nd raised his tail high, and when I tried to get him down on
the trail, the higher up he went on the rolling stones. I could almost
touch the side of the mountain with my whip in places, it was so steep.
It was a most dangerous position to be in, and just what elevation I
might have been carried to eventually I do not know, had not the deer
stopped his crashing through the bushes and bounded up on the opposite
bank, directly in front of the first team of mules, and then on he
streaked it across a plateau and far up a mountain side, his short white
tail showing distinctly as he ran. With the deer, Pete seemed to think
that the Evil One had gone, too, and consented to return to the trail
and to cross the stream over to the wagons.

The corporal had stopped the wagons until he saw that I was safely down,
and I asked him why he had not killed the deer--we are always in need of
game--and he said that he had not seen him until he was in front of the
mules, and that it was impossible then, as the deer did not wait for
them to get the rifles out of their cases on the bottom of the wagons.
That evening at the whist table I told Colonel Palmer about the deer and
Pete, and saw at once that I had probably gotten the poor corporal in
trouble. Colonel Palmer was very angry that the men should even think
of going several miles from the post, in an Indian country, with their
rifles cased and strapped so they would have been practically useless in
case of an attack.

Faye says that the men were not thinking of Indians, but simply trying
to keep their rifles from being marred and scratched, for if they did
get so they would be "jumped" at the first inspection. Colonel Palmer
gave most positive orders for the soldiers to hold their rifles in their
hands on their way to and from the mountains, which perhaps is for the
best.

But I am afraid they will blame me for such orders having been issued.

FORT MAGINNIS, MONTANA TERRITORY, October, 1880.

IT is not surprising that politicians got a military post established
here, so this wonderful country could be opened and settled, for the
country itself is not only beautiful, but it has an amount of game every
place that is almost beyond belief. Deer are frequently seen to come
down from the mountains to the creek for water, and prairie chicken
would come to our very tents, I fancy, if left to follow their
inclinations.

Faye is officer of the day every third day, but the other two days ther