318 The Rough Riders 



a valued friend from a cow ranch in the remote West 

 accepted a pressing invitation to spend a few days 

 at the home of another ex-trooper, a New Yorker 

 of fastidious instincts, and arrived with an umbrella 

 as his only baggage ; how poor Holderman and Pol- 

 lock both died and were buried with military hon- 

 ors, all of Pollock's tribesmen coming to the burial ; 

 how Tom Isbell joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West 

 Show, and how, on the other hand, George Rowland 

 scornfully refused to remain in the East at all, writ- 

 ing to a gallant young New Yorker who had been 

 his bunkie: "Well, old boy, I am glad I didn't go 

 home with you for them people to look at, because 

 I aint a Buffalo or a rhinoceros or a giraffe, and I 

 dont like to be Stared at, and you know we didnt do 

 no hard fighting down there. I have been in closer 

 places than that right here in Yunited States, that 

 is Better men to fight than them dam Spaniards." 

 In another letter Rowland tells of the fate of Tom 

 Darnell, the rider, he who rode the sorrel horse of 

 the Third Cavalry : 'There aint much news to write 

 of except poor old Tom Darnell got killed about a 

 month ago. Tom and another fellow had a fight and 

 he shot Tom through the heart and Tom was dead 

 when he hit the floor. Tom was sure a good old 

 boy, and I sure hated to hear of him going, and he 

 had plenty of grit too. No man ever called on him 

 for a fight that he didn't get it." 



My men were children of the dragon's blood, and 

 if they had no outland foe to fight and no outlet for 



