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Using Information Technology 11th Edition Williams Test Bank Using Information Technology 11th Edition Williams Test Bank Using Information Technology 11th Edition Williams Test Bank

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6-1 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. Chapter 06 Communications, Networks, and Cyberthreats: The Wired and Wireless World Multiple Choice Questions 1. Communications signals represented in a binary format are said to be ________. A. continuous B. digital C. sequential D. analog 2. Each zero and one signal represents a ________. A. bit B. byte C. kilobyte D. megabyte 3. Which of the following is NOT an analog device? A. speedometer B. tire-pressure gauge C. thermometer D. smartphone
6-2 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 4. Signals such as sound and temperature, which continuously vary in strength and quality, are said to be _________. A. spontaneous B. digital C. sequential D. analog 5. The ________ is a device that converts digital computer signals into analog signals so that they can be sent over a telephone line. A. printer B. scanner C. modem D. digitizer 6. A person sending a document over a phone line by converting a computer's digital signals to analog signals uses a ________. A. printer B. scanner C. digitizer D. modem 7. A ________ is a system of interconnected computers, telephones, or communications devices that can communicate and share resources. A. terminal B. router C. network D. server
6-3 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 8. A network that covers a wide geographical area is called a ________. A. LAN B. WAN C. MAN D. HAN 9. A network that covers a city or a suburb is called a ________. A. WAN B. LAN C. MAN D. Internet 10. Networks are structured in two principle ways: client/server and ________. A. intranet B. host computer C. extranet D. peer to peer 11. A network that operates without relying on a server is the ________ network. A. peer-to-peer B. client/server C. host-to-host D. master/slave
6-4 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 12. A computer that acts like a disk drive, storing the programs and data files shared by users on a LAN, is the ________ server. A. file B. web C. host D. mail 13. If an organization's internal private network uses the same infrastructure and standards of the Internet, then the private network is a(n) ________. A. extranet B. intranet C. LAN D. MAN 14. A virtual private network may include ________. A. a company intranet B. a company extranet C. a company LAN D. any of these 15. A(n) ________ is a system of hardware and/or software that protects a computer or a network from intruders. A. VPN B. intranet C. firewall D. protocol
6-5 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 16. A ________ is the set of rules that govern the exchange of data between hardware and/or software components in a communications network. A. host B. protocol C. database D. packet 17. A mainframe computer that controls a large network is called the ________ computer. A. slave B. host C. client D. node 18. Any device that is attached to a network is referred to as a ________. A. server B. host C. node D. router 19. A ________ is a fixed-length block of data for transmission. A. node B. protocol C. packet D. backbone
6-6 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 20. A common connection device that connects computers to a network and that sends messages (checks packets) between sender and receiver nodes is called a ________. A. router B. gateway C. switch D. bridge 21. To create larger networks, a bridge connects the same types of networks, and a ________ connects dissimilar networks. A. router B. gateway C. hub D. host 22. A device that joins multiple wired and/or wireless networks in a home office is a ________. A. node B. router C. bridge D. firewall 23. In an organization, all computer networks are connected to the Internet by a "main highway" called a ________. A. skeleton B. backbone C. gateway D. router
6-7 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 24. Which of these is NOT a network topology? A. ring B. bus C. hub D. star 25. In the ________ network topology, communications devices are connected to a single cable with two endpoints. A. ring B. bus C. star D. peer-to-peer 26. What kind of topology (layout) is used by a network that connects all computers and communications devices in a continuous loop? A. ring B. bus C. star D. peer-to-peer 27. What kind of topology (layout) is used by a network that connects all its computers and communications devices to a central server? A. ring B. bus C. star D. peer-to-peer
6-8 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 28. ________ is the most common and most widely used LAN technology, with networked devices in close proximity; it can be used with almost any kind of computer. Most microcomputers come with a port for this type of network connection, which uses cable. A. Fiber-optic B. Internet C. Token ring D. Ethernet 29. A communications medium is a channel; there are three types of wired communications media. The one consisting of two strands of insulated copper wire, used by tradition telephone systems, is known as ________. A. twisted-pair B. coaxial C. fiber-optic D. straight wire 30. What wired channel, commonly used for cable TV, consists of an insulated copper wire wrapped in a solid or braided shield placed in an external cover? A. twisted-pair B. coaxial C. straight wire D. fiber-optic 31. A type of wired communications technology used to connect equipment in a home network is the following: A. Ethernet B. HomePNA C. HomePlug D. any of these
6-9 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 32. What wired communications medium consists of dozens or hundreds of thin strands of glass or plastic? A. twisted-pair B. coaxial C. fiber-optic D. straight wire 33. The ________ is the basis for ALL telecommunications signals. A. bandwidth B. electromagnetic spectrum C. radio-frequency spectrum D. wireless application protocol 34. The ________ is the range of frequencies that a transmission medium (channel) can carry in a particular period of time. A. bandwidth B. electromagnetic spectrum C. radio-frequency spectrum D. wireless application protocol 35. What set of rules is used to link nearly all mobile devices to a telecommunications carrier's wireless network and content providers? A. LAN B. WAN C. WAP D. HAN
6-10 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 36. Which of the following is NOT a type of wireless communications media? A. infrared transmission B. satellite C. coaxial D. microwave radio 37. What form of wireless transmission sends data to an AM or FM receiver? A. broadcast radio B. infrared radio C. GPS D. microwave radio 38. Which of these types of wireless transmission is limited to line-of-sight communications? A. broadcast radio B. broadband C. microwave D. WAP 39. Transmitting a signal from a ground station to a satellite is called ________. A. broadcasting B. high-frequency C. uplinking D. downlinking
6-11 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 40. The highest level that a satellite can occupy in space is known as ________. A. geostationary earth orbit (GEO) B. high-earth orbit (HEO) C. medium-earth orbit (MEO) D. low-earth orbit (LEO) 41. GPS uses satellites orbiting at a(n) ________ level; they transmit timed radio signals used to identify earth locations. A. GEO B. MEO C. LEO D. HEO 42. Broadband technology (wireless digital services) is also referred to as ________-generation wireless services. A. first B. second C. third D. fourth 43. Which of the following is NOT a type of long-distance wireless two-way communications device? A. Bluetooth B. CDMA C. 1G analog cellular phone D. 2G digital cellphone
6-12 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 44. What short-distance wireless standard is used to link portable computers and handheld wireless devices so they may communicate at high speeds at distances of 100-228 feet? A. Bluetooth B. HomeRF C. Wi-Fi D. 3G 45. What short-distance wireless standard is used to link cell phones, computers, and peripherals at distances of up to about 33 feet? A. Bluetooth B. Wi-Fi C. HomeRF D. WISP 46. A ________ attack disables a computer system or network by making so many requests of it that it overloads it and keeps other users from accessing it. A. worm B. virus C. denial-of-service D. Trojan horse 47. A ________ is a program that copies itself repeatedly into a computer's memory or onto a disk/flash drive. A. worm B. rootkit C. Trojan horse D. patch
6-13 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 48. Which of these is NOT a type of malware? A. worm B. virus C. Trojan horse D. denial-of-service attack 49. A botmaster uses malware to hijack hundreds or thousands of computers and controls them remotely; the controlled computers are called ________. A. robots B. zombies C. worms D. logic bombs 50. Which of the following is NOT a way to spread a virus? A. flash drives B. scanning a picture C. e-mail attachment D. downloaded games or other software 51. Antivirus software protects files and computer systems in all of these ways EXCEPT which one? A. scans the hard drive for signatures that uniquely identify a virus B. looks for suspicious viruslike behavior C. goes out on the Internet and looks for viruses D. destroys the virus
6-14 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 52. What is the science, often used in computer security systems, of measuring individual body characteristics? A. encryption B. decryption C. rootkit D. biometrics 53. What is the process of altering readable data (plain text) into unreadable form to prevent unauthorized access? A. encryption B. decryption C. password D. biometrics True / False Questions 54. Analog refers to communications signals represented in a binary format. True False 55. Signals such as sound and temperature, which continuously vary in strength and quality, are said to be digital. True False 56. A thermometer and a speedometer are examples of analog devices. True False
6-15 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 57. Telephones have always been digital devices. True False 58. A modem converts digital signals into analog signals so they can be sent over a telephone line. True False 59. "Modem" is short for modulate/demodulate. True False 60. Capturing music digitally means that one has an exact duplicate of the music. True False 61. A network is a system of interconnected computers and communications devices that can communicate and share resources. True False 62. The Internet is a WAN. True False 63. A LAN is a type of network that covers a wide geographical area. True False 64. Client/server networks and peer-to-peer networks are the same except that the first type of network uses a mainframe and the second type uses only microcomputers. True False
6-16 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 65. The computer that acts like a disk drive, storing the programs and data files shared by users on a LAN, is called a file server. True False 66. "File server" and "database server" are different names for the same type of server. True False 67. Peer-to-peer networks are less stable than client-server networks because in the former certain shared resources reside on each user's machine. True False 68. Virtual private networks (VPNs) are private networks that use a public network (usually the Internet) instead of private, leased (expensive) lines to connect remote sites. True False 69. If you have one computer, you need firewall hardware; if you have more than one (networked) computer, then a software firewall should be used. True False 70. In a network, communications protocols specify the type of electrical connections, the timing of message exchanges, and error-detection techniques. True False 71. Routers join multiple wired and/or wireless networks commonly in offices and home offices. True False 72. A gateway is an interface device permitting communication between similar networks. True False
6-17 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 73. An interface device used to connect the same types of networks is called a node. True False 74. The backbone is the main communications route in a bus network topology. True False 75. In a bus network, all computers and communications devices are connected in a continuous loop. True False 76. Traditional landline telephone systems use twisted-pair wire as their communications medium. True False 77. A cable that is made up of dozens of thin strands of glass and transmits pulsating beams of light is called a coaxial cable. True False 78. Ethernet is a long-distance wireless communications connection. True False 79. One wired communications standard that allows users to send data over a home's existing electrical (AC) power lines is called HomePlug technology; it uses existing electrical lines. True False 80. All wired and wireless communications media use the electromagnetic spectrum of radiation. True False
6-18 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 81. The smaller the bandwidth of a medium, the more frequencies it can use to transmit data. True False 82. The two general classes of bandwidth are long and short. True False 83. The radio-frequency (RF) spectrum is part of the electromagnetic spectrum of radiation; it carries most communications signals. True False 84. The frequency of an electromagnetic wave is the number of times the wave repeats, or makes a cycle, in a second. True False 85. Both digital narrowband and broadband transmission speeds are measured in megabits or gigabits per second. True False 86. Infrared transmission is a type of low-frequency wireless transmission that is short-range and line-of-sight. True False 87. Satellite transmission uses in-orbit satellites and earth stations. Transmitting from the ground to the satellite is called downlinking, and transmitting from the satellite to the ground station called uplinking. True False 88. Communications satellites are microwave relay stations in orbit around the earth. True False
6-19 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 89. Satellite orbits are at three levels: GEO, MEO, and LEO. True False 90. A larger number of geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellites are required for global coverage than mid-earth orbit (MEO) satellites. True False 91. GPS uses MEO satellites that continuously transmit timed radio signals used to identify earth locations. True False 92. Because of the excellence of satellite technology, GPS location IDs are 100% accurate. True False 93. GPS satellites use Medium-Earth-Orbits. True False 94. Cellphones are cellular radios. True False 95. Analog cellphones were 1G phones. True False 96. Analog cellphones are 2G (second-generation) phones. True False 97. Cellphones are basically two-way radios. True False
6-20 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 98. 2G and 3G cellphones are digital, not analog. True False 99. Wi-Fi is a short-range wireless connection for LANs. True False 100.The short-range, wireless communications method aimed at linking hand-held devices at high speeds and at distances of 100-228 feet is called Wi-Fi. True False 101.A Wi-Fi enabled laptop computer accesses the available network (say, at an airport) through an access point, which is connected to a land-based Internet connection. True False 102.The latest version of Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11 standard) is version a. True False 103.Wi-Fi connections are always secure; no one can steal your data when you are online. True False 104.Bluetooth is a short-range, wireless communications method for linking cellphones, computers, and some other peripherals up to distances of 33 feet. True False 105.Malware consists of safeguards for protecting information technology against unauthorized access, system failures, and disaster that can result in damage or loss. True False
6-21 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 106.A denial-of-service attack uses a virus to crash your computer. True False 107.Worms, viruses, and Trojan horse are all malware. True False 108.A Trojan horse pretends to be a useful program, such as a game or a screen saver, but it carries a virus that replicates in your computer over and over until your computer crashes. True False 109.A virus is a "deviant" program that is stored on a computer hard drive and can cause unexpected and undesirable effects. True False 110.A virus is capable of destroying or corrupting data. True False 111.Cellphones do not get infected by malware. True False 112.Encryption is the process of altering—via software—readable data into unreadable form to prevent unauthorized access. True False Fill in the Blank Questions
6-22 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 113._________ is the gradual merger of computing and communications into a new information environment, in which the same information is exchanged among many kinds of equipment, using the language of computers. ________________________________________ 114.Most of the word's natural phenomena use signals that continuously vary in strength and quality, called ________ signals. ________________________________________ 115.Communications signals represented in a binary electronic format are ________ signals. ________________________________________ 116.So they can be sent over a telephone line, analog signals are converted into digital signals, and then back again, by using ________. ________________________________________ 117.A _________ is a communications network covering a city or a suburb. ________________________________________ 118.A peer-to-peer (P2P) network operates without relying on a central ________. ________________________________________ 119.Private networks that use a public network, usually the Internet, to connect remote sites are called ________. ________________________________________ 120.A private intranet that allows access to selected outside users is a(n) ________. ________________________________________
6-23 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 121.A _________ is a system of hardware and/or software that protects a computer or a network from intruders. ________________________________________ 122.A client-server network has a _________ computer, a central computer that controls the network; The devices connected to the network are called _________. ________________________________________ 123.A set of conventions that govern how data is exchanged between devices on a network is known as a communications ________. ________________________________________ 124.Electronic messages are sent as ________, fixed-length blocks of data for transmission. ________________________________________ 125.A _________ is a network that connects computers to a network; data can be sent in both directions at the same time. ________________________________________ 126.A(n) ________ is an interface (linking device) used to connect the same types of networks, whereas a(n) ________ is an interface permitting communications between dissimilar networks. ________________________________________ 127.________ are physical devices that join multiple wired and/or wireless networks; their primary job is to provide connectivity, and they are often used in small office networks, cafés, airports, hotels, and home networks. ________________________________________
6-24 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 128.The ________ consists of the main "highway" that connects all computer networks in an organization. ________________________________________ 129.A motherboard expansion card called a _________ enables a computer to send and receive messages over a network. ________________________________________ 130.The system software that manages the activity of a network is called the ________. ________________________________________ 131.A network can be laid out in different ways. The layout, or shape, of a network is called a ________. ________________________________________ 132.A ________ network topology is one in which all microcomputers and other devices are connected in a continuous loop. ________________________________________ 133.A ________ network topology is one in which all microcomputers and other communications devices are connected directly to a central network switch. ________________________________________ 134.The Internet uses the ________ network topology. ________________________________________
6-25 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 135.In small LANs, messages may bump into one another. The most popular protocol, or technology, which uses cabling and special ports on microcomputers, that prevents collisions is ________. It can be used with almost any kind of computer and with different network topologies. ________________________________________ 136.Wired communications media include three main types. The kind used for tradition telephone lines is a ________. ________________________________________ 137.Telecommuting means using a computer and networks to work from ________; telework means working from ________. ________________________________________ 138.Wired communications media include three main types. Insulated copper wire wrapped in a solid or braided shield and then an external cover is called ________ cable. ________________________________________ 139.Wired communications media include three main types. The kind used for transmitting pulses of light is called a ________ cable. ________________________________________ 140.HomePlug technology is a wired communications standard that allows users to connect equipment within the home using the house's own ________ wiring. ________________________________________ 141.The range of frequencies that a transmission medium can carry in a given period of time is called its ________. ________________________________________
6-26 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 142.The ________ a transmission medium's bandwidth, the more frequencies it can use to transmit data and the faster it is. ________________________________________ 143.Infrared and microwave transmission signals cannot work around obstacles or travel in curved lines, so they are called _________. ________________________________________ 144.The highest level that a satellite can occupy is the ________ earth orbit. ________________________________________ 145.Global Positioning Systems use ________ to continuously transmit signals to identify earth locations. ________________________________________ 146.The Global Positioning System is an example of a ________-way long-distance communications system. ________________________________________ 147.Simple one-way radio receivers that receive data (but not voice messages) are called ________; they are often used in hospital environments. ________________________________________ 148.1G cellphones are __________; 2G, 3G, and 4G cellphones are _________. ________________________________________ 149._________ is an international standard widely adopted in the U.S.A., Europe, and Asia that supports fast cellphone data transfer rate; this standard has not been adopted yet by all carriers. ________________________________________
6-27 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 150.Public wireless access points are called _________. ________________________________________ 151.The short-range, wireless digital standard aimed at linking hand-held devices up to 33 feet apart is called ________. ________________________________________ 152._________ is similar to Wi-Fi but has a far greater range. ________________________________________ 153.The three short-range wireless standards used in home automation networks, for linking switches and sensors around the house and yard, are Insteon, ZigBee, and _________. ________________________________________ 154.Trolls, spies, hackers, and thieves are kinds of _________. ________________________________________ 155.A _________ is a person who posts intentionally offensive, incendiary, or off-topic comments online. ________________________________________ 156.Worms, viruses, Trojan horses, and rootkits are all types of programs called ________. ________________________________________ 157.A(n) ________ is a program that copies itself repeatedly into a computer's memory or onto a disk drive and that can cause the computer to crash. ________________________________________
6-28 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 158.Almost all viruses are attached to an _________ file. ________________________________________ 159.A ________ is a program that pretends to be a useful program, usually free, such as a game or screen saver, but carries viruses, or destructive instructions that cause problems without your knowledge. ________________________________________ 160.A(n) ________ uses malware to hijack hundreds or thousands of computers, called ________, and to remotely control them all. ________________________________________ 161.________ software can be used to scan a computer's hard disk, CDs, and main memory to detect viruses. ________________________________________ 162.The process of altering readable data into unreadable form to prevent unauthorized access is known as ________. ________________________________________ 163.A message sent in its original undisguised, readable form is ________. ________________________________________ Essay Questions
6-29 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 164.How do analog and digital devices interpret electrical signals? 165.What is the primary purpose of the modem? 166.What are the main differences between a WAN, a MAN, and a LAN?
