THUNDER-STORMS. 153 



CHAPTER XII. 



Awful thunder-storms. Bad water-supply. Life in camp. I leave for 

 St. Joe. Come across two Indians. Arrive at Lake Sibley. Swarm 

 of grasshoppers. Apprehensions of the settlers. A man wishes me to 

 engage him. I decline. I make the acquaintance of a detective. A 



plan to rob me. I manage to frustrate it. Meet F at Martin's. 



Sioux steal Pawnees' horses. Pawnees and Whites try to recover 

 thorn. A fight and repulse of Pawnees. Mrs. Martin's reminiscences 

 of her husband. Poor sport. Return to St. Joe. Intend to winter in 

 Texas. Billy Breeze. His history. 



A PEW days after my return we had some of the most awful 

 thunder-storms I ever saw even in America, where they are 

 always much more severe than in Europe. The rain came 

 down in sheets, and the lightning was incessant, and the thunder 

 seemed to be just over the ridge-pole of the tent. We got a 

 good deal of water inside owing to the ditch, which we always 

 cut round the tent, not being deep enough. In the morning 

 we found one of our ponies dead : it had evidently been struck 

 by lightning and killed at once ; the head was folded under the 

 body, and seemed, at first, to have been cut off, so entirely was 

 it hidden. On such a night as this the wolves seem to be very 



