modern Texas law, albeit he too has trailed bandits in the
+      chaparral, and rushed in on their camp-fires at night, as two big
+      bullet-holes in his skin will attest. He it was who arrested Polk, the
+      defaulting treasurer of Tennessee. He rode a Spanish pony sixty-two miles
+      in six hours, and arrested Polk, his guide, and two private detectives,
+      whom Polk had bribed to set him over the Rio Grande. When the land of
+      Texas was bought up and fenced with wire, the old settlers who had used
+      the land did not readily recognize the new regime. They raised the
+      rallying-cry of &ldquo;free grass and free water&rdquo;&mdash;said they had fought the
+      Indians off, and the land belonged to them. Taking nippers, they rode by
+      night and cut down miles of fencing. Shely took the keys of a county jail
+      from the frightened sheriff, made arrests by the score, and lodged them in
+      the big new jail. The country-side rose in arms, surrounded the building,
+      and threatened to tear it down. The big Ranger was not deterred by this
+      outburst, but quietly went out into the mob, and with mock politeness
+      delivered himself as follows:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not tear down the jail, gentlemen&mdash;you have been taxed for years
+      to build this fine structure&mdash;it is yours&mdash;do not tear it down.
+      I will open the doors wide&mdash;you can all come in&mdash;do not tear
+      down the jail; but there are twelve Rangers in there, with orders to kill
+      as long as they can see. Come right in, gentlemen&mdash;but come fixed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The mob was overcome by his civility.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Texas is to-day the only State in the Union where pistol-carry ing is
+      attended with great chances of arrest and fine. The law is supreme even in
+      the lonely <i>jacails</i> out in the rolling waste of chaparral, and it
+      was made so by the tireless riding, the deadly shooting, and the
+      indomitable courage of the Texas Rangers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE BLUE QUAIL OF THE CACTUS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE Quartermaster and I both had trouble which the doctors could not cure&mdash;it
+      was January, and it would not do for us to sit in a &ldquo;blind &ldquo;; besides, I
+      do not fancy that. There are ever so many men who are comfortable all over
+      when they are sitting in a blind waiting on the vagrant flying of the
+      ducks; but it is solemn, gloomy business, and, I must say, sufficient
+      reason why they take a drink every fifteen minutes to keep up their
+      enthusiasm. We both knew that the finest winter resort for shot-gun folks
+      was in the Southwest&mdash;down on the Rio Grande in Texas&mdash;so we
+      journeyed to Eagle Pass. As we got down from the train we saw Captain
+      Febiger in his long military cloak by a lantern-light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Got any quail staked out for us, Feb?&rdquo; asked the Quartermaster.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oodles,&rdquo; said Febiger; &ldquo;get into my trap,&rdquo; and we were rattled through
+      the unlighted street out to the camp, and brought up by the Captain's
+      quarters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the morning we unpacked our trunks, and had everything on the floor
+      where we could see it, after the fashion with men. Captain Febiger's baby
+      boy came in to help us rummage in the heaps of canvas clothes, ammunition,
+      and what not besides, finally selecting for his amusement a loaded Colt's
+      revolver and a freshly honed razor. We were terrorized by the
+      possibilities of the combination. Our trying to take them away from the
+      youngster only made him yell like a cavern of demons. We howled for his
+      mother to come to our aid, which she finally did, and she separated the
+      kid from his toys.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I put on my bloomers, when the Captain came in and viewed me, saying:
+      &ldquo;Texas bikes; but it doesn't bloom yet. I don't know just what Texas will
+      do if you parade in those togs&mdash;but you can try.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As we sauntered down the dusty main street, Texas lounged in the doorways
+      or stood up in its buggy and stared at me. Texas grinned cheerfully, too,
+      but I did not care, so long as Texas kept its hand out of its hip pocket.
+      I was content to help educate Texas as to personal comfort, at no matter
+      what cost to myself. We passed into Mexico over the Long Bridge to call on
+      Senor Munos, who is the local czar, in hopes of getting permits to be let
+      alone by his chaparral-rangers while we shot quail on their soil. In
+      Mexico when the people observe an Americano they simply shrug their
+      shoulders; so our bloomers attracted no more contempt than would an X-ray
+      or a trolley-car. Senor Munos gave the permits, after much stately
+      compliment and many subtle ways, which made us feel under a cloud of
+      obligation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0007" id="linkimage-0007">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-7.jpg" alt="07 Luncheon in the Desert " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The next morning an ambulance and escort-wagon drove up to the Captain's
+      quarters, and we loaded ourselves in&mdash;shot-guns, ammunition,
+      blankets, and the precious paper of Senor Munos; for, only the week
+      before, the custom-house rangers had carefully escorted an American
+      hunting-party a long distance back to the line for lack of the little
+      paper and red seals. We rattled over the bridge, past the Mexican barrack,
+      while its dark-skinned soldiery&mdash;who do not shoot quails&mdash;lounged
+      in the sunshine against the whitewashed wall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the first outpost of the customs a little man, whose considerable
+      equatorial proportions were girted with a gun, examined our paper, and
+      waved us on our way. Under the railroad bridge of the International an
+      engineer blew his whistle, and our mules climbed on top of each other in
+      their terror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We wound along the little river, through irrigating ditches, past dozens
+      of those deliciously quaint adobe houses, past the inevitable church, past
+      a dead pony, ran over a chicken, made the little seven-year-old girls take
+      their five-year-old brothers up in their arms for protection, and finally
+      we climbed a long hill. At the top stretched an endless plain. The road
+      forked; presently it branched; anon it grew into twigs of white dust on
+      the gray levels of the background. The local physician of Eagle Pass was
+      of our party, and he was said to know where a certain tank was to be
+      found, some thirty miles out in the desert, but no man yet created could
+      know which twig of the road to take. He decided on one&mdash;changed his
+      mind&mdash;got out of the ambulance, scratched his head, pondered, and
+      finally resolution settled on his face. He motioned the driver to a
+      certain twig, got in, and shut his mouth firmly, thus closing debate. We
+      smoked silently, waiting for the doctor's mind to fog. He turned uneasily
+      in his seat, like the agitated needle of a compass, and even in time
+      hazarded the remark that something did not look natural; but there was
+      nothing to look at but flat land and flat sky, unless a hawk sailing here
+      and there. At noon we lunched at the tail of the ambulance, and gently
+      &ldquo;jollied&rdquo; the doctor's topography. We pushed on. Later in the afternoon
+      the thirsty mules went slowly. The doctor had by this time admitted his
+      doubts&mdash;some long blue hills on the sky-line ought to be farther to
+      the west, according to his remembrance. As no one else had any ideas on
+      the subject, the doctor's position was not enviable. We changed our
+      course, and travelled many weary miles through the chaparral, which was
+      high enough to stop our vision, and stiff enough to bar our way, keeping
+      us to narrow roads. At last the bisecting cattle trails began to converge,
+      and we knew that they led to water&mdash;which they did; for shortly we
+      saw a little broken adobe, a tumbled brush corral, the plastered gate of
+      an <i>acequia,</i> and the blue water of the tank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0008" id="linkimage-0008">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-8.jpg" alt="08 Supper in the Corral " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      To give everything its due proportion at this point, we gathered to
+      congratulate the doctor as we passed the flask. The camp was pitched
+      within the corral, and while the cook got supper we stood in the
+      after-glow on the bank of the tank and saw the ducks come home, heard the
+      mud-hens squddle, while high in the air flew the long line of sand-hill
+      cranes with a hoarse clangor. It was quite dark when we sat on the &ldquo;grub&rdquo;
+       chests and ate by the firelight, while out in the desert the coyotes
+      shrilled to the monotonous accompaniment of the mules crunching their feed
+      and stamping wearily. To-morrow it was proposed to hunt ducks in their
+      morning flight, which means getting up before daylight, so bed found us
+      early. It seemed but a minute after I had sought my blankets when I was
+      being abused by the Captain, being pushed with his foot&mdash;fairly
+      rolled over by him&mdash;he even standing on my body as he shouted, &ldquo;Get
+      up, if you are going hunting. It will be light directly&mdash;get up!&rdquo; And
+      this, constantly recurring, is one reason why I do not care for
+      duck-shooting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, in order to hunt, I had to get up, and file off in the line of
+      ghosts, stumbling, catching, on the chaparral, and splashing in the mud. I
+      led a setter-dog, and was presently directed to sit down in some damp
+      grass, because it was a good place&mdash;certainly not to sit down in, but
+      for other reasons. I sat there in the dark, petting the good dog, and
+      watching the sky grow pale in the east. This is not to mention the desire
+      for breakfast, or the damp, or the sleepiness, but this is really the
+      larger part of duck-hunting. Of course if I later had a dozen good shots
+      it might compensate&mdash;but I did not have a dozen shots.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The day came slowly out of the east, the mud-hens out in the marsh
+      splashed about in the rushes, a sailing hawk was visible against the gray
+      sky overhead, and I felt rather insignificant, not to say contemptible, as
+      I sat there in the loneliness of this big nature which worked around me.
+      The dog dignified the situation&mdash;he was a part of nature's belongings&mdash;while
+      I somehow did not seem to grace the solitude. The grays slowly grew into
+      browns on the sedge-grass, and the water to silver. A bright flash of fire
+      shot out of the dusk far up in the gloom, and the dull report of a
+      shot-gun came over the tank. Black objects fled across the sky&mdash;the
+      ducks were flying. I missed one or two, and grew weary&mdash;none came
+      near enough to my lair. Presently it was light, and I got a fair shot. My
+      bird tumbled into the rushes out in front of me, and the setter bounded in
+      to retrieve. He searched vehemently, but the wounded duck dived in front
+      of him. He came ashore shortly, and lying down, he bit at himself and
+      pawed and rolled. He was a mass of cockle-burs. I took him on my lap and
+      laboriously picked cockle-burs out of his hair for a half-hour; then,
+      shouldering my gun, I turned tragically to the water and anathematized its
+      ducks&mdash;all ducks, my fellow-duckers, all thoughts and motives
+      concerning ducks&mdash;and then strode into the chaparral. &ldquo;Hie on! hie
+      on!&rdquo; I tossed my arm, and the setter began to hunt beautifully&mdash;glad,
+      no doubt, to leave all thoughts of the cockle-burs and evasive ducks
+      behind. I worked up the shore of the tank, keeping back in the brush, and
+      got some fun. After chasing about for some time I came out near the water.
+      My dog pointed. I glided forward, and came near shooting the
+      Quartermaster, who sat in a bunch of sedge-grass, with a dead duck by his
+      side. He was smoking, and was disgusted with ducks. He joined me, and
+      shortly, as we crossed the road, the long Texas doctor, who owned the dog,
+      came striding down the way. He was ready for quail now, and we started.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0009" id="linkimage-0009">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-9.jpg" alt="09 on the Shore of The Tank--morning "   width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The quail-hunting is active work. The dog points, but one nearly always
+      finds the birds running from one prickly-pear bush to another. They do not
+      stand, rarely flush, and when they do get up it is only to swoop ahead to
+      the nearest cover, where they settle quickly. One must be sharp in his
+      shooting&mdash;he cannot select his distance, for the cactus lies thick
+      about, and the little running bird is only on view for the shortest of
+      moments. You must overrun a dog after his first point, since he works too
+      close behind them. The covey will keep together if not pursued with too
+      much haste, and one gets shot after shot; still, at last you must run
+      lively, as the frightened covey scurry along at a remarkable pace. Heavy
+      shot are necessary, since the blue quail carry lead like Marshal Massena,
+      and are much harder to kill than the bob-white. Three men working together
+      can get shooting enough out of a bunch&mdash;the chase often continuing
+      for a mile, when the covey gradually separate, the sportsmen following
+      individual birds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0010" id="linkimage-0010">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-10.jpg" alt="10 Running Blue Quail " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Where the prickly-pear cactus is thickest, there are the blue quail, since
+      that is their feed and water supply. This same cactus makes a difficulty
+      of pursuit, for it bristles with spines, which come off on your clothing,
+      and when they enter the skin make most uncomfortable and persistent sores.
+      The Quartermaster had an Indian tobacco-bag dangling at his belt, and as
+      it flopped in his progress it gathered prickers, which it shortly
+      transferred to his luckless legs, until he at last detected the reason why
+      he bristled so fiercely. And the poor dog&mdash;at every covey we had to
+      stop and pick needles out of him. The haunts of the blue quail are really
+      no place for a dog, as he soon becomes useless. One does not need him,
+      either, since the blue quail will not flush until actually kicked into the
+      air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jack and cotton-tail rabbits fled by hundreds before us. They are
+      everywhere, and afford good shooting between coveys, it being quick work
+      to get a cotton-tail as he flashes between the net-work of protecting
+      cactus. Coyotes lope away in our front, but they are too wild for a
+      shot-gun. It must ever be in a man's mind to keep his direction, because
+      it is such a vastly simple thing to get lost in the chaparral, where you
+      cannot see a hundred yards. Mexico has such a considerable territory that
+      a man on foot may find it inconvenient to beat up a town in the desolation
+      of thorn-bush.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is an action about blue-quail shooting which is next to buffalo
+      shooting&mdash;it's run, shoot, pick up your bird, scramble on in your
+      endeavor to keep the skirmish-line of your two comrades; and at last, when
+      you have concluded to stop, you can mop your forehead&mdash;the Mexican
+      sun shines hot even in midwinter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Later in the afternoon we get among bob-white in a grassy tract, and while
+      they are clean work&mdash;good dog-play, and altogether more satisfactory
+      shooting than any other I know of&mdash;I am yet much inclined to the
+      excitement of chasing after game which you can see at intervals. Let it
+      not be supposed that it is less difficult to hit a running blue quail as
+      he shoots through the brush than a flying bob-white, for the experience of
+      our party has settled that, and one gets ten shots at the blue to one at
+      the bob-white, because of their number. As to eating, we could not tell
+      the difference; but I will not insist that this is final. A man who comes
+      in from an all day's run in the brush does not care whether the cook gives
+      him boiled beans, watermelon, or crackers and jam; so how is he to know
+      what a bird's taste is when served to a tame appetite?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0011" id="linkimage-0011">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-11.jpg" alt="11 Too Big Game for Number Six "   width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      At intervals we ran into the wild cattle which threaded their way to
+      water, and it makes one nervous. It is of no use to say &ldquo;Soo-bossy,&rdquo; or to
+      give him a charge of No. 6; neither is it well to run. If the <i>matadores</i>
+      had any of the sensations which I have experienced, the gate receipts at
+      the bull-rings would have to go up. When a big long-horn fastens a
+      quail-shooter with his great open brown eye in a chaparral thicket, you
+      are not inclined to &ldquo;call his hand.&rdquo; If he will call it a misdeal, you are
+      with him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We were banging away, the Quartermaster and I, when a human voice began
+      yelling like mad from the brush ahead. We advanced, to find a Mexican&mdash;rather
+      well gotten up&mdash;who proceeded to wave his arms like a parson who had
+      reached &ldquo;sixthly&rdquo; in his sermon, and who proceeded thereat to overwhelm us
+      with his eloquence. The Quartermaster and I &ldquo;<i>buenos dias-ed</i>&rdquo; and &ldquo;<i>si,
+      senor-ed</i>&rdquo; him in our helpless Spanish, and asked each other,
+      nervously, &ldquo;What de'll.&rdquo; After a long time he seemed to be getting through
+      with his subject, his sentences became separated, he finally emitted
+      monosyllables only along with his scowls, and we tramped off into the
+      brush. It was a pity he spent so much energy, since it could only arouse
+      our curiosity without satisfying it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In camp that night we told the Captain of our excited Mexican friend out
+      in the brush, and our cook had seen sinister men on ponies passing near
+      our camp. The Captain became solicitous, and stationed a night-guard over
+      his precious government mules. It would never do to have a bandit get away
+      with a U. S. brand. It never does matter about private property, but
+      anything with U. S. on it has got to be looked after, like a croupy child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We had some good days' sport, and no more formidable enterprise against
+      the night-guard was attempted than the noisy approach of a white jackass.
+      The tents were struck and loaded when it began to rain. We stood in the
+      shelter of the escort-wagon, and the storm rose to a hurricane. Our corral
+      became a tank; but shortly the black clouds passed north, and we pulled
+      out. The twig ran into a branch, and the branch struck the trunk near the
+      bluffs over the Rio Grande, and in town there stood the Mexican soldiers
+      leaning against the wall as we had left them. We wondered if they had
+      moved meanwhile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      A SERGEANT OF THE ORPHAN TROOP
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      WHILE it is undisputed that Captain Dodd's troop of the Third Cavalry is
+      not an orphan, and is, moreover, quite as far from it as any troop of
+      cavalry in the world, all this occurred many years ago, when it was, at
+      any rate, so called. There was nothing so very unfortunate about it, from
+      what I can gather, since it seems to have fought well on its own hook,
+      quite up to all expectations, if not beyond. No officer at that time
+      seemed to care to connect his name with such a rioting, nose-breaking band
+      of desperado cavalrymen, unless it was temporarily, and that was always in
+      the field, and never in garrison. However, in this case it did not have
+      even an officer in the field. But let me go on to my sergeant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This one was a Southern gentleman, or rather a boy, when he refugeed out
+      of Fredericksburg with his family, before the Federal advance, in a wagon
+      belonging to a Mississippi rifle regiment; but nevertheless some years
+      later he got to be a gentleman, and passed through the Virginia Military
+      Institute with honor. The desire to be a soldier consumed him, but the
+      vicissitudes of the times compelled him, if he wanted to be a soldier, to
+      be a private one, which he became by duly enlisting in the Third Cavalry.
+      He struck the Orphan Troop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Physically, Nature had slobbered all over Carter Johnson; she had lavished
+      on him her very last charm. His skin was pink, albeit the years of Arizona
+      sun had heightened it to a dangerous red; his mustache was yellow and
+      ideally military; while his pure Virginia accent, fired in terse and jerky
+      form at friend and enemy alike, relieved his natural force of character by
+      a shade of humor. He was thumped and bucked and pounded into what was in
+      the seventies considered a proper frontier soldier, for in those days the
+      nursery idea had not been lugged into the army. If a sergeant bade a
+      soldier &ldquo;go&rdquo; or &ldquo;do,&rdquo; he instantly &ldquo;went&rdquo; or &ldquo;did&rdquo;&mdash;otherwise the
+      sergeant belted him over the head with his six-shooter, and had him taken
+      off in a cart. On pay-days, too, when men who did not care to get drunk
+      went to bed in barracks, they slept under their bunks and not in them,
+      which was conducive to longevity and a good night's rest. When buffalo
+      were scarce they ate the army rations in those wild days; they had a fight
+      often enough to earn thirteen dollars, and at times a good deal more. This
+      was the way with all men at that time, but it was rough on recruits.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So my friend Carter Johnson wore through some years, rose to be a
+      corporal, finally a sergeant, and did many daring deeds. An atavism from
+      &ldquo;the old border riders&rdquo; of Scotland shone through the boy, and he took on
+      quickly. He could act the others off the stage and sing them out of the
+      theatre in his chosen profession.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was fighting all day long around Fort Robinson, Nebraska&mdash;a
+      bushwhacking with Dull-Knife's band of the Northern Cheyennes, the
+      Spartans of the plains. It was January; the snow lay deep on the ground,
+      and the cold was knife-like as it thrust at the fingers and toes of the
+      Orphan Troop. Sergeant Johnson with a squad of twenty men, after having
+      been in the saddle all night, was in at the post drawing rations for the
+      troop. As they were packing them up for transport, a detachment of F Troop
+      came galloping by, led by the sergeant's friend, Corporal Thornton. They
+      pulled up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come on, Carter&mdash;go with us. I have just heard that some troops have
+      got a bunch of Injuns corralled out in the hills. They can't get 'em down.
+      Let's go help 'em. It's a chance for the fight of your life. Come on.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Carter hesitated for a moment. He had drawn the rations for his troop,
+      which was in sore need of them. It might mean a court-martial and the loss
+      of his chevrons&mdash;but a fight! Carter struck his spurred heels,
+      saying, &ldquo;Come on, boys; get your horses; we will go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The line of cavalry was half lost in the flying snow as it cantered away
+      over the white flats. The dry powder crunched under the thudding hoofs,
+      the carbines banged about, the overcoat capes blew and twisted in the
+      rushing air, the horses grunted and threw up their heads as the spurs went
+      into their bellies, while the men's faces were serious with the interest
+      in store. Mile after mile rushed the little column, until it came to some
+      bluffs, where it drew reign and stood gazing across the valley to the
+      other hills.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Down in the bottoms they espied an officer and two men sitting quietly on
+      their horses, and on riding up found a lieutenant gazing at the opposite
+      bluffs through a glass. Far away behind the bluffs a sharp ear could
+      detect the reports of guns.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have been fighting the Indians all day here,&rdquo; said the officer,
+      putting down his glass and turning to the two &ldquo;non-coms.&rdquo; &ldquo;The command has
+      gone around the bluffs. I have just seen Indians up there on the
+      rim-rocks. I have sent for troops, in the hope that we might get up there.
+      Sergeant, deploy as skirmishers, and we will try.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0012" id="linkimage-0012">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-12.jpg"
+       alt="12 Mile After Mile Rushed the Little Column " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      At a gallop the men fanned out, then forward at a sharp trot across the
+      flats, over the little hills, and into the scrub pine. The valley
+      gradually narrowed until it forced the skirmishers into a solid body, when
+      the lieutenant took the lead, with the command tailing out in single file.
+      The signs of the Indians grew thicker and thicker&mdash;a skirmisher's
+      nest here behind a scrub-pine bush, and there by the side of a rock.
+      Kettles and robes lay about in the snow, with three &ldquo;bucks&rdquo; and some women
+      and children sprawling about, frozen as they had died; but all was silent
+      except the crunch of the snow and the low whispers of the men as they
+      pointed to the telltales of the morning's battle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the column approached the precipitous rim-rock the officer halted, had
+      the horses assembled in a side canon, putting Corporal Thornton in charge.
+      He ordered Sergeant Johnson to again advance his skirmish-line, in which
+      formation the men moved forward, taking cover behind the pine scrub and
+      rocks, until they came to an open space of about sixty paces, while above
+      it towered the cliff for twenty feet in the sheer. There the Indians had
+      been last seen. The soldiers lay tight in the snow, and no man's valor
+      impelled him on. To the casual glance the rim-rock was impassable. The men
+      were discouraged and the officer nonplussed. A hundred rifles might be
+      covering the rock fort for all they knew. On closer examination a cutting
+      was found in the face of the rock which was a rude attempt at steps,
+      doubtless made long ago by the Indians. Caught on a bush above, hanging
+      down the steps, was a lariat, which, at the bottom, was twisted around the
+      shoulders of a dead warrior. They had evidently tried to take him up while
+      wounded, but he had died and had been abandoned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After cogitating, the officer concluded not to order his men forward, but
+      he himself stepped boldly out into the open and climbed up. Sergeant
+      Johnson immediately followed, while an old Swedish soldier by the name of
+      Otto Bordeson fell in behind them. They walked briskly up the hill, and
+      placing their backs against the wall of rock, stood gazing at the Indian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a grin the officer directed the men to advance. The sergeant, seeing
+      that he realized their serious predicament, said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think, lieutenant, you had better leave them where they are; we are
+      holding this rock up pretty hard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0013" id="linkimage-0013">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-13.jpg" alt="13 the Horses Assembled in a Side Canyon "   width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      They stood there and looked at each other. &ldquo;We's in a fix,&rdquo; said Otto.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want volunteers to climb this rock,&rdquo; finally demanded the officer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sergeant looked up the steps, pulled at the lariat, and commented:
+      &ldquo;Only one man can go at a time; if there are Indians up there, an old
+      squaw can kill this command with a hatchet; and if there are no Indians,
+      we can all go up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The impatient officer started up, but the sergeant grabbed him by the
+      belt. He turned, saying, &ldquo;If I haven't got men to go, I will climb
+      myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stop, lieutenant. It wouldn't look right for the officer to go. I have
+      noticed a pine-tree, the branches of which spread over the top of the
+      rock,&rdquo; and the sergeant pointed to it. &ldquo;If you will make the men cover the
+      top of the rim-rock with their rifles, Bordeson and I will go up;&rdquo; and
+      turning to the Swede, &ldquo;Will you go, Otto?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will go anywhere the sergeant does,&rdquo; came his gallant reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take your choice, then, of the steps or the pine-tree,&rdquo; continued the
+      Virginian; and after a rather short but sharp calculation the Swede
+      declared for the tree, although both were death if the Indians were on the
+      rim-rock. He immediately began sidling along the rock to the tree, and
+      slowly commenced the ascent. The sergeant took a few steps up the cutting,
+      holding on by the rope. The officer stood out and smiled quizzically.
+      Jeers came from behind the soldiers' bushes&mdash;&ldquo;Go it, Otto! Go it,
+      Johnson! Your feet are loaded! If a snow-bird flies, you will drop dead!
+      Do you need any help? You'd make a hell of a sailor!&rdquo; and other gibes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The gray clouds stretched away monotonously over the waste of snow, and it
+      was cold. The two men climbed slowly, anon stopping to look at each other
+      and smile. They were monkeying with death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last the sergeant drew himself up, slowly raised his head, and saw snow
+      and broken rock. Otto lifted himself likewise, and he too saw nothing
+      Rifle-shots came clearly to their ears from far in front&mdash;many at one
+      time, and scattering at others. Now the soldiers came briskly forward,
+      dragging up the cliff in single file. The dull noises of the fight came
+      through the wilderness. The skirmish-line drew quickly forward and passed
+      into the pine woods, but the Indian trails scattered. Dividing into sets
+      of four, they followed on the tracks of small parties, wandering on until
+      night threatened. At length the main trail of the fugitive band ran across
+      their front, bringing the command together. It was too late for the
+      officer to get his horses before dark, nor could he follow with his
+      exhausted men, so he turned to the sergeant and asked him to pick some men
+      and follow on the trail. The sergeant picked Otto Borde-son, who still
+      affirmed that he would go anywhere that Johnson went, and they started.
+      They were old hunting companions, having confidence in each other's sense
+      and shooting. They ploughed through the snow, deeper and deeper into the
+      pines, then on down a canon where the light was failing. The sergeant was
+      sweating freely; he raised his hand to press his fur cap backward from his
+      forehead. He drew it quickly away; he stopped and started, caught Otto by
+      the sleeve, and drew a long breath. Still holding his companion, he put
+      his glove again to his nose, sniffed at it again, and with a mighty tug
+      brought the startled Swede to his knees, whispering, &ldquo;I smell Indians; I
+      can sure smell 'em, Otto&mdash;can you?&rdquo; Otto sniffed, and whispered back,
+      &ldquo;Yes, plain!&rdquo; &ldquo;We are ambushed! Drop!&rdquo; and the two soldiers sunk in the
+      snow. A few feet in front of them lay a dark thing; crawling to it, they
+      found a large calico rag, covered with blood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0014" id="linkimage-0014">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-14.jpg" alt="14 the Two Men Climbed Slowly "   width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let's do something, Carter; we's in a fix.&rdquo; &ldquo;If we go down, Otto, we are
+      gone; if we go back, we are gone; let's go forward,&rdquo; hissed the sergeant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Slowly they crawled from tree to tree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't you see the Injuns?&rdquo; said the Swede, as he pointed to the rocks in
+      front, where lay their dark forms. The still air gave no sound. The
+      cathedral of nature, with its dark pine trunks starting from gray snow to
+      support gray sky, was dead. Only human hearts raged, for the forms which
+      held them lay like black bowlders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Egah&mdash;lelah washatah,&rdquo; yelled the sergeant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two rifle-shots rang and reverberated down the canon; two more replied
+      instantly from the soldiers. One Indian sunk, and his carbine went
+      clanging down the rocks, burying itself in the snow. Another warrior rose
+      slightly, took aim, but Johnson's six-shooter cracked again, and the
+      Indian settled slowly down without firing. A squaw moved slowly in the
+      half-light to where the buck lay. Bordeson drew a bead with his carbine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't shoot the woman, Otto. Keep that hole covered; the place is alive
+      with Indians;&rdquo; and both lay still.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A buck rose quickly, looked at the sergeant, and dropped back. The latter
+      could see that he had him located, for he slowly poked his rifle up
+      without showing his head. Johnson rolled swiftly to one side, aiming with
+      his deadly revolver. Up popped the Indian's head, crack went the
+      six-shooter; the head turned slowly, leaving the top exposed. Crack again
+      went the alert gun of the soldier, the ball striking the head just below
+      the scalp-lock and instantly jerking the body into a kneeling position.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then all was quiet in the gloomy woods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a time the sergeant addressed his voice to the lonely place in
+      Sioux, telling the women to come out and surrender&mdash;to leave the
+      bucks, etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An old squaw rose sharply to her feet, slapped her breast, shouted &ldquo;Lelah
+      washatah,&rdquo; and gathering up a little girl and a bundle, she strode forward
+      to the soldiers. Three other women followed, two of them in the same
+      blanket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are there any more bucks?&rdquo; roared the sergeant, in Sioux.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No more alive,&rdquo; said the old squaw, in the same tongue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Keep your rifle on the hole between the rocks; watch these people; I will
+      go up,&rdquo; directed the sergeant, as he slowly mounted to the ledge, and with
+      levelled six-shooter peered slowly over. He stepped in and stood looking
+      down on the dead warriors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A yelling in broken English smote the startled sergeant. &ldquo;Tro up your
+      hands, you d&mdash;&mdash; Injun! I'll blow the top off you!&rdquo; came through
+      the quiet. The sergeant sprang down to see the Swede standing with carbine
+      levelled at a young buck confronting him with a drawn knife in his hands,
+      while his blanket lay back on the snow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He's a buck&mdash;he ain't no squaw; he tried to creep on me with a
+      knife. I'm going to kill him,&rdquo; shouted the excited Bordeson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, don't kill him. Otto, don't you kill him,&rdquo; expostulated Johnson,
+      as the Swede's finger clutched nervously at the trigger, and turning, he
+      roared, &ldquo;Throw away that knife, you d&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;Indian!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The detachment now came charging in through the snow, and gathered around
+      excitedly. A late arrival came up, breathing heavily, dropped his gun, and
+      springing up and down, yelled, &ldquo;Be jabbers, I have got among om at last!&rdquo;
+       A general laugh went up, and the circle of men broke into a straggling
+      line for the return. The sergeant took the little girl up in his arms. She
+      grabbed him fiercely by the throat like a wild-cat, screaming. While
+      nearly choking, he yet tried to mollify her, while her mother, seeing no
+      harm was intended, pacified her in the soft gutturals of the race. She
+      relaxed her grip, and the brave Virginian packed her down the mountain,
+      wrapped in his soldier cloak. The horses were reached in time, and the
+      prisoners put on double behind the soldiers, who fed them crackers as they
+      marched. At two o'clock in the morning the little command rode into Fort
+      Robinson and dismounted at the guardhouse. The little girl, who was asleep
+      and half frozen in Johnson's overcoat, would not go to her mother: poor
+      little cat, she had found a nest. The sergeant took her into the
+      guard-house, where it was warm. She soon fell asleep, and slowly he undid
+      her, delivering her to her mother. On the following morning he came early
+      to the guard-house, loaded with trifles for his little Indian girl. He had
+      expended all his credit at the post-trader's, but he could carry sentiment
+      no further, for &ldquo;To horse!&rdquo; was sounding, and he joined the Orphan Troop
+      to again ride on the Dull-Knife trail. The brave Cheyennes were running
+      through the frosty hills, and the cavalry horses pressed hotly after. For
+      ten days the troops surrounded the Indians by day, and stood guard in the
+      snow by night, but coming day found the ghostly warriors gone and their
+      rifle-pits empty. They were cut off and slaughtered daily, but the gallant
+      warriors were fighting to their last nerve. Towards the end they were
+      cooped in a gully on War-Bon-natt Creek, where they fortified; but two
+      six-pounders had been hauled out, and were turned on their works. The four
+      troops of cavalry stood to horse on the plains all day, waiting for the
+      poor wretches to come out, while the guns roared, ploughing the frozen
+      dirt and snow over their little stronghold; but they did not come out. It
+      was known that all the provisions they had was the dead horse of a
+      corporal of E Troop, which had been shot within twenty paces of their
+      rifle-pits.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0015" id="linkimage-0015">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-15.jpg"
+       alt="15 Brave Cheyennes Running Through the Frosty Hills " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      So, too, the soldiers were starving, and the poor Orphans had only
+      crackers to eat. They were freezing also, and murmuring to be led to &ldquo;the
+      charge,&rdquo; that they might end it there, but they were an orphan troop, and
+      must wait for others to say. The sergeant even asked an officer to let
+      them go, but was peremptorily told to get back in the ranks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The guns ceased at night, while the troops drew off to build fires, warm
+      their rigid fingers, thaw out their buffalo moccasins, and munch crackers,
+      leaving a strong guard around the Cheyennes. In the night there was a
+      shooting&mdash;the Indians had charged through and had gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The day following they were again surrounded on some bluffs, and the
+      battle waged until night. Next day there was a weak fire from the Indian
+      position on the impregnable bluffs, and presently it ceased entirely. The
+      place was approached with care and trepidation, but was empty. Two Indian
+      boys, with their feet frozen, had been left as decoys, and after standing
+      off four troops of cavalry for hours, they too had in some mysterious way
+      departed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0016" id="linkimage-0016">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-16.jpg"
+       alt="16 Through the Smoke Sprang The Daring Soldier " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      But the pursuit was relentless; on, on over the rolling hills swept the
+      famishing troopers, and again the Spartan band turned at bay, firmly
+      intrenched on a bluff as before. This was the last stand&mdash;nature was
+      exhausted. The soldiers surrounded them, and Major Wessells turned the
+      handle of the human vise. The command gathered closer about the doomed
+      pits&mdash;they crawled on their bellies from one stack of sage-brush to
+      the next. They were freezing. The order to charge came to the Orphan
+      Troop, and yelling his command, Sergeant Johnson ran forward. Up from the
+      sage-brush floundered the stiffened troopers, following on. They ran over
+      three Indians, who lay sheltered in a little cut, and these killed three
+      soldiers together with an old frontier sergeant who wore long hair, but
+      they were destroyed in turn. While the Orphans swarmed under the hill, a
+      rattling discharge poured from the rifle-pits; but the troop had gotten
+      under the fire, and it all passed over their heads. On they pressed, their
+      blood now quickened by excitement, crawling up the steep, while volley on
+      volley poured over them. Within nine feet of the pits was a rim-rock ledge
+      over which the Indian bullets swept, and here the charge was stopped. It
+      now became a duel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every time a head showed on either side, it drew fire like a flue-hole.
+      Suddenly our Virginian sprang on the ledge, and like a trill on a piano
+      poured a six-shooter into the intrenchment, and dropped back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Major Wessells, who was commanding the whole force, crawled to the
+      position of the Orphan Troop, saying, &ldquo;Doing fine work, boys. Sergeant, I
+      would advise you to take off that red scarf &ldquo;&mdash;when a bullet cut the
+      major across the breast, whirling him around and throwing him. A soldier,
+      one Lannon, sprang to him and pulled him down the bluff, the major
+      protesting that he was not wounded, which proved to be true, the bullet
+      having passed through his heavy clothes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The troops had drawn up on the other sides, and a perfect storm of bullets
+      whirled over the in-trenchments. The powder blackened the faces of the
+      men, and they took off their caps or had them shot off. To raise the head
+      for more than a fraction of a second meant death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Johnson had exchanged five shots with a fine-looking Cheyenne, and every
+      time he raised his eye to a level with the rock White Antelope's gun
+      winked at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will get killed directly,&rdquo; yelled Lannon to Johnson; &ldquo;they have you
+      spotted.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The smoke blew and eddied over them; again Johnson rose, and again White
+      Antelope's pistol cracked an accompaniment to his own; but with movement
+      like lightning the sergeant sprang through the smoke, and fairly shoving
+      his carbine to White Antelope's breast, he pulled the trigger. A
+      50-calibre gun boomed in Johnson's face, and a volley roared from the
+      pits, but he fell backward into cover. His comrades set him up to see if
+      any red stains came through the grime, but he was unhurt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0017" id="linkimage-0017">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-17.jpg" alt="17 This Time the Air Grew Clear "   width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The firing grew; a blue haze hung over the hill. Johnson again looked
+      across the glacis, but again his eye met the savage glare of White
+      Antelope.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I haven't got him yet, Lannon, but I will;&rdquo; and Sergeant Johnson again
+      slowly reloaded his pistol and carbine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, men, give them a volley!&rdquo; ordered the enraged man, and as volley
+      answered volley, through the smoke sprang the daring soldier, and standing
+      over White Antelope as the smoke swirled and almost hid him, he poured his
+      six balls into his enemy, and thus died one brave man at the hands of
+      another in fair battle. The sergeant leaped back and lay down among the
+      men, stunned by the concussions. He said he would do no more. His
+      mercurial temperament had undergone a change, or, to put it better, he
+      conceived it to be outrageous to fight these poor people, five against
+      one. He characterized it as &ldquo;a d&mdash;&mdash; infantry fight,&rdquo; and
+      rising, talked in Sioux to the enemy&mdash;asked them to surrender, or
+      they must otherwise die. A young girl answered him, and said they would
+      like to. An old woman sprang on her and cut her throat with a dull knife,
+      yelling meanwhile to the soldiers that &ldquo;they would never surrender alive,&rdquo;
+       and saying what she had done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Many soldiers were being killed, and the fire from the pits grew weaker.
+      The men were beside themselves with rage. &ldquo;Charge!&rdquo; rang through the now
+      still air from some strong voice, and, with a volley, over the works
+      poured the troops, with six-shooters going, and clubbed carbines. Yells,
+      explosions, and amid a whirlwind of smoke the soldiers and Indians swayed
+      about, now more slowly and quieter, until the smoke eddied away. Men stood
+      still, peering about with wild open eyes through blackened faces. They
+      held desperately to their weapons. An old bunch of buckskin rags rose
+      slowly and fired a carbine aimlessly. Twenty bullets rolled and tumbled it
+      along the ground, and again the smoke drifted off the mount. This time the
+      air grew clear. Buffalo-robes lay all about, blood spotted everywhere. The
+      dead bodies of thirty-two Cheyennes lay, writhed and twisted, on the
+      packed snow, and among them many women and children, cut and furrowed with
+      lead. In a corner was a pile of wounded squaws, half covered with dirt
+      swept over them by the storm of bullets. One broken creature half raised
+      herself from the bunch. A maddened trumpeter threw up his gun to shoot,
+      but Sergeant Johnson leaped and kicked his gun out of his hands high into
+      the air, saying, &ldquo;This fight is over.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE SPIRIT OF MAHONGUI
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      IT is so I have called this old document, which is an extract from the
+      memoirs of le Chevalier Bailloquet, a Frenchman living in Canada, where he
+      was engaged in the Indian fur trade, about the middle of the seventeenth
+      century, and as yet they are unpublished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is written in English, since the author lived his latter life in
+      England, having left Canada as the result of troubles with the
+      authorities.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was captured by the Iroquois, and after living with them some time,
+      made his escape to the Dutch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My Chevalier rambles somewhat, although I have been at pains to cut out
+      extraneous matter. It is also true that many will not believe him in these
+      days, for out of their puny volition they will analyze, and out of their
+      discontent they will scoff. But to those I say, Go to your microbes, your
+      statistics, your volts, and your bicycles, and leave me the truth of other
+      days.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0018" id="linkimage-0018">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-18.jpg" alt="18 This Was a Fatal Embarquation "   width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The Chevalier was on a voyage from Quebec to Montreal; let him begin:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day we embarqued, though not without confusion, because many
+      weare not content, nor satisfied. What a pleasure ye two fathers to see
+      them trott up and downe ye rocks to gett their manage into ye boat. The
+      boats weare so loaded that many could not proceed if foul weather should
+      happen. I could not persuade myself to stay with this concourse as ye
+      weather was faire for my journie. Without adoe, I gott my six wild men to
+      paddle on ye way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was a fatal embarquation, butt I did not mistrust that ye Iriquoits
+      weare abroad in ye forest, for I had been at ye Peace. Nevertheless I find
+      that these wild men doe naught butt what they resolve out of their bloodie
+      mindedness. We passed the Point going out of ye Lake St. Peter, when ye
+      Barbars appeared on ye watter-side discharging their muskets at us, and
+      embarquing for our pursuit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Kohe&mdash;kohe!&rdquo;&mdash;came nearer ye fearsome warre cry of ye Iriquoit,
+      making ye hearts of ye poore Hurron &amp; ffrench alike to turn to water
+      in their breasts. 2 of my savages weare strook downe at ye first discharge
+      &amp; another had his paddle cutt in twain, besides shott holes through
+      with the watter poured apace. Thus weare we diminished and could not draw
+      off.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Barbars weare daubed with paint, which is ye signe of warre. They
+      coming against our boat struck downe our Hurrons with hattchetts, such as
+      did not jump into the watter, where also they weare in no wise saved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But in my boat was a Hurron Captayne, who all his life-time had killed
+      many Iriquoits &amp; by his name for vallor had come to be a great
+      Captayne att home and abroad. We weare resolved some execution &amp; with
+      our gunns dealt a discharge &amp; drew our cutlasses to strike ye foe.
+      They environed us as we weare sinking, and one spake saying&mdash;&ldquo;Brothers,
+      cheere up and assure yourselfe you shall not be killed; thou art both men
+      and Cap-taynes, as I myself am, and I will die in thy defense.&rdquo; And ye
+      afforesaid crew shewed such a horrid noise, of a sudden ye Iriquoit
+      Captayne took hold about me&mdash;&ldquo;Thou shalt not die by another hand than
+      mine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ye savages layd bye our armes &amp; tyed us fast in a boat, one in one
+      boat and one in another. We proceeded up ye river, rather sleeping than
+      awake, for I thought never to escape.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Att near sunsett we weare taken on ye shore, where ye wild men encamped
+      bye making cottages of rind from off ye trees. They tyed ye Hurron
+      Captayne to a trunk, he resolving most bravely but dessparred to me, and I
+      too dessparred. Nevertheless he sang his fatal song though ye fire made
+      him as one with the ague. They tooke out his heart and cut off some of ye
+      flesh of ye miserable, boyled it and eat it. This they wished not to doe
+      att this time, but that ye Hurron had been shott with a ball under his
+      girdle where it was not seen, though he would have died of his desperate
+      wound. That was the miserable end of that wretch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whilst they weare busy with ye Hurron, they having stripped me naked, tyed
+      me above ye elbows, and wrought a rope about my middle. They afked me
+      several questions, I not being able to answer, they gave me great blows
+      with their fists, then pulled out one of my nails. Having lost all hopes,
+      I resolved altogether to die, itt being folly to think otherwise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I could not flee, butt was flung into a boat att daylight. Ye boats went
+      all abreaft, ye wild men singing some of their fatal songs, others their
+      howls of victory, ye wild &ldquo;Kohes,&rdquo; beating giens &amp; parchments, blowing
+      whistles, and all manner of tumult.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus did we proceed with these ravening wolves, God having delivered a
+      Chriftian into ye power of Satan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was nott ye only one in ye claws of these wolves, for we fell in with
+      150 more of these cruels, who had Hurron captyves to ye number of 33
+      victimes, with heads alsoe stuck on poles, of those who in God's mercie
+      weare gone from their miseries. As for me, I was put in a boat with one
+      who had his fingers cutt &amp; bourned. I asked him why ye Iriquoits had
+      broak ye Peace, and he said they had told him ye ffrench had broak ye
+      Peace; that ye ffrench had set their pack of doggs on an olde Iriquoit
+      woman who was eat up alive &amp; that ye Iriquoits had told ye Hurron wild
+      men that they had killed ye doggs, alsoe Hurrons and ffrench, saying that
+      as to ye captyves, they would boyl doggs, Hurrons, and ffrench in ye same
+      kettle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A great rain arose, ye Iriquoits going to ye watter-side did cover
+      themselvs with their boats, holding ye captyves ye meanwhile bye ropes
+      bound about our ancles, while we stood out in ye storm, which was near to
+      causing me death from my nakedness. When ye rain had abated, we pursued
+      our way killing staggs, &amp; I was given some entrails, which before I
+      had only a little parched corne to ye extent of my handfull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At a point we mett a gang of ye head hunters all on ye shore, dancing
+      about a tree to which was tyed a fine ffrench mastiff dogg, which was
+      standing on its hinder leggs, being lashed up against a tree by its
+      middle. Ye dogg was in a great terror, and frantic in its bonds. I knew
+      him for a dogg from ye fort att Mont-royal, kept for to give warnings of
+      ye Enemy's approach. It was a strange sight for to see ye Heathen rage
+      about ye noble dogg, but he itt was nevertheless which brought ye Barbars
+      against us. He was only gott with great difficulty, having killed one
+      Barbar, and near to serving others like-wise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They untyed ye dogg, I holding him one side, and ye other, with cords they
+      brought and tyed him in ye bow of a boat with 6 warriors to paddle him. Ye
+      dogg boat was ye Head, while ye rest came on up ye river singing fatal
+      songs, triumph songs, piping, howling, &amp; ye dogg above all with his
+      great noise. Ye Barbars weare more delighted att ye captyve dogg than att
+      all of us poore Christians, for that they did say he was no dogg. Ye doggs
+      which ye wild men have are nott so great as wolves, they being little else
+      &amp; small att that. Ye mastiff was considered as a consequence to be a
+      great interest. This one had near defeated their troupe &amp; now was to
+      be horridly killed after ye bloody way of ye wild men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Att camp they weare sleep most of ye night, they being aweary with ye
+      torture of ye Hurron Captayne previously. Ye dogg was tyed &amp; layd nott
+      far off from where I was alsoe tyed, butt over him weare 2 olde men, who
+      guarded him of a fear he would eat away his ropes. These men weare Elders
+      or Priests, such as are esteemed for their power over spirits, &amp; they
+      did keep up their devil's song ye night thro.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I made a vertue of necessity &amp; did sleep, butt was early cast into a
+      boat to go on towards ye Enemy's countrie, tho we had raw meat given us,
+      with blows on ye mouth to make us ye more quickly devour itt. An Iriquoit
+      who was the Captayne in our boat, bade me to be of a good courage, as they
+      would not hurt me. Ye fmall knowledge I had of their speech made a better
+      hope, butt one who could have understood them would have been certainly in
+      a great terror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus we journied 8 days on ye Lake Champlaine, where ye wind and waves did
+      sore beset our endeavors att times. As for meate we wanted none, as we had
+      a store of staggs along ye watter-side. We killed some every day, more for
+      sport than for need. We finding them on Isles, made them go into ye
+      watter, &amp; after we killed above a score, we clipped ye ears of ye rest
+      &amp; hung bells on them, and then lett them loose. What a sport to see ye
+      rest flye from them that had ye bells!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There came out of ye vast forest a multitude of bears, 300 at least
+      together, making a horrid noise, breaking ye small trees. We shott att
+      them, butt they stirred not a step. We weare much frightened that they
+      stirred nott att our shooting. Ye great ffrench dogg would fain encounter
+      them notwithftanding he was tyed. He made ye watter-side to ring with his
+      heavy voise &amp; from his eyes came flames of fyre &amp; clouds from out
+      his mouth. The bears did straightway fly which much cheered ye Iri-quoits.
+      One said to me they weare resolved nott to murder ye dogg, which was a
+      stone-God in ye dogg shape, or a witch, butt I could nott fully
+      understand. Ye wild men said they had never heard their fathers speak of
+      so many bears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When we putt ye kettle on, ye wild man who had captured me, gave me of
+      meate to eat, &amp; told me a story. &ldquo;Brother,&rdquo; says he, &ldquo;itt is a thing
+      to be admired to goe afar to travell. You must know that tho I am olde, I
+      have always loved ye ffrench for their goodness, but they should have
+      given us to kill ye Algonkins. We should not warre against ye ffrench,
+      butt trade with them for Castors, who are better for traffic than ye
+      Dutch. I was once a Captayne of 13 men against ye Altignaonan-ton &amp; ye
+      ffrench. We stayed 3 whole winters among ye Ennemy, butt in ye daytime
+      durst not marche nor stay out of ye deep forest. We killed many, butt
+      there weare devils who took my son up in ye air so I could never again get
+      him back. These devils weare as bigg as horriniacs, [moose] &amp; ye
+      little blue birds which attend upon them, said itt was time for us to go
+      back to our people, which being resolved to do, we came back, butt nott of
+      a fear of ye Ennemy. Our warre song grew still on our lipps, as ye snow
+      falling in ye forest. I have nott any more warred to the North, until I
+      was told by ye spirits to go to ye ffrench &amp; recover my son. My
+      friend, I have dreamed you weare my son;&rdquo; and henceforth I was not hurted
+      nor starved for food.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We proceeded thro rivers &amp; lakes &amp; thro forests where I was made
+      to support burdens. When we weare come to ye village of ye Iriquoits we
+      lay in ye woods because that they would nott go into ye village in ye
+      night time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The following day we weare marched into ye brough [borough] of ye
+      Iriquoits. When we came in fight we heard nothing butt outcryes from one
+      side, as from ye other. Then came a mighty host of people &amp; payd great
+      heed to ye ffrench dogg, which was ledd bye 2 men while roundabout his
+      neck was a girdle of porcelaine. They tormented ye poore Hurrons with
+      violence, butt about me was hung a long piece of porcelaine&mdash;ye
+      girdle of my captor, &amp; he stood against me. In ye meanwhile, many of
+      ye village came about us, among which a goode olde woman &amp; a boy with
+      a hattchett came neere me. Ye olde woman covered me, &amp; ye boy took me
+      by my hand and led mee out of ye companie. What comforted me was that I
+      had escaped ye blowes. They brought me into ye village where ye olde woman
+      fhowed me kindness. She took me into her cottage, &amp; gave me to eat,
+      butt my great terror took my stum-ack away from me. I had stayed an hour
+      when a great companie came to see me, of olde men with pipes in their
+      mouths. For a time they sat about, when they did lead me to another
+      cabbin, where they smoked &amp; made me apprehend they should throw me
+      into ye fyre. Butt itt proved otherwise, for ye olde woman followed me,
+      speaking aloud, whome they answered with a loud <i>ho,</i> then shee tooke
+      her girdle, and about me she tyed itt, so brought me to her cottage &amp;
+      made me to sitt downe. Then she gott me Indian corne toasted, &amp; took
+      away ye paint ye fellows had stuck to my face. A maide greased &amp;
+      combed my haire, &amp; ye olde woman danced and sung, while my father
+      bourned tobacco on a stone. They gave me a blew coverlitt, stockings, and
+      shoes. I layed with her son &amp; did what I could to get familiarity with
+      them, and I suffered no wrong, yet I was in a terror, for ye fatal songs
+      came from ye poore Hurrons. Ye olde man inquired whether I was Afferony, a
+      ffrench. I affured him no, faying I was Panugaga, that is of their nation,
+      for which he was pleased.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0019" id="linkimage-0019">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-19.jpg" alt="19 the Omen of The Little Blue Birds "   width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      My father feasted 200 men. My sisters made me clean for that purpose, and
+      greased my haire. They tyed me with 2 necklaces of porcelaine &amp;
+      garters of ye same. My father gave me a hattchett in my hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My father made a speech, showing many demonstrations of vallor, broak a
+      kettle of cagamite with a hattchett. So they sung, as is their usual
+      custom. Ye banquette being over, all cryed to me &ldquo;Shagon, Orimha&rdquo;&mdash;that
+      is &ldquo;be hearty!&rdquo; Every one withdrew to his quarters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here follows a long account of his daily life among the Indians, his
+      hunting and observations, which our space forbids. He had become meanwhile
+      more familiar with the language. He goes on:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My father came into ye cabbin from ye grand castle &amp; he sat him downe
+      to smoke. He said ye Elders had approved after much debate, &amp; that ye
+      ffrench dogg was not a witch, but ye great warrior Mahongui, gone before,
+      whose spirit had rose up into ye ffrench dogg &amp; had spyed ye ffrench.
+      Att ye council even soe ye dogg had walked into ye centre of ye great
+      cabbin, there saying loudly to ye Elders what he was &amp; that he must be
+      heard. His voice must be obeyed. His was not ye mocking cryes of a witch
+      from under an olde snake-skin, butt a chief come from Paradise to comfort
+      his own people. My father asked me if I was agreed. I said that witches
+      did not battile as openly as ye dogg, butt doe their evil in ye dark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0020" id="linkimage-0020">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-20.jpg" alt="20 Ye Spirit Dog Strode from Ye Darkness "   width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      These wild men are sore beset with witches and devils&mdash;more than
+      Christians, as they deserve to be, for they are of Satan's own belonging.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My father dreamed att night, &amp; sang about itt, making ye fire to
+      bourne in our cabbin. We satt to listen. He had mett ye ffrench dogg in ye
+      forest path bye night&mdash;he standing accross his way, &amp; ye forest
+      was light from ye dogg's eyes, who spake to my father saying, &ldquo;I belong to
+      ye dead folks&mdash;my hattchett is rust&mdash;my bow is mould&mdash;I can
+      no longer battile with our Ennemy, butt I hover over you in warre&mdash;I
+      direct your arrows to their breasts&mdash;I smoothe ye little dry sticks
+      &amp; wett ye leaves under ye shoes&mdash;I draw ye morning mist accross
+      to shield you&mdash;I carry ye 'Kohes' back and fore to bring your terror&mdash;I
+      fling aside ye foeman's bulletts&mdash;go back and be strong in council.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      My father even in ye night drew ye Elders in ye grand cabbin. He said what
+      he had seen and heard. Even then the great ffrench dogg gott from ye
+      darkness of ye cabbin, &amp; strode into ye fyre. He roared enough to blow
+      downe caftles in his might &amp; they knew he was saying what he had told
+      unto my father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A great Captayne sent another night, &amp; had ye Elders for to gather at
+      ye grande cabbin. He had been paddling his boat upon ye river when ye dogg
+      of Mahongui had walked out on ye watter thro ye mist. He was taller than
+      ye forest. So he spake, saying &ldquo;Mahongui says&mdash;go tell ye people of
+      ye Panugaga, itt is time for warre&mdash;ye corne is gathered&mdash;ye
+      deer has changed his coat&mdash;there are no more Hurrons for me to eat.
+      What is a Panugaga village with no captyves? Ye young men will talk as
+      women doe, &amp; ye Elders will grow content to watch a snow-bird hopp.
+      Mahongui says itt is time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Again att ye council fyre ye spirit dogg strode from ye darkness &amp;
+      said itt was time. Ye tobacco was bourned by ye Priests. In ye smoke ye
+      Elders beheld ye Spirit of Mahongui. &ldquo;Panugaga&mdash;Warre.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Soe my father saw ye ghost of ye departed one. He smoked long bye our
+      cabbin fyre. He sang his battile song. I asked him to goe myself, even
+      with a hattchett, as I too was Panugaga. Butt he would in no wise listen.
+      &ldquo;You are nott meet,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;you sayest that your God is above. How will
+      you make me believe that he is as goode as your black coats say? They doe
+      lie &amp; you see ye contrary; ffor first of all, ye Sun bournes us often,
+      ye rain wetts us, ye winde makes us have shipwrake, ye thunder, ye
+      lightening bournes &amp; kills us, &amp; all comes from above, &amp; you
+      say that itt is goode to be there. For my part, I will nott go there.
+      Contrary they say that ye reprobates &amp; guilty goeth downe &amp;
+      bourne. They are mistaken; all is goode heare. Do nott you see that itt is
+      ye Earthe that nourishes all living creatures&mdash;ye waiter, ye fishes,
+      &amp; ye yus, and that corne &amp; all other fruits come up, &amp; that
+      all things are nott soe contrary to us as that from above? Ye devils live
+      in ye air &amp; they took my son. When you see that ye Earthe is our
+      Mother, then you will see that all things on itt are goode. Ye Earthe was
+      made for ye Panugaga, &amp; ye souls of our warriors help us against our
+      Ennemy. Ye ffrench dogg is Mahongui's spirit. He tells us to goe to warre
+      against ye ffrench. Would a ffrench dogg doe that? You are nott yett
+      Panugaga to follow your father in warre.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE ESSENTIALS AT FORT ADOBE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE Indian suns himself before the door of his tepee, dreaming of the
+      past. For a long time now he has eaten of the white man's lotos&mdash;the
+      bimonthly beef-issue. I looked on him and wondered at the new things. The
+      buffalo, the warpath, all are gone. What of the cavalrymen over at Adobe&mdash;his
+      Nemesis in the stirring days&mdash;are they, too, lounging in barracks,
+      since his lordship no longer leads them trooping over the burning flats by
+      day and through the ragged hills by night? I will go and see.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The blistered faces of men, the gaunt horses dragging stiffly along to the
+      cruel spurring, the dirty lack-lustre of campaigning&mdash;that, of
+      course, is no more. Will it be parades, and those soul-deadening &ldquo;fours
+      right&rdquo; and &ldquo;column left&rdquo; affairs? Oh, my dear, let us hope not.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing is so necessary in the manufacture of soldiers, sure enough, but
+      it is not hard to learn, and once a soldier knows it I can never
+      understand why it should be drilled into him until it hurts. Besides, from
+      another point of view, soldiers in rows and in lines do not compose well
+      in pictures. I always feel, after seeing infantry drill in an armory, like
+      Kipling's light-house keeper, who went insane looking at the cracks
+      between the boards&mdash;they were all so horribly alike.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then Adobe is away out West in the blistering dust, with no towns of any
+      importance near it. I can understand why men might become listless when
+      they are at field-work, with the full knowledge that nothing but their
+      brothers are looking at them save the hawks and coyotes. It is different
+      from Meyer, with its traps full of Congressmen and girls, both of whom are
+      much on the minds of cavalrymen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In due course I was bedded down at Adobe by my old friend the Captain, and
+      then lay thinking of this cavalry business. It is a subject which thought
+      does not simplify, but, like other great things, makes it complicate and
+      recede from its votaries. To know essential details from unessential
+      details is the study in all arts. Details there must be; they are the
+      small things that make the big things. To apply this general order of
+      things to this arm of the service kept me awake. There is first the riding&mdash;simple
+      enough if they catch you young. There are bits, saddles, and cavalry
+      packs. I know men who have not spoken to each other in years because they
+      disagree about these. There are the sore backs and colics&mdash;that is a
+      profession in itself. There are judgment of pace, the battle tactics, the
+      use of three very different weapons; there is a world of history in this,
+      in forty languages. Then an ever-varying <i>terrain</i> tops all. There
+      are other things not confined to cavalry, but regarded by all soldiers.
+      The crowning peculiarity of cavalry is the rapidity of its movement,
+      whereby a commander can lose the carefully built up reputation of years in
+      about the time it takes a school-boy to eat a marsh-mallow. After all, it
+      is surely a hard profession&mdash;a very blind trail to fame. I am glad I
+      am not a cavalryman; still, it is the happiest kind of fun to look on when
+      you are not responsible; but it needs some cultivation to understand and
+      appreciate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I remember a dear friend who had a taste for out-of-doors. He penetrated
+      deeply into the interior not long since to see these same troopers do a
+      line of heroics, with a band of Bannocks to support the role. The Indians
+      could not finally be got on the centre of the stage, but made hot-foot for
+      the agency. My friend could not see any good in all this, nor was he
+      satisfied with the first act even. He must needs have a climax, and that
+      not forthcoming, he loaded his disgust into a trunk line and brought it
+      back to his club corner here in New York. He there narrated the failure of
+      his first night; said the soldiers were not even dusty as advertised;
+      damned the Indians keenly, and swore at the West by all his gods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a time when I, too, regarded not the sketches in this art, but
+      yearned for the finished product. That, however, is not exhibited
+      generally over once in a generation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Adobe there are only eight troops&mdash;not enough to make a German
+      nurse-girl turn her head in the street, and my friend from New York, with
+      his Napoleonic largeness, would scoff out loud. But he and the nurse do
+      not understand the significance; they have not the eyes to see. A
+      starboard or a port horseshoe would be all one to them, and a crease in
+      the saddle-blanket the smallest thing in the world, yet it might spoil a
+      horse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the trumpets went in the morning I was sorry I had thought at all. It
+      was not light yet, and I clung to my pillow. Already this cavalry has too
+      much energy for my taste.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you want to see anything, you want to lead out,&rdquo; said the Captain, as
+      he pounded me with a boot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0021" id="linkimage-0021">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-21.jpg" alt="21 the Advance " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say, Captain, I suppose Colonel Hamilton issues this order to get up at
+      this hour, doesn't he?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He does.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, he has to obey his own order, then, doesn't he?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He does.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I took a good long stretch and yawn, and what I said about Colonel
+      Hamilton I will not commit to print, out of respect to the Colonel. Then I
+      got up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This bitterness of bed-parting passes. The Captain said he would put a
+      &ldquo;cook's police&rdquo; under arrest for appearing in my make-up; but all these
+      details will be forgotten, and whatever happens at this hour should be
+      forgiven. I had just come from the North, where I had been sauntering over
+      the territory of Montana with some Indians and a wild man from Virginia,
+      getting up before light&mdash;tightening up on coffee and bacon for twelve
+      hours in the saddle to prepare for more bacon and coffee; but at Adobe I
+      had hoped for, even if I did not expect, some repose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the east there was a fine green coming over the sky. No one out of the
+      painter guild would have admitted it was green, even on the rack, but what
+      I mean is that you could not approach it in any other way. A nice little
+      adjutant went jangling by on a hard-trotting thoroughbred, his shoulders
+      high and his seat low. My old disease began to take possession of me; I
+      could fairly feel the microbes generate. Another officer comes clattering,
+      with his orderly following after. The fever has me. We mount, and we are
+      off, all going to stables.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Out from the corrals swarm the troopers, leading their unwilling mounts.
