ature made him a great favorite
with both officers and men.

On one occasion while at the fort a large Government herd of horses,
lately brought up from Texas, where they had been captured wild on the
prairies, stampeded, and could not be retaken.

Once or twice Billy had come into the fort with a pony of the fugitive
herd which he had captured, and the quartermaster said to him:

"Billy, if that herd remains much longer free, they will be harder to
take than real wild horses, so go to work and I'll give you a reward of
ten dollars for every one you bring in, for the Government authorizes me
to make that offer."

This was just to Billy's taste, and he went at once home and spent a
couple of days preparing for the work before him, and from which his
mother and sisters tried to dissuade him; but the boy saw in it a
bonanza and would not give it up.

His own pony, Rascal, he knew, was not fast enough for the work ahead,
so he determined to get a better mount, and rode over to the fort to see
a sergeant who had an animal not equaled for speed on the plains.

Rascal, some sixty dollars, a rifle, and some well-tanned skins were
offered for the sergeant's horse and refused, and in despair Billy knew
not what to do, for he had gotten to the end of his personal fortune.

"Sergeant," he suddenly cried, as a bright idea seized him.

"Well, Billy?"

"They say you are the crack shot in the fort."

"I am too, Billy."

"Well, I'll tell you what I'll do to win your horse, Little Grey. I'll
put up all I have offered you against your animal and shoot for them."

"Why, Billy, I don't want to win your pony and money."

"And I don't want you to; but I'll shoot with you for your horse against
mine and all else I have offered."

The sergeant was a grasping man, and confident of his powers, at last
assented, and the match was to take place at once.

But the officers learning of it were determined Billy should have fair
play, and a day was set a week off, and the boy was told to practice
regularly with both pistol and rifle, for the terms were ten off-hand
shots with the latter at fifty and one hundred yards, and six shots
standing with the revolver at fifteen paces and six from horseback, and
riding at full speed by the target.

Billy at once set to work to practice, though he had confidence in his
unerring aim, and upon the day of trial came to the fort with a smiling
face.

Nearly everybody in the fort went out to see th