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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41529 ***
+
+    Transcriber's Note:
+
+    Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as
+    possible, including non-standard spelling and inconsistent
+    hyphenation. Some changes of spelling and punctuation have been
+    made. They are listed at the end of the text.
+
+    An oe ligature has been expanded.
+
+    Italic text has been marked with _underscores_.
+
+
+
+
+Tales From The X-Bar Horse Camp
+
+
+
+
+    Tales From The X-Bar Horse Camp
+
+    _The Blue-Roan "Outlaw" and Other Stories_
+
+    By
+
+    WILL C. BARNES
+
+    Author of "Western Grazing Grounds"
+
+    [Illustration]
+
+
+    Published by
+    THE BREEDERS' GAZETTE
+    542 So. Dearborn Street
+    Chicago, Illinois
+    1920
+
+
+
+
+    COPYRIGHT 1920
+    SANDERS PUBLISHING CO.
+
+    ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
+
+
+
+
+    _To My Mother_:
+
+     _Who shared with me many of the dangers and hardships of the old
+     days on the ranges of the Southwest, these stories are
+     affectionately dedicated._
+
+    _Washington, D. C._
+    _September 1st, 1919._
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+
+    Sunrise on the Desert (poem)                 xi
+
+    The Blue-Roan "Outlaw"                        1
+
+    Campin' Out                                  23
+
+    Popgun Plays Santa Claus                     32
+
+    "Just Regulars"                              45
+
+    The Stampede on the Turkey Track Range       58
+
+    The Navajo Turquoise Ring                    74
+
+    An Arizona Etude                             86
+
+    Stutterin' Andy                              94
+
+    The Passing of Bill Jackson                 104
+
+    The Tenderfoot from Yale                    114
+
+    "Dummy"                                     123
+
+    The Mummy from the Grand Cañon              140
+
+    Jumping at Conclusions                      149
+
+    Lost in the Petrified Forest                163
+
+    "Camel Huntin'"                             174
+
+    The Trinidad Kid                            184
+
+    "Pablo"                                     195
+
+    The Shooting up of Horse Head               206
+
+
+
+
+Illustrations
+
+
+    The whole herd swam the Pecos in safety                          8
+
+    Say, Dad, did you ever pack a burro?                            23
+
+    Gibson managed to get everything in the two Kyacks carried
+    by the mule                                                     36
+
+    "Just Regulars" Apache squaw and baby                           45
+
+    The men on day herd could hold them easily                      58
+
+    Some prehistoric people had carved queer hieroglyphics on it    71
+
+    He was a picture of savage finery                               78
+
+    Now the Navajos are famous silversmiths                         78
+
+    The mess wagon was backed up into the shade                     86
+
+    Andy done built a little log house                              97
+
+    We had a fire lookout station                                  115
+
+    Out on the range 1200 ewes were grazing                        128
+
+    He had a Navajo Squaw weaving blankets                         144
+
+    He knows where there's a bunch of Cliff Dwellings              148
+
+    The sails of the wind mill flashed in the sunlight             153
+
+    We were camped over in the petrified forest                    165
+
+    Hawk met a forest ranger leading a pack mule                   197
+
+    They gave the money to Jackson, the Cross J boss               210
+
+
+
+
+SUNRISE ON THE DESERT
+
+
+    Towards the east, the God of day,
+    Like some great red-eyed dragon, tops the rugged range.
+    Before his golden beams, the gray
+    Of dawn creeps slowly backward, till the magic change
+    Sweeps night away.
+
+    The desert stirs, and wakes.
+    Strange-fashioned things come slipping into sight.
+    High overhead a buzzard idly wings,
+    A lonely raven robed in shades of night
+    "Caws" hoarsely to its mates.
+
+    Perched on a nearby stone,
+    A lizard, swift as light, and clad in colors gay,
+    Pumps slowly up and down.
+    A horned toad, with crown of thorns, comes slithering by,
+    And then is gone.
+
+    Atop of yonder rocky hill
+    A lone coyote, skulker of the desert wastes,
+    Greets the first beams with shrill
+    And piercing "yips," then hastes
+    To find his morning kill.
+
+    A wandering honeybee,
+    Drunk with nectar from a Palo Verde's yellow bloom,
+    Goes stagg'ring by.
+    The air is heavy with the desert's sweet perfume
+    From flower and tree.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+The Blue-Roan "Outlaw"
+
+_A Tale of the "Hashknife" Range_
+
+By permission _The Breeder's Gazette_, Chicago, Ill.
+
+
+"Say, Bill, there's that old blue-roan, droop-horned cow that allus runs
+over on the Coyote wash. Reckon she ain't got a calf somers' hereabout?"
+
+"Like as not," replied Bill, "an' I'll bet it's a blue-roan, too, for
+she's raised a blue calf reg'lar fer these last four or five years.
+There's a little hole of water clos't to where she's a-grazin' an' it's
+a sure shot the calf's hid away in that tall grass down there clos't to
+it."
+
+The two cowboys rode slowly down the gentle slope toward the cow, which
+watched them eagerly, but with the cunning of the brute made no sign or
+motion to show where her baby was hidden. When, however, one of the boys
+played the time-worn trick on her by barking like a dog, it was too much
+for her peace of mind. With a mad bellow of defiance she raced toward
+the spot where the little fellow was hidden, exactly as the boys knew
+she would.
+
+The calf, with the instinct of the brute already working in his little
+four-day-old brain, did not move, but lay there as quietly as if he were
+dead, and, not until the horsemen rode almost onto him in the deep
+grass, did they discover his hiding place.
+
+The mother, with the fear of man too strong in her heart to stand by her
+guns, ran off a few yards from the spot and the calf followed, bawling
+loudly, the already awakened man-fear strong within him.
+
+"He's a sure blue-roan all right," said Bill. "Say, won't that old
+Hashknife iron loom up big on them ribs some day?" he asked, for a brand
+on a roan animal shows much more plainly than on a hide of any other
+color.
+
+"It sure will," replied his companion; "better leave 'em here till
+tomorrow an' we can swing around this a-way an' git 'em."
+
+So the boys rode on across the prairie, and the droop-horned blue with
+her baby rested in peace that day and night.
+
+It was here, away out on the "staked plains," those mysterious regions
+of the great Southwest, and far back from the thin line of settlements
+that fringed the Pecos River, in southeastern New Mexico, that the
+"blue-roan outlaw" first saw the light.
+
+Early next morning the leaders of the roundup party, engaged in
+gathering up the cattle on the range, swung across the prairie in a
+great semicircle, sweeping before them in one huge drive, everything of
+the cow kind. As they divided up into couples to work down the country,
+the leader said: "Bill, you look out an' catch that ole blue-roan we
+seen yistiday. The old man wants all them cows to throw into that
+Arizony drive, an' her an' the calf will make it in all right, I
+reckon."
+
+So, as they rode along, Bill swung across a little draw toward the water
+hole they had seen the day before. He picked up the blue-roan, who, with
+her young son beside her, trotted off, following the rest of the cattle
+already working down the trails toward the round-up grounds. The two
+animals fell in with more of their kind as the trails converged until,
+by the time the roundup ground was reached, there were more than fifteen
+hundred cattle of all ages and sexes gathered in one great bunch.
+
+The blue-roan's baby kept close to his mother's side; the dust that
+settled over the herd like a pall, choking him, while the constant
+bawling of the cattle, fairly deafened him.
+
+Once, when two huge bulls, fighting fiercely, drove through that portion
+of the herd where he and his mother were, and separated the little
+family, he added to the din by raising his voice in pitiful outcry for
+his protector.
+
+Outside of the herd the cowboys rode slowly around, turning back into
+the center any stragglers that tried to escape.
+
+Gradually the bunch began to stop "milling" and as cow after cow found
+her calf, the bawling stopped. In half an hour the herd was fairly quiet
+and the wagon boss dropped off his horse to "cinch up" a little,
+preparatory to the work of cutting out.
+
+Having reset his saddle, the boss mounted again and, calling to two
+other men near him, said, "Jack, you go out there a ways and hold 'em
+up, and Charley and I will get out the cows and the calves." So Jack
+rode off about one hundred yards from the herd in readiness to receive
+the "cut" as they came out; while the boss and Charley rode slowly into
+the mass of cattle.
+
+"What you want out?" he asked of the boss. "The old man wants every
+Hashknife cow and calf that will stand the trail trip to Arizony," he
+replied. "We got to get two thousand for the first herd if we can, so
+cut 'em close."
+
+"There's that ole blue-roan we seen yistiday," the boss remarked, "let's
+throw her out first thing, she's a good one to start a bunch on."
+
+Now starting a "cut" is always some little trouble until you get half a
+dozen head together, because the instinct of the animal is to endeavor
+to either get back into the herd or to run clear off on the range. In
+starting a cut, if possible, they pick out some old, sedate cow, and in
+this case the blue-roan was known to be a good one for the purpose.
+
+So our youngster found himself being followed up by a great
+fierce-looking man mounted on a small wiry "Paint" pony that kept right
+at his mother's heels, no matter which way she turned or twisted.
+
+The cow dodged and wound through the herd, while that object behind kept
+close to her, never hurrying, never crowding, but always, in some
+inexplicable manner, seeming to force her to the outer rim of the herd.
+
+With the dim hope that possibly she could escape his presence by a break
+from the herd she worked past half a dozen steers standing idly on the
+edge and, with a quick dash, broke from the herd out toward the free
+open prairie, the calf racing at her side.
+
+The man who had so persistently hung to her flank made no further
+attempt to follow her, but turned his pony and was lost in the mass of
+the herd.
+
+As she widened the distance from the edge of the herd Jack, who, up to
+this time had been sitting sideways on his pony some distance from the
+herd, straightened up, a movement which caught her eye, so she stopped
+to inspect him and decide what new danger was about to present itself.
+
+To her surprise Jack seemed satisfied with her stopping and made no
+attempt to come near her. The calf ranged along side of her and began
+preparations for a lunch, so she, being a sensible animal, decided to
+stay where she was for a time.
+
+A moment later a second cow and calf were also shot out of the edge of
+the herd. As she charged across the open space Jack again took interest
+enough in the proceedings to ride out and turn her over toward the
+blue-roan, which received her with a short bawl. The two calves eyed
+each other for a second and then busied themselves with their dinner
+operations.
+
+The second cow, being young, and with her first calf, was inclined to
+run off and leave the spot, but in some way every time she did so she
+met Jack and his pony, who, the instant she turned toward the blue cow,
+seemed satisfied and took no further steps to interfere with her
+liberty.
+
+Soon a third and fourth cow joined them and, now that there was a
+nucleus formed, every new animal turned out of the herd chased straight
+for the little bunch, which stood quietly for the next three hours,
+their calves sleeping at their feet paying little attention to the
+uproar that was going on in the main herd.
+
+Having cut out some three hundred cows and calves, the "choppers" rode
+out of the herd, and the "cut" was slowly driven off to water at a
+near-by windmill, while the main body of cattle was allowed to drift out
+onto the range at their own pleasure.
+
+That night the blue-roan and her calf, together with the rest of the
+cut, were "bedded down" near the round-up camp. All night long two men
+rode around them and any cow which tried to escape was promptly turned
+back into the herd by the watchful riders.
+
+The next day this bunch was called the "day herd" and three herders
+looked after them all day long. They were allowed to graze over a piece
+of open range where the herders could watch them and see that none of
+them escaped. At noon they were driven into a great prairie lake to
+water.
+
+That evening another large bunch of cows and calves were brought out to
+the day herd and turned into it so that they made quite a respectable
+herd that night.
+
+At the end of ten days' work they had over the required number to make
+up the "trail herd," and the wagon boss announced one evening that he
+would send them into the main ranch on the following day to start for
+the long trail trip to Arizona.
+
+The blue-roan calf had by this time become a seasoned traveler, and
+found little difficulty in taking care of himself in the herd. A day or
+two at the ranch and the preparations for the trip were over.
+
+One fine morning about four o'clock the cook, who had been up in the
+cool morning air since half-past two, awoke the sleepers about his wagon
+with a long "roll out, roll out, r-o-l-l-o-u-t" which brought the
+sleepers in the camp beds scattered about the wagon to the campfire in
+short order.
+
+By sunrise the herd was strung out on the trail for the West. In the
+lead was the old blue-roan with her blue calf marching steadily along,
+grazing when the herd was held up for that purpose, resting when the
+outfit stopped to rest, and altogether behaving themselves remarkably
+well.
+
+One night as the crew sat about the campfire with the herd resting
+quietly not far from the wagon, the wagon boss said to one of the boys
+near him: "Jim, I wish you'd take your hoss in the mawnin' and go ahead
+and see how the river is. We got to cross it before long and I'm afeard
+it's going to be pretty high, if all them clouds up toward the head is
+good for anything."
+
+Late the next night Jim returned with the information that the river was
+indeed high and that it would be necessary to swim the cattle, or wait
+for it to run down.
+
+Four days later the herd was bedded down in the valley of the Pecos
+River, a mile or two back from the stream. About noon the next day, when
+the cattle were thirsty, the whole herd was drifted down to the river at
+a place picked out by the wagon boss where the banks were broken down so
+the cattle could reach the water. On the opposite side the bank was low,
+making a good "coming out" place.
+
+The river here was half a mile wide and running swiftly. It was,
+however, not swimming all the way across, and the place was known as a
+safe ford because of an underlying rock ledge, which made good footing
+for the cattle in a river where quicksand was almost everywhere present.
+
+The water was muddy and red and, as the first cattle, eager for a drink,
+waded out into its depths, the old blue in the lead, the men carefully
+pointed them out into the stream, keeping them moving.
+
+The others followed, calves bawling, men shouting, the animals plunging
+and tearing through the swift waters. Soon the leaders were swimming
+and, as the water deepened, the old blue touched her baby on the nose
+and told him something in cow language which made him immediately get on
+the upstream side of her and stay there as they swam across the river.
+The swift water forced the little fellow against her side, where he hung
+like a leech, while his mother swam, strong and steadily, for the
+opposite bank. If the leaders had any desire to turn downstream they met
+a horseman on that side, swinging his slicker, and shouting with all his
+might, and keeping just far enough back of the leaders to stop them from
+turning downstream, and still not check them in their swimming toward
+the other side.
+
+Soon the old blue and her comrades found footing and she and her little
+one were among the first to scramble up the muddy bank and stand on dry
+land on the western side of the Pecos. The whole herd, including a
+thousand calves, crossed safely. After the saddle horses had swum the
+river, and the wagon had been floated over, all the beds and plunder
+were carried across in a small boat, and the westward journey to Arizona
+was continued.
+
+[Illustration: "_The whole herd swam the Pecos in safety_"]
+
+The day after their arrival on the Arizona range the cattle were turned
+out to graze early in the morning. When the calves had all found
+their mothers and settled down quietly, the boss "cut off" some three
+hundred cows, each with her calf. These the boys drove to a great stone
+corral about a mile away, which was almost as large inside as a city
+block. In one corner a fire of cedar logs was built, into which was
+stuck a lot of iron affairs with handles three or four feet long, which
+were the branding irons belonging to the outfit. As he watched the irons
+in the fire reaching a white heat, the boss remarked that the old man
+was going to run the same old Hashknife brand and mark in Arizony as he
+did back in Texas. Finally the boss, throwing away his cigarette, said
+to the ropers, "Irons hot, fly at 'em boys." Two men on their horses,
+rode into the mass of cattle crowded against the far side of the corral
+and, with swift, dextrous throws, began catching the calves. As soon as
+the rope settled about the neck of one, the horse was turned toward the
+fire, and as the rope was short and tied to the saddle horn, the
+unwilling, bawling calf was dragged up to the vicinity of the fire.
+There two husky cowboys ran out to meet the rider and, following up the
+rope to the calf dancing and bawling about at the end of it, one of them
+seized him by the ear or head with one hand and the flank with the other
+and, with a quick jerk, threw him upon his side. The instant he struck
+the ground, the other man seized a hind leg and pulled it straight out
+behind the calf, while the first man, throwing off the rope, sat on the
+animal's neck and head, and another seared the tender hide with the
+famous "Hashknife" brand. Still another man with a knife cut off the
+point of the calf's right ear and took out a little V-shaped piece from
+the under side of the left ear. This was the company's earmark. In an
+instant the operation was over and the calf running back to its mother.
+
+The blue-roan calf was determined he should not be branded. He watched
+the riders as they rode into the herd and buried himself deep in the
+middle of the mass, worming under the larger cattle and hiding behind
+them, until he began to believe he would escape after all.
+
+All morning long the men worked away with the herd until the poor
+animals were half mad with fear and hunger. As the blue-roan dodged to
+avoid the whirling, snakelike rope that suddenly shot out from the hand
+of a man he had not noticed, he felt it draw up on his hind legs. Before
+he knew it, he was lying on his side and being dragged across the rough
+ground toward the fire, where he was to receive a mark for life.
+
+"I snared that blue-roan that's been so smart," said the rider as he
+passed the other man. "Burn him deep Dick," he said, "for he's a roan
+and it will show up fine when he gets grown."
+
+Released from his torture, the roan staggered back to his mother, who
+gave him all the comfort she could. His side was bruised and sore where
+he had been dragged over the rough ground, and the great burn on his
+ribs pained him beyond measure.
+
+Soon after that the bunch was turned out to graze and, sick at heart,
+the calf crawled miserably under the shade of a small ironwood bush,
+while his mother went to water, leaving him alone in his wretchedness.
+From this time on, the blue-roan became a hater of men. The object on
+horseback was to him the source of all his suffering and pain--a thing
+to be avoided, and upon which to wreak vengeance some day, if possible.
+
+The country in Arizona was very unlike the old range upon the staked
+plains in Texas, being rough and rocky, with none of those great grassy
+stretches they had been accustomed to back in their old home. There were
+trees here, too, a thing they had never known on their old range, and
+the cows buried themselves deep in the thickets of cedar and piñon.
+There they found many tanks or reservoirs of rain water, and unless the
+water gave out they seldom left their hiding places.
+
+Here, the blue-roan calf and his mother made their home, until one day,
+when he was about a year old, he was accidentally separated from her and
+never saw her again. Two years of life in the thickets made him shy and
+wild as a deer; he learned to watch for objects upon horseback, which
+were his one great fear. Once in the winter before he lost his mother a
+trio of wolves followed them through the cedars for a whole day,
+sneaking up on them as closely as they dared, even nipping at their
+heels. His mother would turn upon them with a bellow of defiance and
+charge toward the tormentors, head down, returning quickly to the little
+bunch of friends that stood together, heads to the foe, their calves
+within the circle.
+
+A two-year-old heifer, with more pluck than judgment, weak from a long
+winter of short grass and poor range, made a dart toward the wolves, and
+turning to join the circle of cows, stumbled and fell to her knees. In a
+moment the wolves were upon her. While they were busy over their feast,
+the other cattle slipped away from the fearsome place, and a new danger
+crept into the blue-roan's life.
+
+Three years had passed. The blue-roan was beginning to be a noted
+character upon the range. He was broad of horn, and the great black
+Hashknife, outlined against the blue hide, could be seen for a long
+distance. The sight of a horseman, no matter how far away, was
+sufficient to send him plunging down the roughest mountainside, into the
+depths of the cedar brakes, and over rocks and lava flows, where no
+mounted man could follow. He was too fleet of foot for the older cows,
+and the roan soon found himself alone in his glory. He then became what
+is known to the cowboys of the western ranges as an "outlaw," an animal,
+either horse, bovine, or even human, that, deserted by all its friends,
+runs alone and has little to do with the rest of his kind; a "cimarron,"
+the Mexicans call them. Such animals are seldom forced into the roundups
+that take place at regular intervals upon the ranges, and when caught by
+that dragnet, are very hard to hold in the herd long enough to get them
+to the stockyards and shipped out of the country.
+
+The next spring, when it was time to start on the roundup, the wagon
+boss told the men to keep a sharp lookout for that blue-roan outlaw, and
+"get him or bust him," if the opportunity offered.
+
+It fell to the lot of the boss and another man to run into the blue-roan
+a few days later. They were working down a grassy draw in a thick cedar
+country, when out from the trees on one side of it there burst a great
+blue animal with a grand spread of horns, and fleet as a deer. In an
+instant the two men had their ropes down and were after him in full
+pursuit. "Cut him off from the cedars!" shouted the boss to his partner,
+who happened to be closest to the cedars, and the boy spurred his pony
+toward the steer, which now was doing his best to gain the friendly
+shelter and protection of the trees.
+
+It was but a short distance, and the steer had much the best of the
+race, but the boy had his pony alongside the animal before he could get
+his rope into shape for a throw. The steer, with the keen instinct of
+the hunted, crowded the pony over toward the trees and, just as the
+rider was ready to drop his rope over the animal's wide-spread horns, an
+overhanging branch caught the loop, jerking it from his grip. In a vain
+attempt to turn the steer from the trees into the open, he crowded his
+pony close up onto the huge bulk of the outlaw. The man's right knee was
+fairly touching the animal's shoulder, while he rapidly coiled his rope
+for another throw.
+
+Following them came the boss, cursing his rope, a new "Maguey" which had
+fouled in his hands and was a mass of snarls and knots, which in his
+eager haste he only made worse instead of better. At this instant, the
+blue-roan turned suddenly. With a quick upward thrust of his head, he
+drove his nearest horn deep into the side of the pony, which was
+crowding him so closely, tearing a cruel gash in his side and throwing
+horse and rider into a confused, struggling heap on the ground.
+
+In a moment the steer was lost in the trees, while the boss dropped off
+his horse to assist his companion, who was working hard to free himself
+from the body of the pony, which lay across his leg. The boy cleared
+himself from his saddle-rigging, and the pony struggled to his feet. It
+was very evident, however, that the animal was wounded to the death; so
+the boss, with tears in his eyes, drew his six-shooter and put the poor
+animal out of its misery.
+
+From that day the "blue-roan outlaw" became a marked animal upon the
+range, and the story of how he killed "Curly Bill's" pony was told
+around many a campfire on the round-ups that summer.
+
+Thus the roan outlaw added to his reputation and triumphs until his
+capture was the dearest hope of every cowpuncher upon that range. The
+word had gone out not to kill him unless absolutely necessary, but
+rather to capture him alive just for the satisfaction of the thing.
+
+That fall, when the round-ups were working through the country in which
+he was known to be, every man was ambitious to be his captor. Around the
+campfires each night plans were laid for the job and stories told of his
+prowess and ability to escape from his hunters.
+
+One fine morning, as the riders were working through a country covered
+densely with cedar and piñon trees, with occasional open glades and
+grassy valleys, the wagon boss and the man with him heard shouts off to
+their right. Pulling up their horses they waited to locate the sound,
+when suddenly from the thicket of trees along the valley there emerged
+two great animals, a black, and a blue-roan steer. It was the famous
+blue, together with a black, almost as much an outlaw as himself.
+
+The wagon boss, who had just been lamenting the fact that he was riding
+a half-broken horse that day, was nearest to the blue, and professional
+etiquette, as well as eagerness to be the one to capture the noted
+steer, drove him straight at the big fellow. The pony he rode was a
+green one, but he had plenty of speed, and before the steer could reach
+the shelter of the cedars the rope, tied hard and fast to the horn of a
+new fifty-dollar saddle, was settling over the head of the outlaw.
+Unfortunately, however, the rope did not draw up close to the horns, or
+even on the neck, but slipped back against the mighty shoulders of the
+steer, giving him a pulling power on the rope that no cow-pony could
+meet. Then, to quote the words of the man with the boss, "things shore
+did begin to pop."
+
+Knowing full well that if he crowded the animal too hard he would turn
+on him and probably kill another horse, the boss made a long throw and
+consequently had but little rope left in his hand with which to "play"
+his steer. The jerk that came, when the steer weighing twelve hundred
+pounds, and running slightly down hill, arrived at the end of the rope,
+tied to the saddle-horn, was something tremendous. As soon as the strain
+came on the cinches the pony threw down his head and began some of the
+most scientific and satisfactory bucking that was ever seen on the
+Hashknife range, which is compliment enough.
+
+When the boys were gathered about the fire that evening "Windy Bob," who
+had been with the boss, related the affair.
+
+"Ye see, fellers, me and Ed was a-driftin' down the wash, not expectin'
+anything pertickler, when out from the cedars busts the ole blue, and a
+mighty good mate for him.
+
+"'The blue's mine, Windy,' ses Ed, and I, not hankerin' a bit fer the
+job, bein' as my shoulder I broke last fall won't stand much funny
+business, lets him have the big blue all right, and I takes after his
+mate; which was plenty big 'nuf fer me and the hoss I was a-ridin'.
+
+"I made a good throw and, everything going first rate, had my steer on
+his side in half a minute, makin' a record throw and tie. Jist as I got
+my hoggin' rope onto his feet all safe I heered a big doin's up towards
+Ed's vicinity, and lookin' up seen his hoss jist a-pitchin' and
+a-sunfishin' like a good feller.
+
+"Ed, he rides him fer about three or four jumps and then, as the saddle
+was a crawlin' up onto the pony's neck, from his cinches a-bein too
+loose, and it a-tippin' up behind like a old hen-turkey's tail, runnin'
+before the wind, Ed, he decides to unload right thar and not go any
+farther.
+
+"The pony, he keeps up his cavortin' and the steer stripped the saddle
+right over his head. Away goes Mr. Blue into the thick timber, draggin'
+that new Heiser Ed got up in Denver over the rocks and through the
+trees, like as if it want but a picket pin at the end of a stake rope.
+
+"When Ed hit the sod, his Winchester drops out of the scabbard, an' he
+grabs it up an' sets there on the ground a pumpin' lead after the blue
+as fast as he could pull the trigger. He never stopped the steer at all,
+an' when we were trailin' him up, we found the saddle where the rope had
+dragged between two rocks. The saddle got hung up, but the steer was a
+runnin' so hard that he jist busted the rope and kept on a goin' an' I
+reckin is a goin' yet."
+
+"Imagine Ed's shots hit the steer, Windy?" inquired one interested
+listener.
+
+"Reckon not," was the reply, "but one of them hit the saddle and made a
+hole clean through the tree, which didn't help matters much with the
+boss, I'm here to tell you. You'd orter heerd Ed talk when he sees that
+there new hull of his all skinned up an' a hole shot plumb through the
+fork." And Windy grinned at the memory of it.
+
+Not long after this adventure, the blue-roan stood on a high ridge
+overlooking a valley. Out in that valley was the salt ground where great
+chinks of pure white rocksalt were placed, not only to satisfy the
+cravings of the salt-loving brutes, but to coax them out of the cedars
+into the open where the wilder ones could be captured.
+
+The roan was salt-hungry and, after a careful survey of the
+surroundings, started down the trail for the salt grounds. Away off to
+the left, and quite out of his sight, half a dozen cowboys were driving
+a bunch of cattle down a draw between two ridges. One of them rode up on
+top of the ridge to take a look over the country. Some distance below
+him, and well out into the valley, was a single animal. It took but a
+short look to satisfy the rider that it was the blue-roan. The boy was
+riding his best rope-horse that morning and, with a wave of his hat to
+his comrades, he loosened the reins on old "Greyback" and tore off down
+the valley toward the steer.
+
+He had not gone fifty yards before the roan saw he was pursued, and
+wheeling out of the trail in which he was traveling struck back towards
+the sheltering trees on a long swinging trot.
+
+A couple of miles' hard run, and the boy rode his horse out of a
+deep wash, to see, across another valley, the blue-roan hurrying
+majestically up the ridge, the sheltering trees but a few hundred yards
+away. He spurred his horse down the rocky side of the ridge, across a
+flat at the bottom, and up the steep side opposite, reaching the top
+just as the blue was passing. His horse was winded, but the boy "took a
+long chance" and drove after the animal with his rope down ready for a
+throw. For an instant the steer hesitated, then plunged off the ridge,
+down the steep side, just as the boy's rope dropped over his horns. It
+was a fearful risk to rope a steer such as this, with a badly winded
+horse; but tenfold more dangerous to do it just as the great animal was
+starting down the steep slope. The boy knew his only hope was to keep
+the steer from tightening the rope, for if that happened, no horse on
+earth could hold the weight of the brute at the end of it, plunging down
+hill as they were.
+
+"Turn the rope loose," you say? Oh no; he wasn't that kind of a cow
+puncher. Come what might, he meant to hang onto that steer to the bitter
+end.
+
+Half way down the hill was a lone piñon tree about twenty feet high, and
+true to his nature the steer headed for it. The rider realized his
+danger and tried to keep from straddling it with his rope, but, just as
+the roan reached the tree, instead of passing it on the same side with
+the horse, he dodged around it. This brought the horse and man on one
+side, the steer on the other; between them a fifty foot "Tom Horn" rope
+fastened firmly; one end to a twelve hundred-pound steer, the other, to
+a saddle cinched to a thousand-pound horse.
+
+The tremendous force of the pull, when the rope drew up on the tree,
+uprooted it. This prevented the rope from breaking, but there was
+sufficient jerk upon it to bring both horse and steer to the ground in a
+struggling heap.
+
+The man who was "riding for a fall," with both feet out of the stirrups,
+in anticipation of just such a wreck, flew off into space, landing in a
+pile of rocks twenty-five feet away by actual measurement. The horse
+fell with his head under him in such a way that his neck was instantly
+broken.
+
+When the other men who were following reached the scene, they found the
+man just regaining his senses, badly cut about the head, but otherwise
+unhurt. The blue, in falling, had landed flat on his back, his hind feet
+down the steep hill, both his long horns buried to the very skull in the
+ground. Thus he was absolutely helpless and unable to regain his feet,
+no matter how hard he struggled. To "hog-tie" him in this position, was
+the work of but a moment, and at last the blue-roan outlaw was a
+captive.
+
+It was no trouble to roll him down the steep hillside to the level
+ground below, and inside of half an hour the rest of the men arrived on
+the scene with the bunch of cattle they had been driving.
+
+In the bunch was a large steer which they roped and dragged up to where
+the outlaw lay, and, in cowboy parlance "dumped" him on top of the
+outlaw. They then proceeded to "neck" the two steers together with a
+short rope they cut for the purpose. Having done this to their
+satisfaction they untied the hogging ropes and allowed the steers to
+gain their feet. As this was done the bunch of cattle they had driven up
+was carefully crowded around the two animals. After a few minutes of
+pulling and fighting the outlaw sulkily allowed himself to be dragged
+along by his unwilling mate, with the rest of the cattle, and was
+eventually landed safely in the main herd.
+
+Great was the rejoicing in camp that night over the capture, and the
+guards about the herd were cautioned not to let the two escape under any
+circumstances.
+
+At the end of the week the herd had been worked down to the river for
+shipping. As the country was open and the herd easily handled the
+"twins," as the boys called them, came apart when the old rope wore out
+and were not necked up again.
+
+That night one of the men, who had a family in town, hired a town kid to
+take his place on herd, while he went up and spent the night at home. As
+the boy rode his guard around the edge of the herd which lay quietly in
+the cool night air, he found a big blue steer standing at the very edge
+of the bunch looking off toward the mountains in a dreamy, meditative
+mood. Kidlike, he could not withstand the temptation to play the
+"smarty," so, instead of passing him by or gently turning him into the
+herd, the boy took off his hat and swung it into the steer's face.
+
+It was a distinct challenge to the old warrior, and he rose to the
+occasion. Gathering himself for one mighty plunge he struck the pony the
+boy was riding with his powerful head, knocking him flat. Away he dashed
+over horse and rider, while the herd broke into a mad stampede which
+carried them five miles in the opposite direction before they could be
+"milled" into a bunch and held up again. Two men were left with them,
+the rest returning to camp.
+
+Daylight showed the blue-roan missing, and the wagon boss swore a solemn
+oath that, if ever again he was captured, he would be necked and also
+have his head tied down to a foot until he was safely inside the
+stockyards.
+
+Four weeks later a party of cattle men, gathering steers in the
+mountains, ran across the blue outlaw, right on the brink of a deep,
+rough cañon. He was seen, with the aid of a glass, across a bend in the
+cañon lying under the rim rock in fancied security. Near him were
+several other steers, and it was determined to make the attempt to
+capture the lot.
+
+Carefully driving their bunch of gentle steers as close to the place
+where the outlaw was lying as they could, with the thought that, if he
+ran up the trail, he would see the steers and possibly go to them and
+stop; three men rode into the cañon some distance below and started up
+the trail toward where he was lying.
+
+The instant the blue-roan saw the horsemen he jumped to his feet,
+hesitated a moment, and instead of taking the smooth trail out, dove
+down the steep, rocky sides of the cañon where neither horse nor man
+could follow.
+
+Surefooted as he was, he misjudged his agility and strength, and plunged
+into a mass of loose rock, which gave him no foothold. The walls of the
+cañon were frightfully steep and in the loose rock, sliding, slipping,
+and rolling, he was swiftly hurried towards the edge of a cliff two
+hundred feet high, over which he dropped to death and destruction. Tons
+of loose rock followed him to the bottom, making a roar like a thousand
+cannons. It was the end of the road for the blue-roan.
+
+When the men climbed down the trail to see just what had happened they
+found him dead and half buried in the mass of fallen rock.
+
+The cliff was an over-hanging one, smooth and soft enough to show
+markings, and one of the men, taking a piece of hard flintrock, spent
+half an hour cutting deep into the smooth, white wall the words:
+
+"Here died the Blue-Roan Outlaw. He was a King."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CAMPIN' OUT
+
+_A Bit of Family Correspondence_
+
+
+Camp Roosevelt, September 5th.
+
+_Dear Daddy_: I promised to write every day, if I could, while we are on
+our vacation; so here goes: My, but we had a hard time getting out here.
+Say, Dad, did you ever pack a burro? Haven't they got the slipperiest
+backs? Our pack turned over about twenty times and scattered the stuff
+all over the country. The sugar spilled out of the bag and wasted. Billy
+says that don't matter, though, for we can use molasses in our coffee,
+like the miners up in Alaska.
+
+[Illustration: "_Say, Dad, did you ever pack a burro_"]
+
+He kept running into all the open gates along the road (the burro, not
+Billy). The way he tramped up some of the gardens was awful. Billy got
+so mad he wouldn't chase him out any more, 'cause once they set a dog on
+to him as he was chasing the burro out of a frontyard.
+
+Billy says burros is the curiest things ever.
+
+We tried leading him (the burro, not Billy), but he wouldn't lead a
+single step. He ran away last night. Billy hopes he never comes back
+again.
+
+We are camped under a big fir tree, with branches that come down to the
+ground just like an umbrella. The creek is so close to camp that we can
+hear it tumbling over the rocks all night. I think it's great, but Billy
+says it's so noisy it keeps him awake. Billy makes me tired, he does;
+for it takes Jack and me half an hour to wake him up in the morning to
+build the fire. That's his job.
+
+We called it "Camp Roosevelt." Billy wanted to name it "Camp Bryan,"
+because his father's a democrat, but me and Jack says nothin' doing in
+the Bryan name, 'cause this camp's got to have some life to it, and a
+camp named Roosevelt was sure to have something lively happening all the
+time.
+
+We are sure having a fine time here.
+
+Your affectionate son,
+
+DICK.
+
+P. S. Tell mother that tea made in a coffee pot tastes just as good as
+if it was made in a tea pot. She said it wouldn't.
+
+DICK.
+
+P. S. Pa, did you ever useto sleep with your boots for a pillow out on
+the plains? Cause if you did I don't see how you got the kinks out of
+your neck the next day.
+
+DICK.
+
+
+Camp Roosevelt, September 7th.
+
+_Dear Pa_: My, but the ground's hard when you sleep on it all night. We
+all three sleep in one bed, 'cause that gives us more to put under us.
+I'm sorry for soldiers who have to sleep on one blanket. We toss up to
+see who sleeps in the middle, for the blankets are so narrow that the
+outside fellow gets the worst of it.
+
+The first night the burro ran off, and next morning Jack had to walk two
+miles before he found him. Jack's the horse-wrangler. Isn't that what
+you said they used to call the fellow who hunted up the horses every
+morning on the round-ups?
+
+We staked him out the next night (the burro I mean, not Jack) and we all
+woke up half scared to death at the worst racket you ever heard in all
+your life. And what do you think it was? Nothing at all but that
+miserable burro braying.
+
+Say, Pa, you know that quilt mother let me bring along, the one she said
+you and she had when you first got married? Well, do you s'pose she'd
+care if it was tore some? You see, on the way out the burro ran along a
+barb wire fence and tore it, the quilt I mean. Lots of the stuffing came
+out, but it don't show if you turn the tore place down.
+
+This morning I woke up most froze, 'cause Billy crowded me clear off the
+bed and out on to the ground. It's sure great to sleep out of doors and
+see the stars and things. We put a hair rope in the foot of the bed last
+night. Gee, but Jack jumped high when his bare feet hit it. He thought
+it was a tarantula.
+
+My, I wish we could stay here a year.
+
+Lovingly,
+
+DICK.
+
+P. S. The little red ants got into our condensed milk and spoiled it;
+leastways there's so many ants we can't separate the ants from the
+milk. Billy left the hole in the top of the can open.
+
+
+Camp Roosevelt, September 9th.
+
+_Dear Pa_: You know Billy's dog Spot? Well, Billy said there was a
+wildcat about camp, 'cause he saw the tracks. So I went down to a house
+below on the creek and borrowed a steel trap they had. It was a big one
+with sharp teeth on the jaws.
+
+I wanted to set it on the ground, but Billy he says, "No, sir; set it on
+the log acrost the creek, 'cause the cat would walk on the log and
+couldn't help getting caught.
