rode in, and I saw several of my horses and mules, bearing my brand, among their stock. Now, the Indians who had possession of my horses belonged to Stone Calf’s band. Stone Calf was one of the head chiefs of the Cheyennes, a man of more than ordinary intelligence, and a pretty truthful Indian. I went to Mr. Darlington, told my story, and asked him to recover my stock for me. He promised to do so, sent for Stone Calf, and said to him: ‘This young man is truthful and honest, and he says you have a lot of his stock (describing the brand). Now, Stone Calf, you are a good, honest, truthful Indian, and I have always found you square; give this young man back his stock.’ Stone Calf drew himself up with superb dignity and fairly breathed disdain at the Agent’s suggestion. ‘I have no doubt that this stock did belong to the young man,’ he replied, ‘but it belongs to me now. I took it when I was at war, and I never give back anything I take when I am at war.’ That settled the matter and I never recovered my stock. An army officer in the Agent’s place would have said: ‘This stock belongs to Wright; give it up to him at once!’ and he would have been obeyed and nothing more would have come of it. “Again, had military instead of civilian Agents been appointed, the wholesale robbery of the Indians already mentioned, and system of graft in general that went on would have been largely avoided, the Indian benefited, and trouble averted. Remote as he always was from surveillance, with large quantities of Government supplies entrusted to his care for the use of the Indians, the temptation to dishonest practices for private gain was great to every Agent. Mr. Darlington, already mentioned as Agent of the Cheyennes, was as honest an old man as ever lived and, being so, seemed to think everyone else honest too, but his employees stole from the Indians right and left, and robbed them right along, under his very eye, and he was not aware of what was going on. The graft of the agencies was notoriously well-known on the frontier, and many an Agent became actually rich from the spoils of his office. The Indians realized the state of affairs and resented it, and added it as another brand to the fire of their hostility against the Whites. The big old chief Red Cloud once said: ‘I don’t see why the Government changes our Agents. When one Agent gets rich at his trade of looking after us and has about all he wants, he may stop his stealing and leave us the property which belongs to us, if he keeps his place. But when one man grows fat at our expense, he is removed and a lean man sent to take his place, and we must fill his belly till he is fat also, and give way to another lean one!’”