Chapter 2

Beside the railroad track as the train drew to a stop, was a band of Sioux Indians in gala dress of paint and feathers; they had come to witness the coming of the firewagon which they had been watching belch forth sparks and smoke from its upset haycock smokepipe far out on the prairie toward the white man's country. Just beyond where the Indians were was a great pile of whitened bones; this puzzled the youth but he saw no one to ask what it meant. Seeing his curiosity, a tall brave stepped from the crowd and held out his hand by way of welcome saying, "How Cola!", then pointing to the bone-pile, said in tolerable English: "Buffalo:.

Two days and a night were gone---since the last big town at the fringe of civilization had been passed. There the main line led west with its through trains, while the ticket which Midge held was over a new line into the unsettled country far to the north from which a still newer branch meandered westward between lakes and over sloughs into what the school-geography showed as the 'salt water' region. An occasional grain elevator, always red, stood like a sentinel beside the track, and were the only signs of life, a sort of advance agent of the hordes of immigrants from Norway, Sweden and Lapland, later to turn the buffalo-prairie into waving wheat crops. It was spring, and while human life was absent in the monotonous landscape, there was wild life in abundance in the clouds of ducks and geese that filled the numerous lakes, and every slough held its quota of tall long-billed cranes, while bands of antelope pastured on every rise of ground.

Billy Osburn had boarded the train at the city, and it was during this long dreary ride on the local that he came to Mudge's seat and introduced himself. He was medium size, wore a mustache, a diamond in his shirt front, and clothes of the latest fashion; he was going to the end of the line, he said; thought he would start a saloon there. He had two heavy suit cases and a couple of extra coats piled in his seat.

The new town (Devil's Lake) lay sprawled on the gentle slop of the north shore of the big lake, her streets still bore their margins of original prairie sod along the wooden side walks in the business section, and her homes were of a bungalow pattern of lumber, showing hasty construction. They were scattered about seemingly without regard to streets, lanes or alleys, reminding the easterner of a kind of toy town, since it occupied so small a part of the great plains area spreading beyond vision. The business section was one block; both sides of it were closely built up with frame structures of one story, except the hotel which was double width and height, and each alternate front carried a canvas sign on which was painted in large black letters, S A L O O N.

In next importance came the lumber sheds, farm-machinery-depots ad livery stables, first needs of every incoming settler. There was a land-office, a private bank, and countless real estate agents, loan agencies, and a court house of frame. The lake was fifty-five miles long east and west, and fourteen miles wide. There were two steamboats which carried the freight and passengers, daily in summer, from the railroad terminal, south to the Government military reservation, where troops were garrisoned for control and regulation of the white man's intercourse with the Indians. Here was the dividing line between white and red. It was the Government's reservation prison holding remnants of the bands which had desperately fought under Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and Red Cloud, for rights guaranteed them by sacred treaty with the Great White Father---the compact, which, because of the discovery of gold, was ruthlessly violated and annulled without consideration or compensation. These were the survivors of the warriors who had wiped out Custer's army on the Little Big Horn, and it was Custer's reorganized famed 7th, Cavalry which garrisoned the fort, revengeful wardens o their helpless prisoners.

Two doors below the Requa saloon was the long low livery barn of popular Johnny Bell, facing the cross street called Kelly Avenue, because Jim Kelly was planning to build his hardware store there, as, he explained, he preferred stud horses to stud poker players, for next door neighbors.

Bell's was the leading livery, and it was a popular meeting place for newcomers and real estate dealers and loan sharks, for it was new land that inspired the building of the railroad; and it was to visit the land-office for maps and surveys, find the location of unappropriated claims then hire saddle horse or a team and buggy, and drive or ride out into the wilderness of prairie and try to find it.

It was here that Midge noted a pair of black chunky mares of a different build from the western breed which filled the long lines of stalls, and asked whose they were and where they came from. A gentleman from Pennsylvania had brought them, along with wagon, farm implements and house-furniture, and was going to take up land. Bell explained, his name VanLew and he would be around at feeding time. Mudge was there at feeding time.

The great unsurveyed region lying to the north-east bordering on the British possessions, was decided on for investigation; no one had been over it; there were no maps of it, but Van had come to take up land, and that was Mudge's principal object, and someone had told someone who told Van that it ought to be made in day to the Red River. With compass, oats enough for two feeds, a rifle and shells, a half dozen sandwiches and a jug of water tucked in the straw and covered with horse-blankets, made team, wagon and the two adventurers ready for the land hunt.

A look at the compass decided the direction to follow as E N E as most likely to reach the destination desired. But a few miles, the trail was no longer visible; it was thereafter the raw unbroken wilderness of former buffalo range, covered with myriad skeletons and whitened bones of the vast herds, which, until recently, had pastured there. Millions of the shaggy brutes, last of the countless millions of the national domain, had been followed and herded here for the final extermination, by the ruthless hide-hunters; only buzzards remained to show a sign of life in this vast sepulcher.

Miles and miles of this dreary solitude! Except for short detours to avoid the many lakes, general direction was maintained. At noon a stop was made to rest the horses, feed them from the oats bag and refresh from the water jug and sandwiches, the two prospectors themselves. Mudge tried a few shots at a band of antelope by way of diversion, but as these little animals are good judges of distance, they seemed to know they were beyond danger from the popping Winchester and ignored the show.

Lakes became more frequent; time to detour them made progress slow and the horses showed weariness; and then suddenly a lake loomed ahead that seemed without limit for size; to get beyond it, either to the north or to the south meant a long and difficult trek, and in either case was to go far out of the compass course being followed. And the water in the lakes was alkaline which the exhausted horses dare not drink! Two land-hunters were becoming nervous. Turning toward the southern limit of the inland sea, they plodded on and on, finally to come in sight of a party of Indians and half-breeds with high-wheel wooden carts to which a cow or steer was hitched in the heavy crude vehicles, slowly making headway. Driving in their direction to inquire about location and a way out, these natives could give no information; they could neither understand the questions or convey any response to indicate where they themselves were. Lost indeed!

It was observed that these native people were picking buffalo bones, piling bleached bones and horns in the withe-frames of the carts as they slowly wandered about, and there were twenty of these carts in view, with two or more persons in charge of each.

Circles and zig-zag travel to avoid or get beyond the constantly interfering lakes and sloughs had by this time rendered the compass useless for maintaining a regular course fixed at the outset. The recent detour had led them far out of the way; the horses were fagged from loss of both feed and water; there were no signs, trails, or means for camping, and night was rapidly coming on. One of two things had to be decided upon, tie the horses to the wagon, crawl into or under it for the night and try to go on next morning; or, throw aside the driving reins and trust to the instinct of the horses, so long as they might continue moving, since wherever they might drift during the night they could be no more 'lost' than they were at the moment. The latter course was agreed on, and Van wrapped the lines about the whip-socket and urged the tired nags forward into the darkness.

From the straw-bed Mudge was awakened by a sudden slap on the shoulders as the blanket was jerked from it by Van who was sitting upright trying to see what time it was by lighting a match held over his watch. It was 2 A.M. and the horses wee at a standstill. On the ground, more matches revealed a frame structure close by and the horses were on a real wagon-trail where they stood. A knock and a further knock at the door roused the inmate who came with a lantern, stabled and cared for the horses, took the two wanderers in and gave them a bunk; and fried eggs and coffee for breakfast. It was the very place they had started for, thanks to the horses. But they had found no land which suited them for preemption; and two days were consumed in the return to try another direction, perhaps where there were fewer lakes and more signs of civilization. They were seeing the west.