6-30 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 167.What is the difference between a client/server network and a peer-to-peer network? 168.Describe what a packet is and what it does. 169.Describe the network topology used by the Internet.
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“I told you they were to be let alone and I mean it. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.” Yank said nothing. His eye, where Joel’s fist had thudded, was swollen shut, but out of the other he glared steadily; and while he did not move a muscle (he knew better than to move with that revolver muzzle trained upon him), if a look could have killed, then Joel would have dropped in his tracks. Joel slowly backed away, keeping his Colt’s ready. “Remember,” he warned. “Don’t try that again.” And finally, having backed far enough, beyond the fringe of men who had gathered, he hastened after his wagon. Davy’s heart could beat again. “Joel was right in this,” proclaimed a teamster. “You may be assistant wagon boss but even the boss himself has no business whipping another man’s bulls.” And as the men resought their wagons heads wagged and voices murmured in agreement therewith. As for Yank, he was growing red again; he cautiously wiped his injured eye, his hand twitched upon the butt of his revolver, and picking up his hat he stumbled forward as if in a dream. The way he acted was more dangerous, it seemed to Davy, than if he had stormed and threatened. And Davy was afraid for Joel. The train passed through the sandy hollow without further mishap; and when they climbed out and pulled on over the next rise they met the buffalo hunters returning. The mules’ saddles were red with meat, and the three riders were well pleased with their hunt. The sun was low over the trail before, making golden the dust of travel. “We’ll camp here, boys,” called Charley, cheerfully, “and do what butchering we need on those buffalo carcasses. Swing out, Joel. Whew, man! You must have had to lay on the lash a bit heavy, didn’t you?” For the haunches of the lead team were bloody welted. More
than that, the cracker seemed to have taken a piece of hide out the size of a quarter! “No,” said Joel, briefly. “I didn’t.” “Well,” continued Charley, “let’s corral where we are. Yank, you— what’s the matter with your eye, man?” “I fell down,” answered Yank, steadily. And at the laugh which went up he reddened deeply again, and again his hand twitched.
XVII DAVY “THE BULL WHACKER” Charley scanned him quizzically for a moment. “You must have fallen mighty hard,” he remarked. “Who hit you, Yank?” “That lead teamster o’ yours,” growled Yank, with a string of oaths. “I’ll get him for that. No man can strike me and stay long on this earth. The dirty hound!” And he abused Joel horridly. Joel heard the loud words, and suddenly leaving his team where it stood, came walking fast. “None of that!” he called. “You keep a quiet tongue in your head. You can see what he did to my bulls, Charley. He laid my whip on them. I allow no man to cut my bulls. I never cut them myself. They were doing as well as they could.” Charley quickly stepped between the two—for the hand of each was poised for the dart to revolver butt. “That’s enough,” he bade. “There’s to be no fighting in this train and no swearing. You both know that. Give me your guns. Pass ’em over.” “All right, Charley,” answered Joel. “Here are mine if you say so. I don’t need a gun to deal with that fellow.” And unbuckling his belt he tossed it aside. “Now it’s up to you, Yank,” addressed Charley. Yank flushed.
“My guns are my own, an’ I’m goin’ to wear ’em as long as I please,” he blurted. “No, you aren’t, Yank,” retorted Charley, coolly. Looking him in the eye, he walked straight to him. “You needn’t give them to me; I’ll take them. See?” He was a little man, was Charley, but he had a great heart and the nerve to back it up. Reaching, while Yank stood uncertain and cowed, he jerked both revolvers from the holsters; then he stepped back to put his foot on Joel’s belt. “That’s enough,” he said. “I want this matter to end right here. If you laid whip on another man’s bulls when there wasn’t any need of it I reckon you got about what you deserved. We’re not bull skinners in this train. But I’ll have no fighting in the outfit. You fellows can settle your differences after you leave. Go on and finish your corralling, Joel. Yank, you saddle a fresh mule from the cavvy and ride out and help Kentuck and Andy butcher those buffalo. Your mule’s plumb worn out. Hear me?” Yank glared at him for a moment, but Charley returned eye for eye. Presently Yank whirled on his heel, and snatching the bridle of his mule strode off, muttering, to the cavvy. Joel went back to his team. Charley shook the cylinders out of the four revolvers, dropped them into his pockets, and stowed the useless weapons in one of the wagons. The train proceeded about the business of the hour, and Davy, whose heart had been beating high, helped. “The ride out yonder will help to cool his blood a bit,” commented one of the teamsters, referring to Yank—who, leading Andy and Kentuck, was galloping furiously away. As for Joel, he was acting as if the recent trouble was ancient history—except that when he examined the wounds on his two beloved oxen he shook his head. The teams had been unhitched from the wagons and were being led aside to water and pasture, when a sudden shout arose. “Look at Yank! Look at him, will you! Where’s he going?”
Everybody stared. Leaving Andy and Kentuck behind, Yank, without slackening pace, was galloping on and on through the area where the buffalo herd had been and where the carcasses were lying. Andy and Kentuck yelled at him, but he paid no heed. And from the wagon train welled another chorus of cries. “He’s taking French leave! He’s deserting!” “Let him go, boys,” quoth Charley, coloring, but making no move. “I’ll send him his guns sometime; but he’s forfeited his pay. If he wants to have things that way, good enough. We’re better off without him.” The men grunted, satisfied; nobody liked the unruly, foul-mouthed Yank. Soon he disappeared over a rise and he was not seen again by Davy for a year. The camp that evening seemed much pleasanter without the presence of Yank. With him absent and with plenty of buffalo meat on hand, the men laughed and joked to even an unusual extent. It was a carefree camp. “Here are your guns, Joel,” said Charley, returning them. “Guess I can trust you with them now. Well, we’re a short train, with two men shy. I’d rather lose Yank than Sailor Bill; but they’re both gone. Kentuck, you’re promoted to assistant wagon boss; and I’ll have to turn your team over to Dave, here. They’re well broken and I reckon he can drive them. How about it, Dave?” Davy was somewhat flustered. He to be a bull whacker? Hurrah! “I’ll try,” he stammered. “Sure you will; and you’ll make good. Fact is, those bulls drive themselves. But you can learn a heap, anyway. All right. You take Kentuck’s outfit in the morning and go ahead. The boys will help you if you get in trouble. I can’t spare Joel; he’s too good a man in the lead, and we need him there.” That night Davy could scarcely go to sleep. He was excited. He wondered if he really could “make good” as a bull whacker. He had
practised with the whip and could “throw” it pretty well, although it was a long lash for a boy. But he had found out that to wield a bull whip and “pop” it required a certain knack rather than mere strength; and, besides, the bull teams behind kept up with the wagons before as a matter of habit. Of course, corralling and yoking were the chief difficulties. But he had watched closely what the men did every day, and he thought that he knew how, at least. At any rate, he was bound to try. To handle twelve oxen seemed to him a bigger job than being a messenger. It was a proud Dave who, early in the morning, after breakfast, at the cry “Catch up, men! Catch up!” shouldered his yoke and the two bows, and sturdily trotted for the corral. He knew how to begin. The proper method was to lay the heavy yoke across one shoulder with the bows hanging from your arm. One pin was carried in your mouth, the other in your hand. The ends of the bows passed up through the yoke, so that only one end needed a pin thrust through above the yoke to hold it; the other end stayed of itself. Davy felt that the men were watching him out of the corners of their eyes. He heard somebody say, aside, bantering: “Look out, boys, or that kid will beat us!” Of course he could not do that! Not yet. But Charley called to him from the forward gap, where somebody must stand to keep the cattle in: “The wheel team first, Dave. You know them, do you? A pair of big roans.” Davy nodded. He remembered them; he had marked them well by a good scrutiny when the herd was being driven in from pasture. “All right,” said Charley. “You’ll find them together. The whole bunch ought to be together.” The corral was crowded with oxen and men, and appeared a mass of confusion; but there was little confusion, for by this time the oxen and the men all knew their business. Davy pushed his way straight to the two big roans (the largest and stoutest bulls always were chosen for the wheel team, because they must hold up the heavy
pole and also must stand up to the weight of the wagon down hill), and in approved fashion laid the yoke across the neck of one. “Be sure you yoke ’em like they’re used to travellin’, lad,” warned a kind teamster. “The near and the off bull, or you’ll have trouble.” Davy nodded again. He had noted this also. The “near” bull meant the bull that was yoked to stand on the left; the “off” bull was the right-hand one. The near bull of this team had a short horn, he remembered. He slipped the bow under the near bull’s neck, and standing on the outside, or left, inserted the ends of the bow up through the yoke and slipped the pin in to hold it. Then he hustled around to the opposite side of the “off” bull, who was standing close to his mate, shoved him about (“Get ’round there, you!” ordered Davy, gruffly), and reaching for the yoke lifted it across, adjusted the bow (from the outside), slipped in the pin from his mouth—and there he had his wheel pair yoked together! Now proud indeed, he led his yoke out through the other bulls to his wagon. They took position on either side of the pole, although they seemed a little puzzled by the change in manager. Now it only remained to lift the pole and put the end through the ring riveted to extend below the middle of the yoke. “Lead team next,” said Davy, wisely, to himself, leaving his wheel team and hurrying to shoulder another yoke and its bows and re- enter the wagon corral. Every man was supposed to know his twelve bulls as a father knows his children. Davy’s lead team were spotted fellows, with long black horns. He went straight to them where they stood, waiting; yoked them masterfully and led them, too, out to the wagon. He put them in position, and with the four other yokes built his whole team —starting from the rear. The train was ready and watching, but not impatient. The men gave him time. From the middle of each yoke the massive log chain by which they pulled ran between them back to the yoke of the pair behind—save that the wheel team pulled by the tongue and had no chain. Davy
worked hard to hook the chains. A man stepped forward to help him; but Charley called promptly: “Let him alone, boys. He’s doing well. He’ll get the hang of it. Every man to his own team, you know.” And Davy was glad. “All set,” he announced shrilly, for his team were hooked at last. “All set,” repeated Charley. “Line out, boys.” To brisk shout from Joel and crack of his whip the lead team straightened their chains and the wagon moved ahead. One after another the other wagons followed; and Davy’s team fell into place almost before he had “popped” his whip and had joined in the cries: “Haw, Buck! Hep! Hep with you!” The train retook the trail, Davy trudging like any other bull whacker on the left side of his wheel yoke, his whip over his shoulder, his hat shoved back from his perspiring forehead. He doubted if even Billy Cody could have done better; and he wished that Billy might see him. Ever the trail unfolded on and on, sometimes skirting the shallow Platte, sometimes diverging a little to seek easier route. It traversed a country very unattractive, broken by the clayey buttes and by deep washes, and running off into wide, sandy plateaus and bottoms, rife with jack-rabbits, coyotes, prairie-dogs, antelope, and occasional buffalo. The rattlesnakes were a great nuisance; the men killed them with the whip lashes by neatly cutting off their heads as they coiled or sometimes shot them. And almost every morning somebody complained of a snake creeping into his warm blanket. The processions of emigrants continued as thick as ever, bound for “Pike’s Peak,” for Salt Lake, California and Oregon. Each day the stage for Denver and the stage for Leavenworth passed, dusty and hurrying; and now was given a glimpse, once in two weeks, of the Hockaday & Liggett stages, which travelled twice a month between St. Joseph, above Leavenworth, and Salt Lake City. Occasionally
Indians—Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Pawnees and Sioux—came into the camps begging for “soog” and “cof” and “tobac.” Davy enjoyed every mile and he did splendidly. He enjoyed even the never-varying diet of “sowbelly” (salt pork), baked beans, hot bread, and sugarless, milkless coffee, eked out by buffalo meat and antelope meat when they could get it. Some of the men tried prairie- dogs—which weren’t so bad as they sound, tasting and looking like chicken or rabbit. The main difficulty was to get them after they had been shot, for they almost always managed to tumble into their holes. Then, when anybody put a hand in to drag them out, it was met by the angry whirr of a rattle-snake. A rattle-snake and a little owl seemed to live in each hole along with the prairie-dog family! There were storms, coming up with startling suddenness. One storm, at Cottonwood Springs a hundred miles west of Kearney, Davy never forgot. It was a hail storm. First a mighty cloud of deep purple shot through with violet lightning, swelled over the trail in the west. Emigrants scuttled to secure their wagons, and at Charley’s sharp commands so did the bull train. “It looks like a twister, boys,” shouted Charley, riding back along the train. “Better corral. I’m afraid for these bulls.” So the train corralled in a jiffy; and, unyoked, the bulls were driven inside. The tongues were hung in the draw ropes of the wagon covers and the wheels were chained, wagon to wagon. Slickers were jerked out from the wagons and donned; and the men prepared to crawl under the wagon boxes if necessary. With angry mutter and swollen shape the purple cloud came on at a tremendous pace. The spin-drift of it caught the plain far ahead, and one after another the trains of the emigrants were swallowed in the blackness. When the first gust struck the bull train the touch was icy cold. “Hail, boys! Hail!” shouted Charley. “Watch the bulls!” Now sounded a clatter like rain on a sheet-iron roof; and across the landscape of sand and clay, and a cottonwood grove at the
mouth of the creek, swept a line of white. The men dived for cover like prairie-dogs whisking into their holes. Yes, it was hail! Such hail! Driven by a gale the stones, some as large as hickorynuts, and all as large as filberts, lashed the huddled train; whanged against canvas and wagon-box and with dull thuds bounded from the bulls’ backs. Some of the animals shifted uneasily, for the stones stung. The others stood groaning and grunting with discomfort, shaking their heads when a particularly vicious missile landed on an ear. Under the wagons the men were secure; but Dave felt sorry for the poor bulls who turned and sought in vain. As quickly as it had come the storm passed, leaving the ground white with the hail. Almost before the men had crawled out from underneath their wagons the sun was shining. The hail had not damaged the bull train to any extent. There were dents in the tough wood where the heavy stones had struck, and several of the wagon sheets, forming the hoods, had been punctured in weak spots; but thanks to Charley’s promptness in corralling, the animals had not stampeded. However, some of the emigrants had not fared so well, because they had not known what to do. After the bull train was yoked up again and was travelling on, it passed two emigrant outfits stalled by the trail, trying to recover their teams which had run away. Many of the flimsy cotton hoods used by the emigrants were riddled into strips. The Overland Trail followed up the south side of the Platte, the same way by which Dave had come down with the Lew Simpson train a year before, after the fight in the mule fort. Where the North Platte and the South Platte joined current it continued on up the South Platte—and now to the north a short distance was the place where the mule fort had been located so hastily by Billy Cody and Lew and George Woods. Soon the main trail for Salt Lake and California forded the South Platte to cross the narrow point of land for Ash Hollow at the North Platte and for Laramie and Salt Lake City. But the Denver branch
proceeded on into the west by the newer trail to the mountains and Denver. This branch of the Overland Trail down to Denver was only six months old, but already it was a well-worn trail, scored deep by the stages and by the thousands of emigrants and the constant freight outfits. The travel eastward, toward the States, was almost as great now as that westbound, for fall had come and everybody who was intending to return to the States had started so as to get there before winter. A winter journey by wagon across these plains was no fun. After the parting of the trail, the next station on the route was Jules’ Ranch. Jules was an old French-Indian trapper and trader, whose full name (as he claimed) was Jules Beni. His mother was a Cheyenne Indian, and Jules had built a trading post here, a mile beyond Lodgepole Creek, for trade with the Cheyennes. Now Jules had turned his attention to the new business that had opened, and he was selling flour to the Pike’s Peak “pilgrims” at a dollar a pound. He had been smart enough to break a new trail that would bring the travel between the North and the South Platte past his place—for the regular crossing was east of him. He was smart, was Old Jules, and now he had just been made stage agent. “I want all you fellows to keep clear of Old Jules,” cautioned Charley, as the train approached what some of the men jokingly called “Julesburg.” “I’ve never seen him when he wasn’t drunk and he’s a corker for losing his temper and picking fights. Then he wants to kill somebody. When he’s in liquor he’s plumb crazy. He’s shot two men and carries their ears in his pocket. I’m not afraid of him, and neither are you; but to-morrow’s Sunday and we’ll tie up near his place, and I don’t want trouble.” “Why don’t you pull right through, Charley?” asked Andy Johnson, as a spokesman. “We’re agreeable. ‘Dirty Jules’ is no great attraction.”
