by the cough of a jaded
horse in the suffocating dust, or the cracking of harness leather.
Within one of the wagons that seemed a miracle of military neatness and
methodical stowage, a lazy conversation carried on by a grizzled driver
and sunbrowned farrier.

"'Who be you?' sezee. 'I'm Philip Atherly, a member of Congress,' sez
the long, dark-complected man, sezee, 'and I'm on a commission
for looking into this yer Injin grievance,' sezee. 'You may be God
Almighty,' sez Nebraska Bill, sezee, 'but you look a d--d sight
more like a hoss-stealin' Apache, and we don't want any of your
psalm-singing, big-talkin' peacemakers interferin' with our ways of
treatin' pizen,--you hear me? I'm shoutin',' sezee. With that the
dark-complected man's eyes began to glisten, and he sorter squirmed all
over to get at Bill, and Bill outs with his battery.--Whoa, will ye;
what's up with YOU now?" The latter remark was directed to the young
spirited near horse he was driving, who was beginning to be strangely
excited.

"What happened then?" said the farrier lazily.

"Well," continued the driver, having momentarily quieted his horse, "I
reckoned it was about time for me to wheel into line, for fellers of the
Bill stripe, out on the plains, would ez leave plug a man in citizen's
clothes, even if he was the President himself, as they would drop on
an Injin or a nigger. 'Look here, Bill,' sez I, 'I'm escortin' this
stranger under gov'ment orders, and I'm responsible for him. I ain't
allowed to waste gov'ment powder and shot on YOUR kind onless I've
orders, but if you'll wait till I strip off this shell* I'll lam the
stuffin' outer ye, afore the stranger.' With that Bill just danced with
rage, but dassent fire, for HE knew, and I knew, that if he'd plugged me
he'd been a dead frontiersman afore the next mornin'."

* Cavalry jacket.

"But you'd have had to give him up to the authorities, and a jury of his
own kind would have set him free."

"Not much! If you hadn't just joined, you'd know that ain't the way o'
30th Cavalry," returned the driver. "The kernel would have issued his
orders to bring in Bill dead or alive, and the 30th would have managed
to bring him in DEAD! Then your jury might have sat on him! Tell you
what, chaps of the Bill stripe don't care overmuch to tackle the yaller
braid."*

* Characteristic trimming of cavalry jacket.

"But what's this yer Congressman interferin' for, anyway?"

"He's a rich Californian.