+      The horses are saying, &ldquo;Damn the Colonel!&rdquo; One of them comes in arching
+      bounds; he is saying worse of the Colonel, or maybe only cussing out his
+      own recruit for pulling his <i>cincha</i> too tight. They form troop lines
+      in column, while the Captains throw open eyes over the things which would
+      not interest my friend from New York or the German nurse-girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two forward troops are the enemy, and are distinguished by wearing
+      brown canvas stable-frocks. These shortly move out through the post, and
+      are seen no more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now comes the sun. By the shades of Knickerbocker's <i>History of New York</i>
+      I seem now to have gotten at the beginning; but patience, the sun is no
+      detail out in the arid country. It does more things than blister your
+      nose. It is the despair of the painter as it colors the minarets of the
+      Bad Lands which abound around Adobe, and it dries up the company gardens
+      if they don't watch the <i>acequias</i> mighty sharp. To one just out of
+      bed it excuses existence. I find I begin to soften towards the Colonel. In
+      fact, it is possible that he is entirely right about having his old
+      trumpets blown around garrison at this hour, though it took the Captain's
+      boot to prove it shortly since.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0022" id="linkimage-0022">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-22.jpg" alt="22 Horse Gymnastics " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The command moves out, trotting quickly through the blinding clouds of
+      dust. The landscape seems to get right up and mingle with the excitement.
+      The supple, well-trained horses lose the scintillation on their coats,
+      while Uncle Sam's blue is growing mauve very rapidly. But there is a
+      useful look about the men, and the horses show condition after their long
+      practice march just finished. Horses much used to go under saddle have
+      well-developed quarters and strong stifle action. Fact is, nothing looks
+      like a horse with a harness on. That is a job for mules, and these should
+      have a labor organization and monopolize it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The problem of the morning was that we as an advance were to drive the two
+      troops which had gone on ahead. These in turn were to represent a rapidly
+      retiring rear-guard. This training is more that troops may be handled with
+      expedition, and that the men may gather the thing, rather than that
+      officers should do brilliant things, which they might undertake on their
+      own responsibility in time of war, such as pushing rapidly by on one flank
+      and cutting out a rear-guard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Grevious and very much to be commiserated is the task of the feeling
+      historian who writes of these paper wars. He may see possibilities or
+      calamities which do not signify. The morning orders provide against
+      genius, and who will be able to estimate the surgical possibilities of
+      blank cartridges? The sergeant-major cautioned me not to indicate by my
+      actions what I saw as we rode to the top of a commanding hill. The enemy
+      had abandoned the stream because their retreat would have been exposed to
+      fire. They made a stand back in the hills. The advance felt the stream
+      quickly, and passed, fanning out to develop. The left flank caught their
+      fire, whereat the centre and right came around at top speed. But this is
+      getting so serious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The scene was crowded with little pictures, all happening quickly&mdash;little
+      dots of horsemen gliding quickly along the yellow landscape, leaving long
+      trails of steely dust in their wake. A scout comes trotting along, his
+      face set in an expectant way, carbine advanced. A man on a horse is a
+      vigorous, forceful thing to look at. It embodies the liveliness of nature
+      in its most attractive form, especially when a gun and sabre are attached.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0023" id="linkimage-0023">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-23.jpg" alt="23 Jumping on a Horse " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      When both living equations are young, full of oats and bacon, imbued with
+      military ideas, and trained to the hour, it always seems to me that the
+      ghost of a tragedy stalks at their side. This is why the polo-player does
+      not qualify sentimentally. But what is one man beside two troops which
+      come shortly in two solid chunks, with horses snorting and sending the dry
+      landscape in a dusty pall for a quarter of a mile in the rear? It is good&mdash;ah!
+      it is worth any one's while; but stop and think, what if we could magnify
+      that? Tut, tut! as I said before, that only happens once in a generation.
+      Adobe doesn't dream; it simply does its morning's work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The rear-guard have popped at our advance, which exchanges with them.
+      Their fire grows slack, and from our vantage we can see them mount quickly
+      and flee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After two hours of this we shake hands with the hostiles and trot home to
+      breakfast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These active, hard-riding, straight-shooting, open-order men are doing
+      real work, and are not being stupefied by drill-ground routine, or
+      rendered listless by file-closer prompting or sleepy reiteration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the time the command dismounts in front of stables we turn longingly to
+      the thoughts of breakfast. Every one has completely forgiven the Colonel,
+      though I have no doubt he will be equally unpopular to-morrow morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But what do I see&mdash;am I faint? No; it has happened again. It looks as
+      though I saw a soldier jump over a horse. I moved on him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did I see you&mdash;&rdquo; I began.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh yes, sir&mdash;you see,&rdquo; returned a little soldier, who ran with the
+      mincing steps of an athlete towards his horse, and landed standing uip on
+      his hind quarters, whereupon he settled down quietly into his saddle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Others began to gyrate over and under their horses in a dizzy way. Some
+      had taken their saddles off and now sat on their horses' bellies, while
+      the big dog-like animals lay on their backs, with their feet in the air.
+      It was circus business, or what they call &ldquo;short and long horse&rdquo; work&mdash;some
+      not understandable phrase. Every one does it. While I am not unaccustomed
+      to looking at cavalry, I am being perpetually surprised by the lengths to
+      which our cavalry is carrying thus Cossack drill. It is beginning to be
+      nothing short of marvellous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the old days this thing was not known. Between building mud or log
+      forts, working on the bull-train, marching or fighting, a man and a gun
+      made a soldier; but it takes an education along with this now before he
+      can qualify.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0024" id="linkimage-0024">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-24.jpg" alt="24 a Tame Horse " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The regular work at Adobe went on during the day&mdash;guard mount,
+      orders, inspection, and routine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the club I was asked, &ldquo;Going out this afternoon with us?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, he is going; his horse will be up at 4.30; he wants to see this
+      cavalry,&rdquo; answered my friend the Captain for me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; it's fine moonlight. The Colonel is going to do an attack on Cossack
+      posts out in the hills,&rdquo; said the adjutant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So at five o'clock we again sallied out in the dust, the men in the ranks
+      next me silhouetting one after the other more dimly until they disappeared
+      in the enveloping cloud. They were cheerful, laughing and wondering one to
+      another if Captain Garrard, the enemy, would get in on their pickets. He
+      was regarded in the ranks as a sharp fellow, one to be well looked after.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the line of hills where the Colonel stopped, the various troops were
+      told off in their positions, while the long cool shadows of evening stole
+      over the land, and the pale moon began to grow bolder over on the left
+      flank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I sat on a hill with a sergeant who knew history and horses. He remembered
+      &ldquo;Pansy,&rdquo; which had served sixteen years in the troop&mdash;and a
+      first-rate old horse then; but a damned inspector with no soul came
+      browsing around one day and condemned that old horse. Government got a
+      measly ten dollars&mdash;or something like that. This ran along for a
+      time; when one day they were trooping up some lonely valley, and, behold,
+      there stood &ldquo;Pansy,&rdquo; as thin as a snake, tied by a wickieup. He greeted
+      the troop with joyful neighs. The soldiers asked the Captain to be allowed
+      to shoot him, but of course he said no. I could not learn if he winked
+      when he said it. The column wound over the hill, a carbine rang from its
+      rear, and &ldquo;Pansy&rdquo; lay down in the dust without a kick. Death is better
+      than an Indian for a horse. The thing was not noticed at the time, but
+      made a world of fuss afterwards, though how it all came out the sergeant
+      did not develop, nor was it necessary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Night settled down on the quiet hills, and the dark spots of pickets
+      showed dimly on the gray surface of the land. The Colonel inspected his
+      line, and found everybody alert and possessed of a good working knowledge
+      of picket duties at night&mdash;one of the most difficult duties enlisted
+      men have to perform. It is astonishing how short is the distance at which
+      we can see a picket even in this bright night on the open hills.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I sat on my horse by a sergeant at a point in the line where I suspected
+      the attack would come. The sergeant thought he saw figures moving in a dry
+      bottom before us. I could not see. A column of dust off to the left
+      indicated troops, but we thought it a ruse of Garrard's. My sergeant,
+      though, had really seen the enemy, and said, softly, &ldquo;They are coming.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0025" id="linkimage-0025">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-25.jpg" alt="25 the Pursuit " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The bottom twinkled and popped with savage little yellow winks; bang! went
+      a rifle in my ear; &ldquo;whew!&rdquo; snorted my big horse; and our picket went to
+      the supports clattering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shots and yells followed fast. The Colonel had withdrawn the supports
+      towards the post rapidly, leaving his picket-line in the air&mdash;a thing
+      which happens in war; but he did not lose much of that line, I should say.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was an interesting drill. Pestiferous little man disturbed nature, and
+      it all seemed so absurd out there on those quiet gray hills. It made me
+      feel, as I slowed down and gazed at the vastness of things, like a
+      superior sort of bug. In the middle distance several hundred troops are of
+      no more proportion than an old cow bawling through the hills after her
+      wolf-eaten calf. If my mental vision were not distorted I should never
+      have seen the manoeuvre at all&mdash;only the moon and the land doing what
+      they have done before for so long a time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We reached Adobe rather late, when I found that the day's work had done
+      wonders for my appetite. I reminded the Captain that I had broken his
+      bread but once that day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is enough for a Ninth Cavalry man,&rdquo; he observed. However, I
+      out-flanked this brutal disregard for established customs, but it was
+      &ldquo;cold.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In the morning I resisted the Captain's boot, and protested that I must be
+      let alone; which being so, I appeared groomed and breakfasted at a
+      Christian hour, fully persuaded that as between an Indian and a Ninth
+      Cavalry man I should elect to be an Indian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some one must have disciplined the Colonel. I don't know who it was. There
+      is only one woman in a post who can, generally; but no dinners were
+      spoiled at Adobe by night-cat affairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Instead, during the afternoon we were to see Captain Garrard, the hostile,
+      try to save two troops which were pressed into the bend of a river by
+      throwing over a bridge, while holding the enemy in check. This was as
+      complicated as putting a baby to sleep while reading law; so clearly my
+      point of view was with the hostiles. With them I entered the neck. The
+      horses were grouped in the brush, leaving some men who were going
+      underground like gophers out near the entrance. The brown-canvas-covered
+      soldiers grabbed their axes, rolled their eyes towards the open plain, and
+      listened expectantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0026" id="linkimage-0026">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-26.jpg" alt="26 the Attack on The Cossack "   width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The clear notes of a bugle rang; whackety, bang&mdash;clack&mdash;clack,
+      went the axes. Trees fell all around. The forest seemed to drop on me. I
+      got my horse and fled across the creek.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That isn't fair; this stream is supposed to be impassable,&rdquo; sang out a
+      lieutenant, who was doing a Blondin act on the first tree over, while
+      beneath him yawned the chasm of four or five feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In less than a minute the whole forest got up again and moved towards the
+      bridge. There were men behind it, but the leaves concealed them. Logs
+      dropped over, brush piled on top. The rifles rang in scattered volleys,
+      and the enemy's fire rolled out beyond the brush. No bullets whistled&mdash;that
+      was a redeeming feature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Aside from that it seemed as though every man was doing his ultimate act.
+      They flew about; the shovels dug with despair; the sand covered the logs
+      in a shower. While I am telling this the bridge was made.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first horse came forward, led by his rider. He raised his eyes like
+      St. Anthony; he did not approve of the bridge. He put his ears forward,
+      felt with his toes, squatted behind, and made nervous side steps. The men
+      moved on him in a solid crowd from behind. Stepping high and short he then
+      bounded over, and after him in a stream came the willing brothers. Out
+      along the bluffs strung the troopers to cover the heroes who had held the
+      neck, while they destroyed the bridge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then they rode home with the enemy, chaffing each other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is only a workaday matter, all this; but workaday stuff does the
+      business nowadays.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      MASSAI'S CROOKED TRAIL
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      IT is a bold person who will dare to say that a wilder savage ever lived
+      than an Apache Indian, and in this respect no Apache can rival Massai.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was a <i>bronco</i> Chiricahua whose <i>tequa</i> tracks were so long
+      and devious that all of them can never be accounted for. Three regiments
+      of cavalry, all the scouts&mdash;both white and black&mdash;and Mexicans
+      galore had their hack, but the ghostly presence appeared and disappeared
+      from the Colorado to the Yaqui. No one can tell how Massai's face looks,
+      or looked, though hundreds know the shape of his footprint.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Seventh made some little killings, but they fear that Massai was not
+      among the game. There surely is or was such a person as Massai. He
+      developed himself slowly, as I will show by the Sherlock Holmes methods of
+      the chief of scouts, though even he only got so far, after all. Massai
+      manifested himself like the dust-storm or the morning mist&mdash;a shiver
+      in the air, and gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The chief walked his horse slowly back on the lost trail in disgust, while
+      the scouts bobbed along behind perplexed. It was always so. Time has
+      passed, and Massai, indeed, seems gone, since he appears no more. The hope
+      in the breasts of countless men is nearly blighted; they no longer expect
+      to see Massai's head brought into camp done up in an old shirt and dropped
+      triumphantly on the ground in front of the chief of scouts' tent, so it is
+      time to preserve what trail we can.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Three troops of the Tenth had gone into camp for the night, and the
+      ghostly Montana landscape hummed with the murmur of many men. Supper was
+      over, and I got the old Apache chief of scouts behind his own ducking, and
+      demanded what he knew of an Apache Indian down in Arizona named Massai. He
+      knew all or nearly all that any white man will ever know.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right,&rdquo; said the chief, as he lit a cigar and tipped his sombrero
+      over his left eye, &ldquo;but let me get it straight. Massai's trail was so
+      crooked, I had to study nights to keep it arranged in my head. He didn't
+      leave much more trail than a buzzard, anyhow, and it took years to unravel
+      it. But I am anticipating.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was chief of scouts at Apache in the fall of '90, when word was brought
+      in that an Indian girl named Natastale had disappeared, and that her
+      mother was found under a walnut-tree with a bullet through her body. I
+      immediately sent Indian scouts to take the trail. They found the tracks of
+      a mare and colt going by the spot, and thinking it would bring them to the
+      girl, they followed it. Shortly they found a moccasin track where a man
+      had dismounted from the mare, and without paying more attention to the
+      horse track, they followed it. They ran down one of my own scouts in a <i>tiswin</i>
+      [An intoxicating beverage made of corn] camp, where he was carousing with
+      other drinkers. They sprang on him, got him by the hair, disarmed and
+      bound him. Then they asked him what he had done with the girl, and why he
+      had killed the mother, to which he replied that 'he did not know.' When he
+      was brought to me, about dark, there was intense excitement among the
+      Indians, who crowded around demanding Indian justice on the head of the
+      murderer and ravisher of the women. In order to save his life I took him
+      from the Indians and lodged him in the post guard-house. On the following
+      morning, in order to satisfy myself positively that this man had committed
+      the murder, I sent my first sergeant, the famous Mickey Free, with a
+      picked party of trailers, back to the walnut-tree, with orders to go
+      carefully over the trail and run down the mare and colt, or find the girl,
+      dead or alive, wherever they might.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0027" id="linkimage-0027">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-27.jpg" alt="27 Natastale " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In two hours word was sent to me that the trail was running to the north.
+      They had found the body of the colt with its throat cut, and were
+      following the mare. The trail showed that a man afoot was driving the
+      mare, and the scouts thought the girl was on the mare. This proved that we
+      had the wrong man in custody. I therefore turned him loose, telling him he
+      was all right. In return he told me that he owned the mare and colt, and
+      that when he passed the tree the girl was up in its branches, shaking down
+      nuts which her old mother was gathering. He had ridden along, and about an
+      hour afterwards had heard a shot. He turned his mare loose, and proceeded
+      on foot to the <i>tiswin</i> camp, where he heard later that the old woman
+      had been shot and the girl 'lifted.' When arrested, he knew that the other
+      scouts had trailed him from the walnut-tree; he saw the circumstances
+      against him, and was afraid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On the night of the second day Mickey Free's party returned, having run
+      the trail to within a few hundred yards of the camp of Alcashay in the
+      Forestdale country, between whose band and the band to which the girl
+      belonged there was a blood-feud. They concluded that the murderer belonged
+      to Alcashay's camp, and were afraid to engage him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0028" id="linkimage-0028">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-28.jpg" alt="28 the Arrest of The Scout " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I sent for Alcashay to come in immediately, which he did, and I demanded
+      that he trail the man and deliver him up to me, or I would take my scout
+      corps, go to his camp, and arrest all suspicious characters. He stoutly
+      denied that the man was in his camp, promised to do as I directed, and, to
+      further allay any suspicions, he asked for my picked trailers to help run
+      the trail. With this body of men he proceeded on the track, and they found
+      that it ran right around his camp, then turned sharply to the east, ran
+      within two hundred yards of a stage-ranch, thence into some rough mountain
+      country, where it twisted and turned for forty miles. At this point they
+      found the first camp the man had made. He had tied the girl to a tree by
+      the feet, which permitted her to sleep on her back; the mare had been
+      killed, some steaks taken out, and some meat 'jerked.' From thence on they
+      could find no trail which they could follow. At long intervals they found
+      his moccasin mark between rocks, but after circling for miles they gave it
+      up. In this camp they found and brought to me a fire-stick&mdash;the first
+      and only one I had ever seen&mdash;and they told me that the fire-stick
+      had not been used by Apaches for many years. There were only a few old men
+      in my camp who were familiar with its use, though one managed to light his
+      cigarette with it. They reasoned from this that the man was a bronco
+      Indian who had been so long 'out' that he could not procure matches, and
+      also that he was a much wilder one than any of the Indians then known to
+      be outlawed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In about a week there was another Indian girl stolen from one of my
+      hay-camps, and many scouts thought it was the same Indian, who they
+      decided was one of the well-known outlaws; but older and better men did
+      not agree with them; so there the matter rested for some months.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the spring the first missing girl rode into Fort Apache on a fine
+      horse, which was loaded down with buckskins and other Indian finery. Two
+      cowboys followed her shortly and claimed the pony, which bore a C C C
+      brand, and I gave it up to them. I took the girl into my office, for she
+      was so tired that she could hardly stand up, while she was haggard and
+      worn to the last degree. When she had sufficiently recovered she told me
+      her story. She said she was up in the walnut-tree when an Indian shot her
+      mother, and coming up, forced her to go with him. He trailed and picked up
+      the mare, bound her on its back, and drove it along. The colt whinnied,
+      whereupon he cut its throat. He made straight for Alcashay's camp, which
+      he circled, and then turned sharply to the east, where he made the big
+      twisting through the mountains which my scouts found. After going all
+      night and the next day, he made the first camp. After killing and cooking
+      the mare, he gave her something to eat, tied her up by the feet, and
+      standing over her, told her that he was getting to be an old man, was
+      tired of making his own fires, and wanted a woman. If she was a good girl
+      he would not kill her, but would treat her well and always have venison
+      hanging up. He continued that he was going away for a few hours, and would
+      come back and kill her if she tried to undo the cords; but she fell asleep
+      while he was talking. After daylight he returned, untied her, made her
+      climb on his back, and thus carried her for a long distance. Occasionally
+      he made her alight where the ground was hard, telling her if she made any
+      'sign' he would kill her, which made her careful of her steps.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;After some miles of this blinding of the trail they came upon a white
+      horse that was tied to a tree. They mounted double, and rode all day as
+      fast as he could lash the pony, until, near nightfall, it fell from
+      exhaustion, whereupon he killed it and cooked some of the carcass. The
+      bronco Indian took himself off for a couple of hours, and when he
+      returned, brought another horse, which they mounted, and sped onward
+      through the moonlight all night long. On that morning they were in the
+      high mountains, the poor pony suffering the same fate as the others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They stayed here two days, he tying her up whenever he went hunting, she
+      being so exhausted after the long flight that she lay comatose in her
+      bonds. From thence they journeyed south slowly, keeping to the high
+      mountains, and only once did he speak, when he told her that a certain
+      mountain pass was the home of the Chiricahuas. From the girl's account she
+      must have gone far south into the Sierra Madre of Old Mexico, though of
+      course she was long since lost.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He killed game easily, she tanned the hides, and they lived as man and
+      wife. Day by day they threaded their way through the deep canons and over
+      the Blue Mountain ranges. By this time he had become fond of the White
+      Mountain girl, and told her that he was Massai, a Chiricahua warrior; that
+      he had been arrested after the Geronimo war and sent East on the railroad
+      over two years since, but had escaped one night from the train, and had
+      made his way alone back to his native deserts. Since then it is known that
+      an Indian did turn up missing, but it was a big band of prisoners, and
+      some births had occurred, which made the checking off come straight. He
+      was not missed at the time. From what the girl said, he must have got off
+      east of Kansas City and travelled south and then west, till at last he
+      came to the lands of the Mescalero Apaches, where he stayed for some time.
+      He was over a year making this journey, and told the girl that no human
+      eye ever saw him once in that time. This is all he ever told the girl
+      Natastale, and she was afraid to ask him more. Beyond these mere facts, it
+      is still a midnight prowl of a human coyote through a settled country for
+      twelve hundred miles, the hardihood of the undertaking being equalled only
+      by the instinct which took him home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0029" id="linkimage-0029">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-29.jpg" alt="29 Scouts " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Once only while the girl was with him did they see sign of other Indians,
+      and straightway Massai turned away&mdash;his wild nature shunning even the
+      society of his kind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At times 'his heart was bad,' and once he sat brooding for a whole day,
+      finally telling her that he was going into a bad country to kill Mexicans,
+      that women were a burden on a warrior, and that he had made up his mind to
+      kill her. All through her narrative he seemed at times to be overcome with
+      this blood-thirst, which took the form of a homicidal melancholia. She
+      begged so hard for her life that he relented; so he left her in the wild
+      tangle of mountains while he raided on the Mexican settlements. He came
+      back with horses and powder and lead. This last was in Winchester bullets,
+      which he melted up and recast into .50-calibre balls made in moulds of
+      cactus sticks. He did not tell how many murders he had committed during
+      these raids, but doubtless many.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They lived that winter through in the Sierras, and in the spring started
+      north, crossing the railroad twice, which meant the Guaymas and the
+      Southern Pacific. They sat all one day on a high mountain and watched the
+      trains of cars go by; but 'his heart got bad' at the sight of them, and
+      again he concluded to kill the girl. Again she begged off, and they
+      continued up the range of the Mogollons. He was unhappy in his mind during
+      all this journey, saying men were scarce up here, that he must go back to
+      Mexico and kill some one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was tired of the woman, and did not want her to go back with him, so,
+      after sitting all day on a rock while she besought him, the old wolf told
+      her to go home in peace. But the girl was lost, and told him that either
+      the Mexicans or Americans would kill her if she departed from him; so his
+      mood softened, and telling her to come on, he began the homeward journey.
+      They passed through a small American town in the middle of the night&mdash;he
+      having previously taken off the Indian rawhide shoes from the ponies. They
+      crossed the Gila near the Nau Taw Mountains. Here he stole two fresh
+      horses, and loading one with all the buckskins, he put her on and headed
+      her down the Eagle Trail to Black River. She now knew where she was, but
+      was nearly dying from the exhaustion of his fly-by-night expeditions. He
+      halted her, told her to 'tell the white officer that she was a pretty good
+      girl, better than the San Carlos woman, and that he would come again and
+      get another.' He struck her horse and was gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0030" id="linkimage-0030">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-30.jpg" alt="30 the Chief of Scouts " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Massai then became a problem to successive chiefs of scouts, a bugbear to
+      the reservation Indians, and a terror to Arizona. If a man was killed or a
+      woman missed, the Indians came galloping and the scouts lay on his trail.
+      If he met a woman in the defiles, he stretched her dead if she did not
+      please his errant fancy. He took pot-shots at the men ploughing in their
+      little fields, and knocked the Mexican bull-drivers on the head as they
+      plodded through the blinding dust of the Globe Road. He even sat like a
+      vulture on the rim-rock and signalled the Indians to come out and talk.
+      When two Indians thus accosted did go out, they found themselves looking
+      down Mas-sai's.50-calibre, and were tempted to do his bidding. He sent one
+      in for sugar and coffee, holding the brother, for such he happened to be,
+      as a hostage till the sugar and coffee came. Then he told them that he was
+      going behind a rock to lie down, cautioning them not to move for an hour.
+      That was an unnecessary bluff, for they did not wink an eye till sundown.
+      Later than this he stole a girl in broad daylight in the face of a San
+      Carlos camp and dragged her up the rocks. Here he was attacked by fifteen
+      or twenty bucks, whom he stood off until darkness. When they reached his
+      lair in the morning, there lay the dead girl, but Massai was gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never saw Massai but once, and then it was only a piece of his G string
+      flickering in the brush. We had followed his trail half the night, and
+      just at daylight, as we ascended a steep part of the mountains, I caught
+      sight of a pony's head looking over a bush. We advanced rapidly, only to
+      find the horse grunting from a stab wound in the belly, and the little
+      camp scattered around about him. The shirt tail flickering in the brush
+      was all of Massai. We followed on, but he had gone down a steep bluff. We
+      went down too, thus exposing ourselves to draw his fire so that we could
+      locate him, but he was not tempted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The late Lieutenant Clark had much the same view of this mountain outlaw,
+      and since those days two young men of the Seventh Cavalry, Rice and
+      Averill, have on separate occasions crawled on his camp at the break of
+      day, only to see Massai go out of sight in the brush like a blue quail.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lieutenant Averill, after a forced march of eighty-six miles, reached a
+      hostile camp near morning, after climbing his detachment, since midnight,
+      up the almost inaccessible rocks, in hopes of surprising the camp. He
+      divided his force into three parts, and tried, as well as possible, to
+      close every avenue of escape; but as the camp was on a high rocky hill at
+      the junction of four deep canons, this was found impracticable. At
+      daylight the savages came out together, running like deer, and making for
+      the canons. The soldiers fired, killing a buck and accidentally wounding a
+      squaw, but Massai simply disappeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's the story of Massai. It is not as long as his trail,&rdquo; said the
+      chief of scouts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      JOSHUA GOODENOUGH'S OLD LETTER
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE following letter has come into my possession, which I publish because
+      it is history, and descends to the list of those humble beings who builded
+      so well for us the institutions which we now enjoy in this country. It is
+      yellow with age, and much frayed out at the foldings, being in those spots
+      no longer discernible. It runs:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ALBANY <i>June</i> 1798.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      TO MY DEAR SON JOSEPH.&mdash;It is true that there are points in the
+      history of the country in which your father had a concern in his early
+      life, and as you ask me to put it down I will do so briefly. Not, however,
+      my dear Joseph, as I was used to tell it to you when you were a lad, but
+      with more exact truth, for I am getting on in my years and this will soon
+      be all that my posterity will have of their ancestor. I conceive that now
+      the descendents of the noble band of heroes who fought off the indians,
+      the Frenche and the British will prevail in this country, and my
+      children's children may want to add what is found here in written to their
+      own achievements.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To begin with, my father was the master of a fishing-schooner, of
+      Marblehead. In the year 1745 he was taken at sea by a French man-of-war
+      off Louisbourg, after making a desperate resistence. His ship was in a
+      sinking condition and the blood was mid-leg deep on her deck. Your
+      grandfather was an upstanding man and did not prostrate easily, but the
+      Frencher was too big, so he was captured and later found his way as a
+      prisoner to Quebec. He was exchanged by a mistake in his identity for
+      Huron indians captivated in York, and he subsequently settled near Albany,
+      afterwards bringing my mother, two sisters, and myself from Marblehead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He engaged in the indian trade, and as I was a rugged lad of my years I
+      did often accompany him on his expeditions westward into the Mohawk
+      townes, thus living in bark camps among Indians and got thereby a
+      knowledge of their ways. I made shift also to learn their language, and
+      what with living in the bush for so many years I was a hand at a pack or
+      paddle and no mean hunter besides. I was put to school for two seasons in
+      Albany which was not to my liking, so I straightway ran off to a hunters
+      camp up the Hudson, and only came back when my father would say that I
+      should not be again put with the pedegogue. For this adventure I had a
+      good strapping from my father, and was set to work in his trade again. My
+      mother was a pious woman and did not like me to grow up in the wilderness&mdash;for
+      it was the silly fashion of those times to ape the manners and dress of
+      the Indians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My father was a shifty trader and very ventur-some. He often had trouble
+      with the people in these parts, who were Dutch and were jealous of him. He
+      had a violent temper and was not easily bent from his purpose by
+      opporsition. His men had a deal of fear of him and good cause enough in
+      the bargain, for I once saw him discipline a half-negro man who was one of
+      his boat-men for stealing his private jug of liquor from his private pack.
+      He clinched with the negro and soon had him on the ground, where the man
+      struggled manfully but to no purpose, for your grandfather soon had him at
+      his mercy. &ldquo;Now,&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;give me the jug or take the consequences.&rdquo; The
+      other boat paddlers wanted to rescue him, but I menaced them with my fusil
+      and the matter ended by the return of the jug.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In 1753 he met his end at the hands of western Indians in the French
+      interest, who shot him as he was helping to carry a battoe, and he was
+      burried in the wilderness. My mother then returned to her home in
+      Massassachusetts, journeying with a party of traders but I staid with the
+      Dutch on these frontiers because I had learned the indian trade and liked
+      the country. Not having any chances, I had little book learning in my
+      youth, having to this day a regret concerning it. I read a few books, but
+      fear I had a narrow knowledge of things outside the Dutch settlements. On
+      the frontiers, for that matter, few people had much skill with the pen,
+      nor was much needed. The axe and rifle, the paddle and pack being more to
+      our hands in those rough days. To prosper though, men weare shrewd-headed
+      enough. I have never seen that books helped people to trade sharper.
+      Shortly afterwards our trade fell away, for the French had embroiled the
+      Indians against us. Crown Point was the Place from which the Indians in
+      their interest had been fitted out to go against our settlements, so a
+      design was formed by His Majesty the British King to dispossess them of
+      that place. Troops were levid in the Province and the war began. The
+      Frenchers had the best of the fighting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our frontiers were beset with the Canada indians so that it was not safe
+      to go about in the country at all. I was working for Peter Vrooman, a
+      trader, and was living at his house on the Mohawk. One Sunday morning I
+      found a negro boy who was shot through the body with two balls as he was
+      hunting for stray sheep, and all this within half a mile of Vrooman's
+      house. Then an express came up the valley who left word that the Province
+      was levying troops at Albany to fight the French, and I took my pay from
+      Vrooman saying that I would go to Albany for a soldier. Another young man
+      and myself paddled down to Albany, and we both enlisted in the York
+      levies. We drawed our ammunition, tents, kettles, bowls and knives at the
+      Albany flats, and were drilled by an officer who had been in her Majesty's
+      Service. One man was given five hundred lashes for enlisting in some
+      Connecticut troops, and the orders said that any man who should leave His
+      Majesty's service without a Regular discharge should suffer Death. The
+      restraint which was put upon me by this military life was not to my
+      liking, and I was in a mortal dread of the whippings which men were
+      constantly receiving for breaches of the discipline. I felt that I could
+      not survive the shame of being trussed up and lashed before men's eyes,
+      but I did also have a great mind to fight the French which kept me along.
+      One day came an order to prepare a list of officers and men who were
+      willing to go scouting and be freed from other duty, and after some time I
+      got my name put down, for I was thought too young, but I said I knew the
+      woods, had often been to Andiatirocte (or Lake George as it had then
+      become the fashion to call it) and they let me go. It was dangerous work,
+      for reports came every day of how our Rangers suffered up country at the
+      hands of the cruel savages from Canada, but it is impossible to play at
+      bowls without meeting some rubs. A party of us proceeded up river to join
+      Captain Rogers at Fort Edward, and we were put to camp on an Island. This
+      was in October of the year 1757. We found the Rangers were rough borderers
+      like ourselvs, mostly Hampshire men well used to the woods and much
+      accustomed to the Enemy. They dressed in the fashion of those times in
+      skin and grey duffle hunting frocks, and were well armed. Rogers himself
+      was a doughty man and had a reputation as a bold Ranger leader. The men
+      declaired that following him was sore service, but that he most always met
+      with great success. The Fort was garrissoned by His Majesty's soldiers,
+      and I did not conceive that they were much fitted for bush-ranging, which
+      I afterwards found to be the case, but they would always fight well
+      enough, though often to no good purpose, which was not their fault so much
+      as the headstrong leadership which persisted in making them come to close
+      quarters while at a disadvantage. There were great numbers of pack horses
+      coming and going with stores, and many officers in gold lace and red coats
+      were riding about directing here and there. I can remember that I had a
+      great interest in this concourse of men, for up to that time I had not
+      seen much of the world outside of the wilderness. There was terror of the
+      Canada indians who had come down to our borders hunting for scalps&mdash;for
+      these were continually lurking near the cantanements to waylay the unwary.
+      I had got acquainted with a Hampshire borderer who had passed his life on
+      the Canada frontier, where he had fought indians and been captured by
+      them. I had seen much of indians and knew their silent forest habits when
+      hunting, so that I felt that when they were after human beings they would
+      be no mean adversaries, but I had never hunted them or they me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0031" id="linkimage-0031">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-31.jpg" alt="31 Not Much Fitted for Bush-ranging "   width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      I talked at great length with this Shankland, or Shanks as he was called
+      on account of his name and his long legs, in course of which he explained
+      many useful points to me concerning Ranger ways. He said they always
+      marched until it was quite dark before encamping&mdash;that they always
+      returned by a different route from that on which they went out, and that
+      they circled on their trail at intervals so that they might intercept any
+      one coming on their rear. He told me not to gather up close to other
+      Rangers in a fight but to keep spread out, which gave the Enemy less mark
+      to fire upon and also deceived them as to your own numbers. Then also he
+      cautioned me not to fire on the Enemy when we were in ambush till they
+      have approached quite near, which will put them in greater surprise and
+      give your own people time to rush in on them with hatchets or cutlasses.
+      Shanks and I had finally a great fancy for each other and passed most of
+      our time in company. He was a slow man in his movements albeit he could
+      move fast enough on occassion, and was a great hand to take note of things
+      happening around him. No indian was better able to discern a trail in the
+      bush than he, nor could one be found his equal at making snow shoes,
+      carving a powder horn or fashioning any knick-nack he was a mind to set
+      his hand to.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Rangers were accustomed to scout in small parties to keep the Canada
+      indians from coming close to Fort Edward. I had been out with Shanks on
+      minor occasions, but I must relate my first adventure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A party... (here the writing is lost)... was desirous of taking a captive
+      or scalp. I misdoubted our going alone by ourselvs, but he said we were as
+      safe as with more. We went northwest slowly for two days, and though we
+      saw many old trails we found none which were fresh. We had gone on until
+      night when we lay bye near a small brook. I was awakened by Shanks in the
+      night and heard a great howling of wolves at some distance off togther
+      with a gun shot. We lay awake until daybreak and at intervals heard a gun
+      fired all though the night. We decided that the firing could not come from
+      a large party and so began to approach the sound slowly and with the
+      greatest caution. We could not understand why the wolves should be so bold
+      with the gun firing, but as we came neare we smelled smoke and knew it was
+      a camp-fire. There were a number of wolves running about in the underbrush
+      from whose actions we located the camp. From a rise we could presently see
+      it, and were surprised to find it contained five Indians all lying asleep
+      in their blankets. The wolves would go right up to the camp and yet the
+      indians did not deign to give them any notice whatsoever, or even to move
+      in the least when one wolf pulled at the blanket of a sleeper. We each
+      selected a man when we had come near enough, and preparing to deliver our
+      fire, when of a sudden one figure rose up slightly. We nevertheless fired
+      and then rushed forward, reloading. To our astonishment none of the
+      figures moved in the least but the wolves scurried off. We were advancing
+      cautiously when Shanks caught me by the arm saying &ldquo;we must run, that they
+      had all died of the small-pox,&rdquo; and run we did lustilly for a good long
+      distance. After this manner did many Indians die in the wilderness from
+      that dreadful disease, and I have since supposed that the last living
+      indian had kept firing his gun at the wolves until he had no longer
+      strength to reload his piece.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0032" id="linkimage-0032">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-32.jpg" alt="32 the March of Rogers's Rangers "   width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      After this Shanks and I had become great friends for he had liked the way
+      I had conducted myself on this expedition. He was always ar-guying with me
+      to cut off my eel-skin que which I wore after the fashion of the Dutch
+      folks, saying that the Canada indians would parade me for a Dutchman after
+      that token was gone with my scalp. He had.... (writing obliterated).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Early that winter I was one of 150 Rangers who marched with Captain Rogers
+      against the Enemy at Carrillion. The snow was not deep at starting but it
+      continued to snow until it was heavy footing and many of the men gave out
+      and returned to Fort Edward, but notwithstanding my exhaustion I continued
+      on for six days until we were come to within six hundred yards of
+      Carrillion Fort. The captain had made us a speech in which he told us the
+      points where we were to rendevoux if we were broke in the fight, for
+      further resistence until night came on, when we could take ourselvs off as
+      best we might. I was with the advance guard. We lay in ambush in some
+      fallen timber quite close to a road, from which we could see the smoke
+      from the chimneys of the Fort and the Gentries walking their beats. A
+      French soldier was seen to come from the Fort and the word was passed to
+      let him go bye us, as he came down the road. We lay perfectly still not
+      daring to breathe, and though he saw nothing he stopped once and seemed
+      undecided as to going on, but suspecting nothing he continued and was
+      captured by our people below, for prisoners were wanted at Headquarters to
+      give information of the French forces and intentions. A man taken in this
+      way was threatened with Death if he did not tell the whole truth, which
+      under the circumstancs he mostly did to save his life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The French did not come out of the Fort after us, though Rogers tried to
+      entice them by firing guns and showing small parties of men which feigned
+      to retreat. We were ordered to destroy what we could of the supplies, so
+      Shanks and I killed a small cow which we found in the edge of the clearing
+      and took off some fresh beef of which food we were sadly in need, for on
+      these scouts the Rangers were not permitted to fire guns at game though it
+      was found in thir path, as it often was in fact. I can remember on one
+      occassion that I stood by a tree in a snow storm, with my gun depressed
+      under my frock the better to keep it dry, when I was minded to glance
+      quickly around and there saw a large wolf just ready to spring upon me. I
+      cautiously presented my fusee but did not dare to fire against the orders.
+      An other Ranger came shortly into view and the wolf took himself off. We
+      burned some large wood piles, which no doubt made winter work for to keep
+      some Frenchers at home. They only fired some cannon at us, which beyond a
+      great deal of noise did no harm. We then marched back to Fort Edward and
+      were glad enough to get there, since it was time for snow-shoes, which we
+      had not with us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Canada indians were coming down to our Forts and even behind them to
+      intercept our convoys or any parties out on the road, so that the Rangers
+      were kept out, to head them when they could, or get knowledge of their
+      whereabouts. Shanks and I went out with two Mohegon indians on a scout. It
+      was exceedingly stormy weather and very heavy travelling except on the
+      River. I had got a bearskin blanket from the indians which is necessary to
+      keep out the cold at this season. We had ten days of bread, pork and rum
+      with a little salt with us, and followed the indians in a direction
+      North-and-bye-East towards the lower end of Lake Champlain, always keeping
+      to the high-ground with the falling snow to fill our tracks behind us. For
+      four days we travelled when we were well up the west side. We had crossed
+      numbers of trails but they were all full of old snow and not worth
+      regarding&mdash;still we were so far from our post that in event of
+      encountering any numbers of the Enemy we had but small hope of a safe
+      return and had therefore to observe the greatest caution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As we were making our way an immense painter so menaced us that we were
+      forced to fire our guns to dispatch him. He was found to be very old, his
+      teeth almost gone, and was in the last stages of starvation. We were much
+      alarmed at this misadventure, fearing the Enemy might hear us or see the
+      ravens gathering above, so we crossed the Lake that night on some new ice
+      to blind our trail, where I broke through in one place and was only saved
+      by Shanks, who got hold of my eel-skin que, thereby having something to
+      pull me out with. We got into a deep gully, and striking flint made a fire
+      to dry me and I did not suffer much inconvenience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The day following we took a long circle and came out on the lower end of
+      the Lake, there laying two days in ambush, watching the Lake for any
+      parties coming or going. Before dark a Mohigon came in from watch saying
+      that men were coming down the Lake. We gathered at the point and saw seven
+      of the Enemy come slowly on. There were three indians two Canadians and a
+      French officer. Seeing they would shortly pass under our point of land we
+      made ready to fire, and did deliver one fire as they came nigh, but the
+      guns of our Mohigons failed to explode, they being old and well nigh
+      useless, so that all the damage we did was to kill one indian and wound a
+      Canadian, who was taken in hand by his companions who made off down the
+      shore and went into the bush. We tried to head them unsuccessfully, and
+      after examining the guns of our indians we feared they were so disabled
+      that we gave up and retreated down the Lake, travelling all night. Near
+      morning we saw a small fire which we spied out only to find a large party
+      of the Enemy, whereat we were much disturbed, for our travelling had
+      exhausted us and we feared the pursuit of a fresh enemy as soon as morning
+      should come to show them our trail. We then made our way as fast as
+      possible until late that night, when we laid down for refreshment. We
+      built no fire but could not sleep for fear of the Enemy for it was a
+      bright moonlight, and sure enough we had been there but a couple of hours
+      when we saw the Enemy coming on our track. We here abandoned our
+      bear-skins with what provissions we had left and ran back on our trail
+      toward the advancing party. It was dark in the forest and we hoped they
+      might not discover our back track for some time, thus giving us a longer
+      start. This ruse was successful. After some hours travel I became so
+      exhausted that I stopped to rest, whereat the Mohigans left us, but Shanks
+      bided with me, though urging me to move forward. After a time I got
+      strength to move on. Shanks said the Canadians would come up with us if we
+      did not make fast going of it, and that they would disembowel us or tie us
+      to a tree and burn us as was their usual way, for we could in no wise hope
+      to make head against so large a party. Thus we walked steadily till high
+      noon, when my wretched strength gave out so that I fell down saying I had
+      as leave die there as elsewhere. Shanks followed back on our trail, while
+      I fell into a drouse but was so sore I could not sleep. After a time I
+      heard a shot, and shortly two more, when Shanks came running back to me.
+      He had killed an advancing indian and stopped them for a moment. He kicked
+      me vigorously, telling me to come on, as the Indians would soon come on
+      again. I got up, and though I could scarcely move I was minded diligently
+      to persevere after Shanks. Thus we staggered on until near night time,
+      when we again stopped and I fell into a deep sleep, but the enemy did not
+      again come up. On the following day we got into Fort Edward, where I was
+      taken with a distemper, was seized with very grevious pains in the head
+      and back and a fever. They let blood and gave me a physic, but I did not
+      get well around for some time. For this sickness I have always been
+      thankful, otherwise I should have been with Major Rogers in his
+      unfortunate battle, which has become notable enough, where he was defeated
+      by the Canadians and Indians and lost nigh all his private men, only
+      escaping himself by a miracle. We mourned the loss of many friends who
+      were our comrades, though it was not the fault of any one, since the Enemy
+      had three times the number of the Rangers and hemmed them in. Some of the
+      Rangers had surrendered under promise of Quarter, but we afterwards heard
+      that they were tied to trees and hacked to death because the indians had
+      found a scalp in the breast of a man's hunting frock, thus showing that we
+      could never expect such bloody minded villiains to keep their promises of
+      Quarter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was on several scouts against them that winter but encountered nothing
+      worthy to relate excepting the hardships which fell to a Ranger's lot. In
+      June the Army having been gathered we proceeded under Abercromby up the
+      Lake to attack Ticonderoga. I thought at the time that so many men must be
+      invincible, but since the last war I have been taught to know different.
+      There were more Highlanders, Grenadiers, Provincial troops, Artillery and
+      Rangers than the eye could compass, for the Lake was black with their
+      battoes. This concourse proceeded to Ticondaroga where we had a great
+      battle and lost many men, but to no avail since we were forced to return.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The British soldiers were by this time made servicible for forest warfare,
+      since the officers and men had been forced to rid themselvs of their
+      useless incumbrances and had cut off the tails of their long coats till
+      they scarcely reached below thir middles&mdash;they had also left the
+      women at the Fort, browned thir gun barrells and carried thir provisions
+      on their backs, each man enough for himself, as was our Ranger custom. The
+      army was landed at the foot of the Lake, where the Rangers quickly drove
+      off such small bodies of Frenchers and Indians as opposed us, and we began
+      our march by the rapids. Rogers men cleared the way and had a most
+      desperate fight with some French who were minded to stop us, but we
+      shortly killed and captured most of them. We again fell in with them that
+      afternoon and were challenged Qui vive but answered that we were French,
+      but they were not deceived and fired upon us, after which a hot skirmish
+      insued during which Lord Howe was shot through the breast, for which we
+      were all much depressed, because he was our real leader and had raised
+      great hopes of success for us. The Rangers had liked him because he was
+      wont to spend much time talking with them in thir camps and used also to
+      go on scouts. The Rangers were not over fond of British officers in
+      general.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0033" id="linkimage-0033">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-33.jpg" alt="33 the Storming of Ticonderoga "   width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      When the time had come for battle we Rangers moved forward, accompanied by
+      the armed boatmen and the Provincial troops. We drove in the French
+      pickets and came into the open where the trees were felled tops toward us
+      in a mighty abbatis, as though blown down by the wind. It was all we could
+      undertake to make our way through the mass, and all the while the great
+      breast-works of the French belched cannon and musket balls while the limbs
+      and splinters flew around us. Then out of the woods behind us issued the
+      heavy red masses of the British troops advancing in battle array with
+      purpose to storm with the bayonet. The maze of fallen trees with their
+      withered leaves hanging broke their ranks, and the French Retrenchment
+      blazed fire and death. They advanced bravely up but all to no good
+      purpose, and hundreds there met their death. My dear Joseph I have the
+      will but not the way to tell you all I saw that awful afternoon. I have
+      since been in many battles and skirmishes, but I never have witnessed such
+      slaughter and such wild fighting as the British storm of Ticondaroga. We
+      became mixed up&mdash;Highlanders, Grenadiers, Light Troops, Rangers and
+      all, and we beat against that mass of logs and maze of fallen timber and
+      we beat in vain. I was once carried right up to the breastwork, but we
+      were stopped by the bristling mass of sharpened branches, while the French
+      fire swept us front and flank. The ground was covered deep with dying men,
+      and as I think it over now I can remember nothing but the fruit bourne by
+      the tree of war, for I looked upon so many wonderous things that July day
+      that I could not set them downe at all. We drew off after seeing that
+      human valor could not take that work. We Rangers then skirmished with the
+      French colony troops and the Canada indians until dark while our people
+      rescued the wounded, and then we fell back. The Army was utterly
+      demoralized and made a headlong retreat, during which many wounded men
+      were left to die in the woods. Shanks and I paddled a light bark canoe
+      down the Lake next day, in the bottom of which lay a wounded British
+      officer attended by his servant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0034" id="linkimage-0034">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-34.jpg" alt="34 Paddling the Wounded British Officer "   width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      I took my discharge, and lived until the following Spring with Vrooman at
+      German Flats, when I had a desire to go again to the more active service
+      of the Rangers, for living in camps and scouting, notwithstanding its
+      dangers, was agreeable to my taste in those days. So back to Albany I
+      started, and there met Major Rogers, whom I acquainted with my desire to
+      again join his service, whereat he seemed right glad to put me downe. I
+      accordingly journeyed to Crown Point, where I went into camp. I had bought
+      me a new fire-lock at Albany which was provided with a bayonet. It was
+      short, as is best fitted for the bush, and about 45 balls to the pound. I
+      had shot it ten times on trial and it had not failed to discharge at each
+      pull. There was a great change in the private men of the Rangers, so many
+      old ones had been frost bitten and gone home. I found my friend Shanks,
+      who had staid though he had been badly frosted during the winter. He had
+      such a hate of the Frenchers and particularly of the Canada Indians that
+      he would never cease to fight them, they having killed all his relatives
+      in New Hampshire which made him bitter against them, he always saying that
+      they might as well kill him and thus make an end of the family.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In June I went north down Champlain with 250 Rangers and Light Infantry in
+      sloop-vessels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Rangers were.... (writing lost).... but it made no difference. The
+      party was landed on the west side of the Lake near Isle au Noix and lay
+      five days in the bush, it raining hard all the time. I was out with a
+      recoinnoitering party to watch the Isle, and very early in the morning we
+      saw the French coming to our side in boats, whereat we acquainted Major
+      Rogers that the French were about to attack us. We were drawn up in line
+      to await their coming. The forest always concealed a Ranger line, so that
+      there might not have been a man within a hundred miles for all that could
+      be seen, and so it was that an advance party of the Enemy walked into our
+      line and were captured, which first appraised the French of our position.
+      They shortly attacked us on our left, but I was sent with a party to make
+      our way through a swamp in order to attack their rear. This we
+      accomplished so quietly that we surprized some Canada indians who were
+      lying back of the French line listening to a prophet who was incanting.
+      These we slew, and after our firing many French grenadiers came running
+      past, when they broke before our line. I took a Frenchman prisoner, but he
+      kept his bayonet pointed at me, all the time yelling in French which I did
+      not understand, though I had my loaded gun pointed at him. He seemed to be
+      disturbed at the sight of a scalp which I had hanging in my belt. I had
+      lately took it from the head of an Indian, it being my first, but I was
+      not minded to kill the poor Frenchman and was saying so in English. He put
+      down his fire-lock finally and offered me his flask to drink liquor with
+      him, but I did not use it. I had known that Shanks carried poisoned liquor
+      in his pack, with the hope that it would destroy any indians who might
+      come into possession of it, if he was taken, whether alive or dead. As I
+      was escorting the Frenchman back to our boats he quickly ran away from me,
+      though I snapped my fire-lock at him, which failed to explode, it having
+      become wet from the rain. Afterwards I heard that a Ranger had shot him,
+      seeing him running in the bush.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0035" id="linkimage-0035">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-35.jpg" alt="35 the Capture of The French Grenadier "   width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      We went back to our boats after this victory and took all our wounded and
+      dead with us, which last we buried on an island. Being joined by a party
+      of Stockbridge Indians we were again landed, and after marching for some
+      days came to a road where we recoinnoitered St. John's Fort but did not
+      attack it, Rogers judging it not to be takeable with our force. From here
+      we began to march so fast that only the strongest men could keep up, and
+      at day-break came to another Fort. We ran into the gate while a hay-waggon
+      was passing through, and surprised and captured all the garrison, men
+      women and children. After we had burned and destroyed everything we turned
+      the women and children adrift, but drove the men along as prisoners,
+      making them carry our packs. We marched so fast that the French grenadiers
+      could not keep up, for their breeches were too tight for them to march
+      with ease, whereat we cut off the legs of them with our knives, when they
+      did better.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After this expedition we scouted from Crown Point in canoes, Shanks and
+      myself going as far north as we dared toward Isle au Noix, and one day
+      while lying on the bank we saw the army coming. It was an awesome sight to
+      see so many boats filled with brave uniforms, as they danced over the
+      waves. The Rangers and Indians came a half a mile ahead of the Army in
+      whale-boats all in line abreast, while behind them came the light Infantry
+      and Grenadiers with Provincial troops on the flanks and Artillery and
+      Store boats bringing up the Rear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Shanks and I fell in with the Ranger boats, being yet in our small bark
+      and much hurled about by the waves, which rolled prodigious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Army continued up the Lake and drove the Frenchers out of their Forts,
+      they not stopping to resist us till we got to Chamblee, where we staid.
+      But the French in Canada had all surrendered to the British and the war
+      was over. This ended my service as a Ranger in those parts. I went back to
+      Vroomans intending to go again into the indian trade, for now we hoped
+      that the French would no longer be able to stop our enterprises.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now my dear son&mdash;I will send you this long letter, and will go on
+      writing of my later life in the Western country and in the War of
+      Independence, and will send you those letters as soon as I have them
+      written. I did not do much or occupy a commanding position, but I served
+      faithfully in what I had to do. For the present God bless you my dear son.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      JOSHUA GOODENOUGH. <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CRACKER COWBOYS OF FLORIDA
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      ONE can thresh the straw of history until he is well worn out, and also is
+      running some risk of wearing others out who may have to listen, so I will
+      waive the telling of who the first cowboy was, even if I knew; but the
+      last one who has come under my observation lives down in Florida, and the
+      way it happened was this: I was sitting in a &ldquo;sto' do',&rdquo; as the &ldquo;Crackers&rdquo;
+       say, waiting for the clerk to load some &ldquo;number eights,&rdquo; when my friend
+      said, &ldquo;Look at the cowboys!&rdquo; This immediately caught my interest. With me
+      cowboys are what gems and porcelains are to some others. Two very
+      emaciated Texas ponies pattered down the street, bearing wild-looking
+      individuals, whose hanging hair and drooping hats and generally bedraggled
+      appearance would remind you at once of the Spanish-moss which hangs so
+      quietly and helplessly to the limbs of the oaks out in the swamps. There
+      was none of the bilious fierceness and rearing plunge which I had
+      associated with my friends out West, but as a fox-terrier is to a yellow
+      cur, so were these last. They had on about four dollars' worth of clothes
+      between them, and rode McClellan saddles, with saddle-bags, and guns tied
+      on before. The only things they did which were conventional were to tie
+      their ponies up by the head in brutal disregard, and then get drunk in
+      about fifteen minutes. I could see that in this case, while some of the
+      tail feathers were the same, they would easily classify as new birds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0036" id="linkimage-0036">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-36.jpg"
+       alt="36 About Four Dollars Worth of Clothes Between Them " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And so you have cowboys down here?&rdquo; I said to the man who ran the
+      meat-market.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He picked a tiny piece of raw liver out of the meshes of his long black
+      beard, tilted his big black hat, shoved his arms into his white apron
+      front, and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gawd! yes, stranger; I was one myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The plot thickened so fast that I was losing much, so I became more
+      deliberate. &ldquo;Do the boys come into town often?&rdquo; I inquired further.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh yes, 'mos' every little spell,&rdquo; replied the butcher, as he reached
+      behind his weighing-scales and picked up a double-barrelled shot-gun,
+      sawed off. &ldquo;We-uns are expectin' of they-uns to-day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And he broke the barrels and took out the shells to examine them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do they come shooting?&rdquo; I interposed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He shut the gun with a snap. &ldquo;We split even, stranger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Seeing that the butcher was a fragile piece of bric-a-brac, and that I
+      might need him for future study, I bethought me of the banker down the
+      street. Bankers are bound to be broad-gauged, intelligent, and
+      conservative, so I would go to him and get at the ancient history of this
+      neck of woods. I introduced myself, and was invited behind the counter.
+      The look of things reminded me of one of those great green terraces which
+      conceal fortifications and ugly cannon. It was boards and wire screen in
+      front, but behind it were shot-guns and six-shooters hung in the handiest
+      way, on a sort of disappearing gun-carriage arrangement. Shortly one of
+      the cowboys of the street scene floundered in. He was two-thirds drunk,
+      with brutal, shifty eyes and a flabby lower lip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want twenty dollars on the old man. Ken I have it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      I rather expected that the bank would go into &ldquo;action front,&rdquo; but the
+      clerk said, &ldquo;Certainly,&rdquo; and completed this rather odd financial
+      transaction, whereat the bull-hunter stumbled out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0037" id="linkimage-0037">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-37.jpg" alt="37 a Cracker Cowboy " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is the old man in this case?&rdquo; I ventured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, it's his boss, old Colonel Zuigg, of Crow City. I gave some money to
+      some of his boys some weeks ago, and when the colonel was down here I
+      asked him if he wanted the boys to draw against him in that way, and he
+      said, 'Yes&mdash;for a small amount; they will steal a cow or two, and pay
+      me that way.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here was something tangible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What happens when a man steals another man's brand in this country?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He mustn't get caught; that's all. They all do it, but they never bring
+      their troubles into court. They just shoot it out there in the bresh. The
+      last time old Colonel Zuigg brought Zorn Zuidden in here and had him
+      indicted for stealing cattle, said Zorn: 'Now see here, old man Zuigg,
+      what do you want for to go and git me arrested fer? I have stole thousands
+      of cattle and put your mark and brand on 'em, and jes because I have stole
+      a couple of hundred from you, you go and have me indicted. You jes better
+      go and get that whole deal nol pressed;' and it was done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The argument was perfect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From that I should imagine that the cow-people have no more idea of law
+      than the 'gray apes,'&rdquo; I commented.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, that's about it. Old Colonel Zuigg was a judge fer a spell, till
+      some feller filled him with buckshot, and he had to resign; and I remember
+      he decided a case aginst me once. I was hot about it, and the old colonel
+      he saw I was. Says he, 'Now yer mad, ain't you?' And I allowed I was.
+      'Well,' says he, 'you hain't got no call to get mad. I have decided the
+      last eight cases in yer favor, and you kain't have it go yer way all the
+      time; it wouldn't look right;' and I had to be satisfied.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The courts in that locality were but the faint and sickly flame of a taper
+      offered at the shrine of a justice which was traditional only, it seemed.
+      Moral forces having ceased to operate, the large owners began to brand
+      everything in sight, never realizing that they were sowing the wind. This
+      action naturally demoralized the cowboys, who shortly began to brand a
+      little on their own account&mdash;and then the deluge. The rights of
+      property having been destroyed, the large owners put strong outfits in the
+      field, composed of desperate men armed to the teeth, and what happens in
+      the lonely pine woods no one knows but the desperadoes themselves, albeit
+      some of them never come back to the little fringe of settlements. The
+      winter visitor from the North kicks up the jack-snipe along the beach or
+      tarponizes in the estuaries of the Gulf, and when he comes to the hotel
+      for dinner he eats Chicago dressed beef, but out in the wilderness
+      low-browed cow-folks shoot and stab each other for the possession of
+      scrawny creatures not fit for a pointer-dog to mess on. One cannot but
+      feel the force of Buckle's law of &ldquo;the physical aspects of nature&rdquo; in this
+      sad country. Flat and sandy, with miles on miles of straight pine timber,
+      each tree an exact duplicate of its neighbor tree, and underneath the
+      scrub palmettoes, the twisted brakes and hammocks, and the gnarled
+      water-oaks festooned with the sad gray Spanish-moss&mdash;truly not a
+      country for a high-spirited race or moral giants.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0038" id="linkimage-0038">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-38.jpg" alt="38 Fighting over a Stolen Herd "   width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The land gives only a tough wiregrass, and the poor little cattle, no
+      bigger than a donkey, wander half starved and horribly emaciated in search
+      of it. There used to be a trade with Cuba, but now that has gone; and
+      beyond the supplying of Key West and the small fringe of settlements they
+      have no market. How well the cowboys serve their masters I can only guess,
+      since the big owners do not dare go into the woods, or even to their own
+      doors at night, and they do not keep a light burning in the houses. One,
+      indeed, attempted to assert his rights, but some one pumped sixteen
+      buckshot into him as he bent over a spring to drink, and he left the
+      country. They do tell of a late encounter between two rival foremen, who
+      rode on to each other in the woods, and drawing, fired, and both were
+      found stretched dying under the palmettoes, one calling deliriously the
+      name of his boss. The unknown reaches of the Everglades lie just below,
+      and with a half-hour's start a man who knew the country would be safe from
+      pursuit, even if it were attempted; and, as one man cheerfully confided to
+      me, &ldquo;A boat don't leave no trail, stranger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      That might makes right, and that they steal by wholesale, any
+      cattle-hunter will admit; and why they brand at all I cannot see, since
+      one boy tried to make it plain to me, as he shifted his body in drunken
+      abandon and grabbed my pencil and a sheet of wrapping paper: &ldquo;See yer; ye
+      see that?&rdquo; And he drew a circle O, and then another ring around it, thus:
+      (O). &ldquo;That brand ain't no good. Well, then&mdash;&rdquo; And again his knotted
+      and dirty fingers essayed the brand I O. He laboriously drew upon it and
+      made E-O which of course destroyed the former brand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then here,&rdquo; he continued, as he drew 13, &ldquo;all ye've got ter do is this&mdash;313.&rdquo;
+       I gasped in amazement, not at his cleverness as a brand-destroyer, but at
+      his honest abandon. With a horrible operatic laugh, such as is painted in
+      &ldquo;The Cossack's Answer,&rdquo; he again laboriously drew (+) (the circle cross),
+      and then added some marks which made it look like this: S(+)S. And again
+      breaking into his devil's &ldquo;ha, ha!&rdquo; said, &ldquo;Make the damned thing whirl.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0039" id="linkimage-0039">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-39.jpg" alt="39 in Wait for an Enemy " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      I did not protest. He would have shot me for that. But I did wish he was
+      living in the northwest quarter of New Mexico, where Mr. Cooper and Dan
+      could throw their eyes over the trail of his pony. Of course each man has
+      adjusted himself to this lawless rustling, and only calculates that he can
+      steal as much as his opponent. It is rarely that their affairs are brought
+      to court, but when they are, the men come <i>en masse</i> to the room,
+      armed with knives and rifles, so that any decision is bound to be a
+      compromise, or it will bring on a general engagement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is also a noticeable absence of negroes among them, as they still
+      retain some <i>ante bellum</i> theories, and it is only very lately that
+      they have &ldquo;reconstructed.&rdquo; Their general ignorance is &ldquo;miraculous,&rdquo; and
+      quite mystifying to an outside man. Some whom I met did not even know
+      where the Texas was which furnishes them their ponies. The railroads of
+      Florida have had their ups and downs with them in a petty way on account
+      of the running over of their cattle by the trains; and then some
+      long-haired old Cracker drops into the nearest station with his gun and
+      pistol, and wants the telegraph operator to settle immediately on the
+      basis of the Cracker's claim for damages, which is always absurdly high.