+
+Besides, he said if we set it on the log and fastened it, when the
+wildcat got caught he'd fall off into the creek and get drownded and
+then we wouldn't have to kill him. Billy says that's the way trappers
+catch mushrats, so they can't eat their feet off, when they get caught,
+and get away.
+
+Well, sir, we set the trap and tied Spot up so he wouldn't get into it.
+
+In the night we heard the awfulest racket ever was and the biggest
+splashing going on in the water. It even woke Billy up, and that's going
+some, as Uncle Tom says.
+
+It was 'most daylight and I sat up in bed, and there in the water was
+something making a dreadful fuss. Billy he looks at it a minute and
+says: "Why, it's Spot. Who let him loose?" Then we all jumped up, and
+sure enough there was poor old Spot in the trap by one front-foot. The
+chain to the trap was just long enough so he didn't drown, but was
+hanging in the water by one leg.
+
+Billy, it being his dog, crawled out on the log, unfastened the chain
+and tried to pull Spot up. Some way he lost his balance and fell into
+the creek right on top of the dog. Billy was real mad 'cause me and Jack
+laughed so hard we couldn't help him a bit, Spot was pretty mad too, for
+he grabbed Billy's leg in his teeth and tore a big piece out of
+them--out of Billy's pajamas I mean.
+
+Then Billy let go of the chain, and Spot climbed out of the water on to
+the bank and tried to run off with the trap. Billy waded ashore too, and
+we just laid down on the ground and hollered like real wild Indians.
+Billy he said it wasn't any laughing matter and to come and help him get
+Spot out of the trap.
+
+Say, Dad, did you ever try to open a big steel trap--especially one with
+a spotted dog in it? Spot wouldn't let us come near him. Billy coaxed
+and coaxed, but, no siree, he wouldn't do anything but just snap at us
+like a sure enough wild cat. Meantime Spot he howls something dreadful.
+
+Then Jack he remembers how once in a storybook a man caught a mad dog,
+so he runs to the bed and gets a blanket, and while Billy and me talks
+nice to Spot from in front, Jack he sneaks up behind and throws it over
+him. Then Jack grabbed the blanket and wrapped it around the dog's head
+so he couldn't bite, and we both stood on the trap spring and managed to
+get it open wide enough so Billy got his foot out (Spot's foot I mean,
+not Billy's).
+
+Has he come home yet? 'Cause he's gone from here. My goodness, but
+camping out's sure fun.
+
+Your loving son,
+
+RICHARD.
+
+P. S. Billy says he don't care anyhow, for Spot had no right to chew the
+rope in two and get loose so as to get into the trap.
+
+DICK.
+
+P. S. The wasps are thick here. One stung Jack on the neck and he
+hollered awful over it. I made a mud poultice for it like you told me
+once you used to do on the plains.
+
+
+Camp Roosevelt, September some time.
+
+We forget what day it is.
+
+_Dear Pa_: It rained last night real hard. We didn't get much wet, and
+anyhow Jack says camping out wouldn't be any fun unless you slept in wet
+blankets once, like the cowboys and soldiers do on the plains. Billy
+says his Uncle John says a wet bed is a warm bed, but I don't believe
+him, for we 'most froze.
+
+Pa, what makes the red come out of the quilts where they get rained on?
+Jack says we belong to the improved order of Red Men now, and if my face
+looks as funny as his does, with red streaks all acrost it, I'd be
+afraid to go home.
+
+You'd ought to see the fun we had drownding out a chipmonk what ran into
+a hole in the ground. We packed the water in our hats from the creek.
+Bimeby, the chipmonk, came out, and I ran after him. He was so wet he
+couldn't run fast and I made a grab at him and caught him--no, he caught
+me for he bit my finger horrible hard and I couldn't let go, or else he
+wouldn't, I'm not sure which.
+
+Billy and Jack laughed at me as if it was a good joke, but I couldn't
+see where it was so very funny.
+
+Do chipmonks have hydryfoby? Billy says he bets they do.
+
+Your son, DICK.
+
+P. S. Jack dropped the box of matches out of his shirt pocket into the
+creek, and I had to go to a house about a mile away to get some more.
+
+P. S. You can't make a fire with two sticks of wood, for we tried it for
+an hour. All we got was blisters on our hands. The Indians must of had
+lots of patience if they ever did it.
+
+
+Camp Roosevelt, Thursday.
+
+The man told us.
+
+_Dear Daddy_: If the burro comes home please shut him up in the lot.
+He's gone somewhere and we can't find him. Anyhow it don't make much
+difference, for Jack says he'd rather carry his share of the stuff on
+his back than bother with a pack burro again. There ain't going to be
+much grub to take back anyhow. The man down the creek gave us some more
+bacon for what the hogs ate up and said we were welcome to all the green
+corn we wanted from his field. We had just corn for supper last night
+and breakfast today. The salt all got wet in the rain and melted up, so
+we didn't have any, but Billy says lots of times on the plains people
+didn't have any salt for weeks at a time. I'll bet they didn't have
+nothing but green corn to eat, though.
+
+Please tell mother that I burned a hole in one of my shoes trying to dry
+them out by the campfire. Also about six inches off the bottom of one
+leg of my pajamas. They were hanging on a stick by the fire drying while
+we made the bed. Billy said he smelt cloth a-burning, but we never saw
+where it was till the harm was done.
+
+If mother won't mind I'm sure I won't, for Billy says no soldier or
+cowboy ever wore pajamas. It was my old pair of shoes anyhow, and they
+always hurt my heel when I walked, so they don't matter either.
+
+Camping out's sure lots of fun.
+
+Your loving son,
+
+DICK.
+
+P. S. The man down the creek says he's going to town pretty soon and if
+we want to ride in with him we can. I wonder what made him think of it.
+
+P. S. A wasp stung me on the lip yesterday. He lit on an ear of corn
+just as I went to bite. It don't hurt at all, leastways I'd be ashamed
+if I made as much fuss about it as Jack did when one bit him. Besides a
+wasp bite on the lip's lots worser than one on the neck--that's what the
+man down the creek says.
+
+
+Camp Roosevelt.
+
+_Dear Daddy_: Yesterday we sure had a great time playing "Pirates"
+without any shirts on--for Billy says pirates always dress that
+way--just their trousers on, "naked to the waist," he says.
+
+I was the pirate chief, and Billy was my crew. Jack he was the captain
+of the vessel and stood on the log to defend the gangway of his ship.
+
+We had cutlasses made out of lath and when we told Jack to surrender he
+called us cowardly pirates and dared us to step on board his ship.
+
+Then we went for him and was having a great old time when Jack's foot
+slipped and he fell off the log into the creek. He got mad at me and
+Billy, 'cause we laughed at him when he bumped his head on the log as
+he went down.
+
+I wisht we could camp out here forever.
+
+DICK.
+
+P. S. What's good for a burnt finger where you burnt it trying to pick
+the coffee pot off the fire to keep it from boiling over?
+
+
+Camp Roosevelt.
+
+_Dear Dad_: If there's a funny smell to this letter it's on account of
+the skunk. The man down the creek says if we bury our clothes in the
+ground for two or three days the smell will all come off.
+
+We are coming home tomorrow in his wagon. We're going to leave the bed
+clothes hanging in a tree. The man said he wouldn't take them home if he
+was us. Anyhow it don't matter much for a spark blew onto the bed one
+day and burnt a hole right through them all clear down to the ground.
+
+We put it out when we smelt it. It didn't hurt very much, for we changed
+the blankets 'round so the holes didn't all come together, and let in
+the cold, and it was all right.
+
+Please kiss Mother for me and tell her most of the red's come off my
+face and arms.
+
+Billy cried last night 'cause he was homesick and wanted his Ma. He's a
+sissy girl, Billy is. I'll sure be glad to see you and Ma, but I
+wouldn't cry about it. Please kiss Ma for me.
+
+Your affectionate son, RICHARD.
+
+P. S. Say, Pa, do skunks out on the plains look like little kittens? The
+one we caught sure did.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+POPGUN PLAYS SANTA CLAUS
+
+By permission of _The National Wool Growers' Magazine_
+
+
+    "Salute yer pardners, let her go,
+    Balance all an' do-se-do.
+    Swing yer gal, then run away,
+    Right, an' left an' gents sashay."
+
+"Whoa, Mack, there's a letter in the Widow Miller's box."
+
+The pony sidled gingerly toward the mailbox nailed to the trunk of a
+pine tree, his eyes and ears watching closely the white sheet of paper
+that lay on the bottom of the open box, held by a small stone which
+allowed one end to flutter and flap in the wind in a way that excited
+his suspicions.
+
+When the Widow Miller wished to mail a letter she placed it, properly
+stamped, in her box and the first neighbor passing that way took it out
+and mailed it for her, she being some miles off the regular mail route.
+
+    "Gents to right, now swing or cheat,
+    On to the next gal an' repeat."
+
+He chanted the old familiar frontier quadrille call as he tried to force
+the pony close to the box to reach the paper without dismounting.
+
+"Stand still, you fool," he spurred the animal vigorously, "that there
+little piece of paper ain't going to eat you."
+
+But the more he spurred the farther from the box went the animal. "Beats
+all what a feller will do to save unloading hisself from a hoss," he
+threw the reins over Mack's head, swung to the ground and strode toward
+the box.
+
+    "Balance next an' don't be shy;
+    Swing yer pards an' swing 'em high."
+
+He sang as he lifted the stone and picked up the paper beneath it, which
+proved to be a large-sized sheet of writing paper folded three times. A
+one-cent stamp evidently taken from some old letter was stuck in one
+corner and beneath it was scrawled in a childish, unlettered hand the
+words:
+
+    "Mister Sandy Claws
+    The North Pole."
+
+Almost reverently Gibson unfolded the paper, feeling he was about to
+have some youthful heart opened to his curious eyes.
+
+"Deer Sandy Claws," it began, "please bring me a train of railroad cars,
+an' a pair of spurs an' a 22 rifle to shoot rabits with, an' a big tin
+horn. An' Sandy, Mary wants a big Teddy bare an' a real doll what shuts
+her eyes when she lays down. An' Minnie she's the baby, Sandy, so pleas
+bring her a pictur book an' a doll an' a wolly lam an' bring us all a
+lot of candy an' apples an' oranges an' nuts, for since Dady went away,
+we ain't had none of them things much. Mother she says you know jist
+where we live so don't forgit us for I've tride to be a good boy this
+year.
+
+"James Simpson Miller, 7 years old."
+
+Gibson felt a lump rising in his throat, and took refuge in song to hide
+his embarrassment.
+
+    "Bunch the gals an' circle round;
+    Whack your feet upon the ground.
+    Form a basket break away,
+    Swing an' kiss, an' all git gay."
+
+He wiped something out of the corner of his eyes with the back of his
+buckskin glove, and blew his nose savagely. "Hm, Shucks, seems like I'm
+a gittin' a cold in my haid," he remarked sort of confidentially to the
+pony.
+
+Once more he read the letter.
+
+"Hm, Shucks, wants a railroad train, hey? An' a gunchester to kill
+rabbits, an' a tin horn, an' Mary wants a Teddy bear, does she, an'
+apples an' oranges an' candy for all of 'em. Say, Bill Gibson, it's up
+to you to play Santy Claus for these kids an' if you handle the job
+right maybe you can convince their Aunt Nancy that she'd ought to say
+'Yes' to a man about your size an' complexion." Again he broke into
+song.
+
+    "Aleman left an' balance all.
+    Lift yer hoofs an' let 'em fall.
+    Swing yer op'sites; swing agin,
+    Kiss the darlings--if ye kin."
+
+"Git up, Mack, les git along to camp and let the bunch in on this Santy
+Claus game. Hm, Shucks, Nancy said she wanted a watermelon-pink
+sweater--whatever color that may be--to wear to the New Year's dance up
+on Crow Creek. Reckin the thing won't cost more'n a month's pay. I'll
+jist get her one if it takes my whole roll." Once more he dropped into
+song.
+
+    "Back yer pardners, do-se-do.
+    Ladies break, an' gents you know.
+    Crow hop out, an' dove hop in,
+    Join yer paddies an' circle again.
+    "Salute yer pardner, let her go,
+    Balance all an' do-se-do.
+    Gents salute yer little sweets,
+    Hitch an' promenade to seats."
+
+That night around the table in the bunk house of the Oak Creek Sheep
+Company, four or five men watched the foreman write a letter to the
+owner, Mr. Barrington, who was wintering on the coast. Briefly he
+explained how the letter to Santa Claus fell into their hands and the
+desire of the men at the ranch to furnish the children with all the
+things they asked for, and more.
+
+Miller, the foreman explained, had been accidentally killed a couple of
+years before and his wife was putting up a hard fight to stay on the
+piece of land he had homesteaded long enough to get title to it from the
+government.
+
+There were three kids, he continued, James, the oldest, seven years, and
+two girls, Mary, five, and Minnie, the baby, two.
+
+"The boys ain't a-limiting you in the cost, so please get anything else
+you and Mrs. Barrington thinks would please the kids and let me know
+the cost and I'll charge it up to the boys' pay accounts.
+
+"Also Bill Gibson wants that Mrs. Barrington should pick out what he
+says is to be a 'watermelon-pink' sweater for Mrs. Miller's kid sister,
+Nancy. Bill says Nancy is just about Mrs. Barrington's size, and what'd
+fit her will fit Nancy all right.
+
+"Bill he says he reckons Mrs. B. will savvy what a watermelon-pink
+sweater is, which is more than any of us do."
+
+Three days before Christmas Bill Gibson set forth for the railroad,
+twenty-five miles away, to bring back the expected Christmas stuff.
+There was two feet of snow on the ground and the roads were impassable
+for wheels; so Bill took with him two pack animals, a horse and a mule.
+
+He figured he would be one day going and one coming and that on
+Christmas eve, after marking and arranging all the presents, some one
+would ride down to the cabin and leave the whole business on the porch
+of the widow's cabin where she would be sure to find it early Christmas
+morning. At the railroad Gibson found the trains all tied up with snow
+to the west, and the packages had not arrived.
+
+"Hm, shucks," was his terse comment. "Now wouldn't it jist be hell if
+the plunder didn't come in time for them kids to have their Christmas
+tree?" But late that night a train came through which brought the
+package he had come for.
+
+By unpacking the stuff from the box in which they were shipped Gibson
+managed to get everything in the two kyacks carried by the mule while
+upon the horse he packed a load of provisions for the camp.
+
+[Illustration: "_Gibson managed to get everything in the two Kyacks
+carried by the mule_"]
+
+Barrington and his wife had added liberally to the list of toys and,
+knowing well the conditions at the sheep ranch, had marked or tagged
+each article with the name of the child for which it was intended. Even
+Mrs. Miller had been remembered generously.
+
+The sweater was there, packed carefully in a fancy box. Bill loosed the
+ribbon that fastened it and slipped a card into the box on which he had
+laboriously written, "To Miss Nancy, from her true friend, Bill."
+
+But the storm broke out again and it was long after noon the next day
+before he dared start, for the wind blew great guns and the air was
+filled with icy particles that no one could face.
+
+Leading the pack horse with the mule "tailed up" to him, Gibson started
+for home, but made poor progress through the drifted snow. It was almost
+two o'clock the next morning when he passed the letterbox at the trail
+to the Widow Miller's place. The moon had gone down behind the trees to
+the west and it was quite dark, but here the wind had swept the ground
+bare of snow, and his progress with his rather jaded animals was much
+better.
+
+Sleepy and tired from his long ride Gibson reached the ranch and rode
+into the warm stable to unsaddle. There to his great surprise he found
+he had but one animal behind him, the rope which had been around the
+mule's neck still dragging at the pack horse's tail, a mute evidence of
+what had happened.
+
+"Hm, shucks," he commented grimly, "won't them there boys in the bunk
+house give me particular hell for this night's work?"
+
+Wearily he unsaddled and unpacked the horses. Still more wearily he
+dragged himself up the path to the house, stirred the fire in the
+fireplace into a blaze, and when the coffee was hot drank a cup, ate
+greedily of the food which the cook had left for him, crawled into his
+blankets and in ten seconds was dead to the world.
+
+In his dreams he was swinging a rosy cheeked girl through the steps of
+an old-fashioned quadrille, she being attired in a most gorgeous
+watermelon-pink sweater.
+
+    "Swing yer pardners, swing agin;
+    Kiss the darlings--if you kin."
+
+He essayed the kiss only to be awakened on the verge of its attainment
+by a heavy hand on his shoulder, followed by a voice which demanded in
+no soft tones, "Where's your Christmas plunder?"
+
+He sat up in bed half dazed by his night's experience.
+
+"Come alive, Bill; come alive, an' tell us about the things for the
+kids. We can't find them nowhere."
+
+Gibson yawned and rubbed his eyes in a vain attempt to delay the
+castastrophe which he knew would encompass him when he told of the loss
+of the pack mule.
+
+Before he dropped off to sleep he had planned to get an early start in
+the morning back on his trail to try to find the lost animal. Popgun had
+been bought from the widow soon after her husband's demise and he
+shrewdly guessed that the tired, hungry mule would most likely strike
+direct for his old and nearby home.
+
+He sprang from bed and grabbed his clothes.
+
+"Hm, shucks," he began. "I reckon I done lost the mule coming home. Had
+him tailed up to old Paint and just about the time I passed the trail
+into Widder Miller's place Paint set back on the lead rope and like to
+pulled the saddle offen old Mack, me havin' the rope tied hard and fast
+to the nub. He let up in a minute and come along all right and I'm a
+figuring 'twere just about there that Popgun gits loose, he probably
+havin' been leaning back on the pack hosse's tail a right smart causing
+Paint to pull back hisself. Popgun likely stripped the rope over his
+head and being about all in turned off down the trail to the widder's
+and it's dollars to doughnuts he's a eating hay in her shed right now.
+Me being tired and sleepy I never sensed the loss till I gits here with
+the mule's rope a dragging along still tied to Paint's tail. Hm, shucks,
+I'll find him or bust a shoe string."
+
+"An' to think they have to go all the way back to Afriky to git ivory
+when there's such a lot of it to be had nearer home," was the sarcastic
+comment of the foreman.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+From the windows of the Widow Miller's cabin the whole world seemed
+wrapped in a mantle of white. Down along the creek in the meadow the
+rose bushes and willows poked their heads above the snow. Changing their
+skirts for overalls, she and Nancy soon picked a couple of quarts of the
+brilliant red berries or fruit of the rose bushes. That night as soon as
+the children were safely in bed they started in on their Christmas tree
+preparations. Several days before Nancy had slipped out into the timber
+and cut a small spruce which she dragged to the stable and hid under
+some loose hay, and with an empty canned goods case and some stones
+they managed to make a very satisfactory base for it. Over the coals in
+the fireplace they popped a huge dish-pan full of corn and worked late
+into the night stringing popcorn and the rose berries with which to
+festoon the tree.
+
+"I've seen my mother use cranberries for the same thing," she told her
+sister, "but these rose berries look quite as well I think."
+
+From the pages of a mail order catalogue they cut figures from the
+brilliantly colored fashion plates which, pasted upon stiff cardboard
+and hung to the tips of the branches, made famous decorations.
+
+Festooned with the long strings of rose berries and popcorn, with these
+gaily painted ladies of fashion dangling from every bough, it made a
+very satisfactory Christmas tree. After placing upon it the presents for
+the children which they had been able to buy or make, together with a
+few apples and oranges, some stick candy, each done up separately in
+paper, "just to make it seem more," Nancy said, the two women retired
+for the night.
+
+How long she had slept or what awakened her, Mrs. Miller could not tell,
+but as she strained her ears for the slightest sound, she imagined she
+could hear outside the footfalls of some heavy animal. She knew it could
+be no bear, for whatever it was the snow was crunching under its feet,
+nor was it a human, for the steps were those of a four-footed object.
+
+The moon, that earlier in the evening had flooded the valley until it
+was almost as light as day, was now just dipping behind the mountain to
+the west, throwing the stable into deep shadow, from which the sounds
+now seemed to come.
+
+There was a bare possibility of its being some range cow, although they
+had all long since drifted down into the lower country, but she finally
+decided it must be one of the big bull elks which regularly wintered on
+the wind-swept sides of the mountain above them and sometimes came down
+to the ranch seeking feed during times of heavy snow.
+
+Shivering with the cold she crept back to bed realizing that daylight
+would soon come. Rudely her dreams were broken by a sound that at first
+froze the very marrow in her bones, but which with immense relief she
+instantly realized could come from the throat of but one animal and
+that, a mule.
+
+Fortunately the children slept through it all, and dressing as quickly
+as they could, she and Nancy started for the stable, Mrs. Miller armed
+with her automatic.
+
+No sooner had they stepped from the porch than the mule that had been
+hanging about the stable trying to get in spotted them and greeted their
+coming with a series of brays and nickerings that showed his joy at
+seeing some human being.
+
+It was Popgun, the pack still on his back. Leading him to the cabin the
+women quickly loosened the diamond hitch, took off the canvas pack cover
+and piled the kyacks upon the porch after which he was placed in a
+vacant stall in the stable and fed.
+
+To the women versed in frontier ways and signs the solution of the visit
+from their long-eared friend was simple, and they sized up the situation
+almost exactly as it had occurred. Therefore they felt certain some one
+would be on his trail before very long.
+
+The rattle of the pack rigging on the porch aroused the children, and
+when the women returned from the stable the two older ones were
+investigating the pack.
+
+Bidding them not to meddle with the things, Mrs. Miller and her sister
+went inside the house to get breakfast leaving the kids on the porch.
+Childish curiosity could not well be stifled, especially on such a day
+as this. They had been told stories of the coming of Santa Claus and
+while Jimmie had learned that a reindeer looks very much like a bull elk
+he had once seen, he also knew that all sorts of things could be packed
+in a pair of kyacks and knew no reason why Santa should not have availed
+himself of that means of transporting his gifts under certain
+conditions.
+
+To loosen the straps that held the kyack covers was an easy matter. To
+lift up the heavy canvas covers was still easier and the first thing
+that met the eager eyes of both children was a long tin horn nested down
+in some excelsior. As he pulled at it a fluttering tag caught his eye.
+On it he read: "For James--Merry Christmas." One wild shout of delight
+and he gave a blast on the toy that brought both women to the door just
+in time to see Mary drag from the kyack a huge Teddy Bear. On this was
+another tag marked: "To Mary--Merry Christmas."
+
+Before his scandalized mother could collect her senses enough to stop
+him Jimmie had dropped his horn and gone on a voyage of exploration into
+the depths of the two kyacks. One of his first discoveries was the box
+containing the sweater. The tag tied to it cleared up in a measure the
+doubts which Mrs. Miller had had as to the propriety of thus making free
+with other people's property, and that Santa had been sent by the men at
+the sheep camp.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+An hour later a man rode down the trail back of the house and quite out
+of range of its windows. Tying his horse at the side of the stable away
+from the house he crept to the corner of the building and cautiously
+peeped out.
+
+The smoke was curling briskly from the cabin chimney and in the tense
+stillness he could hear noises which indicated very plainly that the
+letter to "Sandy Claws" had borne fruit, for the most ear-splitting
+sounds were coming from the cabin, sounds which he knew to be the
+natural results of three tin horns in the mouths of three delighted
+kids.
+
+As he stood there a door slammed, and a girl stepped out on the porch
+arrayed in the most gorgeous sweater he had ever imagined. On her head
+was a jaunty cap of the same color and material as the sweater, while in
+her hands she held a tin bucket in which most unquestionably was the
+breakfast for the chickens which were making loud demands for release
+from their log coop near the stable.
+
+In his inmost heart Bill Gibson knew that if ever a man was blessed by
+the Gods with the one opportunity of his life, it was facing him at this
+very moment. Nancy came tripping down the snowy path a perfect picture
+of girlish beauty and happiness. Gibson drew back so she could not see
+him until she had turned the corner of the stable. As she did so and met
+his eyes the song turned into a maidenly shriek. Her cheeks were
+blazing like two peonies, she tried hard to speak, but the words died on
+her lips. Mechanically she set the bucket of feed on a small shelf where
+the chickens could not reach it. Bill interpreted the move as meaning
+either a fight or complete surrender. He believed it was the latter and
+took a step toward her.
+
+"Christmas gift, Nancy," he said. His voice had an odd quaver in it.
+"Old Santy seems to have brung you the sort of sweater you wanted." He
+was gaining confidence.
+
+"He sure did," she replied, striving in vain to keep her eyes from
+meeting his.
+
+"Nancy," he demanded, "ain't you got nothing for me this grand Christmas
+morning?"
+
+"What you wanting mostly?" her eyes fairly dancing with mischief and
+telling what her lips dared not.
+
+A look of triumph swept over the man's bronzed face.
+
+"You--an' I'm a-going to take it right here." He took a step toward her;
+she turned to run but with one bound he was at her side, caught her in
+his arms and fairly smothered her with kisses.
+
+He drew back his head and looked deep into her eyes. "How about it?" he
+demanded.
+
+"About what?" very archly.
+
+He kissed her a dozen times before she replied. Nor did she seem to
+object to the action.
+
+"You know the Christmas present I most want, Nancy."
+
+He drew her closer to him, her arms found their way about his neck.
+"Bill," she whispered in his ear, "you're an old darling, let's go up to
+the house and tell the news to sister."
+
+[Illustration: _Apache Squaw and Baby_]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+"JUST REGULARS"
+
+
+In the dark depths of an Arizona cañon, with no light but that which
+came from the stars, a string of shadowy figures slowly worked its way
+through tangles of thorny mesquite and cat claw, over rocks and past
+great bunches of cactus which pierced hands and limbs wherever they
+touched.
+
+If you looked closer, you saw that the figures were those of men, also
+horses and mules, most of the men leading their mounts, and here and
+there the yellow chevrons on some sergeant's blouse, or the broad yellow
+stripe on an officer's trousers showed them to be cavalry.
+
+There was no talking or unnecessary noise. At times they were fairly on
+their knees fighting their way up some rocky steep; again they dropped
+down into the darkness, the well-trained animals following like goats.
+
+At the head of the line, an officer, young in years but old in this kind
+of work, whispered occasionally to the veteran guide at his left.
+
+Just ahead of him an Apache scout, stripped for the fight, a band of red
+flannel about his forehead, his body naked except for the white cotton
+breechclout ("the G string") about his waist, the peculiar moccasins of
+his tribe on his feet, led the way, like some bloodhound on the trail.
+
+Out of the darkness ahead came the weird hoot of an owl. Three times did
+it sound. The scout listened till the last echo died away, and then,
+with his hands gathered about his mouth, answered the call.
+
+Quietly he slipped away into the night, the command stopping where they
+were as the whispered order flew back along the line, each man sinking
+down to the ground, glad of the chance for the moment's rest.
+
+The night was cold, although it was midsummer in a region where at noon
+the earth is baked and burned with the heat.
+
+An hour passed, and out of the darkness the Apache returned.
+
+The quarry which they sought was not far ahead, and it was best to leave
+their animals and go the rest of the way without them.
+
+Turning to the tall Sergeant behind him, the officer gave the orders for
+the movement, and back down the shivering, scattered line went the
+instructions: "Number fours hold the horses, every one else take all
+extra ammunition and their canteens and follow the column on foot."
+
+Then came whispered pleadings from the unfortunate "number four men"
+doomed to remain behind to guard the horses and the rear while the
+others went on into the darkness to--what? Perhaps death, perhaps a
+wound from a poisoned arrow; in any event plenty of hardship and
+suffering.
+
+How those cavalrymen begged for the privilege of getting a hole shot
+through them. They urged the officers to cut down the rearguard and
+leave but a couple of men to look after the packs and horses.
+
+"Very well, Sergeant," the commanding officer replied, well pleased when
+told of the men's desire to go with the fighting force, "leave three or
+four men to guard the animals and let the rest come on; God knows we are
+very likely to need them."
+
+Then the Sergeant, knowing his men as a schoolmaster his pupils, left
+behind: fat Corporal Conn whose asthmatic wheezings and puffings had
+already brought forth many a muttered curse upon his head; Private Hill
+who couldn't see an inch beyond his nose in the dark and who had fallen
+over every bush and rock in the trail since they entered the cañon; and
+two other men whose physical condition was such that he doubted their
+ability to make the climb which he knew was ahead of them.
+
+Not one of these accepted the detail without as vigorous a protest as
+soldierly duty made possible. Bless you no! Each of them felt himself an
+object of especial pity, fat Conn even claiming that the higher he
+climbed the less the asthma troubled him.
+
+Then the command once more drove into the blackness ahead, following the
+lithe Apache up a mountain side which seemed almost perpendicular.
+
+Each man carried two belts of cartridges about his waist with a third
+swung from his shoulder. Most of them wore the Apache moccasin which
+gave forth no sound as they moved along.
+
+At last they reached the summit of the mountain breathless and tired.
+Before them was a mighty cañon, the cañon of the Salt River. To their
+left four granite peaks, the "Four Peaks" of the maps, pierced the
+skyline like videttes on guard over the cañon.
+
+From its bed, two thousand feet below, the dull murmur of the river, as
+it dashed along its rocky way, came softly to the soldiers' ears.
+
+It was the dawning of December 27, 1872. The soldiers were a detachment
+of the Fifth United States Cavalry, Major Brown in command.
+
+At a little spring some twenty miles away they had left their supplies
+and pack train.
+
+Their Christmas holidays had been spent in pursuit of several bands of
+Apaches, and the scouts had reported that a large band of them was
+located in a cave on the Salt River cañon.
+
+A pack mule had died in camp that day, and the Indian scouts were
+allowed to make a great feast upon its remains that they might set out
+on the expedition with full stomachs.
+
+For years efforts had been made to concentrate the Apaches, who had been
+the scourge of Arizona and the Southwest, upon one or two reservations
+where, under guard, they could be watched and kept in bounds.
+
+In the summer of 1872 General George Crook, after having held numerous
+councils with the Apaches, issued an ultimatum to the effect that, if
+those who were outside of the reservation did not return by the
+fifteenth of the coming November, active operations would begin against
+them. After that date every Indian found outside the reservation was to
+be treated as a hostile and dealt with accordingly.
+
+The Apaches knew Crook only too well, for the "Old Grey Fox," as they
+called him, had always kept his word with them in the past.
+
+Promptly on the day set General Crook took the field against the outlaw
+Apaches and hunted them down relentlessly day and night.
+
+The region in which these operations took place is one of the roughest
+in the United States. It is located on the western side of the great
+"Tonto Basin" in central Arizona, and consists of ragged mountain
+ranges, and isolated peaks, while the whole area is cut and seamed with
+deep box cañons impassable for miles.
+
+About fifty miles from the city of Phoenix, as the crow flies, and
+near the great Roosevelt irrigation reservoir and dam, four granite
+peaks pierce the sky.
+
+Here Nature is found in one of her most inhospitable moods, and in the
+fastnesses of these "Four Peaks" several bands of the hunted, harassed
+Apaches took refuge.
+
+In its mighty cañons the Indians knew of caves and cliffs where they had
+lived in safety from their old enemies for many years; there they
+believed no white man could possibly reach them.
+
+Crook and his soldiers matched wits with the Indians and beat them at
+their own game. Wherever the Indians went there the troops followed
+them. They chased them on foot when their horses played out, lived on
+the scantiest possible allowance of food, slept in the deep snows with
+but a single blanket and without fires lest the telltale smoke give the
+Indians warning of their presence.
+
+It was to surprise the occupants of one of these caves that Major Brown
+and his men were making this night march.
+
+There the Apaches had fled, carrying into the cave great quantities of
+food and other necessary supplies, leaving their ponies behind to shift
+for themselves.
+
+The cave itself is not a cave in the strict sense of the word, but
+rather a great weather-worn shelf, similar to those used by the ancient
+cliff dwellers for their habitations all over the Southwest.
+
+At the outside edge the opening is about fifteen feet high from floor to
+roof, and sixty feet wide. The roof slopes back into the cliff for some
+thirty feet to a point where the rear wall is not over three feet high.
+
+At the front, the floor of the cave projects some little distance beyond
+the overhanging cliff forming a sort of platform. Entirely around this
+platform the Apaches had raised a stone-wall several feet high, inside
+of which they rested in fancied security.
+
+On top of the mountain Major Brown's command, which numbered but fifty
+men and officers, with two civilian guides, waited while the two scouts
+wormed their way into the blackness of the cañon's depths in an attempt
+to make sure that the Indians did not have any pickets outside the cave
+to guard against surprise.
+
+The cool night breeze made the soldiers' teeth chatter. Some dropped off
+to sleep, while others huddled together under the lee of the great rocks
+whose surface still gave off some slight warmth stored up during the
+day. Meantime they cursed, with a soldier's vehemence, the slowness of
+the scouts in returning.
+
+Finally they came, dropping into the midst of the men as if from above,
+so quietly did they move.
+
+Five minutes of whispering followed between the guide, the Major and the
+Indians, and then Lieutenant W. J. Ross and a dozen men crawled away
+into the darkness with one of the Indians to guide them.
+
+Again, those soldiers had begged to be taken as one of the party. No use
+to call for volunteers, they were all volunteers and envied the
+fortunate ones whom the tall First Sergeant named for the trip.
+
+Ross was to endeavor to locate the entrance to the cave in order that
+the rest of the command might be posted in the most advantageous
+positions. His party dropped into the cañon and was quickly swallowed up
+in its sombre shadows. Down they crept, stumbling over rocks, treading
+on the "Cholla" cactus balls that covered the ground everywhere, and
+whose sharp needles will often pierce the heaviest buckskin gloves,
+moccasins or even leather boots. A misstep meant death far below in the
+cañon, while every minute they looked for the crash of the Indians'
+rifles.
+
+As they felt their way carefully along, they saw the faint gleam of a
+campfire. Ross worked his men up as closely as he could, placing them in
+safe positions behind rocks scattered about. By the light of the fire,
+they made out some fifteen Indians standing about it while a lot of
+squaws were preparing food for them. The fire was but a few feet from
+the cave which could be seen dimly in the background, and it was quite
+evident the hostiles felt very secure in their retreat.
+
+Scarcely daring to breathe, each picked out a brave for a target and at
+a whispered signal, fired. Those of the Indians who were not killed fled
+into the cave, while the report of the carbines quickly brought the rest
+of the command down into the cañon.
+
+Major Brown placed his men about the cave so as to prevent the escape of
+any of the Indians, waiting for daylight before attempting further
+operations.
+
+One Apache managed to work his way out of the cave and through the
+cordon by some means. He was seen after he had passed clear through the
+lines, standing for an instant on a great rock, his figure boldly
+outlined against the sky. His recklessness in his fancied security was
+his undoing, for one of the crack shots in the regiment, Private John
+Cahill, took a hasty shot at the form, and it came tumbling down the
+steep side of the cañon.
+
+After Major Brown had formed his lines about the cave he called on the
+Indians to surrender. This they answered with cries of defiance,
+followed by a few scattering shots which did no harm. Later on Brown
+again called on them to surrender, or if not that, to send out their
+women and children, promising no harm should come to them. Again the
+Indians refused to accept the offer. They heaped epithets, dear to the
+Apache heart, upon the soldiers, taunting them with cowardice, and
+assuring them that they would soon be food for the buzzards and ravens.
+"May the coyotes howl over your grave," is a favorite Apache expression
+of contempt, which they hurled at their opponents many times during the
+fight.
+
+Daylight came slowly, and then the siege was on in earnest. Brown again
+renewed his offer of protection to the women and children, but to no
+purpose. Of arrows and lances, as well as fixed ammunition for their
+rifles, the Indians seemed to have an unlimited supply. They showered
+arrows upon the soldiers by hundreds, sending them high into the air, so
+they would fall upon the men lying behind the rocks scattered about.
+Lances were also thrown in the same manner, but they were unable to
+inflict any damage upon the besiegers by such tactics. The Indians also
+played all the tricks belonging to their style of warfare. War bonnets
+and hats were raised upon lances above the wall with the intention of
+drawing the fire of some soldier and getting him exposed to a return
+shot. But Brown warned his men against all such schemes, and no harm was
+done by them.
+
+Twice did small parties of the Indians make bold dashes out of the cave,
+evidently with the intention or hope of gaining the rear of the troopers
+to harass them from the heights above, or else to secure assistance from
+other bands of hostiles known to be in the vicinity. But these sorties
+were repulsed by the soldiers with a loss of several Indians.
+
+Whether the trick of the Indians in shooting arrows at such an angle as
+to drop on the men behind the rocks suggested retaliation in kind, no
+one can say today; but finding direct firing without any great effect,
+Brown conceived the idea of having his men aim their carbines so that
+the bullets would strike against the roof of the cave; by so doing, he
+believed the bullets would be so deflected as to strike amongst the
+Indians huddled in the small space below.
+
+For some time the soldiers poured their fire against the rocky roof with
+no apparent results, although the shriek of a wounded squaw or the
+pitiful cry of some child, struck by the spattering lead, convinced them
+that some of the bullets were finding a mark.
+
+The Indians fought with the desperation of trapped animals, but finally
+there came a lull in their fire. From the cave came a weird wild chant.
+It was the death chant of the Apaches, which the scouts warned the
+officers meant a charge.
+
+Soon they came; about twenty picked warriors clambering over the rocky
+wall, with the most desperate courage and recklessness. All were armed
+with both bow and rifle. Each carried on his back a quiver full of the
+slender reed arrows peculiar to the Apaches and, with a volley from
+their rifles, charged the soldiers behind their rocky breastworks.
