Among the Apaches, Part I [pp. 311-322]

31 Aonsg the 4pachles.
friend was on duty as inspector, despite
his frequent written reports and requests
to his superiors to have the matter
amended.
The killing over, the inspector, agent,
clerk, and contractor returned to the
agency, to make out vouchers for the
amount of beef weighed, which being
approved by the inspector with his official signature, were transformed at once
into regular bank checks, payable at
sight or negotiable at will.
One morning, at dawn of day, the inspector happened to take an early stroll
as a constitutional on the river bank.
As he stood listlessly gazing into the
water, he heard a rushing, thundering
noise at some distance below him, and
turning in that direction he saw a large
herd of cattle driven by vaqueros into
the river, where the animals began to
fill themselves with water; an avidity
that denoted unquestionably, as they
became gradually as full of water as an
egg is of meat, that they had not had any
for some time.
Calling one of the Indian yaqzteros to
his side, he asked to whom the herd belonged and what made them so thirsty.
The boy answered that they were the
cattle he was to inspect that morning,
and that they had been corralled among
the trees in one of the bends of the river,
without water, for three days.
The weighing was done as usual a
short time afterwards, and the parties
went up, after it was completed, to the
office to make out the vouchers.
Before appending his name to them,
the inspector took out his pencil and
memorandum book, and made a short
calculation. For every pound of water
he estimated that the cattle had drank
in the morning he deducted two pounds
off the general weight, much to the surprise of all present; and turning to the
clerk he directed him to alter the vouchers accordingly, and then he turned and
faced the contractor, who stood loudly
grumbling.
"I'11 give you five minutes to make
up your mind whether or not you will
accept the vouchers as I direct them to
be made out. If it is not made up at
the end of that time, mine is to refuse
you any vouchers whatever, and to report the matter to the Secretary of the
Interior and the department commander,
with the recommendation that your contract be annulled at once with the usual
forfeitures."
And he went out of the office, lighted
a cigar, and called for his horse to be
bridled and saddled to return to Thomas.
Before one-half of the five minutes
had gone by the contractor came up to
him, all smiles, saying that it was all
right; and he was very careful ever
afterwards in all his dealings with the
inspector.
Had the agent been struck by lightning out of a clear sky he would not
have been more astonished, for the
whole thing was simply thick mud to his
mind, through which it could not wade
until informed of the circumstances.
Uncle Sam, through that small calculation of his officer, had saved one thousand dollars, more or less, —one-half of
which would have gone to the clerk and
the other half to the contractor, while
the agent would have shouldered the
burden, and probably broken under it,
had it been found out after the vouchers
were paid. Is it wonderful, after this,
that Indians sometimes break away, half
starved, from their reservations, before
they become wholly so?
But frontiersmen, as a rule, do not
call that stealing — they designate it by
the disgusting Americanism of "smartness," as understood in many sections
of our broad continent, and they pride
themselves upon it mnothing inspires
respect like being "smart"' in a certain
set. Said one of them, —a member of
the Territorial legislature, and at one
time speaker of its House,-to the inspector, as the two rode together towards
the reservation, "Colonel, do you think
[Sel)t.
316