Trail and Camp-Fire 



to restrain himself, but this slur on his ability 

 as a marksman was too much, and, in spite of 

 all our winks and nudges, he came out with an 

 emphatic, " No, sir ; not much, they didn't ; 



not by a d d sight." Anything could be 



questioned but the accuracy of his faithful 

 rifle. I do not know what the agent reported, 

 but am certain he could have had the entire 

 band of Indians satisfactorily accounted for if 

 he had remained long enough in Cherry's 

 society. We took care, however, that he did 

 not. 



It was the year that young Robert Ray 

 Hamilton was lost that Cherry's pride receiv 

 ed its quickest fall. The horse that Hamilton 

 had ridden was found on the bank of the 

 river not far from our camp, with the saddle 

 overturned, an antelope strapped on behind 

 the cantel, and some river grass clinging to 

 the stirrups. In the hope of finding his body, 

 we built a log canoe for the purpose of search- 

 ing the river. Men accustomed to handling a 

 boat were requested to step out from the mot- 

 ley crowd gathered on the bank, and among 

 the first of the volunteers came Cherry, with 

 the remark that, "he was born and bred in a 

 boat." We shoved out from the shore, and 



68 



