rairie being cut into dust and the
trail as easy to follow as a highway. As the herd happened to land on
our course, after the usual count the commissary was sent for, and it
and the remuda were brought up. With the exception of wearing hobbles,
the oxen were always given their freedom at night. This morning one of
them was found in a dying condition from an arrow in his stomach. A
humane shot had relieved the poor beast, and his mate trailed up to
the herd, tied behind the wagon with a rope. There were several odd
oxen among the cattle and the vacancy was easily filled. If I am
lacking in compassion for my red brother, the lack has been heightened
by his fiendish atrocities to dumb animals. I have been witness to
the ruin of several wagon trains captured by Indians, have seen their
ashes and irons, and even charred human remains, and was scarce moved
to pity because of the completeness of the hellish work. Death is
merciful and humane when compared to the hamstringing of oxen, gouging
out their eyes, severing their ears, cutting deep slashes from
shoulder to hip, and leaving the innocent victim to a lingering death.
And when dumb animals are thus mutilated in every conceivable form
of torment, as if for the amusement of the imps of the evil one, my
compassion for poor Lo ceases.

It was impossible to send the wounded boy back to the settlements, so
a comfortable bunk was made for him in the wagon. Late in the evening
we resumed our journey, expecting to drive all night, as it was good
starlight. Fair progress was made, but towards morning a rainstorm
struck us, and the cattle again stampeded. In all my outdoor
experience I never saw such pitchy darkness as accompanied that storm;
although galloping across a prairie in a blustering rainfall, it
required no strain of the imagination to see hills and mountains and
forests on every hand. Fourteen men were with the herd, yet it was
impossible to work in unison, and when day broke we had less than half
the cattle. The lead had been maintained, but in drifting at random
with the storm several contingents of beeves had cut off from the main
body, supposedly from the rear. When the sun rose, men were dispatched
in pairs and trios, the trail of the missing steers was picked up, and
by ten o'clock every hoof was in hand or accounted for. I came in with
the last contingent and found the camp in an uproar over the supposed
desertion of one of the hands. Yankee Bill, a sixteen-year-