The Log of a Cowboy
by
Andy Adams
Part 4 out of 5
"I met old 'Says I' Littlefield," said Nat, "back at the ford of the
Republican, and he tells me that they won over five hundred dollars
off this Circle Dot outfit on a horse race. He showed me a whole
basketful of your watches. I used to meet old 'Says I' over on the
Chisholm trail, and he's a foxy old innocent. He told me that he put
tar on his harness mare's back to see if you fellows had stolen the
nag off the picket rope at night, and when he found you had, he robbed
you to a finish. He knew you fool Texans would bet your last dollar on
such a cinch. That's one of his tricks. You see the mare you tried
wasn't the one you ran the race against. I've seen them both, and they
look as much alike as two pint bottles. My, but you fellows are easy
fish!"
And then Jim Flood lay down on the grass and laughed until the tears
came into his eyes, and we understood that there were tricks in other
trades than ours.
CHAPTER XVII
OGALALLA
From the head of Stinking Water to the South Platte was a waterless
stretch of forty miles. But by watering the herd about the middle of
one forenoon, after grazing, we could get to water again the following
evening. With the exception of the meeting with Nat Straw, the drive
was featureless, but the night that Nat stayed with us, he regaled us
with his experiences, in which he was as lucky as ever. Where we had
lost three days on the Canadian with bogged cattle, he had crossed it
within fifteen minutes after reaching it. His herd was sold before
reaching Dodge, so that he lost no time there, and on reaching
Slaughter's bridge, he was only two days behind our herd. His cattle
were then en route for delivery on the Crazy Woman in Wyoming, and, as
he put it, "any herd was liable to travel faster when it had a new
owner."
Flood had heard from our employer at Culbertson, learning that he
would not meet us at Ogalalla, as his last herd was due in Dodge about
that time. My brother Bob's herd had crossed the Arkansaw a week
behind us, and was then possibly a hundred and fifty miles in our
rear.
We all regretted not being able to see old man Don, for he believed
that nothing was too good for his men, and we all remembered the good
time he had shown us in Dodge. The smoke of passing trains hung for
hours in signal clouds in our front, during the afternoon of the
second day's dry drive, but we finally scaled the last divide, and
there, below us in the valley of the South Platte, nestled Ogalalla,
the Gomorrah of the cattle trail. From amongst its half hundred
buildings, no church spire pointed upward, but instead three fourths
of its business houses were dance halls, gambling houses, and saloons.
We all knew the town by reputation, while the larger part of our
outfit had been in it before. It was there that Joel Collins and his
outfit rendezvoused when they robbed the Union Pacific train in
October, '77. Collins had driven a herd of cattle for his father and
brother, and after selling them in the Black Hills, gambled away the
proceeds. Some five or six of his outfit returned to Ogalalla with
him, and being moneyless, concluded to recoup their losses at the
expense of the railway company. Going eighteen miles up the river to
Big Springs, seven of them robbed the express and passengers, the
former yielding sixty thousand dollars in gold. The next morning they
were in Ogalalla, paying debts, and getting their horses shod. In
Collins's outfit was Sam Bass, and under his leadership, until he met
his death the following spring at the hands of Texas Rangers, the
course of the outfit southward was marked by a series of daring bank
and train robberies.
We reached the river late that evening, and after watering, grazed
until dark and camped for the night. But it was not to be a night of
rest and sleep, for the lights were twinkling across the river in
town; and cook, horse wrangler, and all, with the exception of the
first guard, rode across the river after the herd had been bedded.
Flood had quit us while we were watering the herd and gone in ahead to
get a draft cashed, for he was as moneyless as the rest of us. But his
letter of credit was good anywhere on the trail where money was to be
had, and on reaching town, he took us into a general outfitting store
and paid us twenty-five dollars apiece. After warning us to be on hand
at the wagon to stand our watches, he left us, and we scattered like
lost sheep. Officer and I paid our loans to The Rebel, and the three
of us wandered around for several hours in company with Nat Straw.
