14 Life of a Fossil Hunter 



accord. I have no recollection of what happened 

 afterwards, but when I reached the ranch my broth- 

 ers found me sitting up in the wagon moaning and 

 swinging my arms, with the blood flowing from a 

 slung-shot wound in my forehead. I had been 

 struck down in my sleep and robbed of all the money 

 I had on my person, as it happened only about five 

 dollars. 



Providentially our nearest neighbor, D. B. Long, 

 was a retired hospital steward, and the post surgeon, 

 Dr. B. F. Fryer, who was sent for immediately, 

 was just ready to drive to town with his team of 

 fleet little black ponies. He reached the ranch in an 

 incredibly short time, and, although respiration had 

 ceased, those two faithful men kept up artificial 

 respiration for hours. My oldest brother, Dr. Stern- 

 berg, for years Surgeon-General of the Army, was 

 also sent for, and I found him lying on a mattress 

 by my side when I regained consciousness two weeks 

 later. 



I might tell also of the ruffians who at one time 

 held Ellsworth City in a grip of iron, and how, until 

 they killed each other off or moved further west 

 with the railroad, the dead-cart used to pass down 

 the street every morning to pick up the bodies of 

 those who had been killed in the saloons the night 

 before, and thrown out on the pavement to be 

 hauled away. 