“Well,” said Charley, “we usually do ease off on Sunday, and it’s company orders and I don’t propose to change the programme at this stage of the game.”
XVIII BILLY CODY TURNS UP AGAIN The Russell, Majors & Waddell bull trains were under instructions to lie by over Sunday whenever possible. By some people this was accounted a waste of time. However, Mr. Majors especially insisted that Sunday should be Sunday wherever it fell, in town or on the danger trail. One day in seven might well be spent in rest even with a bull train. It brought the men and cattle through in better shape, and was a gain that way instead of any loss. So that evening the wagon train corralled near the Platte River crossing, where the Salt Lake Trail turned north, about half a mile east from Jules’ Ranch. The river was a great convenience, for on Sunday the men usually tried to slick up by bathing and washing their clothing and tidying generally. Therefore, after breakfast the brush near the river bank was soon displaying shirts and handkerchiefs of red and blue, and sundry pairs of socks, spread out to dry, while their owners sat around and fought mosquitoes and watched the wagon outfits. Some of these forded the river for Salt Lake, Oregon or California, but most of them kept on up the Denver branch. This was interrupted by a distant hullabaloo—a yelling and cheering mingled. The air was thin and still and very clear, so that sound and eyesight carried far through it. The hullabaloo evidently came from Jules’ Ranch, where at the group of buildings a crowd of people had gathered. Davy’s shirt was dry, and he reached for it. “Must be having a celebration over yonder,” drawled Kentuck. “Reckon I’ll go see.”
He donned his red shirt and started. Several others made ready to go; and Davy, as curious as anybody, decided that he would go, too. So, wriggling into his clothes, whether they were dry or not, he followed along up the trail to Jules’ place. The ranch was a small collection of adobe or sun-baked clay buildings, and a log shack which was the store. The main excitement was centred in front of the store. The crowd had formed a circle at a respectful distance. They were emigrants and a few of the Charley Martin bull train. “What’s the row?” queried Kentuck of a man at his elbow. “’Pears like this fellow Jules is having a leetle time with himself,” answered the man. “I ’low he’s crazy. He’s got whiskey and flour out thar on the ground and says he’s mixing mortar. It’s a good place for the whiskey, but it’s an awful waste of flour.” Edging through the circle, Davy peered to see. A dirty, darkly sallow visaged, hairy man, in soiled shirt, and trousers sagging from their belt, was capering and screeching, and hoeing at a white mass which might have been real mortar. But the smell of whiskey was strong in the air, and there stood a barrel of it with the head knocked in. The white stuff was flour, for, as Davy looked, the capering hairy man grabbed a sack, tore it open and emptied it on the pile. “I show you how I mek one gr-r-rand mortarr,” he proclaimed. “Flour at one dollar ze pound, whiskey at ten dollars ze quart; zat ze way ol’ Jules mek gr-r-rand mortarr. Wow! Hooray! If anybody teenk he mek one better mortarr, I cut off hees ears. Dees my country; I do as I please.” And he hoed vigorously at his “mortar bed,” and screeched and capered and threatened and boasted and made a fool of himself. Some of the crowd laughed and applauded; but the majority were disgusted. To Davy it seemed a great pity that any human being should so lose all control of himself and be less human than an ape. He speedily tired of this silly exhibition by Jules, the store-keeper,
and turned away for fresh air. He and Charley, the wagon boss, emerged from the crowd together. “Old Jules is spoiling his own business, I reckon,” observed Charley. “How any man can watch that in there and ever taste whiskey again is more than I know. To see him make a fool of himself is better than signing a pledge.” The crowd rapidly wearied of this drunken Jules and his antics and dwindled away. As for Davy, he had decided to take a walk to the mouth of Lodgepole Creek, up the river a short distance. Lodgepole Creek emptied in on the opposite side of the Platte, and was named because the Cheyennes used to gather their lodge poles along it. The Platte flowed shallow and wide, with many sand bars and ripples, and many deepish holes where the water eddied rapidly. The banks were fringed with willows not very high. From a rise in the trail Dave, trudging stanchly in his heavy dusty boots, beheld an object, far up the channel, beyond the willow tops, floating down. It was a large object flat to the water, and as he peered he saw a flash as from an oar-blade. A boat! No—too large and low for a boat. It must be a raft with somebody aboard. Davy waited, inquisitive; for craft floating on the Platte were a curiosity. The upper river was too shallow, especially at this time of the year. The raft came on gallantly and swiftly. It carried three persons and their outfit. The crew were standing up: one of them steering, behind, and one at either edge, with oars, was helping to fend off from the bars. It looked like an easy mode of travel, and Davy prepared to stand out and give the voyagers a cheer. But just before the raft arrived opposite, going finely, it appeared to hang on a snag or else strike a sudden eddy; or perhaps it did both at once; nobody could tell. Under Davy’s astonished eyes it stopped for a moment in mid-stream; the crew wildly dug with their oars and fell to their hands and knees; whirling around and around the platform fairly melted away underneath them, leaving only three black dots on the surface of the water. These were heads!
Waking to the situation, Davy waved and shouted; the swimmers may have seen him, he thought, because they were making for his side. The current bore them along, as sometimes they swam and sometimes they waded; and he kept pace to encourage. As the foremost neared the bank, Davy rushed down and waded in to meet him and help him ashore. He wasn’t a very large person—that drenched figure floundering and splashing for safety; he wasn’t large at all; and extending a hand, to give him a boost, Davy gasped, only half believing: “Why—hello, Billy! Gee whiz! Is that you?”
“WHY—HELLO, BILLY! IS THAT YOU?”
“Hello, Dave,” answered Billy Cody, muddy and dripping, but calmly shaking Dave’s hand. “I guess it must be. Where are Hi and Jim?” And he turned quickly to scan the river. “Good. They’re coming. I knew they could swim. They can swim better than I, so I reckoned I’d get ashore as soon as I could. What are you doing here and where are you bound for?” “I’m bull whacking for Russell, Majors & Waddell from Leavenworth to Denver,” informed Davy, proudly. “Where are you bound for?” “Back to the river.” And by “the river” Davy knew that Billy meant the Missouri. “We didn’t have any luck in the diggin’s, so we thought we’d float home down the Platte to the Missouri and down the Missouri to Leavenworth. Well, we got this far, anyhow.” “Jiminy crickets!” shouted Hi, now plashing in. “If here isn’t Dave waiting for us! Did you come all the way from Leavenworth to meet us, Dave?” And there was a great shaking of hands. “I dunno what the dickens happened to us out there,” volunteered Jim, gazing at the river suspiciously. “One moment we were just sailing along and next moment we were swimming. No more sailoring for me; I’d rather walk with a bull team. Here we’ve lost our whole outfit and we’re going home from the diggin’s ‘busted’ flat.” “We didn’t have much to lose; that’s one comfort,” said Billy. “Think how bad we’d be feeling if we’d struck it rich up in the mountains and every ounce was now at the bottom of the Platte! Huh! We’ve had our fun, anyhow. Who’s your wagon boss, Dave?” “Charley Martin.” “Where are you camped?” “At the Platte crossing, just below Jules’.” “All right,” quoth Billy, cheerily. “Come on, boys. I’m going down to the camp and see what I can get, and Charley’ll grub-stake us
home.” They had clambered up the bank into the dryness, and now they continued down the trail—Billy and Hi and Jim clumping and squashing, Davy tramping sturdily in his teamster costume of flannel shirt and trousers tucked into big boots. “So you’re a sure-’nough bull whacker, are you?” asked Hi of Davy, with a grin. “I was hired just as an ‘extra’ for carrying messages, you know,” said Davy, to be both honest and modest. “But we ran short of men so Charley put me at whacking. I can sling a whip some; that is, pretty good. The bulls are trained, anyway.” “When did you begin?” asked Billy. “Back at Plum Creek.” “If you’ve held your job this far, then, I guess you can hold it as long as you like. Bully for you, Red.” And at Billy’s generous praise Davy blushed. The excitement at Jules’ trading store had quieted and only the mess of whiskey-sodden flour remained. Billy and Jim paid scant attention to this, except that they, too, were disgusted when they heard what old Jules had been up to. They were more intent upon getting to the wagon train camp. And here Charley Martin and the whole outfit, in fact, received them with a great ado. Everybody in the train seemed to know Billy, and almost everybody knew Hi and Jim. There was a stranger to Davy in camp. He had arrived in a light buggy drawn by a strong, spirited team of black horses, and was chatting with Charley. His name proved to be B. F. Ficklin—“Ben” Ficklin. He shook hands with Billy, and Billy introduced Dave. “Mr. Ficklin, this is my friend Dave Scott, youngest bull whacker on the plains.”
“You want to watch out or he’ll catch up with you, Billy,” bantered Mr. Ficklin. “I shouldn’t wonder,” answered Billy, carelessly. “But I’ve got a head start over him. I’m a prairie sailor sure now, and navigation on the Platte is closed!” Not only in sailing on the Platte, but in many other feats Dave never did catch up with Billy Cody. Mr. Ficklin was the general superintendent of the Russell, Majors & Waddell freighting and staging business. He bore the news that the company had taken over the stage outfit of Hockaday & Liggett, which ran twice a month from St. Joseph on the Missouri to Salt Lake on the Platte River Overland Route, and were going to combine the Leavenworth & Pike’s Peak Express with it. He himself was on his way from Denver, back down the trail to inspect the condition of the stations from the Platte crossing to the Missouri. “We’re going to make this stage line a hummer, boys,” he informed. “Hockaday & Liggett have been running two times a month on a schedule of twenty-one days to Salt Lake; no stations, and same team without change for several hundreds of miles at a stretch. The company are putting in stations every ten and fifteen miles all along the Overland route from the river to Salt Lake, and stocking them with provisions and fodder. We’re buying the best Kentucky mules that we can find and ordering more Concord coaches; and we’re going to put a coach through every day in the year, from the Missouri to Salt Lake, on a ten-day schedule, by the Salt Lake Overland Trail to the crossing here, then north to Laramie and over the South Pass. A stage will be sent down to Denver, too.” Mr. Ficklin evidently was an enthusiast. Davy had heard of him—a hard worker and a booster for the company that he loved. “What’s ever become of the scheme of yours and that California senator, Gwin, to put a fast mail service through, horseback, from St. Louis to San Francisco, by the Overland route, at $500 for each round trip,” asked Joel of Mr. Ficklin.
“Nothing yet. Senator Gwin was right for it after our talk on the stage from California five years ago, and he introduced a bill in Congress; but the bill died. The California people are howling, though, for something better than news three weeks to six weeks old from the East. And mark my words,” continued Mr. Ficklin, earnestly, “that’s what will happen next—a pony express from the Missouri to the coast that will beat the stage.” “Do you think they’ll stretch a line of relays clear across for two thousand miles and keep it going day and night passing the mail along?” demanded Billy, his eyes sparkling at the fancy. “Yes, sir,” answered Mr. Ficklin, shortly. “Well, when they do I want to ride one of the runs—one that will keep me hopping, too,” declared Billy.
XIX DAVY MAKES ANOTHER CHANGE “Did you see my mother when you were back East, Dave?” asked Billy. “Yes.” “How’s she looking?” “Not extra good, Billy. She’s not very well, and she said if I came across you to tell you she’d like to see you as soon as she could.” “How are the girls?” “They’re all right.” “I’m sorry about ma,” mused Billy, soberly. “If she’s poorly I’m going home as straight as I can travel, you can bet on that.” “We can give you a job with the bull train, Billy,” proffered Charley Martin. “We’re short of men.” But Billy shook his head. “No, sir. I’m due at the Cody place in Salt Creek Valley.” “Well, Billy, in that case I’ll pass you through on the next stage, if there’s room,” volunteered Mr. Ficklin. “I can hang on somewhere,” asserted Billy. “The pass is the main thing. Never mind the room.” While they all were talking a new arrival halted near. It was an army ambulance—a wagon with black leather top, seats running around the inside, and four big black army mules as the team. It was bound west. A soldier in dusty blue uniform was the driver, and
a corporal of infantry sat beside him, between his knees a Sharp’s carbine. From the rear of the ambulance another soldier briskly piled out. By his shoulder straps and the white stripes down his trouser- seams he was an officer; by the double bars on his shoulder straps a captain. He wore a revolver in holster. He walked over to the group and nodded. “Hello, Ben.” “How are you, captain.” And Mr. Ficklin arose to shake hands. “Gentlemen,” continued Mr. Ficklin, “I want to introduce Captain Brown.” “I believe I know the captain,” spoke Charley, also shaking hands. “Hello, Billy,” addressed the captain, catching sight of him. “What’s the matter? Been swimming?” “Yes,” laughed Billy. “The water’s a little cold up in the mountains, so I took my annual down here.” “Billy’s been at the diggin’s, captain,” vouchsafed Mr. Ficklin. “He brought down so much gold in his hide that he couldn’t travel till he’d washed it out.” Billy took their joking good-naturedly. That he was going home “broke” had not discouraged him at all. “I know one thing, gentlemen,” he declared. “I’m not a miner, but I had to learn. The plains for me after this. You’ll find me bobbing up again.” “Yes, you can’t keep Billy Cody down, that’s a fact,” agreed Mr. Ficklin. “Where are you bound, captain? Denver?” “No, sir. Laramie. I’ve just come through from Omaha. I hear you fellows are putting on a daily stage to Salt Lake to connect there with the line for San Francisco.” “Yes, sir. It’ll be running this month, and it’ll be a hummer. I’m on my way to inspect the stations now.”
“This is my friend Dave Scott, captain,” introduced Billy, in his generous way. “He’s the youngest bull whacker on the trail.” “He must be a pretty close second to you, then, Billy,” remarked Captain Brown, extending his hand to Davy, who, as usual, felt embarrassed. “You started in rather young yourself!” The captain (who was a tanned, stoutly-built man, with short russet beard and keen hazel eyes) scanned Davy sharply. He scratched his head. “I don’t see why I can’t get hold of a boy like you or Billy,” he said. “I prefer red-headed boys. I was red-headed myself once, before the Indians scared my hair off.” “You’re a bit red-headed now, captain,” slyly asserted Charley; for the captain’s bald pate certainly was well burned by the sun. “Well, I feel red-headed, too,” retorted the captain. “So would you if every time you got a clerk he deserted to the gold fields. Lend me this boy, will you, Martin? He’s in your train, isn’t he? I’ll take him on up to Laramie with me and give him a good job in the quartermaster’s department. There’s a place there for somebody just about his size, boots and all.” And the captain, who evidently had taken a fancy to the sturdy Dave, smiled at him. All of a sudden Davy wanted to go. He had heard of Fort Laramie, that important headquarters post on the North Platte in western Nebraska (which is to-day Wyoming) near the mountains, and he wanted to see it. Billy had been there several times with the bull trains out of Leavenworth, and had told him about it. “I’d like to oblige you, captain,” answered Charley. “But we’re short handed this trip, and Davy’s a valuable man. He’s making quite a bull whacker. Besides, I reckon he’s counting on going to school this winter in Leavenworth; aren’t you, Davy?” Davy nodded. “I thought I’d better,” he said. “That’s one reason I left Denver.” “He can go to school at Laramie,” asserted the captain quickly. “We have a school for the post children there, and it’s a good one.”