When we were in Dodge, my bunkie had shown no inclination to gamble,
but now he was the first one to suggest that we make up a "cow," and
let him try his luck at monte. Straw and Officer were both willing,
and though in rags, I willingly consented and contributed my five to
the general fund.
Every gambling house ran from two to three monte layouts, as it was a
favorite game of cowmen, especially when they were from the far
southern country. Priest soon found a game to his liking, and after
watching his play through several deals, Officer and I left him with
the understanding that he would start for camp promptly at midnight.
There was much to be seen, though it was a small place, for the ends
of the earth's iniquity had gathered in Ogalalla. We wandered through
the various gambling houses, drinking moderately, meeting an
occasional acquaintance from Texas, and in the course of our rounds
landed in the Dew-Drop-In dance hall. Here might be seen the frailty
of women in every grade and condition. From girls in their teens,
launching out on a life of shame, to the adventuress who had once had
youth and beauty in her favor, but was now discarded and ready for the
final dose of opium and the coroner's verdict,--all were there in
tinsel and paint, practicing a careless exposure of their charms. In a
town which has no night, the hours pass rapidly; and before we were
aware, midnight was upon us. Returning to the gambling house where we
had left Priest, we found him over a hundred dollars winner, and,
calling his attention to the hour, persuaded him to cash in and join
us. We felt positively rich, as he counted out to each partner his
share of the winnings! Straw was missing to receive his, but we knew
he could be found on the morrow, and after a round of drinks, we
forded the river. As we rode along, my bunkie said,--"I'm
superstitious, and I can't help it. But I've felt for a day or so that
I was in luck, and I wanted you lads in with me if my warning was
true. I never was afraid to go into battle but once, and just as we
were ordered into action, a shell killed my horse under me and I was
left behind. I've had lots of such warnings, good and bad, and I'm
influenced by them. If we get off to-morrow, and I'm in the mood, I'll
go back there and make some monte bank look sick."
We reached the wagon in good time to be called on our guard, and after
it was over secured a few hours' sleep before the foreman aroused us
in the morning. With herds above and below us, we would either have to
graze contrary to our course or cross the river. The South Platte was
a wide, sandy river with numerous channels, and as easily crossed as
an alkali flat of equal width, so far as water was concerned. The sun
was not an hour high when we crossed, passing within two hundred yards
of the business section of the town, which lay under a hill. The
valley on the north side of the river, and beyond the railroad, was
not over half a mile wide, and as we angled across it, the town seemed
as dead as those that slept in the graveyard on the first hill beside
the trail.
Finding good grass about a mile farther on, we threw the herd off the
trail, and leaving orders to graze until noon, the foreman with the
first and second guard returned to town. It was only about ten miles
over to the North Platte, where water was certain; and in the hope
that we would be permitted to revisit the village during the
afternoon, we who were on guard threw riders in the lead of the
grazing cattle, in order not to be too far away should permission be
granted us. That was a long morning for us of the third and fourth
guards, with nothing to do but let the cattle feed, while easy money
itched in our pockets. Behind us lay Ogalalla--and our craft did
dearly love to break the monotony of our work by getting into town.
But by the middle of the forenoon, the wagon and saddle horses
overtook us, and ordering McCann into camp a scant mile in our lead,
we allowed the cattle to lie down, they having grazed to contentment.
Leaving two men on guard, the remainder of us rode in to the wagon,
and lightened with an hour's sleep in its shade the time which hung
heavy on our hands. We were aroused by our horse wrangler, who had
sighted a cavalcade down the trail, which, from the color of their
horses, he knew to be our outfit returning. As they came nearer and
their numbers could be made out, it was evident that our foreman was
not with them, and our hopes rose. On coming up, they informed us that
we were to have a half holiday, while they would take the herd over to
the North River during the afternoon. Then emergency orders rang out
to Honeyman and McCann, and as soon as a change of mounts could be
secured, our dinners bolted, and the herders relieved, we were ready
to go. Two of the six who returned had shed their rags and swaggered
about in new, cheap suits; the rest, although they had money, simply
had not had the time to buy clothes in a place with so many
attractions.
