themselves. The gray wolf or lobo, larger and heavier than any dog,
and adorned with a bushy tall was a fierce-looking animal, to be
sure. The smaller ones were called coyotes or prairie wolves, and are
larger than foxes and of a gray-brown color. These are the scavengers
of the plains, and divide their prey with the vultures of the air.

At times we passed through villages of the prairie dog, consisting of
numberless little mounds, with their owners sitting erect on top.
When alarmed, they would yelp and dive into their lairs in the earth.
These little rodents share their habitations with a funny-looking
little owl and the rattlesnake. I believe, however, that the snake is
not there as a welcome visitor, but comes in the role of a
self-appointed assessor and tax gatherer. I picked up and adopted a
little bulldog which had been either abandoned on the cars or lost by
its owner, not then thinking that this little Cerberus, as I called
it, should later prove, on one occasion, to be my true and only
friend when I was in dire distress and in the extremity of peril.

The town of Junction City, which numbered less than a score of
buildings and tents, was in a turmoil of excitement, resembling a
nest of disturbed hornets. Several hundred angry-looking men crowded
the only street, every one armed to the teeth. The great majority
were dark- skinned Mexicans, but here and there I noticed the
American frontiersman, the professional buffalo hunter and scout.
These were men of proved courage, and I observed that the Mexicans
avoided looking them squarely In the face; and when meeting on the
public thoroughfare, they invariably gave them precedence of passage.

I found opportunity to hire out to a pleasant-looking young Mexican
as driver of a little two-mule provision wagon. In this manner I