+      At first the railroads demurred, but the cowboys lined up in the &ldquo;bresh&rdquo;
+       on some dark night and pumped Winchesters into the train in a highly
+      picturesque way. The trainmen at once recognized the force of the
+      Cracker's views on cattle-killing, but it took some considerable &ldquo;potting&rdquo;
+       at the more conservative superintendents before the latter could bestir
+      themselves and invent a &ldquo;cow-attorney,&rdquo; as the company adjuster is called,
+      who now settles with the bushmen as best he can. Certainly no worse people
+      ever lived since the big killing up Muscleshell way, and the romance is
+      taken out of it by the cowardly assassination which is the practice. They
+      are well paid for their desperate work, and always eat fresh beef or
+      &ldquo;razor-backs,&rdquo; and deer which they kill in the woods. The heat, the poor
+      grass, their brutality, and the pest of the flies kill their ponies, and,
+      as a rule, they lack dash and are indifferent riders, but they are
+      picturesque in their unkempt, almost unearthly wildness. A strange effect
+      is added by their use of large, fierce cur-dogs, one of which accompanies
+      each cattle-hunter, and is taught to pursue cattle, and to even take them
+      by the nose, which is another instance of their brutality. Still, as they
+      only have a couple of horses apiece, it saves them much extra running.
+      These men do not use the rope, unless to noose a pony in a corral, but
+      work their cattle in strong log corrals, which are made at about a day's
+      march apart all through the woods. Indeed, ropes are hardly necessary,
+      since the cattle are so small and thin that two men can successfully
+      &ldquo;wrestle&rdquo; a three-year-old. A man goes into the corral, grabs a cow by one
+      horn, and throwing his other arm over her back, waits until some other man
+      takes her hind leg, whereat ensues some very entertaining Graeco-Roman
+      style.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0040" id="linkimage-0040">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-40.jpg" alt="40 a Bit of Cow Country " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      When the cow is successful, she finds her audience of Cracker cowboys
+      sitting on the fence awaiting another opening, and gasping for breath. The
+      best bull will not go over three hundred pounds, while I have seen a
+      yearling at a hundred and fifty&mdash;if you, O knights of the riata, can
+      imagine it! Still, it is desperate work. Some of the men are so reckless
+      and active that they do not hesitate to encounter a wild bull in the open.
+      The cattle are as wild as deer, they race off at scent; and when &ldquo;rounded
+      up&rdquo; many will not drive, whereupon these are promptly shot. It frequently
+      happens that when the herd is being driven quietly along a bull will turn
+      on the drivers, charging at once. Then there is a scamper and great
+      shooting. The bulls often become so maddened in these forays that they
+      drop and die in their tracks, for which strange fact no one can account,
+      but as a rule they are too scrawny and mean to make their handling
+      difficult.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So this is the Cracker cowboy, whose chief interest would be found in the
+      tales of some bushwhacking enterprise, which I very much fear would be a
+      one-sided story, and not worth the telling. At best they must be
+      revolting, having no note of the savage encounters which used to
+      characterize the easy days in West Texas and New Mexico, when every man
+      tossed his life away to the crackle of his own revolver. The moon shows
+      pale through the leafy canopy on their evening fires, and the mists, the
+      miasma, and the mosquitoes settle over their dreary camp talk. In place of
+      the wild stampede, there is only the bellowing in the pens, and instead of
+      the plains shaking under the dusty air as the bedizened vaqueros plough
+      their fiery broncos through the milling herds, the cattle-hunter wends his
+      lonely way through the ooze and rank grass, while the dreary pine trunks
+      line up and shut the view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0041" id="linkimage-0041">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-41.jpg" alt="41 Cowboys Wrestling a Bull " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE STRANGE DAYS THAT CAME TO JIMMIE FRIDAY
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      THE &ldquo;Abwee-chemun&rdquo; [Algonquin for &ldquo;paddle and canoe.&rdquo;] Club was organized
+      with six charter members at a heavy lunch in the Savarin restaurant&mdash;one
+      of those lunches which make through connections to dinner without change.
+      One member basely deserted, while two more lost all their enthusiasm on
+      the following morning, but three of us stuck. We vaguely knew that
+      somewhere north of the Canadian Pacific and south of Hudson Bay were big
+      lakes and rapid rivers&mdash;lakes whose names we did not know; lakes
+      bigger than Champlain, with unnamed rivers between them. We did not
+      propose to be boated around in a big birch-bark by two voyagers among
+      blankets and crackers and ham, but each provided himself a little
+      thirteen-foot cedar canoe, twenty-nine inches in the beam, and weighing
+      less than forty pounds. I cannot tell you precisely how our party was
+      sorted, but one was a lawyer with eyeglasses and settled habits, loving
+      nature, though detesting canoes; the other was nominally a merchant, but
+      in reality an atavie Norseman of the wolf and raven kind; while I am not
+      new. Together we started.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently the Abwees sat about the board of a lumbermen's hotel, filled
+      with house-flies and slatternly waiter-girls, who talked familiarly while
+      they served greasy food. The Abwees were yet sore in their minds at the
+      thoughts of the smelly beds up-stairs, and discouragement sat deeply on
+      their souls. But their time was not yet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After breakfast they marched to the Hudson Bay Company's store, knowing as
+      they did that in Canada there are only two places for a traveller to go
+      who wants anything&mdash;the great company or the parish priest; and then,
+      having explained to the factor their dream, they were told &ldquo;that beyond,
+      beyond some days' journey&rdquo;&mdash;oh! that awful beyond, which for
+      centuries has stood across the path of the pioneer, and in these latter
+      days confronts the sportsman and wilderness-lover&mdash;&ldquo;that beyond some
+      days' journey to the north was a country such as they had dreamed&mdash;up
+      Temis-camingue and beyond.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The subject of a guide was considered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jimmie Friday always brought a big toboggan-load of furs into Fort
+      Tiemogamie every spring, and was accounted good in his business. He and
+      his big brother trapped together, and in turn followed the ten days' swing
+      through the snow-laden forest which they had covered with their dead-falls
+      and steel-jawed traps; but when the ice went out in the rivers, and the
+      great pines dripped with the melting snows, they had nothing more to do
+      but cut a few cords of wood for their widowed mother's cabin near the
+      post. Then the brother and he paddled down to Bais des Pierres, where the
+      brother engaged as a deck hand on a steamboat, and Jimmie hired himself as
+      a guide for some bush-rangers, as the men are called who explore for pine
+      lands for the great lumber firms. Having worked all summer and got through
+      with that business, Jimmie bethought him to dissipate for a few days in
+      the bustling lumber town down on the Ottawa River. He had been there
+      before to feel the exhilaration of civilization, but beyond that clearing
+      he had never known anything more inspiring than a Hudson Bay post, which
+      is generally a log store, a house where the agent lives, and a few tiny
+      Indian cabins set higgledy-piggledy in a sunburnt gash of stumps and
+      bowlders, lost in the middle of the solemn, unresponsive forest. On this
+      morning in question he had stepped from his friend's cabin up in the
+      Indian village, and after lighting a perfectly round and rather yellow
+      cigar, he had instinctively wandered down to the Hudson Bay store, there
+      to find himself amused by a strange sight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Abwees had hired two French-Indian voyagers of sinister mien, and a
+      Scotch-Canadian boy bred to the bush. They were out on the grass, engaged
+      in taking burlaps off three highly polished canoes, while the clerk from
+      the store ran out and asked questions about &ldquo;how much bacon,&rdquo; and, &ldquo;will
+      fifty pounds of pork be enough, sir?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The round yellow cigar was getting stubby, while Jimmie's modest eyes
+      sought out the points of interest in the new-comers, when he was suddenly
+      and sharply addressed:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can you cook?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jimmie couldn't do anything in a hurry, except chop a log in two, paddle
+      very fast, and shoot quickly, so he said, as was his wont:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think&mdash;I dun'no'&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, how much?&rdquo; came the query.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Two daul&mdash;ars&mdash;&rdquo; said Jimmie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The transaction was complete. The yellow butt went over the fence, and
+      Jimmie shed his coat. He was directed to lend a hand by the bustling
+      sportsmen, and requested to run and find things of which he had never
+      before in his life heard the name.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0042" id="linkimage-0042">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-42.jpg" alt="42 the Lawyer Had Become a Voyager "   width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      After two days' travel the Abwees were put ashore&mdash;boxes, bags, rolls
+      of blankets, canoes, Indians, and plunder of many sorts&mdash;on a pebbly
+      beach, and the steamer backed off and steamed away. They had reached the
+      &ldquo;beyond&rdquo; at last, and the odoriferous little bedrooms, the bustle of the
+      preparation, the cares of their lives, were behind. Then there was a
+      girding up of the loins, a getting out of tump-lines and canvas packs, and
+      the long portage was begun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The voyagers carried each two hundred pounds as they stalked away into the
+      wilderness, while the attorney-at-law &ldquo;hefted&rdquo; his pack, wiped his
+      eyeglasses with his pocket-handkerchief, and tried cheerfully to assume
+      the responsibilities of &ldquo;a dead game sport.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot lift the thing, and how I am going to carry it is more than I
+      know; but I'm a dead game sport, and I am going to try. I do not want to
+      be dead game, but it looks as though I couldn't help it. Will some
+      gentleman help me to adjust this cargo?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The night overtook the outfit in an old beaver meadow half-way through the
+      trail. Like all first camps, it was tough. The lean-to tents went up
+      awkwardly. No one could find anything. Late at night the Abwees lay on
+      their backs under the blankets, while the fog settled over the meadow and
+      blotted out the stars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the following day the stuff was all gotten through, and by this time
+      the lawyer had become a voyager, willing to carry anything he could
+      stagger under. It is strange how one can accustom himself to &ldquo;pack.&rdquo; He
+      may never use the tump-line, since it goes across the head, and will
+      unseat his intellect if he does, but with shoulder-straps and a tump-line
+      a man who thinks he is not strong will simply amaze himself inside of a
+      week by what he can do. As for our little canoes, we could trot with them.
+      Each Abwee carried his own belongings and his boat, which entitled him to
+      the distinction of &ldquo;a dead game sport,&rdquo; whatever that may mean, while the
+      Indians portaged their larger canoes and our mass of supplies, making many
+      trips backward and forward in the process.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the river everything was parcelled out and arranged. The birch-barks
+      were repitched, and every man found out what he was expected to portage
+      and do about camp. After breaking and making camp three times, the outfit
+      could pack up, load the canoes, and move inside of fifteen minutes. At the
+      first camp the lawyer essayed his canoe, and was cautioned that the
+      delicate thing might flirt with him. He stepped in and sat gracefully down
+      in about two feet of water, while the &ldquo;delicate thing&rdquo; shook herself
+      saucily at his side. After he had crawled dripping ashore and wiped his
+      eye-glasses, he engaged to sell the &ldquo;delicate thing&rdquo; to an Indian for one
+      dollar and a half on a promissory note. The trade was suppressed, and he
+      was urged to try again. A man who has held down a cane-bottom chair
+      conscientiously for fifteen years looks askance at so fickle a thing as a
+      canoe twenty-nine inches in the beam. They are nearly as hard to sit on in
+      the water as a cork; but once one is in the bottom they are stable enough,
+      though they do not submit to liberties or palsied movements. The staid
+      lawyer was filled with horror at the prospect of another go at his
+      polished beauty; but remembering his resolve to be dead game, he abandoned
+      his life to the chances, and got in this time safely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0043" id="linkimage-0043">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-43.jpg"
+       alt="43 It is Strange How One Can Accustom Himself to 'pack' " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      So the Abwees went down the river on a golden morning, their double-blade
+      paddles flashing the sun and sending the drip in a shower on the glassy
+      water. The smoke from the lawyer's pipe hung behind him in the quiet air,
+      while the note of the reveille clangored from the little buglette of the
+      Norseman. Jimmie and the big Scotch backwoodsman swayed their bodies in
+      one boat, while the two sinister voyagers dipped their paddles in the big
+      canoe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Norseman's gorge came up, and he yelled back: &ldquo;Say! this suits me. I
+      am never going back to New York.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Jimmie grinned at the noise; it made him happy. Such a morning, such a
+      water, such a lack of anything to disturb one's peace! Let man's better
+      nature revel in the beauties of existence; they inflate his soul. The
+      colors play upon the senses&mdash;the reddish-yellow of the birch-barks,
+      the blue of the water, and the silver sheen as it parts at the bows of the
+      canoes; the dark evergreens, the steely rocks with their lichens, the
+      white trunks of the birches, their fluffy tops so greeny green, and over
+      all the gold of a sunny day. It is my religion, this thing, and I do not
+      know how to tell all I feel concerning it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The rods were taken out, a gang of flies put on and trolled behind&mdash;but
+      we have all seen a man fight a five-pound bass for twenty minutes. The
+      waters fairly swarmed with them, and we could always get enough for the
+      &ldquo;pot&rdquo; in a half-hour's fishing at any time during the trip. The Abwees
+      were canoeing, not hunting or fishing; though, in truth, they did not need
+      to hunt spruce-partridge or fish for bass in any sporting sense; they
+      simply went out after them, and never stayed over half an hour. On a point
+      we stopped for lunch: the Scotchman always struck the beach a-cooking. He
+      had a &ldquo;kit,&rdquo; which was a big camp-pail, and inside of it were more dishes
+      than are to be found in some hotels. He broiled the bacon, instead of
+      frying it, and thus we were saved the terrors of indigestion. He had many
+      luxuries in his commissary, among them dried apples, with which he filled
+      a camp-pail one day and put them on to boil. They subsequently got to be
+      about a foot deep all over the camp, while Furguson stood around and
+      regarded the black-magic of the thing with overpowering emotions and
+      Homeric tongue. Furguson was a good genius, big and gentle, and a woodsman
+      root and branch. The Abwees had intended their days in the wilderness to
+      be happy singing flights of time, but with grease and paste in one's
+      stomach what may not befall the mind when it is bent on nature's doings?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0044" id="linkimage-0044">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-44.jpg" alt="44 Down the River on a Golden Morning "   width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      And thus it was that the gloomy Indian Jimmie Friday, despite his
+      tuberculosis begotten of insufficient nourishment, was happy in these
+      strange days&mdash;even to the extent of looking with wondrous eyes on the
+      nooks which we loved&mdash;nooks which previously for him had only
+      sheltered possible &ldquo;dead-falls&rdquo; or not, as the discerning eye of the
+      trapper decided the prospects for pelf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Going ashore on a sandy beach, Jimmie wandered down its length, his hunter
+      mind seeking out the footprints of his prey. He stooped down, and then
+      beckoned me to come, which I did.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pointing at the sand, he said, &ldquo;You know him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wolves,&rdquo; I answered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes&mdash;first time I see 'em up here&mdash;they be follerin' the deers&mdash;bad&mdash;bad.
+      No can trap 'em&mdash;verrie smart.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A half-dozen wolves had chased a deer into the water; but wolves do not
+      take to the water, so they had stopped and drank, and then gone
+      rollicking-together up the beach. There were cubs, and one great track as
+      big as a mastiff might make.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See that&mdash;moose track&mdash;he go by yesterday;&rdquo; and Jimmie pointed
+      to enormous footprints in the muck of a marshy place. &ldquo;Verrie big moose&mdash;we
+      make call at next camp&mdash;think it is early for call.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At the next camp Jimmie made the usual birch-bark moose-call, and at
+      evening blew it, as he also did on the following morning. This camp was a
+      divine spot on a rise back of a long sandy beach, and we concluded to stop
+      for a day. The Norseman and I each took a man in our canoes and started
+      out to explore. I wanted to observe some musk-rat hotels down in a big
+      marsh, and the Norseman was fishing. The attorney was content to sit on a
+      log by the shores of the lake, smoke lazily, and watch the sun shimmer
+      through the lifting fog. He saw a canoe approaching from across the lake.
+      He gazed vacantly at it, when it grew strange and more unlike a canoe. The
+      paddles did not move, but the phantom craft drew quickly on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0045" id="linkimage-0045">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-45.jpg" alt="45 a Real Camp " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say, Furguson&mdash;come here&mdash;look at that canoe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Scotchman came down, with a pail in one hand, and looked. &ldquo;Canoe&mdash;hell&mdash;it's
+      a moose&mdash;and there ain't a pocket-pistol in this camp,&rdquo; and he fairly
+      jumped up and down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You don't say&mdash;you really don't say!&rdquo; gasped the lawyer, who now
+      began to exhibit signs of insanity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes&mdash;he's going to be d&mdash;&mdash;d sociable with us&mdash;he's
+      coming right bang into this camp.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian too came down, but he was long past talking English, and the
+      gutturals came up in lumps, as though he was trying to keep them down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moose finally struck a long point of sand and rushes about two hundred
+      yards away, and drew majestically out of the water, his hide dripping, and
+      the sun glistening on his antlers and back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The three men gazed in spellbound admiration at the picture until the
+      moose was gone. When they had recovered their senses they slowly went up
+      to the camp on the ridge&mdash;disgusted and dum-founded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I could almost put a cartridge in that old gun-case and kill him,&rdquo; sighed
+      the backwoodsman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have never hunted in my life,&rdquo; mused the attorney, &ldquo;but few men have
+      seen such a sight,&rdquo; and he filled his pipe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hark&mdash;listen!&rdquo; said the Indian. There was a faint cracking, which
+      presently became louder. &ldquo;He's coming into camp;&rdquo; and the Indian nearly
+      died from excitement as he grabbed a hatchet. The three unfortunate men
+      stepped to the back of the tents, and as big a bull moose as walks the
+      lonely woods came up to within one hundred and fifty feet of the camp, and
+      stopped, returning their gaze.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus they stood for what they say was a minute, but which seemed like
+      hours. The attorney composedly admired the unusual sight. The Indian and
+      Furguson swore softly but most viciously until the moose moved away. The
+      Indian hurled the hatchet at the retreating figure, with a final curse,
+      and the thing was over.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Those fellows who are out in their canoes will be sick abed when we tell
+      them what's been going on in the camp this morning,&rdquo; sighed Mr. Furguson,
+      as he scoured a cooking-pot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I fear we would have had that moose on our consciences if we had been
+      there: the game law was not up at the time, but I should have asked for
+      strength from a higher source than my respect for law.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The golden days passed and the lake grew great.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0046" id="linkimage-0046">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-46.jpg" alt="46 Rough Water " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The wind blew at our backs. The waves rolled in restless surges, piling
+      the little canoes on their crests and swallowing them in the troughs. The
+      canoes thrashed the water as they flew along, half in, half out, but they
+      rode like ducks. The Abwees took off their hats, gripped their double
+      blades, made the water swirl behind them, howled in glee to each other
+      through the rushing storm. To be five miles from shore in a seaway in
+      kayaks like ours was a sensation. We found they stood it well, and grew
+      contented. It was the complement to the golden lazy days when the water
+      was glass, and the canoes rode upsidedown over its mirror surface. The
+      Norseman grinned and shook his head in token of his pleasure, much as an
+      epicure might after a sip of superior Burgundy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you fancy this?&rdquo; we asked the attorney-at-law.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not going to deliver an opinion until I get ashore. I would never
+      have believed that I would be here at my time of life, but one never knows
+      what a &mdash;&mdash; fool one can make of one's self. My glasses are
+      covered with water, and I can hardly see, but I can't let go of this
+      paddle to wipe them,&rdquo; shrieked the man of the office chair, in the howl of
+      the weather.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But we made a long journey by the aid of the wind, and grew a contempt for
+      it. How could one imagine the stability of those little boats until one
+      had tried it?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night we put into a natural harbor and camped on a gravel beach. The
+      tents were up and the supper cooking, when the wind hauled and blew
+      furiously into our haven. The fires were scattered and the rain came in
+      blinding sheets. The tent-pegs pulled from the sand. We sprang to our feet
+      and held on to the poles, wet to the skin. It was useless; the rain blew
+      right under the canvas. We laid the tents on the &ldquo;grub&rdquo; and stepped out
+      into the dark. We could not be any wetter, and we did not care. To stand
+      in the dark in the wilderness, with nothing to eat, and a fire-engine
+      playing a hose on you for a couple of hours&mdash;if you have imagination
+      enough, you can fill in the situation. But the gods were propitious. The
+      wind died down. The stars came out by myriads. The fires were relighted,
+      and the ordinary life begun. It was late in the night before our clothes,
+      blankets, and tents were dry, but, like boys, we forgot it all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then came a river&mdash;blue and flat like the sky above&mdash;running
+      through rushy banks, backed by the masses of the forest; anon the waters
+      rushed upon us over the rocks, and we fought, plunk-plunk-plunk, with the
+      paddles, until our strength gave out. We stepped out into the water, and
+      getting our lines, and using our long double blades as fenders, &ldquo;tracked&rdquo;
+       the canoes up through the boil. The Indians in their heavier boats used
+      &ldquo;setting-poles&rdquo; with marvellous dexterity, and by furious exertion were
+      able to draw steadily up the grade&mdash;though at times they too
+      &ldquo;tracked,&rdquo; and even portaged. Our largest canoe weighed two hundred
+      pounds, but a little voyager managed to lug it, though how I couldn't
+      comprehend, since his pipe-stem legs fairly bent and wobbled under the
+      enormous ark. None of us by this time were able to lift the loads which we
+      carried, but, like a Western pack-mule, we stood about and had things
+      piled on to us, until nothing more would stick. Some of the backwoodsmen
+      carry incredible masses of stuff, and their lore is full of tales which no
+      one could be expected to believe. Our men did not hesitate to take two
+      hundred and fifty pounds over short portages, which were very rough and
+      stony, though they all said if they slipped they expected to break a leg.
+      This is largely due to the tump-line, which is laid over the head, while
+      persons unused to it must have shoulder-straps in addition, which are not
+      as good, because the &ldquo;breastbone,&rdquo; so called, is not strong enough.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0047" id="linkimage-0047">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-47.jpg" alt="47 the Indians Used 'setting-poles' "   width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      We were getting day by day farther into &ldquo;the beyond.&rdquo; There were no traces
+      here of the hand of man. Only Jimmie knew the way&mdash;it was his
+      trapping-ground. Only once did we encounter people. We were blown into a
+      little board dock, on a gray day, with the waves piling up behind us, and
+      made a difficult landing. Here were a few tiny log houses&mdash;an outpost
+      of the Hudson Bay Company. We renewed our stock of provisions, after
+      laborious trading with the stagnated people who live in the lonely place.
+      There was nothing to sell us but a few of the most common necessities;
+      however, we needed only potatoes and sugar. This was Jimmie's home. Here
+      we saw his poor old mother, who was being tossed about in the smallest of
+      canoes as she drew her nets. Jimmie's father had gone on a hunting
+      expedition and had never come back. Some day Jimmie's old mother will go
+      out on the wild lake to tend her nets, and she will not come back. Some
+      time Jimmie too will not return&mdash;for this Indian struggle with nature
+      is appalling in its fierceness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a dance at the post, which the boys attended, going by canoe at
+      night, and they came back early in the morning, with much giggling at
+      their gallantries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The loneliness of this forest life is positively discouraging to think
+      about. What the long winters must be in the little cabins I cannot
+      imagine, and I fear the traders must be all avarice, or have none at all;
+      for there can certainly be absolutely no intellectual life. There is
+      undoubtedly work, but not one single problem concerning it. The Indian
+      hunters do fairly well in a financial way, though their lives are beset
+      with weakening hardships and constant danger. Their meagre diet wears out
+      their constitutions, and they are subject to disease. The simplicity of
+      their minds makes it very difficult to see into their life as they try to
+      narrate it to one who may be interested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0048" id="linkimage-0048">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-48.jpg" alt="48 Trying Moments " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      From here on was through beautiful little lakes, and the voyagers rigged
+      blanket sails on the big canoes, while we towed behind. Then came the
+      river and the rapids, which we ran, darting between rocks, bumping on
+      sunken stones&mdash;shooting fairly out into the air, all but turning over
+      hundreds of times. One day the Abwees glided out in the big lake
+      Tesmiaquemang, and saw the steamer going to Bais des Pierres. We hailed
+      her, and she stopped, while the little canoes danced about in the swell as
+      we were loaded one by one. On the deck above us the passengers admired a
+      kind of boat the like of which had not before appeared in these parts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Bais des Pierres we handed over the residue of the commissaries of the
+      Abwee-Chemun to Jimmie Friday, including personally many pairs of
+      well-worn golf-breeches, sweaters, rubber coats, knives which would be
+      proscribed by law in New York. If Jimmie ever parades his solemn
+      wilderness in these garbs, the owls will laugh from the trees. Our simple
+      forest friend laid in his winter stock&mdash;traps, flour, salt, tobacco,
+      and pork, a new axe&mdash;and accompanied us back down the lake again on
+      the steamer. She stopped in mid-stream, while Jimmie got his bundles into
+      his &ldquo;bark&rdquo; and shoved off, amid a hail of &ldquo;good-byes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The engine palpitated, the big wheel churned the water astern, and we drew
+      away. Jimmie bent on his paddle with the quick body-swing habitual to the
+      Indian, and after a time grew a speck on the reflection of the red sunset
+      in Temiscamingue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Abwees sat sadly leaning on the after-rail, and agreed that Jimmie was
+      &ldquo;a lovely Injun.&rdquo; Jimmie had gone into the shade of the overhang of the
+      cliffs, when the Norseman started violently up, put his hands in his
+      pockets, stamped his foot, said, &ldquo;By George, fellows, any D. F. would call
+      this a sporting trip!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE SOLEDAD GIRLS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;TO-NIGHT I am going down to my ranch&mdash;the Soledad&mdash;in my
+      private car,&rdquo; said the manager of the Mexican International Railroad, &ldquo;and
+      I would like the Captain and you to accompany me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Captain and I were only too glad; so in process of time we awoke to
+      find our car sidetracked on the Soledad, which is in the state of
+      Coahuila, Mexico. The chaparral spread around, rising and falling in the
+      swell of the land, until it beat against the blue ridge of the Sierra
+      Santa Rosa, miles to the north. Here and there the bright sun spotted on a
+      cow as she threaded the gray stretches; a little coyote-wolf sat on his
+      haunches on a near-by hill-side, and howled protests at his new-found
+      companions; while dimly through the gray meshes of the leaf-denuded
+      chaparral we could see the main ranch-house of the Soledad. We were
+      informed at breakfast by the railroad manager that there was to be that
+      day a &ldquo;round-up,&rdquo; which is to say, a regular Buffalo Bill Show, with real
+      cowboys, ponies, and cattle, all three of them wild, full of thorns, and
+      just out of the brush.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The negro porters got out the saddles of the young women, thus disclosing
+      their intention to ride ponies instead of in traps. We already knew that
+      they were fearless horseback-riders, but when the string of ponies which
+      were to be our mounts was led up by a few Mexicans, the Captain and I had
+      our well-concealed doubts about their being proper sort of ponies for
+      young girls to ride. We confided in an imperturbable cowboy&mdash;one of
+      those dry Texans. He said: &ldquo;Them are what we would call broke ponies, and
+      you fellers needn't get to worryin' 'bout them little girls&mdash;you're
+      jest a-foolin' away good time.&rdquo; Nevertheless, the broncos had the lurking
+      devil in the tails of their eyes as they stood there tied to the wire
+      fencing; they were humble and dejected as only a bronco or a mule can
+      simulate. When that ilk look most cast down, be not deceived, gay brother;
+      they are not like this. Their humility is only humorous, and intended to
+      lure you on to their backs, where, unless you have a perfect understanding
+      of the game, the joke will be on you. Instantly one is mounted, the
+      humility departs; he plunges and starts about, or sets off like the wind,
+      regardless of thorny bushes, tricky ground underfoot, or the seat of the
+      rider.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The manager's wife came out of the car with her little brood of three, and
+      then two visiting friends. These Soledad girls, as I call them, each had a
+      sunburst of yellow hair, were well bronzed by the Mexican sun, and were
+      sturdy little bodies. They were dressed in short skirts, with leggings,
+      topped with Tam o' Shanters, while about their waists were
+      cartridge-belts, with delicate knives and revolvers attached, and with
+      spurs and <i>quirts</i> as accessories. They took up their men's saddles,
+      for they rode astride, except the two visitors, who were older and more
+      lately from Chicago. They swung their saddles on to the ponies, showing
+      familiarity with the <i>ladigo</i> straps of the Texas saddles, and
+      proudly escaping the humiliation which alights on the head of one who in
+      the cow-camps cannot saddle his own &ldquo;bronc.&rdquo; Being ready, we mounted, and
+      followed a cowboy off down the road to the <i>rodeo-ground.</i> The
+      manager and Madam Mamma rode in a buckboard, proudly following with their
+      gaze the galloping ponies which bore their jewels. I thought they should
+      be fearful for their safety, but after more intimate inspection, I could
+      see how groundless was such solicitude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I must have it understood that these little vaquero girls were not the
+      ordinary Texas product, fed on corn-meal and bred in the chaparral, but
+      the much looked after darlings of a fond mother. They are taken South
+      every winter, that their bodies may be made lithe and healthy, but at the
+      same time two or more governesses crowd their minds with French, German,
+      and other things with which proper young girls should be acquainted. But
+      their infant minds did not carry back to the days when they had not felt a
+      horse under them. To be sure, in the beginning it was only a humble
+      donkey, but even before they knew they had graduated to ponies, and while
+      yet ten years old, it was only by a constant watch that they were kept off
+      unbroken broncos&mdash;horses that made the toughest vaqueros throw down
+      their hats, tighten their belts, and grin with fear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From over the hills came the half-wild cattle, stringing along at a trot,
+      all bearing for the open space in the waste of the chaparral where the <i>rodeo</i>
+      occurred, while behind them followed the cowboys&mdash;gay desert figures
+      with brown, pinched faces, long hair, and shouting wild cries. The
+      exhilaration of the fine morning, the tramp of the thousands, got into the
+      curls of the three little Misses Golden-hairs, and they scurried away,
+      while I followed to feast on this fresh vision, where absolutely ideal
+      little maids shouted Spanish at murderous-looking Mexican cow-punchers
+      done up in bright scrapes and costumed out of all reason. As the vaqueros
+      dashed about hither and thither to keep their herds moving in the
+      appointed direction, the infants screamed in their childish treble and
+      spurred madly too. A bull stands at bay, but a child dashes at him, while
+      he turns and flees. It is not their first <i>rodeo,</i> one can see, but I
+      should wish they were with mamma and the buckboard, instead of out here in
+      the brush, charging wild bulls, though in truth this never were written.
+      These bulls frequently charge men, and a cow-pony turns like a ball off a
+      bat, and a slippery seat in the saddle may put you under the feet of the
+      outraged monarch of the range.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0049" id="linkimage-0049">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:60%">
+      <img src="images/ct-49.jpg"
+       alt="49 the Half-wild Cattle Came Down from The Hills " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Driving down to the <i>rodeo-ground,</i> we all stood about on our ponies
+      and held the herd, as it is called, the young girls doing vaquero duty, as
+      imperturbable of mien as Mr. Flannagan, the foreman. So many women in the
+      world are afraid of a dairy cow, even gathering up their skirts and
+      preparing to shriek at the sight of one eating daisies. But these young
+      women will grow up and they will be afraid of no cow. So much for a
+      Soledad education.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The top-ropers rode slowly into the dust of the milling herd, scampered
+      madly, cast their ropes, and came jumping to us with a blatting calf
+      trailing at their ropes' end. Two men seized the little victim, threw him
+      on his back, cut a piece out of his ear with a knife, and still held him
+      in relentless grip while another pressed a red-hot branding-iron on his
+      side, which sizzled and sent up blue smoke, together with an odor of
+      burned flesh. The calves bawled piteously. There was no more emotion on
+      the faces of the Soledad girls than was shown by the brown cowboys. They
+      had often, very often, seen this before, and their nerves were strong.
+      Some day I can picture in my mind's eye these young girl vaqueros grown to
+      womanhood, and being such good-looking creatures, very naturally some
+      young man will want very badly to marry one of them&mdash;for it cannot be
+      otherwise. I only hope he will not be a thin-chested, cigarette-smoking
+      dude, because it will be a sacrilege of nature. He must undoubtedly have
+      played forward at Princeton or Yale, or be unworthy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As we stood, a massive bull emerged from the body of the herd, his head
+      thrown high, tail stiff with anger, eye rolling, and breath coming quick.
+      He trotted quickly forward, and, lowering his head, charged through the
+      &ldquo;punchers.&rdquo; Instantly a small Soledad girl was after him, the vaqueros
+      reining back to enjoy the strange ride with their eyes. Her hat flew off,
+      and the long curls flapped in the rushing air as her pony fairly sailed
+      over the difficult ground. The bull tore furiously, but behind him swept
+      the pony and the child. As we watched, the chase had gone a mile away, but
+      little Miss Yellowcurls drew gradually to the far side of the bull,
+      quartering him on the far side, and whirling on, headed her quarry back to
+      her audience and the herd. The rough-and-ready American range boss sat
+      sidewise in his saddle and thought&mdash;for he never talked
+      unnecessarily, though appreciation was chalked all over his pose. The
+      manager and madam felt as though they were responsible for this wonderful
+      thing. The Mexican cowboys snapped their fingers and eyes at one another,
+      shouting quick Spanish, while the American part of the beholders agreed
+      that it was the &ldquo;limit&rdquo;; &ldquo;that as a picture,&rdquo; etc.; &ldquo;that the American
+      girl, properly environed &ldquo;; &ldquo;that this girl in particular,&rdquo; etc., was a
+      dream. Then the bull and the girl came home; the bull to his fellows, and
+      the girl to us. But she didn't have an idea of our admiration, because we
+      didn't tell her; that would have been wrong, as you can imagine. Ten years
+      will complicate little Miss Yellowcurls. Then she could be vain about such
+      a thing; but, alas! she will not be&mdash;she will have forgotten.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      THE END <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
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+</pre>
+  </body>
+</html>
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@@ -0,0 +1,3799 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Crooked Trails, by Frederic Remington
+
+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: Crooked Trails
+
+Author: Frederic Remington
+
+Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7867]
+Posting Date: July 31, 2009
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CROOKED TRAILS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Eric Eldred
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: 01 TEXAS RANGERS HOLDING UP CHAPPARAL BANDITS]
+
+
+CROOKED TRAILS
+
+
+By Frederic Remington
+
+Illustrated By Frederic Remington
+
+Author Of "Pony Tracks"
+
+First published in 1898
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+     HOW THE LAW GOT INTO THE CHAPARRAL
+
+     THE BLUE QUAIL OF THE CACTUS
+
+     A SERGEANT OF THE ORPHAN TROOP
+
+     THE SPIRIT OF MAHONGUI
+
+     THE ESSENTIALS AT FORT ADOBE
+
+     MASSAI'S CROOKED TRAIL
+
+     JOSHUA GOODENOUGH'S OLD LETTER
+
+     CRACKER COWBOYS OF FLORIDA
+
+     THE STRANGE DAYS THAT CAME TO JIMMIE FRIDAY
+
+     THE SOLEDAD GIRLS
+
+
+
+
+CROOKED TRAILS
+
+
+
+
+HOW THE LAW GOT INTO THE CHAPARRAL
+
+
+"You have heard about the Texas Rangers?" said the Deacon to me one
+night in the San Antonio Club. "Yes? Well, come up to my rooms, and I
+will introduce you to one of the old originals--dates 'way back in the
+'thirties'--there aren't many of them left now--and if we can get him to
+talk, he will tell you stories that will make your eyes hang out on your
+shirt front."
+
+We entered the Deacon's cosey bachelor apartments, where I was
+introduced to Colonel "Rip" Ford, of the old-time Texas Rangers. I found
+him a very old man, with a wealth of snow-white hair and beard--bent,
+but not withered. As he sunk on his stiffened limbs into the arm-chair,
+we disposed ourselves quietly and almost reverentially, while we lighted
+cigars. We began the approaches by which we hoped to loosen the history
+of a wild past from one of the very few tongues which can still wag on
+the days when the Texans, the Co-manches, and the Mexicans chased one
+another over the plains of Texas, and shot and stabbed to find who
+should inherit the land.
+
+Through the veil of tobacco smoke the ancient warrior spoke his
+sentences slowly, at intervals, as his mind gradually separated and
+arranged the details of countless fights. His head bowed in thought;
+anon it rose sharply at recollections, and as he breathed, the shouts
+and lamentations of crushed men--the yells and shots--the thunder of
+horses' hoofs--the full fury of the desert combats came to the pricking
+ears of the Deacon and me.
+
+We saw through the smoke the brave young faces of the hosts which poured
+into Texas to war with the enemies of their race. They were clad in
+loose hunting-frocks, leather leggings, and broad black hats; had
+powder-horns and shot-pouches hung about them; were armed with
+bowie-knives, Mississippi rifles, and horse-pistols; rode Spanish
+ponies, and were impelled by Destiny to conquer, like their remote
+ancestors, "the godless hosts of Pagan" who "came swimming o'er the
+Northern Sea."
+
+"Rip" Ford had not yet acquired his front name in 1836, when he enlisted
+in the famous Captain Jack Hayes's company of Rangers, which was
+fighting the Mexicans in those days, and also trying incidentally to
+keep from being eaten up by the Comanches.
+
+Said the old Colonel: "A merchant from our country journeyed to New
+York, and Colonel Colt, who was a friend of his, gave him two
+five-shooters--pistols they were, and little things. The merchant in
+turn presented them to Captain Jack Hayes. The captain liked them so
+well that he did not rest till every man jack of us had two apiece.
+
+"Directly," mused the ancient one, with a smile of pleasant
+recollection, "we had a fight with the Comanches--up here above San
+Antonio. Hayes had fifteen men with him--he was doubling about the
+country for Indians. He found 'sign,' and after cutting their trail
+several times he could see that they were following him. Directly the
+Indians overtook the Rangers--there were seventy-five Indians. Captain
+Hayes--bless his memory!--said,' They are fixin' to charge us, boys, and
+we must charge them.' There were never better men in this world than
+Hayes had with him," went on the Colonel with pardonable pride; "and
+mind you, he never made a fight without winning.
+
+"We charged, and in the fracas killed thirty-five Indians--only two of
+our men were wounded--so you see the five-shooters were pretty good
+weapons. Of course they wa'n't any account compared with these modern
+ones, because they were too small, but they did those things. Just after
+that Colonel Colt was induced to make bigger ones for us, some of which
+were half as long as your arm.
+
+"Hayes? Oh, he was a surveyor, and used to go out beyond the frontiers
+about his work. The Indians used to jump him pretty regular; but he
+always whipped them, and so he was available for a Ranger captain. About
+then--let's see," and here the old head bobbed up from his chest, where
+it had sunk in thought--"there was a commerce with Mexico just sprung
+up, but this was later--it only shows what that man Hayes used to do.
+The bandits used to waylay the traders, and they got very bad in the
+country. Captain Hayes went after them--he struck them near Lavade, and
+found the Mexicans had more than twice as many men as he did; but he
+caught them napping, charged them afoot--killed twenty-five of them, and
+got all their horses."
+
+"I suppose, Colonel, you have been charged by a Mexican lancer?" I
+inquired.
+
+"Oh yes, many times," he answered.
+
+"What did you generally do?"
+
+"Well, you see, in those days I reckoned to be able to hit a man every
+time with a six-shooter at one hundred and twenty-five yards," explained
+the old gentleman--which no doubt meant many dead lancers.
+
+[Illustration: 02 A BEARER OF CIVILIZATION]
+
+"Then you do not think much of a lance as a weapon?" I pursued.
+
+"No; there is but one weapon. The six-shooter when properly handled is
+the only weapon--mind you, sir, I say _properly"_ and here the old eyes
+blinked rapidly over the great art as he knew its practice.
+
+"Then, of course, the rifle has its use. Under Captain Jack Hayes sixty
+of us made a raid once after the celebrated priest-leader of the
+Mexicans--Padre Jarante--which same was a devil of a fellow. We were
+very sleepy--had been two nights without sleep. At San Juan every man
+stripped his horse, fed, and went to sleep. We had passed Padre Jarante
+in the night without knowing it. At about twelve o'clock next day there
+was a terrible outcry--I was awakened by shooting. The Padre was upon
+us. Five men outlying stood the charge, and went under. We gathered, and
+the Padre charged three times. The third time he was knocked from his
+horse and killed. Then Captain Jack Hayes awoke, and we got in a big
+_casa._ The men took to the roof. As the Mexicans passed we emptied a
+great many saddles. As I got to the top of the _casa_ I found two men
+quarrelling." (Here the Colonel chuckled.) "I asked what the matter was,
+and they were both claiming to have killed a certain Mexican who was
+lying dead some way off. One said he had hit him in the head, and the
+other said he had hit him in the breast. I advised peace until after the
+fight. Well--after the shooting was over and the Padre's men had had
+enough, we went out to the particular Mexican who was dead, and, sure
+enough, he was shot in the head and in the breast; so they laughed and
+made peace. About this time one of the spies came in and reported six
+hundred Mexicans coming. We made an examination of our ammunition, and
+found that we couldn't afford to fight six hundred Mexicans with sixty
+men, so we pulled out. This was in the Mexican war, and only goes to
+show that Captain Hayes's men could shoot all the Mexicans that could
+get to them if the ammunition would hold out."
+
+"What was the most desperate fight you can remember, Colonel?"
+
+The old man hesitated; this required a particular point of view--it was
+quality, not quantity, wanted now; and, to be sure, he was a
+connoisseur. After much study by the Colonel, during which the world
+lost many thrilling tales, the one which survived occurred in 1851.
+
+"My lieutenant, Ed Burleson, was ordered to carry to San Antonio an
+Indian prisoner we had taken and turned over to the commanding officer
+at Fort McIntosh. On his return, while nearing the Nueces River, he
+spied a couple of Indians. Taking seven men, he ordered the balance to
+continue along the road. The two Indians proved to be fourteen, and they
+charged Burleson up to the teeth. Dismounting his men, he poured it into
+them from his Colt's six-shooting rifles.  They killed or wounded all
+the Indians except two, some of them dying so near the Rangers that they
+could put their hands on their boots. All but one of Burleson's men were
+wounded--himself shot in the head with an arrow. One man had four
+'dogwood switches' [Arrows.] in his body, one of which was in his
+bowels. This man told me that every time he raised his gun to fire, the
+Indians would stick an arrow in him, but he said he didn't care a cent.
+One Indian was lying right up close, and while dying tried to shoot an
+arrow, but his strength failed so fast that the arrow only barely left
+the bowstring. One of the Rangers in that fight was a curious
+fellow--when young he had been captured by Indians, and had lived with
+them so long that he had Indian habits. In that fight he kept jumping
+around when loading, so as to be a bad target, the same as an Indian
+would under the circumstances, and he told Burleson he wished he had his
+boots off, so he could get around good"--and here the Colonel paused
+quizzically. "Would you call that a good fight?"
+
+[Illustration: 03 THE CHARGE ANP KILLING OF PADRE JARANTE]
+
+The Deacon and I put the seal of our approval on the affair, and the
+Colonel rambled ahead.
+
+"In 1858 I was commanding the frontier battalion of State troops on the
+whole frontier, and had my camp on the Deer Fork of the Brazos. The
+Comanches kept raiding the settlements. They would come down quietly,
+working well into the white lines, and then go back a-running--driving
+stolen stock and killing and burning. I thought I would give them some
+of their own medicine. I concluded to give them a fight. I took two
+wagons, one hundred Rangers, and one hundred and thirteen Tahuahuacan
+Indians, who were friend-lies. We struck a good Indian trail on a stream
+which led up to the Canadian. We followed it till it got hot. I camped
+my outfit in such a manner as to conceal my force, and sent out my
+scouts, who saw the Indians hunt buffalo through spyglasses. That night
+we moved. I sent Indians to locate the camp. They returned before day,
+and reported that the Indians were just a few miles ahead, whereat we
+moved forward. At daybreak, I remember, I was standing in the bull-wagon
+road leading to Santa Fe and could see the Canadian River in our
+front--with eighty lodges just beyond. Counting four men of fighting age
+to a lodge, that made a possible three hundred and twenty Indians. Just
+at sunup an Indian came across the river on a pony. Our Indians down
+below raised a yell--they always get excited. The Indian heard them--it
+was very still then. The Indian retreated slowly, and began to ride in a
+circle. From where I was I could hear him puff like a deer--he was
+blowing the bullets away from himself--he was a medicine-man. I heard
+five shots from the Jagers with which my Indians were armed. The painted
+pony of the medicine-man jumped ten feet in the air, it seemed to me,
+and fell over on his rider--then five more Jagers went off, and he was
+dead. I ordered the Tahuahuacans out in front, and kept the Rangers out
+of sight, because I wanted to charge home and kind of surprise them.
+Pretty soon I got ready, and gave the word. We charged. At the river we
+struck some boggy ground and floundered around considerable, but we got
+through. We raised the Texas yell, and away we went. I never expect
+again to hear such a noise--I never want to hear it--what with the
+whoops of the warriors--the screaming of the women and children--our
+boys yelling--the shooting, and the horses just a-mixin' up and
+a-stampedin' around," and the Colonel bobbed his head slowly as he
+continued.
+
+[Illustration: 04 WE STRUCK SOME BOGGY GROUND]
+
+"One of my men didn't know a buck from a squaw. There was an Indian
+woman on a pony with five children. He shot the pony--it seemed like you
+couldn't see that pony for little Indians. We went through the camp, and
+the Indians pulled out--spreading fanlike, and we a-running them. After
+a long chase I concluded to come back. I saw lots of Indians around in
+the hills. When I got back, I found Captain Ross had formed my men in
+line. 'What time in the morning is it?' I asked. 'Morning, hell!' says
+he--'it's one o'clock!' And so it was. Directly I saw an Indian coming
+down a hill near by, and then more Indians and more Indians--till it
+seemed like they wa'n't ever going to get through coming. We had struck
+a bigger outfit than the first one. That first Indian he bantered my men
+to come out single-handed and fight him. One after another, he wounded
+five of my Indians. I ordered my Indians to engage them, and kind of get
+them down in the flat, where I could charge. After some running and
+shooting they did this, and I turned the Rangers loose. We drove them.
+The last stand they made they killed one of my Indians, wounded a
+Ranger, but left seven of their dead in a pile. It was now nearly
+nightfall, and I discovered that my horses were broken down after
+fighting all day. I found it hard to restrain my men, they had got so
+heated up; but I gradually withdrew to where the fight commenced. The
+Indian camp was plundered. In it we found painted buffalo-robes with
+beads a hand deep around the edges--the finest robes I have ever
+seen--and heaps of goods plundered from the Santa Fe traders. On the way
+back I noticed a dead chief, and was for a moment astonished to find
+pieces of flesh cut out of him; upon looking at a Tahuahuacan warrior I
+saw a pair of dead hands tied behind his saddle. That night they had a
+cannibal feast. You see, the Tahuahuacans say that the first one of
+their race was brought into the world by a wolf. 'How am I to live?'
+said the Tahuahuacan. 'The same as we do,' said the wolf; and when they
+were with me, that is just about how they lived. I reckon it's necessary
+to tell you about the old woman who was found in our lines. She was
+looking at the sun and making incantations, a-cussing us out generally
+and elevating her voice. She said the Comanches would get even for this
+day's work. I directed my Indians to let her alone, but I was informed
+afterwards that that is just what they didn't do."
+
+At this point the Colonel's cigar went out, and directly he followed;
+but this is the manner in which he told of deeds which I know would fare
+better at the hands of one used to phrasing and capable also of more
+points of view than the Colonel was used to taking. The outlines of the
+thing are strong, however, because the Deacon and I understood that
+fights were what the old Colonel had dealt in during his active life,
+much as other men do in stocks and bonds or wheat and corn. He had been
+a successful operator, and only recalled pleasantly the bull quotations.
+This type of Ranger is all but gone. A few may yet be found in outlying
+ranches. One of the most celebrated resides near San Antonio--"Big-foot
+Wallace" by name. He says he doesn't mind being called "Big-foot,"
+because he is six feet two in height, and is entitled to big feet. His
+face is done off in a nest of white hair and beard, and is patriarchal
+in character. In 1836 he came out from Virginia to "take toll" of the
+Mexicans for killing some relatives of his in the Fannin Massacre, and
+he considers that he has squared his accounts; but they had him on the
+debit side for a while.  Being captured in the Meir expedition, he
+walked as a prisoner to the city of Mexico, and did public work for that
+country with a ball-and-chain attachment for two years. The prisoners
+overpowered the guards and escaped on one occasion, but were overtaken
+by Mexican cavalry while dying of thirst in a desert. Santa Anna ordered
+their "decimation," which meant that every tenth man was shot, their lot
+being determined by the drawing of a black bean from an earthen pot
+containing a certain proportion of white ones. "Big-foot" drew a white
+one. He was also a member of Captain Hayes's company, afterwards a
+captain of Rangers, and a noted Indian-fighter. Later he carried the
+mails from San Antonio to El Paso through a howling wilderness, but
+always brought it safely through--if safely can be called lying thirteen
+days by a water-hole in the desert, waiting for a broken leg to mend,
+and living meanwhile on one prairie-wolf, which he managed to shoot.
+Wallace was a professional hunter, who fought Indians and hated
+"greasers"; he belongs to the past, and has been "outspanned" under a
+civilization in which he has no place, and is to-day living in poverty.
+
+[Illustration: 05 PRISONERS DRAWING THEIR BEANS]
+
+The civil war left Texas under changed conditions. That and the Mexican
+wars had determined its boundaries, however, and it rapidly filled up
+with new elements of population. Broken soldiers, outlaws, poor
+immigrants living in bull-wagons, poured in. "Gone to Texas" had a
+sinister significance in the late sixties. When the railroad got to
+Abilene, Kansas, the cow-men of Texas found a market for their stock,
+and began trailing their herds up through the Indian country.
+
+Bands of outlaws organized under the leadership of desperadoes like Wes
+Hardin and King Fisher. They rounded up cattle regardless of their
+owners' rights, and resisted interference with force. The poor man
+pointed to his brand in the stolen herd and protested. He was shot. The
+big owners were unable to protect themselves from loss. The property
+right was established by the six-shooter, and honest men were forced to
+the wall. In 1876 the property-holding classes went to the Legislature,
+got it to appropriate a hundred thousand dollars a year for two years,
+and the Ranger force was reorganized to carry the law into the
+chaparral. At this time many judges were in league with bandits;
+sheriffs were elected by the outlaws, and the electors were
+cattle-stealers.
+
+The Rangers were sworn to uphold the laws of Texas and the United
+States. They were deputy sheriffs, United States marshals--in fact, were
+often vested with any and every power, even to the extent of ignoring
+disreputable sheriffs. At times they were judge, jury, and executioner
+when the difficulties demanded extremes. When a band of outlaws was
+located, detectives or spies were sent among them, who openly joined the
+desperadoes, and gathered evidence to put the Rangers on their trail.
+Then, in the wilderness, with only the soaring buzzard or prowling
+coyote to look on, the Ranger and the outlaw met to fight with tigerish
+ferocity to the death.  Shot, and lying prone, they fired until the
+palsied arm could no longer raise the six-shooter, and justice was
+satisfied as their bullets sped.  The captains had the selection of
+their men, and the right to dishonorably discharge at will. Only men of
+irreproachable character, who were fine riders and dead-shots, were
+taken. The spirit of adventure filled the ranks with the most prominent
+young men in the State, and to have been a Ranger is a badge of
+distinction in Texas to this day. The display of anything but a perfect
+willingness to die under any and all circumstances was fatal to a
+Ranger, and in course of time they got the _moral_ on the bad man. Each
+one furnished his own horse and arms, while the State gave him
+ammunition, "grub," one dollar a day, and extra expenses. The enlistment
+was for twelve months. A list of fugitive Texas criminals was placed in
+his hands, with which he was expected to familiarize himself. Then, in
+small parties, they packed the bedding on their mule, they hung the
+handcuffs and leather thongs about its neck, saddled their
+riding-ponies, and threaded their way into the chaparral.
+
+[Illustration: 06 HOW THE LAW GOT INTO THE CHAPARRAL]
+
+On an evening I had the pleasure of meeting two more distinguished
+Ranger officers--more modern types--Captains Lea Hall and Joseph Shely;
+both of them big, forceful men, and loath to talk about themselves. It
+was difficult to associate the quiet gentlemen who sat smoking in the
+Deacon's rooms with what men say; for the tales of their prowess in
+Texas always ends, "and that don't count Mexicans, either." The bandit
+never laid down his gun but with his life; so the "la ley de huga"
+[Mexican law of shooting escaped or resisting prisoners.] was in force
+in the chaparral, and the good people of Texas were satisfied with a
+very short account of a Ranger's fight.
+
+The most distinguished predecessor of these two men was a Captain
+McNally, who was so bent on, carrying his raids to an issue that he paid
+no heed to national boundary-lines. He followed a band of Mexican
+bandits to the town of La Cueva, below Ringgold, once, and, surrounding
+it, demanded the surrender of the cattle which they had stolen. He had
+but ten men, and yet this redoubtable warrior surrounded a town full of
+bandits and Mexican soldiers. The Mexican soldiers attacked the Rangers,
+and forced them back under the river-banks, but during the fight the
+_jefe politico_ was killed. The Rangers were in a fair way to be
+overcome by the Mexicans, when Lieutenant Clendenin turned a Gatling
+loose from the American side and covered their position. A parley
+ensued, but McNally refused to go back without the cattle, which the
+Mexicans had finally to surrender.
+
+At another time McNally received word through spies of an intended raid
+of Mexican cattle-thieves under the leadership of Cammelo Lerma. At
+Resaca de la Palma, McNally struck the depredators with but sixteen men.
+They had seventeen men and five hundred head of stolen cattle. In a
+running fight for miles McNally's men killed sixteen bandits, while only
+one escaped. A young Ranger by the name of Smith was shot dead by
+Cammelo Lerma as he dismounted to look at the dying bandit. The dead
+bodies were piled in ox-carts and dumped in the public square at
+Brownsville. McNally also captured King Fisher's band in an old log
+house in Dimmit County, but they were not convicted.
+
+Showing the nature of Ranger work, an incident which occurred to my
+acquaintance, Captain Lea Hall, will illustrate. In De Witt County there
+was a feud. One dark night sixteen masked men took a sick man, one Dr.
+Brazel, and two of his boys, from their beds, and, despite the imploring
+mother and daughter, hanged the doctor and one son to a tree. The other
+boy escaped in the green corn. Nothing was done to punish the crime, as
+the lynchers were men of property and influence in the country. No man
+dared speak above his breath about the affair.
+
+Captain Hall, by secret-service men, discovered the perpetrators, and
+also that they were to be gathered at a wedding on a certain night. He
+surrounded the house and demanded their surrender, at the same time
+saying that he did not want to kill the women and children. Word
+returned that they would kill him and all his Rangers. Hall told them to
+allow their women and children to depart, which was done; then,
+springing on the gallery of the house, he shouted, "Now, gentlemen, you
+can go to killing Rangers; but if you don't surrender, the Rangers will
+go to killing you." This was too frank a willingness for midnight
+assassins, and they gave up.
+
+Spies had informed him that robbers intended sacking Campbell's store in
+Wolfe City. Hall and his men lay behind the counters to receive them on
+the designated night. They were allowed to enter, when Hall's men,
+rising, opened fire--the robbers replying. Smoke filled the room, which
+was fairly illuminated by the flashes of the guns--but the robbers were
+all killed, much to the disgust of the lawyers, no doubt, though I could
+never hear that honest people mourned.
+
+The man Hall was himself a gentleman of the romantic Southern soldier
+type, and he entertained the highest ideals, with which it would be
+extremely unsafe to trifle, if I may judge. Captain Shely, our other
+visitor, was a herculean, black-eyed man, fairly fizzing with nervous
+energy. He is also exceedingly shrewd, as befits the greater
+concreteness of the modern Texas law, albeit he too has trailed bandits
+in the chaparral, and rushed in on their camp-fires at night, as two big
+bullet-holes in his skin will attest. He it was who arrested Polk, the
+defaulting treasurer of Tennessee. He rode a Spanish pony sixty-two
+miles in six hours, and arrested Polk, his guide, and two private
+detectives, whom Polk had bribed to set him over the Rio Grande. When
+the land of Texas was bought up and fenced with wire, the old settlers
+who had used the land did not readily recognize the new regime. They
+raised the rallying-cry of "free grass and free water"--said they had
+fought the Indians off, and the land belonged to them. Taking nippers,
+they rode by night and cut down miles of fencing. Shely took the keys of
+a county jail from the frightened sheriff, made arrests by the score,
+and lodged them in the big new jail. The country-side rose in arms,
+surrounded the building, and threatened to tear it down. The big Ranger
+was not deterred by this outburst, but quietly went out into the mob,
+and with mock politeness delivered himself as follows:
+
+"Do not tear down the jail, gentlemen--you have been taxed for years to
+build this fine structure--it is yours--do not tear it down. I will open
+the doors wide--you can all come in--do not tear down the jail; but
+there are twelve Rangers in there, with orders to kill as long as they
+can see. Come right in, gentlemen--but come fixed."
+
+The mob was overcome by his civility.
+
+Texas is to-day the only State in the Union where pistol-carry ing is
+attended with great chances of arrest and fine. The law is supreme even
+in the lonely _jacails_ out in the rolling waste of chaparral, and it
+was made so by the tireless riding, the deadly shooting, and the
+indomitable courage of the Texas Rangers.
+
+
+
+
+THE BLUE QUAIL OF THE CACTUS
+
+
+THE Quartermaster and I both had trouble which the doctors could not
+cure--it was January, and it would not do for us to sit in a "blind ";
+besides, I do not fancy that. There are ever so many men who are
+comfortable all over when they are sitting in a blind waiting on the
+vagrant flying of the ducks; but it is solemn, gloomy business, and, I
+must say, sufficient reason why they take a drink every fifteen minutes
+to keep up their enthusiasm. We both knew that the finest winter resort
+for shot-gun folks was in the Southwest--down on the Rio Grande in
+Texas--so we journeyed to Eagle Pass. As we got down from the train we
+saw Captain Febiger in his long military cloak by a lantern-light.
+
+"Got any quail staked out for us, Feb?" asked the Quartermaster.
+
+"Oodles," said Febiger; "get into my trap," and we were rattled through
+the unlighted street out to the camp, and brought up by the Captain's
+quarters.
+
+In the morning we unpacked our trunks, and had everything on the floor
+where we could see it, after the fashion with men. Captain Febiger's
+baby boy came in to help us rummage in the heaps of canvas clothes,
+ammunition, and what not besides, finally selecting for his amusement a
+loaded Colt's revolver and a freshly honed razor. We were terrorized by
+the possibilities of the combination. Our trying to take them away from
+the youngster only made him yell like a cavern of demons. We howled for
+his mother to come to our aid, which she finally did, and she separated
+the kid from his toys.
+
+I put on my bloomers, when the Captain came in and viewed me, saying:
+"Texas bikes; but it doesn't bloom yet. I don't know just what Texas
+will do if you parade in those togs--but you can try."
+
+As we sauntered down the dusty main street, Texas lounged in the
+doorways or stood up in its buggy and stared at me. Texas grinned
+cheerfully, too, but I did not care, so long as Texas kept its hand out
+of its hip pocket. I was content to help educate Texas as to personal
+comfort, at no matter what cost to myself. We passed into Mexico over
+the Long Bridge to call on Senor Munos, who is the local czar, in hopes
+of getting permits to be let alone by his chaparral-rangers while we
+shot quail on their soil. In Mexico when the people observe an Americano
+they simply shrug their shoulders; so our bloomers attracted no more
+contempt than would an X-ray or a trolley-car. Senor Munos gave the
+permits, after much stately compliment and many subtle ways, which made
+us feel under a cloud of obligation.
+
+[Illustration: 07 LUNCHEON IN THE DESERT]
+
+The next morning an ambulance and escort-wagon drove up to the Captain's
+quarters, and we loaded ourselves in--shot-guns, ammunition, blankets,
+and the precious paper of Senor Munos; for, only the week before, the
+custom-house rangers had carefully escorted an American hunting-party a
+long distance back to the line for lack of the little paper and red
+seals. We rattled over the bridge, past the Mexican barrack, while its
+dark-skinned soldiery--who do not shoot quails--lounged in the sunshine
+against the whitewashed wall.
+
+At the first outpost of the customs a little man, whose considerable
+equatorial proportions were girted with a gun, examined our paper, and
+waved us on our way. Under the railroad bridge of the International an
+engineer blew his whistle, and our mules climbed on top of each other in
+their terror.
+
+We wound along the little river, through irrigating ditches, past dozens
+of those deliciously quaint adobe houses, past the inevitable church,
+past a dead pony, ran over a chicken, made the little seven-year-old
+girls take their five-year-old brothers up in their arms for protection,
+and finally we climbed a long hill. At the top stretched an endless
+plain. The road forked; presently it branched; anon it grew into twigs
+of white dust on the gray levels of the background. The local physician
+of Eagle Pass was of our party, and he was said to know where a certain
+tank was to be found, some thirty miles out in the desert, but no man
+yet created could know which twig of the road to take. He decided on
+one--changed his mind--got out of the ambulance, scratched his head,
+pondered, and finally resolution settled on his face. He motioned the
+driver to a certain twig, got in, and shut his mouth firmly, thus
+closing debate. We smoked silently, waiting for the doctor's mind to
+fog. He turned uneasily in his seat, like the agitated needle of a
+compass, and even in time hazarded the remark that something did not
+look natural; but there was nothing to look at but flat land and flat
+sky, unless a hawk sailing here and there. At noon we lunched at the
+tail of the ambulance, and gently "jollied" the doctor's topography. We
+pushed on. Later in the afternoon the thirsty mules went slowly. The
+doctor had by this time admitted his doubts--some long blue hills on the
+sky-line ought to be farther to the west, according to his remembrance.
+As no one else had any ideas on the subject, the doctor's position was
+not enviable. We changed our course, and travelled many weary miles
+through the chaparral, which was high enough to stop our vision, and
+stiff enough to bar our way, keeping us to narrow roads. At last the
+bisecting cattle trails began to converge, and we knew that they led to
+water--which they did; for shortly we saw a little broken adobe, a
+tumbled brush corral, the plastered gate of an _acequia,_ and the blue
+water of the tank.
