STARTING ACROSS THE PLAINS.
Transforming themselves into a party of bald-heads was the last of the
absurd pranks with which the young engineers entertained the good people
of Kansas City for many a long day. At the same hour on the following
evening they were well on their way towards the far West in a
dilapidated passenger-coach attached to a freight train loaded with
tents and supplies of every description for their long trip.
By the next noon, after a hard, rough ride of nearly two hundred miles,
the end of the track was reached. It was on a treeless prairie, sweeping
away as far as the eye could see on all sides. Here was spread a thick
green carpet of short buffalo grass, and into this carpet were woven
exquisite patterns of innumerable flowers. The place was at the junction
of the Kaw River with one of its numerous branches, and where but a few
weeks before wild Indians had camped and vast herds of buffalo had
pastured, a railroad town of several hundred rough frame houses,
shanties, and tents had already sprung into existence.
Here the overland stages took their departure for the distant mining
town of Denver, and here the long trains of great freight-wagons were
loaded for their toilsome journey over the Santa Fe trail to the
far-away valley of the Rio Grande. Here, on side-tracks, were the
construction-cars, movable houses on wheels, in which lived the graders,
track-layers, and other members of the army of workmen employed in the
building of a railroad. Railroad men, soldiers, teamsters, traders,
Indians, and Mexicans, horses, mules, and oxen mingled here in
picturesque confusion. Nearly every man carried a rifle, and it was rare
to meet one who did not wear one or more revolvers strapped to his
waist.
It was by far the most novel and bustling scene Glen had ever looked
upon; and, as he stepped from the last railroad-car he was to see for
many months, and stretched his cramped limbs, he gazed about him in
astonishment. But there was no time for idling, and Glen had hardly
given a glance at his unfamiliar surroundings before Mr. Hobart's voice,
saying, "Come, boys, there's plenty to do, and but a few hours to do it
in," set the whole party to work in the liveliest possible manner.
There was a fine grassy level about a hundred yards from the railroad,
on the opposite side from the settlement. It was skirted by a clear but
sluggish stream, fringed by a slender growth of cottonwood-trees, and
was so evidently the very place for a camp that Mr. Hobart selected it
at once. Here the young engineers worked like beavers all through that
long, hot afternoon, and by nightfall they had pitched twenty
wall-tents, arranged in the form of an open square. One of these was
reserved for Mr. Hobart, while Mr. Brackett and the leveller were given
another, and two more were allowed to the other members of the party.
Into these they had removed all their personal belongings, while in two
other tents, carefully ditched and banked to keep out the water in case
of rain, were stored all the instruments, implements, blank-books, and
stationery provided for the expedition.
Heartily tired after this novel but interesting labor, how Glen did
enjoy his tin-cup of black coffee without milk, the fried bacon and
hard-tack, that constituted his supper, when, at sundown, one of the
axemen, who had been at work for an hour over a fire, announced that it
was ready! He would have scorned such fare at home; but, with his
present appetite, and under the circumstances, it seemed as though
nothing had ever tasted better.
As the darkness came on, how cheerful the tent, that had now become his
home, looked in the light of a lantern hung from its ridge-pole! What a
pleasant hour he passed listening to the stories and experiences of his
three tentmates, as they lay luxuriously outstretched on their blankets,
enjoying their well-earned rest! The entire stock of blankets was used
to make one wide, comfortable bed for the four. All the rubbers were, of
course, placed underneath, next the ground, and Glen was greatly pleased
at the praise bestowed upon his rubber-sheet, which was twice as large
as an ordinary blanket, and which he had followed Mr. Hobart's advice in
procuring.
After the others had finished their evening pipes and dropped off to
sleep, and after the light had been put out, the novelty of this first
night under canvas kept Glen awake for some time. What a fortunate
fellow he felt himself to be, as he lay there recalling the events of
the last ten days, and trying to picture the immediate future! To think
that he, the worst scholar in his class, a boy without an own father or
mother, so far as he knew, nor even a birthday that he was sure of,
should be away out here on the Plains, and about to start on an
expedition that every boy in the country would be thankful to join if he
could. It was simply wonderful; and he resolved that, if hard work and
the promptest possible attention to duty could render him worthy of such
good-fortune, neither of these things should be lacking.
