Gopher John

One night, John Horse came around with two terrapins, known as "gopher tortoises" in the local idiom. Colonel Brooke later recalled buying the tortoises from "the long-legged, lathy negro boy," and instructing him to bring more as he caught them. Over the next week, John Horse brought two tortoises a day, always depositing them in the Colonel's pen. Finally, Brooke was ready to hold a feast for his officers. But when his cook examined the pen, he found only two gophers. John Horse had been stealing the same two each night, then selling them to the Colonel each day.