st completely buried, on the sandpit
opposite the landing. The report seemed too good to be true.

The next thing to do was to find the owner. We discovered him eleven
miles down the river.

"Yes, if you will agree to deliver the boat safely to me after crossing
your five wagons and teams, you may have it," said he.

[Illustration: Digging out the scow.]

The bargain was closed then and there. My, but that night didn't we make
the sand fly from the boat! By morning we could begin to see the end of
the job. Then, while busy hands began to cut a landing on the
perpendicular sandy bank of the Iowa side, others were preparing sweeps.
All was bustle and stir.

Meanwhile it had become noised around that another boat would be put on
to ferry people over, and we were besieged with applications from
detained emigrants. Finally, the word coming to the ears of the
ferrymen, they were foolish enough to undertake to prevent us from
crossing without their help. A writ of replevin or some other process
was issued,--I never knew exactly what,--directing the sheriff to take
possession of the boat when it landed. This he attempted to do.

I never before or since attempted to resist an officer of the law; but
when that sheriff put in an appearance and we realized what his coming
meant, there wasn't a man in our party that did not run to the nearby
camp for his gun. It is needless to add that we did not need to use the
guns. As if by magic a hundred other guns came in sight. The sheriff
withdrew, and the crossing went on peaceably till all our wagons were
safely landed.

We had still another danger to face. We learned that an attempt would be
made to take the boat from us, the action being not against us, but
against the owner. Thanks to the adroit management of McAuley and my
brother Oliver, we were able to fulfill our engagement to deliver the
boat safely to the owner.

We were now across the river, and it might almost be said that we had
left the United States. When we set foot upon the right bank of the
Missouri River we were outside the pale of law. We were within the
Indian country, where no organized civil government existed.

Some people and some writers have assumed that on the Plains each man
was "a law unto himself" and free to do his own will,--dependent, of
course, upon his physical ability to enforce it. Nothing could be
farther from the facts than this assumption, as evil-doers soon found
out to their discomfort.