ke Wardell's, comprising the rougher, more lawless frontier
element. He was a close friend of Ephriam Schoolcraft and he had his
admirers outside of his own class, for a group of tenderfeet which was
impressed by his swaggering, devil-may-care manners backed him in a
body; and another group which was solidly behind him was composed of the
poorer Mexican traders. The second of the larger parties with a
candidate in the field, who had been nominated by a series of caucuses,
was made up of the more experienced and more responsible traders,
veterans of the trail who put safety and order above all other
considerations. This party nominated Zachary Woodson, who had more
wagons in the caravan than any other one man, therefore having more at
stake, and who had not missed his round trip over the route for a dozen
years. His nomination split the Mexicans, for half of them had wagons
and valuable freights, and were in favor of the best leadership.

At first Woodson flatly refused to run, sneeringly reminding his friends
of the lack of cooperation he could expect from the very men who needed
law and order and leadership most. He knew by bitter experience that the
captain of a Santa Fe caravan had no real authority and that his orders
were looked upon as mere requests, to be obeyed or not, as the mood
suited. He was obdurate in his refusal until a split occurred in the
other strong party and resulted in a disgraceful fight among its
members, which was kept from having disastrous results only by the
determined interposition of the more resolute members of his own party.
This caused the two smaller factions to abandon their own candidates and
throw themselves against Wardell, and resulted in the overwhelming
election of the man best suited for the position.

His first act after grudgingly accepting the thankless leadership was to
ask for a list of the men, wagons, and pack animals, and he so
engineered the division of them that each section had as its lieutenant
a man whom he could trust and who did not lack in physical courage so
much needed to get some kind of order and to keep it. The great train
was divided into four divisions, at the present to join so as to march
in two columns; but later to spread out and travel in divisional order
of four straight columns abreast, far enough apart so that the width of
the whole front roughly would equal the length of a column.

Next came the arrangement of the watches, the most cordially hate