+
+Pandemonium reigned. The death chant was taken up by the squaws in the
+cave; the crack of guns in the deep cañon, the shrieks of wounded and
+dying squaws and children, the yells of the soldiers as they met this
+fierce attack of the desperate savages, the flashing of rifle shots in
+the darkness, all made what an officer who was present (the late Captain
+John G. Bourke of the 3rd U. S. Cavalry) once told the writer was the
+most thrilling as well as the most appalling moment he ever knew during
+a lifetime full of exciting incidents.
+
+But the efforts of the despairing Indians were fruitless, and they were
+driven back with heavy losses. Thus the fight went on for hours. The sun
+rose high in the heavens and beat down on the scene until the soldiers
+lying in the hot rocks suffered fearfully for water. Major Brown's
+scheme was working, however, with frightful success. The death chant was
+ceaseless and the cries of defiance, rage, and despair rang out
+constantly from the penned-up savages.
+
+One little Apache boy, possibly not over four years of age, toddled out
+of the side of the cave where the wall of rock was open, and stood
+gazing with wide-eyed wonder at the sight before him. One of Major
+Brown's Indian scouts sprang from his hiding place behind a rock a few
+yards away, and running to the child, seized him by the arms, dragging
+him into the soldiers' lines before a single shot could be fired at him.
+
+The small detachment, left behind as a rearguard and anxious to take
+part in the fighting, worked its way up to the cliff above the caves.
+Below them they could hear the roar of carbines and the shrieks of the
+Indians. By means of straps, two adventurous soldiers were lowered far
+enough over the edge of the cliff to get a clear view of the scene
+below. The wall erected by the Apaches was several feet outside of the
+line of the cliff or cave, and from their dizzy height they could see
+the Indians lying behind their ramparts.
+
+The top of the cliff was covered with boulders of all sizes, and the men
+at once conceived the idea of dropping boulders down on to the Indians
+beneath. This forced them to take refuge from the flying rocks, by
+retiring farther into the cave. When they did this the ricochette fire
+from the soldiers became more deadly and the end was not far off.
+
+By noon the firing of the Indians had ceased. No sounds but the cries
+of the squaws or groans of wounded came from the interior of the cave.
+Brown now prepared for a charge believing that the cave could be stormed
+without much if any loss. Corporal Hanlon of G-Troop, 5th Cavalry, was
+the first man over the stone-wall, the rest following him as rapidly as
+they could.
+
+Inside the cave was a scene that made the roughest soldier among them
+shudder. Men, women, and children, either dead or in the agonies of
+death, were lying in piles three and four deep. At first it appeared as
+if danger was to be expected from some wounded Indian, and while part of
+the soldiers worked among the debris on the floor, others watched with
+guns in hand for signs of hostile intent. But nothing of the kind
+occurred.
+
+Only one man was alive and he died soon after the soldiers entered the
+cave. Some seventy-eight dead bodies were lying in the cave, and of the
+living there were but eighteen, all squaws. Many of the wounded squaws
+could have been saved had the troops been accompanied by a surgeon or
+even provided with the necessary medical supplies.
+
+The few that had lived through that awful hail of lead and rocks, were
+saved by screening themselves from the missiles under great slabs of
+slate which the squaws had packed into the caves for cooking purposes,
+or by hiding under or behind the dead bodies of their comrades.
+
+The fight was over; the dead babies lay in their dead mothers' arms.
+Rough men as they were, the sights made the soldiers sick at heart; such
+warfare was not to their liking.
+
+As it was impossible to bury the dead, they were left in the cave where
+they fell and where they lie today, in great heaps of skulls and bones,
+together with clothing and other camp impedimenta which have survived
+the years in the dry atmosphere of the region.
+
+After satisfying themselves that no more living were among the bodies
+the soldiers tramped wearily back to Fort McDowell with their prisoners
+and wounded, and the brief official report of the affair closed the
+incident.
+
+It was more than a thousand miles over desert and mountain to the
+nearest railroad station and civilization. No war correspondent trailed
+along in their wake, armed with kodak and typewriter, to tell a waiting
+world of their prowess; no flaming headlines in the morrow's paper would
+cry out their victory. They were "just regulars," and this was but the
+day's work.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+THE STAMPEDE ON THE TURKEY TRACK RANGE
+
+By permission _The Cosmopolitan Magazine_
+
+
+Dark. Well, it was dark, and no mistake. We had been holding a big herd
+of steers for a week. It was on the Turkey Track ranch, and they were
+mostly Turkey Track steers, that is, they were branded with the Santa
+Maria Cattle Company's brand, which is a design ([symbol: Arrow]) on
+each side, called Turkey Track by the cowboys, who never think of using
+any other means of identifying a cow than by giving the name of the
+brand she carries.
+
+And en passant when a cowboy says "cow," he uses the word as a generic
+term for everything from a sucking calf up to a ten-year-old bull.
+
+We were in camp in a noble valley some fifteen miles long by ten wide,
+dotted here and there by cedar groves, and at that season covered with
+splendid grass, where we were holding a bunch of steers that the company
+was getting ready to ship; it was a lazy enough life except the
+night-work. There was plenty of grass to graze them on in the daytime,
+and a big "dry lake" full of water, where three thousand head could
+drink at once, and never one bog or give any trouble. Two men on "day
+herd" at a time could handle them easily enough, and as there were
+nine of us, or enough for three guards of three men each, we didn't have
+anything much to complain of.
+
+[Illustration: "_The men on day herd could hold them easily_"]
+
+"Old Dad," the cook, built pies and puddings that were never excelled
+anywhere, and occasionally he'd have a plum duff for supper that simply
+exhausted the culinary art.
+
+The steers were, as the boys say, "a rolicky lot of oxen." Most every
+night they would take a little run, and it usually took all hands an
+hour or so to get them back to the bed ground and quieted down, which
+didn't tend to make us any better natured when the cook yelled, "Roll
+out, roll out," about 4:30 every morning.
+
+The weather had been lovely ever since we started in, but this evening
+it had clouded up, and in the west, toward sunset, great "thunder-heads"
+had piled up and little detached patches had gone scudding across the
+sky, although below on the prairie not a breath of air was stirring. The
+muttering roll of heaven's artillery was sounding, and occasionally up
+toward the mountains a flame of lightning would shoot through the
+rapidly darkening sky.
+
+By eight o'clock, when the first guard rode out to take the herd for
+their three hours' watch, it was almost black dark. The foreman or
+"wagon boss" of the outfit came out with them, asked how the cattle
+acted, and told the boys to be very careful, and if the herd drifted
+before the rain, if possible, to try and keep them pointed from the
+cedars, for fear of losing them.
+
+[Music: THE COWBOY'S "SWEET BYE AND BYE"]
+
+
+THE COWBOY'S "SWEET BYE AND BYE"
+
+
+    1
+
+    Last night as I lay on the prairie
+        And looked at the stars in the sky,
+    I wondered if ever a cowboy
+        Would drift to that sweet bye and bye?
+
+
+    CHORUS
+
+    Roll on, roll on,
+        Roll on little dogies roll on, roll on;
+    Roll on, roll on,
+        Roll on little dogies roll on.
+
+
+    2
+
+    The road to that bright mystic region
+        Is narrow and dim, so they say,
+    But the trail that leads down to perdition
+        Is staked and is blazed all the way.
+
+
+    3
+
+    They say that there'll be a big round-up
+        Where the cowboys like dogies will stand,
+    To be cut by those riders from Heaven
+        Who are posted and know every brand.
+
+
+    4
+
+    I wonder was there ever a cowboy
+        Prepared for that great judgment day
+    Who could say to the boss of the riders,
+        "I'm all ready to be driven away."
+
+
+    5
+
+    For they're all like the cows from the "Jimpsons"
+        That get scart at the sight of a hand,
+    And have to be dragged to the round-up,
+        Or get put in some crooked man's brand.
+
+
+    6
+
+    For they tell of another big owner
+        Who is ne'er overstocked, so they say,
+    But who always makes room for the sinner
+        Who strays from that bright, narrow way.
+
+
+    7
+
+    And they say He will never forget you,
+        That He notes every action and look.
+    So for safety, you'd better get branded,
+        And have your name in His big tally book.
+
+As we rode back to camp we both agreed that the very first clap of
+thunder near at hand would send the whole herd flying, and if it rained
+it would be very hard to hold them. He told all hands not to picket
+their night horses, but to tie them up to the wagon (much to the cook's
+disgust), all ready for instant use.
+
+Perhaps I should explain a little about this business, so that my
+readers may understand what a "bed ground" is, and how the cowboy stands
+guard.
+
+At sunset the day herders work the herd up toward camp slowly, and as
+the leaders feed along to about three or four hundred yards from camp,
+one of the boys rides out in front and stops them until the whole herd
+gradually draws together into a compact body. If they have been well
+grazed and watered that day they will soon begin to lie down, and in an
+hour probably nine-tenths of them will be lying quietly and chewing
+their cuds. All this time the boys are slowly riding around them, each
+man riding alone, and in opposite directions; so they meet twice in each
+circuit. If any adventurous steer should attempt to graze off, he is
+sure to be seen, headed quickly, and sent back into the herd.
+
+The place where the cattle are held at night is called the "bed ground,"
+and it is the duty of the day herders, who have cared for them all day,
+to have them onto the bed ground and bedded down before dark, when the
+first guard comes out and takes them off their hands.
+
+Well, as I said at the beginning, it was dark, and although it was not
+raining when they left camp, the boys had put on their slickers, or
+oilskin coats, well knowing that they'd have no time to do it when the
+rain began to fall.
+
+The three men on first guard were typical Texas boys, almost raised in
+the saddle, insensible to hardship and exposure, and the hardest and
+most reckless riders in the outfit. One of them, named Tom Flowers, was
+a great singer, and usually sang the whole time he was on guard. It's
+always a good thing, especially on a dark night, for somehow it seems to
+reassure and quiet cattle to hear the human voice at night, and it's
+well too that they are not critical, for some of the musical efforts are
+extremely crude. Many of the boys confine themselves to hymns, picked up
+probably when they were children.
+
+A great favorite with the Texas boys is a song beginning "Sam Bass was
+born in Indianer," which consists of about forty verses, devoted to the
+deeds of daring of a noted desperado named Sam Bass, who, at the head of
+a gang of cut-throats, terrorized the Panhandle and Staked Plains
+country, in Western Texas, some years ago.
+
+We used to have a boy in our outfit, a great rough fellow from Montana,
+who knew only one song, and that was the hymn "I'm a Pilgrim, and I'm a
+Stranger." I have awakened many a night and heard him bawling it at the
+top of his voice, as he rode slowly around the herd. He knew three
+verses of it and would sing them over and over again. It didn't take the
+boys long to name him "The Pilgrim," and by that name he went for
+several years. He was killed in a row in town one night, and I'm not
+sure then that any one knew his right name, for he was carried on the
+books of the cow-outfit he was working for as "The Pilgrim."
+
+I lost no time in rolling out my bed and turning in, only removing my
+boots, heavy leather chaps (chaparejos), and hat, and two minutes later
+was sound asleep. How long I slept I can't say, but I was awakened by a
+row among the night-horses tied to the wagon.
+
+The storm had for the present cleared away just overhead, the full moon
+was shining down as it seems to do only in these high altitudes in
+Arizona; not a breath of air was stirring, and I could hear the measured
+"chug, chug, chug," of the ponies' feet as the men on guard slowly
+jogged around the cattle. I was lazily wondering what guard it was, and
+how long I had slept, when suddenly the clear, full voice of Tom Flowers
+broke the quiet with one of his cowboy songs. It was set to the air of
+"My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean," and as I lay there half awake and half
+asleep it seemed to me, with all its surroundings, that it was as
+charming and musical as the greatest effort of any operatic tenor.
+
+    "Last night as I lay on the prairie,
+      And looked at the stars in the sky,
+    I wondered if ever a cowboy
+      Would drift to that sweet by and by."
+
+The voice would swell and grow louder as he rode round to the campside
+of the cattle, and as he reached the far side the words "sweet by and
+by," came to me faintly and softly, as if the very night was listening
+to his song.
+
+    "The road to that bright, mystic region,
+      Is narrow and dim, so they say,
+    But the trail that leads down to perdition,
+      Is staked and is blazed all the way."
+
+I had never heard Tom sing this song before, nor had I ever heard him
+sing so well, and I raised on my elbow to catch every word:
+
+    "They say that there'll be a big round-up,
+      Where the cowboys like dogies[A] will stand,
+    To be cut by those riders from Heaven,
+      Who are posted and know every brand."
+
+    [A] A dogie is a name applied to yearlings, that have lost their
+    mothers when very young and just managed to live through the
+    winter.
+
+Here an enterprising steer made a sudden break for liberty, and the song
+was stopped, as Tom raced away over the prairie to bring him back, which
+being done in a couple of minutes, the song was again taken up:
+
+    "I wonder was there ever a cowboy
+      Prepared for that great judgment day,
+    Who could say to the boss of the riders,
+      I'm all ready to be driven away."
+
+Another interruption which I judged from the sounds was caused by his
+pony having stumbled into a prairie-dog hole, and I think Tom was
+"waking him up," as the boys say, with his heavy quirt.[B]
+
+[B] Quirt, a short, heavy Mexican riding-whip used by cowboys.
+
+That done, he picked up the thread of his song again
+
+    "And they say, He will never forget you,
+      That He notes every action and look,
+    So for safety you'd better get branded,
+      And have your name in His big 'tally-book.'
+
+    "For they tell of another big owner,
+      Who is ne'er overstocked, so they say,
+    But who always makes room for the sinner,
+      Who strays from that bright, narrow way."
+
+As the closing words floated out on the cool night air, I turned
+sleepily in my bed and saw that a huge black cloud had come up rapidly
+from the West and bid fair to soon shut out the moon. I snuggled down in
+my blankets, wondering if we would have to turn out to help hold the
+steers if it rained, when the silence of the night was broken by a peal
+of thunder that seemed to fairly split the skies. It brought every man
+in camp to his feet, for high above the reverberation of the thunder was
+the roar and rattle of a stampede.
+
+It is hard to find words to describe a stampede of a thousand head of
+long-horned range steers.
+
+It is a scene never to be forgotten. They crowd together in their mad
+fright, hoofs crack and rattle, horns clash against one another, and a
+low moan goes through the herd as if they were suffering with pain.
+Nothing stands in their way: small trees and bushes are torn down as if
+by a tornado, and no fence was ever built that would turn them. Woe
+betide the luckless rider who racing recklessly in front of them, waving
+his slicker or big hat, or shooting in front of them, trying to turn
+them, has his pony stumble or step into a dog-hole and fall, for he is
+sure to be trampled to death by their cruel hoofs. And yet they will
+suddenly stop, throw up their heads, look at one another as if to say,
+"What on earth were you running for?" and in fifteen minutes every one
+of them will be lying as quietly as any old, pet milk cow in a country
+farm-yard.
+
+They bore right down on the camp, and we all ran to the wagon for
+safety; but they swung off about a hundred feet from camp and raced by
+us like the wind, horns clashing, hoofs rattling, and the earth fairly
+shaking with the mighty tread.
+
+Riding well to the front between us and the herd was Tom trying to turn
+the leaders. As he flew by he shouted in his daredevil way, "Here's
+trouble, cowboys!" and was lost in the dust and night. Of course all
+this took but a moment. We quickly recovered ourselves, pulled on boots,
+flung ourselves into the saddle, and tore out into the dark with the
+wagon boss in the lead. I was neck and neck with him as we caught up
+with the end of the herd, and called to him: "Jack, they are headed for
+the 'cracks.' If we get into them, some of us will get hurt." Just then,
+"Bang, bang, bang," went a revolver ahead of us, and we knew that Tom
+had realized where he was going, and was trying to turn the leaders by
+shooting in their faces.
+
+These cracks are curious phenomena and very dangerous. The hard adobe
+soil has cracked in every direction. Some of them are ten feet wide and
+fifty deep, others half a mile long and only six inches or a foot wide.
+The grass hides them, so a horse doesn't see them 'til he is fairly into
+them, and every cowboy dreaded that part of the valley.
+
+Jack and I soon came to what, in the dust and darkness, we took to be
+the leaders. Drawing our revolvers, we began to fire in front of them,
+and quickly turned them to the left, and by pressing from that side
+crowded them round more and more, until we soon had the whole herd
+running round and round in a circle, or "milling," as it's called, and
+in the course of fifteen or twenty minutes got them quieted down enough
+to be left again in charge of the regular guard.
+
+Jack sent me around the herd to tell the second-guard men to take
+charge, as it was their time, and for the rest of us to go to camp,
+which was nearly a mile distant and visible only, because "Dad," the
+cook, had built up the fire, well knowing we wouldn't be able to find
+camp without it.
+
+Before we got there the rain began, and we were all wet to the skin; but
+we tied up our ponies again, and five seconds after I lay down I was
+sound asleep and heard nothing till the cook started his unearthly yell
+of "Roll out, roll out, chuck away." I threw back the heavy canvas, that
+I had pulled over my head to keep the rain out of my face, and got up.
+The storm was over. In the East the morning star was just beginning to
+fade, and the sky was taking that peculiar gray look that precedes the
+dawn and sunrise. The night-horse wrangler was working his horses up
+toward camp, and the three or four bells in the bunch jingled merrily
+and musically in the cool, fresh, morning air.
+
+We were all sleepy and cold, and as we gathered around the fire to eat,
+some one said, "Where's Flowers?" The foreman glanced around the circle
+of men, set down his plate and cup, and strode over to where Tom had
+rolled out his bed the evening before. It was empty, and, what was
+more, hadn't been slept in at all. A hasty questioning developed the
+fact that none of us had noticed him after we had come in from the
+stampede.
+
+"Well," said Jack, "it's one of two things: either he has run into one
+of those blamed cracks and is hurt, or else he has a bunch of steers
+that got cut off from the herd in the rain and has had to stay with 'em
+all night, because he got so far from camp he couldn't work 'em back
+alone." As this was not an unusual thing we all felt sure it was the
+case, and after a hasty breakfast, all of us but the men just off guard,
+struck out to look for him.
+
+Some way I felt a premonition of trouble as I rode out into the prairie,
+and leaving the rest to scatter out in different directions I rode
+straight for the cracks. It was an easy matter to trail up the herd, and
+as I loped along I couldn't get the song out of my head. As I drew near
+the crack country I saw by the trail that we had not been at the leaders
+when we thought we were, but had cut in between them and the main herd.
+I could see our tracks where we had swung them around, leaving probably
+one hundred head out.
+
+I hurried along their trail, and as the daylight got stronger and the
+sun began to peep over the hills, I could make out, about a couple of
+miles from me, a bunch of cattle feeding. I knew this was the bunch I
+was trailing, and already some of the other boys had seen them also and
+were hurrying toward them. But, between me and the cattle was, I knew, a
+dangerous crack. It was some six feet wide and ten deep, and probably
+half a mile long. If Tom had ridden into that he was either dead or
+badly hurt. As I neared the crack my heart sank, for I saw the trail
+would strike it fairly about the widest place, and my worst fears were
+realized when I reached it, for there lying under a dozen head of dead
+and dying steers was poor Tom. The trail told the whole story. He had
+almost turned them when they reached the crack, and he had ridden into
+it sideways or diagonally, and some twenty steers had followed, crushing
+him and his horse to death, and killing about a dozen of them. The
+balance were wandering about in the bottom of the crack trying to get
+out, but its sides were precipitous everywhere.
+
+Drawing my six-shooter, I fired two shots, and rode my pony in circles
+from left to right, which in cowboy and frontier sign language means,
+"Come to me." The boys quickly rode over to where I was, and we, with
+great work, managed to get his body out from under his horse and up on
+top. He still held his pearl-handled Colts in his hand, every chamber
+empty, and his hat was hanging round his neck by the leather string.
+Tenderly we laid his body across a saddle, lashed it on with a rope, and
+taking the boy thus dismounted up behind me, we led the horse with its
+sad burden back to camp.
+
+I think death, when it strikes among them, always affects rough men more
+than it does men of finer sensibilities and breeding. They get over it
+more quickly, but for the time the former seem to be fairly overwhelmed
+with the mystery of death, and seem dazed and helpless, where the latter
+would not for a moment lose their heads.
+
+But Jack quickly pulled himself together. It was fifty miles to the
+nearest town. With our heavy mess-wagon and slow team over a sandy
+road, it would take two days to get the body there. Packing it on a
+horse in that hot Arizona sun was out of the question, and so we decided
+to bury him right there.
+
+Tom had no relatives in Arizona, nor any nearer friends than us rough
+"punchers," so that no wrong would be done any one by burying him there.
+
+[Illustration: "_Some pre-historic people had carved hieroglyphics on
+it_"]
+
+We laid his crushed form under a cedar tree near by, while Jack and I
+went out to find a place to dig a grave. About half a mile from camp was
+a big black rock that stood up on end in the prairie as if it had been
+dropped from the clouds. Some prehistoric race of people had carved deep
+into its smooth face dozens and scores of queer hieroglyphics which no
+man today can decipher or understand. Snakes, lizards, deer, and
+antelope, turtles, rude imitations of human figures, great suns with
+streaming rays, human hands and feet, and odd geometrical designs, all
+drawn in a rude, rough way as if the rock had been the gigantic slate of
+some Aztec schoolboy which hundreds of years of storm and weather had
+not rubbed out. This rock was called the "Aztec Rock." It was a landmark
+for miles around, and as Jack remarked: "It was a blamed sight better
+headstone than they'd give him if we put him in the little Campo
+Santo,[C] in the sand at the foot of the mesa, back of town."
+
+[C] Campo Santo, the Mexican term for graveyard.
+
+So here we dug his grave, and then we wrapped him in a gorgeous Navajo
+Indian blanket, and laid poor Tom Flowers away as carefully and tenderly
+as in our rough way we knew how.
+
+The day-herders had grazed the herd up close to the rock, so that they
+could be at the grave, the cattle were scattered all around us, and the
+cook had taken out the mess-box and used the mess-wagon to bring the
+body over in.
+
+When the last sods were placed on the mound, Jack with tears running
+down his sunburned face, which he vainly tried to stay with the back of
+his glove, looked around and said: "Boys, it seems pow'ful hard to plant
+poor Tom and not say a word of Gospel over him. Can't some of ye say a
+little prayer, or repeat a few lines of Scripter?"
+
+We all looked at one another in a hopeless sort of way, and no one spoke
+a word until the youngest there, the "horse-wrangler," a boy from
+Indiana, whom we had named the "Hoosier Kid," spoke up and said: "I kin
+say the Lord's Prayer, ef that'll be any good."
+
+"Kneel down, fellers, and take off your hats," said Jack; and there in
+the bright sunshine of an Arizona day, with a thousand long-horned
+steers tossing their heads and looking at us with wondering and
+suspicious eyes, with no sound save the occasional hoarse "caw, caw" of
+a solitary desert raven idly circling above, that dozen of rough cowboys
+knelt down, their heads reverently bared, while the "Hoosier Kid" with
+streaming eyes, slowly recited that divinely simple prayer which we had
+all learned at our mother's knee, "Our Father who art in Heaven,
+hallowed be Thy name."
+
+As we rode slowly back to camp the words of the last song that poor Tom
+ever sang would come to me again in spite of all I could do.
+
+Ah, me. Poor Tom. It's little religious training you got on the
+prairies, or the trail, or in the cow camp; but if that "Great Owner"
+looks into the heart, I am sure He found you worthy to wear His brand,
+and to be cut into the herd that goes up the "trail that is narrow and
+dim."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+THE NAVAJO TURQUOISE RING
+
+By permission _The Argonaut_, San Francisco, Cal.
+
+
+"I tell you, Miss Nell, it's not safe for you to ride over the range so
+much all alone. That Navajo's plumb crazy about you now, and he's liable
+to do you some mischief."
+
+The speaker, a handsome, blue-eyed young fellow, clad in the rough garb
+of a cowboy, with broad sombrero, "chaparejos," his buckskin gloves
+thrust through his cartridge belt, stood leaning against the door-post
+of a typical Arizona ranch house. In one hand he held the end of a long
+hair rope, the other end being fast to his pony, which, all saddled,
+stood pawing and restless, eager to be away on the range. Slung on the
+near side of the saddle was a Winchester carbine, for, between white and
+red thieves, the cowboys had to be ready for all sorts of emergencies,
+and besides, the big gray wolves were beginning to show up on the range,
+and a wolf scalp was worth twenty dollars at the county seat.
+
+The person to whom these remarks were addressed stood idly switching her
+riding-habit with her "quirt," a handsome piece of cowboy work, over
+which one of her many admirers had spent hours by the light of a
+campfire plaiting and decorating it with "Turk's heads" and other fancy
+knots known to cowboy quirt-makers. She was all ready for a ride and
+waiting only for her pony to be brought up from the corral, where Juan,
+the Mexican, was saddling him.
+
+There was a pleading, pathetic tone in the man's voice that spoke the
+lover, even had his eyes shown no sign of passion; but his words seemed
+to rouse all the perversity of her sex. Her red lips curled and her
+brown eyes snapped. "Oh, pshaw, Mr. Cameron, you're always worrying
+about some imaginary danger. Please return me my ring--that is, if you
+have finished examining it."
+
+A red wave swept over Cameron's face, like the shadow of a cloud across
+the prairie on a bright day, and he stood for a full minute idly turning
+the ring in question upon the very tip of the little finger of his own
+sun-browned hand. It was a splendid specimen of the Navajo silversmith's
+art. Now, the Navajo Indians' blankets have made them famous, but they
+deserve quite as much fame for their cunning as workers in silver.
+
+This ring was indeed a gem. It was wide, as most of their rings are, cut
+in two on the inner side so that it could be made larger or smaller by
+"springing" it to fit any finger, and in the top was set a turquoise as
+blue as a summer sky--a stone precious to the Navajos--that among the
+tribe would have bought twenty ponies, a hundred sheep, and squaws
+galore. Around the ring ran the most intricate and delicate carving, and
+the whole effect was at once unique and barbaric.
+
+The girl's hand was outstretched for the ring, and almost mechanically
+the man turned and dropped it into the upturned palm. "Well, Miss Nell,
+I've warned you, and I'm sure if Mr. Hull were here that he'd feel just
+as I do." His voice grew tense. "I can't go with you today, for I've got
+to go over the other side of the mountain to see if I can find those
+lost horses, and won't be back till dark."
+
+The girl, scarcely heeding his words, took the ring, and in a
+mock-heroic sort of way kissed and slipped it on to her engagement
+finger, a gleam of mischief in her eyes, at which action Cameron, stung
+almost to madness, smothered a groan, and strode across the porch, his
+spurs clanking on the floor, gathering up his hair rope as he went. With
+one hand on the pommel of the saddle and the other on the pony's mane,
+he leaped lightly into his seat without aid of stirrup and, bringing the
+coil of rope down on the animal's flank, went off down the line of wire
+fence on a dead run, and soon turned out of sight around a low hill in
+the valley.
+
+The girl watched him in silence until he was lost to view, and then,
+with a gay laugh, turned into the room, saying, "Poor Cam, what fun it
+is to tease him!"
+
+A moment later, when Juan appeared at the door with her horse, she
+pulled on her pretty buckskin gloves, and with a "Goodbye, Mary, I'll be
+home by noon," to the heavy-faced cook, who stood watching her from the
+door of the log kitchen, she rode off almost as fast as Cameron, but in
+a different direction.
+
+Three months before these happenings George Hull had gone down to the
+little railroad station, some thirty miles from the ranch, to meet his
+wife's only sister, who was coming to spend the summer with them in
+Arizona, and from her first day she had taken to the life like a duck
+to water. She was a fearless horsewoman, and never so happy as when out
+on the range riding with the cowboys, if they were there, or alone if
+they were not. Nell Steele was a warm-hearted, impulsive girl, but she
+could no more help making a slave of every man she met than she could
+stop breathing.
+
+It was an easy task for her, too, and it mattered not whether it was
+some high-bred, educated gentleman, or a rough Texas "puncher" who had
+never in all his life spoken a dozen words to a woman of her class. And
+naturally with such surroundings, with men unused to women's wiles, she
+soon had the whole country at her feet.
+
+Of them all, however, young Cameron had by far the worst case of it, and
+the girl, while in her heart greatly pleased with his attentions, seemed
+to delight in keeping him in a state of absolute misery by alternately
+raising him to the very highest pinnacle of happiness, and again
+dropping him into the bottomless pit of despair. Deep in her heart she
+knew he was her ideal, but she could not resist the temptation to
+coquette with and tease him.
+
+Cameron had come west for his health some years before. Too hard
+application at college had seriously impaired his strength, and he had
+been ordered to live in the open air for several years. Letters of
+introduction to George Hull had brought him to this ranch in the high
+mountain country of northern Arizona, and he had taken to the cowboy
+life from the very first, until now he was looked upon as one of the
+most trusted and satisfactory "boys" on the place.
+
+The ranch to which George Hull brought his pretty sister-in-law was
+located near the line of the Navajo Indian Reservation, and, as the
+Navajos are great roamers, it was nothing unusual to have them hanging
+round. One day a party of them came, bringing in some horses the boys
+had missed for some time. It was Miss Steele's first sight of the
+Navajo, and she came down to the corral, where they were all gathered,
+to see them. Among them was a young chief named Chatto, who had attended
+an Indian school at Albuquerque, and could therefore speak fairly good
+English. He was a picture of savage finery. Around his waist was buckled
+a costly belt made of great plates of solid silver; in his ears hung
+huge silver rings; each arm was clasped by bracelets of the same
+precious metal; around his neck were yards of the precious silver,
+turquoise and shell beads so dear to the Navajo heart; and his moccasins
+and leggings were thickly studded with buttons fashioned from dimes,
+quarters, and half-dollars. Across his shoulders hung a gaudy Navajo
+blanket, and his horse's bridle was fairly weighted down with glittering
+trophies of the Indian silversmith's skill.
+
+[Illustration: "_He was a picture of savage finery_"]
+
+[Illustration: "_Now the Navajos are famous silversmiths_"]
+
+It was but a few moments before Miss Steele was bartering with him for a
+bracelet; but it was of no avail, he would not sell it at any price.
+However, when the other Indians left, he stayed behind, until, as the
+dinner-hour was nearing, the boys asked him to eat with them. It was
+soon evident that he had eyes only for Miss Steele; and after dinner she
+spent an hour talking to him of his school experience and trying to
+learn a few words of the Navajo tongue.
+
+The next day he returned, and the next, until it was plainly to be
+seen that the gay laugh and brown eyes of the girl had completely
+bewitched him.
+
+One day he came bearing the ring I have described, and shyly offered it
+to her, insisting that she must place it on her engagement finger, which
+she did, never dreaming that the boys, keenly watching from the
+bunk-house, had put him up to it, telling him that that was the way
+white lovers did, and that once she put on his ring she was his by all
+the laws and customs of the white man.
+
+When Cameron, who was away at the time, heard of it, he was furious, and
+went straight to Miss Steele and urged her to return the ring and banish
+the Indian from the ranch. But she, seeing that back of his lover's
+eagerness for her safety was a lover's jealousy as well, affected not to
+believe him, and declared her intention of keeping and wearing the ring.
+It was this ring that she had kissed so tragically and replaced on her
+hand.
+
+On leaving the ranch, the girl gave her pony an almost free rein for the
+first two or three miles. It was a glorious morning in September, when
+the sun had lost its greatest power, and the air was fairly intoxicating
+in its freshness. The range never looked finer than it did now, after
+the summer rains had covered it with a wonderful growth of grass dotted
+with millions of daisies, black-eyed Susans, purple lupines, and dozens
+of other varieties of prairie flowers, which, in places, fairly made the
+air heavy with their perfume. The trail led her over a wide mesa, and at
+its highest point she stopped her pony and drank in the wondrous scene.
+Away off to the north the great tablelands, or mesas, where live the
+snake-loving Moqui Indians, hung in an almost indescribable grandeur,
+blue and misty against the sky, more like a mirage than a reality. A
+couple of saucy prairie dogs barked shrilly at her from their adjacent
+village; a coyote, disturbed by her coming, skulked hastily away from
+where he had been trying to surprise a little calf, left lying under a
+sagebush while its mother went on down the trail to water. Above
+her, high in the heavens, idly circled half a dozen heavy-winged
+turkey-buzzards, those scavengers of the prairies, a sure sign that
+somewhere below them an animal lay dead and they were gathering for a
+feast. As far as the eye could reach were rolling hills, with here and
+there parks of cedars, while scattered over the prairie were hundreds of
+cattle and horses, for George Hull was one of the heaviest cattle-owners
+in northern Arizona, and this was the heart of his range.
+
+Across the valley below her she could see the figure of a solitary
+horseman, which, after a few moments she decided to be Cameron, although
+she had thought him miles away from there by this time. Her pony having
+recovered his wind, she started down the mesa toward the approaching
+figure, glad to see some human being in all that waste of loneliness
+around her. As she drew nearer, she saw that it was no white man, but an
+Indian, the red sash tied around his head being plainly visible at quite
+a distance, but undaunted, she kept on her course, presuming him to be
+the Indian mail-carrier who came in from the agency twice a week with
+the mail-sack tied behind his saddle.
+
+As the distance between them lessened, she saw with great uneasiness
+that it was her admirer, Chatto, and, with a sort of guilty fear in her
+heart, she turned off the trail and pushed her pony into a lope toward
+a bunch of horses grazing near, as if she wanted to look at them closer.
+A glance over her shoulder showed her that the Indian had also turned
+and was following her, and the girl, now thoroughly alarmed, urged her
+pony to his fullest speed. The Indian called to her to stop, but she
+only rode the harder. Chatto, however, was well mounted and slowly
+gained on the flying figure; her cowboy hat had blown from her head, but
+was held by the string around her neck as she urged her pony with voice
+and quirt.
+
+"Stop, I shoot!" called the Navajo, but she rode the faster, expecting
+every instant to hear the crack of his Winchester. At last he was within
+thirty feet of her, and she felt that her pony had done his utmost and
+there was no escape. Another look over her shoulder showed her that the
+Indian had taken down his long rawhide reata and was swinging it round
+and round his head preparatory for a throw at her. She remembered
+hearing Hull tell of Mexican and cowboy fights, where the victim was
+roped and pulled off his horse and across the prairie, until every
+semblance of human shape was dragged out of it, and her heart sank
+within her, for she knew by some woman's instinct that he had realized
+she had been fooling him, and was thirsting for revenge.
+
+Faster and faster they rode, and nearer and nearer he drew, till she
+could hear the "swish" of the rope through the air; she crouched low
+over the saddle to offer as small a mark as possible, meantime praying
+for deliverance, which in her heart she little thought would come.
+
+Cameron found his horses but a few miles out from the ranch, and,
+quickly rounding them up, started the bunch toward home on a sharp run,
+arriving there not long after Miss Steele had left. Questioning Mary as
+to the direction she had taken, he struck off again on the range in a
+course that he shrewdly judged would enable him, as if by accident, to
+meet Miss Steele on her homeward way.
+
+Some three or four miles from the ranch the mesa he was crossing ended
+abruptly in a cliff some two hundred feet high, which extended for
+several miles in an unbroken line with but one or two places where an
+animal could get up or down. The view from the edge of this cliff or
+"rim rock," as it was more commonly called, over the wide valley spread
+out below it for miles and miles was unexcelled, and Cameron, knowing
+that Miss Steele must come up this cliff at one of two places, headed
+for the one he felt she would be most likely to take. As he drew near
+the edge of the mesa he left the trail and rode over to the cliff; and
+thinking perhaps to surprise a bunch of antelope feeding quietly in the
+valley below him, as well as to prevent Miss Steele from first seeing
+him, should she chance to be below, he left his pony under a cedar and,
+taking his Winchester in his hand, carefully walked up to the edge of
+the cliff.
+
+The road leading down to the valley ran close under the cliff and was
+lost to sight around a point of the mesa but a short distance to his
+right. Carefully scanning the prairie, he could see no one, but, from
+the way three or four bunches of wild horses were tearing across the
+valley below him, he felt satisfied, that either she or some one else
+had started them, and concluded to wait a few moments.
+
+Suddenly, from far below, came a sound that for an instant sent his
+heart to his throat, for it seemed as if he heard a woman's voice, borne
+upward from around the point to his right, and yet it was far more
+likely to be the almost human cry of a mountain lion, or even the
+childish yell of some lone coyote, either of which could readily be
+mistaken for a female voice in distress. As Cameron stood there, fairly
+holding his breath in his eagerness to catch the faintest sound from
+below, one moment assuring himself that his ears were at fault and the
+next so certain that it was a woman's voice that he could scarcely wait
+for its repetition in order that he could be sure which way to go, once
+again there came faintly and yet more definitely than before the cry of
+distress. The voice was Miss Steele's, and before he was really sure
+from which quarter it came, there burst into sight around the point of
+the mesa, not a quarter of a mile away from him but down in the valley,
+the figure of a girl on horseback leaning low over her pony's neck, and
+urging him to his utmost speed on the road leading up to the cliff,
+while some forty or fifty feet behind her, riding as hard as she was the
+Navajo Chatto, his red head-band gone, his long black hair streaming out
+in the wind, and whirling over his head in a great loop his rawhide
+reata.
