MY NEW MAN FOX. 109 



a second struggle ended in the same way, after which Belknap 

 said very little. I heard in the course of the evening of 

 another man, whom everyone said I ought to have, whose name 

 was Fox, and who seemed from all accounts to fear nothing, 

 having been out by himself on the Solomon River hunting for 

 a lost mule, when no other ten men in the settlement would 

 have done it, as the Indians were very bad just then ; so I 

 determined to go and see him in the morning, having already 

 engaged Brown. I found him digging a well for a new settler, 

 at a small place a few miles lower down the Republican River, 

 and after a short talk engaged him. Seeing that he was bare- 

 footed, I said that he had better go into the settlement and buy 

 himself some boots, and that I would advance him the money, 

 on which he replied that he had rather not do so, as the sheriff 

 wanted him, and would perhaps detain him, as he had killed 

 two Germans in a gambling row ; and it came out, too, that if 

 our journey led us in the direction of Texas, he could not 

 accompany us, as the sheriff of Houston also wanted him, 

 though he would not say why. He was evidently a first-class 

 desperado, but as our trip was a dangerous one, his pluck more 

 than counterbalanced everything else. I tried to get boots for 

 him, but the few they had at Sibley were all too small, and he 

 had to go barefooted, and make himself moccasins from the 

 first buffalo we killed. 



The following day we left Sibley, and two days' travelling 

 took us to the north of a creek called " White Rock," on which 

 we expected to remain some time. This place had a curious 

 history, having already been settled nine times, each set of 

 settlers having remained only a part of a summer, and being 

 then scared away by Indians. One lot had just left, and it 



