Here, As We Lay Smoking Round The Fire After Supper, We Saw Through
The Dusk Three Men Approaching From The Direction Of The Fort.
They
rode up and seated themselves near us on the ground.
The foremost
was a tall, well-formed man, with a face and manner such as inspire
confidence at once. He wore a broad hat of felt, slouching and
tattered, and the rest of his attire consisted of a frock and
leggings of buckskin, rubbed with the yellow clay found among the
mountains. At the heel of one of his moccasins was buckled a huge
iron spur, with a rowel five or six inches in diameter. His horse,
who stood quietly looking over his head, had a rude Mexican saddle,
covered with a shaggy bearskin, and furnished with a pair of wooden
stirrups of most preposterous size. The next man was a sprightly,
active little fellow, about five feet and a quarter high, but very
strong and compact. His face was swarthy as a Mexican's and covered
with a close, curly black beard. An old greasy calico handkerchief
was tied round his head, and his close buckskin dress was blackened
and polished by grease and hard service. The last who came up was a
large strong man, dressed in the coarse homespun of the frontiers,
who dragged his long limbs over the ground as if he were too lazy for
the effort. He had a sleepy gray eye, a retreating chin, an open
mouth and a protruding upper lip, which gave him an air of exquisite
indolence and helplessness.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 392 of 486
Words from 104363 to 104625
of 129303
