ANECDOTES CONCERNING HIM. 359 



morning what articles had disappeared since the day before. 

 The first thing to go was the bed and bedding, when I came to 

 a mattress on the floor ; then this went, and I put my buflalo- 

 robe in a corner and slept on that ; then all the rest of the 

 things except the basin went, and that I emptied out of 

 the window and hid every day under my robe, the General 

 faring in the same way. One of the officers drove me to Miles 

 City ; but I found it was a miserable little place, containing 

 about a hundred inhabitants, most of them keeping saloons, 

 the soldiers being their customers ; and yet, when I heard of this 

 place four years afterwards, it was from a young lady who had 

 just been by rail to a ball there, and it was then a fine and 

 rapidly-growing place of several thousands, with stone houses, 

 a town-hall, and a Mayor and Councilmen. 



While at the Post I heard several stories of my host, who 

 was said to be the best Indian fighter in the American army ; 

 and this was because he imitated their tactics, travelling with 

 very little baggage, and starting at once on hearing news of 

 Indians. It was not at all uncommon for the bugle to blow in 

 the middle of the night, and when the officers and men were 

 mustered the General would tell them that his scouts had 

 brought him word that a war-party was near the Post, on their 

 way to attack some settlement, and that a hundred men, with 

 mules in proportion, must be at his quarters ready for a four 

 or five days' scout in thirty minutes. The mule-master was in 

 despair, assuring me that it was impossible for him to keep his 

 mules in good condition, as they were nearly always away on 

 these expeditions, and would come back mere bags of skin and 

 bone, and in many cases not come back at all, having been 



