WITH THE BLUECOATS ON THE BORDER. 173 



mv boots !" says a or^'eat, lonQr-limbed teamster, stretched at full 

 length on the pile of skins; " Injin Charlie told me this mornin' 

 that he an' Chicken waded the river at the Pint yesturday. I 

 don't believe she'll git down as fer as this to-night; the water 

 is turrible low." Still we wait, loath to give up. The crowd 

 of loungers — Indians, Agency and traders' employes, soldiers 

 — sit or stand about in picturesque groups, a wagon filled with 

 ladies and children from the fort forms the centre of our own 

 little party, the occupants' soft, pleasant voices and ripples of 

 laughter as we chat together forming a strange contrast to 

 the yells of the half -grown redskins playing at some savage 

 game in the long grass behind us. Grayer grows the light; 

 the smoke over the trees above there rises in two straight 

 columns in exactly the same place where we had first seen it. 

 " Blessed ef them Injins ain't found buffler," says the teamster, 

 as a yell comes across the water and is taken up and repeated 

 by a score of wild voices on our shore. The figures on the 

 opposite bank — three horsemen — the horses loaded down with 

 some dark burden hanging way down on their flanks, have 

 approached nearer, and moving out on a point of sand, seem 

 to be debatinor too-ether where to cross the river. Thev dis- 

 mount and wade out into the stream, leading the horses, which 

 we can now see are freighted with huge pieces of deep red, 

 raw flesh, behind them. Curiously we watch them as they 

 wade deeper and deeper into the water, now rising to their 

 waists. The current is running strong, and the horses are 

 showing signs of uneasiness as they seem to brace themselves 

 against the swift -fio win a; tide. " There, one of 'em is down! 

 No he ain't !" They plunge forward deeper into the stream, 

 and strike out for the shore, the Indians swimming behind 

 them, and grasping their tails floating out on the water. They 

 arrive without accident and climb up the steep bank, the water 



