But we
have quit the business before, and then I related the conversation
I had with Jim Bridger some years previous at the time I first
made up my mind to quit the scouting field.
The time being set for the start, I returned to Jacksonville for
my other two horses, clothing, bedding and other traps such as
belong to an old scout. All being in readiness, we bade Mr. and
Mrs. Jones good-bye and started on our way for Arizona and aimed
to reach San Francisco by Christmas. We had five horses in our
outfit, I having three and George two. We arrived in San Francisco
on the twenty-first of December.
The next morning we were walking up Kearney street near the Lick
House when we met the reporter for the Chronicle who I had ridden
for at the time of the hanging of Captain Jack and associates at
Fort Klamath. The reporter expressed himself as being very glad to
meet us, and insisted on our taking a stroll over to the Chronicle
office and meet the proprietors of the paper, whose names were
DeYoung, their being three brothers of them.
As we had not changed our clothing, having our traveling suits on
I insisted on deferring the matter until the next day, but this he
would not hear to. As that would not work I tried another plan by
telling him that we had not yet had our breakfast, but he told us
that he had not yet been to breakfast, and proposed that the three
of us take breakfast together, or rather invited George and I to
take breakfast with him, which we did, seeing that there was no
chance to evade him.
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