HIS CURE. 203 



a new suit of clothes each time, whereas ours did not. His 

 only answer was a requestor leave to shoot the mule, but he was 

 too useful, so at last we hit upon a plan which cured him at 

 once. Tying his rope to the stem of a strong mesquit bush, 

 which we cut down on purpose, we pretended to drive in the 

 pin as usual, and in the morning, on seeing it pulled up, off 

 went the mule, the rope throwing him over backwards with 

 almost force enough to break his neck ; indeed for some minutes 

 we thought it had, but he eventually got up and was cured of 

 that trick for good. 



One morning when F } H , and I were riding ahead 



of the waggon, we came on a party of soldiers out on a 

 scout, and the lieutenant in command said that although he 

 did not know any of us, he did know the horse I was riding, 

 it being the Sheridan horse, and that he had been one of 

 Sheridan's four aides-de-camp who had had to follow him 

 those twenty miles, all four having been left far behind. He 

 said that he was out scouting from a post called " Buffalo 

 Spring," which was then in course of erection, and which was 

 commanded by a Major Davis, an Englishman by birth, and 

 was now on his way back, so we joined him and reached the 

 post that afternoon. The major received us most hospitably, 

 letting his smith shoe our horses and repair the waggon, the 

 awful country we had come over having broken a good many 

 bolts. 



He told us that as yet they had seen no Indians, and thought 

 that the reports they had heard of them had been very much 

 exaggerated. We told him of the man who had been skinned 

 near Fort Mason ; but this did not convince him that there was 

 much danger, as there were always one or more small bands of 



