AN UNPLEASANT NEIGHBOUE. 259 



Irishman, whose name was Fox and who occupied the next bed 

 to mine, to abuse Englishmen in every possible way. This man 

 had been a miner in Montana, but had done something there 

 which had caused him to be hunted out of the country. What 

 it was 1 never heard, but it must have been something very 

 bad, for it was always said that " a man who was not fit for 

 Montana could only go to one other place," which I need not 

 mention. 



Now I had heard Fox say that there was nothing of which 

 he had so great a horror as of finding any animal in his bed, 

 declaring that if he found a skunk there, as a comrade of his 

 had once done, he thought he should go mad. Owing him a 

 grudge as I did, I determined that he should have the chance. 

 I had made myself a wolf-skin cap when in the mountains, 

 with the tail hanging down behind, which had always been too 

 hot to wear and was of no use to me, so going to bed early 

 one night I put the cap in Fox's bed, knowing that as the house 

 was not full at the time he would have one to himself. I also 

 fastened a string to the lower corner of his bed-clothes, 

 bringing it down through a small staple which I had driven 

 into the floor in such a way as to make it appear that the bed- 

 clothes had been drawn off from the opposite end of the room. 

 He came up very late that night, more than twenty men being 

 in bed and asleep before he arrived. It only took him about 

 three minutes to undress, when he put out his candle and 

 jumped into bed. An awful yell followed by another 

 immediately resounded through the room, and though he had 

 a game leg and was lame in consequence, he was out of bed 

 with one leap, pulling out two revolvers which were under his 

 pillow (for in that room everyone had at least one with him) 



