Bridger at once, so he can corral the wagons to protect the women and children and the stock, and my duty will be to ride to the highest hills on either side of the road to keep a lookout for Indians all through the day, and at night to watch for their camp fires.  Now, gentlemen, I have told you our terms and if you decide to employ us, it will take four or five days to drill the outfit so it will be safe for us to start on this long and dangerous journey.  Now, it is for you to say what you will do.”

Gen. Kerney then spoke for the first time.  “Let me say a word, gentlemen.  These men know every camping ground and every watering place and also every Indian run way from here to the Sierra Nevada mountains, and you could not find better men for guides on the frontier, and the price they ask for the dangerous service they will give you is the least you can expect to give.”

The committee walked away from us a short distance, and talked among them selves about a half an hour, and then came to us, and said they would accept our offer.  Bridger then said, “Now gentlemen I want you to pick out twelve men that are not afraid to ride alone and have number-one eyesight and good hearing, for no doubt there will be many times when the fate of the whole train will depend on these twelve men.  Will will start in to train them tomorrow morning if they are ready, and he will tell them and show them just what they have got to do; and I want every teamster to have his team hooked to his wagon by nine o’clock in the morning.  It is not necessary for you to take down your tents or move any of your camp equipage at all; for I will drill the teamsters out on that little prairie yonder,” and he pointed to a clear space a little ways up the road.

After these arrangements were made General Kerney went back to the Fort, and Jim and I staid at the emigrants’ camp that night, so we could be up early the next morning to commence our work of drilling the men for the coming trip.  My men reported to me soon after breakfast, and they were all fairly well mounted and well armed, each man having a pistol and a rifle.  We mounted our horses and rode about a half a mile away from camp.  We stopped and I explained to them what we had to do.  After showing them and drilling them about two hours I asked them if any of them had ever shot from his horse’s back.  They said they never had; neither had they ever seen any one shoot that way.  I went a short distance to a tree and made a cross mark with my knife.  I then said to them, “Now, my men I will show you what you must learn to do.”

I then rode a hundred yards from the tree I had marked, turned my horse, put spurs to him and had him running at his best.  When I came near the tree, I fired my pistol and also my rifle as I passed the tree and didn’t miss the mark over a foot with either shot.  When I returned the men were examining the bullet holes I had put in the tree.  One of them said, “That is wonderful shooting.  But what seems to be a mystery is how you can use both your gun and your pistol so near together.”