SHEEP-HUNTING 153 



got us into a nice mess. I don't know why it was, 

 but the inhabitants of the " city " in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the fort from which we had been 

 hunting took it into their wise heads that neither 

 my friend P. nor myself were likely ever to revisit 

 that region, and that therefore it was expedient 

 to pillage, squeeze, and skin us completely before 

 we got away. They had laid their plans pretty 

 well. The scout arranged with a worthy citizen 

 from whom we had hired some horses that at the 

 last moment he should put in a most exorbitant 

 claim for damage done to his horses. Accordingly, 

 after the ambulance that had conveyed us to the 

 station had returned to the fort, and while we 

 were waiting quietly at the hotel for the train, it 

 being then about eleven o'clock at night, we were 

 politely but firmly requested to pay a sum for 

 damage done to the team, greatly exceeding the 

 whole value of both horses and wagon put to- 

 gether, and, at the same moment, an attachment 

 was placed upon our luggage. We were in a nice 

 fix. We had to leave by that night's train, for 

 there was but one train a day, and the party we 

 were to join were impatiently waiting for us at 



S , a station some distance down the line, and 



expected to leave the next day, the moment the 