+
+It took Cameron but an instant to grasp the situation and see that the
+Indian had tried to overtake the girl, and failing, meant to rope and
+drag her from her horse. He quickly saw also that busied with his reata,
+and not having a chance to use the quirt, his pony was falling slightly
+behind, for the Navajos seldom wear spurs, and the girl was not sparing
+her pony's flanks, but was using her quirt at every jump. Cameron's
+first impulse was to spring down the cliff, and run to her aid, but
+with a groan he realized that it would take him too long to do this, for
+it was only by careful climbing that one could get down the first forty
+or fifty feet of the wall, and then the rest would be slow traveling at
+the very best. The race below him was in plain view now, and in a few
+rods more they would pass out of his sight in the little side cañon
+through which the road led up to the top of the cliff. To ride back to
+that place would take too long, also, and the man quickly realized that
+it was no time to delay.
+
+To kill a Navajo meant trouble for everybody around, for the whole tribe
+would take it up, and wreak vengeance upon any white settlers they could
+find, hence that was not to be thought of except in the last extremity.
+But Cameron knew that he could kill the Navajo's pony and save the girl.
+Throwing his Winchester over a rock for a rest, with a mental estimate
+of five hundred yards' distance to his mark, he took careful aim at the
+shoulder of the Indian's pony and sent a shot which sped fair and true
+to its mark, the animal rolling headlong in the dirt, and the rider
+sprawling fully twenty feet away, but unharmed.
+
+For an instant the Indian was stunned, then, evidently thinking his pony
+had fallen by accident, arose and started toward him. Cameron, however,
+was ready for this move. Presuming the Navajo would try to get his
+rifle, which was slung in its holster underneath the dead horse, he sent
+a second shot, before Chatto could get half way to the body, striking
+the ground close enough to him to convince him as to the cause of the
+pony's fall. With true Indian instinct he turned and, to disconcert
+Cameron's aim, ran in a zig-zag way to a deep ditch, or wash, near the
+road, into which he threw himself and crawled and wormed his way down to
+where the sides were high enough to shelter his body.
+
+Meantime Cameron, not daring to leave his place until he knew the girl
+was safely up the cliff, forced the Navajo to keep to cover by firing an
+occasional shot in his direction, until, with a sigh of relief, he saw
+the girl "raise the hill" at his left, and stood up and waved his hat to
+her. Up to this time she had scarcely known to what cause she owed her
+deliverance. All she knew was that a shot had been fired, and she heard
+no more thunder of horse's hoofs behind her, but not being too sure of
+what it all meant, she never drew rein nor spared her pony until she saw
+Cameron's figure on the cliff and knew that she was safe.
+
+A few moments later an hysterical, sobbing girl threw herself from her
+saddle straight into the arms of the man who loved her, and whom, she
+now knew, she loved.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+AN ARIZONA ETUDE
+
+
+"Las' time I was in Fo't Worth," drawled Peg Leg Russel who was
+industriously working away, with marlin spike and leather strings, on a
+new quirt, "I seen a circus band there a-ridin' hosses an' a-playin' at
+the same time."
+
+"Makin' sure enuff music?" queried one of the boys.
+
+"They sure was," replied Peg Leg; "an' what's more, them ole white
+hosses they was a-ridin' never batted an eye, but jist tromped along
+like a bunch of hearse horses.
+
+"I'd sure love to see 'em try any such funny business with these yere
+little ole diggers we're a-ridin'," he continued, "Lordy, but wouldn't
+they git up an' rag when the first toot come off."
+
+"If ye'd been wid me in the good old 'gallopin' Sixth Cavalry,' ye'd
+sure had a chanst to observe jist such a performance," said Pat the
+cook, who was busy at the mess box with supper preparations.
+
+The mess wagon was backed up into the shade of a great, wide-spreading
+juniper, and the outfit was waiting there a few days for a bunch of
+fresh saddle horses from the horse camp. Ten or a dozen punchers were
+lying about in the shade, some asleep, some overhauling "war bags,"
+sunning bedding, and others like Russel making quirts or hair ropes.
+
+[Illustration: "_The mess wagon was backed up into the shade_"]
+
+The old red-headed cook's army experiences were the butt of a great many
+sly jokes among the men, but he always had something new to relate, and
+the intimation, that he had seen a band mounted on western horses, was
+enough to excite their curiosity.
+
+"Tell us about it, Pat," said Tex, "them Sixth Cavalry fellers sure rode
+the outpitchenest lot of bronks I ever see outside of a cow-outfit. I
+reckin' I'd oughter know, fer I were a workin' fer old man White down in
+the San Simon Valley clost to Fort Bowie in them days."
+
+Any reference to the old man's former regiment warmed the cockles of the
+cook's heart, and he needed no urging to start him off on the story.
+
+"We was all a-layin' up at old Fort Tonto," he said rolling out, with an
+empty beer bottle, what Russel said was the "lid" of a dried apple pie,
+"the whole regiment being there after two years spent chasin' over them
+hills and deserts trying to catch those divils of Apaches.
+
+"'Twere the first time in three years we'd seen the band, an' when the
+General sent word for them bandsmen to come up from Camp Lowell we sure
+felt mighty pleased, for, barrin' a couple of fiddles an' Danny Hogan's
+concertina, there wasn't any music worth mentioning in the whole post.
+
+"The old general had been over in Europe the year before an' picked up a
+lot of cranky idees about soldiering which didn't set well on the old
+Sixth, them bein' a bunch of rough ridin' _hombres_, very divils for
+fightin', but wid mighty little love for drills an' garrison duty.
+
+"Wan day, I was the gineral's orderly, an' a standin' outside the door
+to his quarters, I could hear him an' the adjutant a-wranglin' about
+dress parade for next Sunday.
+
+"The old man he was insistin' that them bandsmen could play mounted
+instead of afoot. 'Why,' ses he, 'didn't I see wid me own eyes in Paris,
+a army band all mounted an' a-ridin' an' a-playin' like good fellies?'
+
+"'But, gineral,' says the adjutant, 'them there bandsmen of ours, bein'
+enlisted solely for musicians, not wan of them knows anything about
+ridin', an' as for ridin' an' a-playin' at the same time, on top of them
+there horses of ours, sure every wan of them will git thrown off an'
+hurted.'
+
+"'So much the worse for them,' snorted the gineral, 'let them learn to
+ride--that's what they've got horses for. This is no bunch of doughboys
+I'm commandin', 'tis a regiment of cavalry-men, and cavalry-men we'll
+make of them or kill them a-tryin'.'
+
+"'Sure,' he ses, ses he 'didn't Custer's band use to play mounted, an'
+why can't my band do the same?'
+
+"The adjutant he tried to argufy wid the old man, tellin' him them there
+furrin' mounts were jist like a bunch of old dray hosses, an' edicated
+like trained pigs. But nothin' would suit the gineral but a mounted
+dress parade for all hands, includin' the band.
+
+"So the adjutant he calls to me an he ses, 'Orderly,' ses he, 'my
+compliments to Mr. Schwartz, the band leader, an' ask him to report to
+the office immediately.'
+
+"Now Schwartz, he was a little old fat Dutchman, about five feet six,
+an' weighin' over two hundred pounds. When I gave him me message he ses,
+ses he,
+
+"'What's up,' ses he.
+
+"'Mounted dress parade for the band,' ses I.
+
+"'Mein Gott, me for sick report,' ses he.
+
+"'Mr. Schwartz,' ses the adjutant when he waddles up to the office,
+''tis the orders of the commanding officer that the band attend dress
+parade next Sunday afternoon, mounted an' wid their instruments ready to
+play.'
+
+"Schwartz he gasps an' tried hard to say a word, but the adjutant he
+ses, ses he: 'Git your men out an' drill them every day till they can
+handle their hosses an' instruments at the same time. An' mind ye,' ses
+he, 'them there band instruments costs money, an' we want none of thim
+unnecsarily injured.'
+
+"Schwartz he mumbled somethin' as he went out about them bein' a sight
+more anxious over not injurin' the instruments than they were the men,
+men bein' a matter for the recruitin' service, while instruments must be
+paid for out of the regimental funds.
+
+"For the next four or five days the bandsmen was mighty busy a-drillin'
+their hosses an' a-gettin' them usened to the sound of the instruments
+by standin' on the ground in front of them an' a-playin.'
+
+"Comes Saturday, the word goes about the post, that the band would make
+the first try at playin' on the backs of their hosses that afternoon.
+
+"When they led their steeds out of the corral an' formed on the cavalry
+prade ground, every soul in the post, officers, sogers, apache injins,
+dog robbers an' laundresses was there to see the doin's.
+
+"They led them bronks out an' played one chune, a-standin' at their
+heads, an' barrin' a few of them what pulled back an' got loose from the
+men, they stood the racket all right.
+
+"Then the drum major, a-ridin' a white hoss, trots out to the front of
+them, waves his baton, an' gives the command, 'Prepare to mount.'
+
+"Ivery man, accordin' to the latest tactics, grabs a handful of mane, in
+his left hand, an' his reins an' the saddle pommel wid his right, his
+instruments a-hangin' to his anatemy by straps or slings.
+
+"When they gits the word 'mount,' they all swings up into their saddles
+somehow, some of them fat old musicians clamberin' up more like loadin'
+a sack of bran than anything else in all the world.
+
+"The chap what played the bass drum, he bowed up when it come to tryin'
+to use his big drum, an' so they compromised on a pair of kittle drums,
+wan strapped to each side of the saddle horn.
+
+"Them kittle drums looked for all the world like a pair of twenty-gallon
+water kaigs on a pack saddle.
+
+"The horse, he eyed the load on his back sort of suspicious-like, an'
+lets the drummer git settled down into his saddle wid a drumstick in
+each wan of his two hands, but keepin' his ears a-workin' like a couple
+of wig-wag signal flags.
+
+"Finally, when every wan was safely on top, an' the horses standin'
+fairly quiet, the drum major he waves his stick, an' wid a sweep of his
+arms, gives the signal to play.
+
+"An' right there the fun began. The first rap the drummer give wid his
+drumsticks was too much for his horse, an' wid wan wild look at them
+two great soup kittles a-hangin' onto his back, an' wid the roar of them
+in his ears, he jist hung his head down, an' began some of the
+scientifickest buckin' an' pitchin' you ever seen.
+
+"Bustin' through the band, wid them two kittles a-wavin' an' a-thumpin'
+on his back, the drummer's horse had little trouble in incitin' several
+more of them to the same line of conduct, an' in about two minutes half
+the horses in the outfit were a-buckin' an' a-cavortin' around like very
+divils.
+
+"The kittle drummer an' the Swiss gent, what played the tubey--an' him
+a-settin' there in the middle of them great silvery coils like some
+prehistoric monster--they went through that bunch of wild-eyed Dutch
+musicians, like two shooting stars.
+
+"The drummer tried hard to stay on top of his load, but what wid them
+two great copper tubs a-knockin' an' a-thumpin' away on his horse's
+withers, a-barkin' his shins an' knees wid every jump, an' a-floppin'
+like two big buzzards' wings, 'twas no disgrace that he couldn't stay
+there, him bein' no bronco buster, but jist a Dutch bandsman.
+
+"He went up into the air wid them two drumsticks, wan in each hand,
+describin' a lovely circle, an' a comin' down head first in the soft
+dirt, while the hoss wid them two drums, beatin' a very divil's tattoo
+on his ribs, tored off down the road an' out of sight.
+
+"As for the tubey player, he tried hard to stay in the middle of his
+bucker. But, bein' handicapped as it were, wid some thirty odd feet of
+German silver tubin' wrapped about his anatemy, an' it a-bumpin' an'
+a-bangin' agin his head every time the hoss struck the sod, he made
+hard work of it.
+
+"After makin' some desperate efforts to find somethin' solid to hold
+onto, an' a-clawin' all the leather offen his saddle pommel in the
+effort, the wind jammer gives it up for a bad job, turned all holds
+loose, an' went up into the air like a musical sky rocket. The saddler
+sergint of G-troop sed he was a Dutch meteor.
+
+"Ony how, he went up, an', encircled wid them great silvery pipes, made
+a fine landin' in the soft dirt, drivin' the bell of his tubey deep into
+it.
+
+"The next minute his hoss was a-folerin' the kittle drums like Tam
+O'Shanter's ghost.
+
+"Then there was a tall hungry Irishman--though what a dacent Irisher was
+a-doin' in that bunch of Dutchies I dunno--but there he was. He played a
+clarinet about a yard long, an' when his hoss decided 'twas time for him
+to do a little stunt of his own, in the buckin' line, he made a wild
+grab for his reins. But 'twas no good. Ivery time he comes down, he
+jabbed the sharp pint of that clarinet mouthpiece into the horse's
+withers, which didn't help matters a little bit.
+
+"He was a-doin' some elegant reachin' for something to hold onto, but
+some way he couldn't connect wid anything at all. Wan jump an' he lost
+his cap, the next he landed behind the saddle, which gives his horse an
+opporchunity for lettin' out a few extry holes in his performance. Back
+into the saddle he goes, but not findin' conditions there to his likin',
+he continued on wid a forward movement finally landin' in front of the
+saddle, then a little furder forward, workin' out on the horse's neck
+like some sailor lad a-climbin' out on the bowsprit of a ship.
+
+"Finally, the hoss took time enough to lift his nose from scrapin' the
+ground bechune his two front feet, an' have a look about him; in doin'
+which he turned the clarinet player end for end like a tumbler in a
+circus. Down he comes, wid his precious clarinet grabbed in his hand
+like a black-thorn shillalah, and when he lit, he bored a place in the
+dirt deep enough for a post hole.
+
+"Over on the porch of the adjutant's office, a-takin' it all in, was the
+old gineral wid a bunch of ladies. When the last of the twenty or more
+riderless bronks disappeared over the brow of the hill down the road
+toward the creek, the old man turned to his orderly standin' near by an'
+ses, ses he, 'Orderly, prisint me compliments to the adjutant an' tell
+him that the band's excused from attindin' dress parade mounted till
+furder orders.'"
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+STUTTERIN' ANDY
+
+
+"Oyez, oyez, o-y-e-z, the Honorable Court of the Third Judicial District
+of the State of New Mexico is now in session," cried the one-armed
+bailiff, and the district court in Alamo came to order for the afternoon
+session.
+
+The judge settled back in his easy chair; the twelve jurymen at his left
+idly watched the crowd pour into the little courtroom. By the time the
+prisoner had been escorted in by the sheriff, every inch of space was
+occupied by eager spectators, both men and women; for the case of Andy
+Morrow, locally known as "Stutterin' Andy," charged by the grand jury
+with stealing one red yearling branded X V from Joseph Barker, had
+attracted the attention of the entire community.
+
+During the morning session, the prosecution had given their side of the
+case. Old man Barker and a detective from Denver had each testified to
+finding the hide of a yearling bearing Barker's well-known brand, buried
+beneath a pile of brush on Morrow's "dry farm" claim.
+
+The resurrected hide was also placed before the jury, the X V on the
+left ribs being plainly visible and when court adjourned for the noon
+recess, Barker was jubilant.
+
+"We'll git him, we'll git him," he said to his foreman as they tramped
+down the narrow staircase leading from the courtroom. "I'll make a
+shinin' example of Mister Stutterin' Andy, what'll put the fear o' God
+into a lot of them cow thieves, an' last this here community for some
+time."
+
+"I reckin' so," replied the foreman who felt that the reputation of the
+X V outfit was at stake. After lunch, court having been duly opened, the
+young lawyer, who owing to Morrow's poverty, had been appointed by the
+court to defend him, addressed the jury with a short statement of the
+case.
+
+The poverty of the prisoner, his struggles to make a home, the
+iniquitous "fence law" which forced the little farmer to fence his crops
+against the wandering herds of the cattlemen, the wealth and standing of
+Barker, the complaining witness, and his use of a hired detective to
+hunt up evidence, was all pictured to the jury in his strongest
+language.
+
+"Say, Barker," whispered a man at his side, nudging him with the point
+of his elbow, "don't you feel sort of ornery like, to be made out such a
+consarned old renegade?"
+
+"Don't you be a-feelin' sorry for me," he snapped back, "them what
+laughs last laughs best, an' I reckon' we got a big ole laugh a-comin'
+when this here performance is concluded."
+
+"I swear," muttered a man in the audience to his neighbor, "ef that
+there lawyer chap hopes to make anything out of Andy's testimony that
+will help him, I miss my guess. Why the pore devil stutters so that
+nobody kin git a word outa him scarcely, when there's nothin' excitin'
+goin' on, let alone with all these here people a-settin' there
+a-listenin'. I'm a-bettin' he won't be able to tell his own name to say
+nothin' about explainin' how he didn't kill that there yearlin'."
+
+But the attorney knew his business and Morrow remained quietly in his
+seat beside the sheriff. Having finished his preliminary statement, the
+young lawyer whispered to the bailiff, who walked across to a small jury
+room opening off the main courtroom, and opened a door.
+
+A low-spoken word, and there stepped from the room a woman--the wife of
+the prisoner.
+
+She was tall, slim and about twenty-five years of age. From the corner
+of her mouth protruded the "dip-stick," that ever present solace of the
+sex among her class, and without which she probably never could have
+faced the crowd.
+
+A faded blue calico dress over which she wore a small shawl, and on her
+head a bedraggled hat with a few tousled roses stuck on one side, made
+up a costume which only accentuated her drawn face and sorrowful eyes.
+
+After a few moments of whispered conversation with the lawyer, she took
+the witness chair.
+
+At first her answers to his questions as to her name, age, etc., were
+given in a low, scarcely audible voice, and the room was so still it was
+fairly oppressive.
+
+"You understand, do you," he asked her, "that your husband is charged
+with killing a yearling belonging to Mr. Barker?"
+
+"I shore do," was the reply.
+
+"Will you, please, tell the jury in your own words, just what you know
+about this matter," the lawyer said.
+
+"Mought I tell it jist as I want to, jist as I done tole it to you down
+to the hotel?" she asked.
+
+"Yes," he replied very kindly, "tell the jury your story just as you
+told it to me."
+
+She carefully removed the "dip stick" from her mouth, placing it in a
+little wooden box which she carried in a battered leather hand bag.
+Then, turning to the jury, she began her story in a clear firm voice, as
+if she realized that upon her testimony hung the fate of her husband.
+
+"I want to tell you-all men, the truth about this here thing," she said
+looking into their faces with unflinching eye, "jist how it happened,
+an' don't mean to hide narry part of it from nobody.
+
+"Andy an' me's been married now nigh onto six year. We moved into this
+country about a year ago, comin' from Arkin-saw in a wagon. We had two
+chillen, a boy an' a gal.
+
+"When we gits here, Andy located down there on the claim an' tried dry
+farmin'; 'kaffir korners' I reckin' some of them calls us. It tuck
+mighty nigh every cent we had to git the seed an' some farmin' tools,
+an' after the crap were in, Andy he gits work in a sawmill up into the
+mountings, leavin' me an' the kids to make the crap.
+
+"Andy he done built a little loghouse an' a corral, an' puts a brush
+fence around the land we broke up to keep the critters out, we not
+havin' any money fer to buy barbed wire fer the fence.
+
+[Illustration: "_Andy done built a little ole log house_"]
+
+"We had a heap o' trouble with the range stock all summer an' it kep' me
+a-steppin' pretty lively to keep 'em out, but I managed to fight 'em
+off, an' we done pretty well that year.
+
+"Andy worked all winter in the sawmill and jist about spring the man
+closed down, an' tole the boys a-workin' fer him that he couldn't pay
+'em anything he was a-owin' 'em. Most of 'em he owed a right smart to,
+because he kep' a-promisin' he'd pay every month, an' when he done
+busted up he owed my man 'bout two hundred dollars.
+
+"So Andy he come home to put in the crap, an' we both worked powerful
+hard to git it in, an' as we owed the store up thar so much, we couldn't
+git anything more on our account.
+
+"So, 'bout all we had to eat was taters what we raised the year before.
+Then the little gal took sick, an' we nussed her fer a time till she got
+powerful weak, an' then Andy he goes to town fer a doctor, tellin' him
+we ain't got no money to pay him, but fer God's sake to come an' see
+her.
+
+"'Twas twenty-five miles fer the doctor to ride, but he come along with
+Andy all right, an' when he sees the little gal he ses, 'Scarlet fever,
+an' a bad case too.'
+
+"The doctor done give her some medicine he brung with him, an' said
+she'd orter be carried to town where he could see her, kase he couldn't
+come out that way very often, even if we done paid him fer it.
+
+"So me an' Andy hooked up the hosses an' brung her in here, an' bein' as
+it was what the doc calls a contagious disease, we couldn't git no house
+to live in; so we had to camp down below town in the creek bottom under
+a big cottonwood. 'Twere powerful hard to take keer of the little gal
+there, an' Andy had hard work gittin' grub an' medicine, an' 'cept fer
+Frank Walton, the man what keeps the 'Bucket of Blood' saloon, we'd
+never a-pulled her through.
+
+"Frank he sends down a lot of stuff fer us an' tells Andy to git all the
+medicine he needed at the drug store an' he'd pay fer it hisself.
+
+"Bimeby, the little gal gits better, an' Andy he bein' anxious to git
+back an' look after the crap, we packs our traps an' goes back to the
+ranch.
+
+"The doc he ses the little gal's all rite if we git her plenty good
+strengthnin' stuff, an' Frank he gits us considerable to take home.
+
+"When we left the place we done turned the ole milk cow out on the range
+till we comes back. Andy he rode three days a-lookin' fer her an'
+finally meets up with her where she lays daid in a little medder up on
+the mounting. Andy ses he reckoned she was pizened eatin' wild pasnip.
+She had a big long-eared calf along with her, but 'twan't nowhere about,
+an', as the round-up passed that-away a few days afore, Andy he 'lowed
+they done picked it up fer a dogie an' put ole man Barker's brand on it.
+
+"Andy he couldn't git no work, fer he couldn't leave me alone with the
+two chillen, an' we tried to save the little handful of grub we brung
+out fer the gal, an' lived mighty nigh on straight taters an' water. One
+day, the little boy he come sick too an' Andy he gits on a hoss an'
+rides to town to see the doctor agin'.
+
+"The doctor he ses he reckined 'twas scarlet fever too, 'cause the
+simptons was about the same an' he give him some medicine to take out
+an' sed he'd come out hisself soon as he could, but he had a lot of sick
+folks to look after, an' didn't like to leave 'em to make the trip, he
+bein' a lunger hisself, an' not fitten to work very hard.
+
+"Somehow the little feller didn't seem to do very well, an' Andy he goes
+in after the doctor agin', an' he come out to see him. He looks mighty
+serous when he gits thar an' he sed: 'I reckin' this little chap's
+mighty porely; what be ye a-feedin' him?' Andy he busted out a-cryin'
+an' ses; 'Doc,' ses he, 'we ain't got nothin' but taters an' a little
+hawg meat what Frank Walton sent out when we brung the little gal back,
+an' we been a-savin' that fer her, not thinkin' that the boy was gittin'
+sick too.'
+
+"'Ain't ye got no cow,' ses the doc, an' Andy tole him how she done died
+while we was all in town before.
+
+"The doc he ses fer Andy to git ready an' come on to town with him that
+night, an' he'd git him some more grub, an' so 'bout a hour afore sun
+Andy an' the doc sets off fer town leavin' me with the two chillen."
+
+The courtroom was so still excepting for the low, spiritless voice of
+the woman, that one could hear the muffled sobs of one or two of the
+women in the room whose hearts were touched with the sorrowful story she
+was unfolding.
+
+She stopped for a moment to choke back her own tears, and the attorney,
+leaning towards her as she faced the jury, said almost in a whisper,
+"What happened that night?"
+
+"The pore little feller died in my arms jist about a hour before sun up
+next mornin'," she replied without a quaver in her voice, but with both
+hands clinched in an agony which could find no tongue in her
+disheartened, hopeless condition of mind.
+
+"Please continue, if you can," said the lawyer kindly, knowing that in
+her homely recital of their grief and misfortunes lay the open road to
+her husband's acquittal.
+
+"Well, that mornin' Andy he come home with the grub, but 'twas too late
+fer the boy.
+
+"He was shore all broke up over it an' sat all day long without sayin' a
+word 'ceptin' he guessed the Lord 'sort of had it in fer us pore folks
+an' only looked after the rich ones like ole man Barker an' his kind.
+
+"'Twas fifteen miles to the nearest neighbors, an' anyhow they was all
+a-skeered of the fever, they havin' a lot of kids of their own, so me
+an' Andy we reckoned the best thing we could do was to bury him rite in
+our field whar we could take keer of his little grave.
+
+"'Bout this time, the range stock began to bother us a-gittin' in the
+field an' a-damagin' the crap. Andy he sent word to Barker to send some
+of his men down thar an' carry off the worst ones, but the foreman he
+said 'twan't none of his business, thar was a fence law in this here
+state, an' we must fence our land ef we wanted to raise a crap.
+
+"Then the grub what we brung down from town done give out an' the little
+gal she sort of seemed to be a pinin' away right afore our eyes.
+
+"One evenin' some of the cattle broke into the field agin', an' Andy was
+a-drivin' 'em out, a yearlin' calf breaks back an' dodged into the
+little pole corral we done made fer a milk pen.
+
+"Andy he vowed he'd put a 'yoke' onto him, he bein' the wust one of em
+all for breakin' through the fence; so he puts up the bars intendin' to
+fix him as soon as we got the rest out.
+
+"Bimeby, we goes to the corral meanin' to fix him with a yoke an' turn
+him out, but when I seed that there brand of Barker's onto him, an' we
+ain't nothin' to eat but taters, an' Barker's stock a-ruinin' our crap
+faster than it could grow; I just got that bitter I didn't much care
+what did happen.
+
+"Andy he sets down the axe he done brung out to the corral to make the
+yoke with, an' goes into the cabin fer a piece of balin' wire to tie the
+yoke on with, an' while he's gone all the bad in me come to the top, an'
+I drives the yearlin' into the little calf pen where we shuts up the
+milk calves, an' taken the axe an' hit him a lick on the haid with it as
+he made a sort of pass at me, which brung him to the ground.
+
+"When Andy come back with the balin' wire, the calf was daid. He were
+terribly cut up about it but I ses, 'We can't be much wuss off, an' I'm
+that hongry fer somethin' besides taters, that I don't care what happens
+to us.'
+
+"As fer the rest of it, I reckin what the detective feller said is about
+right. We done butchered the calf the best we could, an' buried the hide
+what was found, an' so I reckin you all men knows now jist who killed
+that thar yearling of Barker's, fer 'twere me what did it an' not Andy
+Morrow a-tall."
+
+Her voice was raised as she spoke the last few words, and she threw her
+head back, and swept a look of defiance around the courtroom.
+
+Directly before her sat old man Barker, his eyes staring straight into
+hers, his great hairy hands gripping a red bandana until the cords and
+veins stood out like ropes, while down his face the tears were making
+their way through the rough stubbly beard that covered it without any
+effort on his part to stay their course. Barker moved uneasily in his
+chair; in the tense stillness of the room its creaking smote the silence
+like a shot and drew every eye in the room to him. He grasped the back
+of the chair in front of him, struggled partly to his feet, and then
+sank back again. His mouth opened; he licked his parched lips like some
+hunted wild animal.
+
+"The, the--gal," he gasped, never taking his eyes from the woman's face,
+"the little gal, wh--what come of her?" he demanded hoarsely, a great
+something in his throat almost choking him, "did-did-sh-he," and his
+voice failed him completely.
+
+The woman smiled scornfully. "She did not," she said, realizing the
+drift of his unspoken question, "we done made a pot of soup out of some
+of that there yearlin' an' fed her some of the meat, an' she perked up
+an' come through all right." Then--daughter of Eve that she was--she
+broke down and burst into tears.
+
+Over the face of the old cattleman swept a look of joy and relief that
+words cannot portray. He mopped his flushed face and streaming eyes with
+the handkerchief, utterly unconscious that every eye in the courtroom
+was upon him, then, turning, brought his great hand down upon the back
+of his foreman beside him with force enough to have almost broken it.
+His face was wreathed in smiles. "Glory be," he almost shouted, "glory
+be--thank God for that."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Five minutes later Stutterin' Andy walked out of the courtroom a free
+man.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+THE PASSING OF BILL JACKSON
+
+By permission _The Argonaut_, San Francisco, Cal.
+
+
+"I tell you fellows, 'tain't no fun to swim a bunch of steers when the
+water is as cold as it is now." The speaker was a short, thick-set
+cowboy, whose fiery red hair had gained for him the sobriquet of
+"Colorado," the Mexican name for red, which was frequently shortened to
+"Colly" among the "punchers."
+
+Colorado, who was carefully rolling a cigarette, glanced around the
+circle of listeners, as if challenging some one to contradict him. The
+balance of the boys evidently agreed with him, for no one said a word
+except the "Kid," and he, after taking his pipe from his lips and
+carefully knocking out the ashes on the heel of his boot, said:
+
+"'Jever have any 'sperience at it, Colly?"
+
+Colorado by this time had finished rolling his cigarette and was waiting
+for the cook's pot-hook, which he had thrust into the campfire, to get
+red-hot, to light it. Having done this and taken a few preliminary
+puffs, he answered:
+
+"Yes, I hev, and a mighty tough one it was, too."
+
+"Tell us about it, Colorado," said the cook. "Whar was it, an' how did
+it happen?"
+
+"Yes, Colly, le's hear the story," chimed in the Kid.
+
+It was just the time for a story. We had come down to the railroad with
+a bunch of steers, and found the Little Colorado River, which ran
+between us and the railroad, swollen to a mighty torrent by the rains in
+the mountains.
+
+We had waited four days for it to go down, but it seemed rather to rise
+a little each day. As the feed was poor and we had lots of work to do,
+the boss was in a hurry to get them shipped and off his hands, and so
+had just announced, that at daylight the next morning he meant to try to
+swim the herd across. It was late in October and the weather was snappy
+cold. Overcoats and heavy clothes were an absolute necessity in the
+night on guard around the herd, and the idea of going into that cold
+water was not a pleasant one. But the cow-puncher is much like the
+sailor, in that he never stops to think of getting wet, or cold, or
+going into any danger as long as the boss himself will lead the way; so
+we were all prepared to get a soaking the next day.
+
+It was that pleasant time in the evening between sunset and dark. The
+herd was bedded down near camp, and the first guard were making their
+rounds, with never a steer to turn back. The balance of us were lying
+about the campfire, smoking and talking "hoss," a subject which is never
+worn threadbare in a cow-camp. Colorado, who had been idly marking out
+brands in the sand in front of him with the end of his fingers, said:
+
+"Well, boys, 'taint much of a story, but ef you want to hear it, I'll
+tell you how it was. Dick, gimme a bite of your navy," and having stowed
+away a huge chunk of Dick's "navy," Colly settled back on the ground and
+began:
+
+"I was workin' fer the Diamond outfit up in Utah, 'bout three years ago,
+an' the old man he come off down here into Arizona an' bought a bunch of
+steers to take up thar. He done written his wagon-boss to come down with
+an outfit big enough to handle two thousand head, an' we struck the
+Little Colorado River 'bout the mouth of the Cañon Diablo wash, where we
+was to receive the herd 'long in June. We didn' have no partickler
+hap'nin's comin' down, and we got the herd turned over all right, an'
+built a 'squeeze chute' an' branded 'em all before we started back; so
+as, if any got lost, the outfit could claim 'em on the brand: an' about
+the last of June we pushed 'em off the bed-ground one mornin', before
+daylight, an' pulled our freight for the home ranch.
+
+"The cattle were all good to handle, an' didn't give us no trouble to
+hold nights, barrin' one or two little stampedes, an' we drifted on down
+toward Lee's Ferry without any mishaps, 'ceptin' one night it were
+a-rainin' like all possessed, an' I wakes up a feller named Peck to go
+on guard. Peck got up an' put on his slicker, walked over to where his
+pony was tied, an' mounted. We was camped on the banks of a wash called
+Cottonwood Creek, an' along there the wash had cut down into the 'dobe
+flat, some ten or fifteen feet deep. Peck he's 'bout half asleep, an'
+gets off wrong for the herd, an' rides straight up to the edge of the
+creek, thinkin' all the time he's a-goin' out on the prairie to the
+herd. His pony sort of balked on him an' give a snort, but Peck bein' a
+cross-grained sort of cuss, an' only half awake, just bathed him with
+his quirt, an' jabbed his spurs into him. The pony give a jump an'
+landed in the middle of the creek, with six or eight feet of muddy water
+runnin' in it. Lord, didn't Peck wake up suddenlike, an' squall for
+help? We all turned out in a hurry, but he swam across, an' the opposite
+side bein' sort of slopin'like, the pony scrambled out. Then Peck was
+afeered to cross back in the dark, an' stayed over thar all night,
+a-shiverin' an' a-shakin' an' a-cursin' like a crazy man. When we got up
+for breakfast that mornin' at four o'clock it was clear, an' cold, an'
+dark. The cook he goes down to the creek an' hollers to Peck sort of
+sarcastic-like, 'Come to breakfast, Peck!' an' Peck he gets mad an'
+swears at the _cocinero_ pretty plenty, an' said ef he didn't go back
+he'd turn loose on him with his six-shooter, an' the cook, bein' pretty
+rollicky hisself, he goes back to the wagon an' pulls his Winchester an'
+starts fer the creek agin, but Jackson stops him an' turns him back.
+When it comes daylight Peck went down the creek a mile and finds a place
+to cross whar it wa'n't so deep, an' so gits back to camp jist as we was
+pullin' out.
+
+"The Big Colorado were a powerful stream when we reached it, bein' all
+swollen by heavy rains up in the mountains an' we all kinder hated to
+tackle it. Before he left, the old man told the wagon-boss to ferry the
+outfit an' horses over in the boat, but to swim the steers.
+
+"You know how Lee's Ferry is; the river comes out of a box cañon above,
+an' the sides break away a little, an' then a mile below it goes into
+the box agin, where the walls is three thousand feet high an' the
+current runs like a mill-race.
+
+"It was shore a nasty place to swim a bunch of steers, an' Jackson, he
+knowed we had a big job on hand when we got there. Jackson was the best
+wagon-boss I ever see or worked under. He was a tall, slim chap, could
+outwork any two men in the outfit, wasn't afeerd of nothin', an' though
+he couldn't read or write, I tell you, boys, he savvyed cows a heap.
+What he didn't know 'bout cows wa'n't worth knowin'. He didn't let the
+steers water the day before, so's they'd be powerful dry an' take to the
+river easier.
+
+"We fust got the wagon over on the ferry boat, which was a big concern,
+long enuff to drive a four-hoss team onto, an' which was rowed by four
+men. The cook he was mighty skerry 'bout goin' onto this here boat,
+'cause he said 'bout a year afore that he'd been a-punching cows in
+southern Arizony, an' a feller there shipped a lot of cattle up inter
+Californey to put on an island in the ocean near Los Angeles. They
+loaded 'em onto flat scows with a high railin' round 'em, an' put 'bout
+fifty head on each scow an' a puncher on it to look out fer 'em. Goin'
+over to the island the tug what was a-towin' 'em by the horn of the
+saddle, so to speak, busted the string, an' thar bein' quite a wind
+blowin', an' big ole waves a-floppin' round, the four scows began to
+butt an' bump up agin' one another like a lot of muley bulls a-fightin',
+an' the cattle got to runnin' back an' forth an' a-bellerin' an'
+a-bawlin', an' them punchers, they shore thought their very last day had
+come. The cook he never expected to see dry land agin', an' he jist
+vowed if he ever got back to the prairie that he'd punch no more cows on
+boats.
+
+"Well, bimeby, the tug got a new lariat onto 'em agin' an' corraled 'em
+all safe enuff at the wharf, but the cook 'lowed he war a dry-land
+terrapin an' wouldn't ever agin get into no such scrape, not ef he
+knowed hisself. However, he did get up 'nuff spunk to tackle the ferry,
+an' went over safely. After we got the wagon acrost, we went back an'
+started the cattle down the side cañon what leads into the crossin'.
+
+"Jackson's idee was to git the hosses ahead of the steers an' let 'em
+follow. You know hosses swim anywheres, an' the cattle will allers
+foller 'em. So he puts three men in a little boat, two to row an' one to
+lead a hoss knowin' the balance would foller him right across.
+
+"The hoss-wrangler hed the 'cavvy' all ready, an' jist as the leaders of
+the herd come down to the water's edge the boys in the boat pulled out,
+a-leadin' a hoss, an' the other hosses follered right in an' was soon
+a-swimmin'. Then when they was all strung out an' doin' fine, we crowded
+the steers into the water after 'em. They was all powerful dry an' took
+to the water easy 'nuff, an' afore the leaders knowed it they was
+a-swimmin' in fine shape. Jackson wouldn't let us holler or shoot till
+we got 'em all inter the water, an' then we jerked our six-shooters an'
+began to fog 'em an' yell like a bunch of Comanches.
+
+"You all know thar's one thing to be afeered of in swimmin' a lot of
+cattle, and that's when they gets to millin'. Jackson had swum cattle
+across the Pecos in Texas, an' the Yellowstone in Montana, an' saveyed
+'xactly what to do. But this here Colorado at Lee's Ferry is a bad place
+to tackle, fer you're bound to get out on the other side afore you get
+into the box cañon, or your name's Dennis, 'cause once a feller gits
+into the cañon he's got to go on clean down about a hundred miles afore
+he can strike a level place big enuff to crawl out on.
+
+"Soon as the cattle got well strung out, Jackson began to undress
+hisself. He took off all his clothes but his pants, an' then buckled his
+six-shooter belt around him, an' pulled the saddle off'n his hoss.
