case, was most likely due to the
passage of the caravan. We knew that the red-skinned robbers would be
too much occupied with the train itself and its more immediate
stragglers, to be looking out for any so far in the rear as we; and to
this circumstance, no doubt, were we indebted for the uninterrupted
travel we had achieved. A greater proximity to the train would have
rendered our passage more perilous. Sure-shot, though a slouch in his
dress, was no simpleton. The trick of taking up the barrow was, no
doubt, a conception of his brain, as well as its being borne upon the
shoulders of the Irishman--who, in all likelihood, had performed the
_role_ of wheeling it from Fort Smith to the Big Timbers, and was
expected to push it before him to the edge of the Pacific Ocean! It was
evident that Patrick was tired of his task: for they had not made much
progress in their Homeric supper, before he once more returned to the
subject.

"But shure now, comrayde! we moight manage widout the borra--seein' as
we've got into the buffalos' counthry. Aren't them bastes as aizy to
kill as tame cows? Shure we'd niver be widout mate as long as our
powder lasts?"

"Jess t'other way, ye fool! We're a going _out_ o' the buffuler
country, an' into perts where theer ain't a anymal bigger than a rat.
On t'other side o' the mountings, theer ain't no beests o' any kind--
neery one; an' its jess theer we'll want that eer bag o' meel. Ef we
don't take it along, we'll sterve for certing."

"Be me sowl! I'd ruther carry the male on my showlders. There's liss
of it now; an' maybe I could manage it, iv you'ld only carry the spids,
an' thim other things. We moight lave the knapsicks an' kyarthridge-box
behind. What use ud they be in Kalifornya? They'll only lade to our
detiction by the throops out there."

"Don't ee be skeert 'bout thet, kimrade! Ef theer's troops in
Californey, they'll hev theer hands full 'ithout troublin' us, I
reeking. We ain't like to be the only two critters as hain't got a
_pass_ for the diggins. Ne'er a bit o't. We'll find deserters out
theer es thick as blue-bottles on a barkiss. Certingly we shell.
Besides, Petrick, we needn't take the knepsacks all the way out theer,
nor the berra neythur, nor nuthin' else we've brought from the Fort."

"Fwhat div yez mane?" interrogated the Irishman--evidently puzzled to
interpret the other's speech. "We kin leave all them fixing in Morming
City."

"But will the thr