208 CAMP FIRE REMINISCENCES 
cactus. This place was the home of that particular 
variety, and after about one hundred yards of — 
crawling, deciding that it was wrong to spoil so 
many of the plants, I took a parting shot at the 
most prominent member of the band, and return- 
ing to my horse rode off to try my luck elsewhere. 
We were going to Piney by a route more direct, 
but less interesting on account of settlement than 
the one we travelled coming in. The settler with 
his barbed wire and the big game hunter have little 
in common. We only saw three more antelope all 
day and they were too wild. ‘In the evening, as we 
neared the Cottonwood, several small bunches were 
noted, but it was too late to attempt their pursuit, 
so we went into camp beside a haystack near a cabin 
by the creek. The weary wanderer cannot find 
anything more friendly as night approaches than a 
haystack. We had a delightful supper, a pleasant 
smoke, and such a warm comfortable night. 
Nothing but a keen appetite for the chase could 
have got me out long before the first streak of dawn, 
to a hurried, cold, and comfortless breakfast all 
alone. Isaddled up my weary pinto Dick and rode ~ 
away along the road to Piney. I knew that the best 
country lay between our camp and the settlement, 
and that we must reach the post office by two P. M. 
to catch the stage, as we had decided to go to the 
railway rapidly with it and to let Jackson follow 
with our things more slowly. Crossing the creek, 
I climbed the low hill beyond and was on the little 
divide as the east was brightening. Dismount- - 
ing, I looked the country over and marked a soli- 