+
+[Illustration: 08 SUPPER IN THE CORRAL]
+
+To give everything its due proportion at this point, we gathered to
+congratulate the doctor as we passed the flask. The camp was pitched
+within the corral, and while the cook got supper we stood in the
+after-glow on the bank of the tank and saw the ducks come home, heard
+the mud-hens squddle, while high in the air flew the long line of
+sand-hill cranes with a hoarse clangor. It was quite dark when we sat on
+the "grub" chests and ate by the firelight, while out in the desert the
+coyotes shrilled to the monotonous accompaniment of the mules crunching
+their feed and stamping wearily. To-morrow it was proposed to hunt ducks
+in their morning flight, which means getting up before daylight, so bed
+found us early. It seemed but a minute after I had sought my blankets
+when I was being abused by the Captain, being pushed with his
+foot--fairly rolled over by him--he even standing on my body as he
+shouted, "Get up, if you are going hunting. It will be light
+directly--get up!" And this, constantly recurring, is one reason why I
+do not care for duck-shooting.
+
+But, in order to hunt, I had to get up, and file off in the line of
+ghosts, stumbling, catching, on the chaparral, and splashing in the mud.
+I led a setter-dog, and was presently directed to sit down in some damp
+grass, because it was a good place--certainly not to sit down in, but
+for other reasons. I sat there in the dark, petting the good dog, and
+watching the sky grow pale in the east. This is not to mention the
+desire for breakfast, or the damp, or the sleepiness, but this is really
+the larger part of duck-hunting. Of course if I later had a dozen good
+shots it might compensate--but I did not have a dozen shots.
+
+The day came slowly out of the east, the mud-hens out in the marsh
+splashed about in the rushes, a sailing hawk was visible against the
+gray sky overhead, and I felt rather insignificant, not to say
+contemptible, as I sat there in the loneliness of this big nature which
+worked around me. The dog dignified the situation--he was a part of
+nature's belongings--while I somehow did not seem to grace the solitude.
+The grays slowly grew into browns on the sedge-grass, and the water to
+silver. A bright flash of fire shot out of the dusk far up in the gloom,
+and the dull report of a shot-gun came over the tank. Black objects fled
+across the sky--the ducks were flying. I missed one or two, and grew
+weary--none came near enough to my lair. Presently it was light, and I
+got a fair shot. My bird tumbled into the rushes out in front of me, and
+the setter bounded in to retrieve. He searched vehemently, but the
+wounded duck dived in front of him. He came ashore shortly, and lying
+down, he bit at himself and pawed and rolled. He was a mass of
+cockle-burs. I took him on my lap and laboriously picked cockle-burs out
+of his hair for a half-hour; then, shouldering my gun, I turned
+tragically to the water and anathematized its ducks--all ducks, my
+fellow-duckers, all thoughts and motives concerning ducks--and then
+strode into the chaparral. "Hie on! hie on!" I tossed my arm, and the
+setter began to hunt beautifully--glad, no doubt, to leave all thoughts
+of the cockle-burs and evasive ducks behind. I worked up the shore of
+the tank, keeping back in the brush, and got some fun. After chasing
+about for some time I came out near the water. My dog pointed. I glided
+forward, and came near shooting the Quartermaster, who sat in a bunch of
+sedge-grass, with a dead duck by his side. He was smoking, and was
+disgusted with ducks. He joined me, and shortly, as we crossed the road,
+the long Texas doctor, who owned the dog, came striding down the way. He
+was ready for quail now, and we started.
+
+[Illustration: 09 ON THE SHORE OF THE TANK--MORNING]
+
+The quail-hunting is active work. The dog points, but one nearly always
+finds the birds running from one prickly-pear bush to another. They do
+not stand, rarely flush, and when they do get up it is only to swoop
+ahead to the nearest cover, where they settle quickly. One must be sharp
+in his shooting--he cannot select his distance, for the cactus lies
+thick about, and the little running bird is only on view for the
+shortest of moments. You must overrun a dog after his first point, since
+he works too close behind them. The covey will keep together if not
+pursued with too much haste, and one gets shot after shot; still, at
+last you must run lively, as the frightened covey scurry along at a
+remarkable pace. Heavy shot are necessary, since the blue quail carry
+lead like Marshal Massena, and are much harder to kill than the
+bob-white. Three men working together can get shooting enough out of a
+bunch--the chase often continuing for a mile, when the covey gradually
+separate, the sportsmen following individual birds.
+
+[Illustration: 10 RUNNING BLUE QUAIL]
+
+Where the prickly-pear cactus is thickest, there are the blue quail,
+since that is their feed and water supply. This same cactus makes a
+difficulty of pursuit, for it bristles with spines, which come off on
+your clothing, and when they enter the skin make most uncomfortable and
+persistent sores. The Quartermaster had an Indian tobacco-bag dangling
+at his belt, and as it flopped in his progress it gathered prickers,
+which it shortly transferred to his luckless legs, until he at last
+detected the reason why he bristled so fiercely. And the poor dog--at
+every covey we had to stop and pick needles out of him. The haunts of
+the blue quail are really no place for a dog, as he soon becomes
+useless. One does not need him, either, since the blue quail will not
+flush until actually kicked into the air.
+
+Jack and cotton-tail rabbits fled by hundreds before us. They are
+everywhere, and afford good shooting between coveys, it being quick work
+to get a cotton-tail as he flashes between the net-work of protecting
+cactus. Coyotes lope away in our front, but they are too wild for a
+shot-gun. It must ever be in a man's mind to keep his direction, because
+it is such a vastly simple thing to get lost in the chaparral, where you
+cannot see a hundred yards. Mexico has such a considerable territory
+that a man on foot may find it inconvenient to beat up a town in the
+desolation of thorn-bush.
+
+There is an action about blue-quail shooting which is next to buffalo
+shooting--it's run, shoot, pick up your bird, scramble on in your
+endeavor to keep the skirmish-line of your two comrades; and at last,
+when you have concluded to stop, you can mop your forehead--the Mexican
+sun shines hot even in midwinter.
+
+Later in the afternoon we get among bob-white in a grassy tract, and
+while they are clean work--good dog-play, and altogether more
+satisfactory shooting than any other I know of--I am yet much inclined
+to the excitement of chasing after game which you can see at intervals.
+Let it not be supposed that it is less difficult to hit a running blue
+quail as he shoots through the brush than a flying bob-white, for the
+experience of our party has settled that, and one gets ten shots at the
+blue to one at the bob-white, because of their number. As to eating, we
+could not tell the difference; but I will not insist that this is final.
+A man who comes in from an all day's run in the brush does not care
+whether the cook gives him boiled beans, watermelon, or crackers and
+jam; so how is he to know what a bird's taste is when served to a tame
+appetite?
+
+[Illustration: 11 TOO BIG GAME FOR NUMBER SIX]
+
+At intervals we ran into the wild cattle which threaded their way to
+water, and it makes one nervous. It is of no use to say "Soo-bossy," or
+to give him a charge of No. 6; neither is it well to run. If the
+_matadores_ had any of the sensations which I have experienced, the gate
+receipts at the bull-rings would have to go up.  When a big long-horn
+fastens a quail-shooter with his great open brown eye in a chaparral
+thicket, you are not inclined to "call his hand." If he will call it a
+misdeal, you are with him.
+
+We were banging away, the Quartermaster and I, when a human voice began
+yelling like mad from the brush ahead. We advanced, to find a
+Mexican--rather well gotten up--who proceeded to wave his arms like a
+parson who had reached "sixthly" in his sermon, and who proceeded
+thereat to overwhelm us with his eloquence. The Quartermaster and I
+"_buenos dias-ed_" and "_si, senor-ed_" him in our helpless Spanish, and
+asked each other, nervously, "What de'll." After a long time he seemed
+to be getting through with his subject, his sentences became separated,
+he finally emitted monosyllables only along with his scowls, and we
+tramped off into the brush. It was a pity he spent so much energy, since
+it could only arouse our curiosity without satisfying it.
+
+In camp that night we told the Captain of our excited Mexican friend out
+in the brush, and our cook had seen sinister men on ponies passing near
+our camp. The Captain became solicitous, and stationed a night-guard
+over his precious government mules. It would never do to have a bandit
+get away with a U.  S. brand. It never does matter about private
+property, but anything with U. S. on it has got to be looked after, like
+a croupy child.
+
+We had some good days' sport, and no more formidable enterprise against
+the night-guard was attempted than the noisy approach of a white
+jackass. The tents were struck and loaded when it began to rain. We
+stood in the shelter of the escort-wagon, and the storm rose to a
+hurricane. Our corral became a tank; but shortly the black clouds passed
+north, and we pulled out. The twig ran into a branch, and the branch
+struck the trunk near the bluffs over the Rio Grande, and in town there
+stood the Mexican soldiers leaning against the wall as we had left them.
+We wondered if they had moved meanwhile.
+
+
+
+
+A SERGEANT OF THE ORPHAN TROOP
+
+
+WHILE it is undisputed that Captain Dodd's troop of the Third Cavalry is
+not an orphan, and is, moreover, quite as far from it as any troop of
+cavalry in the world, all this occurred many years ago, when it was, at
+any rate, so called. There was nothing so very unfortunate about it,
+from what I can gather, since it seems to have fought well on its own
+hook, quite up to all expectations, if not beyond. No officer at that
+time seemed to care to connect his name with such a rioting,
+nose-breaking band of desperado cavalrymen, unless it was temporarily,
+and that was always in the field, and never in garrison. However, in
+this case it did not have even an officer in the field. But let me go on
+to my sergeant.
+
+This one was a Southern gentleman, or rather a boy, when he refugeed out
+of Fredericksburg with his family, before the Federal advance, in a
+wagon belonging to a Mississippi rifle regiment; but nevertheless some
+years later he got to be a gentleman, and passed through the Virginia
+Military Institute with honor. The desire to be a soldier consumed him,
+but the vicissitudes of the times compelled him, if he wanted to be a
+soldier, to be a private one, which he became by duly enlisting in the
+Third Cavalry. He struck the Orphan Troop.
+
+Physically, Nature had slobbered all over Carter Johnson; she had
+lavished on him her very last charm. His skin was pink, albeit the years
+of Arizona sun had heightened it to a dangerous red; his mustache was
+yellow and ideally military; while his pure Virginia accent, fired in
+terse and jerky form at friend and enemy alike, relieved his natural
+force of character by a shade of humor. He was thumped and bucked and
+pounded into what was in the seventies considered a proper frontier
+soldier, for in those days the nursery idea had not been lugged into the
+army. If a sergeant bade a soldier "go" or "do," he instantly "went" or
+"did"--otherwise the sergeant belted him over the head with his
+six-shooter, and had him taken off in a cart. On pay-days, too, when men
+who did not care to get drunk went to bed in barracks, they slept under
+their bunks and not in them, which was conducive to longevity and a good
+night's rest. When buffalo were scarce they ate the army rations in
+those wild days; they had a fight often enough to earn thirteen dollars,
+and at times a good deal more. This was the way with all men at that
+time, but it was rough on recruits.
+
+So my friend Carter Johnson wore through some years, rose to be a
+corporal, finally a sergeant, and did many daring deeds. An atavism from
+"the old border riders" of Scotland shone through the boy, and he took
+on quickly. He could act the others off the stage and sing them out of
+the theatre in his chosen profession.
+
+There was fighting all day long around Fort Robinson, Nebraska--a
+bushwhacking with Dull-Knife's band of the Northern Cheyennes, the
+Spartans of the plains. It was January; the snow lay deep on the ground,
+and the cold was knife-like as it thrust at the fingers and toes of the
+Orphan Troop. Sergeant Johnson with a squad of twenty men, after having
+been in the saddle all night, was in at the post drawing rations for the
+troop. As they were packing them up for transport, a detachment of F
+Troop came galloping by, led by the sergeant's friend, Corporal
+Thornton. They pulled up.
+
+"Come on, Carter--go with us. I have just heard that some troops have
+got a bunch of Injuns corralled out in the hills. They can't get 'em
+down. Let's go help 'em. It's a chance for the fight of your life. Come
+on."
+
+Carter hesitated for a moment. He had drawn the rations for his troop,
+which was in sore need of them. It might mean a court-martial and the
+loss of his chevrons--but a fight! Carter struck his spurred heels,
+saying, "Come on, boys; get your horses; we will go."
+
+The line of cavalry was half lost in the flying snow as it cantered away
+over the white flats. The dry powder crunched under the thudding hoofs,
+the carbines banged about, the overcoat capes blew and twisted in the
+rushing air, the horses grunted and threw up their heads as the spurs
+went into their bellies, while the men's faces were serious with the
+interest in store. Mile after mile rushed the little column, until it
+came to some bluffs, where it drew reign and stood gazing across the
+valley to the other hills.
+
+Down in the bottoms they espied an officer and two men sitting quietly
+on their horses, and on riding up found a lieutenant gazing at the
+opposite bluffs through a glass. Far away behind the bluffs a sharp ear
+could detect the reports of guns.
+
+"We have been fighting the Indians all day here," said the officer,
+putting down his glass and turning to the two "non-coms." "The command
+has gone around the bluffs. I have just seen Indians up there on the
+rim-rocks. I have sent for troops, in the hope that we might get up
+there. Sergeant, deploy as skirmishers, and we will try."
+
+[Illustration: 12 MILE AFTER MILE RUSHED THE LITTLE COLUMN]
+
+At a gallop the men fanned out, then forward at a sharp trot across the
+flats, over the little hills, and into the scrub pine. The valley
+gradually narrowed until it forced the skirmishers into a solid body,
+when the lieutenant took the lead, with the command tailing out in
+single file. The signs of the Indians grew thicker and thicker--a
+skirmisher's nest here behind a scrub-pine bush, and there by the side
+of a rock. Kettles and robes lay about in the snow, with three "bucks"
+and some women and children sprawling about, frozen as they had died;
+but all was silent except the crunch of the snow and the low whispers of
+the men as they pointed to the telltales of the morning's battle.
+
+As the column approached the precipitous rim-rock the officer halted,
+had the horses assembled in a side canon, putting Corporal Thornton in
+charge. He ordered Sergeant Johnson to again advance his skirmish-line,
+in which formation the men moved forward, taking cover behind the pine
+scrub and rocks, until they came to an open space of about sixty paces,
+while above it towered the cliff for twenty feet in the sheer. There the
+Indians had been last seen. The soldiers lay tight in the snow, and no
+man's valor impelled him on. To the casual glance the rim-rock was
+impassable. The men were discouraged and the officer nonplussed. A
+hundred rifles might be covering the rock fort for all they knew. On
+closer examination a cutting was found in the face of the rock which was
+a rude attempt at steps, doubtless made long ago by the Indians. Caught
+on a bush above, hanging down the steps, was a lariat, which, at the
+bottom, was twisted around the shoulders of a dead warrior. They had
+evidently tried to take him up while wounded, but he had died and had
+been abandoned.
+
+After cogitating, the officer concluded not to order his men forward,
+but he himself stepped boldly out into the open and climbed up. Sergeant
+Johnson immediately followed, while an old Swedish soldier by the name
+of Otto Bordeson fell in behind them. They walked briskly up the hill,
+and placing their backs against the wall of rock, stood gazing at the
+Indian.
+
+With a grin the officer directed the men to advance. The sergeant,
+seeing that he realized their serious predicament, said:
+
+"I think, lieutenant, you had better leave them where they are; we are
+holding this rock up pretty hard."
+
+[Illustration: 13 THE HORSES ASSEMBLED IN A SIDE CANYON]
+
+They stood there and looked at each other. "We's in a fix," said Otto.
+
+"I want volunteers to climb this rock," finally demanded the officer.
+
+The sergeant looked up the steps, pulled at the lariat, and commented:
+"Only one man can go at a time; if there are Indians up there, an old
+squaw can kill this command with a hatchet; and if there are no Indians,
+we can all go up."
+
+The impatient officer started up, but the sergeant grabbed him by the
+belt. He turned, saying, "If I haven't got men to go, I will climb
+myself."
+
+"Stop, lieutenant. It wouldn't look right for the officer to go. I have
+noticed a pine-tree, the branches of which spread over the top of the
+rock," and the sergeant pointed to it. "If you will make the men cover
+the top of the rim-rock with their rifles, Bordeson and I will go up;"
+and turning to the Swede, "Will you go, Otto?"
+
+"I will go anywhere the sergeant does," came his gallant reply.
+
+"Take your choice, then, of the steps or the pine-tree," continued the
+Virginian; and after a rather short but sharp calculation the Swede
+declared for the tree, although both were death if the Indians were on
+the rim-rock. He immediately began sidling along the rock to the tree,
+and slowly commenced the ascent. The sergeant took a few steps up the
+cutting, holding on by the rope. The officer stood out and smiled
+quizzically. Jeers came from behind the soldiers' bushes--"Go it, Otto!
+Go it, Johnson! Your feet are loaded! If a snow-bird flies, you will
+drop dead! Do you need any help? You'd make a hell of a sailor!" and
+other gibes.
+
+The gray clouds stretched away monotonously over the waste of snow, and
+it was cold. The two men climbed slowly, anon stopping to look at each
+other and smile. They were monkeying with death.
+
+At last the sergeant drew himself up, slowly raised his head, and saw
+snow and broken rock. Otto lifted himself likewise, and he too saw
+nothing Rifle-shots came clearly to their ears from far in front--many
+at one time, and scattering at others. Now the soldiers came briskly
+forward, dragging up the cliff in single file. The dull noises of the
+fight came through the wilderness. The skirmish-line drew quickly
+forward and passed into the pine woods, but the Indian trails scattered.
+Dividing into sets of four, they followed on the tracks of small
+parties, wandering on until night threatened. At length the main trail
+of the fugitive band ran across their front, bringing the command
+together. It was too late for the officer to get his horses before dark,
+nor could he follow with his exhausted men, so he turned to the sergeant
+and asked him to pick some men and follow on the trail. The sergeant
+picked Otto Borde-son, who still affirmed that he would go anywhere that
+Johnson went, and they started. They were old hunting companions, having
+confidence in each other's sense and shooting. They ploughed through the
+snow, deeper and deeper into the pines, then on down a canon where the
+light was failing. The sergeant was sweating freely; he raised his hand
+to press his fur cap backward from his forehead. He drew it quickly
+away; he stopped and started, caught Otto by the sleeve, and drew a long
+breath. Still holding his companion, he put his glove again to his nose,
+sniffed at it again, and with a mighty tug brought the startled Swede to
+his knees, whispering, "I smell Indians; I can sure smell 'em,
+Otto--can you?" Otto sniffed, and whispered back, "Yes, plain!" "We are
+ambushed! Drop!" and the two soldiers sunk in the snow. A few feet in
+front of them lay a dark thing; crawling to it, they found a large
+calico rag, covered with blood.
+
+[Illustration: 14 THE TWO MEN CLIMBED SLOWLY]
+
+"Let's do something, Carter; we's in a fix." "If we go down, Otto, we
+are gone; if we go back, we are gone; let's go forward," hissed the
+sergeant.
+
+Slowly they crawled from tree to tree.
+
+"Don't you see the Injuns?" said the Swede, as he pointed to the rocks
+in front, where lay their dark forms. The still air gave no sound. The
+cathedral of nature, with its dark pine trunks starting from gray snow
+to support gray sky, was dead. Only human hearts raged, for the forms
+which held them lay like black bowlders.
+
+"Egah--lelah washatah," yelled the sergeant.
+
+Two rifle-shots rang and reverberated down the canon; two more replied
+instantly from the soldiers. One Indian sunk, and his carbine went
+clanging down the rocks, burying itself in the snow. Another warrior
+rose slightly, took aim, but Johnson's six-shooter cracked again, and
+the Indian settled slowly down without firing. A squaw moved slowly in
+the half-light to where the buck lay. Bordeson drew a bead with his
+carbine.
+
+"Don't shoot the woman, Otto. Keep that hole covered; the place is alive
+with Indians;" and both lay still.
+
+A buck rose quickly, looked at the sergeant, and dropped back. The
+latter could see that he had him located, for he slowly poked his rifle
+up without showing his head. Johnson rolled swiftly to one side, aiming
+with his deadly revolver. Up popped the Indian's head, crack went the
+six-shooter; the head turned slowly, leaving the top exposed. Crack
+again went the alert gun of the soldier, the ball striking the head just
+below the scalp-lock and instantly jerking the body into a kneeling
+position.
+
+Then all was quiet in the gloomy woods.
+
+After a time the sergeant addressed his voice to the lonely place in
+Sioux, telling the women to come out and surrender--to leave the bucks,
+etc.
+
+An old squaw rose sharply to her feet, slapped her breast, shouted
+"Lelah washatah," and gathering up a little girl and a bundle, she
+strode forward to the soldiers. Three other women followed, two of them
+in the same blanket.
+
+"Are there any more bucks?" roared the sergeant, in Sioux.
+
+"No more alive," said the old squaw, in the same tongue.
+
+"Keep your rifle on the hole between the rocks; watch these people; I
+will go up," directed the sergeant, as he slowly mounted to the ledge,
+and with levelled six-shooter peered slowly over. He stepped in and
+stood looking down on the dead warriors.
+
+A yelling in broken English smote the startled sergeant. "Tro up your
+hands, you d---- Injun! I'll blow the top off you!" came through the
+quiet. The sergeant sprang down to see the Swede standing with carbine
+levelled at a young buck confronting him with a drawn knife in his
+hands, while his blanket lay back on the snow.
+
+"He's a buck--he ain't no squaw; he tried to creep on me with a knife.
+I'm going to kill him," shouted the excited Bordeson.
+
+"No, no, don't kill him. Otto, don't you kill him," expostulated
+Johnson, as the Swede's finger clutched nervously at the trigger, and
+turning, he roared, "Throw away that knife, you d------Indian!"
+
+The detachment now came charging in through the snow, and gathered
+around excitedly. A late arrival came up, breathing heavily, dropped his
+gun, and springing up and down, yelled, "Be jabbers, I have got among om
+at last!" A general laugh went up, and the circle of men broke into a
+straggling line for the return. The sergeant took the little girl up in
+his arms. She grabbed him fiercely by the throat like a wild-cat,
+screaming. While nearly choking, he yet tried to mollify her, while her
+mother, seeing no harm was intended, pacified her in the soft gutturals
+of the race. She relaxed her grip, and the brave Virginian packed her
+down the mountain, wrapped in his soldier cloak. The horses were reached
+in time, and the prisoners put on double behind the soldiers, who fed
+them crackers as they marched. At two o'clock in the morning the little
+command rode into Fort Robinson and dismounted at the guardhouse. The
+little girl, who was asleep and half frozen in Johnson's overcoat, would
+not go to her mother: poor little cat, she had found a nest. The
+sergeant took her into the guard-house, where it was warm. She soon fell
+asleep, and slowly he undid her, delivering her to her mother. On the
+following morning he came early to the guard-house, loaded with trifles
+for his little Indian girl. He had expended all his credit at the
+post-trader's, but he could carry sentiment no further, for "To horse!"
+was sounding, and he joined the Orphan Troop to again ride on the
+Dull-Knife trail. The brave Cheyennes were running through the frosty
+hills, and the cavalry horses pressed hotly after. For ten days the
+troops surrounded the Indians by day, and stood guard in the snow by
+night, but coming day found the ghostly warriors gone and their
+rifle-pits empty. They were cut off and slaughtered daily, but the
+gallant warriors were fighting to their last nerve. Towards the end they
+were cooped in a gully on War-Bon-natt Creek, where they fortified; but
+two six-pounders had been hauled out, and were turned on their works.
+The four troops of cavalry stood to horse on the plains all day, waiting
+for the poor wretches to come out, while the guns roared, ploughing the
+frozen dirt and snow over their little stronghold; but they did not come
+out. It was known that all the provisions they had was the dead horse of
+a corporal of E Troop, which had been shot within twenty paces of their
+rifle-pits.
+
+[Illustration: 15 BRAVE CHEYENNES RUNNING THROUGH THE FROSTY HILLS]
+
+So, too, the soldiers were starving, and the poor Orphans had only
+crackers to eat. They were freezing also, and murmuring to be led to
+"the charge," that they might end it there, but they were an orphan
+troop, and must wait for others to say. The sergeant even asked an
+officer to let them go, but was peremptorily told to get back in the
+ranks.
+
+The guns ceased at night, while the troops drew off to build fires, warm
+their rigid fingers, thaw out their buffalo moccasins, and munch
+crackers, leaving a strong guard around the Cheyennes. In the night
+there was a shooting--the Indians had charged through and had gone.
+
+The day following they were again surrounded on some bluffs, and the
+battle waged until night. Next day there was a weak fire from the Indian
+position on the impregnable bluffs, and presently it ceased entirely.
+The place was approached with care and trepidation, but was empty. Two
+Indian boys, with their feet frozen, had been left as decoys, and after
+standing off four troops of cavalry for hours, they too had in some
+mysterious way departed.
+
+[Illustration: 16 THROUGH THE SMOKE SPRANG THE DARING SOLDIER]
+
+But the pursuit was relentless; on, on over the rolling hills swept the
+famishing troopers, and again the Spartan band turned at bay, firmly
+intrenched on a bluff as before. This was the last stand--nature was
+exhausted. The soldiers surrounded them, and Major Wessells turned the
+handle of the human vise. The command gathered closer about the doomed
+pits--they crawled on their bellies from one stack of sage-brush to the
+next. They were freezing. The order to charge came to the Orphan Troop,
+and yelling his command, Sergeant Johnson ran forward. Up from the
+sage-brush floundered the stiffened troopers, following on. They ran
+over three Indians, who lay sheltered in a little cut, and these killed
+three soldiers together with an old frontier sergeant who wore long
+hair, but they were destroyed in turn. While the Orphans swarmed under
+the hill, a rattling discharge poured from the rifle-pits; but the troop
+had gotten under the fire, and it all passed over their heads. On they
+pressed, their blood now quickened by excitement, crawling up the steep,
+while volley on volley poured over them. Within nine feet of the pits
+was a rim-rock ledge over which the Indian bullets swept, and here the
+charge was stopped. It now became a duel.
+
+Every time a head showed on either side, it drew fire like a flue-hole.
+Suddenly our Virginian sprang on the ledge, and like a trill on a piano
+poured a six-shooter into the intrenchment, and dropped back.
+
+Major Wessells, who was commanding the whole force, crawled to the
+position of the Orphan Troop, saying, "Doing fine work, boys. Sergeant,
+I would advise you to take off that red scarf "--when a bullet cut the
+major across the breast, whirling him around and throwing him. A
+soldier, one Lannon, sprang to him and pulled him down the bluff, the
+major protesting that he was not wounded, which proved to be true, the
+bullet having passed through his heavy clothes.
+
+The troops had drawn up on the other sides, and a perfect storm of
+bullets whirled over the in-trenchments. The powder blackened the faces
+of the men, and they took off their caps or had them shot off. To raise
+the head for more than a fraction of a second meant death.
+
+Johnson had exchanged five shots with a fine-looking Cheyenne, and every
+time he raised his eye to a level with the rock White Antelope's gun
+winked at him.
+
+"You will get killed directly," yelled Lannon to Johnson; "they have you
+spotted."
+
+The smoke blew and eddied over them; again Johnson rose, and again White
+Antelope's pistol cracked an accompaniment to his own; but with movement
+like lightning the sergeant sprang through the smoke, and fairly shoving
+his carbine to White Antelope's breast, he pulled the trigger. A
+50-calibre gun boomed in Johnson's face, and a volley roared from the
+pits, but he fell backward into cover. His comrades set him up to see if
+any red stains came through the grime, but he was unhurt.
+
+[Illustration: 17 THIS TIME THE AIR GREW CLEAR]
+
+The firing grew; a blue haze hung over the hill. Johnson again looked
+across the glacis, but again his eye met the savage glare of White
+Antelope.
+
+"I haven't got him yet, Lannon, but I will;" and Sergeant Johnson again
+slowly reloaded his pistol and carbine.
+
+"Now, men, give them a volley!" ordered the enraged man, and as volley
+answered volley, through the smoke sprang the daring soldier, and
+standing over White Antelope as the smoke swirled and almost hid him, he
+poured his six balls into his enemy, and thus died one brave man at the
+hands of another in fair battle. The sergeant leaped back and lay down
+among the men, stunned by the concussions. He said he would do no more.
+His mercurial temperament had undergone a change, or, to put it better,
+he conceived it to be outrageous to fight these poor people, five
+against one. He characterized it as "a d---- infantry fight," and
+rising, talked in Sioux to the enemy--asked them to surrender, or they
+must otherwise die. A young girl answered him, and said they would like
+to. An old woman sprang on her and cut her throat with a dull knife,
+yelling meanwhile to the soldiers that "they would never surrender
+alive," and saying what she had done.
+
+Many soldiers were being killed, and the fire from the pits grew weaker.
+The men were beside themselves with rage. "Charge!" rang through the now
+still air from some strong voice, and, with a volley, over the works
+poured the troops, with six-shooters going, and clubbed carbines. Yells,
+explosions, and amid a whirlwind of smoke the soldiers and Indians
+swayed about, now more slowly and quieter, until the smoke eddied away.
+Men stood still, peering about with wild open eyes through blackened
+faces. They held desperately to their weapons. An old bunch of buckskin
+rags rose slowly and fired a carbine aimlessly. Twenty bullets rolled
+and tumbled it along the ground, and again the smoke drifted off the
+mount. This time the air grew clear. Buffalo-robes lay all about, blood
+spotted everywhere. The dead bodies of thirty-two Cheyennes lay, writhed
+and twisted, on the packed snow, and among them many women and children,
+cut and furrowed with lead. In a corner was a pile of wounded squaws,
+half covered with dirt swept over them by the storm of bullets. One
+broken creature half raised herself from the bunch. A maddened trumpeter
+threw up his gun to shoot, but Sergeant Johnson leaped and kicked his
+gun out of his hands high into the air, saying, "This fight is over."
+
+
+
+
+THE SPIRIT OF MAHONGUI
+
+
+IT is so I have called this old document, which is an extract from the
+memoirs of le Chevalier Bailloquet, a Frenchman living in Canada, where
+he was engaged in the Indian fur trade, about the middle of the
+seventeenth century, and as yet they are unpublished.
+
+It is written in English, since the author lived his latter life in
+England, having left Canada as the result of troubles with the
+authorities.
+
+He was captured by the Iroquois, and after living with them some time,
+made his escape to the Dutch.
+
+My Chevalier rambles somewhat, although I have been at pains to cut out
+extraneous matter. It is also true that many will not believe him in
+these days, for out of their puny volition they will analyze, and out of
+their discontent they will scoff. But to those I say, Go to your
+microbes, your statistics, your volts, and your bicycles, and leave me
+the truth of other days.
+
+[Illustration: 18 THIS WAS A FATAL EMBARQUATION]
+
+The Chevalier was on a voyage from Quebec to Montreal; let him begin:
+
+The next day we embarqued, though not without confusion, because many
+weare not content, nor satisfied. What a pleasure ye two fathers to see
+them trott up and downe ye rocks to gett their manage into ye boat. The
+boats weare so loaded that many could not proceed if foul weather should
+happen. I could not persuade myself to stay with this concourse as ye
+weather was faire for my journie. Without adoe, I gott my six wild men
+to paddle on ye way.
+
+This was a fatal embarquation, butt I did not mistrust that ye Iriquoits
+weare abroad in ye forest, for I had been at ye Peace. Nevertheless I
+find that these wild men doe naught butt what they resolve out of their
+bloodie mindedness. We passed the Point going out of ye Lake St. Peter,
+when ye Barbars appeared on ye watter-side discharging their muskets at
+us, and embarquing for our pursuit.
+
+"Kohe--kohe!"--came nearer ye fearsome warre cry of ye Iriquoit, making
+ye hearts of ye poore Hurron & ffrench alike to turn to water in their
+breasts. 2 of my savages weare strook downe at ye first discharge &
+another had his paddle cutt in twain, besides shott holes through with
+the watter poured apace. Thus weare we diminished and could not draw
+off.
+
+The Barbars weare daubed with paint, which is ye signe of warre. They
+coming against our boat struck downe our Hurrons with hattchetts, such
+as did not jump into the watter, where also they weare in no wise saved.
+
+But in my boat was a Hurron Captayne, who all his life-time had killed
+many Iriquoits & by his name for vallor had come to be a great Captayne
+att home and abroad. We weare resolved some execution & with our gunns
+dealt a discharge & drew our cutlasses to strike ye foe. They environed
+us as we weare sinking, and one spake saying--"Brothers, cheere up and
+assure yourselfe you shall not be killed; thou art both men and
+Cap-taynes, as I myself am, and I will die in thy defense." And ye
+afforesaid crew shewed such a horrid noise, of a sudden ye Iriquoit
+Captayne took hold about me--"Thou shalt not die by another hand than
+mine."
+
+Ye savages layd bye our armes & tyed us fast in a boat, one in one boat
+and one in another. We proceeded up ye river, rather sleeping than
+awake, for I thought never to escape.
+
+Att near sunsett we weare taken on ye shore, where ye wild men encamped
+bye making cottages of rind from off ye trees. They tyed ye Hurron
+Captayne to a trunk, he resolving most bravely but dessparred to me, and
+I too dessparred. Nevertheless he sang his fatal song though ye fire
+made him as one with the ague. They tooke out his heart and cut off some
+of ye flesh of ye miserable, boyled it and eat it. This they wished not
+to doe att this time, but that ye Hurron had been shott with a ball
+under his girdle where it was not seen, though he would have died of his
+desperate wound. That was the miserable end of that wretch.
+
+Whilst they weare busy with ye Hurron, they having stripped me naked,
+tyed me above ye elbows, and wrought a rope about my middle. They afked
+me several questions, I not being able to answer, they gave me great
+blows with their fists, then pulled out one of my nails. Having lost all
+hopes, I resolved altogether to die, itt being folly to think otherwise.
+
+I could not flee, butt was flung into a boat att daylight. Ye boats went
+all abreaft, ye wild men singing some of their fatal songs, others their
+howls of victory, ye wild "Kohes," beating giens & parchments, blowing
+whistles, and all manner of tumult.
+
+Thus did we proceed with these ravening wolves, God having delivered a
+Chriftian into ye power of Satan.
+
+I was nott ye only one in ye claws of these wolves, for we fell in with
+150 more of these cruels, who had Hurron captyves to ye number of 33
+victimes, with heads alsoe stuck on poles, of those who in God's mercie
+weare gone from their miseries. As for me, I was put in a boat with one
+who had his fingers cutt & bourned. I asked him why ye Iriquoits had
+broak ye Peace, and he said they had told him ye ffrench had broak ye
+Peace; that ye ffrench had set their pack of doggs on an olde Iriquoit
+woman who was eat up alive & that ye Iriquoits had told ye Hurron wild
+men that they had killed ye doggs, alsoe Hurrons and ffrench, saying
+that as to ye captyves, they would boyl doggs, Hurrons, and ffrench in
+ye same kettle.
+
+A great rain arose, ye Iriquoits going to ye watter-side did cover
+themselvs with their boats, holding ye captyves ye meanwhile bye ropes
+bound about our ancles, while we stood out in ye storm, which was near
+to causing me death from my nakedness. When ye rain had abated, we
+pursued our way killing staggs, & I was given some entrails, which
+before I had only a little parched corne to ye extent of my handfull.
+
+At a point we mett a gang of ye head hunters all on ye shore, dancing
+about a tree to which was tyed a fine ffrench mastiff dogg, which was
+standing on its hinder leggs, being lashed up against a tree by its
+middle. Ye dogg was in a great terror, and frantic in its bonds. I knew
+him for a dogg from ye fort att Mont-royal, kept for to give warnings of
+ye Enemy's approach. It was a strange sight for to see ye Heathen rage
+about ye noble dogg, but he itt was nevertheless which brought ye
+Barbars against us. He was only gott with great difficulty, having
+killed one Barbar, and near to serving others like-wise.
+
+They untyed ye dogg, I holding him one side, and ye other, with cords
+they brought and tyed him in ye bow of a boat with 6 warriors to paddle
+him. Ye dogg boat was ye Head, while ye rest came on up ye river singing
+fatal songs, triumph songs, piping, howling, & ye dogg above all with
+his great noise. Ye Barbars weare more delighted att ye captyve dogg
+than att all of us poore Christians, for that they did say he was no
+dogg. Ye doggs which ye wild men have are nott so great as wolves, they
+being little else & small att that. Ye mastiff was considered as a
+consequence to be a great interest. This one had near defeated their
+troupe & now was to be horridly killed after ye bloody way of ye wild
+men.
+
+Att camp they weare sleep most of ye night, they being aweary with ye
+torture of ye Hurron Captayne previously. Ye dogg was tyed & layd nott
+far off from where I was alsoe tyed, butt over him weare 2 olde men, who
+guarded him of a fear he would eat away his ropes. These men weare
+Elders or Priests, such as are esteemed for their power over spirits, &
+they did keep up their devil's song ye night thro.
+
+I made a vertue of necessity & did sleep, butt was early cast into a
+boat to go on towards ye Enemy's countrie, tho we had raw meat given us,
+with blows on ye mouth to make us ye more quickly devour itt. An
+Iriquoit who was the Captayne in our boat, bade me to be of a good
+courage, as they would not hurt me. Ye fmall knowledge I had of their
+speech made a better hope, butt one who could have understood them would
+have been certainly in a great terror.
+
+Thus we journied 8 days on ye Lake Champlaine, where ye wind and waves
+did sore beset our endeavors att times. As for meate we wanted none, as
+we had a store of staggs along ye watter-side. We killed some every day,
+more for sport than for need. We finding them on Isles, made them go
+into ye watter, & after we killed above a score, we clipped ye ears of
+ye rest & hung bells on them, and then lett them loose. What a sport to
+see ye rest flye from them that had ye bells!
+
+There came out of ye vast forest a multitude of bears, 300 at least
+together, making a horrid noise, breaking ye small trees. We shott att
+them, butt they stirred not a step. We weare much frightened that they
+stirred nott att our shooting. Ye great ffrench dogg would fain
+encounter them notwithftanding he was tyed. He made ye watter-side to
+ring with his heavy voise & from his eyes came flames of fyre & clouds
+from out his mouth. The bears did straightway fly which much cheered ye
+Iri-quoits. One said to me they weare resolved nott to murder ye dogg,
+which was a stone-God in ye dogg shape, or a witch, butt I could nott
+fully understand. Ye wild men said they had never heard their fathers
+speak of so many bears.
+
+When we putt ye kettle on, ye wild man who had captured me, gave me of
+meate to eat, & told me a story. "Brother," says he, "itt is a thing to
+be admired to goe afar to travell. You must know that tho I am olde, I
+have always loved ye ffrench for their goodness, but they should have
+given us to kill ye Algonkins. We should not warre against ye ffrench,
+butt trade with them for Castors, who are better for traffic than ye
+Dutch. I was once a Captayne of 13 men against ye Altignaonan-ton & ye
+ffrench. We stayed 3 whole winters among ye Ennemy, butt in ye daytime
+durst not marche nor stay out of ye deep forest. We killed many, butt
+there weare devils who took my son up in ye air so I could never again
+get him back. These devils weare as bigg as horriniacs, [moose] & ye
+little blue birds which attend upon them, said itt was time for us to go
+back to our people, which being resolved to do, we came back, butt nott
+of a fear of ye Ennemy. Our warre song grew still on our lipps, as ye
+snow falling in ye forest. I have nott any more warred to the North,
+until I was told by ye spirits to go to ye ffrench & recover my son. My
+friend, I have dreamed you weare my son;" and henceforth I was not
+hurted nor starved for food.
+
+We proceeded thro rivers & lakes & thro forests where I was made to
+support burdens. When we weare come to ye village of ye Iriquoits we lay
+in ye woods because that they would nott go into ye village in ye night
+time.
+
+The following day we weare marched into ye brough [borough] of ye
+Iriquoits. When we came in fight we heard nothing butt outcryes from one
+side, as from ye other. Then came a mighty host of people & payd great
+heed to ye ffrench dogg, which was ledd bye 2 men while roundabout his
+neck was a girdle of porcelaine. They tormented ye poore Hurrons with
+violence, butt about me was hung a long piece of porcelaine--ye girdle
+of my captor, & he stood against me.  In ye meanwhile, many of ye
+village came about us, among which a goode olde woman & a boy with a
+hattchett came neere me. Ye olde woman covered me, & ye boy took me by
+my hand and led mee out of ye companie. What comforted me was that I had
+escaped ye blowes. They brought me into ye village where ye olde woman
+fhowed me kindness. She took me into her cottage, & gave me to eat, butt
+my great terror took my stum-ack away from me. I had stayed an hour when
+a great companie came to see me, of olde men with pipes in their mouths.
+For a time they sat about, when they did lead me to another cabbin,
+where they smoked & made me apprehend they should throw me into ye fyre.
+Butt itt proved otherwise, for ye olde woman followed me, speaking
+aloud, whome they answered with a loud _ho,_ then shee tooke her girdle,
+and about me she tyed itt, so brought me to her cottage & made me to
+sitt downe. Then she gott me Indian corne toasted, & took away ye paint
+ye fellows had stuck to my face. A maide greased & combed my haire, & ye
+olde woman danced and sung, while my father bourned tobacco on a stone.
+They gave me a blew coverlitt, stockings, and shoes. I layed with her
+son & did what I could to get familiarity with them, and I suffered no
+wrong, yet I was in a terror, for ye fatal songs came from ye poore
+Hurrons. Ye olde man inquired whether I was Afferony, a ffrench. I
+affured him no, faying I was Panugaga, that is of their nation, for
+which he was pleased.
+
+[Illustration: 19 THE OMEN OF THE LITTLE BLUE BIRDS]
+
+My father feasted 200 men. My sisters made me clean for that purpose,
+and greased my haire. They tyed me with 2 necklaces of porcelaine &
+garters of ye same. My father gave me a hattchett in my hand.
+
+My father made a speech, showing many demonstrations of vallor, broak a
+kettle of cagamite with a hattchett. So they sung, as is their usual
+custom. Ye banquette being over, all cryed to me "Shagon, Orimha"--that
+is "be hearty!" Every one withdrew to his quarters.
+
+Here follows a long account of his daily life among the Indians, his
+hunting and observations, which our space forbids. He had become
+meanwhile more familiar with the language. He goes on:
+
+My father came into ye cabbin from ye grand castle & he sat him downe to
+smoke. He said ye Elders had approved after much debate, & that ye
+ffrench dogg was not a witch, but ye great warrior Mahongui, gone
+before, whose spirit had rose up into ye ffrench dogg & had spyed ye
+ffrench. Att ye council even soe ye dogg had walked into ye centre of ye
+great cabbin, there saying loudly to ye Elders what he was & that he
+must be heard. His voice must be obeyed. His was not ye mocking cryes of
+a witch from under an olde snake-skin, butt a chief come from Paradise
+to comfort his own people. My father asked me if I was agreed. I said
+that witches did not battile as openly as ye dogg, butt doe their evil
+in ye dark.
+
+[Illustration: 20 YE SPIRIT DOG STRODE FROM YE DARKNESS]
+
+These wild men are sore beset with witches and devils--more than
+Christians, as they deserve to be, for they are of Satan's own
+belonging.
+
+My father dreamed att night, & sang about itt, making ye fire to bourne
+in our cabbin. We satt to listen. He had mett ye ffrench dogg in ye
+forest path bye night--he standing accross his way, & ye forest was
+light from ye dogg's eyes, who spake to my father saying, "I belong to
+ye dead folks--my hattchett is rust--my bow is mould--I can no longer
+battile with our Ennemy, butt I hover over you in warre--I direct your
+arrows to their breasts--I smoothe ye little dry sticks & wett ye leaves
+under ye shoes--I draw ye morning mist accross to shield you--I carry ye
+'Kohes' back and fore to bring your terror--I fling aside ye foeman's
+bulletts--go back and be strong in council."
+
+My father even in ye night drew ye Elders in ye grand cabbin. He said
+what he had seen and heard. Even then the great ffrench dogg gott from
+ye darkness of ye cabbin, & strode into ye fyre. He roared enough to
+blow downe caftles in his might & they knew he was saying what he had
+told unto my father.
+
+A great Captayne sent another night, & had ye Elders for to gather at ye
+grande cabbin. He had been paddling his boat upon ye river when ye dogg
+of Mahongui had walked out on ye watter thro ye mist. He was taller than
+ye forest. So he spake, saying "Mahongui says--go tell ye people of ye
+Panugaga, itt is time for warre--ye corne is gathered--ye deer has
+changed his coat--there are no more Hurrons for me to eat. What is a
+Panugaga village with no captyves? Ye young men will talk as women doe,
+& ye Elders will grow content to watch a snow-bird hopp. Mahongui says
+itt is time."
+
+Again att ye council fyre ye spirit dogg strode from ye darkness & said
+itt was time. Ye tobacco was bourned by ye Priests. In ye smoke ye
+Elders beheld ye Spirit of Mahongui. "Panugaga--Warre."
+
+Soe my father saw ye ghost of ye departed one. He smoked long bye our
+cabbin fyre. He sang his battile song. I asked him to goe myself, even
+with a hattchett, as I too was Panugaga. Butt he would in no wise
+listen. "You are nott meet," he says, "you sayest that your God is
+above. How will you make me believe that he is as goode as your black
+coats say? They doe lie & you see ye contrary; ffor first of all, ye Sun
+bournes us often, ye rain wetts us, ye winde makes us have shipwrake, ye
+thunder, ye lightening bournes & kills us, & all comes from above, & you
+say that itt is goode to be there. For my part, I will nott go there.
+Contrary they say that ye reprobates & guilty goeth downe & bourne.
+They are mistaken; all is goode heare. Do nott you see that itt is ye
+Earthe that nourishes all living creatures--ye waiter, ye fishes, & ye
+yus, and that corne & all other fruits come up, & that all things are
+nott soe contrary to us as that from above? Ye devils live in ye air &
+they took my son. When you see that ye Earthe is our Mother, then you
+will see that all things on itt are goode. Ye Earthe was made for ye
+Panugaga, & ye souls of our warriors help us against our Ennemy. Ye
+ffrench dogg is Mahongui's spirit. He tells us to goe to warre against
+ye ffrench. Would a ffrench dogg doe that? You are nott yett Panugaga to
+follow your father in warre."
+
+
+
+
+THE ESSENTIALS AT FORT ADOBE
+
+
+THE Indian suns himself before the door of his tepee, dreaming of the
+past. For a long time now he has eaten of the white man's lotos--the
+bimonthly beef-issue. I looked on him and wondered at the new things.
+The buffalo, the warpath, all are gone. What of the cavalrymen over at
+Adobe--his Nemesis in the stirring days--are they, too, lounging in
+barracks, since his lordship no longer leads them trooping over the
+burning flats by day and through the ragged hills by night? I will go
+and see.
+
+The blistered faces of men, the gaunt horses dragging stiffly along to
+the cruel spurring, the dirty lack-lustre of campaigning--that, of
+course, is no more. Will it be parades, and those soul-deadening "fours
+right" and "column left" affairs? Oh, my dear, let us hope not.
+
+Nothing is so necessary in the manufacture of soldiers, sure enough, but
+it is not hard to learn, and once a soldier knows it I can never
+understand why it should be drilled into him until it hurts. Besides,
+from another point of view, soldiers in rows and in lines do not compose
+well in pictures. I always feel, after seeing infantry drill in an
+armory, like Kipling's light-house keeper, who went insane looking at
+the cracks between the boards--they were all so horribly alike.
+
+Then Adobe is away out West in the blistering dust, with no towns of any
+importance near it. I can understand why men might become listless when
+they are at field-work, with the full knowledge that nothing but their
+brothers are looking at them save the hawks and coyotes. It is different
+from Meyer, with its traps full of Congressmen and girls, both of whom
+are much on the minds of cavalrymen.
+
+In due course I was bedded down at Adobe by my old friend the Captain,
+and then lay thinking of this cavalry business. It is a subject which
+thought does not simplify, but, like other great things, makes it
+complicate and recede from its votaries. To know essential details from
+unessential details is the study in all arts. Details there must be;
+they are the small things that make the big things. To apply this
+general order of things to this arm of the service kept me awake. There
+is first the riding--simple enough if they catch you young. There are
+bits, saddles, and cavalry packs. I know men who have not spoken to each
+other in years because they disagree about these. There are the sore
+backs and colics--that is a profession in itself. There are judgment of
+pace, the battle tactics, the use of three very different weapons; there
+is a world of history in this, in forty languages. Then an ever-varying
+_terrain_ tops all. There are other things not confined to cavalry, but
+regarded by all soldiers. The crowning peculiarity of cavalry is the
+rapidity of its movement, whereby a commander can lose the carefully
+built up reputation of years in about the time it takes a school-boy to
+eat a marsh-mallow. After all, it is surely a hard profession--a very
+blind trail to fame. I am glad I am not a cavalryman; still, it is the
+happiest kind of fun to look on when you are not responsible; but it
+needs some cultivation to understand and appreciate.
+
+I remember a dear friend who had a taste for out-of-doors. He penetrated
+deeply into the interior not long since to see these same troopers do a
+line of heroics, with a band of Bannocks to support the role. The
+Indians could not finally be got on the centre of the stage, but made
+hot-foot for the agency. My friend could not see any good in all this,
+nor was he satisfied with the first act even. He must needs have a
+climax, and that not forthcoming, he loaded his disgust into a trunk
+line and brought it back to his club corner here in New York. He there
+narrated the failure of his first night; said the soldiers were not even
+dusty as advertised; damned the Indians keenly, and swore at the West by
+all his gods.
+
+There was a time when I, too, regarded not the sketches in this art, but
+yearned for the finished product. That, however, is not exhibited
+generally over once in a generation.
+
+At Adobe there are only eight troops--not enough to make a German
+nurse-girl turn her head in the street, and my friend from New York,
+with his Napoleonic largeness, would scoff out loud. But he and the
+nurse do not understand the significance; they have not the eyes to see.
+A starboard or a port horseshoe would be all one to them, and a crease
+in the saddle-blanket the smallest thing in the world, yet it might
+spoil a horse.
+
+When the trumpets went in the morning I was sorry I had thought at all.
+It was not light yet, and I clung to my pillow. Already this cavalry has
+too much energy for my taste.
+
+"If you want to see anything, you want to lead out," said the Captain,
+as he pounded me with a boot.
+
+[Illustration: 21 THE ADVANCE]
+
+"Say, Captain, I suppose Colonel Hamilton issues this order to get up at
+this hour, doesn't he?"
+
+"He does."
+
+"Well, he has to obey his own order, then, doesn't he?"
+
+"He does."
+
+I took a good long stretch and yawn, and what I said about Colonel
+Hamilton I will not commit to print, out of respect to the Colonel. Then
+I got up.
+
+This bitterness of bed-parting passes. The Captain said he would put a
+"cook's police" under arrest for appearing in my make-up; but all these
+details will be forgotten, and whatever happens at this hour should be
+forgiven. I had just come from the North, where I had been sauntering
+over the territory of Montana with some Indians and a wild man from
+Virginia, getting up before light--tightening up on coffee and bacon for
+twelve hours in the saddle to prepare for more bacon and coffee; but at
+Adobe I had hoped for, even if I did not expect, some repose.
+
+In the east there was a fine green coming over the sky. No one out of
+the painter guild would have admitted it was green, even on the rack,
+but what I mean is that you could not approach it in any other way. A
+nice little adjutant went jangling by on a hard-trotting thoroughbred,
+his shoulders high and his seat low. My old disease began to take
+possession of me; I could fairly feel the microbes generate. Another
+officer comes clattering, with his orderly following after. The fever
+has me. We mount, and we are off, all going to stables.
+
+Out from the corrals swarm the troopers, leading their unwilling mounts.
+The horses are saying, "Damn the Colonel!" One of them comes in arching
+bounds; he is saying worse of the Colonel, or maybe only cussing out his
+own recruit for pulling his _cincha_ too tight. They form troop lines in
+column, while the Captains throw open eyes over the things which would
+not interest my friend from New York or the German nurse-girl.
+
+The two forward troops are the enemy, and are distinguished by wearing
+brown canvas stable-frocks. These shortly move out through the post, and
+are seen no more.
+
+Now comes the sun. By the shades of Knickerbocker's _History of New
+York_ I seem now to have gotten at the beginning; but patience, the sun
+is no detail out in the arid country. It does more things than blister
+your nose. It is the despair of the painter as it colors the minarets of
+the Bad Lands which abound around Adobe, and it dries up the company
+gardens if they don't watch the _acequias_ mighty sharp. To one just out
+of bed it excuses existence. I find I begin to soften towards the
+Colonel. In fact, it is possible that he is entirely right about having
+his old trumpets blown around garrison at this hour, though it took the
+Captain's boot to prove it shortly since.
+
+[Illustration: 22 HORSE GYMNASTICS]
+
+The command moves out, trotting quickly through the blinding clouds of
+dust. The landscape seems to get right up and mingle with the
+excitement. The supple, well-trained horses lose the scintillation on
+their coats, while Uncle Sam's blue is growing mauve very rapidly. But
+there is a useful look about the men, and the horses show condition
+after their long practice march just finished. Horses much used to go
+under saddle have well-developed quarters and strong stifle action. Fact
+is, nothing looks like a horse with a harness on. That is a job for
+mules, and these should have a labor organization and monopolize it.
+
+The problem of the morning was that we as an advance were to drive the
+two troops which had gone on ahead. These in turn were to represent a
+rapidly retiring rear-guard. This training is more that troops may be
+handled with expedition, and that the men may gather the thing, rather
+than that officers should do brilliant things, which they might
+undertake on their own responsibility in time of war, such as pushing
+rapidly by on one flank and cutting out a rear-guard.
+
+Grevious and very much to be commiserated is the task of the feeling
+historian who writes of these paper wars. He may see possibilities or
+calamities which do not signify. The morning orders provide against
+genius, and who will be able to estimate the surgical possibilities of
+blank cartridges? The sergeant-major cautioned me not to indicate by my
+actions what I saw as we rode to the top of a commanding hill. The enemy
+had abandoned the stream because their retreat would have been exposed
+to fire. They made a stand back in the hills. The advance felt the
+stream quickly, and passed, fanning out to develop. The left flank
+caught their fire, whereat the centre and right came around at top
+speed. But this is getting so serious.
+
+The scene was crowded with little pictures, all happening
+quickly--little dots of horsemen gliding quickly along the yellow
+landscape, leaving long trails of steely dust in their wake. A scout
+comes trotting along, his face set in an expectant way, carbine
+advanced. A man on a horse is a vigorous, forceful thing to look at. It
+embodies the liveliness of nature in its most attractive form,
+especially when a gun and sabre are attached.
+
+[Illustration: 23 JUMPING ON A HORSE]
+
+When both living equations are young, full of oats and bacon, imbued
+with military ideas, and trained to the hour, it always seems to me that
+the ghost of a tragedy stalks at their side. This is why the polo-player
+does not qualify sentimentally. But what is one man beside two troops
+which come shortly in two solid chunks, with horses snorting and sending
+the dry landscape in a dusty pall for a quarter of a mile in the rear?
+It is good--ah! it is worth any one's while; but stop and think, what if
+we could magnify that? Tut, tut! as I said before, that only happens
+once in a generation. Adobe doesn't dream; it simply does its morning's
+work.
+
+The rear-guard have popped at our advance, which exchanges with them.
+Their fire grows slack, and from our vantage we can see them mount
+quickly and flee.
+
+After two hours of this we shake hands with the hostiles and trot home
+to breakfast.
+
+These active, hard-riding, straight-shooting, open-order men are doing
+real work, and are not being stupefied by drill-ground routine, or
+rendered listless by file-closer prompting or sleepy reiteration.
+
+By the time the command dismounts in front of stables we turn longingly
+to the thoughts of breakfast. Every one has completely forgiven the
+Colonel, though I have no doubt he will be equally unpopular to-morrow
+morning.
+
+But what do I see--am I faint? No; it has happened again. It looks as
+though I saw a soldier jump over a horse. I moved on him.
+
+"Did I see you--" I began.
+
+"Oh yes, sir--you see," returned a little soldier, who ran with the
+mincing steps of an athlete towards his horse, and landed standing uip
+on his hind quarters, whereupon he settled down quietly into his saddle.
+
+Others began to gyrate over and under their horses in a dizzy way. Some
+had taken their saddles off and now sat on their horses' bellies, while
+the big dog-like animals lay on their backs, with their feet in the air.
+It was circus business, or what they call "short and long horse"
+work--some not understandable phrase. Every one does it. While I am not
+unaccustomed to looking at cavalry, I am being perpetually surprised by
+the lengths to which our cavalry is carrying thus Cossack drill. It is
+beginning to be nothing short of marvellous.
+
+In the old days this thing was not known. Between building mud or log
+forts, working on the bull-train, marching or fighting, a man and a gun
+made a soldier; but it takes an education along with this now before he
+can qualify.
+
+[Illustration: 24 A TAME HORSE]
+
+The regular work at Adobe went on during the day--guard mount, orders,
+inspection, and routine.
+
+At the club I was asked, "Going out this afternoon with us?"
+
+"Yes, he is going; his horse will be up at 4.30; he wants to see this
+cavalry," answered my friend the Captain for me.
+
+"Yes; it's fine moonlight. The Colonel is going to do an attack on
+Cossack posts out in the hills," said the adjutant.
+
+So at five o'clock we again sallied out in the dust, the men in the
+ranks next me silhouetting one after the other more dimly until they
+disappeared in the enveloping cloud. They were cheerful, laughing and
+wondering one to another if Captain Garrard, the enemy, would get in on
+their pickets. He was regarded in the ranks as a sharp fellow, one to be
+well looked after.
+
+At the line of hills where the Colonel stopped, the various troops were
+told off in their positions, while the long cool shadows of evening
+stole over the land, and the pale moon began to grow bolder over on the
+left flank.
+
+I sat on a hill with a sergeant who knew history and horses. He
+remembered "Pansy," which had served sixteen years in the troop--and a
+first-rate old horse then; but a damned inspector with no soul came
+browsing around one day and condemned that old horse. Government got a
+measly ten dollars--or something like that. This ran along for a time;
+when one day they were trooping up some lonely valley, and, behold,
+there stood "Pansy," as thin as a snake, tied by a wickieup. He greeted
+the troop with joyful neighs.  The soldiers asked the Captain to be
+allowed to shoot him, but of course he said no. I could not learn if he
+winked when he said it. The column wound over the hill, a carbine rang
+from its rear, and "Pansy" lay down in the dust without a kick. Death is
+better than an Indian for a horse.  The thing was not noticed at the
+time, but made a world of fuss afterwards, though how it all came out
+the sergeant did not develop, nor was it necessary.
+
+Night settled down on the quiet hills, and the dark spots of pickets
+showed dimly on the gray surface of the land. The Colonel inspected his
+line, and found everybody alert and possessed of a good working
+knowledge of picket duties at night--one of the most difficult duties
+enlisted men have to perform. It is astonishing how short is the
+distance at which we can see a picket even in this bright night on the
+open hills.
+
+I sat on my horse by a sergeant at a point in the line where I suspected
+the attack would come. The sergeant thought he saw figures moving in a
+dry bottom before us. I could not see. A column of dust off to the left
+indicated troops, but we thought it a ruse of Garrard's. My sergeant,
+though, had really seen the enemy, and said, softly, "They are coming."
+
+[Illustration: 25 THE PURSUIT]
+
+The bottom twinkled and popped with savage little yellow winks; bang!
+went a rifle in my ear; "whew!" snorted my big horse; and our picket
+went to the supports clattering.
+
+The shots and yells followed fast. The Colonel had withdrawn the
+supports towards the post rapidly, leaving his picket-line in the air--a
+thing which happens in war; but he did not lose much of that line, I
+should say.
+
+It was an interesting drill. Pestiferous little man disturbed nature,
+and it all seemed so absurd out there on those quiet gray hills. It made
+me feel, as I slowed down and gazed at the vastness of things, like a
+superior sort of bug. In the middle distance several hundred troops are
+of no more proportion than an old cow bawling through the hills after
+her wolf-eaten calf. If my mental vision were not distorted I should
+never have seen the manoeuvre at all--only the moon and the land doing
+what they have done before for so long a time.
+
+We reached Adobe rather late, when I found that the day's work had done
+wonders for my appetite. I reminded the Captain that I had broken his
+bread but once that day.
+
+"It is enough for a Ninth Cavalry man," he observed. However, I
+out-flanked this brutal disregard for established customs, but it was
+"cold."
+
+In the morning I resisted the Captain's boot, and protested that I must
+be let alone; which being so, I appeared groomed and breakfasted at a
+Christian hour, fully persuaded that as between an Indian and a Ninth
+Cavalry man I should elect to be an Indian.
+
+Some one must have disciplined the Colonel. I don't know who it was.
+There is only one woman in a post who can, generally; but no dinners
+were spoiled at Adobe by night-cat affairs.
+
+Instead, during the afternoon we were to see Captain Garrard, the
+hostile, try to save two troops which were pressed into the bend of a
+river by throwing over a bridge, while holding the enemy in check. This
+was as complicated as putting a baby to sleep while reading law; so
+clearly my point of view was with the hostiles. With them I entered the
+neck. The horses were grouped in the brush, leaving some men who were
+going underground like gophers out near the entrance. The
+brown-canvas-covered soldiers grabbed their axes, rolled their eyes
+towards the open plain, and listened expectantly.
+
+[Illustration: 26 THE ATTACK ON THE COSSACK]
+
+The clear notes of a bugle rang; whackety, bang--clack--clack, went the
+axes. Trees fell all around. The forest seemed to drop on me. I got my
+horse and fled across the creek.
+
+"That isn't fair; this stream is supposed to be impassable," sang out a
+lieutenant, who was doing a Blondin act on the first tree over, while
+beneath him yawned the chasm of four or five feet.
+
+In less than a minute the whole forest got up again and moved towards
+the bridge. There were men behind it, but the leaves concealed them.
