CHAPTER XXXIV.
MAGGOTS, LICE AND RAIDERS--PRACTICES OF THESE HUMAN VERMIN--PLUNDERING THE SICK AND DYING--NIGHT ATTACKS, AND BATTLES BY DAY--HARD TIMES FOR THE SMALL TRADERS.
With each long, hot Summer hour the lice, the maggot-flies and the N'Yaarkers increased in numbers and venomous activity.

They were ever-present annoyances and troubles; no time was free from them.
The lice worried us by day and tormented us by night; the maggot-flies fouled our food, and laid in sores and wounds larvae that speedily became masses of wriggling worms.

The N'Yaarkers were human vermin that preyed upon and harried us unceasingly.
They formed themselves into bands numbering from five to twenty-five, each led by a bold, unscrupulous, energetic scoundrel.

We now called them "Raiders," and the most prominent and best known of the bands were called by the names of their ruffian leaders, as "Mosby's Raiders," "Curtis's Raiders," "Delaney's Raiders," "Sarsfield's Raiders," "Collins's Raiders," etc.
As long as we old prisoners formed the bulk of those inside the Stockade, the Raiders had slender picking.

They would occasionally snatch a blanket from the tent poles, or knock a boy down at the Creek and take his silver watch from him; but this was all.