Part 22 (2/2)

The next day the command that was sent out after us returned to the fort The eneral that it was all my fault, and that he did not propose to be treated in any such manner by any scout, even if it were General Sheridan's pet, Buffalo Bill He was told by the general that the less he said about the matter the better it would be for hihly elated with its success He hoped he would be h, when the Special Orders caether with the little command, received complimentary mention This Thoetic, and dashi+ng officer I gave him the tar-bonnets I had taken fro that he present the the Post

Shortly after our return another expedition was organized, with the Republican River country as its destination It was commanded by General Duncan, a blusterer, but a jolly old fellow The officers who knew him well said ould have a fine tihter It was rumored that an Indian's bullet could never hurt hi to report, had hit hi hi off his skull, had instantly killed one of the toughest mules in the army!

The pawnee scouts, who had beenthe winter of 1869 and '70, were reorganized to accolad of this I had become very much attached to Major North, one of the officers, and to many of the Indians Beside myself the only white scout we had in the Post at this time was John Y Nelson, whose Indian name was Cha-Sha-Cha-Opeyse, or Red-Willow-Fill-the-Pipe The man was a character He had a squaife and a half-breed faood fellow, but had few equals and no superiors as a liar

With the regi ”The Girl I Left Behind Me” we started out froht us to the head of Fox Creek, where we ca General Duncan sentmy rifle and shoot at aexceptthe sutler's store, in coun, I found that I had left it behind ot cold consolation from Major Brohen I inforeneral had sent for me to shoot a match with him, and that if the old man discovered my predicament there would be trouble

”Well, Cody,” said theyou can do is to un froeneral you loaned your rifle to soone I will send back to the Post for it”

I got a gun froeneral's headquarters, where I shot the match It resulted in his favor

General Duncan, who had never before couards in a manner that was new to theuards should call the hours through the night: ”Nine o'clock and all is well,” etc, giving the nulish They were greatly troubled

Major North explained to them that when the man on the post nearest them called the hour, they hly a to hear them do this They would try to remember what the man on the next post had said For example, when a white soldier called out ”Post Number One, Half-past Nine and all is well!” the Indians would cry out ”Poss Nuo to h--l I don't care” So ridiculous were their efforts to repeat the calls, that the general finally gave it up and countermanded the order

One day, after an uneventfulCreek in advance of the co, and we looked about for a suitable ca-place for the soldiers Major North dis, while I rode down to the creek to see if there was plenty of grass in the vicinity

I found an excellent ca spot, and told North I would ride over the hill a little way, so that the advance guard uard carass to rest

Suddenly I heard three or four shots In a ht or ten Indians I at once sprang to the saddle and sent several shots toward the Indians, fifty or ht Then, we turned our horses and ran

The bullets sang after us My as shot froh the crown of my hat We were in close quarters, when Lieutenant Valknar, with severalthehted his pawnees he began riding in a circle, which was the signal to them that there were hostile Indians in front

In an instant they broke ranks pell- warriors

The second day that we had been following the Indians we came upon an old squaho had been left on the prairie to die Her people had built for her a little shade or lodge, and had given her so-Grounds This is often done by the Indians when an enemy is in pursuit and one of their nuht

Our scout, John Nelson, recognized the squaw as a relative of his Indian wife Fro were known as the pawnee Killer band They had lately killed Buck's surveying party, consisting of eight or nine men This massacre had occurred a few days before on Beaver Creek We had found a nu instruments in the abandoned caht hitethe Indians across the Platte we returned to Fort McPherson, bringing with us the old squaas sent to the Spotted Tail Agency

During h he was several weeks old when I returned no naiven him I called him Elmo Judson, in honor of Colonel Judson, whose pen na him Kit Carson Cody and it was finally settled that this should be his name

Shortly afterexpedition into the rough lands of the Big Horn Basin The party was to consist of a nuether with twenty-five students fro out the expedition

I was to get together thirty-five saddle-horses for the party The quartered for the transportation, pack mules, etc But General Sheridan, under whose direction the scientists were proceeding, always believed in ood horses from a quartermaster's herd

In a few days Professor Marsh and his companions arrived The pawnee Scouts, then in camp, had a year before unearthed some immense fossil bones, so it was decided that Major North, with a few of these scouts, should also accompany the expedition Professor Marsh had heard of this discovery, and was eager to find some of the same kind of fossils

Professor Marsh believed that the Basin would be a the last of the Western lands to be settled The oing to Montana or northern Oregon These would head to the east of Big Horn Mountains, while those bound for Utah, Idaho, and California would go to the south side of the Wind River Mountains He was confident, however, that some day the Basin would be settled and developed, and that in its fertile valleys would be found the most prosperous people in the world It was there that reat possibilities of the West was aroused

I never forgot what I heard around the caress A iven to each of the arid States I was the first man to receive a concession of two hundred thousand acres froet away to the Basin till late in the autue T Beck, who proceeded to Wyo, where he was found by Professor Elwood Mead, then in the service of the State There a site was located and the line of an irrigation canal was surveyed

A toas laid out along the canal, andit Cody At this ti Horn Basin; but shortly afterward the Burlington sent a spur out from its main line, with Cody as its terminus In 1896 I went out on a scout to locate the route of a wagon road from Cody into the Yellowstone Park