+Logs dropped over, brush piled on top. The rifles rang in scattered
+volleys, and the enemy's fire rolled out beyond the brush. No bullets
+whistled--that was a redeeming feature.
+
+Aside from that it seemed as though every man was doing his ultimate
+act. They flew about; the shovels dug with despair; the sand covered the
+logs in a shower. While I am telling this the bridge was made.
+
+The first horse came forward, led by his rider. He raised his eyes like
+St. Anthony; he did not approve of the bridge. He put his ears forward,
+felt with his toes, squatted behind, and made nervous side steps. The
+men moved on him in a solid crowd from behind. Stepping high and short
+he then bounded over, and after him in a stream came the willing
+brothers. Out along the bluffs strung the troopers to cover the heroes
+who had held the neck, while they destroyed the bridge.
+
+Then they rode home with the enemy, chaffing each other.
+
+It is only a workaday matter, all this; but workaday stuff does the
+business nowadays.
+
+
+
+
+MASSAI'S CROOKED TRAIL
+
+
+IT is a bold person who will dare to say that a wilder savage ever lived
+than an Apache Indian, and in this respect no Apache can rival Massai.
+
+He was a _bronco_ Chiricahua whose _tequa_ tracks were so long and
+devious that all of them can never be accounted for. Three regiments of
+cavalry, all the scouts--both white and black--and Mexicans galore had
+their hack, but the ghostly presence appeared and disappeared from the
+Colorado to the Yaqui. No one can tell how Massai's face looks, or
+looked, though hundreds know the shape of his footprint.
+
+The Seventh made some little killings, but they fear that Massai was not
+among the game. There surely is or was such a person as Massai. He
+developed himself slowly, as I will show by the Sherlock Holmes methods
+of the chief of scouts, though even he only got so far, after all.
+Massai manifested himself like the dust-storm or the morning mist--a
+shiver in the air, and gone.
+
+The chief walked his horse slowly back on the lost trail in disgust,
+while the scouts bobbed along behind perplexed. It was always so. Time
+has passed, and Massai, indeed, seems gone, since he appears no more.
+The hope in the breasts of countless men is nearly blighted; they no
+longer expect to see Massai's head brought into camp done up in an old
+shirt and dropped triumphantly on the ground in front of the chief of
+scouts' tent, so it is time to preserve what trail we can.
+
+Three troops of the Tenth had gone into camp for the night, and the
+ghostly Montana landscape hummed with the murmur of many men. Supper was
+over, and I got the old Apache chief of scouts behind his own ducking,
+and demanded what he knew of an Apache Indian down in Arizona named
+Massai. He knew all or nearly all that any white man will ever know.
+
+"All right," said the chief, as he lit a cigar and tipped his sombrero
+over his left eye, "but let me get it straight. Massai's trail was so
+crooked, I had to study nights to keep it arranged in my head. He didn't
+leave much more trail than a buzzard, anyhow, and it took years to
+unravel it. But I am anticipating.
+
+"I was chief of scouts at Apache in the fall of '90, when word was
+brought in that an Indian girl named Natastale had disappeared, and that
+her mother was found under a walnut-tree with a bullet through her body.
+I immediately sent Indian scouts to take the trail. They found the
+tracks of a mare and colt going by the spot, and thinking it would bring
+them to the girl, they followed it. Shortly they found a moccasin track
+where a man had dismounted from the mare, and without paying more
+attention to the horse track, they followed it. They ran down one of my
+own scouts in a _tiswin_ [An intoxicating beverage made of corn] camp,
+where he was carousing with other drinkers. They sprang on him, got him
+by the hair, disarmed and bound him. Then they asked him what he had
+done with the girl, and why he had killed the mother, to which he
+replied that 'he did not know.' When he was brought to me, about dark,
+there was intense excitement among the Indians, who crowded around
+demanding Indian justice on the head of the murderer and ravisher of the
+women. In order to save his life I took him from the Indians and lodged
+him in the post guard-house. On the following morning, in order to
+satisfy myself positively that this man had committed the murder, I sent
+my first sergeant, the famous Mickey Free, with a picked party of
+trailers, back to the walnut-tree, with orders to go carefully over the
+trail and run down the mare and colt, or find the girl, dead or alive,
+wherever they might.
+
+[Illustration: 27 NATASTALE]
+
+"In two hours word was sent to me that the trail was running to the
+north. They had found the body of the colt with its throat cut, and were
+following the mare. The trail showed that a man afoot was driving the
+mare, and the scouts thought the girl was on the mare. This proved that
+we had the wrong man in custody. I therefore turned him loose, telling
+him he was all right. In return he told me that he owned the mare and
+colt, and that when he passed the tree the girl was up in its branches,
+shaking down nuts which her old mother was gathering. He had ridden
+along, and about an hour afterwards had heard a shot. He turned his mare
+loose, and proceeded on foot to the _tiswin_ camp, where he heard later
+that the old woman had been shot and the girl 'lifted.' When arrested,
+he knew that the other scouts had trailed him from the walnut-tree; he
+saw the circumstances against him, and was afraid.
+
+"On the night of the second day Mickey Free's party returned, having run
+the trail to within a few hundred yards of the camp of Alcashay in the
+Forestdale country, between whose band and the band to which the girl
+belonged there was a blood-feud. They concluded that the murderer
+belonged to Alcashay's camp, and were afraid to engage him.
+
+[Illustration: 28 THE ARREST OF THE SCOUT]
+
+"I sent for Alcashay to come in immediately, which he did, and I
+demanded that he trail the man and deliver him up to me, or I would take
+my scout corps, go to his camp, and arrest all suspicious characters. He
+stoutly denied that the man was in his camp, promised to do as I
+directed, and, to further allay any suspicions, he asked for my picked
+trailers to help run the trail. With this body of men he proceeded on
+the track, and they found that it ran right around his camp, then turned
+sharply to the east, ran within two hundred yards of a stage-ranch,
+thence into some rough mountain country, where it twisted and turned for
+forty miles. At this point they found the first camp the man had made.
+He had tied the girl to a tree by the feet, which permitted her to sleep
+on her back; the mare had been killed, some steaks taken out, and some
+meat 'jerked.' From thence on they could find no trail which they could
+follow. At long intervals they found his moccasin mark between rocks,
+but after circling for miles they gave it up. In this camp they found
+and brought to me a fire-stick--the first and only one I had ever
+seen--and they told me that the fire-stick had not been used by Apaches
+for many years. There were only a few old men in my camp who were
+familiar with its use, though one managed to light his cigarette with
+it. They reasoned from this that the man was a bronco Indian who had
+been so long 'out' that he could not procure matches, and also that he
+was a much wilder one than any of the Indians then known to be outlawed.
+
+"In about a week there was another Indian girl stolen from one of my
+hay-camps, and many scouts thought it was the same Indian, who they
+decided was one of the well-known outlaws; but older and better men did
+not agree with them; so there the matter rested for some months.
+
+"In the spring the first missing girl rode into Fort Apache on a fine
+horse, which was loaded down with buckskins and other Indian finery. Two
+cowboys followed her shortly and claimed the pony, which bore a C C C
+brand, and I gave it up to them. I took the girl into my office, for she
+was so tired that she could hardly stand up, while she was haggard and
+worn to the last degree. When she had sufficiently recovered she told me
+her story. She said she was up in the walnut-tree when an Indian shot
+her mother, and coming up, forced her to go with him. He trailed and
+picked up the mare, bound her on its back, and drove it along. The colt
+whinnied, whereupon he cut its throat. He made straight for Alcashay's
+camp, which he circled, and then turned sharply to the east, where he
+made the big twisting through the mountains which my scouts found. After
+going all night and the next day, he made the first camp. After killing
+and cooking the mare, he gave her something to eat, tied her up by the
+feet, and standing over her, told her that he was getting to be an old
+man, was tired of making his own fires, and wanted a woman. If she was a
+good girl he would not kill her, but would treat her well and always
+have venison hanging up. He continued that he was going away for a few
+hours, and would come back and kill her if she tried to undo the cords;
+but she fell asleep while he was talking. After daylight he returned,
+untied her, made her climb on his back, and thus carried her for a long
+distance. Occasionally he made her alight where the ground was hard,
+telling her if she made any 'sign' he would kill her, which made her
+careful of her steps.
+
+"After some miles of this blinding of the trail they came upon a white
+horse that was tied to a tree. They mounted double, and rode all day as
+fast as he could lash the pony, until, near nightfall, it fell from
+exhaustion, whereupon he killed it and cooked some of the carcass. The
+bronco Indian took himself off for a couple of hours, and when he
+returned, brought another horse, which they mounted, and sped onward
+through the moonlight all night long. On that morning they were in the
+high mountains, the poor pony suffering the same fate as the others.
+
+"They stayed here two days, he tying her up whenever he went hunting,
+she being so exhausted after the long flight that she lay comatose in
+her bonds. From thence they journeyed south slowly, keeping to the high
+mountains, and only once did he speak, when he told her that a certain
+mountain pass was the home of the Chiricahuas. From the girl's account
+she must have gone far south into the Sierra Madre of Old Mexico, though
+of course she was long since lost.
+
+"He killed game easily, she tanned the hides, and they lived as man and
+wife. Day by day they threaded their way through the deep canons and
+over the Blue Mountain ranges. By this time he had become fond of the
+White Mountain girl, and told her that he was Massai, a Chiricahua
+warrior; that he had been arrested after the Geronimo war and sent East
+on the railroad over two years since, but had escaped one night from the
+train, and had made his way alone back to his native deserts. Since then
+it is known that an Indian did turn up missing, but it was a big band of
+prisoners, and some births had occurred, which made the checking off
+come straight. He was not missed at the time. From what the girl said,
+he must have got off east of Kansas City and travelled south and then
+west, till at last he came to the lands of the Mescalero Apaches, where
+he stayed for some time. He was over a year making this journey, and
+told the girl that no human eye ever saw him once in that time. This is
+all he ever told the girl Natastale, and she was afraid to ask him more.
+Beyond these mere facts, it is still a midnight prowl of a human coyote
+through a settled country for twelve hundred miles, the hardihood of the
+undertaking being equalled only by the instinct which took him home.
+
+[Illustration: 29 SCOUTS]
+
+"Once only while the girl was with him did they see sign of other
+Indians, and straightway Massai turned away--his wild nature shunning
+even the society of his kind.
+
+"At times 'his heart was bad,' and once he sat brooding for a whole day,
+finally telling her that he was going into a bad country to kill
+Mexicans, that women were a burden on a warrior, and that he had made up
+his mind to kill her. All through her narrative he seemed at times to be
+overcome with this blood-thirst, which took the form of a homicidal
+melancholia. She begged so hard for her life that he relented; so he
+left her in the wild tangle of mountains while he raided on the Mexican
+settlements. He came back with horses and powder and lead. This last was
+in Winchester bullets, which he melted up and recast into .50-calibre
+balls made in moulds of cactus sticks. He did not tell how many murders
+he had committed during these raids, but doubtless many.
+
+"They lived that winter through in the Sierras, and in the spring
+started north, crossing the railroad twice, which meant the Guaymas and
+the Southern Pacific. They sat all one day on a high mountain and
+watched the trains of cars go by; but 'his heart got bad' at the sight
+of them, and again he concluded to kill the girl. Again she begged off,
+and they continued up the range of the Mogollons. He was unhappy in his
+mind during all this journey, saying men were scarce up here, that he
+must go back to Mexico and kill some one.
+
+"He was tired of the woman, and did not want her to go back with him,
+so, after sitting all day on a rock while she besought him, the old wolf
+told her to go home in peace. But the girl was lost, and told him that
+either the Mexicans or Americans would kill her if she departed from
+him; so his mood softened, and telling her to come on, he began the
+homeward journey. They passed through a small American town in the
+middle of the night--he having previously taken off the Indian rawhide
+shoes from the ponies. They crossed the Gila near the Nau Taw Mountains.
+Here he stole two fresh horses, and loading one with all the buckskins,
+he put her on and headed her down the Eagle Trail to Black River. She
+now knew where she was, but was nearly dying from the exhaustion of his
+fly-by-night expeditions. He halted her, told her to 'tell the white
+officer that she was a pretty good girl, better than the San Carlos
+woman, and that he would come again and get another.' He struck her
+horse and was gone.
+
+[Illustration: 30 THE CHIEF OF SCOUTS]
+
+"Massai then became a problem to successive chiefs of scouts, a bugbear
+to the reservation Indians, and a terror to Arizona. If a man was killed
+or a woman missed, the Indians came galloping and the scouts lay on his
+trail. If he met a woman in the defiles, he stretched her dead if she
+did not please his errant fancy. He took pot-shots at the men ploughing
+in their little fields, and knocked the Mexican bull-drivers on the head
+as they plodded through the blinding dust of the Globe Road. He even sat
+like a vulture on the rim-rock and signalled the Indians to come out and
+talk. When two Indians thus accosted did go out, they found themselves
+looking down Mas-sai's.50-calibre, and were tempted to do his bidding.
+He sent one in for sugar and coffee, holding the brother, for such he
+happened to be, as a hostage till the sugar and coffee came. Then he
+told them that he was going behind a rock to lie down, cautioning them
+not to move for an hour. That was an unnecessary bluff, for they did not
+wink an eye till sundown. Later than this he stole a girl in broad
+daylight in the face of a San Carlos camp and dragged her up the rocks.
+Here he was attacked by fifteen or twenty bucks, whom he stood off until
+darkness. When they reached his lair in the morning, there lay the dead
+girl, but Massai was gone.
+
+"I never saw Massai but once, and then it was only a piece of his G
+string flickering in the brush. We had followed his trail half the
+night, and just at daylight, as we ascended a steep part of the
+mountains, I caught sight of a pony's head looking over a bush. We
+advanced rapidly, only to find the horse grunting from a stab wound in
+the belly, and the little camp scattered around about him. The shirt
+tail flickering in the brush was all of Massai. We followed on, but he
+had gone down a steep bluff. We went down too, thus exposing ourselves
+to draw his fire so that we could locate him, but he was not tempted.
+
+"The late Lieutenant Clark had much the same view of this mountain
+outlaw, and since those days two young men of the Seventh Cavalry, Rice
+and Averill, have on separate occasions crawled on his camp at the break
+of day, only to see Massai go out of sight in the brush like a blue
+quail.
+
+"Lieutenant Averill, after a forced march of eighty-six miles, reached a
+hostile camp near morning, after climbing his detachment, since
+midnight, up the almost inaccessible rocks, in hopes of surprising the
+camp. He divided his force into three parts, and tried, as well as
+possible, to close every avenue of escape; but as the camp was on a high
+rocky hill at the junction of four deep canons, this was found
+impracticable. At daylight the savages came out together, running like
+deer, and making for the canons. The soldiers fired, killing a buck and
+accidentally wounding a squaw, but Massai simply disappeared.
+
+"That's the story of Massai. It is not as long as his trail," said the
+chief of scouts.
+
+
+
+
+JOSHUA GOODENOUGH'S OLD LETTER
+
+
+THE following letter has come into my possession, which I publish
+because it is history, and descends to the list of those humble beings
+who builded so well for us the institutions which we now enjoy in this
+country. It is yellow with age, and much frayed out at the foldings,
+being in those spots no longer discernible. It runs:
+
+ALBANY _June_ 1798.
+
+TO MY DEAR SON JOSEPH.--It is true that there are points in the history
+of the country in which your father had a concern in his early life, and
+as you ask me to put it down I will do so briefly. Not, however, my dear
+Joseph, as I was used to tell it to you when you were a lad, but with
+more exact truth, for I am getting on in my years and this will soon be
+all that my posterity will have of their ancestor. I conceive that now
+the descendents of the noble band of heroes who fought off the indians,
+the Frenche and the British will prevail in this country, and my
+children's children may want to add what is found here in written to
+their own achievements.
+
+To begin with, my father was the master of a fishing-schooner, of
+Marblehead. In the year 1745 he was taken at sea by a French man-of-war
+off Louisbourg, after making a desperate resistence. His ship was in a
+sinking condition and the blood was mid-leg deep on her deck. Your
+grandfather was an upstanding man and did not prostrate easily, but the
+Frencher was too big, so he was captured and later found his way as a
+prisoner to Quebec. He was exchanged by a mistake in his identity for
+Huron indians captivated in York, and he subsequently settled near
+Albany, afterwards bringing my mother, two sisters, and myself from
+Marblehead.
+
+He engaged in the indian trade, and as I was a rugged lad of my years I
+did often accompany him on his expeditions westward into the Mohawk
+townes, thus living in bark camps among Indians and got thereby a
+knowledge of their ways. I made shift also to learn their language, and
+what with living in the bush for so many years I was a hand at a pack or
+paddle and no mean hunter besides. I was put to school for two seasons
+in Albany which was not to my liking, so I straightway ran off to a
+hunters camp up the Hudson, and only came back when my father would say
+that I should not be again put with the pedegogue. For this adventure I
+had a good strapping from my father, and was set to work in his trade
+again.  My mother was a pious woman and did not like me to grow up in
+the wilderness--for it was the silly fashion of those times to ape the
+manners and dress of the Indians.
+
+My father was a shifty trader and very ventur-some. He often had trouble
+with the people in these parts, who were Dutch and were jealous of him.
+He had a violent temper and was not easily bent from his purpose by
+opporsition. His men had a deal of fear of him and good cause enough in
+the bargain, for I once saw him discipline a half-negro man who was one
+of his boat-men for stealing his private jug of liquor from his private
+pack. He clinched with the negro and soon had him on the ground, where
+the man struggled manfully but to no purpose, for your grandfather soon
+had him at his mercy. "Now," said he, "give me the jug or take the
+consequences." The other boat paddlers wanted to rescue him, but I
+menaced them with my fusil and the matter ended by the return of the
+jug.
+
+In 1753 he met his end at the hands of western Indians in the French
+interest, who shot him as he was helping to carry a battoe, and he was
+burried in the wilderness. My mother then returned to her home in
+Massassachusetts, journeying with a party of traders but I staid with
+the Dutch on these frontiers because I had learned the indian trade and
+liked the country. Not having any chances, I had little book learning in
+my youth, having to this day a regret concerning it. I read a few books,
+but fear I had a narrow knowledge of things outside the Dutch
+settlements. On the frontiers, for that matter, few people had much
+skill with the pen, nor was much needed. The axe and rifle, the paddle
+and pack being more to our hands in those rough days. To prosper though,
+men weare shrewd-headed enough. I have never seen that books helped
+people to trade sharper. Shortly afterwards our trade fell away, for the
+French had embroiled the Indians against us. Crown Point was the Place
+from which the Indians in their interest had been fitted out to go
+against our settlements, so a design was formed by His Majesty the
+British King to dispossess them of that place. Troops were levid in the
+Province and the war began. The Frenchers had the best of the fighting.
+
+Our frontiers were beset with the Canada indians so that it was not safe
+to go about in the country at all. I was working for Peter Vrooman, a
+trader, and was living at his house on the Mohawk. One Sunday morning I
+found a negro boy who was shot through the body with two balls as he was
+hunting for stray sheep, and all this within half a mile of Vrooman's
+house. Then an express came up the valley who left word that the
+Province was levying troops at Albany to fight the French, and I took my
+pay from Vrooman saying that I would go to Albany for a soldier. Another
+young man and myself paddled down to Albany, and we both enlisted in the
+York levies. We drawed our ammunition, tents, kettles, bowls and knives
+at the Albany flats, and were drilled by an officer who had been in her
+Majesty's Service. One man was given five hundred lashes for enlisting
+in some Connecticut troops, and the orders said that any man who should
+leave His Majesty's service without a Regular discharge should suffer
+Death. The restraint which was put upon me by this military life was not
+to my liking, and I was in a mortal dread of the whippings which men
+were constantly receiving for breaches of the discipline. I felt that I
+could not survive the shame of being trussed up and lashed before men's
+eyes, but I did also have a great mind to fight the French which kept me
+along.  One day came an order to prepare a list of officers and men who
+were willing to go scouting and be freed from other duty, and after some
+time I got my name put down, for I was thought too young, but I said I
+knew the woods, had often been to Andiatirocte (or Lake George as it had
+then become the fashion to call it) and they let me go. It was dangerous
+work, for reports came every day of how our Rangers suffered up country
+at the hands of the cruel savages from Canada, but it is impossible to
+play at bowls without meeting some rubs. A party of us proceeded up
+river to join Captain Rogers at Fort Edward, and we were put to camp on
+an Island. This was in October of the year 1757. We found the Rangers
+were rough borderers like ourselvs, mostly Hampshire men well used to
+the woods and much accustomed to the Enemy. They dressed in the fashion
+of those times in skin and grey duffle hunting frocks, and were well
+armed.  Rogers himself was a doughty man and had a reputation as a bold
+Ranger leader. The men declaired that following him was sore service,
+but that he most always met with great success. The Fort was garrissoned
+by His Majesty's soldiers, and I did not conceive that they were much
+fitted for bush-ranging, which I afterwards found to be the case, but
+they would always fight well enough, though often to no good purpose,
+which was not their fault so much as the headstrong leadership which
+persisted in making them come to close quarters while at a disadvantage.
+There were great numbers of pack horses coming and going with stores,
+and many officers in gold lace and red coats were riding about directing
+here and there. I can remember that I had a great interest in this
+concourse of men, for up to that time I had not seen much of the world
+outside of the wilderness. There was terror of the Canada indians who
+had come down to our borders hunting for scalps--for these were
+continually lurking near the cantanements to waylay the unwary. I had
+got acquainted with a Hampshire borderer who had passed his life on the
+Canada frontier, where he had fought indians and been captured by them.
+I had seen much of indians and knew their silent forest habits when
+hunting, so that I felt that when they were after human beings they
+would be no mean adversaries, but I had never hunted them or they me.
+
+[Illustration: 31 NOT MUCH FITTED FOR BUSH-RANGING]
+
+I talked at great length with this Shankland, or Shanks as he was called
+on account of his name and his long legs, in course of which he
+explained many useful points to me concerning Ranger ways. He said they
+always marched until it was quite dark before encamping--that they
+always returned by a different route from that on which they went out,
+and that they circled on their trail at intervals so that they might
+intercept any one coming on their rear. He told me not to gather up
+close to other Rangers in a fight but to keep spread out, which gave the
+Enemy less mark to fire upon and also deceived them as to your own
+numbers. Then also he cautioned me not to fire on the Enemy when we were
+in ambush till they have approached quite near, which will put them in
+greater surprise and give your own people time to rush in on them with
+hatchets or cutlasses.  Shanks and I had finally a great fancy for each
+other and passed most of our time in company. He was a slow man in his
+movements albeit he could move fast enough on occassion, and was a great
+hand to take note of things happening around him. No indian was better
+able to discern a trail in the bush than he, nor could one be found his
+equal at making snow shoes, carving a powder horn or fashioning any
+knick-nack he was a mind to set his hand to.
+
+The Rangers were accustomed to scout in small parties to keep the Canada
+indians from coming close to Fort Edward. I had been out with Shanks on
+minor occasions, but I must relate my first adventure.
+
+A party... (here the writing is lost)... was desirous of taking a
+captive or scalp. I misdoubted our going alone by ourselvs, but he said
+we were as safe as with more. We went northwest slowly for two days, and
+though we saw many old trails we found none which were fresh. We had
+gone on until night when we lay bye near a small brook. I was awakened
+by Shanks in the night and heard a great howling of wolves at some
+distance off togther with a gun shot. We lay awake until daybreak and at
+intervals heard a gun fired all though the night. We decided that the
+firing could not come from a large party and so began to approach the
+sound slowly and with the greatest caution. We could not understand why
+the wolves should be so bold with the gun firing, but as we came neare
+we smelled smoke and knew it was a camp-fire. There were a number of
+wolves running about in the underbrush from whose actions we located the
+camp. From a rise we could presently see it, and were surprised to find
+it contained five Indians all lying asleep in their blankets. The wolves
+would go right up to the camp and yet the indians did not deign to give
+them any notice whatsoever, or even to move in the least when one wolf
+pulled at the blanket of a sleeper. We each selected a man when we had
+come near enough, and preparing to deliver our fire, when of a sudden
+one figure rose up slightly. We nevertheless fired and then rushed
+forward, reloading. To our astonishment none of the figures moved in the
+least but the wolves scurried off. We were advancing cautiously when
+Shanks caught me by the arm saying "we must run, that they had all died
+of the small-pox," and run we did lustilly for a good long distance.
+After this manner did many Indians die in the wilderness from that
+dreadful disease, and I have since supposed that the last living indian
+had kept firing his gun at the wolves until he had no longer strength to
+reload his piece.
+
+[Illustration: 32 THE MARCH OF ROGERS'S RANGERS]
+
+After this Shanks and I had become great friends for he had liked the
+way I had conducted myself on this expedition. He was always ar-guying
+with me to cut off my eel-skin que which I wore after the fashion of the
+Dutch folks, saying that the Canada indians would parade me for a
+Dutchman after that token was gone with my scalp. He had.... (writing
+obliterated).
+
+Early that winter I was one of 150 Rangers who marched with Captain
+Rogers against the Enemy at Carrillion. The snow was not deep at
+starting but it continued to snow until it was heavy footing and many of
+the men gave out and returned to Fort Edward, but notwithstanding my
+exhaustion I continued on for six days until we were come to within six
+hundred yards of Carrillion Fort. The captain had made us a speech in
+which he told us the points where we were to rendevoux if we were broke
+in the fight, for further resistence until night came on, when we could
+take ourselvs off as best we might. I was with the advance guard. We lay
+in ambush in some fallen timber quite close to a road, from which we
+could see the smoke from the chimneys of the Fort and the Gentries
+walking their beats. A French soldier was seen to come from the Fort and
+the word was passed to let him go bye us, as he came down the road. We
+lay perfectly still not daring to breathe, and though he saw nothing he
+stopped once and seemed undecided as to going on, but suspecting nothing
+he continued and was captured by our people below, for prisoners were
+wanted at Headquarters to give information of the French forces and
+intentions. A man taken in this way was threatened with Death if he did
+not tell the whole truth, which under the circumstancs he mostly did to
+save his life.
+
+The French did not come out of the Fort after us, though Rogers tried to
+entice them by firing guns and showing small parties of men which
+feigned to retreat. We were ordered to destroy what we could of the
+supplies, so Shanks and I killed a small cow which we found in the edge
+of the clearing and took off some fresh beef of which food we were sadly
+in need, for on these scouts the Rangers were not permitted to fire guns
+at game though it was found in thir path, as it often was in fact. I can
+remember on one occassion that I stood by a tree in a snow storm, with
+my gun depressed under my frock the better to keep it dry, when I was
+minded to glance quickly around and there saw a large wolf just ready to
+spring upon me. I cautiously presented my fusee but did not dare to fire
+against the orders. An other Ranger came shortly into view and the wolf
+took himself off. We burned some large wood piles, which no doubt made
+winter work for to keep some Frenchers at home. They only fired some
+cannon at us, which beyond a great deal of noise did no harm. We then
+marched back to Fort Edward and were glad enough to get there, since it
+was time for snow-shoes, which we had not with us.
+
+The Canada indians were coming down to our Forts and even behind them to
+intercept our convoys or any parties out on the road, so that the
+Rangers were kept out, to head them when they could, or get knowledge of
+their whereabouts. Shanks and I went out with two Mohegon indians on a
+scout. It was exceedingly stormy weather and very heavy travelling
+except on the River. I had got a bearskin blanket from the indians which
+is necessary to keep out the cold at this season. We had ten days of
+bread, pork and rum with a little salt with us, and followed the indians
+in a direction North-and-bye-East towards the lower end of Lake
+Champlain, always keeping to the high-ground with the falling snow to
+fill our tracks behind us. For four days we travelled when we were well
+up the west side. We had crossed numbers of trails but they were all
+full of old snow and not worth regarding--still we were so far from our
+post that in event of encountering any numbers of the Enemy we had but
+small hope of a safe return and had therefore to observe the greatest
+caution.
+
+As we were making our way an immense painter so menaced us that we were
+forced to fire our guns to dispatch him. He was found to be very old,
+his teeth almost gone, and was in the last stages of starvation. We were
+much alarmed at this misadventure, fearing the Enemy might hear us or
+see the ravens gathering above, so we crossed the Lake that night on
+some new ice to blind our trail, where I broke through in one place and
+was only saved by Shanks, who got hold of my eel-skin que, thereby
+having something to pull me out with. We got into a deep gully, and
+striking flint made a fire to dry me and I did not suffer much
+inconvenience.
+
+The day following we took a long circle and came out on the lower end of
+the Lake, there laying two days in ambush, watching the Lake for any
+parties coming or going. Before dark a Mohigon came in from watch
+saying that men were coming down the Lake. We gathered at the point and
+saw seven of the Enemy come slowly on. There were three indians two
+Canadians and a French officer. Seeing they would shortly pass under our
+point of land we made ready to fire, and did deliver one fire as they
+came nigh, but the guns of our Mohigons failed to explode, they being
+old and well nigh useless, so that all the damage we did was to kill one
+indian and wound a Canadian, who was taken in hand by his companions who
+made off down the shore and went into the bush. We tried to head them
+unsuccessfully, and after examining the guns of our indians we feared
+they were so disabled that we gave up and retreated down the Lake,
+travelling all night. Near morning we saw a small fire which we spied
+out only to find a large party of the Enemy, whereat we were much
+disturbed, for our travelling had exhausted us and we feared the pursuit
+of a fresh enemy as soon as morning should come to show them our trail.
+We then made our way as fast as possible until late that night, when we
+laid down for refreshment. We built no fire but could not sleep for fear
+of the Enemy for it was a bright moonlight, and sure enough we had been
+there but a couple of hours when we saw the Enemy coming on our track.
+We here abandoned our bear-skins with what provissions we had left and
+ran back on our trail toward the advancing party. It was dark in the
+forest and we hoped they might not discover our back track for some
+time, thus giving us a longer start. This ruse was successful. After
+some hours travel I became so exhausted that I stopped to rest, whereat
+the Mohigans left us, but Shanks bided with me, though urging me to move
+forward. After a time I got strength to move on. Shanks said the
+Canadians would come up with us if we did not make fast going of it, and
+that they would disembowel us or tie us to a tree and burn us as was
+their usual way, for we could in no wise hope to make head against so
+large a party. Thus we walked steadily till high noon, when my wretched
+strength gave out so that I fell down saying I had as leave die there as
+elsewhere. Shanks followed back on our trail, while I fell into a drouse
+but was so sore I could not sleep. After a time I heard a shot, and
+shortly two more, when Shanks came running back to me. He had killed an
+advancing indian and stopped them for a moment. He kicked me vigorously,
+telling me to come on, as the Indians would soon come on again. I got
+up, and though I could scarcely move I was minded diligently to
+persevere after Shanks. Thus we staggered on until near night time, when
+we again stopped and I fell into a deep sleep, but the enemy did not
+again come up. On the following day we got into Fort Edward, where I was
+taken with a distemper, was seized with very grevious pains in the head
+and back and a fever. They let blood and gave me a physic, but I did not
+get well around for some time. For this sickness I have always been
+thankful, otherwise I should have been with Major Rogers in his
+unfortunate battle, which has become notable enough, where he was
+defeated by the Canadians and Indians and lost nigh all his private men,
+only escaping himself by a miracle. We mourned the loss of many friends
+who were our comrades, though it was not the fault of any one, since the
+Enemy had three times the number of the Rangers and hemmed them in. Some
+of the Rangers had surrendered under promise of Quarter, but we
+afterwards heard that they were tied to trees and hacked to death
+because the indians had found a scalp in the breast of a man's hunting
+frock, thus showing that we could never expect such bloody minded
+villiains to keep their promises of Quarter.
+
+I was on several scouts against them that winter but encountered nothing
+worthy to relate excepting the hardships which fell to a Ranger's lot.
+In June the Army having been gathered we proceeded under Abercromby up
+the Lake to attack Ticonderoga. I thought at the time that so many men
+must be invincible, but since the last war I have been taught to know
+different. There were more Highlanders, Grenadiers, Provincial troops,
+Artillery and Rangers than the eye could compass, for the Lake was black
+with their battoes. This concourse proceeded to Ticondaroga where we had
+a great battle and lost many men, but to no avail since we were forced
+to return.
+
+The British soldiers were by this time made servicible for forest
+warfare, since the officers and men had been forced to rid themselvs of
+their useless incumbrances and had cut off the tails of their long coats
+till they scarcely reached below thir middles--they had also left the
+women at the Fort, browned thir gun barrells and carried thir provisions
+on their backs, each man enough for himself, as was our Ranger custom.
+The army was landed at the foot of the Lake, where the Rangers quickly
+drove off such small bodies of Frenchers and Indians as opposed us, and
+we began our march by the rapids. Rogers men cleared the way and had a
+most desperate fight with some French who were minded to stop us, but we
+shortly killed and captured most of them. We again fell in with them
+that afternoon and were challenged Qui vive but answered that we were
+French, but they were not deceived and fired upon us, after which a hot
+skirmish insued during which Lord Howe was shot through the breast, for
+which we were all much depressed, because he was our real leader and had
+raised great hopes of success for us. The Rangers had liked him because
+he was wont to spend much time talking with them in thir camps and used
+also to go on scouts.  The Rangers were not over fond of British
+officers in general.
+
+[Illustration: 33 THE STORMING OF TICONDEROGA]
+
+When the time had come for battle we Rangers moved forward, accompanied
+by the armed boatmen and the Provincial troops. We drove in the French
+pickets and came into the open where the trees were felled tops toward
+us in a mighty abbatis, as though blown down by the wind. It was all we
+could undertake to make our way through the mass, and all the while the
+great breast-works of the French belched cannon and musket balls while
+the limbs and splinters flew around us. Then out of the woods behind us
+issued the heavy red masses of the British troops advancing in battle
+array with purpose to storm with the bayonet. The maze of fallen trees
+with their withered leaves hanging broke their ranks, and the French
+Retrenchment blazed fire and death. They advanced bravely up but all to
+no good purpose, and hundreds there met their death. My dear Joseph I
+have the will but not the way to tell you all I saw that awful
+afternoon. I have since been in many battles and skirmishes, but I never
+have witnessed such slaughter and such wild fighting as the British
+storm of Ticondaroga. We became mixed up--Highlanders, Grenadiers, Light
+Troops, Rangers and all, and we beat against that mass of logs and maze
+of fallen timber and we beat in vain. I was once carried right up to
+the breastwork, but we were stopped by the bristling mass of sharpened
+branches, while the French fire swept us front and flank. The ground was
+covered deep with dying men, and as I think it over now I can remember
+nothing but the fruit bourne by the tree of war, for I looked upon so
+many wonderous things that July day that I could not set them downe at
+all. We drew off after seeing that human valor could not take that work.
+We Rangers then skirmished with the French colony troops and the Canada
+indians until dark while our people rescued the wounded, and then we
+fell back. The Army was utterly demoralized and made a headlong retreat,
+during which many wounded men were left to die in the woods. Shanks and
+I paddled a light bark canoe down the Lake next day, in the bottom of
+which lay a wounded British officer attended by his servant.
+
+[Illustration: 34 PADDLING THE WOUNDED BRITISH OFFICER]
+
+I took my discharge, and lived until the following Spring with Vrooman
+at German Flats, when I had a desire to go again to the more active
+service of the Rangers, for living in camps and scouting,
+notwithstanding its dangers, was agreeable to my taste in those days. So
+back to Albany I started, and there met Major Rogers, whom I acquainted
+with my desire to again join his service, whereat he seemed right glad
+to put me downe. I accordingly journeyed to Crown Point, where I went
+into camp. I had bought me a new fire-lock at Albany which was provided
+with a bayonet. It was short, as is best fitted for the bush, and about
+45 balls to the pound. I had shot it ten times on trial and it had not
+failed to discharge at each pull. There was a great change in the
+private men of the Rangers, so many old ones had been frost bitten and
+gone home. I found my friend Shanks, who had staid though he had been
+badly frosted during the winter. He had such a hate of the Frenchers and
+particularly of the Canada Indians that he would never cease to fight
+them, they having killed all his relatives in New Hampshire which made
+him bitter against them, he always saying that they might as well kill
+him and thus make an end of the family.
+
+In June I went north down Champlain with 250 Rangers and Light Infantry
+in sloop-vessels.
+
+The Rangers were.... (writing lost).... but it made no difference. The
+party was landed on the west side of the Lake near Isle au Noix and lay
+five days in the bush, it raining hard all the time. I was out with a
+recoinnoitering party to watch the Isle, and very early in the morning
+we saw the French coming to our side in boats, whereat we acquainted
+Major Rogers that the French were about to attack us. We were drawn up
+in line to await their coming. The forest always concealed a Ranger
+line, so that there might not have been a man within a hundred miles for
+all that could be seen, and so it was that an advance party of the Enemy
+walked into our line and were captured, which first appraised the French
+of our position. They shortly attacked us on our left, but I was sent
+with a party to make our way through a swamp in order to attack their
+rear. This we accomplished so quietly that we surprized some Canada
+indians who were lying back of the French line listening to a prophet
+who was incanting. These we slew, and after our firing many French
+grenadiers came running past, when they broke before our line. I took a
+Frenchman prisoner, but he kept his bayonet pointed at me, all the time
+yelling in French which I did not understand, though I had my loaded gun
+pointed at him. He seemed to be disturbed at the sight of a scalp which
+I had hanging in my belt. I had lately took it from the head of an
+Indian, it being my first, but I was not minded to kill the poor
+Frenchman and was saying so in English. He put down his fire-lock
+finally and offered me his flask to drink liquor with him, but I did not
+use it. I had known that Shanks carried poisoned liquor in his pack,
+with the hope that it would destroy any indians who might come into
+possession of it, if he was taken, whether alive or dead. As I was
+escorting the Frenchman back to our boats he quickly ran away from me,
+though I snapped my fire-lock at him, which failed to explode, it having
+become wet from the rain. Afterwards I heard that a Ranger had shot him,
+seeing him running in the bush.
+
+[Illustration: 35 THE CAPTURE OF THE FRENCH GRENADIER]
+
+We went back to our boats after this victory and took all our wounded
+and dead with us, which last we buried on an island. Being joined by a
+party of Stockbridge Indians we were again landed, and after marching
+for some days came to a road where we recoinnoitered St. John's Fort but
+did not attack it, Rogers judging it not to be takeable with our force.
+From here we began to march so fast that only the strongest men could
+keep up, and at day-break came to another Fort. We ran into the gate
+while a hay-waggon was passing through, and surprised and captured all
+the garrison, men women and children. After we had burned and destroyed
+everything we turned the women and children adrift, but drove the men
+along as prisoners, making them carry our packs. We marched so fast that
+the French grenadiers could not keep up, for their breeches were too
+tight for them to march with ease, whereat we cut off the legs of them
+with our knives, when they did better.
+
+After this expedition we scouted from Crown Point in canoes, Shanks and
+myself going as far north as we dared toward Isle au Noix, and one day
+while lying on the bank we saw the army coming. It was an awesome sight
+to see so many boats filled with brave uniforms, as they danced over the
+waves. The Rangers and Indians came a half a mile ahead of the Army in
+whale-boats all in line abreast, while behind them came the light
+Infantry and Grenadiers with Provincial troops on the flanks and
+Artillery and Store boats bringing up the Rear.
+
+Shanks and I fell in with the Ranger boats, being yet in our small bark
+and much hurled about by the waves, which rolled prodigious.
+
+The Army continued up the Lake and drove the Frenchers out of their
+Forts, they not stopping to resist us till we got to Chamblee, where we
+staid. But the French in Canada had all surrendered to the British and
+the war was over. This ended my service as a Ranger in those parts. I
+went back to Vroomans intending to go again into the indian trade, for
+now we hoped that the French would no longer be able to stop our
+enterprises.
+
+Now my dear son--I will send you this long letter, and will go on
+writing of my later life in the Western country and in the War of
+Independence, and will send you those letters as soon as I have them
+written. I did not do much or occupy a commanding position, but I served
+faithfully in what I had to do. For the present God bless you my dear
+son.
+
+JOSHUA GOODENOUGH.
+
+
+
+
+CRACKER COWBOYS OF FLORIDA
+
+
+ONE can thresh the straw of history until he is well worn out, and also
+is running some risk of wearing others out who may have to listen, so I
+will waive the telling of who the first cowboy was, even if I knew; but
+the last one who has come under my observation lives down in Florida,
+and the way it happened was this: I was sitting in a "sto' do'," as the
+"Crackers" say, waiting for the clerk to load some "number eights," when
+my friend said, "Look at the cowboys!" This immediately caught my
+interest. With me cowboys are what gems and porcelains are to some
+others. Two very emaciated Texas ponies pattered down the street,
+bearing wild-looking individuals, whose hanging hair and drooping hats
+and generally bedraggled appearance would remind you at once of the
+Spanish-moss which hangs so quietly and helplessly to the limbs of the
+oaks out in the swamps. There was none of the bilious fierceness and
+rearing plunge which I had associated with my friends out West, but as a
+fox-terrier is to a yellow cur, so were these last. They had on about
+four dollars' worth of clothes between them, and rode McClellan saddles,
+with saddle-bags, and guns tied on before. The only things they did
+which were conventional were to tie their ponies up by the head in
+brutal disregard, and then get drunk in about fifteen minutes. I could
+see that in this case, while some of the tail feathers were the same,
+they would easily classify as new birds.
+
+[Illustration: 36 ABOUT FOUR DOLLARS WORTH OF CLOTHES BETWEEN THEM]
+
+"And so you have cowboys down here?" I said to the man who ran the
+meat-market.
+
+He picked a tiny piece of raw liver out of the meshes of his long black
+beard, tilted his big black hat, shoved his arms into his white apron
+front, and said:
+
+"Gawd! yes, stranger; I was one myself."
+
+The plot thickened so fast that I was losing much, so I became more
+deliberate. "Do the boys come into town often?" I inquired further.
+
+"Oh yes, 'mos' every little spell," replied the butcher, as he reached
+behind his weighing-scales and picked up a double-barrelled shot-gun,
+sawed off. "We-uns are expectin' of they-uns to-day."
+
+And he broke the barrels and took out the shells to examine them.
+
+"Do they come shooting?" I interposed.
+
+He shut the gun with a snap. "We split even, stranger."
+
+Seeing that the butcher was a fragile piece of bric-a-brac, and that I
+might need him for future study, I bethought me of the banker down the
+street. Bankers are bound to be broad-gauged, intelligent, and
+conservative, so I would go to him and get at the ancient history of
+this neck of woods. I introduced myself, and was invited behind the
+counter. The look of things reminded me of one of those great green
+terraces which conceal fortifications and ugly cannon. It was boards and
+wire screen in front, but behind it were shot-guns and six-shooters hung
+in the handiest way, on a sort of disappearing gun-carriage arrangement.
+Shortly one of the cowboys of the street scene floundered in. He was
+two-thirds drunk, with brutal, shifty eyes and a flabby lower lip.
+
+"I want twenty dollars on the old man. Ken I have it?"
+
+I rather expected that the bank would go into "action front," but the
+clerk said, "Certainly," and completed this rather odd financial
+transaction, whereat the bull-hunter stumbled out.
+
+[Illustration: 37 A CRACKER COWBOY]
+
+"Who is the old man in this case?" I ventured.
+
+"Oh, it's his boss, old Colonel Zuigg, of Crow City. I gave some money
+to some of his boys some weeks ago, and when the colonel was down here I
+asked him if he wanted the boys to draw against him in that way, and he
+said, 'Yes--for a small amount; they will steal a cow or two, and pay me
+that way.'"
+
+Here was something tangible.
+
+"What happens when a man steals another man's brand in this country?"
+
+"He mustn't get caught; that's all. They all do it, but they never bring
+their troubles into court. They just shoot it out there in the bresh.
+The last time old Colonel Zuigg brought Zorn Zuidden in here and had him
+indicted for stealing cattle, said Zorn: 'Now see here, old man Zuigg,
+what do you want for to go and git me arrested fer? I have stole
+thousands of cattle and put your mark and brand on 'em, and jes because
+I have stole a couple of hundred from you, you go and have me indicted.
+You jes better go and get that whole deal nol pressed;' and it was
+done."
+
+The argument was perfect.
+
+"From that I should imagine that the cow-people have no more idea of law
+than the 'gray apes,'" I commented.
+
+"Yes, that's about it. Old Colonel Zuigg was a judge fer a spell, till
+some feller filled him with buckshot, and he had to resign; and I
+remember he decided a case aginst me once. I was hot about it, and the
+old colonel he saw I was. Says he, 'Now yer mad, ain't you?' And I
+allowed I was. 'Well,' says he, 'you hain't got no call to get mad. I
+have decided the last eight cases in yer favor, and you kain't have it
+go yer way all the time; it wouldn't look right;' and I had to be
+satisfied."
+
+The courts in that locality were but the faint and sickly flame of a
+taper offered at the shrine of a justice which was traditional only, it
+seemed. Moral forces having ceased to operate, the large owners began to
+brand everything in sight, never realizing that they were sowing the
+wind. This action naturally demoralized the cowboys, who shortly began
+to brand a little on their own account--and then the deluge. The rights
+of property having been destroyed, the large owners put strong outfits
+in the field, composed of desperate men armed to the teeth, and what
+happens in the lonely pine woods no one knows but the desperadoes
+themselves, albeit some of them never come back to the little fringe of
+settlements. The winter visitor from the North kicks up the jack-snipe
+along the beach or tarponizes in the estuaries of the Gulf, and when he
+comes to the hotel for dinner he eats Chicago dressed beef, but out in
+the wilderness low-browed cow-folks shoot and stab each other for the
+possession of scrawny creatures not fit for a pointer-dog to mess on.
+One cannot but feel the force of Buckle's law of "the physical aspects
+of nature" in this sad country. Flat and sandy, with miles on miles of
+straight pine timber, each tree an exact duplicate of its neighbor tree,
+and underneath the scrub palmettoes, the twisted brakes and
+hammocks, and the gnarled water-oaks festooned with the sad gray
+Spanish-moss--truly not a country for a high-spirited race or moral
+giants.
+
+[Illustration: 38 FIGHTING OVER A STOLEN HERD]
+
+The land gives only a tough wiregrass, and the poor little cattle, no
+bigger than a donkey, wander half starved and horribly emaciated in
+search of it. There used to be a trade with Cuba, but now that has gone;
+and beyond the supplying of Key West and the small fringe of settlements
+they have no market. How well the cowboys serve their masters I can only
+guess, since the big owners do not dare go into the woods, or even to
+their own doors at night, and they do not keep a light burning in the
+houses. One, indeed, attempted to assert his rights, but some one pumped
+sixteen buckshot into him as he bent over a spring to drink, and he left
+the country. They do tell of a late encounter between two rival foremen,
+who rode on to each other in the woods, and drawing, fired, and both
+were found stretched dying under the palmettoes, one calling deliriously
+the name of his boss. The unknown reaches of the Everglades lie just
+below, and with a half-hour's start a man who knew the country would be
+safe from pursuit, even if it were attempted; and, as one man cheerfully
+confided to me, "A boat don't leave no trail, stranger."
+
+That might makes right, and that they steal by wholesale, any
+cattle-hunter will admit; and why they brand at all I cannot see, since
+one boy tried to make it plain to me, as he shifted his body in drunken
+abandon and grabbed my pencil and a sheet of wrapping paper: "See yer;
+ye see that?" And he drew a circle O, and then another ring around it,
+thus: (O). "That brand ain't no good. Well, then--" And again his
+knotted and dirty fingers essayed the brand I O. He laboriously drew
+upon it and made E-O which of course destroyed the former brand.
+
+"Then here," he continued, as he drew 13, "all ye've got ter do is
+this--313." I gasped in amazement, not at his cleverness as a
+brand-destroyer, but at his honest abandon. With a horrible operatic
+laugh, such as is painted in "The Cossack's Answer," he again
+laboriously drew (+) (the circle cross), and then added some marks which
+made it look like this: S(+)S. And again breaking into his devil's "ha,
+ha!" said, "Make the damned thing whirl."
+
+[Illustration: 39 IN WAIT FOR AN ENEMY]
+
+I did not protest. He would have shot me for that. But I did wish he was
+living in the northwest quarter of New Mexico, where Mr. Cooper and Dan
+could throw their eyes over the trail of his pony. Of course each man
+has adjusted himself to this lawless rustling, and only calculates that
+he can steal as much as his opponent. It is rarely that their affairs
+are brought to court, but when they are, the men come _en masse_ to the
+room, armed with knives and rifles, so that any decision is bound to be
+a compromise, or it will bring on a general engagement.
+
+There is also a noticeable absence of negroes among them, as they still
+retain some _ante bellum_ theories, and it is only very lately that they
+have "reconstructed." Their general ignorance is "miraculous," and quite
+mystifying to an outside man. Some whom I met did not even know where
+the Texas was which furnishes them their ponies. The railroads of
+Florida have had their ups and downs with them in a petty way on account
+of the running over of their cattle by the trains; and then some
+long-haired old Cracker drops into the nearest station with his gun and
+pistol, and wants the telegraph operator to settle immediately on the
+basis of the Cracker's claim for damages, which is always absurdly high.
+At first the railroads demurred, but the cowboys lined up in the "bresh"
+on some dark night and pumped Winchesters into the train in a highly
+picturesque way. The trainmen at once recognized the force of the
+Cracker's views on cattle-killing, but it took some considerable
+"potting" at the more conservative superintendents before the latter
+could bestir themselves and invent a "cow-attorney," as the company
+adjuster is called, who now settles with the bushmen as best he can.
+Certainly no worse people ever lived since the big killing up
+Muscleshell way, and the romance is taken out of it by the cowardly
+assassination which is the practice. They are well paid for their
+desperate work, and always eat fresh beef or "razor-backs," and deer
+which they kill in the woods. The heat, the poor grass, their brutality,
+and the pest of the flies kill their ponies, and, as a rule, they lack
+dash and are indifferent riders, but they are picturesque in their
+unkempt, almost unearthly wildness. A strange effect is added by their
+use of large, fierce cur-dogs, one of which accompanies each
+cattle-hunter, and is taught to pursue cattle, and to even take them by
+the nose, which is another instance of their brutality. Still, as they
+only have a couple of horses apiece, it saves them much extra running.
+These men do not use the rope, unless to noose a pony in a corral, but
+work their cattle in strong log corrals, which are made at about a day's
+march apart all through the woods. Indeed, ropes are hardly necessary,
+since the cattle are so small and thin that two men can successfully
+"wrestle" a three-year-old. A man goes into the corral, grabs a cow by
+one horn, and throwing his other arm over her back, waits until some
+other man takes her hind leg, whereat ensues some very entertaining
+Graeco-Roman style.
+
+[Illustration: 40 A BIT OF COW COUNTRY]
+
+When the cow is successful, she finds her audience of Cracker cowboys
+sitting on the fence awaiting another opening, and gasping for breath.
+The best bull will not go over three hundred pounds, while I have seen a
+yearling at a hundred and fifty--if you, O knights of the riata, can
+imagine it! Still, it is desperate work. Some of the men are so reckless
+and active that they do not hesitate to encounter a wild bull in the
+open. The cattle are as wild as deer, they race off at scent; and when
+"rounded up" many will not drive, whereupon these are promptly shot. It
+frequently happens that when the herd is being driven quietly along a
+bull will turn on the drivers, charging at once. Then there is a scamper
+and great shooting.  The bulls often become so maddened in these forays
+that they drop and die in their tracks, for which strange fact no one
+can account, but as a rule they are too scrawny and mean to make their
+handling difficult.
+
+So this is the Cracker cowboy, whose chief interest would be found in
+the tales of some bushwhacking enterprise, which I very much fear would
+be a one-sided story, and not worth the telling. At best they must be
+revolting, having no note of the savage encounters which used to
+characterize the easy days in West Texas and New Mexico, when every man
+tossed his life away to the crackle of his own revolver. The moon shows
+pale through the leafy canopy on their evening fires, and the mists, the
+miasma, and the mosquitoes settle over their dreary camp talk. In place
+of the wild stampede, there is only the bellowing in the pens, and
+instead of the plains shaking under the dusty air as the bedizened
+vaqueros plough their fiery broncos through the milling herds, the
+cattle-hunter wends his lonely way through the ooze and rank grass,
+while the dreary pine trunks line up and shut the view.
+
+[Illustration: 41 COWBOYS WRESTLING A BULL]
+
+
+
+
+THE STRANGE DAYS THAT CAME TO JIMMIE FRIDAY
+
+
+THE "Abwee-chemun" [Algonquin for "paddle and canoe."] Club was
+organized with six charter members at a heavy lunch in the Savarin
+restaurant--one of those lunches which make through connections to
+dinner without change. One member basely deserted, while two more lost
+all their enthusiasm on the following morning, but three of us stuck. We
+vaguely knew that somewhere north of the Canadian Pacific and south of
+Hudson Bay were big lakes and rapid rivers--lakes whose names we did not
+know; lakes bigger than Champlain, with unnamed rivers between them. We
+did not propose to be boated around in a big birch-bark by two voyagers
+among blankets and crackers and ham, but each provided himself a little
+thirteen-foot cedar canoe, twenty-nine inches in the beam, and weighing
+less than forty pounds. I cannot tell you precisely how our party was
+sorted, but one was a lawyer with eyeglasses and settled habits, loving
+nature, though detesting canoes; the other was nominally a merchant, but
+in reality an atavie Norseman of the wolf and raven kind; while I am not
+new. Together we started.
+
+Presently the Abwees sat about the board of a lumbermen's hotel, filled
+with house-flies and slatternly waiter-girls, who talked familiarly
+while they served greasy food. The Abwees were yet sore in their minds
+at the thoughts of the smelly beds up-stairs, and discouragement sat
+deeply on their souls. But their time was not yet.
+
+After breakfast they marched to the Hudson Bay Company's store, knowing
+as they did that in Canada there are only two places for a traveller to
+go who wants anything--the great company or the parish priest; and then,
+having explained to the factor their dream, they were told "that beyond,
+beyond some days' journey"--oh! that awful beyond, which for centuries
+has stood across the path of the pioneer, and in these latter days
+confronts the sportsman and wilderness-lover--"that beyond some days'
+journey to the north was a country such as they had dreamed--up
+Temis-camingue and beyond."
+
+The subject of a guide was considered.
+
+Jimmie Friday always brought a big toboggan-load of furs into Fort
+Tiemogamie every spring, and was accounted good in his business. He and
+his big brother trapped together, and in turn followed the ten days'
+swing through the snow-laden forest which they had covered with their
+dead-falls and steel-jawed traps; but when the ice went out in the
+rivers, and the great pines dripped with the melting snows, they had
+nothing more to do but cut a few cords of wood for their widowed
+mother's cabin near the post. Then the brother and he paddled down to
+Bais des Pierres, where the brother engaged as a deck hand on a
+steamboat, and Jimmie hired himself as a guide for some bush-rangers, as
+the men are called who explore for pine lands for the great lumber
+firms. Having worked all summer and got through with that business,
+Jimmie bethought him to dissipate for a few days in the bustling lumber
+town down on the Ottawa River. He had been there before to feel the
+exhilaration of civilization, but beyond that clearing he had never
+known anything more inspiring than a Hudson Bay post, which is generally
+a log store, a house where the agent lives, and a few tiny Indian cabins
+set higgledy-piggledy in a sunburnt gash of stumps and bowlders, lost in
+the middle of the solemn, unresponsive forest. On this morning in
+question he had stepped from his friend's cabin up in the Indian
+village, and after lighting a perfectly round and rather yellow cigar,
+he had instinctively wandered down to the Hudson Bay store, there to
+find himself amused by a strange sight.
+
+The Abwees had hired two French-Indian voyagers of sinister mien, and a
+Scotch-Canadian boy bred to the bush. They were out on the grass,
+engaged in taking burlaps off three highly polished canoes, while the
+clerk from the store ran out and asked questions about "how much bacon,"
+and, "will fifty pounds of pork be enough, sir?"
+
+The round yellow cigar was getting stubby, while Jimmie's modest eyes
+sought out the points of interest in the new-comers, when he was
+suddenly and sharply addressed:
+
+"Can you cook?"
+
+Jimmie couldn't do anything in a hurry, except chop a log in two, paddle
+very fast, and shoot quickly, so he said, as was his wont:
+
+"I think--I dun'no'--"
+
+"Well, how much?" came the query.
+
+"Two daul--ars--" said Jimmie.
+
+The transaction was complete. The yellow butt went over the fence, and
+Jimmie shed his coat. He was directed to lend a hand by the bustling
+sportsmen, and requested to run and find things of which he had never
+before in his life heard the name.
+
+[Illustration: 42 THE LAWYER HAD BECOME A VOYAGER]
+
+After two days' travel the Abwees were put ashore--boxes, bags, rolls of
+blankets, canoes, Indians, and plunder of many sorts--on a pebbly beach,
+and the steamer backed off and steamed away. They had reached the
+"beyond" at last, and the odoriferous little bedrooms, the bustle of the
+preparation, the cares of their lives, were behind. Then there was a
+girding up of the loins, a getting out of tump-lines and canvas packs,
+and the long portage was begun.
+
+The voyagers carried each two hundred pounds as they stalked away into
+the wilderness, while the attorney-at-law "hefted" his pack, wiped his
+eyeglasses with his pocket-handkerchief, and tried cheerfully to assume
+the responsibilities of "a dead game sport."
+
+"I cannot lift the thing, and how I am going to carry it is more than I
+know; but I'm a dead game sport, and I am going to try. I do not want to
+be dead game, but it looks as though I couldn't help it. Will some
+gentleman help me to adjust this cargo?"
+
+The night overtook the outfit in an old beaver meadow half-way through
+the trail. Like all first camps, it was tough. The lean-to tents went up
+awkwardly. No one could find anything. Late at night the Abwees lay on
+their backs under the blankets, while the fog settled over the meadow
+and blotted out the stars.
+
+On the following day the stuff was all gotten through, and by this time
+the lawyer had become a voyager, willing to carry anything he could
+stagger under. It is strange how one can accustom himself to "pack." He
+may never use the tump-line, since it goes across the head, and will
+unseat his intellect if he does, but with shoulder-straps and a
+tump-line a man who thinks he is not strong will simply amaze himself
+inside of a week by what he can do. As for our little canoes, we could
+trot with them. Each Abwee carried his own belongings and his boat,
+which entitled him to the distinction of "a dead game sport," whatever
+that may mean, while the Indians portaged their larger canoes and our
+mass of supplies, making many trips backward and forward in the process.
+
+At the river everything was parcelled out and arranged. The birch-barks
+were repitched, and every man found out what he was expected to portage
+and do about camp. After breaking and making camp three times, the
+outfit could pack up, load the canoes, and move inside of fifteen
+minutes. At the first camp the lawyer essayed his canoe, and was
+cautioned that the delicate thing might flirt with him. He stepped in
+and sat gracefully down in about two feet of water, while the "delicate
+thing" shook herself saucily at his side. After he had crawled dripping
+ashore and wiped his eye-glasses, he engaged to sell the "delicate
+thing" to an Indian for one dollar and a half on a promissory note. The
+trade was suppressed, and he was urged to try again. A man who has held
+down a cane-bottom chair conscientiously for fifteen years looks askance
+at so fickle a thing as a canoe twenty-nine inches in the beam. They are
+nearly as hard to sit on in the water as a cork; but once one is in the
+bottom they are stable enough, though they do not submit to liberties or
+palsied movements. The staid lawyer was filled with horror at the
+prospect of another go at his polished beauty; but remembering his
+resolve to be dead game, he abandoned his life to the chances, and got
+in this time safely.
+
+[Illustration: 43 IT IS STRANGE HOW ONE CAN ACCUSTOM HIMSELF TO 'PACK']
+
+So the Abwees went down the river on a golden morning, their
+double-blade paddles flashing the sun and sending the drip in a shower
+on the glassy water. The smoke from the lawyer's pipe hung behind him in
+the quiet air, while the note of the reveille clangored from the little
+buglette of the Norseman. Jimmie and the big Scotch backwoodsman swayed
+their bodies in one boat, while the two sinister voyagers dipped their
+paddles in the big canoe.
+
+The Norseman's gorge came up, and he yelled back: "Say! this suits me. I
+am never going back to New York."
+
+Jimmie grinned at the noise; it made him happy. Such a morning, such a
+water, such a lack of anything to disturb one's peace! Let man's better
+nature revel in the beauties of existence; they inflate his soul. The
+colors play upon the senses--the reddish-yellow of the birch-barks, the
+blue of the water, and the silver sheen as it parts at the bows of the
+canoes; the dark evergreens, the steely rocks with their lichens, the
+white trunks of the birches, their fluffy tops so greeny green, and over
+all the gold of a sunny day. It is my religion, this thing, and I do not
+know how to tell all I feel concerning it.
+
+The rods were taken out, a gang of flies put on and trolled behind--but
+we have all seen a man fight a five-pound bass for twenty minutes. The
+waters fairly swarmed with them, and we could always get enough for the
+"pot" in a half-hour's fishing at any time during the trip. The Abwees
+were canoeing, not hunting or fishing; though, in truth, they did not
+need to hunt spruce-partridge or fish for bass in any sporting sense;
+they simply went out after them, and never stayed over half an hour. On
+a point we stopped for lunch: the Scotchman always struck the beach
+a-cooking. He had a "kit," which was a big camp-pail, and inside of it
+were more dishes than are to be found in some hotels. He broiled the
+bacon, instead of frying it, and thus we were saved the terrors of
+indigestion. He had many luxuries in his commissary, among them dried
+apples, with which he filled a camp-pail one day and put them on to
+boil. They subsequently got to be about a foot deep all over the camp,
+while Furguson stood around and regarded the black-magic of the thing
+with overpowering emotions and Homeric tongue. Furguson was a good
+genius, big and gentle, and a woodsman root and branch. The Abwees had
+intended their days in the wilderness to be happy singing flights of
+time, but with grease and paste in one's stomach what may not befall the
+mind when it is bent on nature's doings?
