se men down as they
would mad dogs and riddled each one through and through with the big
shot! It was an awful thing to do, but it seems to have been absolutely
necessary and the only way of establishing law and order. Our friends
at Fort Dodge tell us that the place is now quite decent, and that a
man can safely walk in the streets without pistols and a belt full of
cartridges.

FORT LYON, COLORADO TERRITORY, October, 1873.

ONE naturally looks for all sorts of thrilling experiences when out
on the frontier, but to have men and things mix themselves up in a
maddening way in one's very own house, as has recently been done in
mine, is something not usually counted upon. To begin with, Mrs. Rae is
with us, and her coming was not only most unlocked for up to two days
ago, but through a wretched mistake in a telegram she got here just
twenty-four hours before we thought she would arrive. Ordinarily this
would have been a delightful surprise, but, unfortunately, things had
begun to "mix!"

Faye had suffered so much from the wound in his head that very little
attention had been given the house since my return from the East,
therefore it was not in the very best of order. It was closed during my
two months' absence, as Faye had lived down with the bachelors. The very
day that Mrs. Rae came the quartermaster had sent a man to repair one of
the chimneys, and plaster and dirt had been left in my room, the one I
had intended Mrs. Rae to occupy. And then, to make matters just as bad
as possible, there was a sand storm late in the afternoon that had, of
course, sifted dust over all things.

But this was not all! My nerves had not recovered from the shock at
Granada, and had given out entirely that day just before dinner, and
had sent me to bed with an uncomfortable chill. Still, I was not
disheartened. Before I went East many things had been put away, but West
had unpacked and polished the silver several days before, and the glass
was shining and the china closets in perfect order, all of which had
been attended to with my own hands. Besides, the wife of one of the
sergeants was to come the next morning to dust and clean the little
house from top to bottom, so there was really nothing to worry about,
as everything would be in order long before time for the stage to arrive
that would bring Mrs. Rae.

But after the chill came a fever, and with the fever came dreams,
most disturbing dreams, in which were sounds of crunching grave