30 IN THE OLD WEST 



wasn't Bill Garey along, too? Didn't him and 

 Chabonard sit in camp for twenty hours at a deck 

 of euker? Them was Bent's Indian traders up on 

 Arkansa. Poor Bill Bent! them Spaniards made 

 meat of him. He lost his topknot to Taos. A 

 clever man was Bill Bent as / ever know'd trade 

 a robe or throw a bufler in his tracks. Old St. 

 Vrain could knock the hind-sight off him though, 

 when it came to shootin', and old Silverheels spoke 

 true, she did: ' plumcenter ' she was, eh? " 



16 Well, she wasn't nothin' else." 



" The Greasers * paid for Bent's scalp, they tell 

 me. Old St. Vrain went out of Santa Fe with a 

 company of mountain-men, and the way they made 

 'em sing out was slick as shootin'. He * counted 

 a coup,' did St. Vrain. He throwed a Pueblo as 

 had on poor Bent's shirt. I guess he tickled that 

 nigger's hump-ribs. Fort William f ain't the 

 lodge it was, an' never will be agin, now he's gone 

 under ; but St. Vrain's * pretty much of a gentle- 

 man,' too ; if he ain't, I'll be dog-gone eh, 

 Bill?" 



" He is so-o." 



" Chavez had his wagons along. He was only 

 a Spaniard anyhow, and some of his teamsters 

 put a ball into him his next trip, and made a raise 

 of his dollars, wagh! Uncle Sam hung 'em for 



*The Mexicans are called "Spaniards" or "Greasers 

 (from their greasy appearance) by the Western people, 

 t Bent's Indian trading fort on the Arkansa. 



