HAPTER XXIII.

ADMINISTERING JUSTICE.

On returning to Fort McPherson we found that Brevet Major General W.H.
Emory, Colonel of the Fifth Cavalry, and Brevet Brigadier General Thomas
Duncan, Lieutenant Colonel of the regiment, had arrived there during our
absence. General Emory had been appointed to the command of the District
of the Republican, with headquarters at Fort McPherson. As the command
had been continually in the field, it was generally thought that we were
to have a long rest; and it looked as if this post was to be my home and
headquarters for some time to come. I accordingly sent to St. Louis for
my wife and daughter to join me there. General Emory promised to build a
house for me, but before the building was completed my family arrived.

During the fall of 1869 there were two or three scouting expeditions
sent out; but nothing of very great importance was accomplished by them.
I found Fort McPherson to be a lively and pleasant post to be stationed
at, especially as there was plenty of game in the vicinity, and within a
day's ride there were large herds of deer, antelope and elk.

During the winter of 1869-70 I spent a great deal of time in pursuit of
game, and during the season we had two hunting parties of Englishmen
there; one party being that of Mr. Flynn, and the other that of George
Boyd Houghton, of London--the well known caricaturist. Among their
amusements were several horse races, which I arranged, and in which Tall
Bull and Powder Face were invariably the winners. Tall Bull by this time
had such a reputation as a running horse, that it was difficult to make a
race for him. I remember one however, in which he ran against a horse in
Captain Spaulding's Company of the Second Cavalry.

This race was rather a novel affair. I had made a bet that Tall Bull
would beat the Second Cavalry horse around a one mile track, and, during
the time that he was running, I would jump off and on the horse eight
times. I rode the horse bareback; seized his mane with my left hand,
rested my right on his withers, and while he was going at full speed, I
jumped to the ground, and sprang again upon his back, eight times in
succession. Such feats I had seen performed in the circus and I had
practiced considerably at it with Tall Bull, so that I was certain of
winning the race in the manner agreed upon.

Early one morning, in the spring of 1870, the Indians, who had
approached during the night, stole some twenty-one h