es, carrying lumber and all manner of supplies, but they
never stopped and camped near the post either going or coming, as other
trains were sure to do. They never seemed to want anything, even at the
sutler's store, though the Lord knows there wasn't much there they
_could_ want except tanglefoot and tobacco. The bull-train made perhaps
six trips in as many months, and by that time the glasses at the fort
could make out that Burnham's place was all finished, but never once had
either of the three proprietors put in an appearance, as invited, which
was considered not only extraordinary but unneighborly, and everybody
quit riding out there."

"But the funniest thing," said Wayne, "happened one night when I was
officer of the day. The road up-stream ran within a hundred yards of the
post of the sentry on No. 3, which post was back of the officer's
quarters, and a quarter of a mile above the stables, corrals, etc. I was
making the rounds about one o'clock in the morning. The night was bright
and clear, though the moon was low, and I came upon Dexter, one of the
sharpest men in my troop, as the sentry on No. 3. After I had given him
the countersign and was about going on,--for there was no use in asking
_him_ if he knew his orders,--he stopped me to ask if I had authorized
the stable-sergeant to let out one of the ambulances within the hour.
Of course I was amazed and said no. 'Well,' said he, 'not ten minutes
ago a four-mule ambulance drove up the road yonder going full tilt, and
I thought something was wrong, but it was far beyond my challenge
limit.' You can understand that I went to the stables on the jump, ready
to scalp the sentry there, the sergeant of the guard, and everybody
else. I sailed into the sentry first and he was utterly astonished; he
swore that every horse, mule, and wagon was in its proper place. I
routed out the old stable-sergeant and we went through everything with
his lantern. There wasn't a spoke or a hoof missing. Then I went back to
Dexter and asked him what he'd been drinking, and he seemed much hurt. I
told him every wheel at the fort was in its proper rut and that nothing
could have gone out. Neither could there have been a four-mule ambulance
from elsewhere. There wasn't a civilized corral within fifty miles
except those new ranches up the valley, and _they_ had no such rig. All
the same, Dexter stuck to his story, and it ended in our getting a
lantern and going down to the road. By Gad! he wa