174 The Rough Riders 



canteen and a little food. They were to slip into 

 the jungle between us and the Spanish lines before 

 dawn next morning, and there to spend the day, get- 

 ting as close to the Spanish lines as possible, moving 

 about with great stealth, and picking off any hostile 

 sharp-shooter, as well as any soldier who exposed 

 himself in the trenches. I had plenty of men who 

 possessed a training in wood-craft that fitted them 

 for this work ; and as soon as the rumor got abroad 

 what I was planning, volunteers thronged to me. 

 Daniels and Love were two of the men always to the 

 front in any enterprise of this nature ; so were Wads- 

 worth, the two Bulls, Fortescue, and Cowdin. But 

 I could not begin to name all the troopers who so 

 eagerly craved the chance to win honor out of hazard 

 and danger. 



Among them was good, solemn Fred Herrig, the 

 Alsatian. I knew Fred's patience and skill as a 

 hunter from the trips we had taken together after 

 deer and mountain sheep through the Bad Lands 

 of the Little Missouri. He still spoke English with 

 what might be called Alsatian variations he always 

 spoke of the gun detail as the "gondetle," with the 

 accent on the first syllable and he expressed a wish 

 to be allowed "a holiday from the gondetle to go 

 after dem gorrillas." I told him he could have the 

 holiday, but to his great disappointment the truce 

 came first, and then Fred asked that, inasmuch as 



