but I was assured that Will would not
listen to it.

Mr. Douglass had been the legal adviser of the family since he won our
first lawsuit, years before. We considered the problem from every side,
and the lawyer suggested that Mr. Buckley, an old friend of the family,
had a team and wagon for sale; they were strong and serviceable, and
just the thing that Will would likely want. I was a minor, but if Mr.
Buckley was willing to accept me as security for the property, there
would be no difficulty in making the transfer.

Mr. Buckley proved entirely agreeable to the proposition. Will could
have the outfit in return for his note with my indorsement.

That disposed of, the question of freight to put into the wagon arose. I
thought of another old friend of the family, M. E. Albright, a wholesale
grocer in Leavenworth. Would he trust Will for a load of supplies? He
would.

Thus everything was arranged satisfactorily, and I hastened home to not
the easiest task--to prevail upon Will to accept assistance at the hands
of the little sister who, not so long ago, had employed his aid in the
matter of a pair of shoes.

But Will could really do nothing save accept, and proud and happy, he
sallied forth one day as an individual freighter, though not a very
formidable rival of Russell, Majors & Waddell.

Alas for enterprises started on borrowed capital! How many of them end
in disaster, leaving their projectors not only penniless, but in debt.
Our young frontiersman, whose life had been spent in protecting the
property of others, was powerless to save his own. Wagon, horses, and
freight were all captured by Indians, and their owner barely escaped
with his life. From a safe covert he watched the redskins plunge him
into bankruptcy. It took him several years to recover, and he has
often remarked that the responsibility of his first business venture on
borrowed capital aged him prematurely.

The nearest station to the scene of this disaster was Junction City, and
thither he tramped, in the hope of retrieving his fortunes. There he met
Colonel Hickok, and in the pleasure of the greeting forgot his business
ruin for a space. The story of his marriage and his stirring adventures
as a landlord and lover of his fellowman were first to be related, and
when these were commented upon, and his old friend had learned, too, of
the wreck of the freighting enterprise, there came the usual inquiry:

"And now, do you know of a job with some money