s to make an attack on them when
they all gave the war whoop and wheeled their horses and went back the
way they had come.

Myself and scouts went to the top of the hill to see if the Indians were
still in the neighborhood, but finding no signs of them we went back to
camp. When I told Jim that there were no Indians in sight, he sprang up
and laughed as loud as he could and clapped his hands together and said,
"Another battle won by Will's Indian scalps. Didn't I tell you all that
them scalps was worth more to us than all the soldiers we could get
around us? They have won two good strong battles for us, and we will
not have any more trouble here. Them scalps is worth a hundred dollars
apiece to this train."

My men and I now went back over the hill to see how many Indians we had
shot in our first meeting them, and strange to say we did not find a
dead Indian, but there was plenty of blood all around where they were
when we fired on them. I knew by the blood that we had killed some of
them, but their comrades had taken their bodies on their horses and
carried them with them, which the Indian always does if he can.

When we returned to camp the excitement was all over, and everyone was
as cheerful as if nothing had happened to disturb them. Jim and I were
talking together a short time after I got back when two young girls came
to us and said their mother wanted us to eat dinner with them, for they
were going to have pie for dinner. Jim said, "Is it calf pie? I do love
calf pie above all things."

The girls laughed and said, "No, it is apple pie." Jim said, "All right,
I like apple pie too."

When we sat down to dinner, which the reader will understand was not
spread on a table, but was spread on the ground, I was surprised to see
what was before us to eat. I have paid a dollar many times since then
for a meal that would not compare in any way with this dinner that was
cooked out in the wilds with no conveniences that women are supposed to
require.

There was a stew made of the Buffalo calf, a roast of the same kind of
meat, corn bread, fried wild onions, apple pie and as good a cup of
coffee as I ever drank.

After we had finished eating, Jim said to the lady, "Are you going to
run a boarding house when you get to California?"

She answered, "I don't know what I shall do when we get there. Why do
you ask?"

Jim answered, "I wanted to know because if you are, every time I come to
California, I am coming to boar