my turn in the wake of the others amid cries of, "Here comes the
Prince of Wales!" There was soon not much English left about my
raiment.

They were now shouting for music. Medicine Bow swept in like a
cloud of dust to where a fiddler sat playing in a hall; and
gathering up fiddler and dancers, swept out again, a larger
Medicine Bow, growing all the while. Steve offered us the freedom
of the house, everywhere. He implored us to call for whatever
pleased us, and as many times as we should please. He ordered the
town to be searched for more citizens to come and help him pay
his bet. But changing his mind, kegs and bottles were now carried
along with us. We had found three fiddlers, and these played
busily for us; and thus we set out to visit all cabins and houses
where people might still by some miracle be asleep. The first man
put out his head to decline. But such a possibility had been
foreseen by the proprietor of the store. This seemingly
respectable man now came dragging some sort of apparatus from his
place, helped by the Virginian. The cow-boys cheered, for they
knew what this was. The man in his window likewise recognized it,
and uttering a groan, came immediately out and joined us. What it
was, I also learned in a few minutes. For we found a house where
the people made no sign at either our fiddlers or our knocking.
And then the infernal machine was set to work. Its parts seemed
to be no more than an empty keg and a plank. Some citizen
informed me that I should soon have a new idea of noise; and I
nerved myself for something severe in the way of gunpowder. But
the Virginian and the proprietor now sat on the ground holding
the keg braced, and two others got down apparently to play
see-saw over the top of it with the plank. But the keg and plank