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At Fort Hall I intend to split off for California. Now I make you this proposition, not in payment for your secret, or for anything else: If I find gold I'll give you half of all I get, as soon as I get out or as soon as I can send it." "What do ye want o' me, son?" "Six mules and packs. All the shovels and picks you have or can get for me at Fort Hall. There's another thing." "An' what is that?"
They had not, however, long to hesitate, for a train of sumpter mules, belonging to the Lord Herries of Terregles, whose father had been with Archibald the Tineman in France, came up laden with the choicest products of the border country which he designed to offer as part of the "Service-Kane" to his overlord, the Earl of Douglas.
The lighter line was carried across by some powerful swimmer, or by a man holding on to the mane of one of the horses or mules. On the rope ran a roller, to which was fastened a piece of wood, and to the wood the passenger was secured; the transit was made more easy by two light lines, by which the piece of wood was drawn from side to side. Several of the Indians went first across.
Our mules struggled along at a slow walk, and we constantly diverged off the track, circling to this side or the other whenever a field looked an improvement upon our muddy quagmire, generally to find that it was very little better and sometimes worse. About half-way we met our luggage and messenger.
When Miss Roberta had read this note she handed it to Keswick, who, when he returned it, asked: "Does that suit you?" "No," said she, "it does not suit me at all." It was mail day at the very small village known as Howlett's, and to the fence in front of the post-office were attached three mules and a horse.
Near the middle of the afternoon, McCann returned on one of his mules with the word that it was a question if there was water enough to water even the horse stock. The preceding outfit, so he reported, had dug a shallow well in the bed of the creek, from which he had filled his kegs, but the stock water was a mere loblolly.
There were many teams of mules, and they were used for many things: such as plowing, cultivating, harvesting, haying, the building of irrigation checks and ditches, freighting, and the like. A team comprised from six to twelve individuals. The man in charge had to know mules which is no slight degree of special wisdom; had to know loads; had to understand conditioning.
"Now, I see that about a fourth of our people, including Captain Wingate, have horses and mules and not ox transport. I wish they all could trade for oxen before they start. Oxen last longer and fare better. They are easier to herd. They can be used for food in the hard first year out in Oregon.
And when Ruth got out upon the street Mercy had her window open and cried through the opening, shaking her little fist the while: "Remember! You tell Dusty Miller what I told you! I'm coming out there." "What's the matter with that young one?" growled Uncle Jabez, as Ruth climbed aboard and the mules started at a trot before she was really seated beside him.
The whole scene, the close, desperate fighting, the carcasses of the mules, the officers and men crouching behind them, the flaming stacks of bhoosa, the flashes of the rifles, and over all and around all, the darkness of the night is worthy of the pencil of De Neuville. At length, at about midnight, help arrived. Worlledge's two companies had gone in search of the Guides, but had not found them.
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