in the Pembina election, as it was well known that all the votes from
that district would be Democratic, so the great question was, "How
many?"

While the country was holding its breath in suspense and expectancy, a
man in the Indian trade, named Madison Sweetzer, came to me about two
o'clock one night, or rather morning, and told me that Nat. Tyson, who
was a merchant in St. Paul and an enthusiastic Republican, had just
started for the north with a fast team and an outfit that looked as if
he contemplated a long journey, and his belief was that he intended to
capture Joe Rolette and the Pembina returns. I thought such might be the
case, and we immediately began to devise ways and means to circumvent
him. We hastened to the house of Henry M. Rice, who knew every trader
and half-breed between here and Pembina, and laid our suspicions before
him. He diagnosed the case in an instant, and sent us to Norman W.
Kittson, who lived in a stone house well up on Jackson street, with
instructions to him to send a mounted courier after Tyson, who was to
pass him on the road, and either find Rolette or Major Clitheral, who
was an Alabama man and one of the United States land officers in the
neighborhood of Crow Wing (and, of course, a reliable Democrat), and to
deliver a letter to the one first found, putting him on guard against
the supposed enemy. I prepared the letter, and Kittson in a few moments
had summoned a reliable Chippewa half-breed, mounted him on a fine
horse, fully explained his mission, and impressed upon him that he was
to reach Clitheral or Rolette ahead of Tyson, if he had to kill a dozen
horses in so doing. There is nothing a fine, active young half-breed
enjoys so much as an adventure of this kind; a ride of four hundred
miles had no terrors for him, and to serve his employer, no matter what
the duty or the danger, was his delight. When he was ready to start,
Kittson gave him a send-off in about the following words: "_Va, va,
vite, et ne t'arrette pas, meme pour sauver la vie_" ("Go; go quick; and
don't stop even to save your life"), and giving his horse a vigorous
slap, he was off like the wind.

The result was that he passed Tyson before he had gone twenty miles,
found Clitheral a day and a half before Tyson reached Crow Wing, if he
ever did get there, delivered his letter, and the major immediately
started to find Rolette, which he succeeded in doing, took the returns
and put them in a belt around his person,