A NOTEWORTHY RIDE 79 



In 1873 Colonel Mackenzie rode his command into 

 Mexico after Lepan and Kickapoo Indians, beat them in 

 a sharp fight, and returned across the border, making one 

 hundred and forty-five miles in twenty-eight hours. In 

 18Y4 he again rode his command into Mexico after horse- 

 thieves, making there and back, eighty-five miles, in fif- 

 teen hours. In 1880, Captain A. E. Wood, Fourth Cavalry, 

 one of the most thorough horsemen I have ever known, 

 rode, with eight men, in pursuit of a thieving deserter, one 

 hundred and forty miles in thirty-one hours. Let him tell 

 his own story. It shows just how the trick is done : 



" In the month of September, 1880, I was stationed at 

 Fort Reno, Indian Territory; the paymaster had visited 

 us, and in those days, after such a visit, some desertion 

 Avas expected. 



" About noon one day the latter part of September, the 

 post commander sent for and astonished me by stating 

 that the first sergeant of his company Twenty-third In- 

 fantry had deserted, taking with him a considerable 

 amount of the company fund, and he wanted me to catch 

 him if possible. He had discovered that the sergeant had 

 bought one strong Indian pony and had stolen another. 



" The direction taken by the sergeant was not known, 

 but under the circumstances I thought that he intended 

 to reach the railroad as soon as possible. The nearest 

 railroad was in Southern Kansas the nearest point Ar- 

 kansas City, one hundred and forty miles as the trail then 

 went. I took a detail of two non-commissioned officers 

 and six men from G troop, Fourth Cavalry. 



" The detail was taken from the roster, except the first 

 sergeant of G troop, who asked to go with me ; the horses 

 belonged to the riders; none were selected as especially 

 qualified for the trip. I rode the same horse that I had 

 been riding for months. 