Davy listened eagerly, and it was plain to be seen how he was inclined. Denver meant only a short stay, for Charley was anxious to start back again before winter closed in on the plains, and there might not be any chance to see Mr. Baxter, after all. Laramie sounded good. “Oh, shucks!” blurted Jim. “If you want to let Dave out, Charley, I’d as lief go on to Denver and finish with you.” “So would I,” added Hi. “How about it, Dave?” queried Charley. “Is it Denver or Leavenworth, or Laramie, for you?” “I’d like to try Laramie first-rate but I don’t want to quit the train unless you say so,” answered Dave, honestly. “I hired out for the trip, and Mr. Russell and Mr. Majors expect me to go through.” “Mr. Majors knows me and so does Billy Russell,” put in the captain. “I’ll write Majors a letter and give him a receipt for one red- headed boy, with guarantee of good treatment. I tell you, Martin, the United States has need for one red-headed boy, name of Dave, in the quartermaster service at Fort Laramie; and I believe I’ll have to send a detail out on the trail and seize him by force of arms.” The captain, of course, was joking, but he also seemed in earnest. “If he’s employed by Russell, Majors & Waddell that’s recommendation enough, and I want him all the more.” Charley laughed. “Oh, in that case, and if he wants to go, I suppose I’ll have to let him, and take Jim and Hi on in his place. They two ought to be able to fill his job. If you say so, Dave, I’ll give you your discharge right away, and a voucher for your pay to date, and you can see how you like the army for a change.” “Go ahead, Red,” bade Billy. “You’ll learn a heap, and I’ll be out that way myself soon. First thing you know you’ll see me coming through driving stage or riding that pony express. Whoop-la!” And of this Davy did not have the slightest doubt.
Captain Brown declined an invitation to stay for dinner with the mess. He was in a hurry. So the exchange of Davy from bull whacking to Government service was quickly made. Before he was an hour older he had shaken hands with everybody within reach and was trundling northward in the black covered ambulance beside Captain Brown. He knew that in another hour or two Billy himself would be travelling east, back to Salt Creek Valley and Leavenworth; and that early in the morning the bull train, with Charley and Joel and Kentuck and Hi and Jim and all, would be travelling west for the end of the trail at Denver. This was just like the busy West in those days; friends were constantly mingling and parting, each on active business—to meet again a little later and report what they had been doing in the progress of the big country. “You’re too young to follow bull whacking, my boy,” declared the captain. “It’s a rough life and a hard one. To earn your own way and know how to hold up your end and take care of yourself is all very well; but you’d better mix in with it the education of books and cultured people as much as you can while you go along. Then you’ll grow up an all-round man instead of a one-sided man. Laramie’s a long way from the States; but we’ve got a small post school and a few books, and it’s the home of a lot of cultured men and women. You’ll learn things there that you’ll never learn roughing it on the trail.” And Davy looked forward to life at old Fort Laramie, the famous army post and freight and emigrant station on the Overland Trail to Salt Lake, Oregon and California. The fording of the Platte was made in quick time to foil the quicksands. The North Platte was now scarce eighteen miles across the narrow tongue of land separating the two rivers above their juncture. It was struck at Ash Hollow. Ash Hollow had a grocery store for emigrant trade. The sign read “BUTTE, REGGS, FLOWER and MELE.”
Captain Brown halted here long enough to buy a few crackers and some sardines. “Thought we’d stock up while we can,” he explained to Dave. “These and what buffalo meat we have will carry us quite a way. Laramie’s one hundred and sixty miles, and I’m going to push right through.” The four stout mules ambled briskly at a good eight miles an hour, following the trail into the west, up the south bank of the river. The trail was broad and plain, but it was not so crowded with emigrants as it had been before the Pike’s Peak portion of it had branched off. However, there still were emigrants; and there were many bull trains bound out for Laramie and Fort Bridger and Salt Lake, for this was the main Overland Trail, dating back fifty years. The ambulance rolled on without slackening, except for sand or short rises, until after sunset. Then the captain gave the word to stop. By this time he knew Dave’s history, and Davy was liking him immensely. They clambered stiffly out. The driver and corporal unhitched the mules: and while the corporal made a fire for coffee, the driver (who was a private) put the mules out to graze. “We’ll take four hours, Mike,” said the captain to the corporal. “Then we’ll make another spurt until daylight.” “Yes, sir,” answered the corporal, saluting. “You’d do well to crawl in the wagon and sleep, after supper, Dave,” advised the captain to Davy. “We’ll be travelling the rest of the night. Can you stand it?” Davy laughed. A great question, that, to ask of a boy who’d just been a bull whacker walking across the plains! Nevertheless, Davy took a nap in the bottom of the ambulance; and more than a nap. When he awakened, he had been aroused by the jolting of his bed. A buffalo robe had been thrown over him, the captain was sitting in a corner snugly wrapped, and by the light of a half moon the ambulance was again upon its way.
In the morning, when they once more halted to rest and feed the mules, the country was considerably rougher, with hills and fantastic rocks breaking the sagy, gravelly landscape. The white-topped wagons of emigrants and the smoke of their camp-fires were in sight, before and behind; and not far ahead a bull outfit were driving their bulls into the wagon corral to yoke up for the day’s trail. Breakfast was coffee and buffalo meat; but Corporal Mike mounted one of the mules and rode off the trail. When he returned he had some sage chickens and an antelope. The sides of the ambulance had been rolled up; and about noon, pointing ahead the captain remarked to Davy: “That’s Laramie Peak, beyond the post. We’ve got only about eighty miles to go and we’ll be in bright and early.” The landmark of Laramie Peak, of the Black Hills Range of the Rocky Mountains, remained in sight all day, slowly standing higher. The sun set behind it. Davy snoozed in the bottom of the ambulance. The captain had spoken truth, for shortly after sunrise they sighted the flag streaming over Fort Laramie. Old Fort Laramie was not so large a post as Fort Leavenworth; it was not so large as Fort Kearney, even. Davy was a little disappointed, for “Laramie” was a name in the mouth of almost every bull whacker in the Russell, Majors & Waddell trains out of Leavenworth, and the men were constantly going “out to Laramie” and back. The post stood on a bare plateau beside Laramie Creek about a mile up from the Platte; some of the buildings were white- washed adobe, some were logs, and some were of rough-sawed lumber. Back of the fort were hills, and beyond the hills, to the southwest, were mountains—Laramie Peak being the sentinel. It was the important division point on the Overland Trail to Salt Lake; maintained here in the Sioux Indian country to protect the trail and to be a distributing point for Government supplies. It was garrisoned by both cavalry and infantry; on the outskirts were cabins of Indian traders and trappers and other hangers-on, and there were
a couple of stores that sold things to emigrants. Sioux Indians usually were camping nearby, in time of peace. Davy changed his rough teamster costume for clothes a little more suited to a clerk and messenger in the quartermaster’s department, and was put to work by Captain Brown, the acting quartermaster. The post proved a busy place, with the quartermaster’s offices the busiest of all; but the captain and Mrs. Brown saw that Dave was courteously treated and given a fair show. He went to evening school, and had books to read; and once in a while was allowed time for a hunt. In fact, Fort Laramie, away out here, alone, guarding the middle of the Overland Trail through to Salt Lake, was by no means a stupid or quiet place. Of course, the trail was what kept it lively, for every day news from the States and from the farther west arrived with the emigrants and the bull trains; and scarcely had Dave been settled into his new niche, when arrived the first of the new daily stages from the Missouri. It was preceded by a slender, gentlemanly man named Bob Scott, dropped off by one of the company wagons which was establishing the stations. Bob Scott was to drive stage from Fort Laramie on to Horseshoe, thirty-six miles, and he was here in readiness. He seemed to be well known on the trail, for many persons at the post called him “Bob.” “When do you expect to start on the run, Bob?” asked the captain. “I think about next Tuesday, captain,” answered Bob, in his quiet, easy tone. “The first coach leaves to-day, I understand, from St. Joe.” “They’ll make it through in six days, will they?” “Yes, sir. Ten days to Salt Lake is the schedule—an average of one hundred and twenty miles a day. At Salt Lake the express and passengers are transferred to the George Chorpening line to Placerville, California, and from Placerville they’re sent on to Sacramento and San Francisco. I understand the time from the Missouri River to San Francisco will be about eighteen days.”
“You haven’t heard what’s to be the name of the new company, have you, Bob?” “Yes, sir. ‘Central Overland, California & Pike’s Peak Express’ is to be the name; the ‘C. O. C. & P. P.’” Stables and express station and a relay of horses had been established adjacent to the post. The old stage company, Hockaday & Liggett, had worked on a loose, go-as-you-please system which was very different from the way that Russell, Majors & Waddell went at it. Now, with things in readiness along the line, clear to Salt Lake City, Tuesday dawned on a post eagerly hoping that Bob Scott’s calculation would prove true. About eleven o’clock a murmur and hustle in the post announced that the stage was in sight. It came with a rush and a cheer—its four mules at a gallop, up the trail, the big coach swaying behind them, the driver firm on his box. Stain of dust and mud and rain and snow coated the fresh coach body, for all the way from the Missouri River, 600 miles, had it come, through all kinds of weather, and had been travelling night and day for six days. At top and bottom of the frame around the stiffened canvas ran the legend: “Central Overland California & Pike’s Peak Express Co.” “Wild Bill” Hickok himself it was who, coolly tossing his lines to the hostler, waiting to take them and lead the horses to the stable, drawing off his gloves bade, for the benefit of his passengers: “Gentlemen, you have forty minutes here for dinner.” At the same moment the station keeper’s wife began to beat a sheet-iron gong as dinner signal.
XX FAST TIME TO CALIFORNIA Dave was heartily glad to see Wild Bill again—and Wild Bill seemed glad to see Davy. “I heard you were out in this region,” said Wild Bill, after they had shaken hands. “Billy Cody told me.” “When did you see him, Bill?” “Last time was when I was out to his house about a month ago. He was planning on a trapping and hunting trip with a man named Harrington up in the Republican country north of Junction City. But he’ll be on the trail again in the spring; you mark my word.” “So you’re driving stage, are you, Bill?” “Yes; I’m running between Horse Creek and Laramie, forty-two miles. It’s a great outfit, the C. O. C. & P. P.—the finest coaches and mules I’ve ever seen, and plenty of stations and feed. Now it’s up to the drivers to make the schedule.” And Wild Bill sauntered off, nodding to acquaintances, to wash and eat. Davy joined the group admiring the coach. It evidently had been prepared especially for the occasion of the first trip through. It was a new “Concord,” built by the famous stage-coach manufacturers, the Abbot-Downing Company, of Concord, New Hampshire. The large round, deep body was enclosed at the sides by canvas curtains that could be rolled up; and behind, it was extended to form a large roomy triangular pocket, or “boot,” for mail and baggage. The driver’s seat, in front, was almost on the level with the roof; and beneath it was another pocket, or boot, for express and other valuables. A pair of big oil lamps sat upon brackets, at either end of
the driver’s seat. The coach body was slung upon heavy straps forming the “throughbrace,” instead of resting upon springs; and here it securely cradled. It had been painted red and decorated with gilt. This coach had space for six passengers, three in a seat facing three others in an opposite seat. The coach was filled, when it had arrived, with the six passengers and a lot of mail; Wild Bill on the box, and beside him a wiry little man, who was Captain Cricket, the express messenger. Bob Scott and Wild Bill ate dinner together at the station. The fresh team of mules had been harnessed into the traces, and were being held by the heads. Bob looked at his watch, drew on his gloves, circuited the mules with an eye to their straps and buckles, laid his overcoat (a fine buffalo coat with high beaver collar) on his seat, and grasping lines and whip climbed up. Captain Cricket nimbly followed. “All ready, gentlemen,” announced Bob, his foot on the brake, poised to release it. The passengers came hurrying out and into the coach. Bob gave one glance over his shoulder. Then—“Let ’er go,” he bade the hostlers. “Whang!” his brake released; the hostlers leaped aside; out flew his lash, forward sprang the mules, and away went coach and all, in a flurry of dust, for the next run, to Horseshoe Creek, thirty-six miles. Run by run, up the Sweetwater River, over South Pass, down to the Sandy and the Green Rivers, through Fort Bridger and Echo Canyon, one hundred and more miles every day, would it speed, by relays of teams and of drivers, until the last team and last driver would bring it into Salt Lake. Wild Bill took a horse and returned to his east station, to drive in the next westbound stage. Every day a stage came through, and presently the stages from the west began coming back. The driver who brought in a stage from one direction took back the stage going in the opposite direction.
