have to stay with them, so the major told me to "fire away." I went to
Major Anthony and told him that I thought twenty men would be
sufficient, but that the old paymaster wanted thirty-five men, so I
yielded to him in this, and with thirty-five soldiers we started. At
daylight the next morning I yelled "All aboard," and the lieutenant in
charge of the escort, who was a regular army officer, told his cook to
get breakfast. I told the lieutenant that we always made a drive of from
ten to fifteen miles before we breakfasted. He said he wouldn't do it,
that the regulations of the army were to make two drives a day and not
over thirty miles without food. The lieutenant said he wouldn't drive
the way I wanted him to and they would have breakfast before they
started. I told him "All right, stay and have your breakfast, I don't
object, but then go back to Fort Lyon." I did not need an escort unless
they complied with my orders. I had orders from my headquarters and they
were supposed to be at "my service" as escort of the mail and express.
Well, Major Pendelton was in a "pickle"--it was a predicament he did not
know how to get out of. He wanted to get through as soon as possible and
knew that if he went back with the Lieutenant, he would be delayed. He
thought he had too much money to be left with me without the escort. He
remembered Major Anthony's words to him before we left the fort. Major
Anthony had told him, "you are safe in Billy's coach, he never has
trouble with Indians." However, while Pendelton pondered, Joe Cummins
thought he would fix matters with the Lieutenant and took him to one
side and told him that he was under the orders of the conductor of the
Government Mail and Express, that I was in the service of the United
States Mail and that my orders would supercede any orders about
traveling. Mr. Cummings told him that I would make my 50 and 60 miles a
day and he would have to make his mules travel that fast, or go back.
"If you leave," Joe says, "Major Anthony will report you to headquarters
at Leavenworth." The Lieutenant finally decided to go, much to the