This project was soon put into execution. There the travelers camped, at about four miles from the river; and Mr. Coke and Fred rode over to Trader’s Point, crossed the Missouri, and called on Major Barrow, an Indian agent, who cashed them a bill, recommended them a half-breed servant, bought their remaining wagon and harness at an “alarming sacrifice;” bought of them also “forty pounds of powder, a hundred pounds of lead, quantities of odds and ends, and all the ginger beer!!!” They had previously sent back or sold several hundred pounds’ weight of lead and provisions; so we get some idea of the scale on which the young gentlemen’s stores had been laid in. By this time, Mr. Coke says, “we begin to understand the mysteries of ‘trading’ a little better than formerly; but somehow or other a Yankee always takes us in, and that, too, in so successful a manner as to leave the impression that we have taken _him_ in.” Besides buying their goods a dead bargain, the Major—a remarkably smart man, who doubtless thought that greenhorns capable of taking ginger beer to the Rocky Mountains were fair game—attempted to make money out of them in another way. “The day cleared, and as we could not start till the evening, the Major proposed to get up a race. He knew of a horse (his own) that could beat any in our ‘crowd.’ He had seen him run a good many times, and ‘just knowed how he could shine.’ Fifty dollars was the stake, and ‘let him what won take the money.’” Fred volunteered to ride a fast little gray of Mr. Coke’s. Three-quarters of a mile were measured on the prairie. The Major brought out his animal, greased its hoofs, washed its face, brushed its hair, mounted the half-breed upon it barebacked, and took his station at the winning-post. At first the half-breed made the running. Major and friends were cock-a-hoop; but the Englishman was a bit of a jockey.