The stages through to Salt Lake and to the Missouri brought considerable new life to Fort Laramie. Papers and letters from New York and San Francisco arrived so quickly after being mailed that it was easy to see what a great treat this service was to Salt Lake and Denver and every little settlement along the whole route. Mr. Ficklin was general superintendent of the line, and was constantly riding up and down. No person who passed by was better liked than Superintendent Ficklin. Mr. Russell was in Washington, but Mr. Majors appeared, once, stepping from the stage; and he had not forgotten Davy. “Your pardner, Billy Cody, almost met his end this winter, my lad,” he informed. “Did you hear about it?” “No, sir,” gasped Dave. “Well, he did. He was up in central Kansas on a trapping trip, and lost his oxen and broke his leg and had to be left alone in a dug-out while his companion went one hundred and twenty-five miles, afoot, to the nearest settlement for a team and supplies. Billy got snowed in, couldn’t move anyway, a gang of Indians plundered him and might have murdered him, and when, on the twenty-ninth day—nine days late—his friend finally arrived and yelled to him, Billy could scarcely answer. Even then the snow had to be dug away from the door. But he reached home safely and he’s getting along finely now. He’s plucky, is Billy—and so was his friend, Harrington.” “Maybe he won’t want to go out on the plains any more,” faltered Dave. “Who? Billy Cody?” And Mr. Majors laughed. “You wait till the grass begins to get green and the willow buds swell, and you’ll see Billy Cody right on deck, ready for business.” Back and forth, between Salt Lake and the Missouri River shuttled the stages of the Central Overland, California & Pike’s Peak Express. They seemed to be making money for the company, but rumors said that the company needed more money; in fact, the company were in a bad way. The expenses had been tremendous. The big coaches
cost $1000 apiece—and there were fifty of them. The harness for each four-mule team was made in Concord, and it cost about $150. Then there were 10,000 tons of hay a year, at twenty to thirty dollars a ton; and 3,000,000 pounds of corn and another 3,000,000 pounds of grain, at several cents a pound; and 2000 mules at seventy-five dollars each; and the wages of the men—$100 a month and board for the division agents, $50 and $75 a month for the drivers, $50 a month for the station agents, and $40 a month for the hostlers who took care of the mules. But even under this expense it seemed as though the passenger fare of $125 to Denver and $200 to Salt Lake (meals extra at a dollar and a dollar and a half), and the heavy rates on express ought to bring the company a profit. Davy, trying to figure out the matter, hoped so. Of course, it was not his business, but a fellow likes to have his friends successful; and Dave looked upon Mr. Majors, and Mr. Russell, and Mr. Waddell as very good friends of his. He took a trip, once in a while, on the stage east with Wild Bill, or west with “Gentleman Bob,” on quartermaster’s affairs, to some of the stations. There always was room on the driver’s box, and generally Wild Bill or “Gentleman Bob” was glad to have him up there along with the messenger. “Gentleman Bob” proved to be as remarkable a character as Wild Bill Hickok. When approaching stations Wild Bill signalled with a tremendous piercing: “Ah-whoop-pee!” and arrived on the run. Gentleman Bob whistled shrilly. The teams for either of them had to be changed in less than four minutes, or there was trouble. The Overland stage waited for naught. Wild Bill passed the news on to Gentleman Bob, and Gentleman Bob it was who passed it to Davy, as one fresh, windy morning in this the spring of 1860, Dave gladly clambered up to the driver’s box to ride through to the end of the run at Horseshoe. “Let ’er go!” yelped Bob, kicking the brake free; and to mighty lunge and smart crack of lash the coach jumped forward, whirling
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  • 5. 6-1 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. Chapter 06 Communications, Networks, and Cyberthreats: The Wired and Wireless World Multiple Choice Questions 1. Communications signals represented in a binary format are said to be ________. A. continuous B. digital C. sequential D. analog 2. Each zero and one signal represents a ________. A. bit B. byte C. kilobyte D. megabyte 3. Which of the following is NOT an analog device? A. speedometer B. tire-pressure gauge C. thermometer D. smartphone
  • 6. 6-2 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 4. Signals such as sound and temperature, which continuously vary in strength and quality, are said to be _________. A. spontaneous B. digital C. sequential D. analog 5. The ________ is a device that converts digital computer signals into analog signals so that they can be sent over a telephone line. A. printer B. scanner C. modem D. digitizer 6. A person sending a document over a phone line by converting a computer's digital signals to analog signals uses a ________. A. printer B. scanner C. digitizer D. modem 7. A ________ is a system of interconnected computers, telephones, or communications devices that can communicate and share resources. A. terminal B. router C. network D. server
  • 7. 6-3 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 8. A network that covers a wide geographical area is called a ________. A. LAN B. WAN C. MAN D. HAN 9. A network that covers a city or a suburb is called a ________. A. WAN B. LAN C. MAN D. Internet 10. Networks are structured in two principle ways: client/server and ________. A. intranet B. host computer C. extranet D. peer to peer 11. A network that operates without relying on a server is the ________ network. A. peer-to-peer B. client/server C. host-to-host D. master/slave
  • 8. 6-4 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 12. A computer that acts like a disk drive, storing the programs and data files shared by users on a LAN, is the ________ server. A. file B. web C. host D. mail 13. If an organization's internal private network uses the same infrastructure and standards of the Internet, then the private network is a(n) ________. A. extranet B. intranet C. LAN D. MAN 14. A virtual private network may include ________. A. a company intranet B. a company extranet C. a company LAN D. any of these 15. A(n) ________ is a system of hardware and/or software that protects a computer or a network from intruders. A. VPN B. intranet C. firewall D. protocol
  • 9. 6-5 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 16. A ________ is the set of rules that govern the exchange of data between hardware and/or software components in a communications network. A. host B. protocol C. database D. packet 17. A mainframe computer that controls a large network is called the ________ computer. A. slave B. host C. client D. node 18. Any device that is attached to a network is referred to as a ________. A. server B. host C. node D. router 19. A ________ is a fixed-length block of data for transmission. A. node B. protocol C. packet D. backbone
  • 10. 6-6 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 20. A common connection device that connects computers to a network and that sends messages (checks packets) between sender and receiver nodes is called a ________. A. router B. gateway C. switch D. bridge 21. To create larger networks, a bridge connects the same types of networks, and a ________ connects dissimilar networks. A. router B. gateway C. hub D. host 22. A device that joins multiple wired and/or wireless networks in a home office is a ________. A. node B. router C. bridge D. firewall 23. In an organization, all computer networks are connected to the Internet by a "main highway" called a ________. A. skeleton B. backbone C. gateway D. router
  • 11. 6-7 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 24. Which of these is NOT a network topology? A. ring B. bus C. hub D. star 25. In the ________ network topology, communications devices are connected to a single cable with two endpoints. A. ring B. bus C. star D. peer-to-peer 26. What kind of topology (layout) is used by a network that connects all computers and communications devices in a continuous loop? A. ring B. bus C. star D. peer-to-peer 27. What kind of topology (layout) is used by a network that connects all its computers and communications devices to a central server? A. ring B. bus C. star D. peer-to-peer
  • 12. 6-8 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 28. ________ is the most common and most widely used LAN technology, with networked devices in close proximity; it can be used with almost any kind of computer. Most microcomputers come with a port for this type of network connection, which uses cable. A. Fiber-optic B. Internet C. Token ring D. Ethernet 29. A communications medium is a channel; there are three types of wired communications media. The one consisting of two strands of insulated copper wire, used by tradition telephone systems, is known as ________. A. twisted-pair B. coaxial C. fiber-optic D. straight wire 30. What wired channel, commonly used for cable TV, consists of an insulated copper wire wrapped in a solid or braided shield placed in an external cover? A. twisted-pair B. coaxial C. straight wire D. fiber-optic 31. A type of wired communications technology used to connect equipment in a home network is the following: A. Ethernet B. HomePNA C. HomePlug D. any of these
  • 13. 6-9 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 32. What wired communications medium consists of dozens or hundreds of thin strands of glass or plastic? A. twisted-pair B. coaxial C. fiber-optic D. straight wire 33. The ________ is the basis for ALL telecommunications signals. A. bandwidth B. electromagnetic spectrum C. radio-frequency spectrum D. wireless application protocol 34. The ________ is the range of frequencies that a transmission medium (channel) can carry in a particular period of time. A. bandwidth B. electromagnetic spectrum C. radio-frequency spectrum D. wireless application protocol 35. What set of rules is used to link nearly all mobile devices to a telecommunications carrier's wireless network and content providers? A. LAN B. WAN C. WAP D. HAN
  • 14. 6-10 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 36. Which of the following is NOT a type of wireless communications media? A. infrared transmission B. satellite C. coaxial D. microwave radio 37. What form of wireless transmission sends data to an AM or FM receiver? A. broadcast radio B. infrared radio C. GPS D. microwave radio 38. Which of these types of wireless transmission is limited to line-of-sight communications? A. broadcast radio B. broadband C. microwave D. WAP 39. Transmitting a signal from a ground station to a satellite is called ________. A. broadcasting B. high-frequency C. uplinking D. downlinking
  • 15. 6-11 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 40. The highest level that a satellite can occupy in space is known as ________. A. geostationary earth orbit (GEO) B. high-earth orbit (HEO) C. medium-earth orbit (MEO) D. low-earth orbit (LEO) 41. GPS uses satellites orbiting at a(n) ________ level; they transmit timed radio signals used to identify earth locations. A. GEO B. MEO C. LEO D. HEO 42. Broadband technology (wireless digital services) is also referred to as ________-generation wireless services. A. first B. second C. third D. fourth 43. Which of the following is NOT a type of long-distance wireless two-way communications device? A. Bluetooth B. CDMA C. 1G analog cellular phone D. 2G digital cellphone
  • 16. 6-12 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 44. What short-distance wireless standard is used to link portable computers and handheld wireless devices so they may communicate at high speeds at distances of 100-228 feet? A. Bluetooth B. HomeRF C. Wi-Fi D. 3G 45. What short-distance wireless standard is used to link cell phones, computers, and peripherals at distances of up to about 33 feet? A. Bluetooth B. Wi-Fi C. HomeRF D. WISP 46. A ________ attack disables a computer system or network by making so many requests of it that it overloads it and keeps other users from accessing it. A. worm B. virus C. denial-of-service D. Trojan horse 47. A ________ is a program that copies itself repeatedly into a computer's memory or onto a disk/flash drive. A. worm B. rootkit C. Trojan horse D. patch
  • 17. 6-13 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 48. Which of these is NOT a type of malware? A. worm B. virus C. Trojan horse D. denial-of-service attack 49. A botmaster uses malware to hijack hundreds or thousands of computers and controls them remotely; the controlled computers are called ________. A. robots B. zombies C. worms D. logic bombs 50. Which of the following is NOT a way to spread a virus? A. flash drives B. scanning a picture C. e-mail attachment D. downloaded games or other software 51. Antivirus software protects files and computer systems in all of these ways EXCEPT which one? A. scans the hard drive for signatures that uniquely identify a virus B. looks for suspicious viruslike behavior C. goes out on the Internet and looks for viruses D. destroys the virus
  • 18. 6-14 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 52. What is the science, often used in computer security systems, of measuring individual body characteristics? A. encryption B. decryption C. rootkit D. biometrics 53. What is the process of altering readable data (plain text) into unreadable form to prevent unauthorized access? A. encryption B. decryption C. password D. biometrics True / False Questions 54. Analog refers to communications signals represented in a binary format. True False 55. Signals such as sound and temperature, which continuously vary in strength and quality, are said to be digital. True False 56. A thermometer and a speedometer are examples of analog devices. True False
  • 19. 6-15 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 57. Telephones have always been digital devices. True False 58. A modem converts digital signals into analog signals so they can be sent over a telephone line. True False 59. "Modem" is short for modulate/demodulate. True False 60. Capturing music digitally means that one has an exact duplicate of the music. True False 61. A network is a system of interconnected computers and communications devices that can communicate and share resources. True False 62. The Internet is a WAN. True False 63. A LAN is a type of network that covers a wide geographical area. True False 64. Client/server networks and peer-to-peer networks are the same except that the first type of network uses a mainframe and the second type uses only microcomputers. True False
  • 20. 6-16 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 65. The computer that acts like a disk drive, storing the programs and data files shared by users on a LAN, is called a file server. True False 66. "File server" and "database server" are different names for the same type of server. True False 67. Peer-to-peer networks are less stable than client-server networks because in the former certain shared resources reside on each user's machine. True False 68. Virtual private networks (VPNs) are private networks that use a public network (usually the Internet) instead of private, leased (expensive) lines to connect remote sites. True False 69. If you have one computer, you need firewall hardware; if you have more than one (networked) computer, then a software firewall should be used. True False 70. In a network, communications protocols specify the type of electrical connections, the timing of message exchanges, and error-detection techniques. True False 71. Routers join multiple wired and/or wireless networks commonly in offices and home offices. True False 72. A gateway is an interface device permitting communication between similar networks. True False
  • 21. 6-17 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 73. An interface device used to connect the same types of networks is called a node. True False 74. The backbone is the main communications route in a bus network topology. True False 75. In a bus network, all computers and communications devices are connected in a continuous loop. True False 76. Traditional landline telephone systems use twisted-pair wire as their communications medium. True False 77. A cable that is made up of dozens of thin strands of glass and transmits pulsating beams of light is called a coaxial cable. True False 78. Ethernet is a long-distance wireless communications connection. True False 79. One wired communications standard that allows users to send data over a home's existing electrical (AC) power lines is called HomePlug technology; it uses existing electrical lines. True False 80. All wired and wireless communications media use the electromagnetic spectrum of radiation. True False
  • 22. 6-18 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 81. The smaller the bandwidth of a medium, the more frequencies it can use to transmit data. True False 82. The two general classes of bandwidth are long and short. True False 83. The radio-frequency (RF) spectrum is part of the electromagnetic spectrum of radiation; it carries most communications signals. True False 84. The frequency of an electromagnetic wave is the number of times the wave repeats, or makes a cycle, in a second. True False 85. Both digital narrowband and broadband transmission speeds are measured in megabits or gigabits per second. True False 86. Infrared transmission is a type of low-frequency wireless transmission that is short-range and line-of-sight. True False 87. Satellite transmission uses in-orbit satellites and earth stations. Transmitting from the ground to the satellite is called downlinking, and transmitting from the satellite to the ground station called uplinking. True False 88. Communications satellites are microwave relay stations in orbit around the earth. True False
  • 23. 6-19 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 89. Satellite orbits are at three levels: GEO, MEO, and LEO. True False 90. A larger number of geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellites are required for global coverage than mid-earth orbit (MEO) satellites. True False 91. GPS uses MEO satellites that continuously transmit timed radio signals used to identify earth locations. True False 92. Because of the excellence of satellite technology, GPS location IDs are 100% accurate. True False 93. GPS satellites use Medium-Earth-Orbits. True False 94. Cellphones are cellular radios. True False 95. Analog cellphones were 1G phones. True False 96. Analog cellphones are 2G (second-generation) phones. True False 97. Cellphones are basically two-way radios. True False
  • 24. 6-20 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 98. 2G and 3G cellphones are digital, not analog. True False 99. Wi-Fi is a short-range wireless connection for LANs. True False 100.The short-range, wireless communications method aimed at linking hand-held devices at high speeds and at distances of 100-228 feet is called Wi-Fi. True False 101.A Wi-Fi enabled laptop computer accesses the available network (say, at an airport) through an access point, which is connected to a land-based Internet connection. True False 102.The latest version of Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11 standard) is version a. True False 103.Wi-Fi connections are always secure; no one can steal your data when you are online. True False 104.Bluetooth is a short-range, wireless communications method for linking cellphones, computers, and some other peripherals up to distances of 33 feet. True False 105.Malware consists of safeguards for protecting information technology against unauthorized access, system failures, and disaster that can result in damage or loss. True False
  • 25. 6-21 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 106.A denial-of-service attack uses a virus to crash your computer. True False 107.Worms, viruses, and Trojan horse are all malware. True False 108.A Trojan horse pretends to be a useful program, such as a game or a screen saver, but it carries a virus that replicates in your computer over and over until your computer crashes. True False 109.A virus is a "deviant" program that is stored on a computer hard drive and can cause unexpected and undesirable effects. True False 110.A virus is capable of destroying or corrupting data. True False 111.Cellphones do not get infected by malware. True False 112.Encryption is the process of altering—via software—readable data into unreadable form to prevent unauthorized access. True False Fill in the Blank Questions
  • 26. 6-22 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 113._________ is the gradual merger of computing and communications into a new information environment, in which the same information is exchanged among many kinds of equipment, using the language of computers. ________________________________________ 114.Most of the word's natural phenomena use signals that continuously vary in strength and quality, called ________ signals. ________________________________________ 115.Communications signals represented in a binary electronic format are ________ signals. ________________________________________ 116.So they can be sent over a telephone line, analog signals are converted into digital signals, and then back again, by using ________. ________________________________________ 117.A _________ is a communications network covering a city or a suburb. ________________________________________ 118.A peer-to-peer (P2P) network operates without relying on a central ________. ________________________________________ 119.Private networks that use a public network, usually the Internet, to connect remote sites are called ________. ________________________________________ 120.A private intranet that allows access to selected outside users is a(n) ________. ________________________________________
  • 27. 6-23 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 121.A _________ is a system of hardware and/or software that protects a computer or a network from intruders. ________________________________________ 122.A client-server network has a _________ computer, a central computer that controls the network; The devices connected to the network are called _________. ________________________________________ 123.A set of conventions that govern how data is exchanged between devices on a network is known as a communications ________. ________________________________________ 124.Electronic messages are sent as ________, fixed-length blocks of data for transmission. ________________________________________ 125.A _________ is a network that connects computers to a network; data can be sent in both directions at the same time. ________________________________________ 126.A(n) ________ is an interface (linking device) used to connect the same types of networks, whereas a(n) ________ is an interface permitting communications between dissimilar networks. ________________________________________ 127.________ are physical devices that join multiple wired and/or wireless networks; their primary job is to provide connectivity, and they are often used in small office networks, cafés, airports, hotels, and home networks. ________________________________________
  • 28. 6-24 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 128.The ________ consists of the main "highway" that connects all computer networks in an organization. ________________________________________ 129.A motherboard expansion card called a _________ enables a computer to send and receive messages over a network. ________________________________________ 130.The system software that manages the activity of a network is called the ________. ________________________________________ 131.A network can be laid out in different ways. The layout, or shape, of a network is called a ________. ________________________________________ 132.A ________ network topology is one in which all microcomputers and other devices are connected in a continuous loop. ________________________________________ 133.A ________ network topology is one in which all microcomputers and other communications devices are connected directly to a central network switch. ________________________________________ 134.The Internet uses the ________ network topology. ________________________________________
  • 29. 6-25 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 135.In small LANs, messages may bump into one another. The most popular protocol, or technology, which uses cabling and special ports on microcomputers, that prevents collisions is ________. It can be used with almost any kind of computer and with different network topologies. ________________________________________ 136.Wired communications media include three main types. The kind used for tradition telephone lines is a ________. ________________________________________ 137.Telecommuting means using a computer and networks to work from ________; telework means working from ________. ________________________________________ 138.Wired communications media include three main types. Insulated copper wire wrapped in a solid or braided shield and then an external cover is called ________ cable. ________________________________________ 139.Wired communications media include three main types. The kind used for transmitting pulses of light is called a ________ cable. ________________________________________ 140.HomePlug technology is a wired communications standard that allows users to connect equipment within the home using the house's own ________ wiring. ________________________________________ 141.The range of frequencies that a transmission medium can carry in a given period of time is called its ________. ________________________________________
  • 30. 6-26 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 142.The ________ a transmission medium's bandwidth, the more frequencies it can use to transmit data and the faster it is. ________________________________________ 143.Infrared and microwave transmission signals cannot work around obstacles or travel in curved lines, so they are called _________. ________________________________________ 144.The highest level that a satellite can occupy is the ________ earth orbit. ________________________________________ 145.Global Positioning Systems use ________ to continuously transmit signals to identify earth locations. ________________________________________ 146.The Global Positioning System is an example of a ________-way long-distance communications system. ________________________________________ 147.Simple one-way radio receivers that receive data (but not voice messages) are called ________; they are often used in hospital environments. ________________________________________ 148.1G cellphones are __________; 2G, 3G, and 4G cellphones are _________. ________________________________________ 149._________ is an international standard widely adopted in the U.S.A., Europe, and Asia that supports fast cellphone data transfer rate; this standard has not been adopted yet by all carriers. ________________________________________
  • 31. 6-27 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 150.Public wireless access points are called _________. ________________________________________ 151.The short-range, wireless digital standard aimed at linking hand-held devices up to 33 feet apart is called ________. ________________________________________ 152._________ is similar to Wi-Fi but has a far greater range. ________________________________________ 153.The three short-range wireless standards used in home automation networks, for linking switches and sensors around the house and yard, are Insteon, ZigBee, and _________. ________________________________________ 154.Trolls, spies, hackers, and thieves are kinds of _________. ________________________________________ 155.A _________ is a person who posts intentionally offensive, incendiary, or off-topic comments online. ________________________________________ 156.Worms, viruses, Trojan horses, and rootkits are all types of programs called ________. ________________________________________ 157.A(n) ________ is a program that copies itself repeatedly into a computer's memory or onto a disk drive and that can cause the computer to crash. ________________________________________
  • 32. 6-28 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 158.Almost all viruses are attached to an _________ file. ________________________________________ 159.A ________ is a program that pretends to be a useful program, usually free, such as a game or screen saver, but carries viruses, or destructive instructions that cause problems without your knowledge. ________________________________________ 160.A(n) ________ uses malware to hijack hundreds or thousands of computers, called ________, and to remotely control them all. ________________________________________ 161.________ software can be used to scan a computer's hard disk, CDs, and main memory to detect viruses. ________________________________________ 162.The process of altering readable data into unreadable form to prevent unauthorized access is known as ________. ________________________________________ 163.A message sent in its original undisguised, readable form is ________. ________________________________________ Essay Questions
  • 33. 6-29 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 164.How do analog and digital devices interpret electrical signals? 165.What is the primary purpose of the modem? 166.What are the main differences between a WAN, a MAN, and a LAN?
