comical you looked." And in the most
ridiculous way he could think of he described how I looked and acted on
that to me never-to-be-forgotten occasion, "My first drink from a soda
spring."

I have been told there is a large town at this place now, and that it is
a great resort for the sick. They use this salt water, which I forgot to
say was also hot as well as salt, for bathing, and is considered a great
cure for many diseases.

[Illustration: Waving my hat, I dashed into the midst of the band.]

CHAPTER IV

The next morning we pulled out of this place by the way of Landers.
That afternoon about two o'clock I saw a small band of Indians coming
directly towards us. They were about a mile away when I first saw them.
I rode to the foot of a little hill which was close to me at the time I
saw them. I dismounted from my horse and tied him to a sage brush, and
then I crept to the top of the hill to see how many there were of them.
I watched them until they were within a half a mile of my hiding place;
I then counted thirty. I took them to be a hunting party by the way they
were traveling. I signaled to my scouts to come to me at once. When they
reached me, the Indians were less than a quarter of a mile from me. I
told them what was coming down the ravine and told them to see that
their guns and pistols were in order, "for, as soon as they round that
little point yonder, we will charge on them, and we will kill every one
we can. Now, don't shoot until we get within thirty yards of them. I
will say, "fire," then I want every man to get an Indian. Now don't get
rattled, but shoot to kill and shout as loud as you can. It don't make
any difference what you say, only make as big a noise as you can, and as
soon as you empty your guns, pull your pistols and go after them."

In a moment more the time had come to act, and when I said, "Charge,"
every man responded and did his duty. I had been in several Indian
fights before, but I never saw Indians so taken by surprise as this band
was. They did not draw their arrows or run, until we had fired into
them, and after they turned to run, they had gone at least two hundred
yards, before I saw them try to shoot an arrow.

We got fourteen of them in the first charge, and inside of three hundred
yards we got six more. The remainder had reached the thick brush, so we
let them go.

We now commenced catching the horses. We caught sixteen horses, and they
all had good hair ropes arou