these
gentlemen my papers with the dates, stopped all further discussion of
the matter. But I said, "Alex, I want the best horse in Linkville, for I
am going to overtake Gen. Ross tonight."

"You shall have not only the best horse in Linkville, but the best horse
in the State of Oregon." A ride of 45 miles that evening accompanied by
Mr. Neil and Mr. Jackson, convinced me that Alex. Miller told me the
truth. We reached the headquarters of Gen. Ross late in the night. I had
ridden that day 95 miles on two horses, and I want here to plead guilty
to cruelty to animals. The horse I rode into Linkville, to use the
common expression, "quit," and the only means I could use to get a "move
on," was to shoot the tips of his ears off with my revolver. I will say
further that this is the only instance in my life when I was cruel to a
dumb brute, but I justified myself then and now on the grounds of
"Duty."

Arriving at Headquarters, "for the night," as the General expressed it,
the next morning we took up the trail of a band of Jack's renegades.
Black Jim, one of the worst of the band of murderers, headed the band.
There were only about twenty men in the outfit, and the only means we
had of following them was by a crutch used by an Indian shot by John
Fairchilds on the 17th of January. Late one evening, in fact just at
sundown, we lost the trail. We had tracked the stick to a juniper tree,
but there lost it. Finally one of our boys discovered a hand up in the
juniper and leveling his gun, told him to come down.

After some parley the Indian came down. Gen. Ross and I told him we were
chiefs and that all Indians surrendering would be protected. A hundred
yards away, somewhere between Tule Lake and Langel Valley, there was a
rim rock, and in this the Indians were hiding. On assurance from our
juniper tree man they finally surrendered. Only Black Jim showed any
hesitancy, but the muzzle of a 50 caliber Springfield answered as a
magnificent persuader.

We then returned to Tule Lake, sending for Mrs. Body and Mrs. Schira to
identify the murderers of their families. We were still on the Oregon
side of the line, but much to our disappointment neither of the ladies
could identify any of the men. We had Black Jim but the ladies did not
and could not identify him. We therefore took them to the headquarters
of Gen. Davis and surrendered them at the Peninsula.

We arrived about 10 o'clock. I went to the tent of Gen. Wheaton and told
him