Each of us providing ourselves with a club, we started on our errand.  The rest of the camp—­about four thousand—­gathered on the hillside to watch us.  We thought they might have sent us some assistance, as it was about as much their fight as ours, but they did not, and we were too proud to ask it.  The crossing of the swamp was quite difficult.  Only one could go over at a time, and he very slowly.  The N’Yaarkers understood that trouble was pending, and they began mustering to receive us.  From the way they turned out it was evident that we should have come over with three hundred instead of two hundred, but it was too late then to alter the program.  As we came up a stalwart Irishman stepped out and asked us what we wanted.

Bates replied:  “We have come over to get a watch that one of your fellows took from one of ours, and by —–­ we’re going to have it.”

The Irishman’s reply was equally explicit though not strictly logical in construction.  Said he:  “We havn’t got your watch, and be ye can’t have it.”

This joined the issue just as fairly as if it had been done by all the documentary formula that passed between Turkey and Russia prior to the late war.  Bates and the Irishman then exchanged very derogatory opinions of each other, and began striking with their clubs.  The rest of us took this as our cue, and each, selecting as small a N’Yaarker as we could readily find, sailed in.

There is a very expressive bit of slang coming into general use in the West, which speaks of a man “biting off more than he can chew.”

That is what we had done.  We had taken a contract that we should have divided, and sub-let the bigger half.  Two minutes after the engagement became general there was no doubt that we would have been much better off if we had staid on our own side of the creek.  The watch was a very poor one, anyhow.  We thought we would just say good day to our N’Yaark friends, and return home hastily.  But they declined to be left so precipitately.  They wanted to stay with us awhile.  It was lots of fun for them, and for the, four thousand yelling spectators on the opposite hill, who were greatly enjoying our discomfiture.  There was hardly enough of the amusement to go clear around, however, and it all fell short just before it reached us.  We earnestly wished that some of the boys would come over and help us let go of the N’Yaarkers, but they were enjoying the thing too much to interfere.

We were driven down the hill, pell-mell, with the N’Yaarkers pursuing hotly with yell and blow.  At the swamp we tried to make a stand to secure our passage across, but it was only partially successful.  Very few got back without some severe hurts, and many received blows that greatly hastened their deaths.

After this the N’Yaarkers became bolder in their robberies, and more arrogant in their demeanor than ever, and we had the poor revenge upon those who would not assist us, of seeing a reign of terror inaugurated over the whole camp.