d of
all caravan duties. In this train of nearly ninety wagons there were
nearly one hundred and eighty men physically able to stand a guard, and
no one who was able to stand his trick was let off. The captain
preferred the regular and generally accepted system of two watches, each
of four squads, which put one squad on duty for three hours each
alternate night; but there were so many men for this disagreeable task
that he allowed himself to be over-ruled and consented to a three watch
system, six squads to the watch, which put one watch of nine men and a
corporal on duty for two hours every third night. Almost any concession
was worth making if it would arouse a little interest and a sense of
duty in this very important matter of guarding the camp. The corporal of
each squad arranged to shift up one tour each time their squad went on,
which would give no one squad the same hours for its successive tours of
duty. Nothing could have been fairer than this, but there were objectors
in plenty. Each one of the kickers had his own, perfect plan. Some
wanted smaller squads with the same number of watches so that each tour
of duty would be less; some wanted two watches and smaller squads, to
the same end, both of which would have caused endless changing of the
guard, endless awakenings all night long, with practically continuous
noise and confusion. Captain Woodson, having abandoned the regular and
tried system so as to let the men feel a sense of cooperation, flatly
refused to allow any further changes, and in consequence earned the
smoldering grudges of no small number, which would persist until the end
of the trail and provide an undercurrent of dissatisfaction quick to
seize on any pretext to make trouble.

For the division officers he chose the four men he had in mind, after
over-ruling a demand for a vote on them. As long as he was responsible
for the safety of the caravan he declared that it was his right to
appoint lieutenants whom he knew and could trust. The bickering had
fresh fuel and continued strong all day, and it would last out the
journey.

Arranging the divisions so far as possible to put friends together, with
the exception of some of the tenderfoot parties, they were numbered,
from left to right, as they would travel, and he was careful to put the
more experienced plainsmen on the two outside ranks and, where possible,
the better drivers in the two inner columns. These latter had a little
more complex cour