+
+[Illustration: 44 DOWN THE RIVER ON A GOLDEN MORNING]
+
+And thus it was that the gloomy Indian Jimmie Friday, despite his
+tuberculosis begotten of insufficient nourishment, was happy in these
+strange days--even to the extent of looking with wondrous eyes on the
+nooks which we loved--nooks which previously for him had only sheltered
+possible "dead-falls" or not, as the discerning eye of the trapper
+decided the prospects for pelf.
+
+Going ashore on a sandy beach, Jimmie wandered down its length, his
+hunter mind seeking out the footprints of his prey. He stooped down, and
+then beckoned me to come, which I did.
+
+Pointing at the sand, he said, "You know him?"
+
+"Wolves," I answered.
+
+"Yes--first time I see 'em up here--they be follerin' the
+deers--bad--bad. No can trap 'em--verrie smart."
+
+A half-dozen wolves had chased a deer into the water; but wolves do not
+take to the water, so they had stopped and drank, and then gone
+rollicking-together up the beach. There were cubs, and one great track
+as big as a mastiff might make.
+
+"See that--moose track--he go by yesterday;" and Jimmie pointed to
+enormous footprints in the muck of a marshy place. "Verrie big moose--we
+make call at next camp--think it is early for call."
+
+At the next camp Jimmie made the usual birch-bark moose-call, and at
+evening blew it, as he also did on the following morning. This camp was
+a divine spot on a rise back of a long sandy beach, and we concluded to
+stop for a day. The Norseman and I each took a man in our canoes and
+started out to explore. I wanted to observe some musk-rat hotels down in
+a big marsh, and the Norseman was fishing. The attorney was content to
+sit on a log by the shores of the lake, smoke lazily, and watch the sun
+shimmer through the lifting fog. He saw a canoe approaching from across
+the lake. He gazed vacantly at it, when it grew strange and more unlike
+a canoe. The paddles did not move, but the phantom craft drew quickly
+on.
+
+[Illustration: 45 A REAL CAMP]
+
+"Say, Furguson--come here--look at that canoe."
+
+The Scotchman came down, with a pail in one hand, and looked.
+"Canoe--hell--it's a moose--and there ain't a pocket-pistol in this
+camp," and he fairly jumped up and down.
+
+"You don't say--you really don't say!" gasped the lawyer, who now began
+to exhibit signs of insanity.
+
+"Yes--he's going to be d----d sociable with us--he's coming right bang
+into this camp."
+
+The Indian too came down, but he was long past talking English, and the
+gutturals came up in lumps, as though he was trying to keep them down.
+
+The moose finally struck a long point of sand and rushes about two
+hundred yards away, and drew majestically out of the water, his hide
+dripping, and the sun glistening on his antlers and back.
+
+The three men gazed in spellbound admiration at the picture until the
+moose was gone. When they had recovered their senses they slowly went up
+to the camp on the ridge--disgusted and dum-founded.
+
+"I could almost put a cartridge in that old gun-case and kill him,"
+sighed the backwoodsman.
+
+"I have never hunted in my life," mused the attorney, "but few men have
+seen such a sight," and he filled his pipe.
+
+"Hark--listen!" said the Indian. There was a faint cracking, which
+presently became louder. "He's coming into camp;" and the Indian nearly
+died from excitement as he grabbed a hatchet. The three unfortunate men
+stepped to the back of the tents, and as big a bull moose as walks the
+lonely woods came up to within one hundred and fifty feet of the camp,
+and stopped, returning their gaze.
+
+Thus they stood for what they say was a minute, but which seemed like
+hours. The attorney composedly admired the unusual sight. The Indian and
+Furguson swore softly but most viciously until the moose moved away. The
+Indian hurled the hatchet at the retreating figure, with a final curse,
+and the thing was over.
+
+"Those fellows who are out in their canoes will be sick abed when we
+tell them what's been going on in the camp this morning," sighed Mr.
+Furguson, as he scoured a cooking-pot.
+
+I fear we would have had that moose on our consciences if we had been
+there: the game law was not up at the time, but I should have asked for
+strength from a higher source than my respect for law.
+
+The golden days passed and the lake grew great.
+
+[Illustration: 46 ROUGH WATER]
+
+The wind blew at our backs. The waves rolled in restless surges, piling
+the little canoes on their crests and swallowing them in the troughs.
+The canoes thrashed the water as they flew along, half in, half out, but
+they rode like ducks. The Abwees took off their hats, gripped their
+double blades, made the water swirl behind them, howled in glee to each
+other through the rushing storm. To be five miles from shore in a seaway
+in kayaks like ours was a sensation. We found they stood it well, and
+grew contented. It was the complement to the golden lazy days when the
+water was glass, and the canoes rode upsidedown over its mirror surface.
+The Norseman grinned and shook his head in token of his pleasure, much
+as an epicure might after a sip of superior Burgundy.
+
+"How do you fancy this?" we asked the attorney-at-law.
+
+"I am not going to deliver an opinion until I get ashore. I would never
+have believed that I would be here at my time of life, but one never
+knows what a ---- fool one can make of one's self. My glasses are covered
+with water, and I can hardly see, but I can't let go of this paddle to
+wipe them," shrieked the man of the office chair, in the howl of the
+weather.
+
+But we made a long journey by the aid of the wind, and grew a contempt
+for it. How could one imagine the stability of those little boats until
+one had tried it?
+
+That night we put into a natural harbor and camped on a gravel beach.
+The tents were up and the supper cooking, when the wind hauled and blew
+furiously into our haven. The fires were scattered and the rain came in
+blinding sheets. The tent-pegs pulled from the sand. We sprang to our
+feet and held on to the poles, wet to the skin. It was useless; the rain
+blew right under the canvas. We laid the tents on the "grub" and stepped
+out into the dark. We could not be any wetter, and we did not care. To
+stand in the dark in the wilderness, with nothing to eat, and a
+fire-engine playing a hose on you for a couple of hours--if you have
+imagination enough, you can fill in the situation. But the gods were
+propitious. The wind died down. The stars came out by myriads. The fires
+were relighted, and the ordinary life begun. It was late in the night
+before our clothes, blankets, and tents were dry, but, like boys, we
+forgot it all.
+
+Then came a river--blue and flat like the sky above--running through
+rushy banks, backed by the masses of the forest; anon the waters rushed
+upon us over the rocks, and we fought, plunk-plunk-plunk, with the
+paddles, until our strength gave out. We stepped out into the water, and
+getting our lines, and using our long double blades as fenders,
+"tracked" the canoes up through the boil. The Indians in their heavier
+boats used "setting-poles" with marvellous dexterity, and by furious
+exertion were able to draw steadily up the grade--though at times they
+too "tracked," and even portaged. Our largest canoe weighed two hundred
+pounds, but a little voyager managed to lug it, though how I couldn't
+comprehend, since his pipe-stem legs fairly bent and wobbled under the
+enormous ark. None of us by this time were able to lift the loads which
+we carried, but, like a Western pack-mule, we stood about and had things
+piled on to us, until nothing more would stick. Some of the backwoodsmen
+carry incredible masses of stuff, and their lore is full of tales which
+no one could be expected to believe. Our men did not hesitate to take
+two hundred and fifty pounds over short portages, which were very rough
+and stony, though they all said if they slipped they expected to break a
+leg. This is largely due to the tump-line, which is laid over the head,
+while persons unused to it must have shoulder-straps in addition, which
+are not as good, because the "breastbone," so called, is not strong
+enough.
+
+[Illustration: 47 THE INDIANS USED 'SETTING-POLES']
+
+We were getting day by day farther into "the beyond." There were no
+traces here of the hand of man. Only Jimmie knew the way--it was his
+trapping-ground. Only once did we encounter people. We were blown into a
+little board dock, on a gray day, with the waves piling up behind us,
+and made a difficult landing. Here were a few tiny log houses--an
+outpost of the Hudson Bay Company. We renewed our stock of provisions,
+after laborious trading with the stagnated people who live in the lonely
+place. There was nothing to sell us but a few of the most common
+necessities; however, we needed only potatoes and sugar. This was
+Jimmie's home. Here we saw his poor old mother, who was being tossed
+about in the smallest of canoes as she drew her nets. Jimmie's father
+had gone on a hunting expedition and had never come back. Some day
+Jimmie's old mother will go out on the wild lake to tend her nets, and
+she will not come back. Some time Jimmie too will not return--for this
+Indian struggle with nature is appalling in its fierceness.
+
+There was a dance at the post, which the boys attended, going by canoe
+at night, and they came back early in the morning, with much giggling at
+their gallantries.
+
+The loneliness of this forest life is positively discouraging to think
+about. What the long winters must be in the little cabins I cannot
+imagine, and I fear the traders must be all avarice, or have none at
+all; for there can certainly be absolutely no intellectual life. There
+is undoubtedly work, but not one single problem concerning it. The
+Indian hunters do fairly well in a financial way, though their lives are
+beset with weakening hardships and constant danger. Their meagre diet
+wears out their constitutions, and they are subject to disease. The
+simplicity of their minds makes it very difficult to see into their life
+as they try to narrate it to one who may be interested.
+
+[Illustration: 48 TRYING MOMENTS]
+
+From here on was through beautiful little lakes, and the voyagers rigged
+blanket sails on the big canoes, while we towed behind. Then came the
+river and the rapids, which we ran, darting between rocks, bumping on
+sunken stones--shooting fairly out into the air, all but turning over
+hundreds of times. One day the Abwees glided out in the big lake
+Tesmiaquemang, and saw the steamer going to Bais des Pierres. We hailed
+her, and she stopped, while the little canoes danced about in the swell
+as we were loaded one by one. On the deck above us the passengers
+admired a kind of boat the like of which had not before appeared in
+these parts.
+
+At Bais des Pierres we handed over the residue of the commissaries of
+the Abwee-Chemun to Jimmie Friday, including personally many pairs of
+well-worn golf-breeches, sweaters, rubber coats, knives which would be
+proscribed by law in New York. If Jimmie ever parades his solemn
+wilderness in these garbs, the owls will laugh from the trees. Our
+simple forest friend laid in his winter stock--traps, flour, salt,
+tobacco, and pork, a new axe--and accompanied us back down the lake
+again on the steamer. She stopped in mid-stream, while Jimmie got his
+bundles into his "bark" and shoved off, amid a hail of "good-byes."
+
+The engine palpitated, the big wheel churned the water astern, and we
+drew away. Jimmie bent on his paddle with the quick body-swing habitual
+to the Indian, and after a time grew a speck on the reflection of the
+red sunset in Temiscamingue.
+
+The Abwees sat sadly leaning on the after-rail, and agreed that Jimmie
+was "a lovely Injun." Jimmie had gone into the shade of the overhang of
+the cliffs, when the Norseman started violently up, put his hands in his
+pockets, stamped his foot, said, "By George, fellows, any D. F. would
+call this a sporting trip!"
+
+
+
+
+THE SOLEDAD GIRLS
+
+
+"TO-NIGHT I am going down to my ranch--the Soledad--in my private car,"
+said the manager of the Mexican International Railroad, "and I would
+like the Captain and you to accompany me."
+
+The Captain and I were only too glad; so in process of time we awoke to
+find our car sidetracked on the Soledad, which is in the state of
+Coahuila, Mexico. The chaparral spread around, rising and falling in the
+swell of the land, until it beat against the blue ridge of the Sierra
+Santa Rosa, miles to the north. Here and there the bright sun spotted on
+a cow as she threaded the gray stretches; a little coyote-wolf sat on
+his haunches on a near-by hill-side, and howled protests at his
+new-found companions; while dimly through the gray meshes of the
+leaf-denuded chaparral we could see the main ranch-house of the Soledad.
+We were informed at breakfast by the railroad manager that there was to
+be that day a "round-up," which is to say, a regular Buffalo Bill Show,
+with real cowboys, ponies, and cattle, all three of them wild, full of
+thorns, and just out of the brush.
+
+The negro porters got out the saddles of the young women, thus
+disclosing their intention to ride ponies instead of in traps. We
+already knew that they were fearless horseback-riders, but when the
+string of ponies which were to be our mounts was led up by a few
+Mexicans, the Captain and I had our well-concealed doubts about their
+being proper sort of ponies for young girls to ride. We confided in an
+imperturbable cowboy--one of those dry Texans. He said: "Them are what
+we would call broke ponies, and you fellers needn't get to worryin'
+'bout them little girls--you're jest a-foolin' away good time."
+Nevertheless, the broncos had the lurking devil in the tails of their
+eyes as they stood there tied to the wire fencing; they were humble and
+dejected as only a bronco or a mule can simulate. When that ilk look
+most cast down, be not deceived, gay brother; they are not like this.
+Their humility is only humorous, and intended to lure you on to their
+backs, where, unless you have a perfect understanding of the game, the
+joke will be on you. Instantly one is mounted, the humility departs; he
+plunges and starts about, or sets off like the wind, regardless of
+thorny bushes, tricky ground underfoot, or the seat of the rider.
+
+The manager's wife came out of the car with her little brood of three,
+and then two visiting friends. These Soledad girls, as I call them, each
+had a sunburst of yellow hair, were well bronzed by the Mexican sun, and
+were sturdy little bodies. They were dressed in short skirts, with
+leggings, topped with Tam o' Shanters, while about their waists were
+cartridge-belts, with delicate knives and revolvers attached, and with
+spurs and _quirts_ as accessories. They took up their men's saddles, for
+they rode astride, except the two visitors, who were older and more
+lately from Chicago. They swung their saddles on to the ponies, showing
+familiarity with the _ladigo_ straps of the Texas saddles, and proudly
+escaping the humiliation which alights on the head of one who in the
+cow-camps cannot saddle his own "bronc." Being ready, we mounted, and
+followed a cowboy off down the road to the _rodeo-ground._ The manager
+and Madam Mamma rode in a buckboard, proudly following with their gaze
+the galloping ponies which bore their jewels. I thought they should be
+fearful for their safety, but after more intimate inspection, I could
+see how groundless was such solicitude.
+
+I must have it understood that these little vaquero girls were not the
+ordinary Texas product, fed on corn-meal and bred in the chaparral, but
+the much looked after darlings of a fond mother. They are taken South
+every winter, that their bodies may be made lithe and healthy, but at
+the same time two or more governesses crowd their minds with French,
+German, and other things with which proper young girls should be
+acquainted. But their infant minds did not carry back to the days when
+they had not felt a horse under them. To be sure, in the beginning it
+was only a humble donkey, but even before they knew they had graduated
+to ponies, and while yet ten years old, it was only by a constant watch
+that they were kept off unbroken broncos--horses that made the toughest
+vaqueros throw down their hats, tighten their belts, and grin with fear.
+
+From over the hills came the half-wild cattle, stringing along at a
+trot, all bearing for the open space in the waste of the chaparral where
+the _rodeo_ occurred, while behind them followed the cowboys--gay desert
+figures with brown, pinched faces, long hair, and shouting wild cries.
+The exhilaration of the fine morning, the tramp of the thousands, got
+into the curls of the three little Misses Golden-hairs, and they
+scurried away, while I followed to feast on this fresh vision, where
+absolutely ideal little maids shouted Spanish at murderous-looking
+Mexican cow-punchers done up in bright scrapes and costumed out of all
+reason. As the vaqueros dashed about hither and thither to keep their
+herds moving in the appointed direction, the infants screamed in their
+childish treble and spurred madly too. A bull stands at bay, but a child
+dashes at him, while he turns and flees. It is not their first _rodeo,_
+one can see, but I should wish they were with mamma and the buckboard,
+instead of out here in the brush, charging wild bulls, though in truth
+this never were written. These bulls frequently charge men, and a
+cow-pony turns like a ball off a bat, and a slippery seat in the saddle
+may put you under the feet of the outraged monarch of the range.
+
+[Illustration: 49 THE HALF-WILD CATTLE CAME DOWN FROM THE HILLS]
+
+Driving down to the _rodeo-ground,_ we all stood about on our ponies and
+held the herd, as it is called, the young girls doing vaquero duty, as
+imperturbable of mien as Mr. Flannagan, the foreman. So many women in
+the world are afraid of a dairy cow, even gathering up their skirts and
+preparing to shriek at the sight of one eating daisies. But these young
+women will grow up and they will be afraid of no cow. So much for a
+Soledad education.
+
+The top-ropers rode slowly into the dust of the milling herd, scampered
+madly, cast their ropes, and came jumping to us with a blatting calf
+trailing at their ropes' end. Two men seized the little victim, threw
+him on his back, cut a piece out of his ear with a knife, and still held
+him in relentless grip while another pressed a red-hot branding-iron on
+his side, which sizzled and sent up blue smoke, together with an odor of
+burned flesh. The calves bawled piteously. There was no more emotion on
+the faces of the Soledad girls than was shown by the brown cowboys. They
+had often, very often, seen this before, and their nerves were strong.
+Some day I can picture in my mind's eye these young girl vaqueros grown
+to womanhood, and being such good-looking creatures, very naturally some
+young man will want very badly to marry one of them--for it cannot be
+otherwise. I only hope he will not be a thin-chested, cigarette-smoking
+dude, because it will be a sacrilege of nature. He must undoubtedly have
+played forward at Princeton or Yale, or be unworthy.
+
+As we stood, a massive bull emerged from the body of the herd, his head
+thrown high, tail stiff with anger, eye rolling, and breath coming
+quick. He trotted quickly forward, and, lowering his head, charged
+through the "punchers." Instantly a small Soledad girl was after him,
+the vaqueros reining back to enjoy the strange ride with their eyes. Her
+hat flew off, and the long curls flapped in the rushing air as her pony
+fairly sailed over the difficult ground. The bull tore furiously, but
+behind him swept the pony and the child. As we watched, the chase had
+gone a mile away, but little Miss Yellowcurls drew gradually to the far
+side of the bull, quartering him on the far side, and whirling on,
+headed her quarry back to her audience and the herd. The rough-and-ready
+American range boss sat sidewise in his saddle and thought--for he never
+talked unnecessarily, though appreciation was chalked all over his pose.
+The manager and madam felt as though they were responsible for this
+wonderful thing. The Mexican cowboys snapped their fingers and eyes at
+one another, shouting quick Spanish, while the American part of the
+beholders agreed that it was the "limit"; "that as a picture," etc.;
+"that the American girl, properly environed "; "that this girl in
+particular," etc., was a dream. Then the bull and the girl came home;
+the bull to his fellows, and the girl to us. But she didn't have an idea
+of our admiration, because we didn't tell her; that would have been
+wrong, as you can imagine. Ten years will complicate little Miss
+Yellowcurls. Then she could be vain about such a thing; but, alas! she
+will not be--she will have forgotten.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Crooked Trails, by Frederic Remington
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Crooked Trails
+Written and Illustrated by Frederic Remington
+#2 in our series by Frederic Remington
+
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+
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+Title: Crooked Trails
+
+Author: Frederic Remington
+
+Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7867]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on May 28, 2003]
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+Language: English
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+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CROOKED TRAILS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Eric Eldred
+
+
+
+
+
+CROOKED TRAILS
+
+WRITTEN AND ILLUSTRATED BY
+
+
+FREDERIC REMINGTON
+
+AUTHOR OF "PONY TRACKS"
+
+
+
+First published in 1898
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+HOW THE LAW GOT INTO THE CHAPARRAL
+
+THE BLUE QUAIL OF THE CACTUS
+
+A SERGEANT OF THE ORPHAN TROOP
+
+THE SPIRIT OF MAHONGUI
+
+THE ESSENTIALS AT FORT ADOBE
+
+MASSAI'S CROOKED TRAIL
+
+JOSHUA GOODENOUGH'S OLD LETTER
+
+CRACKER COWBOYS OF FLORIDA
+
+THE STRANGE DAYS THAT CAME TO JIMMIE FRIDAY
+
+THE SOLEDAD GIRLS
+
+
+
+CROOKED TRAILS
+
+
+
+
+HOW THE LAW GOT INTO THE CHAPARRAL
+
+
+"You have heard about the Texas Rangers?" said the Deacon to me one
+night in the San Antonio Club. "Yes? Well, come up to my rooms, and I
+will introduce you to one of the old originals--dates 'way back in the
+'thirties'--there aren't many of them left now--and if we can get him to
+talk, he will tell you stories that will make your eyes hang out on your
+shirt front."
+
+We entered the Deacon's cosey bachelor apartments, where I was
+introduced to Colonel "Rip" Ford, of the old-time Texas Rangers. I found
+him a very old man, with a wealth of snow-white hair and beard--bent,
+but not withered. As he sunk on his stiffened limbs into the arm-chair,
+we disposed ourselves quietly and almost reverentially, while we lighted
+cigars. We began the approaches by which we hoped to loosen the history
+of a wild past from one of the very few tongues which can still wag on
+the days when the Texans, the Co-manches, and the Mexicans chased one
+another over the plains of Texas, and shot and stabbed to find who
+should inherit the land.
+
+Through the veil of tobacco smoke the ancient warrior spoke his
+sentences slowly, at intervals, as his mind gradually separated and
+arranged the details of countless fights. His head bowed in thought;
+anon it rose sharply at recollections, and as he breathed, the shouts
+and lamentations of crushed men--the yells and shots--the thunder of
+horses' hoofs--the full fury of the desert combats came to the pricking
+ears of the Deacon and me.
+
+We saw through the smoke the brave young faces of the hosts which poured
+into Texas to war with the enemies of their race. They were clad in
+loose hunting-frocks, leather leggings, and broad black hats; had
+powder-horns and shot-pouches hung about them; were armed with
+bowie-knives, Mississippi rifles, and horse-pistols; rode Spanish
+ponies, and were impelled by Destiny to conquer, like their remote
+ancestors, "the godless hosts of Pagan" who "came swimming o'er the
+Northern Sea."
+
+"Rip" Ford had not yet acquired his front name in 1836, when he enlisted
+in the famous Captain Jack Hayes's company of Rangers, which was
+fighting the Mexicans in those days, and also trying incidentally to
+keep from being eaten up by the Comanches.
+
+Said the old Colonel: "A merchant from our country journeyed to New
+York, and Colonel Colt, who was a friend of his, gave him two
+five-shooters--pistols they were, and little things. The merchant in
+turn presented them to Captain Jack Hayes. The captain liked them so
+well that he did not rest till every man jack of us had two apiece.
+
+"Directly," mused the ancient one, with a smile of pleasant
+recollection, "we had a fight with the Comanches--up here above San
+Antonio. Hayes had fifteen men with him--he was doubling about the
+country for Indians. He found 'sign,' and after cutting their trail
+several times he could see that they were following him. Directly the
+Indians overtook the Rangers--there were seventy-five Indians. Captain
+Hayes--bless his memory!--said,' They are fixin' to charge us, boys, and
+we must charge them.' There were never better men in this world than
+Hayes had with him," went on the Colonel with pardonable pride; "and
+mind you, he never made a fight without winning.
+
+"We charged, and in the fracas killed thirty-five Indians--only two of
+our men were wounded--so you see the five-shooters were pretty good
+weapons. Of course they wa'n't any account compared with these modern
+ones, because they were too small, but they did those things. Just after
+that Colonel Colt was induced to make bigger ones for us, some of which
+were half as long as your arm.
+
+"Hayes? Oh, he was a surveyor, and used to go out beyond the frontiers
+about his work. The Indians used to jump him pretty regular; but he
+always whipped them, and so he was available for a Ranger captain. About
+then--let's see," and here the old head bobbed up from his chest, where
+it had sunk in thought--"there was a commerce with Mexico just sprung
+up, but this was later--it only shows what that man Hayes used to do.
+The bandits used to waylay the traders, and they got very bad in the
+country. Captain Hayes went after them--he struck them near Lavade, and
+found the Mexicans had more than twice as many men as he did; but he
+caught them napping, charged them afoot--killed twenty-five of them, and
+got all their horses."
+
+"I suppose, Colonel, you have been charged by a Mexican lancer?" I
+inquired.
+
+"Oh yes, many times," he answered.
+
+"What did you generally do?"
+
+"Well, you see, in those days I reckoned to be able to hit a man every
+time with a six-shooter at one hundred and twenty-five yards," explained
+the old gentleman--which no doubt meant many dead lancers.
+
+"Then you do not think much of a lance as a weapon?" I pursued.
+
+"No; there is but one weapon. The six-shooter when properly handled is
+the only weapon--mind you, sir, I say _properly"_ and here the old eyes
+blinked rapidly over the great art as he knew its practice.
+
+"Then, of course, the rifle has its use. Under Captain Jack Hayes sixty
+of us made a raid once after the celebrated priest-leader of the
+Mexicans--Padre Jarante--which same was a devil of a fellow. We were
+very sleepy--had been two nights without sleep. At San Juan every man
+stripped his horse, fed, and went to sleep. We had passed Padre Jarante
+in the night without knowing it. At about twelve o'clock next day there
+was a terrible outcry--I was awakened by shooting. The Padre was upon
+us. Five men outlying stood the charge, and went under. We gathered, and
+the Padre charged three times. The third time he was knocked from his
+horse and killed. Then Captain Jack Hayes awoke, and we got in a big
+_casa._ The men took to the roof. As the Mexicans passed we emptied a
+great many saddles. As I got to the top of the _casa_ I found two men
+quarrelling." (Here the Colonel chuckled.) "I asked what the matter was,
+and they were both claiming to have killed a certain Mexican who was
+lying dead some way off. One said he had hit him in the head, and the
+other said he had hit him in the breast. I advised peace until after the
+fight. Well--after the shooting was over and the Padre's men had had
+enough, we went out to the particular Mexican who was dead, and, sure
+enough, he was shot in the head and in the breast; so they laughed and
+made peace. About this time one of the spies came in and reported six
+hundred Mexicans coming. We made an examination of our ammunition, and
+found that we couldn't afford to fight six hundred Mexicans with sixty
+men, so we pulled out. This was in the Mexican war, and only goes to
+show that Captain Hayes's men could shoot all the Mexicans that could
+get to them if the ammunition would hold out."
+
+"What was the most desperate fight you can remember, Colonel?"
+
+The old man hesitated; this required a particular point of view--it was
+quality, not quantity, wanted now; and, to be sure, he was a
+connoisseur. After much study by the Colonel, during which the world
+lost many thrilling tales, the one which survived occurred in 1851.
+
+"My lieutenant, Ed Burleson, was ordered to carry to San Antonio an
+Indian prisoner we had taken and turned over to the commanding officer
+at Fort Mclntosh. On his return, while nearing the Nueces River, he
+spied a couple of Indians. Taking seven men, he ordered the balance to
+continue along the road. The two Indians proved to be fourteen, and they
+charged Burleson up to the teeth. Dismounting his men, he poured it into
+them from his Colt's six-shooting rifles.  They killed or wounded all
+the Indians except two, some of them dying so near the Rangers that they
+could put their hands on their boots. All but one of Burleson's men were
+wounded--himself shot in the head with an arrow. One man had four
+'dogwood switches' [Arrows.] in his body, one of which was in his
+bowels. This man told me that every time he raised his gun to fire, the
+Indians would stick an arrow in him, but he said he didn't care a cent.
+One Indian was lying right up close, and while dying tried to shoot an
+arrow, but his strength failed so fast that the arrow only barely left
+the bowstring. One of the Rangers in that fight was a curious
+fellow--when young he had been captured by Indians, and had lived with
+them so long that he had Indian habits. In that fight he kept jumping
+around when loading, so as to be a bad target, the same as an Indian
+would under the circumstances, and he told Burleson he wished he had his
+boots off, so he could get around good"--and here the Colonel paused
+quizzically. "Would you call that a good fight?"
+
+The Deacon and I put the seal of our approval on the affair, and the
+Colonel rambled ahead.
+
+"In 1858 I was commanding the frontier battalion of State troops on the
+whole frontier, and had my camp on the Deer Fork of the Brazos. The
+Comanches kept raiding the settlements. They would come down quietly,
+working well into the white lines, and then go back a-running--driving
+stolen stock and killing and burning. I thought I would give them some
+of their own medicine. I concluded to give them a fight. I took two
+wagons, one hundred Rangers, and one hundred and thirteen Tahuahuacan
+Indians, who were friend-lies. We struck a good Indian trail on a stream
+which led up to the Canadian. We followed it till it got hot. I camped
+my outfit in such a manner as to conceal my force, and sent out my
+scouts, who saw the Indians hunt buffalo through spyglasses. That night
+we moved. I sent Indians to locate the camp. They returned before day,
+and reported that the Indians were just a few miles ahead, whereat we
+moved forward. At daybreak, I remember, I was standing in the bull-wagon
+road leading to Santa Fe and could see the Canadian River in our
+front--with eighty lodges just beyond. Counting four men of fighting age
+to a lodge, that made a possible three hundred and twenty Indians. Just
+at sunup an Indian came across the river on a pony. Our Indians down
+below raised a yell--they always get excited. The Indian heard them--it
+was very still then. The Indian retreated slowly, and began to ride in a
+circle. From where I was I could hear him puff like a deer--he was
+blowing the bullets away from himself--he was a medicine-man. I heard
+five shots from the Jagers with which my Indians were armed. The painted
+pony of the medicine-man jumped ten feet in the air, it seemed to me,
+and fell over on his rider--then five more Jagers went off, and he was
+dead. I ordered the Tahuahuacans out in front, and kept the Rangers out
+of sight, because I wanted to charge home and kind of surprise them.
+Pretty soon I got ready, and gave the word. We charged. At the river we
+struck some boggy ground and floundered around considerable, but we got
+through. We raised the Texas yell, and away we went. I never expect
+again to hear such a noise--I never want to hear it--what with the
+whoops of the warriors--the screaming of the women and children--our
+boys yelling--the shooting, and the horses just a-mixin' up and
+a-stampedin' around," and the Colonel bobbed his head slowly as he
+continued.
+
+"One of my men didn't know a buck from a squaw. There was an Indian
+woman on a pony with five children. He shot the pony--it seemed like you
+couldn't see that pony for little Indians. We went through the camp, and
+the Indians pulled out--spreading fanlike, and we a-running them. After
+a long chase I concluded to come back. I saw lots of Indians around in
+the hills. When I got back, I found Captain Ross had formed my men in
+line. 'What time in the morning is it?' I asked. 'Morning, hell!' says
+he--'it's one o'clock!' And so it was. Directly I saw an Indian coming
+down a hill near by, and then more Indians and more Indians--till it
+seemed like they wa'n't ever going to get through coming. We had struck
+a bigger outfit than the first one. That first Indian he bantered my men
+to come out single-handed and fight him. One after another, he wounded
+five of my Indians. I ordered my Indians to engage them, and kind of get
+them down in the flat, where I could charge. After some running and
+shooting they did this, and I turned the Rangers loose. We drove them.
+The last stand they made they killed one of my Indians, wounded a
+Ranger, but left seven of their dead in a pile. It was now nearly
+nightfall, and I discovered that my horses were broken down after
+fighting all day. I found it hard to restrain my men, they had got so
+heated up; but I gradually withdrew to where the fight commenced. The
+Indian camp was plundered. In it we found painted buffalo-robes with
+beads a hand deep around the edges--the finest robes I have ever
+seen--and heaps of goods plundered from the Santa Fe traders. On the way
+back I noticed a dead chief, and was for a moment astonished to find
+pieces of flesh cut out of him; upon looking at a Tahuahuacan warrior I
+saw a pair of dead hands tied behind his saddle. That night they had a
+cannibal feast. You see, the Tahuahuacans say that the first one of
+their race was brought into the world by a wolf. 'How am I to live?'
+said the Tahuahuacan. 'The same as we do,' said the wolf; and when they
+were with me, that is just about how they lived. I reckon it's necessary
+to tell you about the old woman who was found in our lines. She was
+looking at the sun and making incantations, a-cussing us out generally
+and elevating her voice. She said the Comanches would get even for this
+day's work. I directed my Indians to let her alone, but I was informed
+afterwards that that is just what they didn't do."
+
+At this point the Colonel's cigar went out, and directly he followed;
+but this is the manner in which he told of deeds which I know would fare
+better at the hands of one used to phrasing and capable also of more
+points of view than the Colonel was used to taking. The outlines of the
+thing are strong, however, because the Deacon and I understood that
+fights were what the old Colonel had dealt in during his active life,
+much as other men do in stocks and bonds or wheat and corn. He had been
+a successful operator, and only recalled pleasantly the bull quotations.
+This type of Ranger is all but gone. A few may yet be found in outlying
+ranches. One of the most celebrated resides near San Antonio--"Big-foot
+Wallace" by name. He says he doesn't mind being called "Big-foot,"
+because he is six feet two in height, and is entitled to big feet. His
+face is done off in a nest of white hair and beard, and is patriarchal
+in character. In 1836 he came out from Virginia to "take toll" of the
+Mexicans for killing some relatives of his in the Fannin Massacre, and
+he considers that he has squared his accounts; but they had him on the
+debit side for a while.  Being captured in the Meir expedition, he
+walked as a prisoner to the city of Mexico, and did public work for that
+country with a ball-and-chain attachment for two years. The prisoners
+overpowered the guards and escaped on one occasion, but were overtaken
+by Mexican cavalry while dying of thirst in a desert. Santa Anna ordered
+their "decimation," which meant that every tenth man was shot, their lot
+being determined by the drawing of a black bean from an earthen pot
+containing a certain proportion of white ones. "Big-foot" drew a white
+one. He was also a member of Captain Hayes's company, afterwards a
+captain of Rangers, and a noted Indian-fighter. Later he carried the
+mails from San Antonio to El Paso through a howling wilderness, but
+always brought it safely through--if safely can be called lying thirteen
+days by a water-hole in the desert, waiting for a broken leg to mend,
+and living meanwhile on one prairie-wolf, which he managed to shoot.
+Wallace was a professional hunter, who fought Indians and hated
+"greasers"; he belongs to the past, and has been "outspanned" under a
+civilization in which he has no place, and is to-day living in poverty.
+
+The civil war left Texas under changed conditions. That and the Mexican
+wars had determined its boundaries, however, and it rapidly filled up
+with new elements of population. Broken soldiers, outlaws, poor
+immigrants living in bull-wagons, poured in. "Gone to Texas" had a
+sinister significance in the late sixties. When the railroad got to
+Abilene, Kansas, the cow-men of Texas found a market for their stock,
+and began trailing their herds up through the Indian country.
+
+Bands of outlaws organized under the leadership of desperadoes like Wes
+Hardin and King Fisher. They rounded up cattle regardless of their
+owners' rights, and resisted interference with force. The poor man
+pointed to his brand in the stolen herd and protested. He was shot. The
+big owners were unable to protect themselves from loss. The property
+right was established by the six-shooter, and honest men were forced to
+the wall. In 1876 the property-holding classes went to the Legislature,
+got it to appropriate a hundred thousand dollars a year for two years,
+and the Ranger force was reorganized to carry the law into the
+chaparral. At this time many judges were in league with bandits;
+sheriffs were elected by the outlaws, and the electors were
+cattle-stealers.
+
+The Rangers were sworn to uphold the laws of Texas and the United
+States. They were deputy sheriffs, United States marshals--in fact, were
+often vested with any and every power, even to the extent of ignoring
+disreputable sheriffs. At times they were judge, jury, and executioner
+when the difficulties demanded extremes. When a band of outlaws was
+located, detectives or spies were sent among them, who openly joined the
+desperadoes, and gathered evidence to put the Rangers on their trail.
+Then, in the wilderness, with only the soaring buzzard or prowling
+coyote to look on, the Ranger and the outlaw met to fight with tigerish
+ferocity to the death.  Shot, and lying prone, they fired until the
+palsied arm could no longer raise the six-shooter, and justice was
+satisfied as their bullets sped.  The captains had the selection of
+their men, and the right to dishonorably discharge at will. Only men of
+irreproachable character, who were fine riders and dead-shots, were
+taken. The spirit of adventure filled the ranks with the most prominent
+young men in the State, and to have been a Ranger is a badge of
+distinction in Texas to this day. The display of anything but a perfect
+willingness to die under any and all circumstances was fatal to a
+Ranger, and in course of time they got the _moral_ on the bad man. Each
+one furnished his own horse and arms, while the State gave him
+ammunition, "grub," one dollar a day, and extra expenses. The enlistment
+was for twelve months. A list of fugitive Texas criminals was placed in
+his hands, with which he was expected to familiarize himself. Then, in
+small parties, they packed the bedding on their mule, they hung the
+handcuffs and leather thongs about its neck, saddled their
+riding-ponies, and threaded their way into the chaparral.
+
+On an evening I had the pleasure of meeting two more distinguished
+Ranger officers--more modern types--Captains Lea Hall and Joseph Shely;
+both of them big, forceful men, and loath to talk about themselves. It
+was difficult to associate the quiet gentlemen who sat smoking in the
+Deacon's rooms with what men say; for the tales of their prowess in
+Texas always ends, "and that don't count Mexicans, either." The bandit
+never laid down his gun but with his life; so the "la ley de huga"
+[Mexican law of shooting escaped or resisting prisoners.] was in force
+in the chaparral, and the good people of Texas were satisfied with a
+very short account of a Ranger's fight.
+
+The most distinguished predecessor of these two men was a Captain
+McNally, who was so bent on, carrying his raids to an issue that he paid
+no heed to national boundary-lines. He followed a band of Mexican
+bandits to the town of La Cueva, below Ringgold, once, and, surrounding
+it, demanded the surrender of the cattle which they had stolen. He had
+but ten men, and yet this redoubtable warrior surrounded a town full of
+bandits and Mexican soldiers. The Mexican soldiers attacked the Rangers,
+and forced them back under the river-banks, but during the fight the
+_jefe politico_ was killed. The Rangers were in a fair way to be
+overcome by the Mexicans, when Lieutenant Clendenin turned a Gatling
+loose from the American side and covered their position. A parley
+ensued, but McNally refused to go back without the cattle, which the
+Mexicans had finally to surrender.
+
+At another time McNally received word through spies of an intended raid
+of Mexican cattle-thieves under the leadership of Cammelo Lerma. At
+Resaca de la Palma, McNally struck the depredators with but sixteen men.
+They had seventeen men and five hundred head of stolen cattle. In a
+running fight for miles McNally's men killed sixteen bandits, while only
+one escaped. A young Ranger by the name of Smith was shot dead by
+Cammelo Lerma as he dismounted to look at the dying bandit. The dead
+bodies were piled in ox-carts and dumped in the public square at
+Brownsville. McNally also captured King Fisher's band in an old log
+house in Dimmit County, but they were not convicted.
+
+Showing the nature of Ranger work, an incident which occurred to my
+acquaintance, Captain Lea Hall, will illustrate. In De Witt County there
+was a feud. One dark night sixteen masked men took a sick man, one Dr.
+Brazel, and two of his boys, from their beds, and, despite the imploring
+mother and daughter, hanged the doctor and one son to a tree. The other
+boy escaped in the green corn. Nothing was done to punish the crime, as
+the lynchers were men of property and influence in the country. No man
+dared speak above his breath about the affair.
+
+Captain Hall, by secret-service men, discovered the perpetrators, and
+also that they were to be gathered at a wedding on a certain night. He
+surrounded the house and demanded their surrender, at the same time
+saying that he did not want to kill the women and children. Word
+returned that they would kill him and all his Rangers. Hall told them to
+allow their women and children to depart, which was done; then,
+springing on the gallery of the house, he shouted, "Now, gentlemen, you
+can go to killing Rangers; but if you don't surrender, the Rangers will
+go to killing you." This was too frank a willingness for midnight
+assassins, and they gave up.
+
+Spies had informed him that robbers intended sacking Campbell's store in
+Wolfe City. Hall and his men lay behind the counters to receive them on
+the designated night. They were allowed to enter, when Hall's men,
+rising, opened fire--the robbers replying. Smoke filled the room, which
+was fairly illuminated by the flashes of the guns--but the robbers were
+all killed, much to the disgust of the lawyers, no doubt, though I could
+never hear that honest people mourned.
+
+The man Hall was himself a gentleman of the romantic Southern soldier
+type, and he entertained the highest ideals, with which it would be
+extremely unsafe to trifle, if I may judge. Captain Shely, our other
+visitor, was a herculean, black-eyed man, fairly fizzing with nervous
+energy. He is also exceedingly shrewd, as befits the greater
+concreteness of the modern Texas law, albeit he too has trailed bandits
+in the chaparral, and rushed in on their camp-fires at night, as two big
+bullet-holes in his skin will attest. He it was who arrested Polk, the
+defaulting treasurer of Tennessee. He rode a Spanish pony sixty-two
+miles in six hours, and arrested Polk, his guide, and two private
+detectives, whom Polk had bribed to set him over the Rio Grande. When
+the land of Texas was bought up and fenced with wire, the old settlers
+who had used the land did not readily recognize the new regime. They
+raised the rallying-cry of "free grass and free water"--said they had
+fought the Indians off, and the land belonged to them. Taking nippers,
+they rode by night and cut down miles of fencing. Shely took the keys of
+a county jail from the frightened sheriff, made arrests by the score,
+and lodged them in the big new jail. The country-side rose in arms,
+surrounded the building, and threatened to tear it down. The big Ranger
+was not deterred by this outburst, but quietly went out into the mob,
+and with mock politeness delivered himself as follows:
+
+"Do not tear down the jail, gentlemen--you have been taxed for years to
+build this fine structure--it is yours--do not tear it down. I will open
+the doors wide--you can all come in--do not tear down the jail; but
+there are twelve Rangers in there, with orders to kill as long as they
+can see. Come right in, gentlemen--but come fixed."
+
+The mob was overcome by his civility.
+
+Texas is to-day the only State in the Union where pistol-carry ing is
+attended with great chances of arrest and fine. The law is supreme even
+in the lonely _jacails_ out in the rolling waste of chaparral, and it
+was made so by the tireless riding, the deadly shooting, and the
+indomitable courage of the Texas Rangers.
+
+
+
+
+THE BLUE QUAIL OF THE CACTUS
+
+
+THE Quartermaster and I both had trouble which the doctors could not
+cure--it was January, and it would not do for us to sit in a "blind ";
+besides, I do not fancy that. There are ever so many men who are
+comfortable all over when they are sitting in a blind waiting on the
+vagrant flying of the ducks; but it is solemn, gloomy business, and, I
+must say, sufficient reason why they take a drink every fifteen minutes
+to keep up their enthusiasm. We both knew that the finest winter resort
+for shot-gun folks was in the Southwest--down on the Rio Grande in
+Texas--so we journeyed to Eagle Pass. As we got down from the train we
+saw Captain Febiger in his long military cloak by a lantern-light.
+
+"Got any quail staked out for us, Feb?" asked the Quartermaster.
+
+"Oodles," said Febiger; "get into my trap," and we were rattled through
+the unlighted street out to the camp, and brought up by the Captain's
+quarters.
+
+In the morning we unpacked our trunks, and had everything on the floor
+where we could see it, after the fashion with men. Captain Febiger's
+baby boy came in to help us rummage in the heaps of canvas clothes,
+ammunition, and what not besides, finally selecting for his amusement a
+loaded Colt's revolver and a freshly honed razor. We were terrorized by
+the possibilities of the combination. Our trying to take them away from
+the youngster only made him yell like a cavern of demons. We howled for
+his mother to come to our aid, which she finally did, and she separated
+the kid from his toys.
+
+I put on my bloomers, when the Captain came in and viewed me, saying:
+"Texas bikes; but it doesn't bloom yet. I don't know just what Texas
+will do if you parade in those togs--but you can try."
+
+As we sauntered down the dusty main street, Texas lounged in the
+doorways or stood up in its buggy and stared at me. Texas grinned
+cheerfully, too, but I did not care, so long as Texas kept its hand out
+of its hip pocket. I was content to help educate Texas as to personal
+comfort, at no matter what cost to myself. We passed into Mexico over
+the Long Bridge to call on Senor Munos, who is the local czar, in hopes
+of getting permits to be let alone by his chaparral-rangers while we
+shot quail on their soil. In Mexico when the people observe an Americano
+they simply shrug their shoulders; so our bloomers attracted no more
+contempt than would an X-ray or a trolley-car. Senor Munos gave the
+permits, after much stately compliment and many subtle ways, which made
+us feel under a cloud of obligation.
+
+The next morning an ambulance and escort-wagon drove up to the Captain's
+quarters, and we loaded ourselves in--shot-guns, ammunition, blankets,
+and the precious paper of Senor Munos; for, only the week before, the
+custom-house rangers had carefully escorted an American hunting-party a
+long distance back to the line for lack of the little paper and red
+seals. We rattled over the bridge, past the Mexican barrack, while its
+dark-skinned soldiery--who do not shoot quails--lounged in the sunshine
+against the whitewashed wall.
+
+At the first outpost of the customs a little man, whose considerable
+equatorial proportions were girted with a gun, examined our paper, and
+waved us on our way. Under the railroad bridge of the International an
+engineer blew his whistle, and our mules climbed on top of each other in
+their terror.
+
+We wound along the little river, through irrigating ditches, past dozens
+of those deliciously quaint adobe houses, past the inevitable church,
+past a dead pony, ran over a chicken, made the little seven-year-old
+girls take their five-year-old brothers up in their arms for protection,
+and finally we climbed a long hill. At the top stretched an endless
+plain. The road forked; presently it branched; anon it grew into twigs
+of white dust on the gray levels of the background. The local physician
+of Eagle Pass was of our party, and he was said to know where a certain
+tank was to be found, some thirty miles out in the desert, but no man
+yet created could know which twig of the road to take. He decided on
+one--changed his mind--got out of the ambulance, scratched his head,
+pondered, and finally resolution settled on his face. He motioned the
+driver to a certain twig, got in, and shut his mouth firmly, thus
+closing debate. We smoked silently, waiting for the doctor's mind to
+fog. He turned uneasily in his seat, like the agitated needle of a
+compass, and even in time hazarded the remark that something did not
+look natural; but there was nothing to look at but flat land and flat
+sky, unless a hawk sailing here and there. At noon we lunched at the
+tail of the ambulance, and gently "jollied" the doctor's topography. We
+pushed on. Later in the afternoon the thirsty mules went slowly. The
+doctor had by this time admitted his doubts--some long blue hills on the
+sky-line ought to be farther to the west, according to his remembrance.
+As no one else had any ideas on the subject, the doctor's position was
+not enviable. We changed our course, and travelled many weary miles
+through the chaparral, which was high enough to stop our vision, and
+stiff enough to bar our way, keeping us to narrow roads. At last the
+bisecting cattle trails began to converge, and we knew that they led to
+water--which they did; for shortly we saw a little broken adobe, a
+tumbled brush corral, the plastered gate of an _acequia,_ and the blue
+water of the tank.
+
+To give everything its due proportion at this point, we gathered to
+congratulate the doctor as we passed the flask. The camp was pitched
+within the corral, and while the cook got supper we stood in the
+after-glow on the bank of the tank and saw the ducks come home, heard
+the mud-hens squddle, while high in the air flew the long line of
+sand-hill cranes with a hoarse clangor. It was quite dark when we sat on
+the "grub" chests and ate by the firelight, while out in the desert the
+coyotes shrilled to the monotonous accompaniment of the mules crunching
+their feed and stamping wearily. To-morrow it was proposed to hunt ducks
+in their morning flight, which means getting up before daylight, so bed
+found us early. It seemed but a minute after I had sought my blankets
+when I was being abused by the Captain, being pushed with his
+foot--fairly rolled over by him--he even standing on my body as he
+shouted, "Get up, if you are going hunting. It will be light
+directly--get up!" And this, constantly recurring, is one reason why I
+do not care for duck-shooting.
+
+But, in order to hunt, I had to get up, and file off in the line of
+ghosts, stumbling, catching, on the chaparral, and splashing in the mud.
+I led a setter-dog, and was presently directed to sit down in some damp
+grass, because'it was a good place--certainly not to sit down in, but
+for other reasons. I sat there in the dark, petting the good dog, and
+watching the sky grow pale in the east. This is not to mention the
+desire for breakfast, or the damp, or the sleepiness, but this is really
+the larger part of duck-hunting. Of course if I later had a dozen good
+shots it might compensate--but I did not have a dozen shots.
+
+The day came slowly out of the east, the mud-hens out in the marsh
+splashed about in the rushes, a sailing hawk was visible against the
+gray sky overhead, and I felt rather insignificant, not to say
+contemptible, as I sat there in the loneliness of this big nature which
+worked around me. The dog dignified the situation--he was a part of
+nature's belongings--while I somehow did not seem to grace the solitude.
+The grays slowly grew into browns on the sedge-grass, and the water to
+silver. A bright flash of fire shot out of the dusk far up in the gloom,
+and the dull report of a shot-gun came over the tank. Black objects fled
+across the sky--the ducks were flying. I missed one or two, and grew
+weary--none came near enough to my lair. Presently it was light, and I
+got a fair shot. My bird tumbled into the rushes out in front of me, and
+the setter bounded in to retrieve. He searched vehemently, but the
+wounded duck dived in front of him. He came ashore shortly, and lying
+down, he bit at himself and pawed and rolled. He was a mass of
+cockle-burs. I took him on my lap and laboriously picked cockle-burs out
+of his hair for a half-hour; then, shouldering my gun, I turned
+tragically to the water and anathematized its ducks--all ducks, my
+fellow-duckers, all thoughts and motives concerning ducks--and then
+strode into the chaparral. "Hie on! hie on!" I tossed my arm, and the
+setter began to hunt beautifully--glad, no doubt, to leave all thoughts
+of the cockle-burs and evasive ducks behind. I worked up the shore of
+the tank, keeping back in the brush, and got some fun. After chasing
+about for some time I came out near the water. My dog pointed. I glided
+forward, and came near shooting the Quartermaster, who sat in a bunch of
+sedge-grass, with a dead duck by his side. He was smoking, and was
+disgusted with ducks. He joined me, and shortly, as we crossed the road,
+the long Texas doctor, who owned the dog, came striding down the way. He
+was ready for quail now, and we started.
+
+The quail-hunting is active work. The dog points, but one nearly always
+finds the birds running from one prickly-pear bush to another. They do
+not stand, rarely flush, and when they do get up it is only to swoop
+ahead to the nearest cover, where they settle quickly. One must be sharp
+in his shooting--he cannot select his distance, for the cactus lies
+thick about, and the little running bird is only on view for the
+shortest of moments. You must overrun a dog after his first point, since
+he works too close behind them. The covey will keep together if not
+pursued with too much haste, and one gets shot after shot; still, at
+last you must run lively, as the frightened covey scurry along at a
+remarkable pace. Heavy shot are necessary, since the blue quail carry
+lead like Marshal Massena, and are much harder to kill than the
+bob-white. Three men working together can get shooting enough out of a
+bunch--the chase often continuing for a mile, when the covey gradually
+separate, the sportsmen following individual birds.
+
+Where the prickly-pear cactus is thickest, there are the blue quail,
+since that is their feed and water supply. This same cactus makes a
+difficulty of pursuit, for it bristles with spines, which come off on
+your clothing, and when they enter the skin make most uncomfortable and
+persistent sores. The Quartermaster had an Indian tobacco-bag dangling
+at his belt, and as it flopped in his progress it gathered prickers,
+which it shortly transferred to his luckless legs, until he at last
+detected the reason why he bristled so fiercely. And the poor dog--at
+every covey we had to stop and pick needles out of him. The haunts of
+the blue quail are really no place for a dog, as he soon becomes
+useless. One does not need him, either, since the blue quail will not
+flush until actually kicked into the air.
+
+Jack and cotton-tail rabbits fled by hundreds before us. They are
+everywhere, and afford good shooting between coveys, it being quick work
+to get a cotton-tail as he flashes between the net-work of protecting
+cactus. Coyotes lope away in our front, but they are too wild for a
+shot-gun. It must ever be in a man's mind to keep his direction, because
+it is such a vastly simple thing to get lost in the chaparral, where you
+cannot see a hundred yards. Mexico has such a considerable territory
+that a man on foot may find it inconvenient to beat up a town in the
+desolation of thorn-bush.
+
+There is an action about blue-quail shooting which is next to buffalo
+shooting--it's run, shoot, pick up your bird, scramble on in your
+endeavor to keep the skirmish-line of your two comrades; and at last,
+when you have concluded to stop, you can mop your forehead--the Mexican
+sun shines hot even in midwinter.
+
+Later in the afternoon we get among bob-white in a grassy tract, and
+while they are clean work--good dog-play, and altogether more
+satisfactory shooting than any other I know of--I am yet much inclined
+to the excitement of chasing after game which you can see at intervals.
+Let it not be supposed that it is less difficult to hit a running blue
+quail as he shoots through the brush than a flying bob-white, for the
+experience of our party has settled that, and one gets ten shots at the
+blue to one at the bob-white, because of their number. As to eating, we
+could not tell the difference; but I will not insist that this is final.
+A man who comes in from an all day's run in the brush does not care
+whether the cook gives him boiled beans, watermelon, or crackers and
+jam; so how is he to know what a bird's taste is when served to a tame
+appetite?
+
+At intervals we ran into the wild cattle which threaded their way to
+water, and it makes one nervous. It is of no use to say "Soo-bossy," or
+to give him a charge of No. 6; neither is it well to run. If the
+_matadores_ had any of the sensations which I have experienced, the gate
+receipts at the bull-rings would have to go up.  When a big long-horn
+fastens a quail-shooter with his great open brown eye in a chaparral
+thicket, you are not inclined to "call his hand." If he will call it a
+misdeal, you are with him.
+
+We were banging away, the Quartermaster and I, when a human voice began
+yelling like mad from the brush ahead. We advanced, to find a
+Mexican--rather well gotten up--who proceeded to wave his arms like a
+parson who had reached "sixthly" in his sermon, and who proceeded
+thereat to overwhelm us with his eloquence. The Quartermaster and I
+"_buenos dias-ed_" and "_si, senor-ed_" him in our helpless Spanish, and
+asked each other, nervously, "What de'll." After a long time he seemed
+to be getting through with his subject, his sentences became separated,
+he finally emitted monosyllables only along with his scowls, and we
+tramped off into the brush. It was a pity he spent so much energy, since
+it could only arouse our curiosity without satisfying it.
+
+In camp that night we told the Captain of our excited Mexican friend out
+in the brush, and our cook had seen sinister men on ponies passing near
+our camp. The Captain became solicitous, and stationed a night-guard
+over his precious government mules. It would never do to have a bandit
+get away with a U.  S. brand. It never does matter about private
+property, but anything with U. S. on it has got to be looked after, like
+a croupy child.
+
+We had some good days' sport, and no more formidable enterprise against
+the night-guard was attempted than the noisy approach of a white
+jackass. The tents were struck and loaded when it began to rain. We
+stood in the shelter of the escort-wagon, and the storm rose to a
+hurricane. Our corral became a tank; but shortly the black clouds passed
+north, and we pulled out. The twig ran into a branch, and the branch
+struck the trunk near the bluffs over the Rio Grande, and in town there
+stood the Mexican soldiers leaning against the wall as we had left them.
+We wondered if they had moved meanwhile.
+
+
+
+
+A SERGEANT OF THE ORPHAN TROOP
+
+
+WHILE it is undisputed that Captain Dodd's troop of the Third Cavalry is
+not an orphan, and is, moreover, quite as far from it as any troop of
+cavalry in the world, all this occurred many years ago, when it was, at
+any rate, so called. There was nothing so very unfortunate about it,
+from what I can gather, since it seems to have fought well on its own
+hook, quite up to all expectations, if not beyond. No officer at that
+time seemed to care to connect his name with such a rioting,
+nose-breaking band of desperado cavalrymen, unless it was temporarily,
+and that was always in the field, and never in garrison. However, in
+this case it did not have even an officer in the field. But let me go on
+to my sergeant.
+
+This one was a Southern gentleman, or rather a boy, when he refugeed out
+of Fredericksburg with his family, before the Federal advance, in a
+wagon belonging to a Mississippi rifle regiment; but nevertheless some
+years later he got to be a gentleman, and passed through the Virginia
+Military Institute with honor. The desire to be a soldier consumed him,
+but the vicissitudes of the times compelled him, if he wanted to be a
+soldier, to be a private one, which he became by duly enlisting in the
+Third Cavalry. He struck the Orphan Troop.
+
+Physically, Nature had slobbered all over Carter Johnson; she had
+lavished on him her very last charm. His skin was pink, albeit the years
+of Arizona sun had heightened it to a dangerous red; his mustache was
+yellow and ideally military; while his pure Virginia accent, fired in
+terse and jerky form at friend and enemy alike, relieved his natural
+force of character by a shade of humor. He was thumped and bucked and
+pounded into what was in the seventies considered a proper frontier
+soldier, for in those days the nursery idea had not been lugged into the
+army. If a sergeant bade a soldier "go" or "do," he instantly "went" or
+"did"--otherwise the sergeant belted him over the head with his
+six-shooter, and had him taken off in a cart. On pay-days, too, when men
+who did not care to get drunk went to bed in barracks, they slept under
+their bunks and not in them, which was conducive to longevity and a good
+night's rest. When buffalo were scarce they ate the army rations in
+those wild days; they had a fight often enough to earn thirteen dollars,
+and at times a good deal more. This was the way with all men at that
+time, but it was rough on recruits.
+
+So my friend Carter Johnson wore through some years, rose to be a
+corporal, finally a sergeant, and did many daring deeds. An atavism from
+"the old border riders" of Scotland shone through the boy, and he took
+on quickly. He could act the others off the stage and sing them out of
+the theatre in his chosen profession.
+
+There was fighting all day long around Fort Robinson, Nebraska--a
+bushwhacking with Dull-Knife's band of the Northern Cheyennes, the
+Spartans of the plains. It was January; the snow lay deep on the ground,
+and the cold was knife-like as it thrust at the fingers and toes of the
+Orphan Troop. Sergeant Johnson with a squad of twenty men, after having
+been in the saddle all night, was in at the post drawing rations for the
+troop. As they were packing them up for transport, a detachment of F
+Troop came galloping by, led by the sergeant's friend, Corporal
+Thornton. They pulled up.
+
+"Come on, Carter--go with us. I have just heard that some troops have
+got a bunch of Injuns corralled out in the hills. They can't get 'em
+down. Let's go help 'em. It's a chance for the fight of your life. Come
+on."
+
+Carter hesitated for a moment. He had drawn the rations for his troop,
+which was in sore need of them. It might mean a court-martial and the
+loss of his chevrons--but a fight! Carter struck his spurred heels,
+saying, "Come on, boys; get your horses; we will go."
+
+The line of cavalry was half lost in the flying snow as it cantered away
+over the white flats. The dry powder crunched under the thudding hoofs,
+the carbines banged about, the overcoat capes blew and twisted in the
+rushing air, the horses grunted and threw up their heads as the spurs
+went into their bellies, while the men's faces were serious with the
+interest in store. Mile after mile rushed the little column, until it
+came to some bluffs, where it drew reign and stood gazing across the
+valley to the other hills.
+
+Down in the bottoms they espied an officer and two men sitting quietly
+on their horses, and on riding up found a lieutenant gazing at the
+opposite bluffs through a glass. Far away behind the bluffs a sharp ear
+could detect the reports of guns.
+
+"We have been fighting the Indians all day here," said the officer,
+putting down his glass and turning to the two "non-coms." "The command
+has gone around the bluffs. I have just seen Indians up there on the
+rim-rocks. I have sent for troops, in the hope that we might get up
+there. Sergeant, deploy as skirmishers, and we will try."
+
+At a gallop the men fanned out, then forward at a sharp trot across the
+flats, over the little hills, and into the scrub pine. The valley
+gradually narrowed until it forced the skirmishers into a solid body,
+when the lieutenant took the lead, with the command tailing out in
+single file. The signs of the Indians grew thicker and thicker--a
+skirmisher's nest here behind a scrub-pine bush, and there by the side
+of a rock. Kettles and robes lay about in the snow, with three "bucks"
+and some women and children sprawling about, frozen as they had died;
+but all was silent except the crunch of the snow and the low whispers of
+the men as they pointed to the telltales of the morning's battle.
+
+As the column approached the precipitous rim-rock the officer halted,
+had the horses assembled in a side canon, putting Corporal Thornton in
+charge. He ordered Sergeant Johnson to again advance his skirmish-line,
+in which formation the men moved forward, taking cover behind the pine
+scrub and rocks, until they came to an open space of about sixty paces,
+while above it towered the cliff for twenty feet in the sheer. There the
+Indians had been last seen. The soldiers lay tight in the snow, and no
+man's valor impelled him on. To the casual glance the rim-rock was
+impassable. The men were discouraged and the officer nonplussed. A
+hundred rifles might be covering the rock fort for all they knew. On
+closer examination a cutting was found in the face of the rock which was
+a rude attempt at steps, doubtless made long ago by the Indians. Caught
+on a bush above, hanging down the steps, was a lariat, which, at the
+bottom, was twisted around the shoulders of a dead warrior. They had
+evidently tried to take him up while wounded, but he had died and had
+been abandoned.
+
+After cogitating, the officer concluded not to order his men forward,
+but he himself stepped boldly out into the open and climbed up. Sergeant
+Johnson immediately followed, while an old Swedish soldier by the name
+of Otto Bordeson fell in behind them. They walked briskly up the hill,
+and placing their backs against the wall of rock, stood gazing at the
+Indian.
+
+With a grin the officer directed the men to advance. The sergeant,
+seeing that he realized their serious predicament, said:
+
+"I think, lieutenant, you had better leave them where they are; we are
+holding this rock up pretty hard."
+
+They stood there and looked at each other. "We's in a fix," said Otto.
+
+"I want volunteers to climb this rock," finally demanded the officer.
+
+The sergeant looked up the steps, pulled at the lariat, and commented:
+"Only one man can go at a time; if there are Indians up there, an old
+squaw can kill this command with a hatchet; and if there are no Indians,
+we can all go up."
+
+The impatient officer started up, but the sergeant grabbed him by the
+belt. He turned, saying, "If I haven't got men to go, I will climb
+myself."