By daylight the camp was astir; but Glen was the first to roll out of
his blankets, and he had been down to the creek for a plunge in its cool
waters before breakfast-time. Then followed another hard day's work. The
train of twenty heavy canvas-topped army-wagons, each drawn by six
mules, the three four-mule ambulances, and the drove of spare animals
furnished to the expedition by the government, arrived during the
morning. These wagons had to be loaded with the vast quantity of
provisions and various supplies brought thus far by rail. Then the tents
already up had to be ditched, and still others erected for the use of
the engineer-in-chief and other officers of the party who were now
hourly expected to arrive.
A flag-pole was planted in front of the headquarter tents, and that
evening, when a train came in bringing General Lyle and about half the
members of the expedition, an American flag was run to its top. Both it
and the general were greeted with a volley of rifle-shots and a hearty
cheer, while at the same time the encampment was christened "Camp Lyle."
Glen's youthful appearance attracted the chief's attention as soon as he
caught sight of the lad, and he was inclined to doubt the advisability
of allowing such a mere boy to accompany the expedition. A few words
from Mr. Hobart satisfied him, however, that Glen would prove a credit
to the party, and after that the general watched the boy with interest.
With the chief-engineer came a geologist, botanist, surgeon,
photographer, private secretary, quartermaster, the two other division
commanders, and, what was of more immediate interest to all the young
engineers, several good camp-cooks. Thus, on the second night of its
existence, with this large increase in the number of its occupants, Camp
Lyle presented a most cheerful and animated appearance.
Early the following morning another train arrived from the East,
bringing the remaining members of the expedition. A few minutes after
its arrival Glen was awakened by hearing a voice that sounded very
familiar, calling,
"Hello! I say! Some of you fellows come out here and help me!"
As he sat up in his blankets, wondering who could be speaking with such
a tone of authority, and whether he ought to answer the summons or not,
a head was thrust into the tent-door, and the demand was repeated.
It was Binney Gibbs, who had passed as completely out of Glen's mind as
though he had never existed. He did not recognize Glen's bald head; but,
when the latter stepped from the tent with his hat on, saying, "Hello,
Binney, old man, what can I do for you?" the prize scholar of the
Brimfield High School stood for a moment speechless with amazement.
"You here?" he finally stammered. "What on earth does it mean?"
"It means," replied Glen, laughing at the other's incredulous
expression, "that Brimfield is to have two representatives on this
expedition instead of one, and that I am going through to the Pacific
with you."
Binney had always been jealous of Glen, but at that moment he felt that
he almost hated him.
In spite of this, he allowed his former schoolmate and another stout
fellow to bring his heavy trunk from the railroad into camp. When the
quartermaster saw it he said that, as there would be no room for trunks
in the wagons, the owner of this one must take from it what would fill a
moderate-sized valise, and either dispose of the trunk with the rest of
its contents or send them back home. To this Binney angrily replied that
he would see General Lyle about it.
The new arrival gave further offence that morning by turning up his nose
at the breakfast prepared by one of the camp-cooks, and declaring it
unfit for white men to eat. He also refused, point-blank, to help unload
a car when requested to do so by one of the division engineers, saying
that it was not the kind of work he had been engaged to perform.
He was only brought to a realizing sense of his position by a severe
reprimand from General Lyle himself, who declared that, upon the next
complaint brought to him of the boy's conduct, he should discharge him.
He also said that only the fact of Binney's having been sent there by
his old friend Mr. Meadows prevented him from doing so at once. The
chief closed his remarks by advising Binney to take the other Brimfield
boy of the party as an example worthy of copying. Thereupon all the
prize scholar's bitterness of feeling was directed against unsuspecting
Glen, and he vowed he would get even with that young nobody yet.