Ha! What’s that? He cocks his piece—it has gone. No, there it is again, moving around yonder rock; it disappears. There it is again, and then the straining look relaxes; a feeling of relief comes over him. It is but a shadow cast by a tree whose boughs are tossing in the wind that sweeps up the cañon with the river, chilling him to the bone. He shakes himself, increases his pace, and wonders what time it is. Surely, his two hours are up. The relief at last comes, and he gladly surrenders his lonely beat for a comfortable blanket.
After a hearty breakfast next morning, Hayes shouldered his gun and started for a walk. The others staid around camp, and tried a little fishing, with no success. In the course of a couple of hours Hayes returned and reported interviewing a number of tramps in the course of his peregrinations and, further, that he had extended his walk into the confines of the state of Nevada. He seemed to be greatly put out that the governor of the state and a brass band were not there to receive him.
“This life is made up of disappointments,” soothingly said Joe Keane.
While the noon meal was in course of preparation, the relief train rolled in upon the sylvan scene. The detail was relieved by acting Corporal Pariser and privates Heeth, Powleson, and Stealy.
The ride back to Truckee was a long and wearisome one, not so much as to distance, but as to time. Endless stopping, bumping, and jerking, the result of making up a long train of cars containing ice, tortured the weary men beyond endurance. Almost worn out, but thankful, they finally arrived at Truckee at about dark.
Every morning the relief train went out with its quota of men, dropping them off at the different posts and on the return picking up those relieved, while at 8 o’clock every morning the camp guard was relieved. This morning Corporal Burdick, Privates Flanagan, Crowley, Gille, Wise, Overstreet, and Sullivan were relieved from camp guard.
The trains (both passenger and freight) now began to go through. We supplied guards for every west-bound train. These guards ate at Blue Cañon and at Colfax, and were relieved at the latter place by soldiers of the regular army. They returned to Truckee guarding east-bound trains. For the first two or three days part of the guard had to ride on the tender and engine. This was any thing but pleasant. From exposure to the heat of the sun, the flying cinders and smoke, the men, on their arrival at Colfax, looked like blackamoors. Finding there was no necessity for this, the practice was discontinued, the men riding in the cars, and dropping off at stations, to prevent any interference with the air-brakes or the running of the train.
The men were now kept constantly on the go; very few, if any, could boast of a continuous night’s sleep. Those who were not away on post duty, or on camp guard, were liable to be awakened at any hour of the night, and ordered out as train guards. A list of the men who from this time on did various guard duties will illustrate the manner in which they were shuffled about. Friday, July 20th, privates Heeth, Powleson, Pariser, and Stealy went to post 24, Pariser acting as corporal. On the same day private Perry went to Boca, private Van Sieberst to Prosser Creek, and private Monahan on camp guard. Lieutenant Filmer was officer of the day. Sergeant H. B. Taylor, Corporal McCulloch, privates Flanagan, Frech, Gille, McKaig, O’Brien, and Radke went west with trains. Saturday, July 21st, Sergeant Sieberst, privates Crowley, Casebolt, Wise, Radke, Snell, and Unger went to Cuba. Privates Bannan, Beseman, Baumgartner, and G. Claussenius were on camp guard, and Captain Cook was officer of the day. Sergeant A. H. Clifford, who had thrown up his job in the kitchen, privates Adams, Bowne, and Gilkyson went out with trains. Sunday, July 22d, privates R. E. Wilson and Williams went to Prosser; Corporal Burdick, privates McKaig, Monahan, and O’Brien to Boca; Corporal McCulloch, privates Fetz, Gehret, and Sindler, to Post 24; Corporal Burtis, privates Hayes, Heeth, and Keane were on camp guard, and Sergeant Kelly, Corporal Wilson, privates Pariser and Perry went out with trains. Monday, July 23, privates Bannan, Claussenius, Flanagan, and Gille went to Prosser Creek, Claussenius acting as corporal. Sergeant H. B. Taylor, privates F. Shula, Gilkyson, Frech, Heizman, R. Radke, and our late cook, musician Rupp, whose occupation gone, now shouldered a gun, and who, while pacing his beat during the witching hours of the night, communed with the moon on the smallness of human greatness, went to Cuba. 1st Lieutenant E. C. Lundquist was officer of the day, and privates Bowne, Beseman, Baumgartner, and Overstreet were on camp guard, while privates Casebolt, Crowley, Powleson, Stealy, and Van Sieberst took a trip to Colfax. Tuesday, July 24th, the last day at Truckee, privates G. Radke, Sullivan, and Ungerman went to Prosser Creek, Sullivan acting as corporal, Sergeant Clifford, privates Heeth, Keane, Wise, Wear, and Zimmerman went to Cuba. Privates Adams, Monahan, McKaig, and Snell were on camp guard, and privates Fetz, Gehret, Hayes, and Sindler guarded an early morning train to Colfax.
In spite of our activity life became very monotonous towards the last of our stay in Truckee, so much so that it occasioned a very apt scriptural quotation from Corporal Burtis:—“Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.”
The men now began to shave right and left, particularly the older ones, privates Wear and Unger. Their beards grew out in patches of gray and black, giving them an old and grizzled appearance. A supreme disgust overcame private Hayes when he heard some one call him Red Mike, and his razor separated him from his whiskers forever. No man would blame Corporal Burdick for shaving, but he clung to the very end to an atrocious whisker of vermillion hue that adorned his face in patches, the hair bristling forth like copper wires. His brother, the major, would look at him with wonder and amaze, and say: “Well! if your mother could only see you now.” (A tidy sum will be realized from that list of fines when the men get their money from the state.)