58 ON THE FEONTIEE. 



get to them make a " run "and return ; and though our 

 horses were showing signs of being done up, their corn 

 all eaten, and acorns its poor substitute, we still had 

 lingered. 



It was such a free, jolly life to lead ; we looked 

 with regret to a return to the cares and worries of civili- 

 sation. Uneasiness on the score of Indian danger was 

 felt no longer. Freedom from alarms had given us a 

 sense of security, had lulled our anxieties to rest. We 

 were as yet young hands at that sort of thing. We had 

 not learned that hard lesson to remember, that maxim of 

 Indian warfare : " There is most danger from Indians 

 when none are to be seen." Nevertheless, we kept up 

 camp discipline, and the regular guard went on each night ; 

 and as there were only five of us, while two hours is quite 

 long enough a time to have to watch with the vigilance 

 necessary against Indian subtlety, each had to take a turn, 

 so running the night through ; for the first man came on 

 at seven o'clock in the evening, and the last went off at 

 five the following morning. The first watch was only a 

 nominal affair, as far as hardship went, for nine o'clock is 

 not a late hour for a man to go to bed at, even after a hard 

 day's hunt, and for him there was unbroken rest until 

 breakfast time ; but the other watches were not .liked, and 

 so to make it even all round, that there should be no 

 feeling of dissatisfaction in camp, that eveiything should 

 be lovely, we ran a roster : no man took his watch two 

 nights alike, and in the course of five nights each had run 

 through all the watches. Want of incident had rendered 

 these watches tiresome and monotonous ; but at last one 



