YELLOWSTONE KELLY. 363 



but they were raw, and there was no wood or substitute for it 

 within miles. Our guide showed us some bushes which were 

 just visible on the edge of the prairie, about two miles away, and 

 some of the escort were sent off at full speed to fetch some of 

 them. We had barely time to cook half the steaks and bolt 

 them, when the order was given to start again. We got one 

 night's rest after all on the way down, one relay of mules being 

 behind time, and the General and I turned in on the seats of 

 the ambulance, which were made to fold down to form a bed, 

 and as we were both of us pretty big men, it was an uncom- 

 monly tight fit, one being obliged to turn when the other did. 



And now a few words as to our guide, Yellowstone Kelly, 

 about whom enough stories have been told to fill a dozen 

 " penny dreadfuls/' He was said to have killed dozens of 

 . Indians, and to have had hair-breadth escapes without number. 

 I had several talks with him, and found him to be a very quiet, 

 unassuming man, who had very little to say about himself. I 

 asked him if he had ever killed seven Indians in one fight when 

 quite alone, as I had been told ; he replied that he had never 

 killed more than two, and that only once. He had been riding 

 with despatches from one Northern Post to another, when he 

 was waylaid by two Indians, who fired at but missed him. 

 Not knowing how many there were, he threw himself from his 

 horse and lay as if dead, when the two Indians walked up to 

 him, and as they got near him he shot one and killed the other 

 with his clubbed rifle. He said that he had been in a good many 

 Indian fights, but had only once been wounded, a bullet having 

 taken off a portion of one of his ears. His chief exploit was 

 watching Sitting Bull's camp for six weeks without being dis- 

 covered, though there were nine hundred Indians in it at the 



