DETERMINE TO RETURN TO SHEYENNE. 253 



not to come at night, as with so many bad characters about 

 we always fired first and asked who it was afterwards. Fortu- 

 nately they did not see " Polly/' and the other two horses were 

 looking so miserable and were so thin every hair standing on 

 end from the cold that they did not seem to think them 

 worth the risk of being shot for. After they were gone I 

 brought up the horses and picketed them where I could see 

 them from the tent, and before dark fastened them to the 



waggon, and kept this up till F returned. I could cut no 



grass, as the snow was nearly two feet deep ; but when animals 

 have been feeding all day, they do not eat much at night. I 

 also kept a gun loaded with buckshot handy, as it was a much 

 better weapon at night than a rifle ; but I saw no more of the 

 half-breeds. 



F returned on the evening of the sixth day with the 



coats, and very poor things we found them. Soldiers line theirs 

 with blanket, when they are fairly warm. Our " toothache 

 friend " paid us another visit before we left this camp, evi- 

 dently coming in hopes of getting some more Santa Cruz rum, 

 for he led the conversation round to it at once. 1 told him of 

 rny late visitors, whom he said he did not know, though he 

 told us that some of the worst men in the mountains were 

 half-breeds. He also said that if I had owned to being alone 

 I should have had trouble most probably. In spite of the 

 cold weather I had been very much troubled with ague ; so I 

 made up my mind to go into Sheyenne for a few weeks and 



try to shake it off, and as F did not care to camp out alone, 



he decided to go into a small place called " Virginia Dale," and 

 make excursions into the mountains from there with a pack- 

 horse, and to wait at Virginia Dale till I rejoined him. 



