WITH THE BLUECOATS ON THE BORDER. 145 



rugged sides rising high above us, the rills of water rushing 

 down them seaming and scarring them, and spreading deep 

 sloughs of red, sticky mud in our way. Push on ! the pant- 

 ing horses climb steadily upward, the trail grows rougher and 

 rougher, the mud adheres to the hoofs, we are covered with it 

 from head to foot, save where the rain washes out little, bare, 

 shining trails down the folds of our rubber great-coats. Ride ! 

 upward and still upward, now rounding some queer tower- 

 shaped mass of sandstone, now sliding down some steep little 

 descent, horses with all four feet together, haunches almost 

 touching the ground, bringing up in a miniature sea of mud 

 at the bottom, floundering through and climbing upward aoain. 

 Ride ! hour after hour, until with a final spurt we cross the 

 butte in front of us, and there — broad, curving gracefully 

 through the deep valley below, shining like purest silver in a 

 sudden burst of light that breaks through the cloud masses 

 above — there flows the "Wild Missouri." Hurrah! on once 

 more ! down the hill-side and out over the short stretch of 

 green plain to the brink of the stream, and wet, dead tired, 

 hungry, and thirsty, we pull up our smoking, panting horses at 

 the log-cabin of the soldier telegraph operator, beyond which, 

 nestling in the shelter of cotton -wood and willow trees, gleam 

 the white walls of half a dozen tents, marking the camp of 

 the little detachment of bluecoats, a solitary outpost of the 

 garrison forty miles back of us over the prairie. 



" No boat yet, but expect it every hour. Telegraphed at 

 4 A.M. from above. Probably stuck on a sand-bar. Water 

 pretty low, and navigation slow. ComiC and take something !" — 

 which hospitable offer of the young subaltern commanding the 

 camp, wet and chilled through as we are, is gratefully accepted, 

 and we make ourselves as comfortable as the prevailing damp- 

 ness and the mosquitoes will permit. With the gatherino- 

 10 