+
+"I says, 'Bill, you ain't a-goin' to try to swim it, are you?' an' he
+says, 'No, not 'less I have to; but if they gets to millin' out thar
+we'll lose the whole herd, an' the only way to break it up is to ride
+out an' shoot among 'em an' skeer 'em.' He knowed it were risky, for if
+anything went wrong he was shore to be carried into the cañon an'
+drowned. But Bill Jackson wa'n't the sort of a wagon-boss to stop at
+anything to save the herd, an' sure 'nuff, 'bout the time the leaders
+got fairly into the middle of the river, 'long comes a big cottonwood
+tree a-driftin' an' whirlin' down stream right into 'em. That skeert 'em
+an' turned 'em, an' 'fore we knowed it they was doubled back on the
+balance an' swimmin' round an' round, for all the world like driftwood
+in a big eddy in a creek. This was what Jackson was afeerd of, an' he
+pushed his hoss into the river an' takes his six-shooter in his hand. He
+was ridin' a little Pinto pony they called 'Blue Jay,' one of the best
+all-around cow-ponies I ever see.
+
+"Old Blue Jay he jist seemed to savey what was wanted of him, an' swam
+'long without any fuss. When Jackson gits out close to the millin'
+steers he begin to holler an' shoot, an' he called to the fellers in the
+boat to come back an' try to stop 'em. Now, you all know what a risky
+thing it is to go near a steer a-swimmin' in the water, for he's sure
+to try to climb up on you. Jackson knowed this, but he swam Blue Jay
+right slap-dab inter the bunch an' tried to scatter 'em an' stop 'em
+from millin'.
+
+"Just how it happened we couldn't tell; but first thing we seen Jackson
+was right in the middle of the millin' critters, an' in a minute they
+had crowded pore old Blue Jay under, an' all we seen of Jackson was his
+hands went up an' then he was lost in the whirlin' mass of horns that
+was goin' round and round. A man had no chance at all to swim, 'cause
+their hoofs kep' him under all the time, an' they was packed so close a
+feller couldn't come up between 'em, anyway. The boys in the boat tried
+to do something, but 'twan't no use, fer he never come up, an' when they
+got too close one big steer throwed his head over the side of the boat
+an' purty nigh upset 'em, so they had to keep away to save theirselves.
+But they kep' up a-shootin' an' a-hollerin' 'till the leaders finally
+struck out for shore, an' in a few minutes the whole herd was strung out
+for the opposite side an' sooner than I kin tell it they was all
+standin' on dry land, an' not a single one missin'.
+
+"Meantime the boys in the boat had watched everywhere for pore Jackson's
+body, but they never got sight of it, though they went 'most down to the
+mouth of the box cañon. Thar was lots of big trees an' drift a-runnin',
+an' we guessed his body had been caught in the branches of a tree an'
+carried down with it. Pore old Blue Jay come floating past 'em, an' they
+tried to catch him, but the current was so swift they couldn't do it.
+All they wanted was to get Jackson's silver-mounted bridle off'n him,
+'cause 'twas easy 'nuff to see that the pony was quite dead.
+
+"Well, the rest of us crossed in the big ferry-boat an' rounded up the
+steers, which was grazin' up the cañon on the other side, an' moved 'em
+out a couple of miles to camp. Shorty, bein' the oldest hand in the
+outfit, took charge, an' sent two of us back to the ferry, to try an'
+see ef Jackson's body could be found, but the feller what runs the ferry
+said 'tain't no use lookin' fer him, 'cause the swift current would
+carry him miles and miles down the cañon without ever lodgin' anywhere.
+So we went back, an' Shorty gave it up an' decided to push the herd on
+next day. We was a blue ole crowd that night around the campfire, I tell
+you. All the boys liked Jackson, an' besides, they was a-thinkin' of his
+wife an' two kids what was a-waitin' for him at the headquarter ranch up
+in Utah.
+
+"Shorty sent a letter from the ferry settlement to the old man,
+a-tellin' him what had happened, an' we come along up with the cattle,
+arrivin' safely at the ranch without any more misfortunes."
+
+"An' didn't they never find Jackson's body, Colly?" queried the Kid.
+
+"Wal," said Colly, "that's a singular thing, too. When we gets back to
+the ranch the old man he was orful cut up about it, an' hated to think
+that the body wasn't found. He'd been down in the Grand Cañon the summer
+afore with a lot of fellers, an' he said he believed he could find it
+'bout a hundred miles below the ferry, 'cause thar were a place down
+thar in the cañon whar the walls widened out fer some twenty miles, an'
+thar was quite a valley with grassy meadows an' trees. So he takes one
+of the boys an' a pack outfit an' goes off down thar. They had to leave
+everything on top of the cañon an' climb down a-foot an' pack their
+stuff on their backs. The walls was six thousand feet high thar, an'
+they had a hard time gettin' down. Course, it was jist a scratch, but
+I'm blest if after four or five days' hunt they didn't find it lodged in
+a pile of drift along the river. 'Twas easy 'enuff to tell Jackson's
+body, fer he'd had two fingers of his left hand shot off in a fight
+once; so they takes it off to a place in the valley whar it was safe
+from flood, an' buries it as well as they could, an' next year, he went
+back an' packed the remains out of the cañon an' took them clean to the
+ranch an' buried 'em jist as if it was his own brother. I tell you, the
+boys was ready to swear by old man Saunders after that."
+
+Colorado's story was finished, and as it was about ten-thirty the second
+guard-men began putting on overcoats and heavy gloves preparatory to two
+hours and a half of watching the herd.
+
+The stars were shining clear and bright, the bells of the horse-herd
+came softly over the prairie, making a tuneful chime on the frosty night
+air, and as I untied the rope that bound my roll of bedding and kicked
+it out on the ground, I could not keep from thinking of poor Jackson's
+death and wondering if the morrow held a like fate in store for any of
+us.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+THE TENDERFOOT FROM YALE
+
+By permission _American Forestry Magazine_.
+
+
+"The trouble with this here forest service business nowadays is, that
+they're sendin' out, from the effete and luxurious East, a lot of
+half-baked kids, what never seen a mountain in all their lives, don't
+know whether beans is picked from trees or made in a factory at Battle
+Creek, an' generally ain't got savvy enough to find their way home after
+dark.
+
+"Now here's this kid we've drawed in the last deal; nice enough boy, I
+reckon, but who's goin' to play nursey to him up in these here hills?"
+The speaker glared at his companion as if defying him to meet his
+charges against the newcomer and his kind.
+
+"But he's got eddication, Jack," replied his listener, "an' that's what
+counts in these days. We got into the service in them good old days when
+it was a case of ability to ride a pitchin' bronc, rope a maverick,
+chase sheep herders off the earth, shoot the eyes out of a wildcat at
+forty yards an' all them things. Nowadays they picks 'em out by their
+brand of learnin' an' not by their high-heeled boots."
+
+"Howsomever," he continued, "there's some of them that makes good in
+spite of their eddicational handicap. Over on the Sierra last fall we
+was all a-settin' in camp one Sunday afternoon when the phone rings like
+they was trying to wake the dead with it. The old man gits up to answer
+it. When he says, sort of startled-like, 'Fire, where?' we all pricks up
+our ears. 'Twas a mighty dry time an' every one was a-prayin' for rain,
+for we'd been fightin' fire for the last month and was all in.
+
+"We had a fire lookout station up on top of a high peak an' a man, with
+the best glasses money could buy, a-sittin' there who could see all over
+the range for fifty miles.
+
+[Illustration: "_We had a fire lookout station on top of a high peak_"]
+
+"Say, people got so they was afraid to make a campfire anywheres in them
+hills, an' the rangers swore they had to go behind a tree to light their
+pipes, lest he'd see the smoke an' send in a fire call.
+
+"'Shut-eye,' said the old man, meaning the lookout, 'Shut-eye says
+there's a big smoke a-comin' out of the cañon below Gold Gulch to the
+left of Greyback Peak, an' I reckon we'd better be a-movin' that way.'
+
+"It didn't take us long to saddle up, slap a pack onto a couple of
+mules, an' hit the trail. 'Twas a good ten-mile over a rough country,
+an' it was mighty nigh dark afore we gets to where we could see smoke
+a-boiling out of the cañon over a ridge ahead of us.
+
+"We was all old-timers at the work, 'ceptin' a young feller fresh from
+the Yale Forestry School, what had come out for a sort of post-graduate
+course in forestry, an' some of them boys was seein' to it he got it all
+right.
+
+"He had all the fixin's them fellers bring along with them, fancy ridin'
+panties, a muley saddle, a wind bed an' a automatic six-pistol, one of
+them things what, after she once gits to shootin', you jist got to throw
+her into the creek to stop her goin'.
+
+"'Bout two miles from the ridge where we reckoned we'd git our first
+view of the fire we meets up with Hank Strong an' his wife. You know,
+Hank's woman is just about as crazy to go to a fire as a boy to the
+circus, an' she always comes in mighty handy to start a camp, take care
+of the boys' horses an' the packs while we're a-workin'.
+
+"Generally she'd make up a big pot of coffee and fetch it out to the
+line. Once she comes a-ridin' along carryin' a pot full an' a bear
+skeered her hoss--but that's nothin' to do with this yarn.
+
+"Hank says that there's also a big smoke comin' up from the vicinity of
+Granite Basin, an' the old man he says some one better go over there an'
+see what's goin' on. Thar's a chap named Brown a-livin' in the Basin,
+an' the Super, he's afraid, mebbe so he'd get caught in the fire an' be
+singed some, the Basin bein' in the allfiredest lot of chapparal brush
+you ever see.
+
+"This feller Brown, he's a sort of pet of them boys over that a-way, him
+bein' a lunger an' not able to do much but draw funny pictures for the
+Sunday supplements. Seems he broke down back East an' comes West to try
+an' git over it.
+
+"There he sets a-drawin' pictures for them funny papers an' sendin' 'em
+in regular, while he ses he's jist a-walkin' around to beat the
+undertaker.
+
+"Nobody else is a-livin' in the basin, there bein' nothin' but a little
+old cabin, what a bee-man put up once, an' a few hives of bees Brown
+bought along with the cabin. 'Them bees is jist to teach me habits of
+industry,' ses Brown, when some of the boys asked him if he calculated
+to git rich on the output of them hives.
+
+"The old man he reckons he can't spare any of us old hands to go over
+there, an' so he says to the young tenderfoot: 'Son,' he says, 'do you
+reckon you can make it over there in the dark and find out what's doin'
+in Granite Basin an' come back an' let us know?'
+
+"The boy he ses he reckoned he could, only he didn't know the trail all
+the way. Then Hank's wife she speaks up an' says she can go along as far
+as the top of the mountain, an' show him the trail down into the basin.
+
+"It sort of hacked the kid to have a woman show him the trail, but the
+old man said it were the very idee, an' so she an' the boy struck off,
+leavin' us to take care of the fire ahead.
+
+"There wa'n't but one way into the basin an' that was down a graded
+trail about two miles long from top to bottom that the bee man had made
+to git in and out on.
+
+"The lower part of this basin was one great mass of brush, an' as thick
+as the hair on a dog's back, so you couldn't git through it only where
+the brush had been cut out.
+
+"When they gits to the top an' could see over the basin there wa'n't any
+doubt but there was a fire all right an' it was mighty plain that if
+Brown wa'n't already out of there it was time he was startin'.
+
+"Hank's wife were a-dyin' to go down with him, but the kid he ses, 'This
+here's my job, please,' and bluffed her out.
+
+"'You look out you don't get cut off on the trail,' she warns him, 'the
+way that fire's a-eatin' along the side of the basin, it's a-goin' to
+reach the trail inside of an hour, an' there ain't no other way out
+'ceptin' a foot path what goes up the side of the basin back of the
+cabin, but it's more like a ladder than a trail an' you can't take your
+hoss there a-tall.'
+
+"Down into the basin goes the boy, while instead of goin' back to the
+outfit the woman stopped there on a little point of rock where she could
+look all over the basin an' waited to see what'd happen.
+
+"Brown slep' out under a big ole oak-tree, an' as he gits near the cabin
+the kid he lets out a yell or two to wake him an' finds Brown settin' up
+in bed sort of half-dazed, what with the yellin' an' onnatural
+brightness of the skies all abouts.
+
+"Inside of five minutes they was a-ridin' for the trail up the mountain
+with Brown a-settin' behind on the kid's horse. But it were too late.
+When they reached the foot of the trail they could see where 'bout half
+way up the whole blamed mountain was afire. Nothin' could pass through
+it an' live, so there wa'n't nothin' to do but go back an' try to get
+out on the foot trail.
+
+"Brown he begs the kid to go an' leave him an' save hisself. 'I'm only a
+worn-out shell, anyhow,' he ses, 'an' it's jist a question of time till
+it's all over for me an' I cash in, but you got something to live for
+ahead of you.'
+
+"But the kid wouldn't stand for it.
+
+"'Don't you talk to me 'bout leavin' you here like a rat in a trap,' ses
+he, 'we'll make it up that trail all right; jist you hang onto me and
+we'll make the hoss pack us as far as he can go, an' then we'll take it
+afoot. If it comes to a showdown I can carry you easy enough.'
+
+"So they rides the hoss up the trail till where it runs into a cliff
+'bout twenty feet high. Here thar was a ladder to git up the cliff, an'
+the kid he strips off the saddle, takes his water bag, an' turns his
+hoss to shift fer hisself. Time they gits up that ladder pore Brown he
+were all in an' had to lie down on the ground a-coughin' fit to kill
+hisself.
+
+"This trail was jist a foot trail cut through the chapparal, an' the
+smoke an' heat was already a-rollin' down onto 'em where they was like a
+blast from a furnace. The kid he wets their handkerchiefs from his water
+bag an' they each tied 'em about their faces to sort of protect 'em a
+little.
+
+"The boy, he looks mighty anxiouslike at them big high walls of flames
+a-comin' down toward 'em, an' fairly forced Brown to git on his back
+'pick-a-back' like you'd take a little kid, an' started slowly up the
+trail.
+
+"Foot by foot he climbed to'rd the top. Sometimes the smoke got so thick
+they had to lie down a minute clost to the ground to git their breath,
+sometimes the wind dropped big blazin' brands onto 'em an' set their
+clothes afire, an' he'd have to stop an' rub it out with his hands.
+
+"Every time he took a look up to'rds the top, he'd see the fire a-comin'
+closter an' closter to the trail. Pore Brown he tried to help him some
+by walkin', but between the excitement an' the smoke gittin' into his
+lungs, it were too much for him, an' he dropped down helpless as a
+newborn baby.
+
+"The kid, he takes a survey of things an', little as he knowed 'bout
+fires in the chapparal, he seen mighty plain, that they were at the
+critical pint, an' if they didn't git past the next hundred feet mighty
+soon, the fire would cut 'em off, an' it would be good-bye gay world to
+'em both.
+
+"Then he hears a moan from Brown an', lookin' round, sees him lyin' flat
+on the ground with one hand clapped over his mouth, an' tricklin'
+between his fingers was a stream of blood. Didn't take him but a second
+to know it were a hemorrhage; beats all what them fellers do learn at
+them colleges, don't it?
+
+"Brown were a-workin' away with one hand at the little pocket in his
+shirt an', in his eagerness an' excitement, the button wouldn't come
+open. The boy jumped to his side, tore the button loose, an' pulled from
+the pocket a little tobacco sack with something in it. Brown he holds
+out one hand palm up, an' nodded to the boy to open the sack, which he
+did, an' then poured out into his hand a little pile of common table
+salt. You know them lunger-fellers most of 'em carries a little sack of
+salt agin' jist such emergencies. Brown he throwed his head back an'
+swallowed every grain of it an', bimeby, the blood stopped running so
+hard. He struggled to his feet, then waved his hand to'rd the top an',
+with a beseechin' look in his eyes, tried to git the kid to savvy that
+he was to go on an' leave him to die.
+
+"But the boy he wa'n't made of that sort of stuff. He's jist about
+skeered to death at the sight of the blood, but he pulls hisself
+together, grabs Brown in his arms agin, an' grits his teeth for another
+fight for their lives.
+
+"Finally, he comes to a place where, about ten feet ahead, the fire was
+clean acrost the trail. He puts Brown down for a minute, pulls off his
+coat, lays it on the ground, an' pours over it what water was left in
+his water bag. Then he wraps Brown's head an' shoulders in the coat an',
+grabbing him up in his arms, agin makes a last dash through the smoke
+an' fire.
+
+"Seems like he hears a woman's voice above the roar of the fire an' he
+sort of wonders is he gittin' a little loco with it all. Next he knows
+he's a-drawin' in big gulps of air that ain't full of smoke, an' there's
+a woman a-walkin' longside of him, steadyin' him as he staggers under
+his load an' a-rubbin' out, with a wet gunny sack, the places where his
+an' Brown's clothes are a-smokin'.
+
+"It all appears as a horrible dream to him, an' fust thing he knows, he
+don't know nothin', for he's gone an' keeled over in a dead faint. Don't
+laugh, you fool; didn't you ever work at a fire till it seemed as if
+your lungs was a-goin' to bust an' your heart was a-beatin' like a cock
+patridge on a log?
+
+"Then he gits a quart or more of cold water slap in the face, opens his
+eyes, an' there's Hank's wife a-standin' over him. Clost by was Brown,
+alive an' apparently uninjured. She knowed if he got through a-tall he's
+bound to come out right about there and was a-watchin' for him.
+
+"When we comes along 'bout three hours later, we finds the boy and the
+woman hard at work, back-firin' along the old stage road an' the fire
+pretty well under control on that side.
+
+"Say, that kid were a sight to look at. He ain't got no more eyebrows or
+lashes than a rabbit, an' that there curly mop of his was singed an'
+scorched like the rats had been a chawin' onto it."
+
+"And Brown?" asked Jack.
+
+"Oh, Brown, why he come through all right. Saw a lot of his funny
+pictures in the Sunday supplement last week. 'Peared like the fire done
+him good."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+DUMMY
+
+By permission _National Wool Growers' Magazine_
+
+
+"Take him, Bob; take him, boy." The woman pointed to a coyote skulking
+in the sage brush a hundred yards from the camp wagon beside which she
+stood. The dog raced toward the animal which turned and stopped, a nasty
+snarl coming from its lips, teeth bared, every hair of its mane erect.
+Almost as large as a full grown wolf it outweighed the dog by many
+pounds.
+
+Surprised at the coyote's hostile attitude the Airedale stopped for a
+moment, then advanced cautiously, realizing that this coyote differed
+somewhat from those he had met before.
+
+Instantly the coyote flew at the dog, burying its keen teeth deep in his
+left leg, leaping quickly back to avoid a clinch, its jaws snapping like
+castanets. The dog, though taken by surprise, fought with all the fury
+of his breed, but being only a pup was manifestly overmatched. Realizing
+the dangerous character of the coyote, the woman seized the camp axe
+standing at the front wheel of the wagon and ran to the aid of her
+protector.
+
+The coyote tore loose from the dog's grip and jumped at her as she came
+nearer. She swung the axe as the animal raised in the air, missed its
+head by six inches, and, before she could gather herself for another
+blow, it sank its fangs deep into her bare arm. Encouraged by her
+presence the dog fastened himself to the animal's hindquarters, but
+shaking him loose it lunged at her again. She stood her ground,
+thrusting the axe at the brute in an endeavor to keep it at bay.
+Meantime the door to the camp wagon opened, a boy about fifteen jumped
+to the ground, in his hand a heavy automatic pistol. As the coyote
+sprang at the woman's body he thrust the weapon under her arm almost in
+the animal's face, and the shot that followed blew half its ugly head
+away.
+
+As the beast sank to the ground the woman dropped the axe, ran to the
+wagon, picked up a rope hobble that lay on the tongue, tied it around
+her arm above the wound and, with a short piece of stick, twisted the
+improvised tourniquet until it sank deep into the white flesh. The boy,
+the while uttering those strange inarticulate sounds of the deaf and
+dumb, wrote a few words upon the slate that hung from his neck by a
+leather thong and handed it to the woman. "The signal--shoot the
+signal," she read.
+
+She seized the automatic the boy had used, raised it above her head,
+fired two quick shots, waited a moment, and fired two more. As she
+listened there came through the still cold air an answer, sharp and
+staccato as the spark from a wireless.
+
+Then, and not until then, did the woman relax and sink to the ground as
+if dead.
+
+The physical disabilities of the boy had given him a keenness and
+comprehension far beyond his years. He clambered into the wagon, drew
+from its scabbard a heavy rifle, jumped to the ground and repeated the
+signal three times. Could his ears have served him he would have heard
+the answering shots, this time much nearer.
+
+No rider in a Wild West relay race ever quit his pony with greater speed
+than did Jim Stanley as he reached his camp, where with one quick glance
+he realized what had happened. As he dropped beside his wife she opened
+her eyes, grasped his hand and struggled to rise. The boy ran to the
+wagon returning quickly with a small box, the well known red cross on
+its black shining side proving it to be a "first aid kit." The woman
+smiled faintly. Away back in the mountains the forest ranger's wife had
+once showed her the box the government furnished all its rangers, and
+when the lambs were shipped in August she coaxed Stanley to bring one
+back. He rather laughed at the idea, but to please her, bought one and,
+with a woman's foresight, it had always been kept in the camp wagon.
+
+The prevalence of rabies among the coyotes was the one live topic in
+every sheep and cattle camp all over the range country and, realizing
+the serious nature of the wound, the man took the box from the boy,
+opened it and seized the booklet which told briefly what to do in such
+an emergency.
+
+The pressure of the tourniquet was lessened, causing the wound to bleed
+freely, a most valuable aid to its cleansing, and in a few minutes it
+had been well washed with hot water, flooded with a strong solution of
+carbolic acid and bound tightly with one of the bandages from the box.
+
+In the meantime, the man had decided on his course. At a sign from him
+the boy mounted the horse Stanley had ridden into camp and rode rapidly
+off across the range. While he was gone, Stanley outlined his plans to
+his wife. With good luck they could intercept the auto stage, that
+passed down the road every day, at a point some thirty miles distant.
+From there it was seventy-five miles to town which they would reach that
+night in time to catch the midnight train to the nearest Pasteur
+institute.
+
+"But the sheep, Jim?" and the woman looked anxiously out on the range.
+"We can't leave them all alone, you better let me make the ride by
+myself and you stay here, for I can get through all right."
+
+Stanley shook his head. "Not for all the sheep in the world would I let
+you go alone." He kissed her cheeks.
+
+"But Jim," she pleaded, "it's too much to risk and I'll make it without
+a bit of trouble."
+
+The boy was just turning the point of a little hill near camp driving
+before him the two horses hobbled out the night before. Stanley pointed
+to him. "Dummy can turn the trick all right enough, he's the best herder
+in this whole range for his age, and he'll get 'em through if any one
+can. He's only a boy, but he has a lot of good horse-sense and if the
+weather holds out he'll work the herd from here to the winter range and
+not lose a sheep."
+
+"But we'll take the team with us; how can he move camp?" and she glanced
+at the big roomy camp wagon.
+
+"That saddle pony of mine will carry all the grub and bedding he'll need
+and the wagon can stand right here till some of us can get back and haul
+it away."
+
+The man hung a nose bag full of oats on each horse, saddling them as
+they ate, and while he was getting out the pack outfit, food, and other
+supplies for the boy, she was writing his instructions on the slate,
+supplemented by many signs and motions which he read as easily as the
+written words. He was to stay in this camp two or three days longer,
+then pack the pony with his camp outfit and drift the sheep slowly
+toward the winter range seventy-five miles below.
+
+"Take plenty of food," she wrote, "for it may be ten days before some
+one gets out to relieve you. You know the way, don't you?"
+
+Dummy nodded eagerly. He had come up with the sheep in the spring and
+knew every camp and bed-ground on the trail.
+
+"Don't you worry about him," Stanley told his wife, when she again spoke
+of the danger of leaving the boy all alone. "He's short two good ears,
+that's sure, but he more than makes up for them in gumption and
+common-sense. If it don't come on to storm, he'll make it through all
+right and by the time he gets there I'll have a man ready to relieve
+him, if I'm not there myself."
+
+"And if it does storm," he continued, "he'll probably do just about as
+well as any one else, for out here, if it comes on a blizzard, all the
+best man in the world could do would be to let the sheep drift before it
+till they strike shelter."
+
+Fifteen minutes later, the boy watched them ride out of sight, over a
+ridge near camp. As the two figures were lost to view he turned toward
+the wagon and took a short survey of his surroundings. Out on the range
+twelve hundred ewes were peacefully grazing with no hand but his to
+guide and protect them; what a chance to show the stuff in him! Deep
+down in his heart he hoped that the man who was to come out from the
+railroad to relieve him would be delayed for many days. It would give
+him a chance to make good and show his worth.
+
+[Illustration: "_Out on the range 1200 ewes were grazing_"]
+
+For three days Dummy led an uneventful life. The dog was recovering from
+his wounds, the sheep were doing well, and he had shot another rascally
+coyote that came skulking about the camp one evening.
+
+On the fourth day the sky was overcast with heavy clouds that seemed
+threatening and, as the feed near camp was about gone, he decided it was
+time to be moving. In two hours he was off, the dog limping along by his
+side, the herd slowly grazing their way across the range.
+
+As a precautionary measure he led the pack horse lest old "Slippers"
+take it into his head to desert him. That night Dummy made camp under
+the lee of some small hills where a few scattered cedars offered
+fire-wood and shelter. The sun had set in an angry sky, there was a
+strange feeling in the air, and the sheep seemed to sense an approaching
+storm.
+
+He bedded them down in the most sheltered spot he could find, set up his
+little miner's tent close to a cedar and, after cooking his supper, took
+the dog into the tent, tied the flaps and slept as only a tired boy of
+his age can sleep.
+
+The tent was lit with the dim gray of early dawn, when the dog's cold
+nose on his face awoke him, and he was soon outside, opening up the fire
+hole he had carefully covered the night before. The wind was blowing
+a gale while overhead the sky was that dull leaden color that in the
+range country means snow.
+
+Late that afternoon he worked the sheep toward a line of low cliffs that
+cut across the prairie and bedded them down in their lee, finding for
+himself a snug overhanging shelf of rock, under which he placed his camp
+outfit, and cooked his first meal since daylight.
+
+Dummy dared not hobble out his horse in such a night, but after giving
+him a small feed of grain he had brought from the wagon, staked the
+animal in a little grassy wash near camp.
+
+By dark the snow began to fall heavily and he knew that for him and his
+woolly companions the morrow would be full of new troubles.
+
+Lost to all sounds of the storm, the lad sat before the little campfire
+under the overhanging rock and watched the snow drive before the wind.
+With the confidence of one born and raised amid such conditions, Dummy
+rather enjoyed the prospect of a struggle against the elements. His
+parents were Basques from the Spanish Pyrenees, a sturdy dependable race
+that for centuries have been sheepherders in their own land. Every
+winter, from the open ranges of the West, come tales of "basco"
+sheepherders facing death in the storms, rather than desert their herds.
+Their devotion to their woolly charges, good judgment in handling them
+and loyalty to their employers' interests, even unto death, is
+recognized all over the western range country, until the name "basco"
+stands for the best in sheepherders.
+
+From such as these sprang this boy, deaf and dumb from his birth. His
+father and his uncle were among the best herders in the state, and from
+a child he had been used to the rough life of a sheep camp. Deficient as
+he was in two vital senses, the remaining ones had been developed until
+his ability to grasp and understand things about him seemed almost
+uncanny. It was this knowledge of the boy's breeding and peculiarities
+that made Stanley feel he would take the best possible care of the sheep
+left in his charge.
+
+When Dummy opened his eyes the next morning, the air was so full of snow
+driving before a fifty-mile gale that he could not see a hundred feet
+from camp. He cooked his breakfast, fed Slippers the last of the grain,
+and waited for the storm to break, realizing that until it did it would
+be folly to leave the shelter of the cliffs.
+
+The sheep were getting restless and hungry and occasionally small
+bunches drifted out into the storm in search of feed, but after
+buffeting with the wind for a few moments were glad to come back. About
+noon there came a lull in the gale and the snow came straight down
+almost in clouds. The sheep were uneasy over the change, and even
+Slippers seemed to sense some new danger.
+
+Suddenly with a roar the wind swept upon them from a new direction so
+that they were now exposed to its full fury, whereas, before, they had
+been sheltered by the cliffs.
+
+The sheep tried to face it, but the fierce wind was too much for them,
+and they slowly drifted before the gale across the snow-covered range.
+
+All that day Dummy struggled along behind the herd tired, cold, hungry,
+and almost blinded by the frozen tears, leading the pack horse lest he
+lose him. As for controlling the movements of the sheep, he did nothing
+for they could travel in but one direction, and that was away from the
+arctic blast which grew in strength as the day wore on. Wherever there
+was a sign of anything eatable upon which the hungry animals could feed,
+they ate even the woody stems of the sage or the dry yellow fibre-like
+leaves of the Yuccas that here and there showed above the snow.
+
+The short winter day began to wane, and darkness was slowly creeping
+across the white cover that lay over the land. All sense of direction
+and time had long since left the lad, but he struggled on, the dog
+limping along at his side.
+
+Just as the last signs of daylight faded away the sheep stopped moving,
+and he was unable to start them again. He wrapped the lead rope of his
+horse about a sage bush as best he could, then worked his way through
+the herd looking for the cause of their stopping. Stumbling and falling
+over snow-hidden rocks and bushes, he found himself almost stepping off
+into empty space over a cliff, where the snow had built out from its
+edge in such a manner as to conceal its presence, and, even as he threw
+himself back from the step he was about to take, he saw several sheep
+walk blindly out into the semi-darkness and disappear into the depth
+below.
+
+The loss of these roused into action every drop of his basco blood. In
+the dim light he could just make out where the edge of the cliff lay
+and, carefully working his way along it, beat the stolid mass of animals
+back from the danger. By this time it was almost dark and he turned back
+to find his horse, but after half an hour's search gave it up and
+returned to the herd, hoping the animal might be with them somewhere.
+He stumbled around in the snow for some time before he came up with the
+tail enders of the herd slowly working their way through a break in the
+cliff down which the leaders had evidently gone. He found the herd
+huddled up in the shelter of the cliff and eagerly looked through them
+for the pack horse with its precious burden of food and bedding, but
+without success.
+
+Once he stumbled over several soft objects in the dark which he made out
+to be some of the sheep that had fallen over the cliff. When he finally
+realized that the pack horse was gone, he knew where he could at least
+get his supper and breakfast, and after starting a fire skinned out a
+hind quarter of one of the fallen sheep and soon had some of it
+roasting. Fortunately for the boy, he found piled against the cliff a
+lot of poles that had evidently been part of an old corral, which made
+it possible for him to keep the fire going all night and over which he
+huddled dropping off to sleep only to be awakened by his numbed limbs
+and body.
+
+Eagerly Dummy peered through the falling snow the next day as the gray
+dawn came slowly into the east. The snow sweeping over the cliff from
+above had formed a drift that almost completely shut the sheep in as if
+with a fence and he knew there was no possibility of leaving the shelter
+where he was until the sky cleared off enough for him to get his
+bearings. Even then he doubted if it would be possible for the sheep to
+travel, so deep was the snow.
+
+About noon the snow stopped falling, and Dummy worked his way up to the
+top of the cliff from which as far as he could see there was but a broad
+expanse of snow-covered range.
+
+To his left the view was cut off by a small hill that stood close to the
+cliff. He went over to it and from its top saw below him in the open
+plain a small board shack with a rough shed stable near it.
+
+Instantly he remembered that, as they passed up with the sheep in the
+spring, a man and his wife were busy building the shack preparatory to
+taking up the land about it for dry farming purposes. Eagerly he watched
+the house for signs of occupancy, but as there was no smoke coming from
+the chimney, he decided it was empty. Two things interested him,
+however. One, the fact that the plowed field near the house, being on a
+slight elevation, was blown almost clear of snow, and the other, there
+was something half hidden by the house which looked mightily like a
+stack of hay, although it scarcely seemed that this could be true.
+
+In the field, which covered perhaps forty acres, he saw the possibility
+of finding a little feed for the sheep until the snow should settle
+enough to allow them to travel and, if the stack really was hay or any
+rough feed, his troubles were over for the present at least.
+
+As the lad turned back to camp he realized only too well the difficulty
+of moving the herd until the snow settled, it being fully eighteen
+inches deep on the level, and everywhere there were drifts many feet
+high through which the sheep in their weakened condition could not make
+their way.
+
+But it was less than half a mile at the most from the camp to the shack,
+and he was sure he could work the sheep to the field where there would
+be some pickings that would keep them from starving.
+
+As he suspected, he found the place deserted, and the stack proved to
+be fodder of some description surrounded by a strong fence. The shed,
+which had a small door hanging on one hinge and about half open, was as
+dark as a cellar and, as he stepped inside, the nose of his lost horse
+was fairly pushed into his face, and but for his infirmity he could have
+heard the most gladsome nickering and whinnying to which a lone hungry
+horse ever gave tongue. A few threads of canvas on the door post told
+the story of the trap the animal had walked into. Looking for food and
+shelter, he had squeezed through the half open door, but, once inside,
+the wide pack striking it on one side and the door post on the other,
+held him a prisoner.
+
+Quickly the boy removed the pack, then, armed with the camp shovel and
+axe, went to investigate the stack. It looked more like weeds than
+anything else and when he grabbed a handful it was rough and harsh and
+pricked his hands. It was green, however, and the horse ate it greedily.
+
+With the finding of his horse the lad's spirit rose and he set to work
+to move the sheep over. Between the camp and the house there was a deep
+wash which the drifting snow had almost filled, while elsewhere there
+was fully eighteen inches. With the pack-saddle on the horse, the lash
+rope for traces, and an old sled, evidently used by the farmer to haul
+water, he started to break a trail through which the sheep could make
+their way, the shovel being used on the drifts. With a little coaxing he
+got them started through this narrow lane, and eventually the whole
+bunch was inside the field eagerly gnawing every eatable thing in sight.
+
+About half an hour before dark that evening a long string of pack
+horses, with a rider in the lead and another following, came ploughing
+through the snow up to the cliff above where the sheep had been bedded.
+Two of the horses carried ordinary camp packs, the rest were loaded with
+hay, three bales to the horse. At the edge of the cliff the leader
+pulled up while every animal stopped in its tracks.
+
+"If we can't see anything of the sheep from here we might just as well
+give it up for the night," he called back to his companion. "Come on up
+and have a look."
+
+For a few minutes they both sat gazing out into the plain below, across
+which the evening shadows were slowly trailing. As far as they could see
+there was but a white unbroken sheet of snow, the only living thing
+visible being half a dozen ravens cawing hoarsely as they drifted into
+the distance.
+
+The second man pulled out his pipe, loaded, and lit it.
+
+"Jim," he queried, "do you know what night this is?"
+
+"I reckon I do," and Stanley's voice choked. "It's Christmas eve, an' I
+been a-thinkin' an' a-thinkin' all afternoon of that poor little chap
+out here a-fightin' his way through a storm, the like of which this
+range ain't seen in twenty years. Don't seem possible he's pulled
+through, although I'd back Dummy to make it and save his herd if any kid
+could."
+
+Suddenly he turned his head and sniffed.
+
+"Seems like I smell smoke, and cedar smoke at that," he said eagerly.
+"Don't you git it, Bob?"
+
+"Which way's the wind?" and Bob blew a cloud of smoke into the frosty
+air.
+
+"What there is comes from the direction of that there little hill,"
+pointing to the very hill on which Dummy had stood.
+
+The instant they topped it, each caught sight of the dry farmer's place,
+the haystack, the sheep in the field and knew they had found that for
+which they sought.
+
+"You know the place?" asked Bob, as they hurried down.
+
+"I do for a fact," Stanley grinned, "last time I passed this-a-way the
+old digger what built that shack an' taken up the dry farm was cuttin'
+an' stackin' Russian thistles. When I laughed at him for a fool he said
+he ain't raised nothing' else, an' up North Dakota way they used to put
+'em up for roughness when the crops failed, an' he's seen many an old
+Nellie pulled through a hard winter on 'em."
+
+Ten minutes later the two rode up to the shack. A line of scattered
+fodder from the stack to the shed showed what the boy had been doing.
+Bob picked up a handful of the stuff: "Roosian thistles by all that's
+holy," was his comment, "an' whoever before heerd tell of them tumble
+weeds a-bein' good for anything to eat."
+
+As he spoke the lad came round the corner of the shed in which
+"Slippers" had been comfortably stabled and fed.
+
+What with smoke from campfires, and the charcoal he had smeared over it
+to save his eyes, his face was as black as Toby's hat, but to Stanley it
+was the face of a hero. Uttering those strange guttural sounds, waving
+his arms towards the sheep, his dark eyes shining with pride and joy the
+boy ran to Stanley as a child to its father.
+
+The man, too overwhelmed and happy to speak, grabbed the lad close to
+his heart, stroking the tousled head and patting tenderly the dirty
+cheeks down which the child's tears were now cutting deep trails in
+their extra covering while, as he realized the boy could hear not a word
+of the praise and thanks he was showering on him for his pluck and
+fidelity the tears came to his own eyes nor did he try to stop them.
+
+In the shack that night the boy, worn out by his exposure and the
+reaction, dropped into his bed the instant supper had been eaten and was
+fast asleep in ten seconds.
+
+The two men smoked in silence before the little fireplace in the corner.
+
+"Do you reckon we could make a stab at some sort of a Christmas tree an'
+kinda s'prise the kid in the morning?" Stanley glanced toward the figure
+asleep on the floor.
+
+"Jest what I was a studyin' over," was Bob's reply. "These here bascos
+make a heap of such holidays an' Dummy he'd be the tickledest kid ever,
+if he was to find something like Christmas time a settin' by his bed
+when he wakes up in the morning."
