“Well, friends, I was not long in seeing there was a fine opening for a young man, and the way I stuck to that poor Missourian would have teached your hospital nurses a lesson. I hope you don’t think there was any selfishness in it; for if any of you get sick, I’ll do the same for you. Howsomever, that aint here nor there; the fellow died after awhile, and, in his will, it was found that the five thousand and odd sheep had been left to Leonidas Swipes.
“I was about to sell the drove to a couple of Mexicans, when I happened to hear that sheep in California was worth twenty dollars a piece. Jingo! wasn’t there a chance? That flock that I wast just on the point of selling was worth over a hundred thousand dollars, if I could only get it through the mountains. I tell you the bare idea gives me the head-ache, I swan if I didn’t.
“Wal, I told my friends here, Mr. Doolittle and Birchem that if they’d join, each of ’em could have a third, and we’d make our fortune. So we started, and here we are without a sheep to our name.”
“How did you expect to get through the mountains?”
“The thing has been done before and can be done again.”
“But you did not know the way.”
“Oh! we had a guide, but he played us a mean trick. I agreed to give him a hundred sheep for his payment, just as soon as he got us into the Sacramento Valley. We hadn’t been out three days, when one night, he give us the slip, taking two or three hundred sheep with him and leaving us to go alone. We felt a little shaky about doing it, but we couldn’t do anything else, and so we shoved ahead, and by jingo here you see us, only three sheep of us,” and Mr. Swipes’ face expanded into a broad smile.
“But you haven’t told us how these Comanches got the sheep away from you?” said Fred Wainwright, echoing the curiosity that all the others felt.
“You wish the modus operandi I presume, I can soon give it, I swan if I can’t. Last night we stopped on a small stream of water, where we knew the grass was so succulent,—so succulent, that the sheep would stay there all Summer if we’d only let them; and, as we was pretty tired, and hadn’t had a good night’s sleep since leaving Santa Fe, we made up our minds to take a square night’s sleep.
“Well, we did so; and when I awoke this morning, I looked around and seen our sheep about a half mile distant, tearing away like mad, and a party of Indians driving on ’em. Well, if you ever seen three Yankees, you know what the matter was with us. We hopped around there awhile, like a lot of chickens that had stepped on a hot johny cake, and then we set off after the Indians, shouting to ’em to hold on, while we explained the matter to them; but hang ’em, they only went the harder; and, as our horses was used up, we had to give it up and yumer ’em along like to keep ’em from giving out.”