+
+"Stop, lieutenant. It wouldn't look right for the officer to go. I have
+noticed a pine-tree, the branches of which spread over the top of the
+rock," and the sergeant pointed to it. "If you will make the men cover
+the top of the rim-rock with their rifles, Bordeson and I will go up;"
+and turning to the Swede, "Will you go, Otto?"
+
+"I will go anywhere the sergeant does," came his gallant reply.
+
+"Take your choice, then, of the steps or the pine-tree," continued the
+Virginian; and after a rather short but sharp calculation the Swede
+declared for the tree, although both were death if the Indians were on
+the rim-rock. He immediately began sidling along the rock to the tree,
+and slowly commenced the ascent. The sergeant took a few steps up the
+cutting, holding on by the rope. The officer stood out and smiled
+quizzically. Jeers came from behind the soldiers' bushes--"Go it, Otto!
+Go it, Johnson! Your feet are loaded! If a snow-bird flies, you will
+drop dead! Do you need any help? You'd make a hell of a sailor!" and
+other gibes.
+
+The gray clouds stretched away monotonously over the waste of snow, and
+it was cold. The two men climbed slowly, anon stopping to look at each
+other and smile. They were monkeying with death.
+
+At last the sergeant drew himself up, slowly raised his head, and saw
+snow and broken rock. Otto lifted himself likewise, and he too saw
+nothing Rifle-shots came clearly to their ears from far in front--many
+at one time, and scattering at others. Now the soldiers came briskly
+forward, dragging up the cliff in single file. The dull noises of the
+fight came through the wilderness. The skirmish-line drew quickly
+forward and passed into the pine woods, but the Indian trails scattered.
+Dividing into sets of four, they followed on the tracks of small
+parties, wandering on until night threatened. At length the main trail
+of the fugitive band ran across their front, bringing the command
+together. It was too late for the officer to get his horses before dark,
+nor could he follow with his exhausted men, so he turned to the sergeant
+and asked him to pick some men and follow on the trail. The sergeant
+picked Otto Borde-son, who still affirmed that he would go anywhere that
+Johnson went, and they started. They were old hunting companions, having
+confidence in each other's sense and shooting. They ploughed through the
+snow, deeper and deeper into the pines, then on down a canon where the
+light was failing. The sergeant was sweating freely; he raised his hand
+to press his fur cap backward from his forehead. He drew it quickly
+away; he stopped and started, caught Otto by the sleeve, and drew a long
+breath. Still holding his companion, he put his glove again to his nose,
+sniffed at it again, and with a mighty tug brought the startled Swede to
+his knees, whispering, "I smell Indians; I can sure smell 'em,
+Otto--can you?" Otto sniffed, and whispered back, "Yes, plain!" "We are
+ambushed! Drop!" and the two soldiers sunk in the snow. A few feet in
+front of them lay a dark thing; crawling to it, they found a large
+calico rag, covered with blood.
+
+"Let's do something, Carter; we's in a fix." "If we go down, Otto, we
+are gone; if we go back, we are gone; let's go forward," hissed the
+sergeant.
+
+Slowly they crawled from tree to tree.
+
+"Don't you see the Injuns?" said the Swede, as he pointed to the rocks
+in front, where lay their dark forms. The still air gave no sound. The
+cathedral of nature, with its dark pine trunks starting from gray snow
+to support gray sky, was dead. Only human hearts raged, for the forms
+which held them lay like black bowlders.
+
+"Egah--lelah washatah," yelled the sergeant.
+
+Two rifle-shots rang and reverberated down the canon; two more replied
+instantly from the soldiers. One Indian sunk, and his carbine went
+clanging down the rocks, burying itself in the snow. Another warrior
+rose slightly, took aim, but Johnson's six-shooter cracked again, and
+the Indian settled slowly down without firing. A squaw moved slowly in
+the half-light to where the buck lay. Bordeson drew a bead with his
+carbine.
+
+"Don't shoot the woman, Otto. Keep that hole covered; the place is alive
+with Indians;" and both lay still.
+
+A buck rose quickly, looked at the sergeant, and dropped back. The
+latter could see that he had him located, for he slowly poked his rifle
+up without showing his head. Johnson rolled swiftly to one side, aiming
+with his deadly revolver. Up popped the Indian's head, crack went the
+six-shooter; the head turned slowly, leaving the top exposed. Crack
+again went the alert gun of the soldier, the ball striking the head just
+below the scalp-lock and instantly jerking the body into a kneeling
+position.
+
+Then all was quiet in the gloomy woods.
+
+After a time the sergeant addressed his voice to the lonely place in
+Sioux, telling the women to come out and surrender--to leave the bucks,
+etc.
+
+An old squaw rose sharply to her feet, slapped her breast, shouted
+"Lelah washatah," and gathering up a little girl and a bundle, she
+strode forward to the soldiers. Three other women followed, two of them
+in the same blanket.
+
+"Are there any more bucks?" roared the sergeant, in Sioux.
+
+"No more alive," said the old squaw, in the same tongue.
+
+"Keep your rifle on the hole between the rocks; watch these people; I
+will go up," directed the sergeant, as he slowly mounted to the ledge,
+and with levelled six-shooter peered slowly over. He stepped in and
+stood looking down on the dead warriors.
+
+A yelling in broken English smote the startled sergeant. "Tro up your
+hands, you d---- Injun! I'll blow the top off you!" came through the
+quiet. The sergeant sprang down to see the Swede standing with carbine
+levelled at a young buck confronting him with a drawn knife in his
+hands, while his blanket lay back on the snow.
+
+"He's a buck--he ain't no squaw; he tried to creep on me with a knife.
+I'm going to kill him," shouted the excited Bordeson.
+
+"No, no, don't kill him. Otto, don't you kill him," expostulated
+Johnson, as the Swede's finger clutched nervously at the trigger, and
+turning, he roared, "Throw away that knife, you d------Indian!"
+
+The detachment now came charging in through the snow, and gathered
+around excitedly. A late arrival came up, breathing heavily, dropped his
+gun, and springing up and down, yelled, "Be jabbers, I have got among om
+at last!" A general laugh went up, and the circle of men broke into a
+straggling line for the return. The sergeant took the little girl up in
+his arms. She grabbed him fiercely by the throat like a wild-cat,
+screaming. While nearly choking, he yet tried to mollify her, while her
+mother, seeing no harm was intended, pacified her in the soft gutturals
+of the race. She relaxed her grip, and the brave Virginian packed her
+down the mountain, wrapped in his soldier cloak. The horses were reached
+in time, and the prisoners put on double behind the soldiers, who fed
+them crackers as they marched. At two o'clock in the morning the little
+command rode into Fort Robinson and dismounted at the guardhouse. The
+little girl, who was asleep and half frozen in Johnson's overcoat, would
+not go to her mother: poor little cat, she had found a nest. The
+sergeant took her into the guard-house, where it was warm. She soon fell
+asleep, and slowly he undid her, delivering her to her mother. On the
+following morning he came early to the guard-house, loaded with trifles
+for his little Indian girl. He had expended all his credit at the
+post-trader's, but he could carry sentiment no further, for "To horse!"
+was sounding, and he joined the Orphan Troop to again ride on the
+Dull-Knife trail. The brave Cheyennes were running through the frosty
+hills, and the cavalry horses pressed hotly after. For ten days the
+troops surrounded the Indians by day, and stood guard in the snow by
+night, but coming day found the ghostly warriors gone and their
+rifle-pits empty. They were cut off and slaughtered daily, but the
+gallant warriors were fighting to their last nerve. Towards the end they
+were cooped in a gully on War-Bon-natt Creek, where they fortified; but
+two six-pounders had been hauled out, and were turned on their works.
+The four troops of cavalry stood to horse on the plains all day, waiting
+for the poor wretches to come out, while the guns roared, ploughing the
+frozen dirt and snow over their little stronghold; but they did not come
+out. It was known that all the provisions they had was the dead horse of
+a corporal of E Troop, which had been shot within twenty paces of their
+rifle-pits.
+
+So, too, the soldiers were starving, and the poor Orphans had only
+crackers to eat. They were freezing also, and murmuring to be led to
+"the charge," that they might end it there, but they were an orphan
+troop, and must wait for others to say. The sergeant even asked an
+officer to let them go, but was peremptorily told to get back in the
+ranks.
+
+The guns ceased at night, while the troops drew off to build fires, warm
+their rigid fingers, thaw out their buffalo moccasins, and munch
+crackers, leaving a strong guard around the Cheyennes. In the night
+there was a shooting--the Indians had charged through and had gone.
+
+The day following they were again surrounded on some bluffs, and the
+battle waged until night. Next day there was a weak fire from the Indian
+position on the impregnable bluffs, and presently it ceased entirely.
+The place was approached with care and trepidation, but was empty. Two
+Indian boys, with their feet frozen, had been left as decoys, and after
+standing off four troops of cavalry for hours, they too had in some
+mysterious way departed.
+
+But the pursuit was relentless; on, on over the rolling hills swept the
+famishing troopers, and again the Spartan band turned at bay, firmly
+intrenched on a bluff as before. This was the last stand--nature was
+exhausted. The soldiers surrounded them, and Major Wessells turned the
+handle of the human vise. The command gathered closer about the doomed
+pits--they crawled on their bellies from one stack of sage-brush to the
+next. They were freezing. The order to charge came to the Orphan Troop,
+and yelling his command, Sergeant Johnson ran forward. Up from the
+sage-brush floundered the stiffened troopers, following on. They ran
+over three Indians, who lay sheltered in a little cut, and these killed
+three soldiers together with an old frontier sergeant who wore long
+hair, but they were destroyed in turn. While the Orphans swarmed under
+the hill, a rattling discharge poured from the rifle-pits; but the troop
+had gotten under the fire, and it all passed over their heads. On they
+pressed, their blood now quickened by excitement, crawling up the steep,
+while volley on volley poured over them. Within nine feet of the pits
+was a rim-rock ledge over which the Indian bullets swept, and here the
+charge was stopped. It now became a duel.
+
+Every time a head showed on either side, it drew fire like a flue-hole.
+Suddenly our Virginian sprang on the ledge, and like a trill on a piano
+poured a six-shooter into the intrenchment, and dropped back.
+
+Major Wessells, who was commanding the whole force, crawled to the
+position of the Orphan Troop, saying, "Doing fine work, boys. Sergeant,
+I would advise you to take off that red scarf "--when a bullet cut the
+major across the breast, whirling him around and throwing him. A
+soldier, one Lannon, sprang to him and pulled him down the bluff, the
+major protesting that he was not wounded, which proved to be true, the
+bullet having passed through his heavy clothes.
+
+The troops had drawn up on the other sides, and a perfect storm of
+bullets whirled over the in-trenchments. The powder blackened the faces
+of the men, and they took off their caps or had them shot off. To raise
+the head for more than a fraction of a second meant death.
+
+Johnson had exchanged five shots with a fine-looking Cheyenne, and every
+time he raised his eye to a level with the rock White Antelope's gun
+winked at him.
+
+"You will get killed directly," yelled Lannon to Johnson; "they have you
+spotted."
+
+The smoke blew and eddied over them; again Johnson rose, and again White
+Antelope's pistol cracked an accompaniment to his own; but with movement
+like lightning the sergeant sprang through the smoke, and fairly shoving
+his carbine to White Antelope's breast, he pulled the trigger. A
+50-calibre gun boomed in Johnson's face, and a volley roared from the
+pits, but he fell backward into cover. His comrades set him up to see if
+any red stains came through the grime, but he was unhurt.
+
+The firing grew; a blue haze hung over the hill. Johnson again looked
+across the glacis, but again his eye met the savage glare of White
+Antelope.
+
+"I haven't got him yet, Lannon, but I will;" and Sergeant Johnson again
+slowly reloaded his pistol and carbine.
+
+"Now, men, give them a volley!" ordered the enraged man, and as volley
+answered volley, through the smoke sprang the daring soldier, and
+standing over White Antelope as the smoke swirled and almost hid him, he
+poured his six balls into his enemy, and thus died one brave man at the
+hands of another in fair battle. The sergeant leaped back and lay down
+among the men, stunned by the concussions. He said he would do no more.
+His mercurial temperament had undergone a change, or, to put it better,
+he conceived it to be outrageous to fight these poor people, five
+against one. He characterized it as "a d---- infantry fight," and
+rising, talked in Sioux to the enemy--asked them to surrender, or they
+must otherwise die. A young girl answered him, and said they would like
+to. An old woman sprang on her and cut her throat with a dull knife,
+yelling meanwhile to the soldiers that "they would never surrender
+alive," and saying what she had done.
+
+Many soldiers were being killed, and the fire from the pits grew weaker.
+The men were beside themselves with rage. "Charge!" rang through the now
+still air from some strong voice, and, with a volley, over the works
+poured the troops, with six-shooters going, and clubbed carbines. Yells,
+explosions, and amid a whirlwind of smoke the soldiers and Indians
+swayed about, now more slowly and quieter, until the smoke eddied away.
+Men stood still, peering about with wild open eyes through blackened
+faces. They held desperately to their weapons. An old bunch of buckskin
+rags rose slowly and fired a carbine aimlessly. Twenty bullets rolled
+and tumbled it along the ground, and again the smoke drifted off the
+mount. This time the air grew clear. Buffalo-robes lay all about, blood
+spotted everywhere. The dead bodies of thirty-two Cheyennes lay, writhed
+and twisted, on the packed snow, and among them many women and children,
+cut and furrowed with lead. In a corner was a pile of wounded squaws,
+half covered with dirt swept over them by the storm of bullets. One
+broken creature half raised herself from the bunch. A maddened trumpeter
+threw up his gun to shoot, but Sergeant Johnson leaped and kicked his
+gun out of his hands high into the air, saying, "This fight is over."
+
+
+
+
+THE SPIRIT OF MAHONGUI
+
+
+IT is so I have called this old document, which is an extract from the
+memoirs of le Chevalier Bailloquet, a Frenchman living in Canada, where
+he was engaged in the Indian fur trade, about the middle of the
+seventeenth century, and as yet they are unpublished.
+
+It is written in English, since the author lived his latter life in
+England, having left Canada as the result of troubles with the
+authorities.
+
+He was captured by the Iroquois, and after living with them some time,
+made his escape to the Dutch.
+
+My Chevalier rambles somewhat, although I have been at pains to cut out
+extraneous matter. It is also true that many will not believe him in
+these days, for out of their puny volition they will analyze, and out of
+their discontent they will scoff. But to those I say, Go to your
+microbes, your statistics, your volts, and your bicycles, and leave me
+the truth of other days.
+
+The Chevalier was on a voyage from Quebec to Montreal; let him begin:
+
+The next day we embarqued, though not without confusion, because many
+weare not content, nor satisfied. What a pleasure ye two fathers to see
+them trott up and downe ye rocks to gett their manage into ye boat. The
+boats weare so loaded that many could not proceed if foul weather should
+happen. I could not persuade myself to stay with this concourse as ye
+weather was faire for my journie. Without adoe, I gott my six wild men
+to paddle on ye way.
+
+This was a fatal embarquation, butt I did not mistrust that ye Iriquoits
+weare abroad in ye forest, for I had been at ye Peace. Nevertheless I
+find that these wild men doe naught butt what they resolve out of their
+bloodie mindedness. We passed the Point going out of ye Lake St. Peter,
+when ye Barbars appeared on ye watter-side discharging their muskets at
+us, and embarquing for our pursuit.
+
+"Kohe--kohe!"--came nearer ye fearsome warre cry of ye Iriquoit, making
+ye hearts of ye poore Hurron & ffrench alike to turn to water in their
+breasts. 2 of my savages weare strook downe at ye first discharge &
+another had his paddle cutt in twain, besides shott holes through with
+the watter poured apace. Thus weare we diminished and could not draw
+off.
+
+The Barbars weare daubed with paint, which is ye signe of warre. They
+coming against our boat struck downe our Hurrons with hattchetts, such
+as did not jump into the watter, where also they weare in no wise saved.
+
+But in my boat was a Hurron Captayne, who all his life-time had killed
+many Iriquoits & by his name for vallor had come to be a great Captayne
+att home and abroad. We weare resolved some execution & with our gunns
+dealt a discharge & drew our cutlasses to strike ye foe. They environed
+us as we weare sinking, and one spake saying--"Brothers, cheere up and
+assure yourselfe you shall not be killed; thou art both men and
+Cap-taynes, as I myself am, and I will die in thy defense." And ye
+afforesaid crew shewed such a horrid noise, of a sudden ye Iriquoit
+Captayne took hold about me--"Thou shalt not die by another hand than
+mine."
+
+Ye savages layd bye our armes & tyed us fast in a boat, one in one boat
+and one in another. We proceeded up ye river, rather sleeping than
+awake, for I thought never to escape.
+
+Att near sunsett we weare taken on ye shore, where ye wild men encamped
+bye making cottages of rind from off ye trees. They tyed ye Hurron
+Captayne to a trunk, he resolving most bravely but dessparred to me, and
+I too dessparred. Nevertheless he sang his fatal song though ye fire
+made him as one with the ague. They tooke out his heart and cut off some
+of ye flesh of ye miserable, boyled it and eat it. This they wished not
+to doe att this time, but that ye Hurron had been shott with a ball
+under his girdle where it was not seen, though he would have died of his
+desperate wound. That was the miserable end of that wretch.
+
+Whilst they weare busy with ye Hurron, they having stripped me naked,
+tyed me above ye elbows, and wrought a rope about my middle. They afked
+me several questions, I not being able to answer, they gave me great
+blows with their fists, then pulled out one of my nails. Having lost all
+hopes, I resolved altogether to die, itt being folly to think otherwise.
+
+I could not flee, butt was flung into a boat att daylight. Ye boats went
+all abreaft, ye wild men singing some of their fatal songs, others their
+howls of victory, ye wild "Kohes," beating giens & parchments, blowing
+whistles, and all manner of tumult.
+
+Thus did we proceed with these ravening wolves, God having delivered a
+Chriftian into ye power of Satan.
+
+I was nott ye only one in ye claws of these wolves, for we fell in with
+150 more of these cruels, who had Hurron captyves to ye number of 33
+victimes, with heads alsoe stuck on poles, of those who in God's mercie
+weare gone from their miseries. As for me, I was put in a boat with one
+who had his fingers cutt & bourned. I asked him why ye Iriquoits had
+broak ye Peace, and he said they had told him ye ffrench had broak ye
+Peace; that ye ffrench had set their pack of doggs on an olde Iriquoit
+woman who was eat up alive & that ye Iriquoits had told ye Hurron wild
+men that they had killed ye doggs, alsoe Hurrons and ffrench, saying
+that as to ye captyves, they would boyl doggs, Hurrons, and ffrench in
+ye same kettle.
+
+A great rain arose, ye Iriquoits going to ye watter-side did cover
+themselvs with their boats, holding ye captyves ye meanwhile bye ropes
+bound about our ancles, while we stood out in ye storm, which was near
+to causing me death from my nakedness. When ye rain had abated, we
+pursued our way killing staggs, & I was given some entrails, which
+before I had only a little parched corne to ye extent of my handfull.
+
+At a point we mett a gang of ye head hunters all on ye shore, dancing
+about a tree to which was tyed a fine ffrench mastiff dogg, which was
+standing on its hinder leggs, being lashed up against a tree by its
+middle. Ye dogg was in a great terror, and frantic in its bonds. I knew
+him for a dogg from ye fort att Mont-royal, kept for to give warnings of
+ye Enemy's approach. It was a strange sight for to see ye Heathen rage
+about ye noble dogg, but he itt was nevertheless which brought ye
+Barbars against us. He was only gott with great difficulty, having
+killed one Barbar, and near to serving others like-wise.
+
+They untyed ye dogg, I holding him one side, and ye other, with cords
+they brought and tyed him in ye bow of a boat with 6 warriors to paddle
+him. Ye dogg boat was ye Head, while ye rest came on up ye river singing
+fatal songs, triumph songs, piping, howling, & ye dogg above all with
+his great noise. Ye Barbars weare more delighted att ye captyve dogg
+than att all of us poore Christians, for that they did say he was no
+dogg. Ye doggs which ye wild men have are nott so great as wolves, they
+being little else & small att that. Ye mastiff was considered as a
+consequence to be a great interest. This one had near defeated their
+troupe & now was to be horridly killed after ye bloody way of ye wild
+men.
+
+Att camp they weare sleep most of ye night, they being aweary with ye
+torture of ye Hurron Captayne previously. Ye dogg was tyed & layd nott
+far off from where I was alsoe tyed, butt over him weare 2 olde men, who
+guarded him of a fear he would eat away his ropes. These men weare
+Elders or Priests, such as are esteemed for their power over spirits, &
+they did keep up their devil's song ye night thro.
+
+I made a vertue of necessity & did sleep, butt was early cast into a
+boat to go on towards ye Enemy's countrie, tho we had raw meat given us,
+with blows on ye mouth to make us ye more quickly devour itt. An
+Iriquoit who was the Captayne in our boat, bade me to be of a good
+courage, as they would not hurt me. Ye fmall knowledge I had of their
+speech made a better hope, butt one who could have understood them would
+have been certainly in a great terror.
+
+Thus we journied 8 days on ye Lake Champlaine, where ye wind and waves
+did sore beset our endeavors att times. As for meate we wanted none, as
+we had a store of staggs along ye watter-side. We killed some every day,
+more for sport than for need. We finding them on Isles, made them go
+into ye watter, & after we killed above a score, we clipped ye ears of
+ye rest & hung bells on them, and then lett them loose. What a sport to
+see ye rest flye from them that had ye bells!
+
+There came out of ye vast forest a multitude of bears, 300 at least
+together, making a horrid noise, breaking ye small trees. We shott att
+them, butt they stirred not a step. We weare much frightened that they
+stirred nott att our shooting. Ye great ffrench dogg would fain
+encounter them notwithftanding he was tyed. He made ye watter-side to
+ring with his heavy voise & from his eyes came flames of fyre & clouds
+from out his mouth. The bears did straightway fly which much cheered ye
+Iri-quoits. One said to me they weare resolved nott to murder ye dogg,
+which was a stone-God in ye dogg shape, or a witch, butt I could nott
+fully understand. Ye wild men said they had never heard their fathers
+speak of so many bears,
+
+When we putt ye kettle on, ye wild man who had captured me, gave me of
+meate to eat, & told me a story. "Brother," says he, "itt is a thing to
+be admired to goe afar to travell. You must know that tho I am olde, I
+have always loved ye ffrench for their goodness, but they should have
+given us to kill ye Algonkins. We should not warre against ye ffrench,
+butt trade with them for Castors, who are better for traffic than ye
+Dutch. I was once a Captayne of 13 men against ye Altignaonan-ton & ye
+ffrench. We stayed 3 whole winters among ye Ennemy, butt in ye daytime
+durst not marche nor stay out of ye deep forest. We killed many, butt
+there weare devils who took my son up in ye air so I could never again
+get him back. These devils weare as bigg as horriniacs, [moose] & ye
+little blue birds which attend upon them, said itt was time for us to go
+back to our people, which being resolved to do, we came back, butt nott
+of a fear of ye Ennemy. Our warre song grew still on our lipps, as ye
+snow falling in ye forest. I have nott any more warred to the North,
+until I was told by ye spirits to go to ye ffrench & recover my son. My
+friend, I have dreamed you weare my son;" and henceforth I was not
+hurted nor starved for food.
+
+We proceeded thro rivers & lakes & thro forests where I was made to
+support burdens. When we weare come to ye village of ye Iriquoits we lay
+in ye woods because that they would nott go into ye village in ye night
+time.
+
+The following day we weare marched into ye brough [borough] of ye
+Iriquoits. When we came in fight we heard nothing butt outcryes from one
+side, as from ye other. Then came a mighty host of people & payd great
+heed to ye ffrench dogg, which was ledd bye 2 men while roundabout his
+neck was a girdle of porcelaine. They tormented ye poore Hurrons with
+violence, butt about me was hung a long piece of porcelaine--ye girdle
+of my captor, & he stood against me.  In ye meanwhile, many of ye
+village came about us, among which a goode olde woman & a boy with a
+hattchett came neere me. Ye olde woman covered me, & ye boy took me by
+my hand and led mee out of ye companie. What comforted me was that I had
+escaped ye blowes. They brought me into ye village where ye olde woman
+fhowed me kindness. She took me into her cottage, & gave me to eat, butt
+my great terror took my stum-ack away from me. I had stayed an hour when
+a great companie came to see me, of olde men with pipes in their mouths.
+For a time they sat about, when they did lead me to another cabbin,
+where they smoked & made me apprehend they should throw me into ye fyre.
+Butt itt proved otherwise, for ye olde woman followed me, speaking
+aloud, whome they answered with a loud _ho,_ then shee tooke her girdle,
+and about me she tyed itt, so brought me to her cottage & made me to
+sitt downe. Then she gott me Indian corne toasted, & took away ye paint
+ye fellows had stuck to my face. A maide greased & combed my haire, & ye
+olde woman danced and sung, while my father bourned tobacco on a stone.
+They gave me a blew coverlitt, stockings, and shoes. I layed with her
+son & did what I could to get familiarity with ^ them, and I suffered no
+wrong, yet I was in a terror, for ye fatal songs came from ye poore
+Hurrons. Ye olde man inquired whether I was Afferony, a ffrench. I
+affured him no, faying I was Panugaga, that is of their nation, for
+which he was pleased.
+
+My father feasted 200 men. My sisters made me clean for that purpose,
+and greased my haire. They tyed me with 2 necklaces of porcelaine &
+garters of ye same. My father gave me a hattchett in my hand.
+
+My father made a speech, showing many demonstra-tions of vallor, broak a
+kettle of cagamite with a hattchett. So they sung, as is their usual
+custom. Ye banquette being over, all cryed to me "Shagon, Orimha"--that
+is "be hearty!" Every one withdrew to his quarters.
+
+Here follows a long account of his daily life among the Indians, his
+hunting and observations, which our space forbids. He had become
+meanwhile more familiar with the language. He goes on:
+
+My father came into ye cabbin from ye grand castle & he sat him downe to
+smoke. He said ye Elders had approved after much debate, & that ye
+ffrench dogg was not a witch, but ye great warrior Mahongui, gone
+before, whose spirit had rose up into ye ffrench dogg & had spyed ye
+ffrench. Att ye council even soe ye dogg had walked into ye centre of ye
+great cabbin, there saying loudly to ye Elders what he was & that he
+must be heard. His voice must be obeyed. His was not ye mocking cryes of
+a witch from under an olde snake-skin, butt a chief come from Paradise
+to comfort his own people. My father asked me if I was agreed. I said
+that witches did not battile as openly as ye dogg, butt doe their evil
+in ye dark.
+
+These wild men are sore beset with witches and devils--more than
+Christians, as they deserve to be, for they are of Satan's own
+belonging.
+
+My father dreamed att night, & sang about itt, making ye fire to bourne
+in our cabbin. We satt to listen. He had mett ye ffrench dogg in ye
+forest path bye night--he standing accross his way, & ye forest was
+light from ye dogg's eyes, who spake to my father saying, "I belong to
+ye dead folks--my hattchett is rust--my bow is mould--I can no longer
+battile with our Ennemy, butt I hover over you in warre--I direct your
+arrows to their breasts--I smoothe ye little dry sticks & wett ye leaves
+under ye shoes--I draw ye morning mist accross to shield you--I carry ye
+'Kohes' back and fore to bring your terror--I fling aside ye foeman's
+bulletts--go back and be strong in council."
+
+My father even in ye night drew ye Elders in ye grand cabbin. He said
+what he had seen and heard. Even then the great ffrench dogg gott from
+ye darkness of ye cabbin, & strode into ye fyre. He roared enough to
+blow downe caftles in his might & they knew he was saying what he had
+told unto my father.
+
+A great Captayne sent another night, & had ye Elders for to gather at ye
+grande cabbin. He had been paddling his boat upon ye river when ye dogg
+of Mahongui had walked out on ye watter thro ye mist. He was taller than
+ye forest. So he spake, saying "Mahongui says--go tell ye people of ye
+Panugaga, itt is time for warre--ye corne is gathered--ye deer has
+changed his coat--there are no more Hurrons for me to eat. What is a
+Panugaga village with no captyves? Ye young men will talk as women doe,
+& ye Elders will grow content to watch a snow-bird hopp. Mahongui says
+itt is time."
+
+Again att ye council fyre ye spirit dogg strode from ye darkness & said
+itt was time. Ye tobacco was bourned by ye Priests. In ye smoke ye
+Elders beheld ye Spirit of Mahongui. "Panugaga--Warre."
+
+Soe my father saw ye ghost of ye departed one. He smoked long bye our
+cabbin fyre. He sang his battile song. I asked him to goe myself, even
+with a hattchett, as I too was Panugaga. Butt he would in no wise
+listen. "You are nott meet," he says, "you sayest that your God is
+above. How will you make me believe that he is as goode as your black
+coats say? They doe lie & you see ye contrary; ffor first of all, ye Sun
+bournes us often, ye rain wetts us, ye winde makes us have shipwrake, ye
+thunder, ye lightening bournes & kills us, & all comes from above, & you
+say that itt is goode to be there. For my part, I will nott go there.
+Contrary they say that ye reprobates & guilty goeth downe & bourne.
+They are mistaken; all is goode heare. Do nott you see that itt is ye
+Earthe that nourishes all living creatures--ye waiter, ye fishes, & ye
+yus, and that corne & all other fruits come up, & that all things are
+nott soe contrary to us as that from above? Ye devils live in ye air &
+they took my son. When you see that ye Earthe is our Mother, then you
+will see that all things on itt are goode. Ye Earthe was made for ye
+Panugaga, & ye souls of our warriors help us against our Ennemy. Ye
+ffrench dogg is Mahongui's spirit. He tells us to goe to warre against
+ye ffrench. Would a ffrench dogg doe that? You are nott yett Panugaga to
+follow your father in warre."
+
+
+
+
+THE ESSENTIALS AT FORT ADOBE
+
+
+THE Indian suns himself before the door of his tepee, dreaming of the
+past. For a long time now he has eaten of the white man's lotos--the
+bimonthly beef-issue. I looked on him and wondered at the new things.
+The buffalo, the warpath, all are gone. What of the cavalrymen over at
+Adobe--his Nemesis in the stirring days--are they, too, lounging in
+barracks, since his lordship no longer leads them trooping over the
+burning flats by day and through the ragged hills by night? I will go
+and see.
+
+The blistered faces of men, the gaunt horses dragging stiffly along to
+the cruel spurring, the dirty lack-lustre of campaigning--that, of
+course, is no more. Will it be parades, and those soul-deadening "fours
+right" and "column left" affairs? Oh, my dear, let us hope not.
+
+Nothing is so necessary in the manufacture of soldiers, sure enough, but
+it is not hard to learn, and once a soldier knows it I can never
+understand why it should be drilled into him until it hurts. Besides,
+from another point of view, soldiers in rows and in lines do not compose
+well in pictures. I always feel, after seeing infantry drill in an
+armory, like Kipling's light-house keeper, who went insane looking at
+the cracks between the boards--they were all so horribly alike.
+
+Then Adobe is away out West in the blistering dust, with no towns of any
+importance near it. I can understand why men might become listless when
+they are at field-work, with the full knowledge that nothing but their
+brothers are looking at them save the hawks and coyotes. It is different
+from Meyer, with its traps full of Congressmen and girls, both of whom
+are much on the minds of cavalrymen.
+
+In due course I was bedded down at Adobe by my old friend the Captain,
+and then lay thinking of this cavalry business. It is a subject which
+thought does not simplify, but, like other great things, makes it
+complicate and recede from its votaries. To know essential details from
+unessential details is the study in all arts. Details there must be;
+they are the small things that make the big things. To apply this
+general order of things to this arm of the service kept me awake. There
+is first the riding--simple enough if they catch you young. There are
+bits, saddles, and cavalry packs. I know men who have not spoken to each
+other in years because they disagree about these. There are the sore
+backs and colics--that is a profession in itself. There are judgment of
+pace, the battle tactics, the use of three very different weapons; there
+is a world of history in this, in forty languages. Then an ever-varying
+_terrain_ tops all. There are other things not confined to cavalry, but
+regarded by all soldiers. The crowning peculiarity of cavalry is the
+rapidity of its movement, whereby a commander can lose the carefully
+built up reputation of years in about the time it takes a school-boy to
+eat a marsh-mallow. After all, it is surely a hard profession--a very
+blind trail to fame. I am glad I am not a cavalryman; still, it is the
+happiest kind of fun to look on when you are not responsible; but it
+needs some cultivation to understand and appreciate.
+
+I remember a dear friend who had a taste for out-of-doors. He penetrated
+deeply into the interior not long since to see these same troopers do a
+line of heroics, with a band of Bannocks to support the role. The
+Indians could not finally be got on the centre of the stage, but made
+hot-foot for the agency. My friend could not see any good in all this,
+nor was he satisfied with the first act even. He must needs have a
+climax, and that not forthcoming, he loaded his disgust into a trunk
+line and brought it back to his club corner here in New York. He there
+narrated the failure of his first night; said the soldiers were not even
+dusty as advertised; damned the Indians keenly, and swore at the West by
+all his gods.
+
+There was a time when I, too, regarded not the sketches in this art, but
+yearned for the finished product. That, however, is not exhibited
+generally over once in a generation.
+
+At Adobe there are only eight troops--not enough to make a German
+nurse-girl turn her head in the street, and my friend from New York,
+with his Napoleonic largeness, would scoff out loud. But he and the
+nurse do not understand the significance; they have not the eyes to see.
+A starboard or a port horseshoe would be all one to them, and a crease
+in the saddle-blanket the smallest thing in the world, yet it might
+spoil a horse.
+
+When the trumpets went in the morning I was sorry I had thought at all.
+It was not light yet, and I clung to my pillow. Already this cavalry has
+too much energy for my taste.
+
+"If you want to see anything, you want to lead out," said the Captain,
+as he pounded me with a boot.
+
+"Say, Captain, I suppose Colonel Hamilton issues this order to get up at
+this hour, doesn't he?"
+
+"He does."
+
+"Well, he has to obey his own order, then, doesn't he?"
+
+"He does."
+
+I took a good long stretch and yawn, and what I said about Colonel
+Hamilton I will not commit to print, out of respect to the Colonel. Then
+I got up.
+
+This bitterness of bed-parting passes. The Captain said he would put a
+"cook's police" under arrest for appearing in my make-up; but all these
+details will be forgotten, and whatever happens at this hour should be
+forgiven. I had just come from the North, where I had been sauntering
+over the territory of Montana with some Indians and a wild man from
+Virginia, getting up before light--tightening up on coffee and bacon for
+twelve hours in the saddle to prepare for more bacon and coffee; but at
+Adobe I had hoped for, even if I did not expect, some repose.
+
+In the east there was a fine green coming over the sky. No one out of
+the painter guild would have admitted it was green, even on the rack,
+but what I mean is that you could not approach it in any other way. A
+nice little adjutant went jangling by on a hard-trotting thoroughbred,
+his shoulders high and his seat low. My old disease began to take
+possession of me; I could fairly feel the microbes generate. Another
+officer comes clattering, with his orderly following after. The fever
+has me. We mount, and we are off, all going to stables.
+
+Out from the corrals swarm the troopers, leading their unwilling mounts.
+The horses are saying, "Damn the Colonel!" One of them comes in arching
+bounds; he is saying worse of the Colonel, or maybe only cussing out his
+own recruit for pulling his _cincha_ too tight. They form troop lines in
+column, while the Captains throw open eyes over the things which would
+not interest my friend from New York or the German nurse-girl.
+
+The two forward troops are the enemy, and are distinguished by wearing
+brown canvas stable-frocks. These shortly move out through the post, and
+are seen no more.
+
+Now comes the sun. By the shades of Knickerbocker's _History of New
+York_ I seem now to have gotten at the beginning; but patience, the sun
+is no detail out in the arid country. It does more things than blister
+your nose. It is the despair of the painter as it colors the minarets of
+the Bad Lands which abound around Adobe, and it dries up the company
+gardens if they don't watch the _acequias_ mighty sharp. To one just out
+of bed it excuses existence. I find I begin to soften towards the
+Colonel. In fact, it is possible that he is entirely right about having
+his old trumpets blown around garrison at this hour, though it took the
+Captain's boot to prove it shortly since.
+
+The command moves out, trotting quickly through the blinding clouds of
+dust. The landscape seems to get right up and mingle with the
+excitement. The supple, well-trained horses lose the scintillation on
+their coats, while Uncle Sam's blue is growing mauve very rapidly. But
+there is a useful look about the men, and the horses show condition
+after their long practice march just finished. Horses much used to go
+under saddle have well-developed quarters and strong stifle action. Fact
+is, nothing looks like a horse with a harness on. That is a job for
+mules, and these should have a labor organization and monopolize it.
+
+The problem of the morning was that we as an advance were to drive the
+two troops which had gone on ahead. These in turn were to represent a
+rapidly retiring rear-guard. This training is more that troops may be
+handled with expedition, and that the men may gather the thing, rather
+than that officers should do brilliant things, which they might
+undertake on their own responsibility in time of war, such as pushing
+rapidly by on one flank and cutting out a rear-guard.
+
+Grevious and very much to be commiserated is the task of the feeling
+historian who writes of these paper wars. He may see possibilities or
+calamities which do not signify. The morning orders provide against
+genius, and who will be able to estimate the surgical possibilities of
+blank cartridges? The sergeant-major cautioned me not to indicate by my
+actions what I saw as we rode to the top of a commanding hill. The enemy
+had abandoned the stream because their retreat would have been exposed
+to fire. They made a stand back in the hills. The advance felt the
+stream quickly, and passed, fanning out to develop. The left flank
+caught their fire, whereat the centre and right came around at top
+speed. But this is getting so serious.
+
+The scene was crowded with little pictures, all happening
+quickly--little dots of horsemen gliding quickly along the yellow
+landscape, leaving long trails of steely dust in their wake. A scout
+comes trotting along, his face set in an expectant way, carbine
+advanced. A man on a horse is a vigorous, forceful thing to look at. It
+embodies the liveliness of nature in its most attractive form,
+especially when a gun and sabre are attached.
+
+When both living equations are young, full of oats and bacon, imbued
+with military ideas, and trained to the hour, it always seems to me that
+the ghost of a tragedy stalks at their side. This is why the polo-player
+does not qualify sentimentally. But what is one man beside two troops
+which come shortly in two solid chunks, with horses snorting and sending
+the dry landscape in a dusty pall for a quarter of a mile in the rear?
+It is good--ah! it is worth any one's while; but stop and think, what if
+we could magnify that? Tut, tut! as I said before, that only happens
+once in a generation. Adobe doesn't dream; it simply does its morning's
+work.
+
+The rear-guard have popped at our advance, which exchanges with them.
+Their fire grows slack, and from our vantage we can see them mount
+quickly and flee.
+
+After two hours of this we shake hands with the hostiles and trot home
+to breakfast.
+
+These active, hard-riding, straight-shooting, open-order men are doing
+real work, and are not being stupefied by drill-ground routine, or
+rendered listless by file-closer prompting or sleepy reiteration.
+
+By the time the command dismounts in front of stables we turn longingly
+to the thoughts of breakfast. Every one has completely forgiven the
+Colonel, though I have no doubt he will be equally unpopular to-morrow
+morning.
+
+But what do I see--am I faint? No; it has happened again. It looks as
+though I saw a soldier jump over a horse. I moved on him.
+
+"Did I see you--" I began.
+
+"Oh yes, sir--you see," returned a little soldier, who ran with the
+mincing steps of an athlete towards his horse, and landed standing uip
+on his hind quarters, whereupon he settled down quietly into his saddle.
+
+Others began to gyrate over and under their horses in a dizzy way. Some
+had taken their saddles off and now sat on their horses' bellies, while
+the big dog-like animals lay on their backs, with their feet in the air.
+It was circus business, or what they call "short and long horse"
+work--some not understandable phrase. Every one does it. While I am not
+unaccustomed to looking at cavalry, I am being perpetually surprised by
+the lengths to which our cavalry is carrying thus Cossack drill. It is
+beginning to be nothing short of marvellous.
+
+In the old days this thing was not known. Between building mud or log
+forts, working on the bull-train, marching or fighting, a man and a gun
+made a soldier; but it takes an education along with this now before he
+can qualify.
+
+The regular work at Adobe went on during the day--guard mount, orders,
+inspection, and routine.
+
+At the club I was asked, "Going out this afternoon with us?"
+
+"Yes, he is going; his horse will be up at 4.30; he wants to see this
+cavalry," answered my friend the Captain for me.
+
+"Yes; it's fine moonlight. The Colonel is going to do an attack on
+Cossack posts out in the hills," said the adjutant.
+
+So at five o'clock we again sallied out in the dust, the men in the
+ranks next me silhouetting one after the other more dimly until they
+disappeared in the enveloping cloud. They were cheerful, laughing and
+wondering one to another if Captain Garrard, the enemy, would get in on
+their pickets. He was regarded in the ranks as a sharp fellow, one to be
+well looked after.
+
+At the line of hills where the Colonel stopped, the various troops were
+told off in their positions, while the long cool shadows of evening
+stole over the land, and the pale moon began to grow bolder over on the
+left flank.
+
+I sat on a hill with a sergeant who knew history and horses. He
+remembered "Pansy," which had served sixteen years in the troop--and a
+first-rate old horse then; but a damned inspector with no soul came
+browsing around one day and condemned that old horse. Government got a
+measly ten dollars--or something like that. This ran along for a time;
+when one day they were trooping up some lonely valley, and, behold,
+there stood "Pansy," as thin as a snake, tied by a wickieup. He greeted
+the troop with joyful neighs.  The soldiers asked the Captain to be
+allowed to shoot him, but of course he said no. I could not learn if he
+winked when he said it. The column wound over the hill, a carbine rang
+from its rear, and "Pansy" lay down in the dust without a kick. Death is
+better than an Indian for a horse.  The thing was not noticed at the
+time, but made a world of fuss afterwards, though how it all came out
+the sergeant did not develop, nor was it necessary.
+
+Night settled down on the quiet hills, and the dark spots of pickets
+showed dimly on the gray surface of the land. The Colonel inspected his
+line, and found everybody alert and possessed of a good working
+knowledge of picket duties at night--one of the most difficult duties
+enlisted men have to perform. It is astonishing how short is the
+distance at which we can see a picket even in this bright night on the
+open hills.
+
+I sat on my horse by a sergeant at a point in the line where I suspected
+the attack would come. The sergeant thought he saw figures moving in a
+dry bottom before us. I could not see. A column of dust off to the left
+indicated troops, but we thought it a ruse of Garrard's. My sergeant,
+though, had really seen the enemy, and said, softly, "They are coming."
+
+The bottom twinkled and popped with savage little yellow winks; bang!
+went a rifle in my ear; "whew!" snorted my big horse; and our picket
+went to the supports clattering.
+
+The shots and yells followed fast. The Colonel had withdrawn the
+supports towards the post rapidly, leaving his picket-line in the air--a
+thing which happens in war; but he did not lose much of that line, I
+should say.
+
+It was an interesting drill. Pestiferous little man disturbed nature,
+and it all seemed so absurd out there on those quiet gray hills. It made
+me feel, as I slowed down and gazed at the vastness of things, like a
+superior sort of bug. In the middle distance several hundred troops are
+of no more proportion than an old cow bawling through the hills after
+her wolf-eaten calf. If my mental vision were not distorted I should
+never have seen the manoeuvre at all--only the moon and the land doing
+what they have done before for so long a time.
+
+We reached Adobe rather late, when I found that the day's work had done
+wonders for my appetite. I reminded the Captain that I had broken his
+bread but once that day.
+
+"It is enough for a Ninth Cavalry man," he observed. However, I
+out-flanked this brutal disregard for established customs, but it was
+"cold."
+
+In the morning I resisted the Captain's boot, and protested that I must
+be let alone; which being so, I appeared groomed and breakfasted at a
+Christian hour, fully persuaded that as between an Indian and a Ninth
+Cavalry man I should elect to be an Indian.
+
+Some one must have disciplined the Colonel. I don't know who it was.
+There is only one woman in a post who can, generally; but no dinners
+were spoiled at Adobe by night-cat affairs.
+
+Instead, during the afternoon we were to see Captain Garrard, the
+hostile, try to save two troops which were pressed into the bend of a
+river by throwing over a bridge, while holding the enemy in check. This
+was as complicated as putting a baby to sleep while reading law; so
+clearly my point of view was with the hostiles. With them I entered the
+neck. The horses were grouped in the brush, leaving some men who were
+going underground like gophers out near the entrance. The
+brown-canvas-covered soldiers grabbed their axes, rolled their eyes
+towards the open plain, and listened expectantly.
+
+The clear notes of a bugle rang; whackety, bang--clack--clack, went the
+axes. Trees fell all around. The forest seemed to drop on me. I got my
+horse and fled across the creek.
+
+"That isn't fair; this stream is supposed to be impassable," sang out a
+lieutenant, who was doing a Blondin act on the first tree over, while
+beneath him yawned the chasm of four or five feet.
+
+In less than a minute the whole forest got up again and moved towards
+the bridge. There were men behind it, but the leaves concealed them.
+Logs dropped over, brush piled on top. The rifles rang in scattered
+volleys, and the enemy's fire rolled out beyond the brush. No bullets
+whistled--that was a redeeming feature.
+
+Aside from that it seemed as though every man was doing his ultimate
+act. They flew about; the shovels dug with despair; the sand covered the
+logs in a shower. While I am telling this the bridge was made.
+
+The first horse came forward, led by his rider. He raised his eyes like
+St. Anthony; he did not approve of the bridge. He put his ears forward,
+felt with his toes, squatted behind, and made nervous side steps. The
+men moved on him in a solid crowd from behind. Stepping high and short
+he then bounded over, and after him in a stream came the willing
+brothers. Out along the bluffs strung the troopers to cover the heroes
+who had held the neck, while they destroyed the bridge.
+
+Then they rode home with the enemy, chaffing each other.
+
+It is only a workaday matter, all this; but workaday stuff does the
+business nowadays.
+
+
+
+
+MASSAI'S CROOKED TRAIL
+
+
+IT is a bold person who will dare to say that a wilder savage ever lived
+than an Apache Indian, and in this respect no Apache can rival Massai.
+
+He was a _bronco_ Chiricahua whose _tequa_ tracks were so long and
+devious that all of them can never be accounted for. Three regiments of
+cavalry, all the scouts--both white and black--and Mexicans galore had
+their hack, but the ghostly presence appeared and disappeared from the
+Colorado to the Yaqui. No one can tell how Massai's face looks, or
+looked, though hundreds know the shape of his footprint.
+
+The Seventh made some little killings, but they fear that Massai was not
+among the game. There surely is or was such a person as Massai. He
+developed himself slowly, as I will show by the Sherlock Holmes methods
+of the chief of scouts, though even he only got so far, after all.
+Massai manifested himself like the dust-storm or the morning mist--a
+shiver in the air, and gone.
+
+The chief walked his horse slowly back on the lost trail in disgust,
+while the scouts bobbed along behind perplexed. It was always so. Time
+has passed, and Massai, indeed, seems gone, since he appears no more.
+The hope in the breasts of countless men is nearly blighted; they no
+longer expect to see Massai's head brought into camp done up in an old
+shirt and dropped triumphantly on the ground in front of the chief of
+scouts' tent, so it is time to preserve what trail we can.
+
+Three troops of the Tenth had gone into camp for the night, and the
+ghostly Montana landscape hummed with the murmur of many men. Supper was
+over, and I got the old Apache chief of scouts behind his own ducking,
+and demanded what he knew of an Apache Indian down in Arizona named
+Massai. He knew all or nearly all that any white man will ever know.
+
+"All right," said the chief, as he lit a cigar and tipped his sombrero
+over his left eye, "but let me get it straight. Massai's trail was so
+crooked, I had to study nights to keep it arranged in my head. He didn't
+leave much more trail than a buzzard, anyhow, and it took years to
+unravel it. But I am anticipating.
+
+"I was chief of scouts at Apache in the fall of '90, when word was
+brought in that an Indian girl named Natastale had disappeared, and that
+her mother was found under a walnut-tree with a bullet through her body.
+I immediately sent Indian scouts to take the trail. They found the
+tracks of a mare and colt going by the spot, and thinking it would bring
+them to the girl, they followed it. Shortly they found a moccasin track
+where a man had dismounted from the mare, and without paying more
+attention to the horse track, they followed it. They ran down one of my
+own scouts in a _tiswin_ [An intoxicating beverage made of corn] camp,
+where he was carousing with other drinkers. They sprang on him, got him
+by the hair, disarmed and bound him. Then they asked him what he had
+done with the girl, and why he had killed the mother, to which he
+replied that 'he did not know.' When he was brought to me, about dark,
+there was intense excitement among the Indians, who crowded around
+demanding Indian justice on the head of the murderer and ravisher of the
+women. In order to save his life I took him from the Indians and lodged
+him in the post guard-house. On the following morning, in order to
+satisfy myself positively that this man had committed the murder, I sent
+my first sergeant, the famous Mickey Free, with a picked party of
+trailers, back to the walnut-tree, with orders to go carefully over the
+trail and run down the mare and colt, or find the girl, dead or alive,
+wherever they might.
+
+"In two hours word was sent to me that the trail was running to the
+north. They had found the body of the colt with its throat cut, and were
+following the mare. The trail showed that a man afoot was driving the
+mare, and the scouts thought the girl was on the mare. This proved that
+we had the wrong man in custody. I therefore turned him loose, telling
+him he was all right. In return he told me that he owned the mare and
+colt, and that when he passed the tree the girl was up in its branches,
+shaking down nuts which her old mother was gathering. He had ridden
+along, and about an hour afterwards had heard a shot. He turned his mare
+loose, and proceeded on foot to the _tiswin_ camp, where he heard later
+that the old woman had been shot and the girl 'lifted.' When arrested,
+he knew that the other scouts had trailed him from the walnut-tree; he
+saw the circumstances against him, and was afraid.
+
+"On the night of the second day Mickey Free's party returned, having run
+the trail to within a few hundred yards of the camp of Alcashay in the
+Forestdale country, between whose band and the band to which the girl
+belonged there was a blood-feud. They concluded that the murderer
+belonged to Alcashay's camp, and were afraid to engage him.
+
+"I sent for Alcashay to come in immediately, which he did, and I
+demanded that he trail the man and deliver him up to me, or I would take
+my scout corps, go to his camp, and arrest all suspicious characters. He
+stoutly denied that the man was in his camp, promised to do as I
+directed, and, to further allay any suspicions, he asked for my picked
+trailers to help run the trail. With this body of men he proceeded on
+the track, and they found that it ran right around his camp, then turned
+sharply to the east, ran within two hundred yards of a stage-ranch,
+thence into some rough mountain country, where it twisted and turned for
+forty miles. At this point they found the first camp the man had made.
+He had tied the girl to a tree by the feet, which permitted her to sleep
+on her back; the mare had been killed, some steaks taken out, and some
+meat 'jerked.' From thence on they could find no trail which they could
+follow. At long intervals they found his moccasin mark between rocks,
+but after circling for miles they gave it up. In this camp they found
+and brought to me a fire-stick--the first and only one I had ever
+seen--and they told me that the fire-stick had not been used by Apaches
+for many years. There were only a few old men in my camp who were
+familiar with its use, though one managed to light his cigarette with
+it. They reasoned from this that the man was a bronco Indian who had
+been so long 'out' that he could not procure matches, and also that he
+was a much wilder one than any of the Indians then known to be outlawed.
+
+"In about a week there was another Indian girl stolen from one of my
+hay-camps, and many scouts thought it was the same Indian, who they
+decided was one of the well-known outlaws; but older and better men did
+not agree with them; so there the matter rested for some months.
+
+"In the spring the first missing girl rode into Fort Apache on a fine
+horse, which was loaded down with buckskins and other Indian finery. Two
+cowboys followed her shortly and claimed the pony, which bore a C C C
+brand, and I gave it up to them. I took the girl into my office, for she
+was so tired that she could hardly stand up, while she was haggard and
+worn to the last degree. When she had sufficiently recovered she told me
+her story. She said she was up in the walnut-tree when an Indian shot
+her mother, and coming up, forced her to go with him. He trailed and
+picked up the mare, bound her on its back, and drove it along. The colt
+whinnied, whereupon he cut its throat. He made straight for Alcashay's
+camp, which he circled, and then turned sharply to the east, where he
+made the big twisting through the mountains which my scouts found. After
+going all night and the next day, he made the first camp. After killing
+and cooking the mare, he gave her something to eat, tied her up by the
+feet, and standing over her, told her that he was getting to be an old
+man, was tired of making his own fires, and wanted a woman. If she was a
+good girl he would not kill her, but would treat her well and always
+have venison hanging up. He continued that he was going away for a few
+hours, and would come back and kill her if she tried to undo the cords;
+but she fell asleep while he was talking. After daylight he returned,
+untied her, made her climb on his back, and thus carried her for a long
+distance. Occasionally he made her alight where the ground was hard,
+telling her if she made any 'sign' he would kill her, which made her
+careful of her steps.
+
+"After some miles of this blinding of the trail they came upon a white
+horse that was tied to a tree. They mounted double, and rode all day as
+fast as he could lash the pony, until, near nightfall, it fell from
+exhaustion, whereupon he killed it and cooked some of the carcass. The
+bronco Indian took himself off for a couple of hours, and when he
+returned, brought another horse, which they mounted, and sped onward
+through the moonlight all night long. On that morning they were in the
+high mountains, the poor pony suffering the same fate as the others.
+
+"They stayed here two days, he tying her up whenever he went hunting,
+she being so exhausted after the long flight that she lay comatose in
+her bonds. From thence they journeyed south slowly, keeping to the high
+mountains, and only once did he speak, when he told her that a certain
+mountain pass was the home of the Chiricahuas. From the girl's account
+she must have gone far south into the Sierra Madre of Old Mexico, though
+of course she was long since lost.
+
+"He killed game easily, she tanned the hides, and they lived as man and
+wife. Day by day they threaded their way through the deep canons and
+over the Blue Mountain ranges. By this time he had become fond of the
+White Mountain girl, and told her that he was Massai, a Chiricahua
+warrior; that he had been arrested after the Geronimo war and sent East
+on the railroad over two years since, but had escaped one night from the
+train, and had made his way alone back to his native deserts. Since then
+it is known that an Indian did turn up missing, but it was a big band of
+prisoners, and some births had occurred, which made the checking off
+come straight. He was not missed at the time. From what the girl said,
+he must have got off east of Kansas City and travelled south and then
+west, till at last he came to the lands of the Mescalero Apaches, where
+he stayed for some time. He was over a year making this journey, and
+told the girl that no human eye ever saw him once in that time. This is
+all he ever told the girl Natastale, and she was afraid to ask him more.
+Beyond these mere facts, it is still a midnight prowl of a human coyote
+through a settled country for twelve hundred miles, the hardihood of the
+undertaking being equalled only by the instinct which took him home.
+
+"Once only while the girl was with him did they see sign of other
+Indians, and straightway Massai turned away--his wild nature shunning
+even the society of his kind.
+
+"At times 'his heart was bad,' and once he sat brooding for a whole day,
+finally telling her that he was going into a bad country to kill
+Mexicans, that women were a burden on a warrior, and that he had made up
+his mind to kill her. All through her narrative he seemed at times to be
+overcome with this blood-thirst, which took the form of a homicidal
+melancholia. She begged so hard for her life that he relented; so he
+left her in the wild tangle of mountains while he raided on the Mexican
+settlements. He came back with horses and powder and lead. This last was
+in Winchester bullets, which he melted up and recast into .50-calibre
+balls made in moulds of cactus sticks. He did not tell how many murders
+he had committed during these raids, but doubtless many.
+
+"They lived that winter through in the Sierras, and in the spring
+started north, crossing the railroad twice, which meant the Guaymas and
+the Southern Pacific. They sat all one day on a high mountain and
+watched the trains of cars go by; but 'his heart got bad' at the sight
+of them, and again he concluded to kill the girl. Again she begged off,
+and they continued up the range of the Mogollons. He was unhappy in his
+mind during all this journey, saying men were scarce up here, that he
+must go back to Mexico and kill some one.
+
+"He was tired of the woman, and did not want her to go back with him,
+so, after sitting all day on a rock while she besought him, the old wolf
+told her to go home in peace. But the girl was lost, and told him that
+either the Mexicans or Americans would kill her if she departed from
+him; so his mood softened, and telling her to come on, he began the
+homeward journey. They passed through a small American town in the
+middle of the night--he having previously taken off the Indian rawhide
+shoes from the ponies. They crossed the Gila near the Nau Taw Mountains.
+Here he stole two fresh horses, and loading one with all the buckskins,
+he put her on and headed her down the Eagle Trail to Black River. She
+now knew where she was, but was nearly dying from the exhaustion of his
+fly-by-night expeditions. He halted her, told her to 'tell the white
+officer that she was a pretty good girl, better than the San Carlos
+woman, and that he would come again and get another.' He struck her
+horse and was gone.
+
+"Massai then became a problem to successive chiefs of scouts, a bugbear
+to the reservation Indians, and a terror to Arizona. If a man was killed
+or a woman missed, the Indians came galloping and the scouts lay on his
+trail. If he met a woman in the defiles, he stretched her dead if she
+did not please his errant fancy. He took pot-shots at the men ploughing
+in their little fields, and knocked the Mexican bull-drivers on the head
+as they plodded through the blinding dust of the Globe Road. He even sat
+like a vulture on the rim-rock and signalled the Indians to come out and
+talk. When two Indians thus accosted did go out, they found themselves
+looking down Mas-sai's .50-calibre, and were tempted to do his bidding.
+He sent one in for sugar and coffee, holding the brother, for such he
+happened to be, as a hostage till the sugar and coffee came. Then he
+told them that he was going behind a rock to lie down, cautioning them
+not to move for an hour. That was an unnecessary bluff, for they did not
+wink an eye till sundown. Later than this he stole a girl in broad
+daylight in the face of a San Carlos camp and dragged her up the rocks.
+Here he was attacked by fifteen or twenty bucks, whom he stood off until
+darkness. When they reached his lair in the morning, there lay the dead
+girl, but Massai was gone.
+
+"I never saw Massai but once, and then it was only a piece of his G
+string flickering in the brush. We had followed his trail half the
+night, and just at daylight, as we ascended a steep part of the
+mountains, I caught sight of a pony's head looking over a bush. We
+advanced rapidly, only to find the horse grunting from a stab wound in
+the belly, and the little camp scattered around about him. The shirt
+tail flickering in the brush was all of Massai. We followed on, but he
+had gone down a steep bluff. We went down too, thus exposing ourselves
+to draw his fire so that we could locate him, but he was not tempted.
+
+"The late Lieutenant Clark had much the same view of this mountain
+outlaw, and since those days two young men of the Seventh Cavalry, Rice
+and Averill, have on separate occasions crawled on his camp at the break
+of day, only to see Massai go out of sight in the brush like a blue
+quail.
+
+"Lieutenant Averill, after a forced march of eighty-six miles, reached a
+hostile camp near morning, after climbing his detachment, since
+midnight, up the almost inaccessible rocks, in hopes of surprising the
+camp. He divided his force into three parts, and tried, as well as
+possible, to close every avenue of escape; but as the camp was on a high
+rocky hill at the junction of four deep canons, this was found
+impracticable. At daylight the savages came out together, running like
+deer, and making for the canons. The soldiers fired, killing a buck and
+accidentally wounding a squaw, but Massai simply disappeared.
+
+"That's the story of Massai. It is not as long as his trail," said the
+chief of scouts.
+
+
+
+
+JOSHUA GOODENOUGH'S OLD LETTER
+
+
+THE following letter has come into my possession, which I publish
+because it is history, and descends to the list of those humble beings
+who builded so well for us the institutions which we now enjoy in this
+country. It is yellow with age, and much frayed out at the foldings,
+being in those spots no longer discernible. It runs:
+
+ALBANY _June_ 1798.
+
+TO MY DEAR SON JOSEPH.--It is true that there are points in the history
+of the country in which your father had a concern in his early life, and
+as you ask me to put it down I will do so briefly. Not, however, my dear
+Joseph, as I was used to tell it to you when you were a lad, but with
+more exact truth, for I am getting on in my years and this will soon be
+all that my posterity will have of their ancestor. I conceive that now
+the descendents of the noble band of heroes who fought off the indians,
+the Frenche and the British will prevail in this country, and my
+children's children may want to add what is found here in written to
+their own achievements.
+
+To begin with, my father was the master of a fishing-schooner, of
+Marblehead. In the year 1745 he was taken at sea by a French man-of-war
+off Louisbourg, after making a desperate resistence. His ship was in a
+sinking condition and the blood was mid-leg deep on her deck. Your
+grandfather was an upstanding man and did not prostrate easily, but the
+Frencher was too big, so he was captured and later found his way as a
+prisoner to Quebec. He was exchanged by a mistake in his identity for
+Huron indians captivated in York, and he subsequently settled near
+Albany, afterwards bringing my mother, two sisters, and myself from
+Marblehead.
+
+He engaged in the indian trade, and as I was a rugged lad of my years I
+did often accompany him on his expeditions westward into the Mohawk
+townes, thus living in bark camps among Indians and got thereby a
+knowledge of their ways. I made shift also to learn their language, and
+what with living in the bush for so many years I was a hand at a pack or
+paddle and no mean hunter besides. I was put to school for two seasons
+in Albany which was not to my liking, so I straightway ran off to a
+hunters camp up the Hudson, and only came back when my father would say
+that I should not be again put with the pedegogue. For this adventure I
+had a good strapping from my father, and was set to work in his trade
+again.  My mother was a pious woman and did not like me to grow up in
+the wilderness--for it was the silly fashion of those times to ape the
+manners and dress of the Indians.
+
+My father was a shifty trader and very ventur-some. He often had trouble
+with the people in these parts, who were Dutch and were jealous of him.
