lt safe, and could sleep once more. Just the sight
of Needham and his old blue uniform coming at night, after taps, was a
comfort to me.

Anxiety filled my soul, for Jack was scouting in the Stein Mountains
all winter in the snow, after Indians who were avowedly hostile, and had
threatened to kill on sight. He often went out with a small pack-train,
and some Indian scouts, five or six soldiers, and I thought it quite
wrong for him to be sent into the mountains with so small a number.

Camp MacDermit was, as I have already mentioned, a "one-company post."
We all know what that may mean, on the frontier. Our Second Lieutenant
was absent, and all the hard work of winter scouting fell upon Jack,
keeping him away for weeks at a time.

The Piute Indians were supposed to be peaceful, and their old chief,
Winnemucca, once the warlike and dreaded foe of the white man, was now
quiet enough, and too old to fight. He lived, with his family, at an
Indian village near the post.

He came to see me occasionally. His dress was a curious mixture of
civilization and savagery. He wore the chapeau and dress-coat of a
General of the American Army, with a large epaulette on one shoulder. He
was very proud of the coat, because General Crook had given it to him.
His shirt, leggings and moccasins were of buckskin, and the long braids
of his coal-black hair, tied with strips of red flannel, gave the last
touch to this incongruous costume.

But I must say that his demeanor was gentle and dignified, and, after
recovering from the superficial impressions which his startling costume
had at first made upon my mind, I could well believe that he had
once been the war-leader, as he was now the political head of his
once-powerful tribe.

Winnemucca did not disdain to accept some little sugar-cakes from me,
and would sit down on our veranda and munch them.

He always showed me the pasteboard medal which hung around his neck,
and which bore General Howard's signature; and he always said: "General
Howard tell me, me good Injun, me go up--up--up"--pointing dramatically
towards Heaven. On one occasion, feeling desperate for amusement, I said
to him: "General Howard very good man, but he make a mistake; where you
go, is not up--up--up, but," pointing solemnly to the earth below us,
"down--down--down." He looked incredulous, but I assured him it was a
nice place down there.

Some of the scattered bands of the tribe, however, were restless
and unsubdued