  • 34. 6-30 Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 167.What is the difference between a client/server network and a peer-to-peer network? 168.Describe what a packet is and what it does. 169.Describe the network topology used by the Internet.
  • 35. Exploring the Variety of Random Documents with Different Content
  • 36. “I told you they were to be let alone and I mean it. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.” Yank said nothing. His eye, where Joel’s fist had thudded, was swollen shut, but out of the other he glared steadily; and while he did not move a muscle (he knew better than to move with that revolver muzzle trained upon him), if a look could have killed, then Joel would have dropped in his tracks. Joel slowly backed away, keeping his Colt’s ready. “Remember,” he warned. “Don’t try that again.” And finally, having backed far enough, beyond the fringe of men who had gathered, he hastened after his wagon. Davy’s heart could beat again. “Joel was right in this,” proclaimed a teamster. “You may be assistant wagon boss but even the boss himself has no business whipping another man’s bulls.” And as the men resought their wagons heads wagged and voices murmured in agreement therewith. As for Yank, he was growing red again; he cautiously wiped his injured eye, his hand twitched upon the butt of his revolver, and picking up his hat he stumbled forward as if in a dream. The way he acted was more dangerous, it seemed to Davy, than if he had stormed and threatened. And Davy was afraid for Joel. The train passed through the sandy hollow without further mishap; and when they climbed out and pulled on over the next rise they met the buffalo hunters returning. The mules’ saddles were red with meat, and the three riders were well pleased with their hunt. The sun was low over the trail before, making golden the dust of travel. “We’ll camp here, boys,” called Charley, cheerfully, “and do what butchering we need on those buffalo carcasses. Swing out, Joel. Whew, man! You must have had to lay on the lash a bit heavy, didn’t you?” For the haunches of the lead team were bloody welted. More
  • 37. than that, the cracker seemed to have taken a piece of hide out the size of a quarter! “No,” said Joel, briefly. “I didn’t.” “Well,” continued Charley, “let’s corral where we are. Yank, you— what’s the matter with your eye, man?” “I fell down,” answered Yank, steadily. And at the laugh which went up he reddened deeply again, and again his hand twitched.
  • 38. XVII DAVY “THE BULL WHACKER” Charley scanned him quizzically for a moment. “You must have fallen mighty hard,” he remarked. “Who hit you, Yank?” “That lead teamster o’ yours,” growled Yank, with a string of oaths. “I’ll get him for that. No man can strike me and stay long on this earth. The dirty hound!” And he abused Joel horridly. Joel heard the loud words, and suddenly leaving his team where it stood, came walking fast. “None of that!” he called. “You keep a quiet tongue in your head. You can see what he did to my bulls, Charley. He laid my whip on them. I allow no man to cut my bulls. I never cut them myself. They were doing as well as they could.” Charley quickly stepped between the two—for the hand of each was poised for the dart to revolver butt. “That’s enough,” he bade. “There’s to be no fighting in this train and no swearing. You both know that. Give me your guns. Pass ’em over.” “All right, Charley,” answered Joel. “Here are mine if you say so. I don’t need a gun to deal with that fellow.” And unbuckling his belt he tossed it aside. “Now it’s up to you, Yank,” addressed Charley. Yank flushed.
  • 39. “My guns are my own, an’ I’m goin’ to wear ’em as long as I please,” he blurted. “No, you aren’t, Yank,” retorted Charley, coolly. Looking him in the eye, he walked straight to him. “You needn’t give them to me; I’ll take them. See?” He was a little man, was Charley, but he had a great heart and the nerve to back it up. Reaching, while Yank stood uncertain and cowed, he jerked both revolvers from the holsters; then he stepped back to put his foot on Joel’s belt. “That’s enough,” he said. “I want this matter to end right here. If you laid whip on another man’s bulls when there wasn’t any need of it I reckon you got about what you deserved. We’re not bull skinners in this train. But I’ll have no fighting in the outfit. You fellows can settle your differences after you leave. Go on and finish your corralling, Joel. Yank, you saddle a fresh mule from the cavvy and ride out and help Kentuck and Andy butcher those buffalo. Your mule’s plumb worn out. Hear me?” Yank glared at him for a moment, but Charley returned eye for eye. Presently Yank whirled on his heel, and snatching the bridle of his mule strode off, muttering, to the cavvy. Joel went back to his team. Charley shook the cylinders out of the four revolvers, dropped them into his pockets, and stowed the useless weapons in one of the wagons. The train proceeded about the business of the hour, and Davy, whose heart had been beating high, helped. “The ride out yonder will help to cool his blood a bit,” commented one of the teamsters, referring to Yank—who, leading Andy and Kentuck, was galloping furiously away. As for Joel, he was acting as if the recent trouble was ancient history—except that when he examined the wounds on his two beloved oxen he shook his head. The teams had been unhitched from the wagons and were being led aside to water and pasture, when a sudden shout arose. “Look at Yank! Look at him, will you! Where’s he going?”
  • 40. Everybody stared. Leaving Andy and Kentuck behind, Yank, without slackening pace, was galloping on and on through the area where the buffalo herd had been and where the carcasses were lying. Andy and Kentuck yelled at him, but he paid no heed. And from the wagon train welled another chorus of cries. “He’s taking French leave! He’s deserting!” “Let him go, boys,” quoth Charley, coloring, but making no move. “I’ll send him his guns sometime; but he’s forfeited his pay. If he wants to have things that way, good enough. We’re better off without him.” The men grunted, satisfied; nobody liked the unruly, foul-mouthed Yank. Soon he disappeared over a rise and he was not seen again by Davy for a year. The camp that evening seemed much pleasanter without the presence of Yank. With him absent and with plenty of buffalo meat on hand, the men laughed and joked to even an unusual extent. It was a carefree camp. “Here are your guns, Joel,” said Charley, returning them. “Guess I can trust you with them now. Well, we’re a short train, with two men shy. I’d rather lose Yank than Sailor Bill; but they’re both gone. Kentuck, you’re promoted to assistant wagon boss; and I’ll have to turn your team over to Dave, here. They’re well broken and I reckon he can drive them. How about it, Dave?” Davy was somewhat flustered. He to be a bull whacker? Hurrah! “I’ll try,” he stammered. “Sure you will; and you’ll make good. Fact is, those bulls drive themselves. But you can learn a heap, anyway. All right. You take Kentuck’s outfit in the morning and go ahead. The boys will help you if you get in trouble. I can’t spare Joel; he’s too good a man in the lead, and we need him there.” That night Davy could scarcely go to sleep. He was excited. He wondered if he really could “make good” as a bull whacker. He had
  • 41. practised with the whip and could “throw” it pretty well, although it was a long lash for a boy. But he had found out that to wield a bull whip and “pop” it required a certain knack rather than mere strength; and, besides, the bull teams behind kept up with the wagons before as a matter of habit. Of course, corralling and yoking were the chief difficulties. But he had watched closely what the men did every day, and he thought that he knew how, at least. At any rate, he was bound to try. To handle twelve oxen seemed to him a bigger job than being a messenger. It was a proud Dave who, early in the morning, after breakfast, at the cry “Catch up, men! Catch up!” shouldered his yoke and the two bows, and sturdily trotted for the corral. He knew how to begin. The proper method was to lay the heavy yoke across one shoulder with the bows hanging from your arm. One pin was carried in your mouth, the other in your hand. The ends of the bows passed up through the yoke, so that only one end needed a pin thrust through above the yoke to hold it; the other end stayed of itself. Davy felt that the men were watching him out of the corners of their eyes. He heard somebody say, aside, bantering: “Look out, boys, or that kid will beat us!” Of course he could not do that! Not yet. But Charley called to him from the forward gap, where somebody must stand to keep the cattle in: “The wheel team first, Dave. You know them, do you? A pair of big roans.” Davy nodded. He remembered them; he had marked them well by a good scrutiny when the herd was being driven in from pasture. “All right,” said Charley. “You’ll find them together. The whole bunch ought to be together.” The corral was crowded with oxen and men, and appeared a mass of confusion; but there was little confusion, for by this time the oxen and the men all knew their business. Davy pushed his way straight to the two big roans (the largest and stoutest bulls always were chosen for the wheel team, because they must hold up the heavy
  • 42. pole and also must stand up to the weight of the wagon down hill), and in approved fashion laid the yoke across the neck of one. “Be sure you yoke ’em like they’re used to travellin’, lad,” warned a kind teamster. “The near and the off bull, or you’ll have trouble.” Davy nodded again. He had noted this also. The “near” bull meant the bull that was yoked to stand on the left; the “off” bull was the right-hand one. The near bull of this team had a short horn, he remembered. He slipped the bow under the near bull’s neck, and standing on the outside, or left, inserted the ends of the bow up through the yoke and slipped the pin in to hold it. Then he hustled around to the opposite side of the “off” bull, who was standing close to his mate, shoved him about (“Get ’round there, you!” ordered Davy, gruffly), and reaching for the yoke lifted it across, adjusted the bow (from the outside), slipped in the pin from his mouth—and there he had his wheel pair yoked together! Now proud indeed, he led his yoke out through the other bulls to his wagon. They took position on either side of the pole, although they seemed a little puzzled by the change in manager. Now it only remained to lift the pole and put the end through the ring riveted to extend below the middle of the yoke. “Lead team next,” said Davy, wisely, to himself, leaving his wheel team and hurrying to shoulder another yoke and its bows and re- enter the wagon corral. Every man was supposed to know his twelve bulls as a father knows his children. Davy’s lead team were spotted fellows, with long black horns. He went straight to them where they stood, waiting; yoked them masterfully and led them, too, out to the wagon. He put them in position, and with the four other yokes built his whole team —starting from the rear. The train was ready and watching, but not impatient. The men gave him time. From the middle of each yoke the massive log chain by which they pulled ran between them back to the yoke of the pair behind—save that the wheel team pulled by the tongue and had no chain. Davy
  • 43. worked hard to hook the chains. A man stepped forward to help him; but Charley called promptly: “Let him alone, boys. He’s doing well. He’ll get the hang of it. Every man to his own team, you know.” And Davy was glad. “All set,” he announced shrilly, for his team were hooked at last. “All set,” repeated Charley. “Line out, boys.” To brisk shout from Joel and crack of his whip the lead team straightened their chains and the wagon moved ahead. One after another the other wagons followed; and Davy’s team fell into place almost before he had “popped” his whip and had joined in the cries: “Haw, Buck! Hep! Hep with you!” The train retook the trail, Davy trudging like any other bull whacker on the left side of his wheel yoke, his whip over his shoulder, his hat shoved back from his perspiring forehead. He doubted if even Billy Cody could have done better; and he wished that Billy might see him. Ever the trail unfolded on and on, sometimes skirting the shallow Platte, sometimes diverging a little to seek easier route. It traversed a country very unattractive, broken by the clayey buttes and by deep washes, and running off into wide, sandy plateaus and bottoms, rife with jack-rabbits, coyotes, prairie-dogs, antelope, and occasional buffalo. The rattlesnakes were a great nuisance; the men killed them with the whip lashes by neatly cutting off their heads as they coiled or sometimes shot them. And almost every morning somebody complained of a snake creeping into his warm blanket. The processions of emigrants continued as thick as ever, bound for “Pike’s Peak,” for Salt Lake, California and Oregon. Each day the stage for Denver and the stage for Leavenworth passed, dusty and hurrying; and now was given a glimpse, once in two weeks, of the Hockaday & Liggett stages, which travelled twice a month between St. Joseph, above Leavenworth, and Salt Lake City. Occasionally
  • 44. Indians—Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Pawnees and Sioux—came into the camps begging for “soog” and “cof” and “tobac.” Davy enjoyed every mile and he did splendidly. He enjoyed even the never-varying diet of “sowbelly” (salt pork), baked beans, hot bread, and sugarless, milkless coffee, eked out by buffalo meat and antelope meat when they could get it. Some of the men tried prairie- dogs—which weren’t so bad as they sound, tasting and looking like chicken or rabbit. The main difficulty was to get them after they had been shot, for they almost always managed to tumble into their holes. Then, when anybody put a hand in to drag them out, it was met by the angry whirr of a rattle-snake. A rattle-snake and a little owl seemed to live in each hole along with the prairie-dog family! There were storms, coming up with startling suddenness. One storm, at Cottonwood Springs a hundred miles west of Kearney, Davy never forgot. It was a hail storm. First a mighty cloud of deep purple shot through with violet lightning, swelled over the trail in the west. Emigrants scuttled to secure their wagons, and at Charley’s sharp commands so did the bull train. “It looks like a twister, boys,” shouted Charley, riding back along the train. “Better corral. I’m afraid for these bulls.” So the train corralled in a jiffy; and, unyoked, the bulls were driven inside. The tongues were hung in the draw ropes of the wagon covers and the wheels were chained, wagon to wagon. Slickers were jerked out from the wagons and donned; and the men prepared to crawl under the wagon boxes if necessary. With angry mutter and swollen shape the purple cloud came on at a tremendous pace. The spin-drift of it caught the plain far ahead, and one after another the trains of the emigrants were swallowed in the blackness. When the first gust struck the bull train the touch was icy cold. “Hail, boys! Hail!” shouted Charley. “Watch the bulls!” Now sounded a clatter like rain on a sheet-iron roof; and across the landscape of sand and clay, and a cottonwood grove at the
  • 45. mouth of the creek, swept a line of white. The men dived for cover like prairie-dogs whisking into their holes. Yes, it was hail! Such hail! Driven by a gale the stones, some as large as hickorynuts, and all as large as filberts, lashed the huddled train; whanged against canvas and wagon-box and with dull thuds bounded from the bulls’ backs. Some of the animals shifted uneasily, for the stones stung. The others stood groaning and grunting with discomfort, shaking their heads when a particularly vicious missile landed on an ear. Under the wagons the men were secure; but Dave felt sorry for the poor bulls who turned and sought in vain. As quickly as it had come the storm passed, leaving the ground white with the hail. Almost before the men had crawled out from underneath their wagons the sun was shining. The hail had not damaged the bull train to any extent. There were dents in the tough wood where the heavy stones had struck, and several of the wagon sheets, forming the hoods, had been punctured in weak spots; but thanks to Charley’s promptness in corralling, the animals had not stampeded. However, some of the emigrants had not fared so well, because they had not known what to do. After the bull train was yoked up again and was travelling on, it passed two emigrant outfits stalled by the trail, trying to recover their teams which had run away. Many of the flimsy cotton hoods used by the emigrants were riddled into strips. The Overland Trail followed up the south side of the Platte, the same way by which Dave had come down with the Lew Simpson train a year before, after the fight in the mule fort. Where the North Platte and the South Platte joined current it continued on up the South Platte—and now to the north a short distance was the place where the mule fort had been located so hastily by Billy Cody and Lew and George Woods. Soon the main trail for Salt Lake and California forded the South Platte to cross the narrow point of land for Ash Hollow at the North Platte and for Laramie and Salt Lake City. But the Denver branch
  • 46. proceeded on into the west by the newer trail to the mountains and Denver. This branch of the Overland Trail down to Denver was only six months old, but already it was a well-worn trail, scored deep by the stages and by the thousands of emigrants and the constant freight outfits. The travel eastward, toward the States, was almost as great now as that westbound, for fall had come and everybody who was intending to return to the States had started so as to get there before winter. A winter journey by wagon across these plains was no fun. After the parting of the trail, the next station on the route was Jules’ Ranch. Jules was an old French-Indian trapper and trader, whose full name (as he claimed) was Jules Beni. His mother was a Cheyenne Indian, and Jules had built a trading post here, a mile beyond Lodgepole Creek, for trade with the Cheyennes. Now Jules had turned his attention to the new business that had opened, and he was selling flour to the Pike’s Peak “pilgrims” at a dollar a pound. He had been smart enough to break a new trail that would bring the travel between the North and the South Platte past his place—for the regular crossing was east of him. He was smart, was Old Jules, and now he had just been made stage agent. “I want all you fellows to keep clear of Old Jules,” cautioned Charley, as the train approached what some of the men jokingly called “Julesburg.” “I’ve never seen him when he wasn’t drunk and he’s a corker for losing his temper and picking fights. Then he wants to kill somebody. When he’s in liquor he’s plumb crazy. He’s shot two men and carries their ears in his pocket. I’m not afraid of him, and neither are you; but to-morrow’s Sunday and we’ll tie up near his place, and I don’t want trouble.” “Why don’t you pull right through, Charley?” asked Andy Johnson, as a spokesman. “We’re agreeable. ‘Dirty Jules’ is no great attraction.”