+
+Bob knocked the ashes from his pipe and put it away.
+
+"There's a bunch of piñons and cedars down along the wash," he said,
+"sposin' I take the axe an' git a little branch, or the tip of a piñon
+an' we set her up here by his bed? What kin we dig up to put onto it
+that's fittin' for such a thing?"
+
+"For a starter I got them nine silver cart wheels the store keeper give
+me in change," was Stanley's quick response. Bob was already going
+through his pockets.
+
+"Here's a handful of chicken feed, that'll help some," handing the
+change to Stanley, "yep, an' a paper dollar the postmaster gimme.
+Reckon the kid'll know what it is? I been skeert I'd use it fer a
+cigarette paper."
+
+Stanley started for the two kyacks lying in the corner.
+
+"You hustle out an' git the tree," said he, "an' I'll see what else I
+can scare up in the packs. I know there's a couple of apples an' a
+orange I throwed in with the grub when we was packin'."
+
+An hour later the two men stood by the boy's bed, their faces fairly
+shining with the true Christmas spirit over their efforts to make an
+acceptable Christmas tree out of such scanty material. On the floor at
+his head stood a small piñon tree top held erect by several stones. Both
+men had exhausted their ingenuity to find things with which to decorate
+it and on its branches hung the oddest lot of plunder that ever old
+"Santy" left on his rounds.
+
+"I'll never miss them spurs," said Bob pointing to an almost new pair he
+had recently bought, "an' Dummy, he's been just daffy about 'em."
+
+"Same with that new knife," said Stanley. "I jist bought it to be a
+doin' somethin' an' I know Dummy ain't got one that'll cut cold butter."
+
+In nine separate little packages wrapped in newspaper the silver dollars
+were swinging at the end of pieces of thread from a spool in Bob's "war
+bag," the loose silver had been placed in two empty tobacco sacks each
+hanging pendant from the tip of a limb, while three unbroken packages of
+chewing gum, two apples and one rather dilapidated orange swung from
+other branches.
+
+Stanley picked up the boy's slate. "Less' see," he asked, "what's
+Dummy's real name?"
+
+"Pedro," answered Bob, busy making down their bed on the floor.
+
+Painstaking and slowly, he wrote:
+
+            TO PEDRO
+
+        A MERRY CHRISTMAS.
+
+    YOU ARE SURE SOME SHEEP MAN.
+
+Then he propped the slate against the tree in plain sight of the lad's
+eyes when he woke.
+
+"Beats hell how a man's eyes gits to waterin' this cold weather."
+Stanley wiped his eyes rather furtively as he turned toward their bed.
+
+"Same here," replied Bob, blowing his nose with more than usual vigor.
+"Somethin' sure does act onto 'em."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE MUMMY FROM THE GRAND CAÑON
+
+
+"Bang, bang, bang!" went three shots in the night air. Sounds like some
+feller's a huntin' a warm place to sleep," said Little Bob Morris, one
+of three men who were sitting in front of the fireplace in the snug
+little dugout at the winter horse camp of the X bar outfit.
+
+"Open the door, Bob, and show 'em a light," said one of the others. In a
+few minutes, with a wild "whoo-pee," a mounted figure rode out of the
+darkness and the boys were shaking hands with "Hog-eye" Jackson, who had
+a pair of eyes that, as one man put it, "didn't track," one being blue,
+the other black, and both so badly crossed that he looked both ways at
+once.
+
+After supper had been cooked and the dishes put away, the boys gathered
+about the fireplace for a smoke.
+
+"I hain't been out this a-way since the time me and Little Bob here was
+a huntin' for a dead Chinee," said Jackson, with a look about the room.
+
+"Huntin' for a dead Chink?" said Grimes. "What ye mean by that?"
+
+"Ain't you never heard tell about the Chinee what died over in Williams
+and was stoled away from the joss house where the other Chinks had him
+laid out?" said Jackson, with a look of surprise.
+
+"Nary a hear," replied the two boys, "le's have it."
+
+"'Bout two years ago, along in the fall," Jackson began, "after we had
+shipped the last steers from Williams, a Chinese laundryman there died
+one night, and was laid out in the little room where the Chinamen of the
+town kept their joss. The day following there was a tremendous squalling
+among the heathen, for during the night Ah Yen had disappeared from the
+coffin, and not a trace of him could be found. The coffin was there all
+right; it stood just where they left it the night before, surrounded by
+paper prayers, burning punk sticks, and all the other things used by the
+heathens to frighten away the devils which are supposed to be lyin' in
+wait for the spirit of a diseased celestial. But punk or no punk, devils
+or no devils, Ah Yen was gone, of that there was no doubt. The city
+marshal and the sheriff both came to investigate and question, the town
+was scoured, old stables and lofts searched, but still, 'no catch 'em.'
+After a couple of days' work the sheriff said: 'I'm danged if I'm not
+clear stumped. The Chink was plum dead, that's a sure thing, so he
+didn't git up and walk away, and if he was hauled off by some one, they
+didn't leave any sign that I can find, and, anyhow (which to him was the
+most convincing thing of all), what'd any one want for to steal a dead
+Chinaman, I'd like to know?'
+
+"There was a doctor livin' over on Cataract cañon that fall, a sort of
+lunger chap, and when some one suggested that perhaps he had packed the
+Chink off for dissectin' purposes (Ah Yen bein' six feet tall and the
+best specimen of a Chinaman I'd ever seen), the sheriff, just to make a
+sort of showin' to the other Chinks, sent me--I bein' a deputy sheriff
+at that time--to make a sort of scout round and see what I could pick
+up.
+
+"We dropped into his camp, but nothin' doin', and after prowling around
+for a day or two I went back to town. The next day Scotty Jones got on a
+tear and shot up the burg pretty plenty, and in tryin' to ride his horse
+into a Front Street saloon got a load of buckshot into his countenance.
+This made so much excitement that by the time the coroner's jury got
+done with the inquest the loss of Ah Yen's remains had become a matter
+of past history.
+
+"Meantime the Chinks raised a powerful rookus over the loss of the body
+of Ah Yen, he bein' a sort of high muck-a-muck among them, but even the
+offer of a $100 reward for the body didn't get any clews to the
+disappearance."
+
+"I remember hearin' something about it," said Grimes, "but I was down in
+the Tonto basin that fall a-huntin' some hosses we lost on the spring
+work, and never before did hear jist what happened."
+
+"An' didn't they never find out what went with the Chink?" queried
+Russel, who was a newcomer in the country.
+
+"Well," said Jackson rather evasively, "so fur as I know nobody's ever
+yit claimed the reward."
+
+"Le's change the subject," said Grimes, lighting his pipe with a long
+pine sliver. "Hog-eye, where you been sence I seen you last fall a year
+ago over on the Tonto steer round up?" he asked of the newcomer.
+
+"Me?" said Jackson, with a start, blowing a cloud of smoke skyward. "Oh,
+I been a driftin' about pretty promiscous like sence then. When we come
+to ship the last of the steers that fall, old Mose, the Spur boss, axed
+me if I wanted to go back to Kansas and help take care of 'em where the
+outfit was going to winter 'em. Well, me not being sure of a winter's
+job here, and likely to have to ride the chuck line before spring, I
+reckons I'd best nab the job whilst it was open, so I took it."
+
+"How long did you last on the cornstalk job?" asked Russel.
+
+"Oh, I hung and rattled with it till about April, and then I begins to
+git oneasy and sort of hankering for the range agin. One day I was in
+town for some grub and other plunder and goes down to the depot to see
+the train come through, and me a wishin' to God I was a goin' off in
+her, no matter which-a-way she was pointed. When number two comes along,
+who should drop off but old Pickerell, who used to live out here on the
+cañon and take tourists out and show 'em the sights. Pick were powerful
+glad to see me and he sed, ses he, 'What be ye a doin' here, Jackson?'
+
+"'I'm a doin' of the prodigal son act,' ses I.
+
+"'Come again,' ses he, lookin' sort of mystified like.
+
+"'I'm a-feedin' a bunch of hawgs and steers out here on a farm,' ses I,
+'where I ain't seen the sun shine but twicet in four months.'
+
+"Pickerell, he laughed sort of tickled like, an' ses to me, 'Why don't
+you quit and go back to Arizony, where the sun shines all the time?'
+
+"'I'm a goin' to,' ses I, 'just as shore as next pay day comes.' I
+didn't like to tell him that I was flat busted count of goin' into K. C.
+with a load of hawgs an' meetin' up with a bunch of _amigos_ what worked
+me for a sure enough sucker. They gits all my _dinero_ an' leaves me
+locked up in a little old room where we went to git a drink."
+
+Hog-eye sighed and sucked vigorously at his pipe, while the boys grinned
+at each other and waited to hear the rest of the story, which was
+evidently hanging on his lips.
+
+"Well, go on Hog-eye, tell us the rest. Might as well 'fess up and feel
+better," said High-pockets encouragingly.
+
+"I reckon so," replied Jackson with a chuckle, as if there was some
+pleasure in the memories of the past. "You see, after talkin' a few
+minutes with Pick he up and makes me an offer to go back east, where he
+was a runnin' a show what were a part of a street carnival outfit and
+a-makin' all kinds of money. He wanted me to rig up in a 'Montgomery
+Ward outfit,' big hat, goatskin chaps, spurs an' gloves, with stars and
+fringe like them fellers in the movie outfits gits onto 'em, an' sort of
+loaf round the door and git people excited an' toll 'em into the show.
+So I hits the high places back to the farm, and tells the granger feller
+to git him a new cornstalk pusher to take my place pretty _pronto_. When
+he comes I strikes out for the place back in Illinoy where Pick sed he'd
+be showin' an' waitin' for my arrival.
+
+"Pick he pays me forty beans a month, an we sleeps on our round-up beds
+in one of the tents. He shore had a mess of plunder inside the big tent.
+They was a Navajo squaw weavin' blankets, a couple of loafer wolves,
+some coyotes, wildcats, badgers, a lot of rattlers, centipedes and
+tarantulas, and a whole box full of them heely monsters. Besides this,
+he had a lot of glass cases in which he had a bunch of them stone axes,
+_metates_, _mano_ stones, arrow-heads, and all that sort of plunder
+which they digs up from them prehistoric ruins all over this country out
+here.
+
+[Illustration: "_He had a Navajo Squaw weaving blankets_"]
+
+"But the main drawin' card he had was the mummy which he sed he dug up
+somewheres out here in the Grand Cañon. He had all sorts of certificates
+and letters to prove its genuineness, as well as photographs taken when
+they dug it up in the cave.
+
+"One day a odd-lookin' four-eyed feller comes along, and he ses to Pick,
+'Mought I inspect this mummy of your'n?' and Pick he ses, 'Shore,
+pardner, jist as much as you like. You come round to-morrow mornin' fore
+the show begins and I'll be glad to have you look the gent over.'
+
+"The old boy ses he'll shore be on hand, for he's powerful interested in
+them prehistoric things out West. So that evening, after the show
+closed, Pick ses to me, 'Jackson, you git a screwdriver and take them
+screws outen the lower lid of that there mummy case.' So I loosens up
+the screws, and havin' nothin' particular to do, I takes off the lid to
+get a better look at his Nibs. I ain't never seen a mummy before, an'
+was sort of curious to know what a shore enuff mummy did look like. He
+was naked down to his waist, and the skin was as dry and leathery as an
+old cowhide that's been laying out in the weather for ten years. His
+eyes were shut tight and his teeth showed through his thin lips with a
+grin that give me a cold chill for a month afterwards. But, say, boys,
+talk about a surprise. One look was all I wanted to show me that this
+here mummy of old Pick's was nothin' else but the remains of old Ah
+Yen, the Chink what died in Williams and was stole out of the joss
+house. Then I remembered the reward offered for it, but old Pick were
+too square a feller to soak that-a-way. I never said nothin' to nobody
+about what I'd seen, but slipped the lid back on the case and went off
+to bed in the other tent.
+
+"Long about midnight I was woke up by somebody a hollerin' fire, and
+when I busted out of the tent the whole row of shacks was a blazin'. Our
+big tent was too far gone to save anything, but we drug out our beds and
+what little baggage we had in the small tent and did well to git that
+much out. Inside an hour there wasn't nothin' left but a pile of ashes
+to show where the whole outfit stood.
+
+"Old man Pick, he took on considerable, but 'twan't no use cryin' over
+spilt milk, an' so we hit the trail for Arizony an' a little sunshine."
+
+"But how did Pickerell git holt of that there Chink's body?" asked
+Morris, who had listened with amazement at the story.
+
+Jackson grinned as he slowly knocked the ashes from his pipe. "It sort
+of hacked the old man when he found I was wise to his little game with
+the Chink," he said. "Over in Albuquerque he met up with a feller who
+was a-goin' down into Central America on a sort of bug huntin'
+expedition and he talked Pick into goin' with him. The night before we
+split at Albuquerque he gits fuller than a goat, an' seein' as how he
+wasn't comin' back to these parts agin, he give me a great old
+confidential an' tole me how he turned the trick.
+
+"I disremember all that Pickerell done tole me of the way the job was
+worked," continued Jackson, "but, howsomever, the day the Chink died the
+one-lunged doctor was in town. Pickerell he's been a tellin' him about
+the mummies they occasionally found out in them cliff dwellers' ruins in
+the cañon, and when the Doc meets Pick hangin' about town that afternoon
+he suggests carryin' off the Chink's body and makin' a mummy out of it.
+That hits Pick all right and he didn't let no grass grow under his feet
+gittin' ready to do it.
+
+"The night of the body snatchin', he gits up about midnight, slips
+uptown, finds the door of the joss house open and no one watchin' it.
+Hurryin' back to his cabin, he saddles up one mule and slaps a
+packsaddle on the other, an' an hour later drifted out of town with a
+pack on his mule lookin' for all the world like a long roll of bedding.
+By noon the next day he reached his den in the cañon, where he and the
+doctor went to work, and between 'em did a mighty good job of embalmin',
+endin' it all up with a three months' smokin' of the body with green
+cedar wood.
+
+"Pick ses that then come the tickledest part of the hull job, fer whilst
+he's got a mummy all right, he's got to git it sort of discovered like
+to make it of any scientific value, an' he studies the matter aplenty.
+He knows a bunch of fellers what was a-coming out to the Grand Cañon
+from the East to poke about an' try an' discover prehistoric things, and
+he knows them's the very chaps to help him out. So when they shows up he
+tells 'em sort of accidental like that he knows where they's a bunch of
+them there clift dwellings what nobody'd ever yit seen, and they grabs
+at his bait like hungry trout. They just can't skeercely wait to git out
+there, and Pick ses the rest were plumb easy, for the whole place looked
+like it had never been disturbed before, and when they digs out the
+mummy all buried in the dirt and rubbish in one of the cliff dwellings,
+the thing was done.
+
+"Them fellers jist nachelly never suspicioned a thing and was perfectly
+willin' to sign a statement testifyin' to the genuineness of the mummy.
+Then they took photographs of the cliff dwellings and the mummy as it
+lay in the room, and all the surroundin's, with all these here
+scientific chaps a-standin' around, which clinched the thing. Pick ses
+he'll take the mummy fer his share, and he gits the fellers to take it
+on east with their plunder when they goes, so no one won't never
+suspicion him and connect him up with the deal."
+
+"I reckon you and him would have been chasin' 'bout the country back
+thar to this very yit, if the fire hadn't cleaned up the outfit,
+wouldn't you?" inquired Russel.
+
+"Sure," replied the ex-showman; "we was makin' all kinds of money at it
+and makin' of it easier than I ever did in all my life before. But, say,
+when it comes to makin' mummies, old Pickerell and that there one-lung
+doctor had 'em old Pharaoh fellers beaten a whole mile."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration: "_He knows where there's a bunch of them there Cliff
+dwellings_"]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+JUMPING AT CONCLUSIONS
+
+
+It certainly seemed good to be back on the old range again after a six
+months' absence. As we "topped" the last hill I pulled up the team. Down
+in the Valley below us the white adobe walls of the ranch house, like
+some desert light house, blazed through the glorious green of the
+cottonwoods that hovered about it. To its right a brown circle marked
+the big stockade corral. A smooth mirror-like spot out in the flat in
+front of the house was the stock-watering reservoir, into which the
+windmill, seconded by an asthmatic little gas engine, pumped water from
+the depths. Above it the galvanized iron sails of the great mill
+glittered and flickered and winked in the bright sunlight as if to
+welcome us home. A cloud of dust stringing off into the distance marked
+the trail where a bunch of "broom tails" were scurrying out onto the
+range after filling themselves at the tank with water and salt.
+
+Suddenly, a gleam of color caught our eyes. It was "Old Glory" at the
+top of the tall pole, stirred by a little gust of wind that shook out
+its folds, the green of the trees making a splendid background.
+Evidently the boys were expecting us, for the flag was only run up on
+holidays, Sundays, and when guests were due to arrive.
+
+A soft hand slipped quietly into mine. "Be it ever so humble, there's no
+place like home," she sang, and as the words of the homesick,
+world-tired Payne came from her lips, there came into my throat a great
+lump, my eyes filled with tears, and to us both, the sage brush plain
+shimmering and baking in the bright Arizona sunshine, those brown rugged
+mountains in the distance and that desert oasis in the foreground were
+by far the loveliest thing we had seen in all our travels. The team,
+too, seemed to sense our feelings, for they freshened up and took us
+across the intervening distance as if they had not already made a good
+forty miles from the railroad.
+
+Old Dad, the ranch cook, was at the "snorting post" to greet us as we
+pulled up, and we soon were sitting on the broad veranda plying the old
+rascal with questions about the work, the men, and all the happenings
+while we had been away; for of all forlorn, unsatisfactory things on
+earth the worst are the letters written by the average cow-puncher ranch
+foreman concerning matters upon which his absent boss has requested full
+and frequent information.
+
+One of the first anxious inquiries on the part of the madam was as to
+the whereabouts of her Boston terrier, a bench show prize winner sent
+out to her shortly before we left. The letter accompanying the dog
+advised us that, barring accidents, the animal should in a few months
+bring into the world some offspring, which, considering its parentage,
+ought to bring fancy prices on the dog market.
+
+"Where's Beauty?" she asked.
+
+"I reckon she done went off with the boys this morning. They's down to
+Walnut Spring, buildin' a new corral."
+
+"But didn't she--er--hasn't she--" She looked at me appealingly.
+
+"Where are her pups?" was my blunt inquiry.
+
+"Them pups?" The old man took his pipe from his jaws. A queer look
+flashed across his brown face; he chuckled as if the words brought up
+some rather amusing recollection. Now, old Dad was one of the worst
+practical jokers in the West. Nor did he count the cost or think of the
+results as long as he could carry his point, and fool some one with one
+of his wildly improbable yarns. To "pick a load" into some innocent
+tenderfoot was his most joyous occupation. I waited patiently for him to
+recover from the fit of mirth into which my innocent question seemed to
+have plunged him. There was a look of extreme disgust on the face of the
+lady sitting nearby.
+
+"Ye 'member that there young kid-like chap what drifted in here last
+spring after the steer gatherin'?" Again that witless chuckle.
+
+Yes, I remembered. We both did--the madam nodded.
+
+"Well, along about the time them there pups came into this here state of
+Arizony"--the madam's face lighted; there were some pups after all--"the
+kid and I was here at the ranch all alone, the whole outfit bein' out on
+the _rodeo_, an' we havin' been left behind to watch the pasture fence,
+where a bunch of yearlin's was bein' weaned. One mornin' the kid busted
+into the kitchen. 'The mut's got four purps! Come an' look at em; they's
+all de-formed!' ses he, almost breathless with the news."
+
+(Business of surprise and horror on part of listening lady.)
+
+"'De-formed?'" ses I.
+
+"'That's what I sed,' he snaps back at me."
+
+(More business of S. and H. on part of lady; also friend husband.)
+
+"I follers the kid out to the shed back of the house, where the dog had
+a pile of ole saddle blankets for a bed, and sure enough she had four
+white faced brindle purps all right, whinin' an' sniffin' just as purps
+allers does.
+
+"'What's wrong with 'em?' says I, me not seein' anything de-formed about
+'em.
+
+"'Hell' ses he, 'can't you see they's all de-formed?'
+
+"'Search me,' ses I, lookin' 'em all over carefully.
+
+"The kid picked up two of 'em. 'Lookit them tails then.' He turned one
+of 'em around. Now Beauty ain't got no great shakes of a tail herself,
+but what she has is straight. 'By Heck!' ses I, seein' a chanst to have
+some fun with him, 'sure enough, they is sort of de-formed in their
+little ole _colas_. Reckon they's no use botherin' to raise 'em, is
+they--what with their tails all as crooked as a gimlet. Too bad, too
+bad,' ses I, 'fer the missus will be monstrously disapp'inted over it.'
+
+"'They's every dad burned one of 'em got a watch eye too, jist like that
+there ole Pinto hoss I rides.' The kid's sure worried.
+
+"'Wuss an' more of it,' I comes back at him.
+
+"'What we goin' to do with 'em?' droppin' the animiles back into the
+blankets.
+
+"'Nothin', I reckon,' lookin' straight down my nose, 'less'n we drownds
+'em--said job not bein' one I'm actually hankerin' fer.'"
+
+[Illustration: "_The galvanized iron sails of the windmill flashed in
+the sunlight_"]
+
+(Business of fury, anger and indignation, with signs of approaching
+tears on part of listening lady.)
+
+"You blithering old idiot!" I shrieked, "do you mean to say that you
+loaded the kid with that sort of a story till he went off and drowned
+those valuable pups under the mistaken impression that they were
+deformed and therefore worthless?" I glared at him as if to wither his
+old carcass with one look. (More of above mentioned business by
+lady--with real tears.)
+
+"Well"--and the old renegade emitted that infernal chuckle again--"well,
+how should I sense that he didn't savvy that crooked tails and a glass
+eye were sure enough signs of birth an' breedin' with them there Boston
+terriers?" He looked away; we felt sure he dared not face the wrath in
+both our eyes.
+
+I stormed up and down the porch for a few moments, speechless. The lady
+was registering every known phase of indignation. Her voice, however,
+was silent. Evidently there are times in her life when words fail her.
+This was one of them.
+
+"Where's that kid?" I finally demanded. "I want to have a little heart
+to heart talk with that _hombre_! As for you"--and I tried to look the
+indignation I knew the madam felt--"it seems to me your fondness for
+picking loads into idiots green enough to be fooled by such a gabbling
+old ass as you are has gone just about far enough. After I've seen the
+kid, I'll talk to you further."
+
+Old Dad was slowly and carefully reloading his pipe. From his shirt
+pocket he dug a match. With most aggravating deliberation he struck it
+on the door-post against which he leaned, held it over the bowl, gave
+several long pulls at the pipe to assure himself it was well lit before
+he even deigned to raise his keen gray eyes to mine. The madam's face
+was a study in expression. "Where's the kid?" I really thought he had
+not heard my first inquiry as to the whereabouts of that individual.
+
+"Where's he at?" with the grandest look of innocent inquiry on his
+weather beaten face that could possibly be imagined. For mere facial
+expression he should be a star performer in some big movie company.
+
+"Yes!" I snapped out the words as if to annihilate him. "I want to hold
+sweet converse with him, _muy pronto, sabe_?"
+
+"Well, he's _vamosed_--drifted yonderly" and he waved his pipe towards
+the eastern horizon.
+
+"Ahead of the sheriff?" I never did have much faith in the young
+gentleman from Missouri.
+
+"Yep--in a way he was." Once more that devilish chuckle.
+
+I saw the old man evidently had a story concealed about his person and
+that, with his usual contrariness the more we crowded him the longer he
+would be in getting it out of his system. I dropped angrily into the
+porch swing, where I could watch his face, while the madam sat herself
+down on the steps of the porch apparently utterly oblivious of
+everything but the sage-dotted prairie spread out before us. Finally the
+aged provision spoiler began to emit words.
+
+"The last time the outfit shipped steers over at the railroad," he said
+slowly, "the kid he tanked up pretty consid'able till he's a feeling his
+oats, an' imaginin' hisself a reg'lar wild man from Borneo, and
+everything leading up to his gittin' into trouble before he was many
+hours older. Comes trotting down the sidewalk old man Kates, the Justice
+of the Peace who, on account of his gittin' the fees in all cases
+brought up before him, was allers on the lookout for biz. Also he done
+set into a poker game the night before and lose his whole pile, which
+didn't tend to make him view this here world through no very rosy specs.
+The kid comes swaggering along and the two meets up jist in front of the
+'Bucket of Blood' saloon. You know Kates he allers wears a plug hat, one
+of them there old timers of the vintage of '73 or thereabouts, an' the
+kid he bein' a comparative stranger in these parts, and not knowin' who
+the judge was nor havin' seen any such headgear for some time, he ses to
+hisself, 'Right here's where I gits action on that _sombrero grande_,'
+and he manages to bump into the judge in such a way as to knock off the
+tile, and before it hits the ground the kid was filling it so full of
+holes that it looked like some black colander.
+
+"Every one came pouring out of the saloon and nearby stores to see what
+was up, and the judge he takes advantage of the kid's having to stop and
+reload his six pistol, to relieve hisself of some of the most expressive
+and profane language ever heard in the burg before or since, windin' up
+by informin' the gent from ole Missou that he was goin' straight to his
+office and swear out a warrant for him and send him down to Yuma by the
+next train.
+
+"When the boys tells the kid who he's been tamperin' with he gits onto
+his hoss and tears outa town like hell a-beatin' tanbark, he havin' no
+particular likin' for court proceedin's, owing to several little
+happenin's in that line down on the Pecos in Texas. About a week later
+the sheriff he gits a tip that the kid's probably hangin' out at Deafy
+Morris's sheep camp up on Wild Cat, so he saunters up that a-way and
+nabs the young gent as he's a helpin' Deafy fix up his shearin' pens.
+Sheriff he sort of throws a skeer into the kid, tellin' him Kates is
+liable to send him up for ten years for assaultin' the honor and dignity
+of a J. P., but the kid's mighty foxy and also plumb sober by that time,
+and he tells the sheriff he's willing to go back to town and take his
+medicine.
+
+"Next morning Deafy he ses as how he's a-goin' down to town, and the
+sheriff, havin' got track of somebody else he's a wantin' up on the
+mountain, and believin' the kid's story about bein' willing to go to
+town, he deputizes Deafy to take him in and deliver him at the
+'Hoosgow.'[D]
+
+[D] Jusgado--The prisoner's dock in a Spanish criminal court.
+
+"Deafy he tells the sheriff he's not a goin' clean through to town that
+day, but is a-goin' to camp at the Jacob's Well, a place about half way
+down, on the edge of the pines, where he's arranged to meet up with the
+camp rustler of one of his bands of sheep grazin' in that section. Ever
+been at that there Jacob's Well?" And the old man looked at me
+inquiringly. I nodded affirmatively.
+
+The Jacob's Well was located in the center of a very large level mass of
+sandstone covering perhaps three or four acres, with a dense thicket of
+cedar and piñon trees all about it. It was a fairly round hole about
+five feet wide and perhaps ten deep, bored down into the sandstone
+formation either by human agency or some peculiar action of nature. The
+lay of the rocks all about it was such as to form a regular watershed,
+so that the natural drainage from the rain and snow kept it nearly
+filled almost all the year round.
+
+Just what made this well was a moot question in the country. A
+scientific investigator promptly put it down to the action of hard flint
+rocks lying in a small depression and rolled about by the wind until
+they dug a little basin in the rock, then the water collecting in it
+continued the attrition until, finally, after what may have been ages,
+the well was the result. My private opinion was that it was the work of
+prehistoric or even modern Indians who, wishing to secure a supply of
+water at this particular point, possibly for hunting purposes, formed
+the hole by fire. A large fire was built upon the rock, then when at a
+white heat water was thrown upon it, causing the stone to flake and
+crack so it could easily be removed. This was a slow process, of course,
+but having myself once seen a party of Apache squaws by the same
+primitive means remove over half of a huge boulder that lay directly in
+the line of an irrigating ditch they were digging, and which they
+otherwise could not get around, I am convinced the scientific person
+missed the true methods employed to excavate the hole.
+
+However, without regard to its origin, the well was a fine camping
+place, for water was scarce in that region and there was always good
+grass for the horses near it. The old man rambled on.
+
+"Deafy he gits a poor start next mornin' 'count of a pack mule what
+insisted on buckin' the pack off a couple of times and scatterin' the
+load rather promisc'ous-like over the landscape, an' by the time they
+reached the well it was plumb dark. They unsaddles and hobbles their
+hosses out, and then Deafy he sets to work buildin' a fire, tellin' the
+kid to take his saddle rope and the coffee pot and git some water. The
+kid he's never been there afore, but Deafy tells him the well's only
+about a hundred feet from where they unpacked, so he moseys out into the
+dark lookin' for the well, his rope in one hand, the camp coffee pot in
+'tother, the idee bein' to let the pot down into the well with the rope.
+
+"It were sure dark in them trees, and the kid he's a blunderin' and
+stumblin' along, a-cursin' the world by sections, when all to once he
+stepped off into fresh air, and the next thing he knows he's a standin'
+at the bottom of the well in about four or five feet of ice-cold water,
+and him a-still hangin' onto the rope and pot with a death grip. Took
+him about five minutes to git his breath and realize he done found the
+well all rightee, and then he sets up a squall like a trapped wildcat.
+He ain't forgot, neither, that Deafy ain't likely to hear him, the ole
+man bein' deafer than a rock; so after hollerin' a while and gittin' no
+results he stops it and begins cussin' jist to relieve his mind and help
+keep him from shakin' all his teeth outen his head account o' shiverin'
+so blamed hard.
+
+"Up on top Deafy he's busy startin' a fire and openin' up the packs
+gittin' ready to cook supper. The kid not bein' back with the water yit,
+and he bein' obliged to have water fer bread makin' purposes, Deafy
+finally decides the kid's gone and got hisself lost out there in the
+dark, and so he takes a _pasear_ out that a-way huntin' fer him. The
+ole man's a hollerin' and a trompin' through the cedars an' rocks,
+thinkin' more how much his wool's a-goin' to fetch than anything else,
+when he thinks he hears someone a-callin'. He turns to listen, gits a
+little more sound in his ears, takes a step or two in its direction,
+and, kerslop, he's into that there well hole, square on top of the young
+gent from 'ole Missou'. Say, the things them two fellers sed to each
+other, an' both at the same time, most cracked the walls of the hole."
+
+Dad wiped his eyes with the heel of his fat hand.
+
+"Talk about your Kilkenny cats," he continued, "they wan't in it with
+them two pore devils down in that cold water. Finally, they both run out
+of mouth ammunition an' set to work to figger out how they was goin' to
+git outen the well. It was too wide to climb out of by puttin' a foot on
+each side and coonin' up the walls like a straddle bug, an' it was
+mostly too deep for either of 'em to reach the top with their hands. So
+they mighty soon agrees between 'em that there's but one way to git out,
+an' that's fer one of 'em to stand on 'tother's shoulder so's to git a
+grip on the edge, pull hisself out, an' then help his shiverin', shakin'
+_amigo_ what's down in the hole onto terry firmy. Bein' a foot taller
+than Deafy, Bob agrees that the old man can climb onto his shoulders an'
+git out first. But Deafy, he's heavy on his feet, an' bein' sixty years
+old an' none too spry, he cain't seem to make the riffle to git onto the
+kid's back, so he finally gives it up, an' lets the kid have a try at
+it. The kid he's soon on Deafy's shoulders, an' one jump an' he's on
+top.
+
+"Meantime the kid he's been doin' some powerful hard thinkin'. He ain't
+hankerin' after a close-up view of that there indignant judge down in
+town. The sheep man he's got a monstrous fine hoss, a new Heiser saddle,
+an' a jim dandy pack mule and outfit, while his own hoss an' saddle
+ain't nothin' much to brag on. He knows the sheep man's dead safe where
+he's at till some one comes to help him out, which will be when his camp
+rustler arrives on the scene, which may be in an hour an' may be in ten
+minutes. Meantime, bein' a cow-puncher bred and born on the Pecos, he
+ain't lovin' a sheep person any too well, so he makes up his mind he
+jist as well die for an 'ole sheep as a lamb, and within ten minutes
+he's hittin' the trail for New Mexico a straddle of Deafy's hoss an'
+saddle, leadin' his pack mule, with a bully good pack rig onto his back.
+
+"Also the pore old feller down in the well is a holdin' up his hands
+expectin' every minute the kid will reach down an' help him out;
+incidentally, as far as his chatterin' teeth will let him, doin' some
+mighty fancy cussin' along broad an' liberal lines."
+
+Dad stopped a moment to light his pipe. My curiosity could wait no
+longer.
+
+"What happened to Deafy and how did he get out?" burst from my eager
+lips.
+
+Once again that chuckle. "Seems he tole the camp rustler to meet him
+there that night, but the _paisano_ was late gittin' his sheep bedded
+down on account of a bear skeerin' of 'em just about sundown, so he
+didn't git round till the kid had done been gone for two hours. Even
+then he might not 'a' found him, for the fire was all out an' it was too
+dark to see much, but the ole man he had his six shooter with him when
+he started in to bathe, also about forty beans in his catridge belt.
+Knowin' mighty well his only hope was in drawin' some one's attention
+with his shootin', he was mighty economical with his beans, only
+shootin' about onc't every five minutes. The herder he hears him, runs
+the sound down, an' finds his ole boss a soakin' in the well, him bein'
+jist about ready to cash in his chips, he's that numbed and chilled."
+
+"And the kid?" gasped the lady listener.
+
+"Oh, he done got clean away over the line into New Mexico and they ain't
+never got no track of him to this very yit."
+
+We heard a raucous squeak from the corral back of the house, indicating
+the opening of one of the heavy pole gates. Evidently the boys had come
+in. I was just rising from my seat in the swing, when from around the
+corner of the house dashed a brindle Boston terrier, followed by four
+crazy pups about two months old. The mother barked a joyous welcome to
+the madam, to whom she flew and in whose arms she found a warm
+reception. I turned to the cook. That same aggravating chuckle again.
+
+"But you told us they were drowned" was the only thing the amazed and
+perplexed woman could find words to utter.
+
+The old reprobate was gazing into the bowl of his pipe as if in its
+depths he had found something extremely interesting. I began to see a
+light.
+
+"You miserable old hot air artist!" I said. "You picked a load into us
+the very first hour after we landed on the ranch, didn't you? You've
+been humbugging us all this time, haven't you?" I tried hard to be
+fiercely indignant.
+
+"You fooled your own selves," he snickered, "fer I never tole you them
+there pups was drownded; you jist nachelly jumped at it of your own
+accord, an' seein' as how you'd find it out anyhow when the boys came
+in, I jist let it run along."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+LOST IN THE PETRIFIED FOREST
+
+By permission _Overland Monthly_, San Francisco, Calif.
+
+
+When the stockholders of the "Lazy H" outfit met annually in solemn
+conclave to receive the report of their range manager and find out how
+much more the expenses for the year had been than the receipts, they
+called it the "Montezuma Cattle Company," but as their brand was an H
+lying down on the sides of their cattle thus, ([symbol: H]) everyone on
+the range called it the "Lazy H" outfit.
+
+We were in the Lazy H winter horse camp looking after a hundred and
+seventy-five cow-ponies that had seen a hard summer's work, and the job
+was a snap. Two men rode out every morning and saw that none of the
+animals strayed too far, bringing them all in for water down the trail
+in the cañon, salting them once a week, and keeping a sharp lookout for
+horse thieves, both white and Indian.
+
+The camp was a dugout in the side of a hill, part logs, part hill, with
+a dirt roof a foot thick. A grand fireplace in one end served alike for
+heating and cooking purposes, and at night with a fire of pine knots you
+could lie in the "double decker" bunks and read as if the place was
+lighted with an arc lamp. There was a heavy door in the end, while half
+a dozen loopholes cut in the logs served for windows and for defense if
+necessary.
+
+Two of the boys were playing a solemn game of "seven-up" to decide which
+of them should build the fire in the morning, and the balance were
+smoking or reading some two-weeks-old newspapers that had come out from
+town with the last load of grub.
+
+Outside the wind was whistling around the corner, and the coyotes,
+attracted by the scent of a freshly killed yearling hanging in a
+cedar near the dugout, were howling and shrieking like a lot of
+school-children at play.
+
+"Just about such a night outside as the night old man Hart's wife and
+kids got lost two years ago," remarked Peg Leg Russel, who was busy with
+leather strings and an awl plaiting a fancy quirt.
+
+"Didn't you help hunt for 'em?" queried a voice from one of the bunks.
+
+"Sure thing I did," answered the quirt maker, "and, what's more," he
+continued, "I hope I never get another such job as long as I live."
+
+"Tell us about it Peg Leg. You know I was over in Kansas looking after a
+bunch of company steers that fall and never did get the straight of it."
+The speaker turned from his game of solitaire toward the one-legged
+cow-puncher. With his knife Russel clipped the end of a leather string
+from the finished "Turk's head," laid the quirt on the floor and rolled
+it back and forth under the sole of his boot to give it the proper "set"
+and finish, finally hanging it on the wall. Then he filled and lighted
+his pipe, and after a few preliminary puffs, began his story.
+
+[Illustration: "_We was camped over in the petrified forest_"]
+
+"Well, boys, that was one of the toughest nights I've seen in Arizony.
+We was camped up near the 'Peterified' Forest on our way back to the
+headquarter ranch. We'd been down to the railroad with a bunch of
+steers, and expected to bust the outfit up for the winter when we got
+back to the ranch. It were late in November, an' you all know how
+everlastin' cold it gits 'long in November an' December.
