thim rid divils hit me on the head wid a club, so he did," said Pat;
and so, when morning came, the mystery was further investigated and was
easily solved. Elk tracks were found in the vicinity and it was
undoubtedly a herd of elks that had frightened Pat; as he had turned to
run, he had gone under a limb of a tree, against which he hit his head,
and supposed he had been struck by a club in the hands of an Indian. It
was hard to convince Pat however, of the truth.

A three days uninteresting march brought us to Beaver Creek where we
camped and from which point scouting parties were sent out in different
directions. Neither of these parties discovering Indians they all
returned to camp about the same time, finding it in a state of great
excitement, it having been attacked a few hours previous by a party of
Indians, who had succeeded in killing two men and in making off with
sixty horses belonging to Co. H.

That evening the command started on the trail of these Indian
horse-thieves; Major Brown with two companies and three days rations
pushing ahead in advance of the main command. Being unsuccessful,
however, in overtaking the Indians, and getting nearly out of
provisions--it being our eighteenth day out, the entire command marched
towards the nearest railroad point, and camped on the Saline River;
distant three miles from Buffalo Tank.

While waiting for supplies we received a new commanding officer, Brevet
Major-General E.A. Carr, who was the senior major of the regiment, and
who ranked Colonel Royal. He brought with him the now celebrated Forsyth
scouts, who were commanded by Lieutenant Pepoon, a regular army officer.

[Illustration: GEN'L E.A. CARR.]

It was also while waiting in this camp that Major Brown received a new
lieutenant to fill a vacancy in his company. On the day that this officer
was to arrive, Major Brown had his private ambulance brought out, and
invited me to accompany him to the railroad station to meet his
lieutenant, whose name was A.B. Bache. He proved to be a fine gentleman,
and a brave, dashing officer. On the way to the depot Major Brown had
said, "Now, Cody, when we come back we'll give Bache a lively ride and
shake him up a little."

Major Brown was a jolly good fellow, but sometimes he would get "a little
off," and as this was one of his "off days" he was bound to amuse himself
in some original and mischievous way. Reaching the depot just as the
train came in, we easily found the Lie