  • 47. “Well,” said Charley, “we usually do ease off on Sunday, and it’s company orders and I don’t propose to change the programme at this stage of the game.”
  • 48. XVIII BILLY CODY TURNS UP AGAIN The Russell, Majors & Waddell bull trains were under instructions to lie by over Sunday whenever possible. By some people this was accounted a waste of time. However, Mr. Majors especially insisted that Sunday should be Sunday wherever it fell, in town or on the danger trail. One day in seven might well be spent in rest even with a bull train. It brought the men and cattle through in better shape, and was a gain that way instead of any loss. So that evening the wagon train corralled near the Platte River crossing, where the Salt Lake Trail turned north, about half a mile east from Jules’ Ranch. The river was a great convenience, for on Sunday the men usually tried to slick up by bathing and washing their clothing and tidying generally. Therefore, after breakfast the brush near the river bank was soon displaying shirts and handkerchiefs of red and blue, and sundry pairs of socks, spread out to dry, while their owners sat around and fought mosquitoes and watched the wagon outfits. Some of these forded the river for Salt Lake, Oregon or California, but most of them kept on up the Denver branch. This was interrupted by a distant hullabaloo—a yelling and cheering mingled. The air was thin and still and very clear, so that sound and eyesight carried far through it. The hullabaloo evidently came from Jules’ Ranch, where at the group of buildings a crowd of people had gathered. Davy’s shirt was dry, and he reached for it. “Must be having a celebration over yonder,” drawled Kentuck. “Reckon I’ll go see.”
  • 49. He donned his red shirt and started. Several others made ready to go; and Davy, as curious as anybody, decided that he would go, too. So, wriggling into his clothes, whether they were dry or not, he followed along up the trail to Jules’ place. The ranch was a small collection of adobe or sun-baked clay buildings, and a log shack which was the store. The main excitement was centred in front of the store. The crowd had formed a circle at a respectful distance. They were emigrants and a few of the Charley Martin bull train. “What’s the row?” queried Kentuck of a man at his elbow. “’Pears like this fellow Jules is having a leetle time with himself,” answered the man. “I ’low he’s crazy. He’s got whiskey and flour out thar on the ground and says he’s mixing mortar. It’s a good place for the whiskey, but it’s an awful waste of flour.” Edging through the circle, Davy peered to see. A dirty, darkly sallow visaged, hairy man, in soiled shirt, and trousers sagging from their belt, was capering and screeching, and hoeing at a white mass which might have been real mortar. But the smell of whiskey was strong in the air, and there stood a barrel of it with the head knocked in. The white stuff was flour, for, as Davy looked, the capering hairy man grabbed a sack, tore it open and emptied it on the pile. “I show you how I mek one gr-r-rand mortarr,” he proclaimed. “Flour at one dollar ze pound, whiskey at ten dollars ze quart; zat ze way ol’ Jules mek gr-r-rand mortarr. Wow! Hooray! If anybody teenk he mek one better mortarr, I cut off hees ears. Dees my country; I do as I please.” And he hoed vigorously at his “mortar bed,” and screeched and capered and threatened and boasted and made a fool of himself. Some of the crowd laughed and applauded; but the majority were disgusted. To Davy it seemed a great pity that any human being should so lose all control of himself and be less human than an ape. He speedily tired of this silly exhibition by Jules, the store-keeper,
  • 50. and turned away for fresh air. He and Charley, the wagon boss, emerged from the crowd together. “Old Jules is spoiling his own business, I reckon,” observed Charley. “How any man can watch that in there and ever taste whiskey again is more than I know. To see him make a fool of himself is better than signing a pledge.” The crowd rapidly wearied of this drunken Jules and his antics and dwindled away. As for Davy, he had decided to take a walk to the mouth of Lodgepole Creek, up the river a short distance. Lodgepole Creek emptied in on the opposite side of the Platte, and was named because the Cheyennes used to gather their lodge poles along it. The Platte flowed shallow and wide, with many sand bars and ripples, and many deepish holes where the water eddied rapidly. The banks were fringed with willows not very high. From a rise in the trail Dave, trudging stanchly in his heavy dusty boots, beheld an object, far up the channel, beyond the willow tops, floating down. It was a large object flat to the water, and as he peered he saw a flash as from an oar-blade. A boat! No—too large and low for a boat. It must be a raft with somebody aboard. Davy waited, inquisitive; for craft floating on the Platte were a curiosity. The upper river was too shallow, especially at this time of the year. The raft came on gallantly and swiftly. It carried three persons and their outfit. The crew were standing up: one of them steering, behind, and one at either edge, with oars, was helping to fend off from the bars. It looked like an easy mode of travel, and Davy prepared to stand out and give the voyagers a cheer. But just before the raft arrived opposite, going finely, it appeared to hang on a snag or else strike a sudden eddy; or perhaps it did both at once; nobody could tell. Under Davy’s astonished eyes it stopped for a moment in mid-stream; the crew wildly dug with their oars and fell to their hands and knees; whirling around and around the platform fairly melted away underneath them, leaving only three black dots on the surface of the water. These were heads!
  • 51. Waking to the situation, Davy waved and shouted; the swimmers may have seen him, he thought, because they were making for his side. The current bore them along, as sometimes they swam and sometimes they waded; and he kept pace to encourage. As the foremost neared the bank, Davy rushed down and waded in to meet him and help him ashore. He wasn’t a very large person—that drenched figure floundering and splashing for safety; he wasn’t large at all; and extending a hand, to give him a boost, Davy gasped, only half believing: “Why—hello, Billy! Gee whiz! Is that you?”
  • 53. “Hello, Dave,” answered Billy Cody, muddy and dripping, but calmly shaking Dave’s hand. “I guess it must be. Where are Hi and Jim?” And he turned quickly to scan the river. “Good. They’re coming. I knew they could swim. They can swim better than I, so I reckoned I’d get ashore as soon as I could. What are you doing here and where are you bound for?” “I’m bull whacking for Russell, Majors & Waddell from Leavenworth to Denver,” informed Davy, proudly. “Where are you bound for?” “Back to the river.” And by “the river” Davy knew that Billy meant the Missouri. “We didn’t have any luck in the diggin’s, so we thought we’d float home down the Platte to the Missouri and down the Missouri to Leavenworth. Well, we got this far, anyhow.” “Jiminy crickets!” shouted Hi, now plashing in. “If here isn’t Dave waiting for us! Did you come all the way from Leavenworth to meet us, Dave?” And there was a great shaking of hands. “I dunno what the dickens happened to us out there,” volunteered Jim, gazing at the river suspiciously. “One moment we were just sailing along and next moment we were swimming. No more sailoring for me; I’d rather walk with a bull team. Here we’ve lost our whole outfit and we’re going home from the diggin’s ‘busted’ flat.” “We didn’t have much to lose; that’s one comfort,” said Billy. “Think how bad we’d be feeling if we’d struck it rich up in the mountains and every ounce was now at the bottom of the Platte! Huh! We’ve had our fun, anyhow. Who’s your wagon boss, Dave?” “Charley Martin.” “Where are you camped?” “At the Platte crossing, just below Jules’.” “All right,” quoth Billy, cheerily. “Come on, boys. I’m going down to the camp and see what I can get, and Charley’ll grub-stake us
  • 54. home.” They had clambered up the bank into the dryness, and now they continued down the trail—Billy and Hi and Jim clumping and squashing, Davy tramping sturdily in his teamster costume of flannel shirt and trousers tucked into big boots. “So you’re a sure-’nough bull whacker, are you?” asked Hi of Davy, with a grin. “I was hired just as an ‘extra’ for carrying messages, you know,” said Davy, to be both honest and modest. “But we ran short of men so Charley put me at whacking. I can sling a whip some; that is, pretty good. The bulls are trained, anyway.” “When did you begin?” asked Billy. “Back at Plum Creek.” “If you’ve held your job this far, then, I guess you can hold it as long as you like. Bully for you, Red.” And at Billy’s generous praise Davy blushed. The excitement at Jules’ trading store had quieted and only the mess of whiskey-sodden flour remained. Billy and Jim paid scant attention to this, except that they, too, were disgusted when they heard what old Jules had been up to. They were more intent upon getting to the wagon train camp. And here Charley Martin and the whole outfit, in fact, received them with a great ado. Everybody in the train seemed to know Billy, and almost everybody knew Hi and Jim. There was a stranger to Davy in camp. He had arrived in a light buggy drawn by a strong, spirited team of black horses, and was chatting with Charley. His name proved to be B. F. Ficklin—“Ben” Ficklin. He shook hands with Billy, and Billy introduced Dave. “Mr. Ficklin, this is my friend Dave Scott, youngest bull whacker on the plains.”
  • 55. “You want to watch out or he’ll catch up with you, Billy,” bantered Mr. Ficklin. “I shouldn’t wonder,” answered Billy, carelessly. “But I’ve got a head start over him. I’m a prairie sailor sure now, and navigation on the Platte is closed!” Not only in sailing on the Platte, but in many other feats Dave never did catch up with Billy Cody. Mr. Ficklin was the general superintendent of the Russell, Majors & Waddell freighting and staging business. He bore the news that the company had taken over the stage outfit of Hockaday & Liggett, which ran twice a month from St. Joseph on the Missouri to Salt Lake on the Platte River Overland Route, and were going to combine the Leavenworth & Pike’s Peak Express with it. He himself was on his way from Denver, back down the trail to inspect the condition of the stations from the Platte crossing to the Missouri. “We’re going to make this stage line a hummer, boys,” he informed. “Hockaday & Liggett have been running two times a month on a schedule of twenty-one days to Salt Lake; no stations, and same team without change for several hundreds of miles at a stretch. The company are putting in stations every ten and fifteen miles all along the Overland route from the river to Salt Lake, and stocking them with provisions and fodder. We’re buying the best Kentucky mules that we can find and ordering more Concord coaches; and we’re going to put a coach through every day in the year, from the Missouri to Salt Lake, on a ten-day schedule, by the Salt Lake Overland Trail to the crossing here, then north to Laramie and over the South Pass. A stage will be sent down to Denver, too.” Mr. Ficklin evidently was an enthusiast. Davy had heard of him—a hard worker and a booster for the company that he loved. “What’s ever become of the scheme of yours and that California senator, Gwin, to put a fast mail service through, horseback, from St. Louis to San Francisco, by the Overland route, at $500 for each round trip,” asked Joel of Mr. Ficklin.
  • 56. “Nothing yet. Senator Gwin was right for it after our talk on the stage from California five years ago, and he introduced a bill in Congress; but the bill died. The California people are howling, though, for something better than news three weeks to six weeks old from the East. And mark my words,” continued Mr. Ficklin, earnestly, “that’s what will happen next—a pony express from the Missouri to the coast that will beat the stage.” “Do you think they’ll stretch a line of relays clear across for two thousand miles and keep it going day and night passing the mail along?” demanded Billy, his eyes sparkling at the fancy. “Yes, sir,” answered Mr. Ficklin, shortly. “Well, when they do I want to ride one of the runs—one that will keep me hopping, too,” declared Billy.
  • 57. XIX DAVY MAKES ANOTHER CHANGE “Did you see my mother when you were back East, Dave?” asked Billy. “Yes.” “How’s she looking?” “Not extra good, Billy. She’s not very well, and she said if I came across you to tell you she’d like to see you as soon as she could.” “How are the girls?” “They’re all right.” “I’m sorry about ma,” mused Billy, soberly. “If she’s poorly I’m going home as straight as I can travel, you can bet on that.” “We can give you a job with the bull train, Billy,” proffered Charley Martin. “We’re short of men.” But Billy shook his head. “No, sir. I’m due at the Cody place in Salt Creek Valley.” “Well, Billy, in that case I’ll pass you through on the next stage, if there’s room,” volunteered Mr. Ficklin. “I can hang on somewhere,” asserted Billy. “The pass is the main thing. Never mind the room.” While they all were talking a new arrival halted near. It was an army ambulance—a wagon with black leather top, seats running around the inside, and four big black army mules as the team. It was bound west. A soldier in dusty blue uniform was the driver, and
  • 58. a corporal of infantry sat beside him, between his knees a Sharp’s carbine. From the rear of the ambulance another soldier briskly piled out. By his shoulder straps and the white stripes down his trouser- seams he was an officer; by the double bars on his shoulder straps a captain. He wore a revolver in holster. He walked over to the group and nodded. “Hello, Ben.” “How are you, captain.” And Mr. Ficklin arose to shake hands. “Gentlemen,” continued Mr. Ficklin, “I want to introduce Captain Brown.” “I believe I know the captain,” spoke Charley, also shaking hands. “Hello, Billy,” addressed the captain, catching sight of him. “What’s the matter? Been swimming?” “Yes,” laughed Billy. “The water’s a little cold up in the mountains, so I took my annual down here.” “Billy’s been at the diggin’s, captain,” vouchsafed Mr. Ficklin. “He brought down so much gold in his hide that he couldn’t travel till he’d washed it out.” Billy took their joking good-naturedly. That he was going home “broke” had not discouraged him at all. “I know one thing, gentlemen,” he declared. “I’m not a miner, but I had to learn. The plains for me after this. You’ll find me bobbing up again.” “Yes, you can’t keep Billy Cody down, that’s a fact,” agreed Mr. Ficklin. “Where are you bound, captain? Denver?” “No, sir. Laramie. I’ve just come through from Omaha. I hear you fellows are putting on a daily stage to Salt Lake to connect there with the line for San Francisco.” “Yes, sir. It’ll be running this month, and it’ll be a hummer. I’m on my way to inspect the stations now.”
  • 59. “This is my friend Dave Scott, captain,” introduced Billy, in his generous way. “He’s the youngest bull whacker on the trail.” “He must be a pretty close second to you, then, Billy,” remarked Captain Brown, extending his hand to Davy, who, as usual, felt embarrassed. “You started in rather young yourself!” The captain (who was a tanned, stoutly-built man, with short russet beard and keen hazel eyes) scanned Davy sharply. He scratched his head. “I don’t see why I can’t get hold of a boy like you or Billy,” he said. “I prefer red-headed boys. I was red-headed myself once, before the Indians scared my hair off.” “You’re a bit red-headed now, captain,” slyly asserted Charley; for the captain’s bald pate certainly was well burned by the sun. “Well, I feel red-headed, too,” retorted the captain. “So would you if every time you got a clerk he deserted to the gold fields. Lend me this boy, will you, Martin? He’s in your train, isn’t he? I’ll take him on up to Laramie with me and give him a good job in the quartermaster’s department. There’s a place there for somebody just about his size, boots and all.” And the captain, who evidently had taken a fancy to the sturdy Dave, smiled at him. All of a sudden Davy wanted to go. He had heard of Fort Laramie, that important headquarters post on the North Platte in western Nebraska (which is to-day Wyoming) near the mountains, and he wanted to see it. Billy had been there several times with the bull trains out of Leavenworth, and had told him about it. “I’d like to oblige you, captain,” answered Charley. “But we’re short handed this trip, and Davy’s a valuable man. He’s making quite a bull whacker. Besides, I reckon he’s counting on going to school this winter in Leavenworth; aren’t you, Davy?” Davy nodded. “I thought I’d better,” he said. “That’s one reason I left Denver.” “He can go to school at Laramie,” asserted the captain quickly. “We have a school for the post children there, and it’s a good one.”