+
+"Well, 'long comes one of them tearin' howlin' sandstorms 'bout two
+o'clock in the afternoon, and the wagon boss camped us under the lee of
+a hill and wouldn't go any furder. And 'twas well he did, too, fer the
+wind blowed a gale, snow begin to fall, and ag'in sunset it was as
+ornery a piece of weather as I ever seen anywheres. You all know wood's
+pow'ful skeerce up thar, too, and all the cook had was sage brush an'
+'chips.'
+
+"We put in a mis'able night. The wind blowed every way, an' drifted sand
+an' snow into our beds in spite of all a feller could do. Me and Sandy,
+the horse-wrangler, slep' together, an' Sandy he lowed, he did, that the
+Lord mus' have it in fer us pore ignorant cow-punchers that night,
+shore. About daylight I heard a shot, then another, an' another.
+Everybody 'most in camp waked up, an' Wilson, the wagon boss, he takes
+his six-shooter an' fires a few shots to answer 'em.
+
+"We all speculated as to what it meant at such a time, an' Wilson he
+says he'd bet a yearlin' ag'in a sack of terbaccer that it were some
+derned tenderfoot bug-hunter who'd been out to the Petrified Forest an'
+gone an' lost hisself, an' now was a bellerin' around like a dogie
+calf. The cook he lowed 'twan't no bug-hunter, 'cause that was the
+crack of a forty-five, an' them bug-hunter fellers ginerally packed a
+little short twenty-two to stand off the Injuns, an' we all laughed at
+this, fer the night we got the steers shipped the cook went up town an'
+got full as a goat, an' tried to run a 'sandy' over a meek-looking
+tenderfoot, who wan't a harmin' nobody; but he wan't near so meek as he
+looked, an' fust thing the _cocinero_ knowed he war a gazin' in to one
+of them same little twenty-twos, an' I'm blessed if the stranger didn't
+take his forty-five away from him an' turned him over to the sheriff to
+cool off--but I guess you all know about that.
+
+"We could soon hear the 'chug chug' of a pony's feet, an' then a voice a
+hollerin'. We all gave a yell, and in a few minutes a man named Hart
+rode into camp. We all knowed him. He was a sheep man with a ranch over
+on the 'tother side of the Petrified Forest. He was nearly froze an'
+half crazy with excitment, an' 'twas some minutes afore we could git him
+to tell what was a hurtin' him.
+
+"'Boys,' he says, 'for God's sake git up an' help me find my wife an'
+chillun.'
+
+"An' then he told us he had been away from his ranch all the day before,
+at one of his sheep camps over on the Milky Holler. When he left in the
+mornin' his wife tole him she'd hitch up the hosses to the buckboard
+after dinner an' take the kids an' drive down to the railroad station
+an' git the mail, an' git back in time for supper. You know it's 'bout
+eight miles down to the station at Carrizo.
+
+"Comin' home at night in the wust of the storm, Hart had found the shack
+empty, his wife not home yit an' the hosses gone. Thinkin' that the
+storm had kept 'em, he waited an hour or two, when he got so blamed
+oneasy he couldn't wait no longer, but saddled up his hoss an' drug it
+for the station. When he got there they told him his wife had left 'bout
+an hour by sun, an' they hadn't seen nothin' of her sence, although they
+had begged her not to start back, an' the wind a-blowin' like it was.
+'Twas then about as dark as the inside of a cow, and leavin' the men at
+the station to foller him, Hart struck out across the prairie, ridin' in
+big circles, and tryin', but without no luck, to cut some 'sign' of the
+buckboard and hosses. You know, fellers, how them sandy mesas are about
+there, and, between the driftin' sand and the snow, every mark had been
+wiped out slick and clean. Then he pulled his freight for the ranch,
+thinkin' mebbeso she'd got back while he were away; but nary a sign of
+them was there about the place. He struck out agin, makin' big circles,
+and firin' his six-shooter and hollerin' like an Apache Injin, all the
+time a-listenin' an' a-prayin' fer some answer. Then he heerd our shots
+and thought sure he'd found her, fer she always carried a gun when she
+went out alone, and he jist hit the high places till he ran onto our
+camp and he war sure disappointed when he seen us an' not her.
+
+"'Tain't no use for to tell you that we got a move onto ourselves.
+You've all seen the Cimarron Kid git a move on an' tear round and just
+bust hisself to get out to the herd in the mornin' to relieve the last
+guard, along in the fall when the boss was pickin' out men for the
+winter work. Well, that was the way we all tore round, an' as everybody
+kep' up a night hoss (you all know what a crank that feller Wilson was
+'bout night hosses; he'd make every man keep one up if he had the whole
+cavyyard in a ten-acre field), we soon had a cup of coffee into us an'
+was ready to ride slantin'. Pore Hart was so nigh crazy that he couldn't
+say nothin', an' 'twas hard to see a big, strong feller as he was all
+broke up like.
+
+"By this time 'twas gettin' daylight in the east an' we struck out,
+scatterin' every way, but keepin' in sight an' hearin' of each other.
+'Bout two miles from camp I ran slap dab onto the buckboard, with one of
+the hosses tied up to the wheel, an' 'tother gone. The harness of the
+other hoss laid on the ground, an' from the sign, she had evidently
+unharnessed the gentlest hoss of the two, an' got on him, with the kids,
+an' tried to ride him bareback. I fired a couple of shots, which brought
+some of the other boys to me, an' we follered up the trail, step by
+step, 'cause 'twas a hard trail to pick out, owin', as I said, to the
+sand an' snow.
+
+"Pretty soon we come to where she had got off the hoss an' led him for a
+ways; then we found the tracks of the kids; an' we judged they'd all got
+so cold they had to walk to git warm; an' all that time my fingers an'
+ears was tinglin' an achin', they was so cold, an' what was them pore
+kids an' that little woman goin' to do, when a big, stout puncher like
+me was shiverin' an' shakin' like a old cow under a cedar in a norther?
+
+"Bimeby we struck the hoss standin' there all humped up with the cold,
+the reins hooked over a little sage bush. I sent one of the boys back
+with the hoss, an' tole him to hitch up to the buckboard an' foller on,
+fer I knowed shore we'd need it to put their pore frozen bodies on when
+we found 'em.
+
+"Here we saw signs where she'd tried to build a fire, but, Lord
+A'mighty, you know how hard it is to find anything to burn round that
+there Petrified Forest country, an' she only had three or four matches,
+an' nothin' to make a fire catch with. Then she started on ag'in, an' I
+judged she'd got a star to go by, 'cause she kep' almost straight north
+to'ds the railroad. By the trail, she was a-carryin' the youngest kid, a
+boy 'bout two years old, an' leadin' the other, which was a little gal
+'bout five.
+
+"Right here, fellers, she showed she was fit to be the wife of a man
+livin' in such a country. She knowed mighty well that she'd be follered,
+an' that her trail would be hard to find, so what does she do but tear
+pieces out of the gingham skirt she had on, an' hang 'em along on a sage
+brush here, an' a Spanish bayonet there, so's we could foller faster.
+When we struck this sign an' seed what sh'd done, one of the boys says,
+says he, 'Fellers, ain't she a trump, an' no mistake?' An' so she shore
+was.
+
+"We jist turned our hosses loose along here, an' one of us would lope
+ahead an' cut for sign, an' as soon as he found it, another would cut in
+ahead of him, an' in that way we trailed her up, right peart. We soon
+ran the trail down to the edge of the big mesa back of the Carrizo
+station.
+
+"If you remember, it's quite a cliff there, mebbeso two hundred feet
+down; sort of in steps, from two to six feet high. We seen where she
+jumped over the fust ledge an' helped the young ones down. She worked
+her way down the rocky cliff that way, step by step, an' it must 'a'
+been a job, too, in the dark, an' as cold as she was. Two of us went on
+down the cliff, an' I sent the other boys around with the hosses, to a
+break, where there was a good trail.
+
+"Right here I began to think that p'raps she's been saved, after all.
+'Twas only a mile from the foot of the mesa to the station at Carrizo,
+an' in plain sight from where we were.
+
+"Me an' Little Bob, who was with me, was so sure that she was all right
+that we quit follerin' the trail an' jist got down the cliff anywhere we
+could. When we got to the bottom an' clear of the rocks, we set out to
+cut for her trail ag'in, when Little Bob says, says he, 'There she is,
+Jack.'
+
+"Lord, how my heart jumped into my mouth. Seemed as if I could most
+taste it. I looks where Bob was a-p'intin', and shore enough, there she
+were a-sittin' on a rock with the little boy in her lap, an' the little
+girl a-leanin' up ag'in her an' a-lookin' into her face.
+
+"We both gave a yell an' started to'ds her, but she never paid no
+'tention to us, which seemed to me mighty queer like. But we were a
+little to one side of her, an' I thought mebbe she were so tired she
+didn't notice us. Bob he got up to her fust, an' walked up an' put his
+hand on her shoulder to shake her, but, fellers, you all know how 'twas,
+the pore little woman an' the two young ones were dead.
+
+"Little Bob was so skeert that he couldn't do nothin', but I fired all
+the shots in my six-shooter, an' the balance of the outfit soon came up
+to us.
+
+"Wilson he had a little more savvy than the rest of us, an' rode back
+an' met pore Hart, who had got off to one side, an' tells him sort o'
+kindly like, what we'd found; an' I reckon that Jim never had no harder
+job in all his life.
+
+"Hart says, says he, 'Jim, old man, you take 'em inter town as tenderly
+as you kin, an' make all the arrangements for the funeral, an' I'll
+follow you in tonight.'
+
+"'Course Jim swore we'd all do everything we could, an' Hart rode off
+to'ds his ranch without comin' nigh the place where his little family
+was a restin' so peaceful an' quiet.
+
+"Say, fellers, that was the pitifullest sight I ever seed, an' I've seed
+some sad work in the days when old Geronimo an' his murderin' gang of
+government pets used to range all over the country.
+
+"'Twas easy enuff to read the whole thing now. She'd come to the edge of
+the mesa an' seen the lights in the station house, for they get up 'bout
+four o'clock every mornin' to get breakfast for the section men.
+Climbin' down the cliff had used her up, an' knowin' she was so clost to
+help, she had set down on a big flat rock at the bottom to rest a minute
+before starting to walk the mile from the foot of the mesa to the
+station. To set down, as cold and tired as she was, meant sleep, an' to
+sleep was shore death that night, an' she went to sleep an' never woke
+up no more.
+
+"The little boy was cuddled up ag'in her under her shawl, with the
+peacefullest look on his little face you ever see, an' the little girl
+was a-leanin' on her lap an' a-lookin' up into her face, with the big
+tears frozen on her cheeks, an' so natural that it was hard to believe
+she was dead.
+
+"One of the boys went over to the station an' got two wagon sheets and
+some blankets, an' when the buckboard came we rolled 'em up as carefully
+an' softly as we could. They was so stiff we had to leave the little
+feller where he was, but the girl we rolled up separate.
+
+"Now, say, boys, that was a hard thing to do, for a bunch of rough
+cow-punchers, if you hear me. Hookey Jim he'd been through a yellow
+fever year down in Memphis once, an' he was more used to such things, so
+he sort of bossed the job.
+
+"I ain't ashamed to say I bawled like a baby, fellers. Mrs. Hart was
+awful good to us boys, even if her husband was a sheep man. No puncher
+ever went there without gettin' a good square meal, no matter when it
+was; an' when Curly Joe got sick over at the 'Rail N' ranch, she jist
+made the boys fetch him over to her place, an' she nussed him like his
+own mammy would have done.
+
+"After we got 'em packed on the buckboard, Wilson sent the rest of the
+outfit back to camp, an' him an' me rode on into town, leavin' Shorty
+French to drive the team in. We met everybody in town out on the road to
+hunt for Mrs. Hart, for the word had got round that she had got lost;
+an' everyone that could leave had turned out on the search.
+
+"'Twas a sorrowful place that day, an' the next. Everybody in town knew
+an' loved the little woman, an' her awful death made it seem more
+pitiful an' sad. They made one coffin an' put her an' the two chillun
+into it, one on each arm, an' they looked so sweet an' peaceful, like
+they was only asleep--an', anyway, that's what he read from the book at
+the grave--that they was only asleep.
+
+"You fellers all know how everybody in town was at the funeral, an' how
+one of the men in town had to say a little prayer at the grave, 'cause
+there wasn't no parson, they all bein' away off in Afriky an' Chiney
+a-prayin' an' a-singin' with niggers an' Chinees, an' not havin' no time
+to tend to their own kind of people to home, who p'raps needed prayin'
+for jist as much as the heathen in Chiney.
+
+"Then two sweet little girls sung a hymn 'bout 'Nearer my God to Thee,'
+an' when they got to the second verse everybody was a-cryin' an' the
+little girls jist busted out too, an' couldn't finish the song for a
+long time.
+
+"An', boys, that's about all there is to tell."
+
+I glanced around the dugout. The fire had burned low and I guess the
+most of them were glad; for, in the uncertain light, I could see
+moisture on more than one sunburned cowboy cheek, and my own eyes were,
+as one of them quaintly put it, "jist a-spillin' clean over with tears."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CAMEL HUNTIN'
+
+By permission _The Breeder's Gazette_, Chicago, Ill.
+
+
+"Did any of yez ever go camel huntin'?" asked the cook, who had been
+listening to some tales of bear and lion hunting that had been going the
+rounds of the men about the chuck wagon.
+
+"Camel hunting?" cried the horse-wrangler, a look of astonishment on his
+face. "What on earth do you mean by camel hunting? We ain't none of us
+ever been to Afriky."
+
+"Camel huntin' is jest what I said," replied the knight of the dish-rag,
+flourishing that useful article in the air as he mopped off the lid of
+the chuck box.
+
+"Do you mean sure enough camels, camels with humps on 'em like what we
+seen at the circus in Albuquerque las' fall?" queried another doubting
+one.
+
+"Faith an' I do that," answered the cook; "an' what's more, I didn't
+have to go to no Afriky to hunt 'em neither."
+
+"Whar did ye find any camels hereabouts, 'ceptin in a circus?" asked
+"Tex," an old-time puncher who had followed the chuck wagon for thirty
+years.
+
+"Right here in Arizony, me lads," said the cook, with an affirmative nod
+of his red head.
+
+"Gee!" and the wagon boss looked incredulous. "Camels in Arizony! Who
+ever heard tell of any of them critters down this-a-way?"
+
+Pat by this time had finished his after-dinner work, and while the team
+horses were eating their grain, he sat down to peel a panful of potatoes
+in readiness for the evening meal.
+
+"Tell us about them there camels, Pat," begged one of the boys.
+
+"Sure," with a grin, "I don't mind givin' yez a little bit of
+enlightenment on the subject of camels, seein' as none of yez ever heern
+tell of thim before now. When I first came to Arizony, ye know I was a
+sojer in the regular army, in the Sixth Cavalry, the gallopin' Sixth,
+they called it in them days."
+
+"Aw, give us a rest, Pat, about your army days, an' tell us about them
+camels," for the Galloping Sixth and its adventures was an old story to
+the boys.
+
+"Well," he resumed, "we was scoutin' down the Santy Cruz valley, west of
+Too-sawn, a lookin' for old Geronimo and his murderin' gang. One night
+we was camped in a little openin' in the mesquites, wid guards out on
+all sides ag'in a surprise, when somethin' stampeded every hoss in the
+herd an' left us plumb afoot, exceptin' them the guards was a-ridin'.
+Next morning when the captain asked the sargint of the guard what made
+'em stampede, he sort of grinned an' looked sheepish like.
+
+"'Captain,' ses he, 'ye'll not be after thinkin' me a dirty liar, but,
+sor, by the blissid Saint Patrick I'd be willin' to swear that the
+animiles that set them there crazy hosses off like a bunch of skeered
+sheep were nothin' less nor camels--camels, sor, with two humps an' long
+necks on 'em; the same as I be seein' in the maynageries whin I were a
+lad.'
+
+"'Camels, sargint?' sez the captain, lookin' sort o' puzzled like. 'Do
+ye surely mean what ye be a-sayin'?'
+
+"'That I do, sor,' sez the sargint, 'an' the men on guard with me will
+bear me out--at least them that glimpsed them.'
+
+"Then the captain he sort of grins an' sez, 'That's all right, sargint;
+I'd plumb forgot there used to be a lot of camels herabouts on these
+deserts, an' 'twas probably some of thim.'
+
+"Then the captain, he bein' a fine old sojer man, with no frills or
+grand airs with the men when out on a scout, tells the sargint that
+before the war Jeff Davis (that same Jeff, by the way, what was
+Prisident of the Confideracy, he bein' then Secretary of War) gits a
+fancy that camels was the very trick for usin' out West, for packin'
+stuff for the troops. So old Jeff he gets Uncle Sam to send 'way off to
+Afriky an' import a lot of thim an' sint them out to Texas an' Arizony
+on the deserts.
+
+"But the packers couldn't get used to them, an' besides, they stampeded
+ev'ry horse an' mule in the entire southwest with their queer ways an'
+ungainly looks. So one day the quartermaster at Yuma he turns out a lot
+of thim with a 'Good-bye to yez, an' God bless yez, an' here's hopin' we
+niver meet ag'in,' slappin' the nearest one with a halter shank to sort
+of hasten him on his way. They took to the deserts like a duck to water,
+an' the captain said 'twas doubtless one of thim that the sargint
+seed."
+
+"How about huntin' of 'em, Pat?" asked an interested listener. "You sure
+didn't stop to hunt camels then, did you?"
+
+"Hunt camels thin!" snorted the cook with disgust. "By the powers 'twas
+precious little opportunity we had for camel huntin' thim days, with old
+Geronimo onto his job ev'ry day from sun-up to dark. No, my son, 'twas
+ten years or more later whin I went camel huntin'. I was workin' for the
+M. C. outfit, up to Williams, an' they had a contract to deliver some
+beef steers to the Injun agent at the Moharvey reservation down below
+the Needles on the Big Colorado. We'd had an elegant summer for rain,
+an' the desert was covered with grass an' water. So the old man decides
+to trail them across the country, an' we takes the herd an' struck off
+down the mountain towards the head of the big Chino Valley an' then on
+west till we struck the Bill William's fork of the Big Colorado down
+which we was to drift till we reached the main river.
+
+"We started with a young moon, an' by the time we hit the Bill William's
+fork the job of night herding was a plumb picnic, so far as the steers
+went. We had them all as do-cile as a bunch of trained pigs; an' what
+with the grand feed to handle them on we'd never yet lost a single one
+of them nor had a stampoodle of any kind.
+
+"We bedded them oxen down one night in a great open valley after an easy
+day's drive. There was only five of us, four with the steers, an' me,
+cook an' horse-wrangler, we havin' everything on four pack mules, which
+I drove with the remuda.
+
+"That night Billy St. Joe asked me if I wouldn't take his guard for
+him, he bein' about sick all day with nuralgy. So when I was called
+along about midnight to spoon them for two hours I jumps an' was soon
+joggin' around the bunch, which was all a-lyin' down as decent as one
+could wish fer. 'Twere hard to keep awake, an' I reckon I must 'a' been
+a-noddin' in the saddle, for, the first thing I knowed there was a snort
+an' a cracklin' of horns an' hocks, an' away went me steers like the
+very old divil himself was behind them.
+
+"I pulled meself together, slapped old Shoestring down the hind leg with
+me quirt, an' put spurs after them, hopin' to turn them. Old Shoestring
+snorted an' kept them sharp ears of his workin' an' looking' back over
+his shoulder like, as if he was a-feered too. I hadn't been sidin' them
+fer more than a hundred yards when, hearin' a snortin' an' a gruntin'
+behind me, I takes a look meself over me shoulder, an' such a sight as
+me eyes did get.
+
+"'Twas sure no wonder them steers was a-runnin away, fer right behind us
+was three great figures with long necks an' humps on their backs like
+two water kegs a-settin' up there. They wasn't gallopin', nayther was
+they trottin', but jist a-shufflin' along over the ground like ghosties,
+an' every once in a little while one of them gives a grunt an' a gurgle
+which sent them oxen wild with terror. Hangin' to these creatures was
+long strings of somethin' more like a lot of ragged clothes than
+anything else, an' what with the flutterin' an' wavin' they resembled a
+lot of animated scarecrows.
+
+"When we first set out on our race with thim ugly divils a-follerin' of
+us, the three night horses tied up in camp, takin' wan look an' sniff
+of them teeterin' figgers a-puffin' an' a-gruntin' in our rear, jist
+quit the flats wid the rest of the live stock, an' as we tore along we
+picked up every mother's son of the other horses, them all bein'
+foot-loose, an' a-hangin' round with the pack mules.
+
+"By the blissed saints, but me an' that Shoestring horse was havin' a
+lovely ole time of it all by ourselves, for, with the night horses gone,
+thim lads back in camp had nothin' to do but set there an' lave it to me
+to hang an' rattle with them. Thim shufflin' monsters behind didn't seem
+to want to git past us, but jist kep' at the heels of the drags, an'
+it's mesilf's a-tellin' ye that every toime I'd take wan hasty glimpse
+of thim 'twould be the cold chills I'd be after havin', an' me a-cursin'
+the night I ever took Billy St. Joe's guard fer him.
+
+"What wid the fear in his heart, an' good work wid me 'pet makers', I
+makes out to git old Shoestring up clost to the leaders. I'd also
+managed to get me slicker untied from the back of me saddle an' was
+wavin' it in their faces, hopin' by thim means to git the bunch turned
+an' millin', an' maybe thim lost sowls that was a-follerin' us wud leave
+us in peace an' quiet.
+
+"Thim three saddle horses a-runnin' an' rompin' an' snortin' in the
+midst of the steers wasn't helpin' matters, ayther. Iv'ry toime wan of
+the stake ropes what was a-draggin' after thim struck the hocks of a
+steer he'd give a wild beller of fright, and thin the entire bunch wud
+put on a few extra bursts of speed, an' thim preambulatin' scarecrows
+behind wud do a little more gruntin' an' gurglin' an' make matters all
+the worse.
+
+"'Bout this time old Shoestring, bein' occupied principally wid lookin'
+over his shoulder an' takin' stock of those wanderin' hoboes behind,
+failed to notice a big ole badger hole like an open coal hole in a city
+sidewalk, an' steps wan of his front legs square into it an' turns a
+hand-spring, landin' in a bunch of _cholla_ cactus, wid me under him.
+Whin I come to my sinsis, which was some minutes after, I finds meself
+afoot on the desert an' it just a-gittin' gray in the east.
+
+"Barrin' a big gash across me cheek, where I digs me face into the
+ground as me old Shoestring lit, I was none the worse for the fall,
+'ceptin' of coorse a large an' illigant assortment of _cholla_ barbs in
+me anatemy. Comes daylight I limps back to camp, for I were in no fix
+for ridin' till I'd lain fer two mortal hours flat on me stummick on a
+saddle blanket--an' me as naked as a Yuma Indian kid in July--whilst
+Billy St. Joe done a grand job of pullin' them divilish cactus barbs
+from various an' prominent portions of me system. Thim infernal things
+stuck out of me carcas till, as one of the byes remarked, 'I was more
+porcupine than human.'
+
+"'What skeered your cows, Pat?' says Jim, the boss, as I come cripplin'
+into camp. 'Sure an' if I knowed I'd tell ye,' sez I. They was all
+a-lyin' that ca'm an' peaceful as wan could well wish fer. Thin up they
+hops an' immigrates. Me an' old Shoestring we busted out after 'em, an'
+as we tore along I glimpsed a bunch of hairy, wobbly-legged monsters
+a-follerin' us, a-groanin' an' a-gurglin' like a lot of hobgoblins from
+hell,' sez I.
+
+"'Git out' sez Jim; ''twas aslape ye were, ye an' old Shoestring both,
+an' he had a bad dream an' bucked ye off into a cholla'.
+
+"'Not on yer life,' sez I, mad enough to fight a grizzly between the
+grin on his face an' the stingin' of the cactus barbs in me back.
+
+"The boys managed to get the horses rounded up, an' all the steers
+together by noon, but too late to move camp that day. That afternoon Jim
+sez, 'Git yer gun, Pat, an' come wid me.' So I saddles up me pony, slips
+me Winchester into me scabbard, an' him an' me rides off from camp.
+
+"'What's up?' sez I.
+
+"'Nothin', sez he, 'only over here a ways I struck the curiousest tracks
+I ever seen in all me life; an' me a-knowin' the sign of every critter
+that ever walks on legs in this here country.' We soon struck the trail
+Jim had seen an' it sure were a new one on both of us. So we follows it
+up, feelin' it was our juty, as law-abidin' citizens, to run down an'
+kill all such disorderly, outlandish creatures that was a-runnin' at
+large. 'Twan't long before we comes to a ridge a-lookin' out over a
+little valley, an' leadin' our horses we footed it fer the top of the
+ridge, an' peekin' over we seed down in the middle of the flat three
+hungry lookin' yaller divils. ''Tis me wanderin' rag-bags what skeered
+the herd last night,' sez I, triumphant like--after Jim accusin' me of
+goin' to sleep on guard an' dreamin' things.
+
+"'I reckon you're right,' sez Jim, with a grin on his mug.
+
+"They was a dirty yaller color, an' what wid the bare spots all over
+thim, like sheep wid the scab, Jim sez they looked more like a lot of
+mangy coyotes than anythin' he iver seen in all his life. ''Twas sure no
+fault wid thim steers that they all gits up an' stampoodles whin such a
+bad-smellin', evil-lookin' lot of monsters come a-driftin' down on top
+of them,' sez he.
+
+"'Twere not so hard to git closer to thim, an' whin we finally gits as
+near as we thought we could, an' not skeer thim, we each picks out wan
+an' let him have it where we believed it would do the most good. Mine
+never ran ten feet; Jim's fell down within a quarter; the third wan
+struck off down the valley at a great rate, an' Jim, bein' hell-bent fer
+ropin' things, hollered, 'Le's rope it, le's rope it!' an' jabbed his
+spurs into his pony an' tore off, takin' down his rope an' makin a loop
+as he wint.
+
+"'Rope him if ye will,' sez I, lammin' me old digger wid me quirt, 'but
+it's meself that ropes no outlandish heathin thing lookin' more like it
+come out of old Noah's ark than a daycent, respectable range critter'.
+But I follered along as fast as I could git me pony to move, him bein'
+none too anxious to git close to the slobberin' cross between a
+step-ladder an' a hayrack, that was lumberin' along ahead of us.
+
+"Jim's pony was a darlin' to run, an' as he was a-gittin' closer for a
+throw I sez to meself, 'If iver that crazy lad ahead puts his line on to
+that there travelin' maynagerie he's a-follerin' he's a-goin' to need
+help to turn it loose, sure.' So I waits fer the outcome, feelin'
+certain I'd be needed before long.
+
+"Bimeby Jim he gits a good chanst fer a throw an' drops his line over
+the long, ungainly head in front of him; but the rope, instid of
+grippin' the critter's throat, slipped back an' drew up ag'in its
+breast, an' whin Jim tried to check him up the pony couldn't hold him.
+Whin the hard jerk come Jim's flank cinch busted, the pony begins to
+pitch, an' between the pitchin' an' the saddle drawin' up on the pony's
+neck, poor Jim lost out an' went up into the air like a shootin' star,
+landin' on his head in a pile of rocks. The saddle stripped over the
+pony's head, an' away went the whole outfit, through brush, over rocks,
+across washes, like hell a-beatin' tanbark. The rope bein' tied hard an'
+fast to the horn, Jim's new $50 saddle wint danglin' along behind, like
+a tin can tied to a dog's tail. When Jim come to, a few minutes later
+on, he wiped his hand across his face, looked at the blood on it, an'
+sez to me, sort of foolish like, 'What struck me, Pat?'
+
+"'I reckon 'twas wan of Jeff Davis's camels,' sez I."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE TRINIDAD KID
+
+
+    There's a girl I'd love to see,
+    She's a waiting there for me,
+    'Way down yonder in the southwest land.
+
+    She has eyes of dreamy blue,
+    And her heart is always true,
+    'Way down yonder on the Rio Grande.
+
+The singer was riding slowly around a herd of steers "bedded down" on an
+open flat about a quarter of a mile from the western, or Mexican bank of
+the river of which he sang.
+
+It was the first guard, from eight to ten, and the steers, having had a
+fine day's grazing, were all lying down chewing their cuds as
+comfortably as a bunch of milk cows in a dairy barn.
+
+Across the herd his "side partner" on the guard was riding toward him,
+so that twice in each circle of the herd they met for an instant and
+then each jogged on into the darkness.
+
+As they met this time the singer finished the verse, and his pony
+acknowledged the slight shifting of his rider's body in the saddle by
+coming to a stop.
+
+"Gimme a match," demanded the singer as he felt in his vest pocket for
+the "makings." "Here 'tis," replied the other, "and I reckon I'll just
+build a smoke myself."
+
+"Let's jog along together," suggested the second man, "and you sing, for
+if we stand here and strike a match this herd of oxen will just about
+get up and quit the flats."
+
+Down along the river bank the dim spark of the cook's fire showed where
+the outfit was camped, while a short distance beyond it the Rio Grande
+at full flood roared like a sullen yellow monster.
+
+The fringe of cottonwoods and _Tornillos_ along its bank were outlined
+against the background of the sky like shadow pictures, while an
+occasional dull crash told of the loss of another slice of the Republic
+of Mexico where, undermined by the swift flood, a piece of the bank had
+dropped into the river and was on its way to the gulf.
+
+"Do you reckon we'll have much trouble swimmin' these steers tomorrow?"
+asked the singer, as, contrary to the rules of night-herding of all cow
+outfits, they rode along together.
+
+"No, I don't believe we will," was the reply. "Uncle John savvys this
+river like a native, an' if he looks at it tomorrow an' says 'Cross
+'em,' they'll make it all right."
+
+"Well, she's sure high, and 'tain't the water I'm afraid of half so much
+as the infernal quicksand. I never did like the water, nohow." He shook
+his head: "Once I got into the quicksand in the Little Colorado over in
+Arizony and like to ended up in the _Campo Santo_ fer sure."
+
+"Say" and his companion handed him a flaming match--"you smoke up a
+little an' fergit all that. We got troubles aplenty without huntin' up
+imaginary things to git skeered of. Did you hear the yarn that stray man
+was a-tellin' in camp tonight?" he remarked, with the evident intention
+of drawing his friend from so gloomy an outlook.
+
+"Never a word; I was shoeing my horse when he was talkin' an' didn't
+hear what he was sayin'. What was he talkin' about?" the singer queried.
+
+"Well," said the other, "it 'pears like he was workin' fer the Turkey
+Track outfit in Arizony and him an' another Turkey Track screw comes
+over the line to git a little touch of high life among the _paisanos_ on
+this side. Well, they gits it all right, for between half a dozen
+Mexican women, two or three _hombres_, an' a kaig of mescal, 'tain't
+hard to start something; an' when the dust settled down this stray gent
+finds hisself with a dead man on his hands an' him over here where it's
+the eagle an' the snake instead of the Stars an' Stripes a-flyin'
+overhead. I was busy makin' down my bed an' never heerd how he come out
+'ceptin' he says there was some fool law these Mexicans has which don't
+allow the body of any one what dies on Mexican soil to be taken out of
+the country for five years. So he had to leave his friend there instead
+of gittin' him acrost an' plantin' him up in the Pan Handle where his
+folks lived."
+
+"What for don't they let any dead body be taken out of this here
+country?" And the boy turned uneasily in his saddle.
+
+"Damfino," replied the other; "reckon it's just some cranky notion these
+Greasers got; maybeso they likes your sassiety an' hates to part with
+you, but, anyhow, that's the law all right, all right, an' if you dies
+here, you stays here, for five years, if no longer."
+
+"Say, Jim," the kid's voice was full of awe; "My old mammy's up yonder
+in Trinidad, an' by hooky, if I was to die down here an' she couldn't
+git hold of me to bury me up there where she laid the old man an' my
+sister, she's like to go plum loco, fer sure."
+
+"Well, you better make your plans to die on 'tother side the line or
+else so close to it that somebody can haze you across without any of
+them there _Rurales_ gittin' on to your game," was Jim's reply, as he
+returned from chasing a steer back into the herd. "So far as I'm
+concerned," he continued, "I don't reckon it makes much difference where
+I'm stuck away, for I'm a drifter an' ain't got no kin that I knows of,
+an' I guess when a feller's dead he kin hear ole Gabe blow his horn on
+this side the Rio Grande jist as easy as on 'tother."
+
+The next morning the sun was just peeping over the sand hills away to
+the east when Uncle John, who had been down along the river since the
+first gray streak in the sky announced the coming of day, rode into camp
+as the boys were catching out their horses. As the wagon boss glanced at
+him, he nodded and said, "All right, George, we'll try it this morning;
+the river has fallen a lot since last night."
+
+"Which means that I turns this here mule loose an' gits me a horse,"
+remarked one of the riders who had just roped a little black saddle
+mule, "fer a mule ain't no earthly good in water. If they gits their
+ears wet, they jist lays down on you, an' quits right there."
+
+    "On her hand I placed a ring,
+    When I left her in the spring,
+    'Way down yonder in the southwest land."
+
+The singer's voice rose above the shouts of the other boys as they
+pushed the cattle along toward the river.
+
+    "An' she said she'd not forget me,
+    Oh, she'll be there to meet me,
+    'Way down yonder on the Rio Grande."
+
+"That's right, Kid, sing to 'em. Time you've got through with this here
+muddy water job she won't know you if she is there to meet you," laughed
+the horse-wrangler.
+
+As the herd swung down to the river, the horse-wrangler had his entire
+_remuda_ at the water's edge, and with two men to help him he slowly
+forced the horses out into the stream, with old Bennie, the crack
+"cutting horse" of the outfit, in the lead. The old rascal had been used
+for this work for ten years and well knew that there was a nose bag full
+of oats waiting for him on the further bank of the river.
+
+As the steers on the O. T. ranch had always been handled by placing the
+horse herd ahead of them when corraling or taking a narrow trail down
+some cañon, they followed the horses with little delay.
+
+On the upper side of the lead cattle rode the Trinidad Kid on his best
+horse.
+
+    "Oh I know a shady spot,
+    Where we'll build a little cot,
+    'Way down yonder in the southwest land.
+
+    "And the mocking birds will sing,
+    And the wedding bells will ring,
+    'Way down yonder on the Rio Grande,"
+
+he sang loudly as his pony plowed through the muddy water.
+
+"Say Dick," shouted the man behind him, "ain't you going to ask us to
+all the doings when them wedding bells cut loose?"
+
+"I reckon so," was the answer, "and what's more, if I gets me onto the
+yonderly side of this streak of mud, I'm a going to stay there. I've
+seen all I want to of this 'mañana land.'"
+
+Just at the critical time, when everything seemed to be working out all
+right, a great wave of water swept down the stream and broke with a
+crash right in front of the leading steers. They hesitated for a moment,
+then another wave broke, and still another, and in an instant the
+leaders were swinging back on to each other in their senseless panic. In
+less than a minute a hundred of them were swimming round and round in
+the muddy waters, a whirling, struggling mass of horns and bodies. They
+jumped upon one another, bearing the under ones down into the water,
+until it was boiling with the fighting, maddened animals.
+
+The kid did not wait for orders. Well he knew that it was up to him to
+break up that milling mighty quick or the whole day's work was lost.
+Heading his pony toward the struggling mass of animals, he drove at them
+without an instant's hesitation.
+
+    "Oh the mocking birds will sing,
+    And the wedding bells will ring,
+    'Way down yonder on the Rio Grande."
+
+Singing at the top of his voice and swinging his slicker over his head,
+he swept down on the outside steers, being crowded on to them by the
+swift current against which his plucky pony struggled hard. Had he
+abandoned the effort and turned the animal up stream, facing the
+current, he might have breasted it and held his own, but the kid
+resolutely kept his place as well as he could.
+
+    "'Way down yonder on the Rio Grande,
+    'Way down yonder in that southwest land,"
+
+he sang valiantly as he thrashed the steers with his yellow slicker,
+trying to turn them from their course. He was rapidly accomplishing his
+purpose, and a few of the leaders were already turned and about to
+string out for the shore, when one broad-horned fellow right behind him
+raised in the water like some huge sea monster, and lunged upon his
+horse's hips with both front feet.
+
+The weight of the steer drove the horse down into the water, the swift
+current swept him on to his side, and in a second he was under the mass
+of steers, his rider hanging to him.
+
+A few minutes later the horse came into view from below the cattle but
+the boy was missing. Uncle John, at the first sign of trouble had dashed
+toward the spot, and as the horse came into sight leaned from his
+saddle, grabbed the bridle rein and pulled the half-drowned animal on
+to his feet in the shallower water. Spurring into the deep water again,
+he and the men with him swung up and down the line of cattle, watching
+with eager, anxious eyes for the slightest sign of a human form, but
+they could see nothing.
+
+Meantime the steers were rapidly crossing, and the leaders had already
+climbed out on to the opposite bank and were working back from the
+river, coughing and shaking their dripping bodies.
+
+Two other men joined Uncle John in the search for the lost singer, but
+though they watched every spot, riding up and down the stream for a
+mile, they were unable to discover any sign of the boy.
+
+Leaving Jim and another man to watch the river, the rest of the outfit
+pushed the steers out on to the open range to graze.
