this day, March 15th, that there began the big thaw. I could
not hope spring had come to stay, and that there would be no more
winter weather, but it gave me hope that a train might get through. I
needed hope of some kind to keep up my spirits, because I felt that
with a little good weather I could look for the Pike gang again. If I
could have been sure that the train would come first I should have
been gladder to see the thaw than anything else in the world; as it
was I wished it might hold off till I could feel that spring had come
in earnest.

The 15th was warm, but the snow melted very little. The next morning
came the chinook. It was straight from the northwest, where all the
blizzards had come from, but it was warmer than any south wind. All
day it blew, and the snowbanks disappeared as if they were beside a
hot stove. Before night there was a hole in the roof of tunnel No. 3.
When I went to bed there were patches of bare ground and pools of
water in the square.

The next morning the chinook was still blowing. It had been eating
away at the snowbanks all night. I saw the top of the stronghold
haystack from my bedroom window. Tunnel No. 1 had caved in. All day
the wind kept up. By night the tunnel system was nothing but a lot of
gaping cuts in the snow. The drifts had settled so much that the
windows and doors were exposed, and it would soon be possible to ride
on horseback along the street.

I had never seen a chinook wind before, of course, but Tom Carr had
told me about them. This one was a strong, steady wind sweeping all
day and all night straight from the northwest, and seemed to blow
right through the drifts. I had rather have seen the snow going in any
other way, because I knew this wind only followed the valley of the
Missouri River and I was afraid that it did not reach far enough east
to thaw out the cuts on the railroad so that the longed-for train
could get through. But on the other hand it of course covered all of
the country between Track's End and the outlaws' headquarters, and I
knew that there was now nothing to hinder their coming; and I was
afraid that if they did come I could not keep them off. This day the
Indian came out for the first time. I tried to talk with him some
more, but could not get much out of him. He cast some very black looks
at me, as I supposed for my taking away the gun and, more important,
probably, knocking the spigot off of that barrel.

This night I felt sure the ou