  • 60. Davy listened eagerly, and it was plain to be seen how he was inclined. Denver meant only a short stay, for Charley was anxious to start back again before winter closed in on the plains, and there might not be any chance to see Mr. Baxter, after all. Laramie sounded good. “Oh, shucks!” blurted Jim. “If you want to let Dave out, Charley, I’d as lief go on to Denver and finish with you.” “So would I,” added Hi. “How about it, Dave?” queried Charley. “Is it Denver or Leavenworth, or Laramie, for you?” “I’d like to try Laramie first-rate but I don’t want to quit the train unless you say so,” answered Dave, honestly. “I hired out for the trip, and Mr. Russell and Mr. Majors expect me to go through.” “Mr. Majors knows me and so does Billy Russell,” put in the captain. “I’ll write Majors a letter and give him a receipt for one red- headed boy, with guarantee of good treatment. I tell you, Martin, the United States has need for one red-headed boy, name of Dave, in the quartermaster service at Fort Laramie; and I believe I’ll have to send a detail out on the trail and seize him by force of arms.” The captain, of course, was joking, but he also seemed in earnest. “If he’s employed by Russell, Majors & Waddell that’s recommendation enough, and I want him all the more.” Charley laughed. “Oh, in that case, and if he wants to go, I suppose I’ll have to let him, and take Jim and Hi on in his place. They two ought to be able to fill his job. If you say so, Dave, I’ll give you your discharge right away, and a voucher for your pay to date, and you can see how you like the army for a change.” “Go ahead, Red,” bade Billy. “You’ll learn a heap, and I’ll be out that way myself soon. First thing you know you’ll see me coming through driving stage or riding that pony express. Whoop-la!” And of this Davy did not have the slightest doubt.
  • 61. Captain Brown declined an invitation to stay for dinner with the mess. He was in a hurry. So the exchange of Davy from bull whacking to Government service was quickly made. Before he was an hour older he had shaken hands with everybody within reach and was trundling northward in the black covered ambulance beside Captain Brown. He knew that in another hour or two Billy himself would be travelling east, back to Salt Creek Valley and Leavenworth; and that early in the morning the bull train, with Charley and Joel and Kentuck and Hi and Jim and all, would be travelling west for the end of the trail at Denver. This was just like the busy West in those days; friends were constantly mingling and parting, each on active business—to meet again a little later and report what they had been doing in the progress of the big country. “You’re too young to follow bull whacking, my boy,” declared the captain. “It’s a rough life and a hard one. To earn your own way and know how to hold up your end and take care of yourself is all very well; but you’d better mix in with it the education of books and cultured people as much as you can while you go along. Then you’ll grow up an all-round man instead of a one-sided man. Laramie’s a long way from the States; but we’ve got a small post school and a few books, and it’s the home of a lot of cultured men and women. You’ll learn things there that you’ll never learn roughing it on the trail.” And Davy looked forward to life at old Fort Laramie, the famous army post and freight and emigrant station on the Overland Trail to Salt Lake, Oregon and California. The fording of the Platte was made in quick time to foil the quicksands. The North Platte was now scarce eighteen miles across the narrow tongue of land separating the two rivers above their juncture. It was struck at Ash Hollow. Ash Hollow had a grocery store for emigrant trade. The sign read “BUTTE, REGGS, FLOWER and MELE.”
  • 62. Captain Brown halted here long enough to buy a few crackers and some sardines. “Thought we’d stock up while we can,” he explained to Dave. “These and what buffalo meat we have will carry us quite a way. Laramie’s one hundred and sixty miles, and I’m going to push right through.” The four stout mules ambled briskly at a good eight miles an hour, following the trail into the west, up the south bank of the river. The trail was broad and plain, but it was not so crowded with emigrants as it had been before the Pike’s Peak portion of it had branched off. However, there still were emigrants; and there were many bull trains bound out for Laramie and Fort Bridger and Salt Lake, for this was the main Overland Trail, dating back fifty years. The ambulance rolled on without slackening, except for sand or short rises, until after sunset. Then the captain gave the word to stop. By this time he knew Dave’s history, and Davy was liking him immensely. They clambered stiffly out. The driver and corporal unhitched the mules: and while the corporal made a fire for coffee, the driver (who was a private) put the mules out to graze. “We’ll take four hours, Mike,” said the captain to the corporal. “Then we’ll make another spurt until daylight.” “Yes, sir,” answered the corporal, saluting. “You’d do well to crawl in the wagon and sleep, after supper, Dave,” advised the captain to Davy. “We’ll be travelling the rest of the night. Can you stand it?” Davy laughed. A great question, that, to ask of a boy who’d just been a bull whacker walking across the plains! Nevertheless, Davy took a nap in the bottom of the ambulance; and more than a nap. When he awakened, he had been aroused by the jolting of his bed. A buffalo robe had been thrown over him, the captain was sitting in a corner snugly wrapped, and by the light of a half moon the ambulance was again upon its way.
  • 63. In the morning, when they once more halted to rest and feed the mules, the country was considerably rougher, with hills and fantastic rocks breaking the sagy, gravelly landscape. The white-topped wagons of emigrants and the smoke of their camp-fires were in sight, before and behind; and not far ahead a bull outfit were driving their bulls into the wagon corral to yoke up for the day’s trail. Breakfast was coffee and buffalo meat; but Corporal Mike mounted one of the mules and rode off the trail. When he returned he had some sage chickens and an antelope. The sides of the ambulance had been rolled up; and about noon, pointing ahead the captain remarked to Davy: “That’s Laramie Peak, beyond the post. We’ve got only about eighty miles to go and we’ll be in bright and early.” The landmark of Laramie Peak, of the Black Hills Range of the Rocky Mountains, remained in sight all day, slowly standing higher. The sun set behind it. Davy snoozed in the bottom of the ambulance. The captain had spoken truth, for shortly after sunrise they sighted the flag streaming over Fort Laramie. Old Fort Laramie was not so large a post as Fort Leavenworth; it was not so large as Fort Kearney, even. Davy was a little disappointed, for “Laramie” was a name in the mouth of almost every bull whacker in the Russell, Majors & Waddell trains out of Leavenworth, and the men were constantly going “out to Laramie” and back. The post stood on a bare plateau beside Laramie Creek about a mile up from the Platte; some of the buildings were white- washed adobe, some were logs, and some were of rough-sawed lumber. Back of the fort were hills, and beyond the hills, to the southwest, were mountains—Laramie Peak being the sentinel. It was the important division point on the Overland Trail to Salt Lake; maintained here in the Sioux Indian country to protect the trail and to be a distributing point for Government supplies. It was garrisoned by both cavalry and infantry; on the outskirts were cabins of Indian traders and trappers and other hangers-on, and there were
  • 64. a couple of stores that sold things to emigrants. Sioux Indians usually were camping nearby, in time of peace. Davy changed his rough teamster costume for clothes a little more suited to a clerk and messenger in the quartermaster’s department, and was put to work by Captain Brown, the acting quartermaster. The post proved a busy place, with the quartermaster’s offices the busiest of all; but the captain and Mrs. Brown saw that Dave was courteously treated and given a fair show. He went to evening school, and had books to read; and once in a while was allowed time for a hunt. In fact, Fort Laramie, away out here, alone, guarding the middle of the Overland Trail through to Salt Lake, was by no means a stupid or quiet place. Of course, the trail was what kept it lively, for every day news from the States and from the farther west arrived with the emigrants and the bull trains; and scarcely had Dave been settled into his new niche, when arrived the first of the new daily stages from the Missouri. It was preceded by a slender, gentlemanly man named Bob Scott, dropped off by one of the company wagons which was establishing the stations. Bob Scott was to drive stage from Fort Laramie on to Horseshoe, thirty-six miles, and he was here in readiness. He seemed to be well known on the trail, for many persons at the post called him “Bob.” “When do you expect to start on the run, Bob?” asked the captain. “I think about next Tuesday, captain,” answered Bob, in his quiet, easy tone. “The first coach leaves to-day, I understand, from St. Joe.” “They’ll make it through in six days, will they?” “Yes, sir. Ten days to Salt Lake is the schedule—an average of one hundred and twenty miles a day. At Salt Lake the express and passengers are transferred to the George Chorpening line to Placerville, California, and from Placerville they’re sent on to Sacramento and San Francisco. I understand the time from the Missouri River to San Francisco will be about eighteen days.”
  • 65. “You haven’t heard what’s to be the name of the new company, have you, Bob?” “Yes, sir. ‘Central Overland, California & Pike’s Peak Express’ is to be the name; the ‘C. O. C. & P. P.’” Stables and express station and a relay of horses had been established adjacent to the post. The old stage company, Hockaday & Liggett, had worked on a loose, go-as-you-please system which was very different from the way that Russell, Majors & Waddell went at it. Now, with things in readiness along the line, clear to Salt Lake City, Tuesday dawned on a post eagerly hoping that Bob Scott’s calculation would prove true. About eleven o’clock a murmur and hustle in the post announced that the stage was in sight. It came with a rush and a cheer—its four mules at a gallop, up the trail, the big coach swaying behind them, the driver firm on his box. Stain of dust and mud and rain and snow coated the fresh coach body, for all the way from the Missouri River, 600 miles, had it come, through all kinds of weather, and had been travelling night and day for six days. At top and bottom of the frame around the stiffened canvas ran the legend: “Central Overland California & Pike’s Peak Express Co.” “Wild Bill” Hickok himself it was who, coolly tossing his lines to the hostler, waiting to take them and lead the horses to the stable, drawing off his gloves bade, for the benefit of his passengers: “Gentlemen, you have forty minutes here for dinner.” At the same moment the station keeper’s wife began to beat a sheet-iron gong as dinner signal.
  • 66. XX FAST TIME TO CALIFORNIA Dave was heartily glad to see Wild Bill again—and Wild Bill seemed glad to see Davy. “I heard you were out in this region,” said Wild Bill, after they had shaken hands. “Billy Cody told me.” “When did you see him, Bill?” “Last time was when I was out to his house about a month ago. He was planning on a trapping and hunting trip with a man named Harrington up in the Republican country north of Junction City. But he’ll be on the trail again in the spring; you mark my word.” “So you’re driving stage, are you, Bill?” “Yes; I’m running between Horse Creek and Laramie, forty-two miles. It’s a great outfit, the C. O. C. & P. P.—the finest coaches and mules I’ve ever seen, and plenty of stations and feed. Now it’s up to the drivers to make the schedule.” And Wild Bill sauntered off, nodding to acquaintances, to wash and eat. Davy joined the group admiring the coach. It evidently had been prepared especially for the occasion of the first trip through. It was a new “Concord,” built by the famous stage-coach manufacturers, the Abbot-Downing Company, of Concord, New Hampshire. The large round, deep body was enclosed at the sides by canvas curtains that could be rolled up; and behind, it was extended to form a large roomy triangular pocket, or “boot,” for mail and baggage. The driver’s seat, in front, was almost on the level with the roof; and beneath it was another pocket, or boot, for express and other valuables. A pair of big oil lamps sat upon brackets, at either end of
  • 67. the driver’s seat. The coach body was slung upon heavy straps forming the “throughbrace,” instead of resting upon springs; and here it securely cradled. It had been painted red and decorated with gilt. This coach had space for six passengers, three in a seat facing three others in an opposite seat. The coach was filled, when it had arrived, with the six passengers and a lot of mail; Wild Bill on the box, and beside him a wiry little man, who was Captain Cricket, the express messenger. Bob Scott and Wild Bill ate dinner together at the station. The fresh team of mules had been harnessed into the traces, and were being held by the heads. Bob looked at his watch, drew on his gloves, circuited the mules with an eye to their straps and buckles, laid his overcoat (a fine buffalo coat with high beaver collar) on his seat, and grasping lines and whip climbed up. Captain Cricket nimbly followed. “All ready, gentlemen,” announced Bob, his foot on the brake, poised to release it. The passengers came hurrying out and into the coach. Bob gave one glance over his shoulder. Then—“Let ’er go,” he bade the hostlers. “Whang!” his brake released; the hostlers leaped aside; out flew his lash, forward sprang the mules, and away went coach and all, in a flurry of dust, for the next run, to Horseshoe Creek, thirty-six miles. Run by run, up the Sweetwater River, over South Pass, down to the Sandy and the Green Rivers, through Fort Bridger and Echo Canyon, one hundred and more miles every day, would it speed, by relays of teams and of drivers, until the last team and last driver would bring it into Salt Lake. Wild Bill took a horse and returned to his east station, to drive in the next westbound stage. Every day a stage came through, and presently the stages from the west began coming back. The driver who brought in a stage from one direction took back the stage going in the opposite direction.
  • 68. The stages through to Salt Lake and to the Missouri brought considerable new life to Fort Laramie. Papers and letters from New York and San Francisco arrived so quickly after being mailed that it was easy to see what a great treat this service was to Salt Lake and Denver and every little settlement along the whole route. Mr. Ficklin was general superintendent of the line, and was constantly riding up and down. No person who passed by was better liked than Superintendent Ficklin. Mr. Russell was in Washington, but Mr. Majors appeared, once, stepping from the stage; and he had not forgotten Davy. “Your pardner, Billy Cody, almost met his end this winter, my lad,” he informed. “Did you hear about it?” “No, sir,” gasped Dave. “Well, he did. He was up in central Kansas on a trapping trip, and lost his oxen and broke his leg and had to be left alone in a dug-out while his companion went one hundred and twenty-five miles, afoot, to the nearest settlement for a team and supplies. Billy got snowed in, couldn’t move anyway, a gang of Indians plundered him and might have murdered him, and when, on the twenty-ninth day—nine days late—his friend finally arrived and yelled to him, Billy could scarcely answer. Even then the snow had to be dug away from the door. But he reached home safely and he’s getting along finely now. He’s plucky, is Billy—and so was his friend, Harrington.” “Maybe he won’t want to go out on the plains any more,” faltered Dave. “Who? Billy Cody?” And Mr. Majors laughed. “You wait till the grass begins to get green and the willow buds swell, and you’ll see Billy Cody right on deck, ready for business.” Back and forth, between Salt Lake and the Missouri River shuttled the stages of the Central Overland, California & Pike’s Peak Express. They seemed to be making money for the company, but rumors said that the company needed more money; in fact, the company were in a bad way. The expenses had been tremendous. The big coaches
  • 69. cost $1000 apiece—and there were fifty of them. The harness for each four-mule team was made in Concord, and it cost about $150. Then there were 10,000 tons of hay a year, at twenty to thirty dollars a ton; and 3,000,000 pounds of corn and another 3,000,000 pounds of grain, at several cents a pound; and 2000 mules at seventy-five dollars each; and the wages of the men—$100 a month and board for the division agents, $50 and $75 a month for the drivers, $50 a month for the station agents, and $40 a month for the hostlers who took care of the mules. But even under this expense it seemed as though the passenger fare of $125 to Denver and $200 to Salt Lake (meals extra at a dollar and a dollar and a half), and the heavy rates on express ought to bring the company a profit. Davy, trying to figure out the matter, hoped so. Of course, it was not his business, but a fellow likes to have his friends successful; and Dave looked upon Mr. Majors, and Mr. Russell, and Mr. Waddell as very good friends of his. He took a trip, once in a while, on the stage east with Wild Bill, or west with “Gentleman Bob,” on quartermaster’s affairs, to some of the stations. There always was room on the driver’s box, and generally Wild Bill or “Gentleman Bob” was glad to have him up there along with the messenger. “Gentleman Bob” proved to be as remarkable a character as Wild Bill Hickok. When approaching stations Wild Bill signalled with a tremendous piercing: “Ah-whoop-pee!” and arrived on the run. Gentleman Bob whistled shrilly. The teams for either of them had to be changed in less than four minutes, or there was trouble. The Overland stage waited for naught. Wild Bill passed the news on to Gentleman Bob, and Gentleman Bob it was who passed it to Davy, as one fresh, windy morning in this the spring of 1860, Dave gladly clambered up to the driver’s box to ride through to the end of the run at Horseshoe. “Let ’er go!” yelped Bob, kicking the brake free; and to mighty lunge and smart crack of lash the coach jumped forward, whirling
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