104 The Rough Riders 



'they pluck the eyes of princes and tear the flesh of 

 kings'?" I answered that I could not place the 

 quotation. Just a week afterward we were shield- 

 ing his own body from the birds of prey. 



One of the men who fired first and who dis- 

 played conspicuous gallantry was a Cherokee half- 

 breed, who was hit seven times, and of course had to 

 go back to the States. Before he joined us at Mon- 

 tauk Point he had gone through a little private war 

 of his own ; for on his return he found that a cow- 

 boy had gone off with his sweetheart, and in the 

 fight that ensued he shot his rival. Another man 

 of L Troop who also showed marked gallantry was 

 Elliot Cowdin. The men of the plains and moun- 

 tains were trained by life-long habit to look on life 

 and death with iron philosophy. As I passed by a 

 couple of tall, lank, Oklahoma cow-punchers, I 

 heard one say, "Well, some of the boys got it in the 

 neck!" to which the other answered with the grim 

 plains proverb of the South : "Many a good horse 

 dies." 



Thomas Isbell, a half-breed Cherokee in the 

 squad under Hamilton Fish, was among the first to 

 shoot and be shot at. He was wounded no less 

 than seven times. The first wound was received by 

 him two minutes after he had fired his first shot, 

 the bullet going through his neck. The second hit 

 him in the left thumb. The third struck near his 



