In those days there was a Government regulation that all trains should be held at Ft. Kearney until 100 armed men had collected. Then a captain was elected, who was commissioned by the Government and had absolute charge of the train while it was passing through the Indian country. Mr. Howell frequently occupied the position of captain, being well known on the plains. On one occasion while he was captain he halted at Cottonwood Falls on the Platte, as the Indians were very bad, and soldiers were expected to go through with the train, but none came and finally Mr. Howell unloaded five wagons, filled them with armed men and started out. Almost in sight of Cottonwood a gang of gaily painted Indians attacked the train, supposing it was a little outfit. But when the Indians came within range, the “Whiskey Bills” and “Poker Petes” in the covered wagons began dropping the Indians off their ponies, and there was a pretty fight, in which the Indians were badly worsted. Mr. Howell says that the Indians never attack wagon trains except very early in the morning, or late in the evening. The favorite sport of the Indians, however, was to run off the stock after the train had gone into camp at night, and they always had one way of doing it, which Mr. Howell finally learned. The Indians are no wiser than white men, for they say that white men always fail in business the same way and act the same way when they have a fire. An Indian would ride up onto a high point and look around a while. This would always be in the evening when the train was near a camping place. Then the Indian would disappear and come back presently with another Indian wrapped in his blanket and riding the same pony. One Indian would then drop into the grass, and the rider would go back after another one. The Indians were collecting in ambush; thinking the freighters would never think of it. Mr. Howell had in his employ a driver, an Atchison man, named “Whiskey Bill,” who was particularly clever at hating Indians, and whenever an ambush was preparing “Whiskey Bill” would select four or five other men equally clever and go after the Indians. He often killed and scalped as many as four in one ambush, and sold their scalps in Denver to the Jews for a suit of clothes each. The Jews bought them as relics and disposed of them in the East. The killing of Indians in this manner was according to Government order and strictly legitimate. Another driver in Howell’s train was an Atchison man named Rube Duggan. He was a great roper and used to take a horse, when in sight of a buffalo herd and go out after calves, which made tender meat. Riding into the herd he would lasso a calf, fasten the rope to the ground with a stake and then go on after another one before the herd got away. He caught several calves in this way for Ben Holladay, who took them east. Mr. Howell remembers that once, this side of Fort Kearney, it was necessary to stop the train to let a herd of buffalo pass. The men