330 MEN I HAVE FISHED WITH. 



warning them to leave the territory, or they would be 

 killed. I had a Sharps rifle and a double shotgun, and 

 bought a revolver from a soldier who had come down 

 our way on some business and had no money to get back. 

 It was a Colt's army, big of bore and not very accurate. 

 Every man carried a revolver, and I would as soon think 

 of going to the spring for water without a pail as without 

 a pistol in my belt. I destroyed the notice found on my 

 door; it wasn't just the thing for a woman to see; you 

 L know how they are about such things; so I closed my 

 castle, and left the little family in Emporia, giving as a 

 reason that Warren and I wanted to examine some land 

 further west, and might be away a month, and so 

 smoothed it over while we started for Lawrence to con- 

 sult General Jim Lane. James W. Denver had super- 

 seded Walker as Governor in December, and he struck 

 a snag on the start. About a year before this the pro- 

 slavery officials had seized a wagon containing 150 

 muskets and carbines from an emigrant train, and had 

 stored them in the cellar under the Governor's residence 

 in Lecompton. 



"Boys," said Lane, "you are just in time. Colonel 

 Eldridge is going to start with a battalion to get a lot of 

 rifles that belong to us, and he may have to fight to get 

 'em; but we'll have 'em, sure. Do you want to go?" 



"Betcher," said Warren; "we came up to take a hand 

 in anything that's going on; didn't we, pard?" 



"Yes," I answered, "and down our way they're threat- 

 ening us, and we've got to do some cleaning out down 

 there or abandon our homes and be cleaned out. So far 

 they only threaten, but we know how every man stands 

 in the whole valley, and if they kill one of us the cleaning 

 out will begin at once, and will be thorough." 



We went to Lecompton, a motley crowd, some on 



