WILLIAM WARREN. 327 



portation and the profit of the local trader. The prairie 

 roads were good in June, and at the frequent streams 

 good camping places were always found with the three 

 prime requisites wood, water and grass. At Lawrence 

 we fished in the Kaw River, and caught seven catfish, 

 one of which weighed nine pounds; we ate the smaller 

 ones, and gave the big one to a passing family in a prairie 

 schooner. 



There was a municipal election while we were in 

 Leavenworth. The Free State men won, but there was 

 a lot of beautiful fights. A border ruffian named Lyle, 

 who had murdered several men, provoked a fight with 

 an old man, and was killed by a Free State man named 

 Hallen, who was arrested. 



The excitement was intense and contagious. Few 

 slept that night. Warren and I volunteered, with others, 

 to guard Hallen ; but there was no attempt made to lynch 

 him. Next morning Hallen was refused bail, and was 

 committed to Fort Leavenworth for safe-keeping, and 

 only our respect for the uniform of Uncle Sam allowed a 

 sergeant and a squad to remove him; but Hallen bribed a 

 guard and escaped, went to Lawrence and was never dis- 

 turbed. 



The buffalo country was west of us, but there re- 

 mained a few deer and antelope, as well as wild turkeys, 

 along the Cottonwood and Neosho, and Warren and I 

 each had a Sharps rifle, which had been sent from the 

 East to help make Kansas a free State, and which had 

 been issued to us at Leavenworth while guarding Hallen. 

 October had come, and one morning there was a light fall 

 of snow, and Warren came to my cabin. "Hurry up," 

 he called, "there's a deer's track going straight for that 

 bunch of willows in the buffalo wallow over there to the 

 west, where we shot the prairie chickens a week ago." 



