LITMIR.BIZ

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stretch of land that sepa- rated us from our journey's end.

      CHAPTER III.

      INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL—THE FIRST WOMAN PASSENGER

      ON THE U. P. RAILROAD WARNINGS OF

      PENDING INDIAN WAR.

      "THUS far" had chiefly embraced river travel, with very little railroad experience, and the import of these laconic words is more or less familiar to the soldier enlisted for war, but what imagination can adequately convey their meaning to a young woman just celebrating her first marriage anniver- sary and starting on her first sentimental and sen- sational journey across the trackless plains, with her husband, to join his command, more than a thousand miles distant, and through the heart of a hostile Indian country with a mail party made up of an escort of six men, with two ambulances and one wagon for baggage !

      With this small personal outfit, gradually aug- mented from ranches along the roadway, we began our real journey across the Plains to "Absaraka," now called Wyoming, the old "Home of the Crows."*

      Some ranchmen were sufficiently hospitable to give us a night's lodging, but at other times the ambulance proved to us a bed indeed. With straw pillows and army blankets as accessories to the necessary outfit we had to make ourselves comfort-

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      * The ancestral abode of the Crow Indian tribe.

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      able. Our camp was invariably along the river side and possessed its novel but uninteresting features. The air was salubrious and conducive to sleep after each day 's march, but the fear of rattlesnakes caused disturbance in sleep, as well as vigilance by the camp-fire.

      The purchase of supplies at ranches for variety of menu consisted of canned goods and bread and greatly simplified the preparation of meals, for- tunately for me, in the absence of knowledge in the culinary art. Our fuel consisted of whatever we could find of a combustible nature, and at times we utilized buffalo chips as well as dried sage-brush of the last year's growth.

      At one of the ranches where we were accorded entertainment for a night or more, near the point where the stage struck off on the overland route to Denver, we found several travellers quite diverse in character, dress, and manners.

      An Indian, "Wild Bill" by name, first elicited my attention as the first Indian I had seen, and he was in full Indian trappings. His appearance was alarming, as his very dress suggested the war-path, although for the time being a friendly specimen. Whether as prophet or seer, or merely conscious of the present impression he was making, he did make certain statements as to the movements of Indians which indicated that in his opinion all the north- western tribes were going on the war-path immedi- ately. All this was subsequently verified, and indeed even then far to the north and west Red Cloud had inaugurated his fatal campaign. Fortunately for

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      my peace of mind the facts were not then known to us. This name, "Wild Bill," I suppose had some significance in Indian usage, as they, like the ancient Hebrews, gave names to indicate some particular characteristic or change of circumstances. It may have been adopted from the celebrated American "Wild Bill" of earlier days, as he was a man of such courage and daring that others of his own race adopted it, and as one has observed, "it was the palmy days of our Wild Bills." The original of the name seemed to have been a gentleman with long hair and long mustache, with the usual character- istics of the plainsmen. Our visitor, to me a hero, could not imitate the original in every particular, as Indians have neither beards nor mustaches. His dress was probably donned for the time being through vanity or for effect, and it certainly im- pressed me with foreboding no less than his talk. In reality he was a scout then and afterwards, and it was a mere ruse when he left his pony and rode off with the stage driver in friendly chat. My infor- mation was received from another traveller, a little boy of fourteen years of age, whose name was Charles Sylvester, belonging to Quincy, Illinois. He had been stolen by the Indians when but seven years of age and spent his early years among his captors. One day he was out hunting with a party of Indian boys and accidentally killed a comrade. He dared not return to the village so he escaped on his pony to the white people. After a time, becoming discon- tented with his own people and civilization in gen- eral, he returned to his adopted friends on the North

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      Platte and became an interpreter. It was at this time that I met him and he divulged, or interpreted, what he understood from Wild Bill.

      He appeared to have an eye upon business as well, and offered his services to me in the capacity of a servant for $40.00 per month, and "no bacon to eat," as he expressed it. He seemed attracted to me, for some unknown cause, and dogged my foot- steps, perhaps hoping that I might relent and make a contract; barring that, he eventually followed the business of interpreter and became in time an Indian trader with enlarged possibilities, as I after- wards learned from one who knew him well.

      The third character was a woman of unique per- sonality and dress, as typical of her craft, in those days, as was Wild Bill himself. Of swarthy skin, with keen black eyes, with black curling hair, and casting furtive glances when conscious of particular notice, her appearance as well as her professions suggested gypsy antecedents. Decided and varied colors marked her dress. Her hands and ears were lavishly jewelled, whether with real or imitation gems my proximity did not disclose, though if real, certainly not of the first water. Her self-conscious importance and my lack of inclination precluded judgment on this point. She was a fortune-teller, with clairvoyant powers, so said, en route to the little settlement of Denver to ply her vocation there. I did not know of her reputation as possessing occult powers until after her departure, otherwise I might have lengthened my story. I had the misfortune to lose a diamond brooch at or near our rendezvous, a

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      matter of great concern on account of its senti- mental as well as real value, and had I suspected her ability in her boasted powers I might possibly have invoked her aid for its recovery, and might have been tempted even to take a peep into the future at her behest.

      These wayside ranch stories, limited in their range, and minus the Canterbury features, are typi- cal in a small way of the old life of the times.

      The Plains, at that season, were barren of green- ness, as everything of a vegetable nature was sere and brown, possessing no beauty worthy of descrip- tion. The level prairies had nothing to break the monotony of this sea of waste. Trees and patches of grass were to be found along the water courses and justified the wisdom of previous travellers in choosing, so far as possible, their camping places near them. We were certainly travelling across the '' Great American Desert. ''

      And yet the soil was afterwards found to be rich, and only needed modern irrigation to make it won- derfully productive. Once, when General Sherman was serving in that region, some one remarked to him that "it was a fine country and all that it needed was plenty of water and good society." To this the General is reported to have replied very brusquely, "That is all hell needs." As with the soil, so the wild cactus was waiting for modern science to transform and evolve it into food fit for beasts. Then, contact with it had to be avoided with scrupulous care, and no one dreamed that it could serve any good purpose to justify its exist-

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      ence and the evil function it seemed to serve. A thousand needles in a single plant were so adjusted as to prick and pierce both the hands and feet of the unwary traveller as she descended from her ambulance for a short respite from cramped limbs and bodily weariness incident to the day's travel. How painfully we afterwards understood its char- acter will develop later in our story.

      It is said that one of the favorite tortures of some tribes of Indians was to strip their unfortunate captives and bind them tightly to a large cactus of the country,

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