“Jack, I think we had better back out and go to hunting again,” said I.

“See here, boys; it won’t do to go back on me at this stage of the game.  Stick to it, and it may be the turning point in your lives and lead you on to fortune and to fame.”

“A fortune is what we are after, and we’ll at least give the wheel a turn or two and see what luck we have,” said I. This satisfied Buntline, but we didn’t study any more after he left us.  The next morning we appeared at rehearsal and were introduced to the company.  The first rehearsal was hardly a success; and the succeeding ones were not much better.  The stage manager did his best to teach Jack and myself what to do, but when Monday night came we didn’t know much more about it than when we began.

The clock struck seven, and then we put on our buckskin suits, which were the costumes we were to appear in.  The theater was being rapidly filled, and it was evident that we were going to make our debut before a packed house.  As the minutes passed by, Jack and I became more and more nervous.  We occasionally looked through the holes in the curtain, and saw that the people were continuing to crowd into the theatre; our nervousness increased to an uncomfortable degree.

When, at length the curtain arose, our courage had returned, so that we thought we could face the immense crowd; yet when the time came for us to go on, we were rather slow in making our appearance.  As we stepped forth we were received with a storm of applause, which we acknowledged with a bow.

[Illustration:  BEHIND THE FOOTLIGHTS.]

Buntline, who was taking the part of “Cale Durg,” appeared, and gave me the “cue” to speak “my little piece,” but for the life of me I could not remember a single word.  Buntline saw I was “stuck,” and a happy thought occurred to him.  He said—­as if it were in the play: 

“Where have you been, Bill?  What has kept you so long?”

Just then my eye happened to fall on Mr. Milligan, who was surrounded by his friends, the newspaper reporters, and several military officers, all of whom had heard of his hunt and “Indian fight”—­he being a very popular man, and widely known in Chicago.  So I said: 

“I have been out on a hunt with Milligan.”

This proved to be a big hit.  The audience cheered and applauded; which gave me greater confidence in my ability to get through the performance all right.  Buntline, who is a very versatile man, saw that it would be a good plan to follow this up, and he said: 

“Well, Bill, tell us all about the hunt.”

I thereupon proceeded to relate in detail the particulars of the affair.  I succeeded in making it rather funny, and I was frequently interrupted by rounds of applause.  Whenever I began to “weaken,” Buntline would give me a fresh start, by asking some question.  In this way I took up fifteen minutes, without once speaking a word of my part; nor did I speak a word of it during the whole evening.  The prompter, who was standing between the wings, attempted to prompt me, but it did no good; for while I was on the stage I “chipped in” anything I thought of.