Page:On the border with Crook - Bourke - 1892.djvu/332

 limits of civilization. The sending in of the mail every week or ten days excited a ripple of concern, and the packages of letters made up to be forwarded showed that our soldiers were men of intelligence and not absolutely severed from home ties. The packages were wrapped very tightly, first in waxed cloth and then in oiled muslin, the official communications of most importance being tied to the courier's person, the others packed on a led mule. At sundown the courier, Harrison, who had undertaken this dangerous business, set out on his return to Fort Fetterman, accompanied by a non-commissioned officer whose time had expired. They were to ride only by night, and never follow the road too closely; by hiding in little coves high up in the hills during the day they could most easily escape detection by prowling bands of Indians coming out from the agencies, but at best it was taking their lives in their hands.

The packers organized a foot-race, and bets as high as five and ten thousand dollars were freely waged. These were of the class known in Arizona as "jawbone," and in Wyoming as "wind"; the largest amount of cash that I saw change hands was twenty-five cents. Rattlesnakes began to emerge from their winter seclusion, and to appear again in society; Lieutenant Lemly found an immense one coiled up in his blankets, and waked the echoes with his yells for help. The weather had assumed a most charming phase; the gently undulating prairie upon whose bosom camp reposed was decked with the greenest and most nutritive grasses; our animals lazily nibbled along the hill skirts or slept in the genial light of the sun. In the shade of the box-elder and willows along the stream beds the song of the sweet-voiced meadow lark was heard all day. At rare moments the chirping of grasshoppers might be distinguished in the herbage; in front of our line of tents a cook was burning or browning coffee—it was just as often one as the other—an idle recruit watching the process with a semi-attentive stupefaction. The report of a carbine, aimed and fired by one exasperated teamster at another attracted general notice; the assailant was at once put in confinement and a languid discussion of the merits or supposed merits of the case undulated from tent to tent. Parties of whist-players devoted themselves to their favorite game; other players eked out a share of diversion with home-made checker-boards. Those who felt disposed to