+He had a violent temper and was not easily bent from his purpose by
+opporsition. His men had a deal of fear of him and good cause enough in
+the bargain, for I once saw him discipline a half-negro man who was one
+of his boat-men for stealing his private jug of liquor from his private
+pack. He clinched with the negro and soon had him on the ground, where
+the man struggled manfully but to no purpose, for your grandfather soon
+had him at his mercy. "Now," said he, "give me the jug or take the
+consequences." The other boat paddlers wanted to rescue him, but I
+menaced them with my fusil and the matter ended by the return of the
+jug.
+
+In 1753 he met his end at the hands of western Indians in the French
+interest, who shot him as he was helping to carry a battoe, and he was
+burried in the wilderness. My mother then returned to her home in
+Massassachusetts, journeying with a party of traders but I staid with
+the Dutch on these frontiers because I had learned the indian trade and
+liked the country. Not having any chances, I had little book learning in
+my youth, having to this day a regret concerning it. I read a few books,
+but fear I had a narrow knowledge of things outside the Dutch
+settlements. On the frontiers, for that matter, few people had much
+skill with the pen, nor was much needed. The axe and rifle, the paddle
+and pack being more to our hands in those rough days. To prosper though,
+men weare shrewd-headed enough. I have never seen that books helped
+people to trade sharper. Shortly afterwards our trade fell away, for the
+French had embroiled the Indians against us. Crown Point was the Place
+from which the Indians in their interest had been fitted out to go
+against our settlements, so a design was formed by His Majesty the
+British King to dispossess them of that place. Troops were levid in the
+Province and the war began. The Frenchers had the best of the fighting.
+
+Our frontiers were beset with the Canada indians so that it was not safe
+to go about in the country at all. I was working for Peter Vrooman, a
+trader, and was living at his house on the Mohawk. One Sunday morning I
+found a negro boy who was shot through the body with two balls as he was
+hunting for stray sheep, and all this within half a mile of Vrooman's
+house. Then an express came up the valley who left word that the
+Province was levying troops at Albany to fight the French, and I took my
+pay from Vrooman saying that I would go to Albany for a soldier. Another
+young man and myself paddled down to Albany, and we both enlisted in the
+York levies. We drawed our ammunition, tents, kettles, bowls and knives
+at the Albany flats, and were drilled by an officer who had been in her
+Majesty's Service. One man was given five hundred lashes for enlisting
+in some Connecticut troops, and the orders said that any man who should
+leave His Majesty's service without a Regular discharge should suffer
+Death. The restraint which was put upon me by this military life was not
+to my liking, and I was in a mortal dread of the whippings which men
+were constantly receiving for breaches of the discipline. I felt that I
+could not survive the shame of being trussed up and lashed before men's
+eyes, but I did also have a great mind to fight the French which kept me
+along.  One day came an order to prepare a list of officers and men who
+were willing to go scouting and be freed from other duty, and after some
+time I got my name put down, for I was thought too young, but I said I
+knew the woods, had often been to Andiatirocte (or Lake George as it had
+then become the fashion to call it) and they let me go. It was dangerous
+work, for reports came every day of how our Rangers suffered up country
+at the hands of the cruel savages from Canada, but it is impossible to
+play at bowls without meeting some rubs. A party of us proceeded up
+river to join Captain Rogers at Fort Edward, and we were put to camp on
+an Island. This was in October of the year 1757. We found the Rangers
+were rough borderers like ourselvs, mostly Hampshire men well used to
+the woods and much accustomed to the Enemy. They dressed in the fashion
+of those times in skin and grey duffle hunting frocks, and were well
+armed.  Rogers himself was a doughty man and had a reputation as a bold
+Ranger leader. The men declaired that following him was sore service,
+but that he most always met with great success. The Fort was garrissoned
+by His Majesty's soldiers, and I did not conceive that they were much
+fitted for bush-ranging, which I afterwards found to be the case, but
+they would always fight well enough, though often to no good purpose,
+which was not their fault so much as the headstrong leadership which
+persisted in making them come to close quarters while at a disadvantage.
+There were great numbers of pack horses coming and going with stores,
+and many officers in gold lace and red coats were riding about directing
+here and there. I can remember that I had a great interest in this
+concourse of men, for up to that time I had not seen much of the world
+outside of the wilderness. There was terror of the Canada indians who
+had come down to our borders hunting for scalps--for these were
+continually lurking near the cantane-ments to waylay the unwary. I had
+got acquainted with a Hampshire borderer who had passed his life on the
+Canada frontier, where he had fought indians and been captured by them.
+I had seen much of indians and knew their silent forest habits when
+hunting, so that I felt that when they were after human beings they
+would be no mean adversaries, but I had never hunted them or they me.
+
+I talked at great length with this Shankland, or Shanks as he was called
+on account of his name and his long legs, in course of which he
+explained many useful points to me concerning Ranger ways. He said they
+always marched until it was quite dark before encamping--that they
+always returned by a different route from that on which they went out,
+and that they circled on their trail at intervals so that they might
+intercept any one coming on their rear. He told me not to gather up
+close to other Rangers in a fight but to keep spread out, which gave the
+Enemy less mark to fire upon and also deceived them as to your own
+numbers. Then also he cautioned me not to fire on the Enemy when we were
+in ambush till they have approached quite near, which will put them in
+greater surprise and give your own people time to rush in on them with
+hatchets or cutlasses.  Shanks and I had finally a great fancy for each
+other and passed most of our time in company. He was a slow man in his
+movements albeit he could move fast enough on occassion, and was a great
+hand to take note of things happening around him. No indian was better
+able to discern a trail in the bush than he, nor could one be found his
+equal at making snow shoes, carving a powder horn or fashioning any
+knick-nack he was a mind to set his hand to.
+
+The Rangers were accustomed to scout in small parties to keep the Canada
+indians from coming close to Fort Edward. I had been out with Shanks on
+minor occasions, but I must relate my first adventure.
+
+A party . . . (here the writing is lost) . . . was desirous of taking a
+captive or scalp. I misdoubted our going alone by ourselvs, but he said
+we were as safe as with more. We went northwest slowly for two days, and
+though we saw many old trails we found none which were fresh. We had
+gone on until night when we lay bye near a small brook. I was awakened
+by Shanks in the night and heard a great howling of wolves at some
+distance off togther with a gun shot. We lay awake until daybreak and at
+intervals heard a gun fired all though the night. We decided that the
+firing could not come from a large party and so began to approach the
+sound slowly and with the greatest caution. We could not understand why
+the wolves should be so bold with the gun firing, but as we came neare
+we smelled smoke and knew it was a camp-fire. There were a number of
+wolves running about in the underbrush from whose actions we located the
+camp. From a rise we could presently see it, and were surprised to find
+it contained five Indians all lying asleep in their blankets. The wolves
+would go right up to the camp and yet the indians did not deign to give
+them any notice whatsoever, or even to move in the least when one wolf
+pulled at the blanket of a sleeper. We each selected a man when we had
+come near enough, and preparing to deliver our fire, when of a sudden
+one figure rose up slightly. We nevertheless fired and then rushed
+forward, reloading. To our astonishment none of the figures moved in the
+least but the wolves scurried off. We were advancing cautiously when
+Shanks caught me by the arm saying "we must run, that they had all died
+of the small-pox," and run we did lustilly for a good long distance.
+After this manner did many Indians die in the wilderness from that
+dreadful disease, and I have since supposed that the last living indian
+had kept firing his gun at the wolves until he had no longer strength to
+reload his piece.
+
+After this Shanks and I had become great friends for he had liked the
+way I had conducted myself on this expedition. He was always ar-guying
+with me to cut off my eel-skin que which I wore after the fashion of the
+Dutch folks, saying that the Canada indians would parade me for a
+Dutchman after that token was gone with my scalp. He had .... (writing
+obliterated).
+
+Early that winter I was one of 150 Rangers who marched with Captain
+Rogers against the Enemy at Carrillion. The snow was not deep at
+starting but it continued to snow until it was heavy footing and many of
+the men gave out and returned to Fort Edward, but notwithstanding my
+exhaustion I continued on for six days until we were come to within six
+hundred yards of Carrillion Fort. The captain had made us a speech in
+which he told us the points where we were to rendevoux if we were broke
+in the fight, for further resistence until night came on, when we could
+take ourselvs off as best we might. I was with the advance guard. We lay
+in ambush in some fallen timber quite close to a road, from which we
+could see the smoke from the chimneys of the Fort and the Gentries
+walking their beats. A French soldier was seen to come from the Fort and
+the word was passed to let him go bye us, as he came down the road. We
+lay perfectly still not daring to breathe, and though he saw nothing he
+stopped once and seemed undecided as to going on, but suspecting nothing
+he continued and was captured by our people below, for prisoners were
+wanted at Headquarters to give information of the French forces and
+intentions. A man taken in this way was threatened with Death if he did
+not tell the whole truth, which under the circumstancs he mostly did to
+save his life.
+
+The French did not come out of the Fort after us, though Rogers tried to
+entice them by firing guns and showing small parties of men which
+feigned to retreat. We were ordered to destroy what we could of the
+supplies, so Shanks and I killed a small cow which we found in the edge
+of the clearing and took off some fresh beef of which food we were sadly
+in need, for on these scouts the Rangers were not permitted to fire guns
+at game though it was found in thir path, as it often was in fact. I can
+remember on one occassion that I stood by a tree in a snow storm, with
+my gun depressed under my frock the better to keep it dry, when I was
+minded to glance quickly around and there saw a large wolf just ready to
+spring upon me. I cautiously presented my fusee but did not dare to fire
+against the orders. An other Ranger came shortly into view and the wolf
+took himself off. We burned some large wood piles, which no doubt made
+winter work for to keep some Frenchers at home. They only fired some
+cannon at us, which beyond a great deal of noise did no harm. We then
+marched back to Fort Edward and were glad enough to get there, since it
+was time for snow-shoes, which we had not with us.
+
+The Canada indians were coming down to our Forts and even behind them to
+intercept our convoys or any parties out on the road, so that the
+Rangers were kept out, to head them when they could, or get knowledge of
+their whereabouts. Shanks and I went out with two Mohegon indians on a
+scout. It was exceedingly stormy weather and very heavy travelling
+except on the River. I had got a bearskin blanket from the indians which
+is necessary to keep out the cold at this season. We had ten days of
+bread, pork and rum with a little salt with us, and followed the indians
+in a direction North-and-bye-East towards the lower end of Lake
+Champlain, always keeping to the high-ground with the falling snow to
+fill our tracks behind us. For four days we travelled when we were well
+up the west side. We had crossed numbers of trails but they were all
+full of old snow and not worth regarding--still we were so far from our
+post that in event of encountering any numbers of the Enemy we had but
+small hope of a safe return and had therefore to observe the greatest
+caution.
+
+As we were making our way an immense painter so menaced us that we were
+forced to fire our guns to dispatch him. He was found to be very old,
+his teeth almost gone, and was in the last stages of starvation. We were
+much alarmed at this misadventure, fearing the Enemy might hear us or
+see the ravens gathering above, so we crossed the Lake that night on
+some new ice to blind our trail, where I broke through in one place and
+was only saved by Shanks, who got hold of my eel-skin que, thereby
+having something to pull me out with. We got into a deep gully, and
+striking flint made a fire to dry me and I did not suffer much
+inconvenience.
+
+The day following we took a long circle and came out on the lower end of
+the Lake, there laying two days in ambush, watching the Lake for any
+parties coming or going. Before dark a Mo-higon came in from watch
+saying that men were coming down the Lake. We gathered at the point and
+saw seven of the Enemy come slowly on. There were three indians two
+Canadians and a French officer. Seeing they would shortly pass under our
+point of land we made ready to fire, and did deliver one fire as they
+came nigh, but the guns of our Mohigons failed to explode, they being
+old and well nigh useless, so that all the damage we did was to kill one
+indian and wound a Canadian, who was taken in hand by his companions who
+made off down the shore and went into the bush. We tried to head them
+unsuccessfully, and after examining the guns of our indians we feared
+they were so disabled that we gave up and retreated down the Lake,
+travelling all night. Near morning we saw a small fire which we spied
+out only to find a large party of the Enemy, whereat we were much
+disturbed, for our travelling had exhausted us and we feared the pursuit
+of a fresh enemy as soon as morning should come to show them our trail.
+We then made our way as fast as possible until late that night, when we
+laid down for refreshment. We built no fire but could not sleep for fear
+of the Enemy for it was a bright moonlight, and sure enough we had been
+there but a couple of hours when we saw the Enemy coming on our track.
+We here abandoned our bear-skins with what provissions we had left and
+ran back on our trail toward the advancing party. It was dark in the
+forest and we hoped they might not discover our back track for some
+time, thus giving us a longer start. This ruse was successful. After
+some hours travel I became so exhausted that I stopped to rest, whereat
+the Mohigans left us, but Shanks bided with me, though urging me to move
+forward. After a time I got strength to move on. Shanks said the
+Canadians would come up with us if we did not make fast going of it, and
+that they would disembowel us or tie us to a tree and burn us as was
+their usual way, for we could in no wise hope to make head against so
+large a party. Thus we walked steadily till high noon, when my wretched
+strength gave out so that I fell down saying I had as leave die there as
+elsewhere. Shanks followed back on our trail, while I fell into a drouse
+but was so sore I could not sleep. After a time I heard a shot, and
+shortly two more, when Shanks came running back to me. He had killed an
+advancing indian and stopped them for a moment. He kicked me vigorously,
+telling me to come on, as the Indians would soon come on again. I got
+up, and though I could scarcely move I was minded diligently to
+persevere after Shanks. Thus we staggered on until near night time, when
+we again stopped and I fell into a deep sleep, but the enemy did not
+again come up. On the following day we got into Fort Edward, where I was
+taken with a distemper, was seized with very grevious pains in the head
+and back and a fever. They let blood and gave me a physic, but I did not
+get well around for some time. For this sickness I have always been
+thankful, otherwise I should have been with Major Rogers in his
+unfortunate battle, which has become notable enough, where he was
+defeated by the Canadians and Indians and lost nigh all his private men,
+only escaping himself by a miracle. We mourned the loss of many friends
+who were our comrades, though it was not the fault of any one, since the
+Enemy had three times the number of the Rangers and hemmed them in. Some
+of the Rangers had surrendered under promise of Quarter, but we
+afterwards heard that they were tied to trees and hacked to death
+because the indians had found a scalp in the breast of a man's hunting
+frock, thus showing that we could never expect such bloody minded
+villiains to keep their promises of Quarter.
+
+I was on several scouts against them that winter but encountered nothing
+worthy to relate excepting the hardships which fell to a Ranger's lot.
+In June the Army having been gathered we proceeded under Abercromby up
+the Lake to attack Ticon-deroga. I thought at the time that so many men
+must be invincible, but since the last war I have been taught to know
+different. There were more Highlanders, Grenadiers, Provincial troops,
+Artillery and Rangers than the eye could compass, for the Lake was black
+with their battoes. This concourse proceeded to Ticondaroga where we had
+a great battle and lost many men, but to no avail since we were forced
+to return.
+
+The British soldiers were by this time made servicible for forest
+warfare, since the officers and men had been forced to rid themselvs of
+their useless incumbrances and had cut off the tails of their long coats
+till they scarcely reached below thir middles--they had also left the
+women at the Fort, browned thir gun barrells and carried thir provisions
+on their backs, each man enough for himself, as was our Ranger custom.
+The army was landed at the foot of the Lake, where the Rangers quickly
+drove off such small bodies of Frenchers and Indians as opposed us, and
+we began our march by the rapids. Rogers men cleared the way and had a
+most desperate fight with some French who were minded to stop us, but we
+shortly killed and captured most of them. We again fell in with them
+that afternoon and were challenged Qui vive but answered that we were
+French, but they were not deceived and fired upon us, after which a hot
+skirmish insued during which Lord Howe was shot through the breast, for
+which we were all much depressed, because he was our real leader and had
+raised great hopes of success for us. The Rangers had liked him because
+he was wont to spend much time talking with them in thir camps and used
+also to go on scouts.  The Rangers were not over fond of British
+officers in general.
+
+When the time had come for battle we Rangers moved forward, accompanied
+by the armed boatmen and the Provincial troops. We drove in the French
+pickets and came into the open where the trees were felled tops toward
+us in a mighty abbatis, as thiough blown down by the wind. It was all we
+could undertake to make our way through the mass, and all the while the
+great breast-works of the French belched cannon and musket balls while
+the limbs and splinters flew around us. Then out of the woods behind us
+issued the heavy red masses of the British troops advancing in battle
+array with purpose to storm with the bayonet. The maze of fallen trees
+with their withered leaves hanging broke their ranks, and the French
+Retrenchment blazed fire and death. They advanced bravely up but all to
+no good purpose, and hundreds there met their death. My dear Joseph I
+have the will but not the way to tell you all I saw that awful
+afternoon. I have since been in many battles and skirmishes, but I never
+have witnessed such slaughter and such wild fighting as the British
+storm of Ticondaroga. We became mixed up--Highlanders, Grenadiers, Light
+Troops, Rangers and all, and we beat against that mass of logs and maze
+of fallend timber and we beat in vain. I was once carried right up to
+the breastwork, but we were stopped by the bristling mass of sharpened
+branches, while the French fire swept us front and flank. The ground was
+covered deep with dying men, and as I think it over now I can remember
+nothing but the fruit bourne by the tree of war, for I looked upon so
+many won-derous things that July day that I could not set them downe at
+all. We drew off after seeing that human valor could not take that work.
+We Rangers then skirmished with the French colony troops and the Canada
+indians until dark while our people rescued the wounded, and then we
+fell back. The Army was utterly demoralized and made a headlong retreat,
+during which many wounded men were left to die in the woods. Shanks and
+I paddled a light bark canoe down the Lake next day, in the bottom of
+which lay a wounded British officer attended by his servant.
+
+I took my discharge, and lived until the following Spring with Vrooman
+at German Flats, when I had a desire to go again to the more active
+service of the Rangers, for living in camps and scouting,
+notwithstanding its dangers, was agreeable to my taste in those days. So
+back to Albany I started, and there met Major Rogers, whom I acquainted
+with my desire to again join his service, whereat he seemed right glad
+to put me downe. I accordingly journeyed to Crown Point, where I went
+into camp. I had bought me a new fire-lock at Albany which was provided
+with a bayonet. It was short, as is best fitted for the bush, and about
+45 balls to the pound. I had shot it ten times on trial and it had not
+failed to discharge at each pull. There was a great change in the
+private men of the Rangers, so many old ones had been frost bitten and
+gone home. I found my friend Shanks, who had staid though he had been
+badly frosted during the winter. He had such a hate of the Frenchers and
+particularly of the Canada Indians that he would never cease to fight
+them, they having killed all his relatives in New Hampshire which made
+him bitter against them, he always saying that they might as well kill
+him and thus make an end of the family.
+
+In June I went north down Champlain with 250 Rangers and Light Infantry
+in sloop-vessels.
+
+The Rangers were .... (writing lost) .... but it made no difference. The
+party was landed on the west side of the Lake near Isle au Noix and lay
+five days in the bush, it raining hard all the time. I was out with a
+recoinnoitering party to watch the Isle, and very early in the morning
+we saw the French coming to our side in boats, whereat we acquainted
+Major Rogers that the French were about to attack us. We were drawn up
+in line to await their coming. The forest always concealed a Ranger
+line, so that there might not have been a man within a hundred miles for
+all that could be seen, and so it was that an advance party of the Enemy
+walked into our line and were captured, which first appraised the French
+of our position. They shortly attacked us on our left, but I was sent
+with a party to make our way through a swamp in order to attack their
+rear. This we accomplished so quietly that we surprized some Canada
+indians who were lying back of the French line listening to a prophet
+who was incanting. These we slew, and after our firing many French
+grenadiers came running past, when they broke before our line. I took a
+Frenchman prisoner, but he kept his bayonet pointed at me, all the time
+yelling in French which I did not understand, though I had my loaded gun
+pointed at him. He seemed to be disturbed at the sight of a scalp which
+I had hanging in my belt. I had lately took it from the head of an
+Indian, it being my first, but I was not minded to kill the poor
+Frenchman and was saying so in English. He put down his fire-lock
+finally and offered me his flask to drink liquor with him, but I did not
+use it. I had known that Shanks carried poisoned liquor in his pack,
+with the hope that it would destroy any indians who might come into
+possession of it, if he was taken, whether alive or dead. As I was
+escorting the Frenchman back to our boats he quickly ran away from me,
+though I snapped my fire-lock at him, which failed to explode, it having
+become wet from the rain. Afterwards I heard that a Ranger had shot him,
+seeing him running in the bush.
+
+We went back to our boats after this victory and took all our wounded
+and dead with us, which last we buried on an island. Being joined by a
+party of Stockbridge Indians we were again landed, and after marching
+for some days came to a road where we recoinnoitered St. John's Fort but
+did not attack it, Rogers judging it not to be takeable with our force.
+From here we began to march so fast that only the strongest men could
+keep up, and at day-break came to another Fort. We ran into the gate
+while a hay-waggon was passing through, and surprised and captured all
+the garrison, men women and children. After we had burned and destroyed
+everything we turned the women and children adrift, but drove the men
+along as prisoners, making them carry our packs. We marched so fast that
+the French grenadiers could not keep up, for their breeches were too
+tight for them to march with ease, whereat we cut off the legs of them
+with our knives, when they did better.
+
+After this expedition we scouted from Crown Point in canoes, Shanks and
+myself going as far north as we dared toward Isle au Noix, and one day
+while lying on the bank we saw the army coming. It was an awsome sight
+to see so many boats filled with brave uniforms, as they danced over the
+waves. The Rangers and Indians came a half a mile ahead of the Army in
+whale-boats all in line abreast, while behind them came the light
+Infantry and Grenadiers with Provincial troops on the flanks and
+Artillery and Store boats bringing up the Rear.
+
+Shanks and I fell in with the Ranger boats, being yet in our small bark
+and much hurled about by the waves, which rolled prodigious.
+
+The Army continued up the Lake and drove the Frenchers out of their
+Forts, they not stopping to resist us till we got to Chamblee, where we
+staid. But the French in Canada had all surrendered to the British and
+the war was over. This ended my service as a Ranger in those parts. I
+went back to Vroomans intending to go again into the indian trade, for
+now we hoped that the French would no longer be able to stop our
+enterprises.
+
+Now my dear son--I will send you this long letter, and will go on
+writing of my later life in the Western country and in the War of
+Independence, and will send you those letters as soon as I have them
+written. I did not do much or occupy a commanding position, but I served
+faithfully in what I had to do. For the present God bless you my dear
+son.
+
+JOSHUA GOODENOUGH.
+
+
+
+
+CRACKER COWBOYS OF FLORIDA
+
+
+ONE can thresh the straw of history until he is well worn out, and also
+is running some risk of wearing others out who may have to listen, so I
+will waive the telling of who the first cowboy was, even if I knew; but
+the last one who has come under my observation lives down in Florida,
+and the way it happened was this: I was sitting in a "sto' do'," as the
+"Crackers" say, waiting for the clerk to load some "number eights," when
+my friend said, "Look at the cowboys!" This immediately caught my
+interest. With me cowboys are what gems and porcelains are to some
+others. Two very emaciated Texas ponies pattered down the street,
+bearing wild-looking individuals, whose hanging hair and drooping hats
+and generally bedraggled appearance would remind you at once of the
+Spanish-moss which hangs so quietly and helplessly to the limbs of the
+oaks out in the swamps. There was none of the bilious fierceness and
+rearing plunge which I had associated with my friends out West, but as a
+fox-terrier is to a yellow cur, so were these last. They had on about
+four dollars' worth of clothes between them, and rode McClellan saddles,
+with saddle-bags, and guns tied on before. The only things they did
+which were conventional were to tie their ponies up by the head in
+brutal disregard, and then get drunk in about fifteen minutes. I could
+see that in this case, while some of the tail feathers were the same,
+they would easily classify as new birds.
+
+"And so you have cowboys down here?" I said to the man who ran the
+meat-market.
+
+He picked a tiny piece of raw liver out of the meshes of his long black
+beard, tilted his big black hat, shoved his arms into his white apron
+front, and said:
+
+"Gawd! yes, stranger; I was one myself."
+
+The plot thickened so fast that I was losing much, so I became more
+deliberate. "Do the boys come into town often?" I inquired further.
+
+"Oh yes, 'mos' every little spell," replied the butcher, as he reached
+behind his weighing-scales and picked up a double-barrelled shot-gun,
+sawed off. "We-uns are expectin' of they-uns to-day."
+
+And he broke the barrels and took out the shells to examine them.
+
+"Do they come shooting?" I interposed.
+
+He shut the gun with a snap. "We split even, stranger."
+
+Seeing that the butcher was a fragile piece of bric-a-brac, and that I
+might need him for future study, I bethought me of the banker down the
+street. Bankers are bound to be broad-gauged, intelligent, and
+conservative, so I would go to him and get at the ancient history of
+this neck of woods. I introduced myself, and was invited behind the
+counter. The look of things reminded me of one of those great green
+terraces which conceal fortifications and ugly cannon. It was boards and
+wire screen in front, but behind it were shot-guns and six-shooters hung
+in the handiest way, on a sort of disappearing gun-carriage arrangement.
+Shortly one of the cowboys of the street scene floundered in. He was
+two-thirds drunk, with brutal, shifty eyes and a flabby lower lip.
+
+"I want twenty dollars on the old man. Ken I have it?"
+
+I rather expected that the bank would go into "action front," but the
+clerk said, "Certainly," and completed this rather odd financial
+transaction, whereat the bull-hunter stumbled out.
+
+"Who is the old man in this case?" I ventured.
+
+"Oh, it's his boss, old Colonel Zuigg, of Crow City. I gave some money
+to some of his boys some weeks ago, and when the colonel was down here I
+asked him if he wanted the boys to draw against him in that way, and he
+said, 'Yes--for a small amount; they will steal a cow or two, and pay me
+that way.'"
+
+Here was something tangible.
+
+"What happens when a man steals another man's brand in this country?"
+
+"He mustn't get caught; that's all. They all do it, but they never bring
+their troubles into court. They just shoot it out there in the bresh.
+The last time old Colonel Zuigg brought Zorn Zuidden in here and had him
+indicted for stealing cattle, said Zorn: 'Now see here, old man Zuigg,
+what do you want for to go and git me arrested fer? I have stole
+thousands of cattle and put your mark and brand on 'em, and jes because
+I have stole a couple of hundred from you, you go and have me indicted.
+You jes better go and get that whole deal nol pressed;' and it was
+done."
+
+The argument was perfect.
+
+"From that I should imagine that the cow-people have no more idea of law
+than the 'gray apes,'" I commented.
+
+"Yes, that's about it. Old Colonel Zuigg was a judge fer a spell, till
+some feller filled him with buckshot, and he had to resign; and I
+remember he decided a case aginst me once. I was hot about it, and the
+old colonel he saw I was. Says he, 'Now yer mad, ain't you?' And I
+allowed I was. 'Well,' says he, 'you hain't got no call to get mad. I
+have decided the last eight cases in yer favor, and you kain't have it
+go yer way all the time; it wouldn't look right;' and I had to be
+satisfied."
+
+The courts in that locality were but the faint and sickly flame of a
+taper offered at the shrine of a justice which was traditional only, it
+seemed. Moral forces having ceased to operate, the large owners began to
+brand everything in sight, never realizing that they were sowing the
+wind. This action naturally demoralized the cowboys, who shortly began
+to brand a little on their own account--and then the deluge. The rights
+of property having been destroyed, the large owners put strong outfits
+in the field, composed of desperate men armed to the teeth, and what
+happens in the lonely pine woods no one knows but the desperadoes
+themselves, albeit some of them never come back to the little fringe of
+settlements. The winter visitor from the North kicks up the jack-snipe
+along the beach or tarponizes in the estuaries of the Gulf, and when he
+comes to the hotel for dinner he eats Chicago dressed beef, but out in
+the wilderness low-browed cow-folks shoot and stab each other for the
+possession of scrawny creatures not fit for a pointer-dog to mess on.
+One cannot but feel the force of Buckle's law of "the physical aspects
+of nature" in this sad country. Flat and sandy, with miles on miles of
+straight pine timber, each tree an exact duplicate of its neighbor tree,
+and underneath the scrub palmettoes, the twisted brakes and hammocks,
+and the gnarled water-oaks festooned with the sad gray
+Spanish-moss--truly not a country for a high-spirited race or moral
+giants.
+
+The land gives only a tough wiregrass, and the poor little cattle, no
+bigger than a donkey, wander half starved and horribly emaciated in
+search of it. There used to be a trade with Cuba, but now that has gone;
+and beyond the supplying of Key West and the small fringe of settlements
+they have no market. How well the cowboys serve their masters I can only
+guess, since the big owners do not dare go into the woods, or even to
+their own doors at night, and they do not keep a light burning in the
+houses. One, indeed, attempted to assert his rights, but some one pumped
+sixteen buckshot into him as he bent over a spring to drink, and he left
+the country. They do tell of a late encounter between two rival foremen,
+who rode on to each other in the woods, and drawing, fired, and both
+were found stretched dying under the palmettoes, one calling deliriously
+the name of his boss. The unknown reaches of the Everglades lie just
+below, and with a half-hour's start a man who knew the country would be
+safe from pursuit, even if it were attempted; and, as one man cheerfully
+confided to me, "A boat don't leave no trail, stranger."
+
+That might makes right, and that they steal by wholesale, any
+cattle-hunter will admit; and why they brand at all I cannot see, since
+one boy tried to make it plain to me, as he shifted his body in drunken
+abandon and grabbed my pencil and a sheet of wrapping paper: "See yer;
+ye see that?" And he drew a circle O, and then another ring around it,
+thus: (O). "That brand ain't no good. Well, then--" And again his
+knotted and dirty fingers essayed the brand I O. He laboriously drew
+upon it and made E-O which of course destroyed the former brand.
+
+"Then here," he continued, as he drew 13, "all ye've got ter do is
+this--313." I gasped in amazement, not at his cleverness as a
+brand-destroyer, but at his honest abandon. With a horrible operatic
+laugh, such as is painted in "The Cossack's Answer," he again
+laboriously drew (+) (the circle cross), and then added some marks which
+made it look like this: S(+)S. And again breaking into his devil's "ha,
+ha!" said, "Make the damned thing whirl."
+
+I did not protest. He would have shot me for that. But I did wish he was
+living in the northwest quarter of New Mexico, where Mr. Cooper and Dan
+could throw their eyes over the trail of his pony. Of course each man
+has adjusted himself to this lawless rustling, and only calculates that
+he can steal as much as his opponent. It is rarely that their affairs
+are brought to court, but when they are, the men come _en masse_ to the
+room, armed with knives and rifles, so that any decision is bound to be
+a compromise, or it will bring on a general engagement.
+
+There is also a noticeable absence of negroes among them, as they still
+retain some _ante bellum_ theories, and it is only very lately that they
+have "reconstructed." Their general ignorance is "miraculous," and quite
+mystifying to an outside man. Some whom I met did not even know where
+the Texas was which furnishes them their ponies. The railroads of
+Florida have had their ups and downs with them in a petty way on account
+of the running over of their cattle by the trains; and then some
+long-haired old Cracker drops into the nearest station with his gun and
+pistol, and wants the telegraph operator to settle immediately on the
+basis of the Cracker's claim for damages, which is always absurdly high.
+At first the railroads demurred, but the cowboys lined up in the "bresh"
+on some dark night and pumped Winchesters into the train in a highly
+picturesque way. The trainmen at once recognized the force of the
+Cracker's views on cattle-killing, but it took some considerable
+"potting" at the more conservative superintendents before the latter
+could bestir themselves and invent a "cow-attorney," as the company
+adjuster is called, who now settles with the bushmen as best he can.
+Certainly no worse people ever lived since the big killing up
+Muscleshell way, and the romance is taken out of it by the cowardly
+assassination which is the practice. They are well paid for their
+desperate work, and always eat fresh beef or "razor-backs," and deer
+which they kill in the woods. The heat, the poor grass, their brutality,
+and the pest of the flies kill their ponies, and, as a rule, they lack
+dash and are indifferent riders, but they are picturesque in their
+unkempt, almost unearthly wildness. A strange effect is added by their
+use of large, fierce cur-dogs, one of which accompanies each
+cattle-hunter, and is taught to pursue cattle, and to even take them by
+the nose, which is another instance of their brutality. Still, as they
+only have a couple of horses apiece, it saves them much extra running.
+These men do not use the rope, unless to noose a pony in a corral, but
+work their cattle in strong log corrals, which are made at about a day's
+march apart all through the woods. Indeed, ropes are hardly necessary,
+since the cattle are so small and thin that two men can successfully
+"wrestle" a three-year-old. A man goes into the corral, grabs a cow by
+one horn, and throwing his other arm over her back, waits until some
+other man takes her hind leg, whereat ensues some very entertaining
+Graeco-Roman style.
+
+When the cow is successful, she finds her audience of Cracker cowboys
+sitting on the fence awaiting another opening, and gasping for breath.
+The best bull will not go over three hundred pounds, while I have seen a
+yearling at a hundred and fifty--if you, O knights of the riata, can
+imagine it! Still, it is desperate work. Some of the men are so reckless
+and active that they do not hesitate to encounter a wild bull in the
+open. The cattle are as wild as deer, they race off at scent; and when
+"rounded up" many will not drive, whereupon these are promptly shot. It
+frequently happens that when the herd is being driven quietly along a
+bull will turn on the drivers, charging at once. Then there is a scamper
+and great shooting.  The bulls often become so maddened in these forays
+that they drop and die in their tracks, for which strange fact no one
+can account, but as a rule they are too scrawny and mean to make their
+handling difficult.
+
+So this is the Cracker cowboy, whose chief interest would be found in
+the tales of some bushwhacking enterprise, which I very much fear would
+be a one-sided story, and not worth the telling. At best they must be
+revolting, having no note of the savage encounters which used to
+characterize the easy days in West Texas and New Mexico, when every man
+tossed his life away to the crackle of his own revolver. The moon shows
+pale through the leafy canopy on their evening fires, and the mists, the
+miasma, and the mosquitoes settle over their dreary camp talk. In place
+of the wild stampede, there is only the bellowing in the pens, and
+instead of the plains shaking under the dusty air as the bedizened
+vaqueros plough their fiery broncos through the milling herds, the
+cattle-hunter wends his lonely way through the ooze and rank grass,
+while the dreary pine trunks line up and shut the view.
+
+
+
+
+THE STRANGE DAYS THAT CAME TO JIMMIE FRIDAY
+
+
+THE "Abwee-chemun" [Algonquin for "paddle and canoe."] Club was
+organized with six charter members at a heavy lunch in the Savarin
+restaurant--one of those lunches which make through connections to
+dinner without change. One member basely deserted, while two more lost
+all their enthusiasm on the following morning, but three of us stuck. We
+vaguely knew that somewhere north of the Canadian Pacific and south of
+Hudson Bay were big lakes and rapid rivers--lakes whose names we did not
+know; lakes bigger than Champlain, with unnamed rivers between them. We
+did not propose to be boated around in a big birch-bark by two voyagers
+among blankets and crackers and ham, but each provided himself a little
+thirteen-foot cedar canoe, twenty-nine inches in the beam, and weighing
+less than forty pounds. I cannot tell you precisely how our party was
+sorted, but one was a lawyer with eyeglasses and settled habits, loving
+nature, though detesting canoes; the other was nominally a merchant, but
+in reality an atavie Norseman of the wolf and raven kind; while I am not
+new. Together we started.
+
+Presently the Abwees sat about the board of a lumbermen's hotel, filled
+with house-flies and slatternly waiter-girls, who talked familiarly
+while they served greasy food. The Abwees were yet sore in their minds
+at the thoughts of the smelly beds up-stairs, and discouragement sat
+deeply on their souls. But their time was not yet.
+
+After breakfast they marched to the Hudson Bay Company's store, knowing
+as they did that in Canada there are only two places for a traveller to
+go who wants anything--the great company or the parish priest; and then,
+having explained to the factor their dream, they were told "that beyond,
+beyond some days' journey"--oh! that awful beyond, which for centuries
+has stood across the path of the pioneer, and in these latter days
+confronts the sportsman and wilderness-lover--"that beyond some days'
+journey to the north was a country such as they had dreamed--up
+Temis-camingue and beyond."
+
+The subject of a guide was considered.
+
+Jimmie Friday always brought a big toboggan-load of furs into Fort
+Tiemogamie every spring, and was accounted good in his business. He and
+his big brother trapped together, and in turn followed the ten days'
+swing through the snow-laden forest which they had covered with their
+dead-falls and steel-jawed traps; but when the ice went out in the
+rivers, and the great pines dripped with the melting snows, they had
+nothing more to do but cut a few cords of wood for their widowed
+mother's cabin near the post. Then the brother and he paddled down to
+Bais des Pierres, where the brother engaged as a deck hand on a
+steamboat, and Jimmie hired himself as a guide for some bush-rangers, as
+the men are called who explore for pine lands for the great lumber
+firms. Having worked all summer and got through with that business,
+Jimmie bethought him to dissipate for a few days in the bustling lumber
+town down on the Ottawa River. He had been there before to feel the
+exhilaration of civilization, but beyond that clearing he had never
+known anything more inspiring than a Hudson Bay post, which is generally
+a log store, a house where the agent lives, and a few tiny Indian cabins
+set higgledy-piggledy in a sunburnt gash of stumps and bowlders, lost in
+the middle of the solemn, unresponsive forest. On this morning in
+question he had stepped from his friend's cabin up in the Indian
+village, and after lighting a perfectly round and rather yellow cigar,
+he had instinctively wandered down to the Hudson Bay store, there to
+find himself amused by a strange sight.
+
+The Abwees had hired two French-Indian voyagers of sinister mien, and a
+Scotch-Canadian boy bred to the bush. They were out on the grass,
+engaged in taking burlaps off three highly polished canoes, while the
+clerk from the store ran out and asked questions about "how much bacon,"
+and, "will fifty pounds of pork be enough, sir?"
+
+The round yellow cigar was getting stubby, while Jimmie's modest eyes
+sought out the points of interest in the new-comers, when he was
+suddenly and sharply addressed:
+
+"Can you cook?"
+
+Jimmie couldn't do anything in a hurry, except chop a log in two, paddle
+very fast, and shoot quickly, so he said, as was his wont:
+
+"I think--I dun'no'--"
+
+"Well, how much?" came the query.
+
+"Two daul--ars--" said Jimmie.
+
+The transaction was complete. The yellow butt went over the fence, and
+Jimmie shed his coat. He was directed to lend a hand by the bustling
+sportsmen, and requested to run and find things of which he had never
+before in his life heard the name.
+
+After two days' travel the Abwees were put ashore--boxes, bags, rolls of
+blankets, canoes, Indians, and plunder of many sorts--on a pebbly beach,
+and the steamer backed off and steamed away. They had reached the
+"beyond" at last, and the odoriferous little bedrooms, the bustle of the
+preparation, the cares of their lives, were behind. Then there was a
+girding up of the loins, a getting out of tump-lines and canvas packs,
+and the long portage was begun.
+
+The voyagers carried each two hundred pounds as they stalked away into
+the wilderness, while the attorney-at-law "hefted" his pack, wiped his
+eyeglasses with his pocket-handkerchief, and tried cheerfully to assume
+the responsibilities of "a dead game sport."
+
+"I cannot lift the thing, and how I am going to carry it is more than I
+know; but I'm a dead game sport, and I am going to try. I do not want to
+be dead game, but it looks as though I couldn't help it. Will some
+gentleman help me to adjust this cargo?"
+
+The night overtook the outfit in an old beaver meadow half-way through
+the trail. Like all first camps, it was tough. The lean-to tents went up
+awkwardly. No one could find anything. Late at night the Abwees lay on
+their backs under the blankets, while the fog settled over the meadow
+and blotted out the stars.
+
+On the following day the stuff was all gotten through, and by this time
+the lawyer had become a voyager, willing to carry anything he could
+stagger under. It is strange how one can accustom himself to "pack." He
+may never use the tump-line, since it goes across the head, and will
+unseat his intellect if he does, but with shoulder-straps and a
+tump-line a man who thinks he is not strong will simply amaze himself
+inside of a week by what he can do. As for our little canoes, we could
+trot with them. Each Abwee carried his own belongings and his boat,
+which entitled him to the distinction of "a dead game sport," whatever
+that may mean, while the Indians portaged their larger canoes and our
+mass of supplies, making many trips backward and forward in the process.
+
+At the river everything was parcelled out and arranged. The birch-barks
+were repitched, and every man found out what he was expected to portage
+and do about camp. After breaking and making camp three times, the
+outfit could pack up, load the canoes, and move inside of fifteen
+minutes. At the first camp the lawyer essayed his canoe, and was
+cautioned that the delicate thing might flirt with him. He stepped in
+and sat gracefully down in about two feet of water, while the "delicate
+thing" shook herself saucily at his side. After he had crawled dripping
+ashore and wiped his eye-glasses, he engaged to sell the "delicate
+thing" to an Indian for one dollar and a half on a promissory note. The
+trade was suppressed, and he was urged to try again. A man who has held
+down a cane-bottom chair conscientiously for fifteen years looks askance
+at so fickle a thing as a canoe twenty-nine inches in the beam. They are
+nearly as hard to sit on in the water as a cork; but once one is in the
+bottom they are stable enough, though they do not submit to liberties or
+palsied movements. The staid lawyer was filled with horror at the
+prospect of another go at his polished beauty; but remembering his
+resolve to be dead game, he abandoned his life to the chances, and got
+in this time safely.
+
+So the Abwees went down the river on a golden morning, their
+double-blade paddles flashing the sun and sending the drip in a shower
+on the glassy water. The smoke from the lawyer's pipe hung behind him in
+the quiet air, while the note of the reveille clangored from the little
+buglette of the Norseman. Jimmie and the big Scotch backwoodsman swayed
+their bodies in one boat, while the two sinister voyagers dipped their
+paddles in the big canoe.
+
+The Norseman's gorge came up, and he yelled back: "Say! this suits me. I
+am never going back to New York."
+
+Jimmie grinned at the noise; it made him happy. Such a morning, such a
+water, such a lack of anything to disturb one's peace! Let man's better
+nature revel in the beauties of existence; they inflate his soul. The
+colors play upon the senses--the reddish-yellow of the birch-barks, the
+blue of the water, and the silver sheen as it parts at the bows of the
+canoes; the dark evergreens, the steely rocks with their lichens, the
+white trunks of the birches, their fluffy tops so greeny green, and over
+all the gold of a sunny day. It is my religion, this thing, and I do not
+know how to tell all I feel concerning it.
+
+The rods were taken out, a gang of flies put on and trolled behind--but
+we have all seen a man fight a five-pound bass for twenty minutes. The
+waters fairly swarmed with them, and we could always get enough for the
+"pot" in a half-hour's fishing at any time during the trip. The Abwees
+were canoeing, not hunting or fishing; though, in truth, they did not
+need to hunt spruce-partridge or fish for bass in any sporting sense;
+they simply went out after them, and never stayed over half an hour. On
+a point we stopped for lunch: the Scotchman always struck the beach
+a-cooking. He had a "kit," which was a big camp-pail, and inside of it
+were more dishes than are to be found in some hotels. He broiled the
+bacon, instead of frying it, and thus we were saved the terrors of
+indigestion. He had many luxuries in his commissary, among them dried
+apples, with which he filled a camp-pail one day and put them on to
+boil. They subsequently got to be about a foot deep all over the camp,
+while Furguson stood around and regarded the black-magic of the thing
+with overpowering emotions and Homeric tongue. Furguson was a good
+genius, big and gentle, and a woodsman root and branch. The Abwees had
+intended their days in the wilderness to be happy singing flights of
+time, but with grease and paste in one's stomach what may not befall the
+mind when it is bent on nature's doings?
+
+And thus it was that the gloomy Indian Jimmie Friday, despite his
+tuberculosis begotten of insufficient nourishment, was happy in these
+strange days--even to the extent of looking with wondrous eyes on the
+nooks which we loved--nooks which previously for him had only sheltered
+possible "dead-falls" or not, as the discerning eye of the trapper
+decided the prospects for pelf.
+
+Going ashore on a sandy beach, Jimmie wandered down its length, his
+hunter mind seeking out the footprints of his prey. He stooped down, and
+then beckoned me to come, which I did.
+
+Pointing at the sand, he said, "You know him?"
+
+"Wolves," I answered.
+
+"Yes--first time I see 'em up here--they be follerin' the
+deers--bad--bad. No can trap 'em--verrie smart."
+
+A half-dozen wolves had chased a deer into the water; but wolves do not
+take to the water, so they had stopped and drank, and then gone
+rollicking-together up the beach. There were cubs, and one great track
+as big as a mastiff might make.
+
+"See that--moose track--he go by yesterday;" and Jimmie pointed to
+enormous footprints in the muck of a marshy place. "Verrie big moose--we
+make call at next camp--think it is early for call."
+
+At the next camp Jimmie made the usual birch-bark moose-call, and at
+evening blew it, as he also did on the following morning. This camp was
+a divine spot on a rise back of a long sandy beach, and we concluded to
+stop for a day. The Norseman and I each took a man in our canoes and
+started out to explore. I wanted to observe some musk-rat hotels down in
+a big marsh, and the Norseman was fishing. The attorney was content to
+sit on a log by the shores of the lake, smoke lazily, and watch the sun
+shimmer through the lifting fog. He saw a canoe approaching from across
+the lake. He gazed vacantly at it, when it grew strange and more unlike
+a canoe. The paddles did not move, but the phantom craft drew quickly
+on.
+
+"Say, Furguson--come here--look at that canoe."
+
+The Scotchman came down, with a pail in one hand, and looked.
+"Canoe--hell--it's a moose--and there ain't a pocket-pistol in this
+camp," and he fairly jumped up and down.
+
+"You don't say--you really don't say!" gasped the lawyer, who now began
+to exhibit signs of insanity.
+
+"Yes--he's going to be d----d sociable with us--he's coming right bang
+into this camp."
+
+The Indian too came down, but he was long past talking English, and the
+gutturals came up in lumps, as though he was trying to keep them down.
+
+The moose finally struck a long point of sand and rushes about two
+hundred yards away, and drew majestically out of the water, his hide
+dripping, and the sun glistening on his antlers and back.
+
+The three men gazed in spellbound admiration at the picture until the
+moose was gone. When they had recovered their senses they slowly went up
+to the camp on the ridge--disgusted and dum-founded.
+
+"I could almost put a cartridge in that old gun-case and kill him,"
+sighed the backwoodsman.
+
+"I have never hunted in my life," mused the attorney, "but few men have
+seen such a sight," and he filled his pipe.
+
+"Hark--listen!" said the Indian. There was a faint cracking, which
+presently became louder. "He's coming into camp;" and the Indian nearly
+died from excitement as he grabbed a hatchet. The three unfortunate men
+stepped to the back of the tents, and as big a bull moose as walks the
+lonely woods came up to within one hundred and fifty feet of the camp,
+and stopped, returning their gaze.
+
+Thus they stood for what they say was a minute, but which seemed like
+hours. The attorney composedly admired the unusual sight. The Indian and
+Furguson swore softly but most viciously until the moose moved away. The
+Indian hurled the hatchet at the retreating figure, with a final curse,
+and the thing was over.
+
+"Those fellows who are out in their canoes will be sick abed when we
+tell them what's been going on in the camp this morning," sighed Mr.
+Furguson, as he scoured a cooking-pot.
+
+I fear we would have had that moose on our consciences if we had been
+there: the game law was not up at the time, but I should have asked for
+strength from a higher source than my respect for law.
+
+The golden days passed and the lake grew great.
+
+The wind blew at our backs. The waves rolled in restless surges, piling
+the little canoes on their crests and swallowing them in the troughs.
+The canoes thrashed the water as they flew along, half in, half out, but
+they rode like ducks. The Abwees took off their hats, gripped their
+double blades, made the water swirl behind them, howled in glee to each
+other through the rushing storm. To be five miles from shore in a seaway
+in kayaks like ours was a sensation. We found they stood it well, and
+grew contented. It was the complement to the golden lazy days when the
+water was glass, and the canoes rode upsidedown over its mirror surface.
+The Norseman grinned and shook his head in token of his pleasure, much
+as an epicure might after a sip of superior Burgundy.
+
+"How do you fancy this?" we asked the attorney-at-law.
+
+"I am not going to deliver an opinion until I get ashore. I would never
+have believed that I would be here at my time of life, but one never
+knows what a---- fool one can make of one's self. My glasses are covered
+with water, and I can hardly see, but I can't let go of this paddle to
+wipe them," shrieked the man of the office chair, in the howl of the
+weather.
+
+But we made a long journey by the aid of the wind, and grew a contempt
+for it. How could one imagine the stability of those little boats until
+one had tried it?
+
+That night we put into a natural harbor and camped on a gravel beach.
+The tents were up and the supper cooking, when the wind hauled and blew
+furiously into our haven. The fires were scattered and the rain came in
+blinding sheets. The tent-pegs pulled from the sand. We sprang to our
+feet and held on to the poles, wet to the skin. It was useless; the rain
+blew right under the canvas. We laid the tents on the "grub" and stepped
+out into the dark. We could not be any wetter, and we did not care. To
+stand in the dark in the wilderness, with nothing to eat, and a
+fire-engine playing a hose on you for a couple of hours--if you have
+imagination enough, you can fill in the situation. But the gods were
+propitious. The wind died down. The stars came out by myriads. The fires
+were relighted, and the ordinary life begun. It was late in the night
+before our clothes, blankets, and tents were dry, but, like boys, we
+forgot it all.
+
+Then came a river--blue and flat like the sky above--running through
+rushy banks, backed by the masses of the forest; anon the waters rushed
+upon us over the rocks, and we fought, plunk-plunk-plunk, with the
+paddles, until our strength gave out. We stepped out into the water, and
+getting our lines, and using our long double blades as fenders,
+"tracked" the canoes up through the boil. The Indians in their heavier
+boats used "setting-poles" with marvellous dexterity, and by furious
+exertion were able to draw steadily up the grade--though at times they
+too "tracked," and even portaged. Our largest canoe weighed two hundred
+pounds, but a little voyager managed to lug it, though how I couldn't
+comprehend, since his pipe-stem legs fairly bent and wobbled under the
+enormous ark. None of us by this time were able to lift the loads which
+we carried, but, like a Western pack-mule, we stood about and had things
+piled on to us, until nothing more would stick. Some of the backwoodsmen
+carry incredible masses of stuff, and their lore is full of tales which
+no one could be expected to believe. Our men did not hesitate to take
+two hundred and fifty pounds over short portages, which were very rough
+and stony, though they all said if they slipped they expected to break a
+leg. This is largely due to the tump-line, which is laid over the head,
+while persons unused to it must have shoulder-straps in addition, which
+are not as good, because the "breastbone," so called, is not strong
+enough.
+
+We were getting day by day farther into "the beyond." There were no
+traces here of the hand of man. Only Jimmie knew the way--it was his
+trapping-ground. Only once did we encounter people. We were blown into a
+little board dock, on a gray day, with the waves piling up behind us,
+and made a difficult landing. Here were a few tiny log houses--an
+outpost of the Hudson Bay Company. We renewed our stock of provisions,
+after laborious trading with the stagnated people who live in the lonely
+place. There was nothing to sell us but a few of the most common
+necessities; however, we needed only potatoes and sugar. This was
+Jimmie's home. Here we saw his poor old mother, who was being tossed
+about in the smallest of canoes as she drew her nets. Jimmie's father
+had gone on a hunting expedition and had never come back. Some day
+Jimmie's old mother will go out on the wild lake to tend her nets, and
+she will not come back. Some time Jimmie too will not return--for this
+Indian struggle with nature is appalling in its fierceness.
+
+There was a dance at the post, which the boys attended, going by canoe
+at night, and they came back early in the morning, with much giggling at
+their gallantries.
+
+The loneliness of this forest life is positively discouraging to think
+about. What the long winters must be in the little cabins I cannot
+imagine, and I fear the traders must be all avarice, or have none at
+all; for there can certainly be absolutely no intellectual life. There
+is undoubtedly work, but not one single problem concerning it. The
+Indian hunters do fairly well in a financial way, though their lives are
+beset with weakening hardships and constant danger. Their meagre diet
+wears out their constitutions, and they are subject to disease. The
+simplicity of their minds makes it very difficult to see into their life
+as they try to narrate it to one who may be interested.
+
+From here on was through beautiful little lakes, and the voyagers rigged
+blanket sails on the big canoes, while we towed behind. Then came the
+river and the rapids, which we ran, darting between rocks, bumping on
+sunken stones--shooting fairly out into the air, all but turning over
+hundreds of times. One day the Abwees glided out in the big lake
+Tesmiaquemang, and saw the steamer going to Bais des Pierres. We hailed
+her, and she stopped, while the little canoes danced about in the swell
+as we were loaded one by one. On the deck above us the passengers
+admired a kind of boat the like of which had not before appeared in
+these parts.
+
+At Bais des Pierres we handed over the residue of the commissaries of
+the Abwee-Chemun to Jimmie Friday, including personally many pairs of
+well-worn golf-breeches, sweaters, rubber coats, knives which would be
+proscribed by law in New York. If Jimmie ever parades his solemn
+wilderness in these garbs, the owls will laugh from the trees. Our
+simple forest friend laid in his winter stock--traps, flour, salt,
+tobacco, and pork, a new axe--and accompanied us back down the lake
+again on the steamer. She stopped in mid-stream, while Jimmie got his
+bundles into his "bark" and shoved off, amid a hail of "good-byes."
+
+The engine palpitated, the big wheel churned the water astern, and we
+drew away. Jimmie bent on his paddle with the quick body-swing habitual
+to the Indian, and after a time grew a speck on the reflection of the
+red sunset in Temiscamingue.
+
+The Abwees sat sadly leaning on the after-rail, and agreed that Jimmie
+was "a lovely Injun." Jimmie had gone into the shade of the overhang of
+the cliffs, when the Norseman started violently up, put his hands in his
+pockets, stamped his foot, said, "By George, fellows, any D. F. would
+call this a sporting trip!"
+
+
+
+
+THE SOLEDAD GIRLS
+
+
+"TO-NIGHT I am going down to my ranch--the Soledad--in my private car,"
+said the manager of the Mexican International Railroad, "and I would
+like the Captain and you to accompany me."
+
+The Captain and I were only too glad; so in process of time we awoke to
+find our car sidetracked on the Soledad, which is in the state of
+Coahuila, Mexico. The chaparral spread around, rising and falling in the
+swell of the land, until it beat against the blue ridge of the Sierra
+Santa Rosa, miles to the north. Here and there the bright sun spotted on
+a cow as she threaded the gray stretches; a little coyote-wolf sat on
+his haunches on a near-by hill-side, and howled protests at his
+new-found companions; while dimly through the gray meshes of the
+leaf-denuded chaparral we could see the main ranch-house of the Soledad.
+We were informed at breakfast by the railroad manager that there was to
+be that day a "round-up," which is to say, a regular Buffalo Bill Show,
+with real cowboys, ponies, and cattle, all three of them wild, full of
+thorns, and just out of the brush.
+
+The negro porters got out the saddles of the young women, thus
+disclosing their intention to ride ponies instead of in traps. We
+already knew that they were fearless horseback-riders, but when the
+string of ponies which were to be our mounts was led up by a few
+Mexicans, the Captain and I had our well-concealed doubts about their
+being proper sort of ponies for young girls to ride. We confided in an
+imperturbable cowboy--one of those dry Texans. He said: "Them are what
+we would call broke ponies, and you fellers needn't get to worryin'
+'bout them little girls--you're jest a-foolin' away good time."
+Nevertheless, the broncos had the lurking devil in the tails of their
+eyes as they stood there tied to the wire fencing; they were humble and
+dejected as only a bronco or a mule can simulate. When that ilk look
+most cast down, be not deceived, gay brother; they are not like this.
+Their humility is only humorous, and intended to lure you on to their
+backs, where, unless you have a perfect understanding of the game, the
+joke will be on you. Instantly one is mounted, the humility departs; he
+plunges and starts about, or sets off like the wind, regardless of
+thorny bushes, tricky ground underfoot, or the seat of the rider.
+
+The manager's wife came out of the car with her little brood of three,
+and then two visiting friends. These Soledad girls, as I call them, each
+had a sunburst of yellow hair, were well bronzed by the Mexican sun, and
+were sturdy little bodies. They were dressed in short skirts, with
+leggings, topped with Tam o' Shanters, while about their waists were
+cartridge-belts, with delicate knives and revolvers attached, and with
+spurs and _quirts_ as accessories. They took up their men's saddles, for
+they rode astride, except the two visitors, who were older and more
+lately from Chicago. They swung their saddles on to the ponies, showing
+familiarity with the _ladigo_ straps of the Texas saddles, and proudly
+escaping the humiliation which alights on the head of one who in the
+cow-camps cannot saddle his own "bronc." Being ready, we mounted, and
+followed a cowboy off down the road to the _rodeo-ground._ The manager
+and Madam Mamma rode in a buckboard, proudly following with their gaze
+the galloping ponies which bore their jewels. I thought they should be
+fearful for their safety, but after more intimate inspection, I could
+see how groundless was such solicitude.
+
+I must have it understood that these little vaquero girls were not the
+ordinary Texas product, fed on corn-meal and bred in the chaparral, but
+the much looked after darlings of a fond mother. They are taken South
+every winter, that their bodies may be made lithe and healthy, but at
+the same time two or more governesses crowd their minds with French,
+German, and other things with which proper young girls should be
+acquainted. But their infant minds did not carry back to the days when
+they had not felt a horse under them. To be sure, in the beginning it
+was only a humble donkey, but even before they knew they had graduated
+to ponies, and while yet ten years old, it was only by a constant watch
+that they were kept off unbroken broncos--horses that made the toughest
+vaqueros throw down their hats, tighten their belts, and grin with fear.
+
+From over the hills came the half-wild cattle, stringing along at a
+trot, all bearing for the open space in the waste of the chaparral where
+the _rodeo_ occurred, while behind them followed the cowboys--gay desert
+figures with brown, pinched faces, long hair, and shouting wild cries.
+The exhilaration of the fine morning, the tramp of the thousands, got
+into the curls of the three little Misses Golden-hairs, and they
+scurried away, while I followed to feast on this fresh vision, where
+absolutely ideal little maids shouted Spanish at murderous-looking
+Mexican cow-punchers done up in bright scrapes and costumed out of all
+reason. As the vaqueros dashed about hither and thither to keep their
+herds moving in the appointed direction, the infants screamed in their
+childish treble and spurred madly too. A bull stands at bay, but a child
+dashes at him, while he turns and flees. It is not their first _rodeo,_
+one can see, but I should wish they were with mamma and the buckboard,
+instead of out here in the brush, charging wild bulls, though in truth
+this never were written. These bulls frequently charge men, and a
+cow-pony turns like a ball off a bat, and a slippery seat in the saddle
+may put you under the feet of the outraged monarch of the range.
+
+Driving down to the _rodeo-ground,_ we all stood about on our ponies and
+held the herd, as it is called, the young girls doing vaquero duty, as
+imperturbable of mien as Mr. Flannagan, the foreman. So many women in
+the world are afraid of a dairy cow, even gathering up their skirts and
+preparing to shriek at the sight of one eating daisies. But these young
+women will grow up and they will be afraid of no cow. So much for a
+Soledad education.
+
+The top-ropers rode slowly into the dust of the milling herd, scampered
+madly, cast their ropes, and came jumping to us with a blatting calf
+trailing at their ropes' end. Two men seized the little victim, threw
+him on his back, cut a piece out of his ear with a knife, and still held
+him in relentless grip while another pressed a red-hot branding-iron on
+his side, which sizzled and sent up blue smoke, together with an odor of
+burned flesh. The calves bawled piteously. There was no more emotion on
+the faces of the Soledad girls than was shown by the brown cowboys. They
+had often, very often, seen this before, and their nerves were strong.
+Some day I can picture in my mind's eye these young girl vaqueros grown
+to womanhood, and being such good-looking creatures, very naturally some
+young man will want very badly to marry one of them--for it cannot be
+otherwise. I only hope he will not be a thin-chested, cigarette-smoking
+dude, because it will be a sacrilege of nature. He must undoubtedly have
+played forward at Princeton or Yale, or be unworthy.
+
+As we stood, a massive bull emerged from the body of the herd, his head
+thrown high, tail stiff with anger, eye rolling, and breath coming
+quick. He trotted quickly forward, and, lowering his head, charged
+through the "punchers." Instantly a small Soledad girl was after him,
+the vaqueros reining back to enjoy the strange ride with their eyes. Her
+hat flew off, and the long curls flapped in the rushing air as her pony
+fairly sailed over the difficult ground. The bull tore furiously, but
+behind him swept the pony and the child. As we watched, the chase had
+gone a mile away, but little Miss Yellowcurls drew gradually to the far
+side of the bull, quartering him on the far side, and whirling on,
+headed her quarry back to her audience and the herd. The rough-and-ready
+American range boss sat sidewise in his saddle and thought--for he never
+talked unnecessarily, though appreciation was chalked all over his pose.
+The manager and madam felt as though they were responsible for this
+wonderful thing. The Mexican cowboys snapped their fingers and eyes at
+one another, shouting quick Spanish, while the American part of the
+beholders agreed that it was the "limit"; "that as a picture," etc.;
+"that the American girl, properly environed "; "that this girl in
+particular," etc., was a dream. Then the bull and the girl came home;
+the bull to his fellows, and the girl to us. But she didn't have an idea
+of our admiration, because we didn't tell her; that would have been
+wrong, as you can imagine. Ten years will complicate little Miss
+Yellowcurls. Then she could be vain about such a thing; but, alas! she
+will not be--she will have forgotten.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Crooked Trails
+Written and Illustrated by Frederic Remington
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CROOKED TRAILS ***
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