llars around their necks bearing their names and
that of their master. Maxwell was not a hard governor, and his people
really loved him, as he was ever their friend and adviser.

His house was a palace when compared with the prevailing style of
architecture in that country, and cost an immense sum of money. It was
large and roomy, purely American in its construction, but the manner of
conducting it was strictly Mexican, varying between the customs of the
higher and lower classes of that curious people.

Some of its apartments were elaborately furnished, others devoid of
everything except a table for card-playing and a game's complement of
chairs. The principal room, an extended rectangular affair, which might
properly have been termed the Baronial Hall, was almost bare except
for a few chairs, a couple of tables, and an antiquated bureau. There
Maxwell received his friends, transacted business with his vassals, and
held high carnival at times.

I have slept on its hardwood floor, rolled up in my blanket, with the
mighty men of the Ute nation lying heads and points all around me, as
close as they could possibly crowd, after a day's fatiguing hunt in the
mountains. I have sat there in the long winter evenings, when the
great room was lighted only by the cheerful blaze of the crackling
logs roaring up the huge throats of its two fireplaces built diagonally
across opposite corners, watching Maxwell, Kit Carson, and half a dozen
chiefs silently interchange ideas in the wonderful sign language, until
the glimmer of Aurora announced the advent of another day. But not a
sound had been uttered during the protracted hours, save an occasional
grunt of satisfaction on the part of the Indians, or when we white men
exchanged a sentence.

Frequently Maxwell and Carson would play the game of seven-up for hours
at a time, seated at one of the tables. Kit was usually the victor, for
he was the greatest expert in that old and popular pastime I have
ever met. Maxwell was an inveterate gambler, but not by any means in a
professional sense; he indulged in the hazard of the cards simply for
the amusement it afforded him in his rough life of ease, and he could
very well afford the losses which the pleasure sometimes entailed. His
special penchant, however, was betting on a horse race, and his own stud
comprised some of the fleetest animals in the Territory. Had he lived in
England he might have ruled the turf, but many jobs were put up on