10 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST 



" We'll be having trouble to-night, I'm thinking, if 

 the devils are about. Whose band was it, Maurice ? " 



" Slim-Face I see him ver close is out ; mais I 

 think it White Wolfs." 



" White Wolf, maybe, will lose his hair if he and 

 his band knock round here too often. That Injun put 

 me afoot when we was out on ' Sandy' that fall. This 

 niggur owes him one, any how." 



" H 's full of White Wolves : go ahead, and roll out 

 some of your doins across the plains that time." 



" You seed sights that spree, eh, boy ? " 



" Well, we did. Some of 'em got their flints fixed 

 this side of Pawnee Fork, and a heap of mule-meat went 

 wolfing. Just by Little Arkansa we saw the first Injun. 

 Me and young Somes was ahead for meat, and I had 

 hobbled the old mule and was ' approaching ' some 

 goats,* when I see the critturs turn back their heads 

 and jump right away from me. i Hurraw, Dick ! ' I 

 shouts, ' hyar's brown-skin acomin', and off I makes for 

 the mule. The young greenhorn sees the goats runnin 

 up to him, and not being up to Injun ways, blazes at 

 the first and knocks him over. Jest then seven darned 

 red heads top the bluff, and seven Pawnees come a- 

 screechin upon us. I cuts the hobbles and jumps on 

 the mule, and, when I looks back, there was Dick 

 Somes ramming a ball down his gun like mad, and the 

 Injuns flinging their arrows at him pretty smart, I tell 

 you. ' Hurraw, Dick, mind your hair,' and I ups old 



* Antelope are frequently called " goats " by the moun- 

 taineers. 