+
+Up and down the bank all that day the two men rode, reinforced by all
+the others who could be spared from the herd. Across the seat of the
+saddle on the horse ridden by the boy was a deep scar where the rowels
+of his spur had cut the leather, done probably as he slipped from the
+horse as he went under.
+
+The steers could not be held there long, so the next morning Uncle John,
+with a heavy heart, started the outfit at daybreak for the railroad
+loading pens, thirty miles away, leaving Jim, who had asked for the job,
+behind to keep a lookout for the body of the drowned cowboy. All day
+long he rode the banks of the river. Every eddy as well as the great
+rafts of driftwood, was carefully searched. Just a short time before
+sunset he noticed a couple of buzzards a little lower down on the river
+slowly circling overhead. He knew their keen eyes saw something, and
+both hoping and dreading that it was what he sought, he worked his way
+down towards the point over which the great birds were hovering. Here
+the river had cut into the sandy bank and a thicket of willows hung over
+the yellow water. Getting down onto one knee, Jim peered under them.
+
+Yes, there was "something" there. His heart came into his mouth, he
+gasped for breath, and the cold sweat stood on his face in great drops.
+A long, lance like pole from a nearby pile of drift wood, furnished him
+with a tool to sound the depth of water along the bank. It was not over
+waist deep, the bottom was firm, and, dropping off the bank, he waded
+down under the overhanging brush. There, floating in the stream, was the
+body of the Kid. A bough had caught in the belt of his leather "chaps"
+and held it firmly. It was the work of a moment for Jim to attach one
+end of his saddle rope to the belt and carry the other back with him to
+the open spot above the willows. His first intention was to tow the body
+up to a place where it could be taken out and then go for help.
+
+Wading up the stream, he climbed out on the bank and sat down to rest
+for a moment. It was second nature for him to get out his pipe and
+tobacco, and as he sat there the talk between himself and the singer
+around the herd the night before the crossing came to his mind. What
+could he do? The body was found on Mexican soil. About a hundred yards
+from the bank behind his was a little Mexican _jacal_, or hut, where he
+had noticed half a dozen children--even now he could hear their shouts
+as they played. To get it away from there was seemingly impossible.
+
+The twilight was nearly over and in the east the sky was glowing with
+the light of the moon, which almost at the full would soon rise. For
+half an hour he sat there thinking, the pipe smoked out and dead between
+his teeth. Then he rose, knocked the ashes out on his boot heel, slipped
+the pipe into his pocket, and worked his way carefully up to the top of
+the bank behind him. Peering through the fringe of trees, he saw in the
+moonlight the mud daubed _jacal_. A dog barked, in the distance a coyote
+answered with its shrill "yip, yip," and from the limbs of a
+mesquite--the family chicken coop--a rooster saluted the rising of the
+moon with a cheerful crow. In front of the _jacal_ a bright spark glowed
+where the fire of mesquite limbs over which the evening supper had been
+cooked, was dying away, and he could dimly make out the forms of the
+family asleep on the ground near the hut.
+
+Then, satisfied with the condition of things, he carefully worked his
+way back to the edge of the river, and, having looked to the rope, which
+he had fastened to a sharp piece of drift driven into the sand, lay down
+by it and in ten seconds was fast asleep.
+
+About three o'clock the next morning, just as the moon dropped behind
+the cottonwoods along the river, throwing deep shadows over its sullen
+tide, four steers, probably lost from the herd the day before, came down
+to the river to drink. As they reached the edge of the water one raised
+his head quickly and snuffed the air. The others also threw up their
+heads and tested the air with their keen noses, their great ears cocked
+forward to catch the slightest sound. High headed and suspicious, they
+all stood for an instant, and then as if with one impulse ran back a few
+steps and stopped to look again.
+
+Out there in the deep shadow something moved slowly and heavily. Now and
+then a splash came from the object as the water struck against it.
+
+The steers snuffed and licked their lips as do such animals where fear
+and curiosity is struggling in them for the mastery. Then as the
+something moved more distinctly, with terror in their eyes they all
+turned and burst into the darkness behind them, crashing through the
+young cottonwoods and over piles of loose driftwood in their mad haste
+to escape--they knew not what. Still, the "something" came on; slowly it
+moved through the muddy waters until the form of a man could be
+distinguished in the uncertain light, carrying some heavy load.
+
+At the edge of the river the man placed his burden on the soft sand and
+dropped down, panting for breath.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At noon that day, a single horseman rode a tired, sweat-covered animal
+into a little town on the railroad some thirty miles from the river. Two
+hours later, away to the north, under the snow-capped Rockies, where the
+city of Trinidad nestles below the Raton Pass, a lone woman received
+this brief message:
+
+    "Dick was accidentally drowned yesterday crossing the river. Wagon
+    will be here tomorrow with body, Please wire instructions.
+
+     "JAMES SCOTT."
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+PABLO
+
+By permission _The Breeder's Gazette_, Chicago, Ill.
+
+
+"And Pablo."
+
+"Señor?" And the boy looked inquiringly at the speaker. "You stay right
+here around this meadow. Here's plenty of feed and water for your band
+till I come back from town. Savvey?"
+
+"Si, Señor."
+
+"I won't be gone but three days, Pablo," continued the man, shifting
+uneasily in his saddle, "an' it's a tough deal to give you, but there's
+nothing else to do. That misable, onery Mack is drunk down in town an'
+won't never git out till his money's all gone an' somebody takes him by
+the scruff of the neck an' kicks him out of the saloon an' loads him
+onto his horse. You've got twelve hundred ewes an' 'leven hundred of the
+best lambs that this here range has ever seen. There's ten _negros_,
+_tres campanas_, an' _cinco chivos_; reckon you can keep track of 'em
+all?"
+
+"Si, Señor," assented the boy, in whose veins flowed the blood of almost
+three centuries of sheepherders, "_tres_ bells-_campanas_," and three
+fingers indicated the number of belled ewes in the bunch, "_cinco_
+goats," and one outspread hand showed the number of goats with the ewes,
+"_diez_ black-a markers," holding up all ten fingers.
+
+"That's right, _muchacho_," answered the man; "you keep track of your
+markers an' bells an' goats, an' you won't lose any sheep. There's
+plenty of water here for your camp, and the sheep won't need any for
+some days. There's a lot of poison weeds lower down on the mountain, an'
+it won't do to graze the band that-a-way. Take 'em up toward the top if
+you go anywhere; but keep your camp here an' stay with it till I come
+back, savvey?"
+
+"Si, Señor," with a quick nod of the head.
+
+The man dropped off his horse, gave the curly black mop on the boy's
+head a hasty pat, picked up the lead rope of a pack mule standing near
+and, mounting, rode off down the trail.
+
+The little meadow was located on a small bench high on the breast of a
+mountain whose bare granite peaks rose rough and ragged far above the
+timber line. At one side of the meadow, under a mighty fir tree, stood
+the herder's tent, a white pyramid among the green foliage. If there was
+another human being nearer than the little railroad town forty-five
+miles away, the boy knew it not. He watched the man ride slowly down the
+trail until he disappeared behind a mass of trees. The dog at his side
+whined as the man was lost to view and poked his cold muzzle into the
+boy's hand.
+
+"Ah, _perrito mio_," and he hugged the fawning animal close to his body,
+"the _patron_ has gone and left us here all alone to care for the sheep.
+Think of it, I, Pablo, to be trusted with so much. Shall we not care for
+them as for our own? Didst hear him say we were not to leave this camp
+while he was away? Ten black ones for markers, three bells and five
+great _chivos_. Aha, we shall count them each a hundred times a day, and
+sly indeed will be the ewe that shall escape from us. Is it not so, my
+brave Pancho?" And for answer the dog barked and romped about the lad as
+if to show he also appreciated the honor and responsibility thrust upon
+the two.
+
+Down the trail the sheepman, Hawk, jogged along toward the town where
+Mac, the recreant herder, was doubtless wasting his substance in riotous
+living. "If ever I git holt of that there rascal, I'll wear out the
+ground with him," he soliloquized. "To go off and leave me with a band
+of ewes on my hands at such a time and not come back as he promised.
+Serves me right for letting him go, for I might 'a' known he'd not come
+back in time. That there Pablo's a good kid all right, but it's a pretty
+big risk to turn over to a twelve-year-old boy that many ewes and lambs.
+Lucky for me he happened to stay in camp after the lambing was over; his
+father's about the best sheepherder on the whole range, and them Mexican
+kids would rather herd a bunch of sheep than ride on a merry-go-round.
+Well," and he slapped his horse with the end of his rope, "he's got a
+good dog, the best in the mountains, an' if he keeps track of his bells
+an' markers 'tain't likely he'll lose any sheep. However, there ain't no
+use worrying over it, for I couldn't stay there myself any longer, an'
+the sooner I gits to town an' hustles that there red headed Mac out to
+camp, the better."
+
+[Illustration: "_Hawk met a forest ranger leading a pack mule_"]
+
+Down at the foot of the mountain he met a forest ranger leading a pack
+mule.
+
+"What's doing?" asked Hawk of the government man.
+
+"Big fire over on 'tother side of the mountain," answered the ranger.
+"Old man phoned me to get over there as soon as ever I could and lend a
+hand. Mighty dry season now, and if fire ever gets started it'll take a
+lot more men to stop it than we got in this forest. I been riding now
+night and day for the last thirty days patroling my district, to lookout
+for fires, and I hate to have to go clear over on the other side and
+leave it all uncovered."
+
+"How big a district you got, anyhow?" queried the sheepman.
+
+"Little over six townships and a half; that's over a hundred and fifty
+thousand acres, and it's all a-standing on edge too"--he waved his
+gloved hand toward the range about them--"so there's twice as much, if
+you count the mountain sides. The Super, he asked for six more rangers
+last fall when he sent in his annual report, but the high collars back
+there in Washington said Congress was cutting down expenses and so we'd
+have to spread ourselves out and cover the ground, and do the best we
+could. That's why the boss rustled the boys out in such a hurry, for we
+can't afford to take any chances on a fire getting a start. If it ever
+does, it's good-bye trees, for once a fire gets under good headway in
+these mountains, with conditions just right, all the fire fighters in
+hell couldn't stop it. So long, old man, I've got to be a-drifting."
+
+As the ranger moved off up the cañon, the sheepman turned and glanced up
+at the sky toward the spot where he had left Pablo and his charges.
+There were no signs of smoke in the clear blue above, so he touched the
+horse with his spurs and resumed his journey, content to leave the fire
+fighting to the ranger force until he was called on for aid. Anyhow, it
+was clear over on the other side of the mountain and he wasn't
+interested there, and it would be time enough to worry when it got over
+on to his side. Meanwhile, there was that miserable Mac drunk in town
+and another band of lambs and ewes somewhere on the range, that he ought
+to look in on before long.
+
+Back on the mountain meadow Pablo and his ewes and lambs got on
+famously. The boy pushed the band out on to the mountainside, away from
+camp, telling Pancho to care for them while he went to find the two pack
+burros and drive them back to camp. All day long the boy watched the
+herd as a hen watches her chicks. Over and over again he counted the ten
+black "markers," those black sheep that come in every flock and without
+which no herder would work. If all ten of them were there in the herd it
+was safe to presume that none of the ewes had been lost, for, as they
+grazed back and forth through the timber, "cuts" might happen to the
+best of herders. Once he counted but nine. Yes, surely there were but
+nine. He called the dog to his side, pointed to a ridge beyond them and
+told the animal to go over there and look for the missing ones.
+
+Away Pancho bounded, stopping often to look back at his master for
+orders. The boy waved his arm and the dog went on until he stood a black
+speck at the top of the ridge. With foot upraised and ears cocked, he
+watched again for commands. Another wave of the arm and the dog dashed
+over the ridge and out of sight. Half an hour later an eager bark came
+from the ridge, and there, slowly toiling through the trees, came the
+lost sheep, followed by the faithful dog, keeping them moving toward
+the herd and yet not hurrying them beyond the speed of the lambs. In
+their lead was the black marker. Once more his ten _negros_ were all
+there.
+
+The next night from over the mountain-top rolled a great wave of black
+smoke. The sheep, "bedded down" near the camp, were uneasy and kept
+sniffing at the heavy air. At daylight the boy pushed them from the bed
+ground and worked them up toward the mountain-top, where the trees
+stopped growing and there was little danger of fire reaching them.
+Leaving the dog to care for the sheep, the boy climbed up higher until
+he could see about him. On every side was a sea of smoke. Great black
+billows rolled up from below him and the wind blew a gale from the
+direction of the other side of the mountain. The _patron_ would be back
+that night, but until then Pablo must stay where he was, for had he not
+been told to do so? All day he watched the smoke boiling up about him.
+The sheep were restless and bunched up in spite of his efforts to get
+them to scatter out and graze as they should.
+
+In the afternoon he worked his way down the mountainside, below the
+meadow and, perched on a huge boulder, watched the fire licking its way
+slowly through the forest. As far as he could see the red line stretched
+like a fiery snake, but unless the wind changed it would not reach his
+camp for some time yet.
+
+If only the _patron_ would come and relieve him of this responsibility!
+All those ewes with their fine lambs grazing there, and depending on
+him, Pablo, for protection and care. What should he do? He must not
+leave the camp, and still, if he kept the sheep there and the fire
+really came to the meadow, they might all die.
+
+Late that evening the wind changed and blew up the cañon like a gale,
+carrying with it clouds of smoke and burning brands which started fires
+far in advance of the main line. But the boy stayed with the sheep, wide
+awake and watchful, hardly taking time to eat his simple meals of
+_frijoles_, mutton and bread. Below him, the sky was alight with the
+flames. Now and then a thunderous crash told where some giant of the
+forest had given up the fight--three hundred and fifty years' work
+undone in an hour. Half a dozen coyotes and a wildcat skulked out of the
+timber that fringed the meadow and buried themselves in the little clump
+of willows that grew about the spring. By midnight he realized that to
+stay where he was meant death for himself and his woolly charges. The
+sheep were restless, constantly moving about on the bed ground, the
+lambs running and bleating through the herd as if they, too, realized
+the danger. The dog whined and looked anxiously toward the coming light,
+which now made the night almost as bright as noonday.
+
+"What would'st thou do, Panchito?" said the boy. "Did not the _patron_
+tell us to remain here until he came, and yet, shall we stay and die
+when the fire comes?" Then the thought came to him that up higher on the
+mountain the sheep would be safe if once there.
+
+At the first sign of coming day he set about his preparations for
+leaving. First, he tore from its pins the light tent, spread it out on
+the ground, swept into it the small supply of food which the camp
+contained, and rolled the tent about it. Then, with a short-handled
+camp shovel he dug a shallow hole in the soft mountain soil into which
+he placed, first, the sheepskins and blankets which formed his bed and
+then the bundle of the tent, covering it all with the dirt, thus
+securing it from the fire.
+
+Having thus protected his food supply, he sent the dog around the sheep
+to bunch them up and started them up the mountainside. The sheep,
+frightened by the smoke and approaching fire, moved rapidly, and inside
+of half an hour the boy had them all bedded down on a great bare granite
+field in the middle of a little boulder-strewn valley where, ages ago,
+some slipping, sliding glacier had smoothed and polished the surface of
+the rocks until they were like some gigantic table top. The valley was
+far above timber and the sheep safe from fire.
+
+Leaving the dog to watch the sheep, he hastened back to the meadow,
+there to await the coming of the _patron_ as he had been bidden. Once
+upon the prairie, where his father lived, he had seen the men go out to
+meet an approaching fire and by means of back firing keep it away from
+the houses and fields.
+
+In the camp was a stick of pitch pine which some one had brought for
+starting fires. Taking the ax, he quickly split off a handful of
+splinters, which he bound together with a handy piece of baling wire.
+Going to the lower end of the meadow toward the fire with his improvised
+torch, he started a line of small fires, hoping they would spread and
+thus be some slight protection to the meadow.
+
+The wind favored him, and in a short time he had a wide swath burned
+clear along one side of the meadow and his fire was eating out into the
+forest and would keep the flames back some distance.
+
+As the main fire line came along he was smothered with the clouds of
+smoke and waves of heat which swept down as from a furnace. He stood it
+as long as he could, fighting back the fire at every point where the
+flames were eating out into the meadow. Burning brands ate holes in his
+cotton shirt, and the soles of his "teguas," or rawhide moccasins, were
+burned through and through. As the mass of fire reached his back-fire
+line he ran to the little spring in the middle of the meadow and threw
+himself into it, rolling over and over in the mud and water about it.
+The coyotes and wildcat that had taken refuge there hardly noticed his
+presence in the face of the coming danger.
+
+Half an hour or more of stifling smoke and burning heat and he dared to
+leave his place in the spring. About the meadow some of the trees were
+burning clear to their tops, and great logs were blazing everywhere, but
+the force of the fire was spent and had gone on past him and he was left
+as on an island in midocean.
+
+It was far past noon. Perhaps the _patron_ would come today. He found
+the shovel and dug up the buried tent with its precious contents and
+made a hasty meal of bread and meat. Then, taking a piece of the meat
+for the faithful Pancho, he struck out into the blackened area about him
+to find the sheep which he had left to the dog's care that morning.
+
+He was very tired and his almost bare feet were badly cut and burned,
+causing him to stop and rest frequently, but he finally reached the
+granite ledge, and there found the sheep, with the dog watching their
+every movement, and woe unto the ewe or venturesome lamb that attempted
+to wander too far into the valley, for he was at its heels in a minute
+to drive it back.
+
+That evening, about dark, two men rode into the upper end of the meadow.
+The face of each was black and grimy with smoke and sweat. Their eyes
+were red and swollen and their horses so tired they stumbled as they
+moved. As they came out of the blackened area about the meadow and were
+able to see across it the man in advance stopped his horse.
+
+"Lord, I do hate to think of leaving that poor little devil up here all
+alone with them sheep," he said to his companion. "Naturally I hate to
+think of losing the sheep, but to have him burnt up too is awful."
+
+Suddenly he straightened up in his saddle and rubbed his eyes. "Say,
+Bill," he called, "is that a bunch of sheep there, or are my eyes
+fooling me?" Before Bill could reply a dog barked and came racing toward
+them.
+
+"Well, if it ain't Pancho as I'm a sinner," was the man's delighted cry.
+
+Then the tinkle of a sheep bell reached their ears. They spurred their
+tired horses into a trot and soon reached the spot where once stood the
+camp tent. In the dim light they saw a freshly dug hole with a tent
+lying beside it, upon which was piled a miscellaneous assortment of food
+and camping utensils, mutely telling the story of how the camp outfit
+had been saved.
+
+Nearby on a pile of sheep skins and under an old blanket lay a boy
+sleeping soundly. The eager barking of the dog and the heavy tread of
+the horses awoke him, and with a start he sprang to his feet. His
+clothing was a mass of mud, his face so black and tear-stained that it
+was almost unrecognizable, but the sheepman sprang from his horse and
+grabbed him in his arms with a strange choking in his throat he could
+hardly conquer.
+
+"Why, Pablo boy, _muchacho mio_, how did you pull through this hell fire
+and save yourself and the sheep too?" he asked, patting the dirty cheeks
+and mud-filled hair.
+
+"The _patron_ told me to stay here till he returned," said the boy,
+"there are all the sheep, the ten markers, the three _campanas_, and the
+five _chivos_, that the _patron_ left with me. All are there." The
+child's eyes glowed with the pride of accomplishment.
+
+"Bill," said the sheepman, "what's that little feller's name what we
+used to recite about in school, him that did the stunt about standing on
+the burning deck?"
+
+"You mean Casabianca?"
+
+"That's him, that's the chap. Say, Pablo"--his voice choked and he
+swallowed hard before the words would come to his lips--"Pablo, you're
+Casabianca all righty, and then some, for that little feller didn't save
+his bacon by stayin' where he was tole to. You not only saved yours but
+twelve hundred of the best ewes and lambs in the state besides. I'll
+promise you that ole Santa Claus'll bring you somethin' mighty fine next
+Christmas to pay you for this here job."
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE SHOOTING UP OF HORSE HEAD
+
+By permission _The Argonaut_, San Francisco, Cal.
+
+
+The town of Horse Head had turned over a new leaf. There was to be no
+more "shooting up" of the village. Patience ceased to be a virtue when
+the "Cross J" outfit shipped their last train of steers, and everybody
+in the gang came into town for a big time, which culminated in a general
+"shooting up" of the place.
+
+The lights in all the saloons were bored full of holes, the solitary
+street lamp-post, standing in front of the "Apache House"--and the pride
+of the heart of the old woman who kept the place--was riddled over and
+over again, and every woman in town scared into a fit of hysterics. Then
+the town people rose up in their wrath and called on the marshal to put
+a stop to it, or resign his office.
+
+Now Jenkins, the marshal, who held the position by virtue of his ability
+to shoot quick and true, was something of a diplomat. He was not anxious
+to have a row with any of the boys, if it could be avoided, and he was
+still further anxious not to lose the confidence of the townspeople, a
+nominating convention being due before long. Jenkins was a candidate for
+sheriff on the Democratic ticket, and in Colorado County, a nomination
+on that ticket was equivalent to an election. Accordingly, being of a
+diplomatic turn of mind, as aforesaid, he decided that a little scheming
+on his part might work to his advantage. To this end, he rode down to
+the little cottonwood "bosque" a few miles below town, where the Cross J
+outfit was camped, busily engaged in shoeing horses for another trip
+into the mountains, and overhauling the wagon generally.
+
+The result of his visit was that he was authorized by the guilty
+"punchers" to enter into negotiations with the town justice, and make
+some sort of terms with him, based upon their pleading guilty and
+promising good behavior for the future. All this Jenkins successfully
+accomplished, and about three o'clock the next afternoon the wily
+marshal rode into town accompanied by eight or ten of the boys.
+
+Being arraigned before the town barber, who upheld the dignity of the
+law as justice of the peace, they gravely plead guilty to disturbing the
+peace and dignity of the place, were fined one dollar and costs each,
+which they promptly paid, with many promises of future good conduct.
+
+But alas for such promises! "Cow punchers is pore weak critters, shore,"
+old Dad, the cook, used to say; and before sunset that day every last
+one of them, unmindful of promises or pledges, was again full of
+enthusiasm and cheap whiskey.
+
+"Tex," the bartender at the "Bucket of Blood," had all their
+six-shooters behind the bar, and for safety had slyly removed all the
+cartridges and inserted empty shells in their place.
+
+About sunset the gang started for camp, their weapons returned to them
+with many warnings from Tex not to shoot until clear out of town. They
+mounted their ponies and struck out on a dead run down the main street,
+whooping and yelling like a bunch of coyotes, but carefully refraining
+from firing a shot. About half a mile below town, however, the white
+"Yard Limit" sign of the railroad company was too good a mark for the
+crowd to pass unchallenged. True, the heavy piece of boiler iron, some
+thirty inches across, was pierced in a hundred places from previous
+attacks, but a few more wouldn't hurt it, and Baldy Peters, the crack
+shot of the camp, drew his revolver and, spurring his pony into a dead
+run, took quick aim at the black spot in the center and pulled the
+trigger. No answering shot came, and, although he tried all five of the
+chambers (no true cowboy or frontiersman ever carries six cartridges in
+his revolver) they were all silent.
+
+Baldy jerked his pony up on its haunches, and carefully examined the
+cylinder. Sure enough every shell was there, but empty. Jack Gibson, who
+had followed Baldy, had the same luck, and when the rest came up a
+general investigation followed. It did not take them long to see that
+they had been tricked by some one. Their indignation knew no bounds.
+"Jes to think," said Big Pete, "s'posin' one of us ud a got inter a row,
+and some blame town galoot had a drawed a gun on him, wouldn't he 'a'
+been in a fine ole fix to 'a' jerked his 'hog-leg,' and nary a bean in
+the wheel?"
+
+The more they thought about it the madder they got. Revenge they must
+have. What its form, they scarcely knew, nor cared. Without more talk,
+they all reloaded the weapons from their well-filled belts and turned
+their horses' heads toward town, speculating as they rode along as to
+just what they would do to show the town of Horse Head the danger of
+monkeying with a cow puncher's weapons. As they rode, they hatched up a
+plan, suggested from the fertile brain of Mac, the horse-wrangler,
+which, they thought, if successfully carried out, would give them the
+requisite amount of satisfaction for their wounded dignity.
+
+It was on Tex, the bartender, and Jenkins, the town marshal, that they
+poured out the vials of their wrath. Who else than they would have
+removed the cartridges from all those cylinders and replaced them with
+empty shells?
+
+Now, they knew that Tex was the marshal's right-hand man when it came to
+any trouble, and that, during the shipping season, when the outfits were
+around town a good deal, each of them kept a horse in the corral back of
+the "Bucket of Blood," ready for any emergency. Arriving in town, they
+proceeded to get gloriously full again, while Tex and Jenkins, secure in
+the knowledge of those empty shells they had placed in their revolvers,
+enjoyed the fun and allowed them full play.
+
+Along toward ten o'clock the boys drifted down to the only restaurant in
+Horse Head that kept open all night as well as all day. It was kept by
+"Chinese Louie," an almond-eyed celestial who ran a store, restaurant,
+wash-house, and the village photograph gallery, all under one long roof.
+
+Now, when a puncher gets into a restaurant, the only thing he craves is
+ham and eggs. Of beef he has a surfeit. The menu of the round-up wagon
+is coffee, bread, and meat three times a day, with awful regularity.
+Therefore, the gang was soon busy, seated on high stools at the long
+counter. After they had eaten their fill each wadded up his paper napkin
+and fired it at the cook, lit a cigar from the case at the end of the
+counter, and paid his bill.
+
+Then the fun opened by some one pulling a revolver and taking a shot at
+the big kerosene lamp that hung from the ceiling. In an instant twenty
+shots were fired; every lamp in the place was out and bored full of
+holes; the fancy water cooler that sat in the corner was riddled; and
+the coffee and tea pots on the big range behind the counter, as well as
+a lot more tempting marks in the way of copper cooking utensils that
+hung overhead on a rack, were turned into sieves.
+
+Poor Chinese Louie and his assistant lost no time in making themselves
+scarce; and, after it got too dark, for want of lamp-light, to see to
+shoot anything more, the now hilarious punchers swaggered out to their
+ponies, standing quietly at the "snorting post" in front of the
+restaurant, and with a parting volley up the main street toward the
+"Bucket of Blood," rode furiously out of town.
+
+Instead of going straight on down the railroad track they turned sharp
+to the left, at the first corner, and headed for the county bridge which
+spanned the river at Horse Head, a wooden structure with huge beams
+overhead, and some six or seven spans long.
+
+Just as they turned the corner out of the main street a couple of shots
+whistled past the bunch, proving that Tex and the marshal were alive
+and in pursuit. This was what the boys wanted, and they gave shrill
+yells of defiance as they pounded through the heavy sand that covered
+the road to the bridge. They slowed down a little along here to give
+their pursuers a chance to catch up a little; and when the officers
+announced their coming, by more shots, some of which came rather close
+to the bunch of riders, they fired a few in reply, and thundered across
+the bridge at full speed, in spite of the warning sign that promised all
+sorts of fines and imprisonment for any one "riding across the bridge
+faster than a walk."
+
+Along about the center span four of the boys, Baldy Peters, Jack Gibson,
+Dutch Henry, and Long Jim, dropped from their saddles, their ropes in
+their hands, and two on each side of the roadway, in the shelter of the
+huge beams, hastily made loops in their ropes, and awaited the coming of
+the two men. The rest of the gang clattered across the bridge with
+shrill whoops, and out on to the hard rocky road beyond, with the four
+loose horses following them, as if their riders were still on their
+backs.
+
+Now, the four men on the bridge were the most skillful rope-tossers in
+all that range. Rope-tossers, instead of swinging the rope around their
+heads before throwing, spread it out behind and to one side of them, and
+with a quick, graceful throw, or toss, launch it with unerring aim over
+the head of the animal at which they throw. This method is used almost
+entirely in catching horses out of the "cavyyard," and also in catching
+calves out of a herd, as it is done so quietly and easily that the
+animal is snared before it has a chance to dodge or move.
+
+Tex and the marshal were not quite so foolhardy or ignorant as to feel
+that they could capture and arrest the crowd they were after, but the
+marshal wanted that nomination in the fall, and felt it was a good
+chance to make a "rep" for himself. Tex was to be his chief deputy, if
+elected, so he was also eager to do something to prove his valor. Their
+idea, therefore, was to make a sort of grandstand play, follow the boys
+out a ways, fire a few shots after them at parting, and come back to
+town. Hearing them rattle across the bridge and out over the rocky road
+beyond, they feared no trap or ambush, and so kept riding in their wake,
+firing a shot every few seconds, as much to show the townspeople what
+they were up to, as anything else.
+
+As they passed the spot where the four boys were awaiting them, four
+silent ropes settled down over the heads and shoulders of the luckless
+officers of the law. Going at full speed as they were, there was no
+chance to throw off those snakelike coils, and the two riders were
+jerked backward over their horses' hips and landed heavily upon the hard
+plank flooring of the bridge.
+
+The marshal's six-shooter went off into the air as he wildly threw up
+his arms to clear his body of that python-like embrace, while the one
+Tex held in his hands flew off into space and dropped into the muddy
+waters below. Both men were stunned by the force of the fall, and lay as
+if dead on the bridge; but no sooner had they struck than they were
+promptly covered by the four men.
+
+The avengers first took their small "hogging ropes" (a short piece of
+rope about six feet long, which every well regulated puncher carries,
+either in his saddle pocket, or around his waist, to be used in tying
+together the feet of any cow or steer he might have to tie down on the
+ranges), and secured their prisoners' wrists firmly behind their backs;
+then they took a lariat rope and wound it round and round the men's
+bodies from shoulders to heels, so that moving their feet or arms was an
+impossibility. To do this was not hard, for both men were stunned from
+their fearful fall, and lay like logs, while the boys worked on them.
+
+The end of another lariat was passed through under their arms, around
+the body, and tied in a "bow-line hitch" behind the back. The two
+luckless officers were by this time regaining consciousness, and began
+to curse and struggle, but to no avail. At first they feared they were
+to be hung, and begged for their lives like good fellows; but as they
+were swung off the edge of the bridge and found how they were lashed
+with ropes, they pleaded even more fervently, for it looked as if the
+boys meant to drown them like rats in a cage. All to no avail. The boys
+never answered a word, but went ahead with their work, in the most
+matter-of-fact way imaginable. The ropes, tied as they were, suspended
+the men by the arms in such a way that they hung fairly upright, and
+without any particular pain or suffering from them.
+
+Now, the water of the Puerco is about as vile-smelling and oleaginous
+stuff as any one ever saw, tasted, or smelled; indeed, the offensiveness
+of the water suggested the name of the river--"Nasty." Especially in
+time of floods does it deserve its name. The water then is more like
+thin gruel of a yellowish red color, and smells to Heaven. Into this
+mess the conspirators slowly lowered the two officers of the law,
+regardless of their prayers, entreaties, threats, or curses, of which
+each of the two men poured out a liberal supply in tones to wake the
+dead.
+
+A turn of the rope about one of the bridge rods served to check the
+speed of their descent, and while Baldy Peters got over the railing and
+down on to the stone abutment, that he might the better see how far to
+lower the men, the rest held onto the ropes and let them down.
+
+Baldy, crouching low on the abutment, peered down into the darkness and
+gave orders for the work, so that when the two ropes were tied to a rod,
+each man was swinging in the water breast deep. He clambered back onto
+the bridge, and the four punchers hastened out into the darkness after
+the rest of the gang, who were waiting for them not far off.
+
+The next morning about daybreak, four horsemen rode out of the camp and
+headed for the New Mexico line, across which they felt themselves
+reasonably safe; for they well knew that the marshal would never follow
+and bring them back to relate in court the way they outwitted him and
+Tex. All they feared was that he would take a shot at them the first
+time he got sight of them, as he certainly would have done had he ever
+"met up with" either of the guilty four.
+
+The boys were "drifters," anyhow, as much at home in one place as
+another, and good hands were always in demand on the ranches in those
+days, so it mattered little where they brought up.
+
+As for the marshal and Tex, their first impression was that they were to
+be lynched; then they thought that they were to drown, which was even
+worse; finally, however, when they realized what the boys really meant
+to do, their rage knew no bounds. The marshal would almost have
+preferred to be hung, for he quickly foresaw that when they were
+rescued, the ridicule the affair would cause throughout the county would
+everlastingly kill his chances for any office. Had they been hung, or
+even drowned, they would have been heroes, even though dead ones; but
+this trick would turn a laugh against them as long as they lived.
+
+Luckily for the two unfortunates, right below the place from which they
+were lowered, instead of the river running in its regular channel, there
+was a great eddy, or swirl, where the water had cut a deep hole in the
+sandy river bed. Here the water was quite deep and had but little
+movement, except a slow circling motion. In this they swung at anchor,
+from midnight until broad daylight. The water caused the ropes to shrink
+and draw until they suffered a great deal where they cut into their
+wrists, making it an utter impossibility for them to untie the knots,
+although they worked diligently trying to get them loose in some way.
+The water was cold and their limbs soon became so numb that they could
+hardly move either hands or legs. They wore their voices out calling for
+help.
+
+The boys, in lowering them down, had been cunning enough to fasten them
+far enough apart so they could not aid each other to get loose, and
+while from the motion of the water they occasionally bumped against one
+another, they quickly drifted apart, as helpless as if in two
+strait-jackets.
+
+About sunrise, a Mormon boy, belonging to a freighter outfit, which was
+camped over in town, going out after the horses which had been taken
+across the river the night before to graze, came whistling down the road
+to the bridge, and started to cross. As soon as his footfalls were heard
+on the flooring of the structure, the almost helpless men below roused
+and began to call as loudly as they were able with their numb lips and
+jaws chattering like castanets. It took him a minute or two to locate
+the voices.
+
+The lad took one hasty look over the railing of the bridge, and, with a
+shriek of horror, fled toward town as fast as his feet could carry him.
+Here he told the first man he met that he had seen two bodies hanging to
+the bridge, and a crowd was soon on the way to the river, expecting to
+find the results of a vigilance committee suspended from the stringers.
+
+The two men were quickly pulled up on to the bridge and the ropes that
+bound them like steel bands were cut from their bodies. Both men were so
+stiff that they had to be carried to town, and the doctor and several
+men worked over them for more than an hour trying to restore the
+circulation in their stiffened limbs and almost frozen bodies. The story
+of their capture set the whole town to laughing, and the more people
+laughed, the more ridiculous the happening grew. Nor did it lose
+anything in the telling and soon the entire county was also laughing
+over the misfortunes of the two peace officers. Jenkins' chief political
+opponent naturally made the most of it and under such conditions that
+gentleman was literally laughed into political obscurity.
+
+About that time the Wells-Fargo Express Company feared a hold-up on the
+railroad, and Jenkins and Tex, glad to leave the scene of their
+water-cure adventure, secured positions as guards and soon dropped out
+of polite society in Horse Head as represented by the gang around the
+"Bucket of Blood" and its immediate vicinity.
+
+[Illustration: "_They gave the money to Jackson, the Cross J wagon
+boss_"]
+
+The next time they came to town the "Cross J" boys chipped in a dollar
+each and gave it to old "Dad," the cook, counted the luckiest "wheel"
+player in the bunch, who took the coin and with a burst of good luck
+soon ran it up to something over a hundred dollars at the roulette
+wheel. This entire amount he gave to Jackson the wagon boss, who went
+down to Chinese Louie's place, and poured it out on the counter before
+the heathen's astonished eyes, as a peace offering from the "shoot 'em
+up" crowd that had wrecked his place.
+
+That night about midnight Louie and his assistant set out to the boys
+the very swellest "feed" his culinary abilities could prepare, and the
+affair of the shooting up of Horse Head and the putting of the marshal
+and his aid-de-camp to soak under the bridge in the cold nasty waters of
+the Rio Puerco was thus amicably settled over the viands that the
+Chinaman furnished.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+    Transcriber's notes:
+
+    The following is a list of changes made to the original.
+    The first line is the original line, the second the corrected one.
+
+    she's a-grazin' and' it's a sure shot the calf's hid away in
+    she's a-grazin' an' it's a sure shot the calf's hid away in
+
+    It was the end of the road for the blue roan.
+    It was the end of the road for the blue-roan.
+
+    like videttes on guard over the canon.
+    like videttes on guard over the cañon.
+
+    deep box canons impassable for miles.
+    deep box cañons impassable for miles.
+
+    It brought very man in camp to his feet, for high above
+    It brought every man in camp to his feet, for high above
+
+    the Little Colorado River 'bout the mouth of the Canon
+    the Little Colorado River 'bout the mouth of the Cañon
+
+    "I'll never miss them spurs, said Bob pointing to an
+    "I'll never miss them spurs," said Bob pointing to an
+
+    steer round up" he asked of the new comer.
+    steer round up?" he asked of the newcomer.
+
+    burst from my eager lips."
+    burst from my eager lips.
+
+    I sent one of the boys back with the hoss, an tole him to
+    I sent one of the boys back with the hoss, an' tole him to
+
+    "Then the captain he sort of grins an' sez. 'That's
+    "Then the captain he sort of grins an' sez, 'That's
+
+    Then the captain, he bein' a fine old sojer man, with
+    "Then the captain, he bein' a fine old sojer man, with
+
+    iver seen in all his life. 'Twas sure no fault wid thim steers
+    iver seen in all his life. ''Twas sure no fault wid thim steers
+
+    of the Stars and' Stripes a-flyin' overhead. I was busy
+    of the Stars an' Stripes a-flyin' overhead. I was busy
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Tales from the X-bar Horse Camp, by Will C. Barnes
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41529 ***