smen, trappers,
hunters, scouts, soldiers, settlers, railroad laborers, outlaws,
prospectors, and miners. Every face that Bucks looked into presented a
study. They were sometimes faces bronzed with the clear, dry sunshine
of the plains and mountains, rugged with adventure and keen with
dangers met and passed, but others were furrowed with dissipation and
seamed with vice, or merely vacant with the curiosity of the
wanderer.

Nearly every man carried a fire-arm of some sort. Indians were a
continual menace upon the frontier to the north and west and on the
front where the road was being built; and in the train-service and
construction work railroad men usually went armed. Moreover, when the
frontiersmen were not arming against the Indians they were arming
against one another; it being difficult at times to tell whether the
white men or the savages were the more dangerous to the peaceful
pursuit of happiness. As Bucks, returning down Front Street, neared
the square that opened before the station a group of army officers
were walking across it. They were the first regular officers he had
ever seen and he regarded them with interest. At the station the chief
despatcher, Baxter, met him at the door. "Bucks, I've been waiting for
you. Can you ride a horse?"

Bucks smiled.

"Colonel Stanley," continued Baxter, "is going to the front to-night.
He wants to take an operator with him. Giddings isn't well enough to
go, but he can take your key to-night; you can go with the colonel
instead. He will take Dancing and a detail of cavalrymen with Leon
Sublette and Bob Scott for guides."

The suddenness of the call was not unpleasant. It was such continual
excitement and new adventure that Bucks liked and he said he was
ready. The despatcher told him to hunt up Bill Dancing, who would give
him the details.

Within an hour the cavalry horses were being loaded into a box-car up
at the stock chute, and while Bucks and big Bill Dancing watched them
an engine and the chief engineer's car were backed down the yard to
make up the special train. At the same moment, the two saw Stanley
walking across the yard with two engineers who were going to the front
with him.

Bucks looked with admiration at the soldier-constructionist. He was
slight in figure, wore the precise-looking military cap, and was
dressed with extreme care. He stepped with a light briskness that
implied an abundance of native energy, and his manner as he greeted
the two