et. The off leader, unable to forge
ahead, made a wild leap for the off swing horse, and fairly crushed
him to earth with his feet, himself tripping on the harness and
rolling at random in the welter, his snapping hoofs flashing in every
direction. The wheel team, in the meantime, was doing what Packard
later described as "a vaudeville turn of its own." The near wheeler
was bucking as though there were no other horse within a hundred
miles; the off wheeler had broken his single-tree and was facing the
coach, delivering kicks at the melee behind him with whole-hearted
abandon and rigid impartiality.

"It was exactly the kind of situation," Packard remarked later, "that
George Myers would have called 'a gol-darned panorama.'"

But the horses were not to have matters altogether their own way, for
the helpers were experienced "horse-wranglers." By main strength they
pulled the off leader to his place and blindfolded him, delegating one
of their number to sit on his head until the snarl might be untangled.
The process was repeated with the other horses. The damage proved to
be negligible. A few small harness straps had snapped, and a
single-tree was broken. A second trial resulted no better than the
first. After the half-crazy animals had been a second time
disentangled and a third time harnessed, quivering, to the coach, the
driver had his way with them. The horses jumped forward into a wild
run, thrashing the heavy coach about as a small boy might be thrashed
about as the tail in "crack the whip." It was a wild ride, but they
reached Spearfish with no bones broken.

[Illustration: Poster of the Marquis de Mores's deadwood stage-line.]

"Our entrance into Deadwood was spectacular," said Packard later, "and
ended in an invitation ride to Lead City with Mayor Seth Bullock at
the head of the local dignitaries, riding in state inside the
coach."

On the 8th of October, Packard offered the dubious joys of his
stage-line for the first time to the public; and began to see a faint
prospect of return on his rather extravagant investment of energy and
time. But his satisfaction died stillborn. The Marquis's sanguine
temperament had once more proved the undoing of what might have been a
profitable venture. The mail contract, which the easy-going Frenchman
had thought that he had secured, proved illusory. Packard, who had
been glad to leave that part of the business to his principal,
discovered, as soon as he began to inquire for