WITH THE BLUECOATS ON THE BORDER. 155 



rose-bushes, backed by the gray trunks and graceful feathery 

 foHage of the poplars, a group of men and horses is standing. 

 " Y'd better git inside, pardner," not unkindly speaks up the 

 mate to our fellow- passenger, he who had been warned this 

 morning. " Ef thar's any of them fellers knows ye they might 

 make some trouble fer ye !" With white but determined face 

 the young fellow enters the cabin, and buckling on his car- 

 tridge-belt and grasping his Winchester, shuts himself up in one 

 of the state-rooms, resolved, as he expresses it, to " make 'em pay 

 fer me ef they gets me." On glides the boat, and we gather 

 close up to the rail, eager to see the dread horsemen, the re- 

 sult of whose avenging ride we have witnessed but a short 

 half -hour ago. As the current takes the boat close inshore, 

 and we approach nearer and nearer, they present an interest- 

 ing tableau. Most of them have dismounted, and are standing 

 at their horses' heads waist-deep in the weeds and wild-flow- 

 ers, bronzed -faced, resolute -looking men, unconsciously pictur- 

 esque in costume and attitude; bright -barrelled Winchesters 

 swing across their high pommelled saddles, on which is bound 

 the scanty baggage of the cow^-boy, while a few pack -mules 

 quietly crop the grass a few paces in their rear under the care 

 of their driver. They are evidently under some discipline, for 

 no one else moves as a tall, handsome, blond - bearded man, 

 flannel-shirted, high-booted, with crimson silk kerchief tied loose- 

 ly, sailor fashion, around his sunburnt neck, advances to the 

 water's edge, and with courteous wave of broad -brimmed hat 

 hails the boat. Clang ! goes the gong ; the big wheel stops. 

 The stranger politely requests information about the purchase 

 of some supplies, and inquires as to the news up the river. 

 Many on board recognize him for a man of wealth and edu- 

 cation well known in the Territory, but nothing is said as to 

 the errand of himself and his men in this distant wild region. 



