THE GREAT BEEF CONTRACT. 107 



" Why, an Indian, of course. You didn't suppose it was the superintendent of 

 a Sunday-school, did you ? " 



" No. An Indian, was it "i " 



" The same." 



" Name of the Indian ? " 



" His name ? / don't know his name." 



" Musi have his name. Who saw the tomahawking done .' " 



" I don't know." 



" You were not present yourself, then ? " 



" Which you can see by my hair. I was absent." 



" Then how do you know that Mackenzie is dead ? " 



" Because he certainly died at that time, and I have every reason to believe 

 that he has been dead ever since. I kfiow he has, in fact." 



" We must have proofs. Have you got the Indian ? " 



" Of course not." 



" Well, you must get him. Have you got the tomahawk ? " 



" I never thought of such a thing." 



" You must get the tomahawk. You must produce the Indian and the toma- 

 hawk. If Mackenzie's death can be proven by these, you can then go before the 

 commission appointed to audit claims with some show of getting your bill under 

 such headway that your children may possibly live to receive the money and 

 enjoy it. But that man's death must be proven. However, I may as well tell 

 you that the Government will never pay that transportation and those traveling 

 expenses of the lamented Mackenzie. It may possibly pay for the barrel of beef 

 that Sherman's soldiers captured, if you can get a relief bill through Congress 

 making an appropriation for that purpose ; but it will not pay for the twenty- 

 nine barrels the Indians ate." 



" Then there is only a hundred dollars due me, and i^at isn't certain ! After 

 all Mackenzie's travels in Europe, Asia, and America with that beef; after all 

 his trials and tribulations and transportation ; after the slaughter of all those 

 innocents that tried to collect that bill ! Young man, why didn't the First 

 Comptroller of the Corn-Beef Division tell me this." 



