"By that time," he said, "we shall be in the Ute country, and they are the meanest tribe of Indians in the west, and we may look for trouble with them any moment, day or night." And addressing the men he said, "I want you to keep your guns loaded and ready for use at a moment's warning, and you must stay with the wagons, all but the scouts, who will be under Will's control, for if they attack us I want to give them as warm a reception as we possibly can, for if we whip them in the first battle, that will settle it with that bunch. They will not trouble us again."
The next night we camped at Soda Springs. There were three springs close together. Two of them were mineral, one strong with soda, and the other was very salt, and the third one was pure cold water. As soon as the wagons were corralled, several of the young girls took buckets and started for the springs to get water, and as luck had it they all went to the Soda spring. Not one of them had ever even heard of a soda spring until they tried this one. They had not had any water to drink since noon and were very thirsty, so drank very heartily without stopping to taste, but as soon as the water was down, there was a cry from as many as had drunk, and they all ran back to the wagons, screaming, "oh! oh! I am poisoned, oh! What shall I do?" And with their hands pressed to their breasts and the gas bursting from nose and mouth they did make a sad sight to those who did not understand the effects of soda springs, but to Jim and me it was very amusing, for we knew they were in no danger of poison.
Some of the sufferers cried as well as screamed. I could not speak for laughing, for I remembered my own first experience in drinking from a soda spring, but Jim told them they were not poisoned and told them what kind of water they had drunk. In a few moments all the crowd was at the soda spring, drinking its poison water as the girls still called it. The older women asked what they should do for water to cook with. I pointed to the salt spring and told them to go and get water from that if they had fresh meat to cook, and the water would salt it and for coffee I pointed to the spring of water farthest from us, and I told the girls they could drink all the water they wanted from that spring and not have to make such faces as they did after they drank the soda. One of the girls said she reckoned I would have made a face if I had felt as she did. Jim stood near us with a smile on his lips, which I knew meant mischief of some sort. He said. "Will, why don't you tell the girls how you enjoyed your first drink of soda water?" And seeing how I blushed, for my face was burning, he said, "I guess I had better tell them myself. I don't think you know how comical you looked." And in the most ridiculous way he could think of he described how I looked and acted on that to me never-to-be-forgotten occasion, "My first drink from a soda spring."
I have been told there is a large town at this place now, and that it is a great resort for the sick. They use this salt water, which I forgot to say was also hot as well as salt, for bathing, and is considered a great cure for many diseases.
[Illustration: Waving my hat, I dashed into the midst of the band.]
CHAPTER IV
The next morning we pulled out of this place by the way of Landers. That afternoon about two o'clock I saw a small band of Indians coming directly towards us. They were about a mile away when I first saw them. I rode to the foot of a little hill which was close to me at the time I saw them. I dismounted from my horse and tied him to a sage brush, and then I crept to the top of the hill to see how many there were of them. I watched them until they were within a half a mile of my hiding place; I then counted thirty. I took them to be a hunting party by the way they were traveling. I signaled to my scouts to come to me at once. When they reached me, the Indians were less than a quarter of a mile from me. I told them what was coming down the ravine and told them to see that their guns and pistols were in order, "for, as soon as they round that little point yonder, we will charge on them, and we will kill every one we can. Now, don't shoot until we get within thirty yards of them. I will say, "fire," then I want every man to get an Indian. Now don't get rattled, but shoot to kill and shout as loud as you can. It don't make any difference what you say, only make as big a noise as you can, and as soon as you empty your guns, pull your pistols and go after them."
In a moment more the time had come to act, and when I said, "Charge," every man responded and did his duty. I had been in several Indian fights before, but I never saw Indians so taken by surprise as this band was. They did not draw their arrows or run, until we had fired into them, and after they turned to run, they had gone at least two hundred yards, before I saw them try to shoot an arrow.
We got fourteen of them in the first charge, and inside of three hundred yards we got six more. The remainder had reached the thick brush, so we let them go.
We now commenced catching the horses. We caught sixteen horses, and they all had good hair ropes around their necks. We tied them all together, and I left them in charge of two men, and the rest of us went to take the scalps of the Indians, and I was surprised to find when I said, "We will take the scalps of these Indians," that the men did not know what I meant. I showed them how to take the scalps off, and then they asked what I was going to do with them. I told them I was going to give them to Jim Bridger, and he would make guards out of them. "Jim wouldn't take the biggest hundred dollar bill you could offer him for these scalps, when he gets his hands on them."