When the herders came in deft hands transferred their saddles to
waiting mounts while they swallowed a hasty dinner, and we set out for
Ogalalla, happy as city urchins in an orchard. We were less than five
miles from the burg, and struck a free gait in riding in, where we
found several hundred of our craft holding high jinks. A number of
herds had paid off their outfits and were sending them home, while
from the herds for sale, holding along the river, every man not on day
herd was paying his respects to the town. We had not been there five
minutes when a horse race was run through the main street, Nat Straw
and Jim Flood acting as judges on the outcome. The officers of
Ogalalla were a different crowd from what we had encountered at Dodge,
and everything went. The place suited us. Straw had entirely forgotten
our "cow" of the night before, and when The Rebel handed him his share
of the winnings, he tucked it away in the watch pocket of his trousers
without counting. But he had arranged a fiddling match between a darky
cook of one of the returning outfits and a locoed white man, a
mendicant of the place, and invited us to be present. Straw knew the
foreman of the outfit to which the darky belonged, and the two had
fixed it up to pit the two in a contest, under the pretense that a
large wager had been made on which was the better fiddler. The contest
was to take place at once in the corral of the Lone Star livery
stable, and promised to be humorous if nothing more. So after the race
was over, the next number on the programme was the fiddling match, and
we followed the crowd. The Rebel had given us the slip during the
race, though none of us cared, as we knew he was hungering for a monte
game. It was a motley crowd which had gathered in the corral, and all
seemed to know of the farce to be enacted, though the Texas outfit to
which the darky belonged were flashing their money on their dusky
cook, "as the best fiddler that ever crossed Red River with a cow
herd."
"Oh, I don't know that your man is such an Ole Bull as all that," said
Nat Straw. "I just got a hundred posted which says he can't even play
a decent second to my man. And if we can get a competent set of judges
to decide the contest, I'll wager a little more on the white against
the black, though I know your man is a cracker-jack."
A canvass of the crowd was made for judges, but as nearly every one
claimed to be interested in the result, having made wagers, or was
incompetent to sit in judgment on a musical contest, there was some
little delay. Finally, Joe Stallings went to Nat Straw and told him
that I was a fiddler, whereupon he instantly appointed me as judge,
and the other side selected a redheaded fellow belonging to one of
Dillard Fant's herds. Between the two of us we selected as the third
judge a bartender whom I had met the night before. The conditions
governing the contest were given us, and two chuck wagons were drawn
up alongside each other, in one of which were seated the contestants
and in the other the judges. The gravity of the crowd was only broken
as some enthusiast cheered his favorite or defiantly offered to wager
on the man of his choice. Numerous sham bets were being made, when the
redheaded judge arose and announced the conditions, and urged the
crowd to remain quiet, that the contestants might have equal justice.
Each fiddler selected his own piece. The first number was a waltz, on
the conclusion of which partisanship ran high, each faction cheering
its favorite to the echo. The second number was a jig, and as the
darky drew his bow several times across the strings tentatively, his
foreman, who stood six inches taller than any man in a crowd of tall
men, tapped himself on the breast with one forefinger, and with the
other pointed at his dusky champion, saying, "Keep your eye on me,
Price. We're going home together, remember. You black rascal, you can
make a mocking bird ashamed of itself if you try. You know I've swore
by you through thick and thin; now win this money. Pay no attention to
any one else. Keep your eye on me."
Straw, not to be outdone in encouragement, cheered his man with
promises of reward, and his faction of supporters raised such a din
that Fant's man arose, and demanded quiet so the contest could
proceed. Though boisterous, the crowd was good-tempered, and after the
second number was disposed of, the final test was announced, which was
to be in sacred music. On this announcement, the tall foreman waded
through the crowd, and drawing the darky to him, whispered something
in his ear, and then fell back to his former position. The dusky
artist's countenance brightened, and with a few preliminaries he
struck into "The Arkansaw Traveler," throwing so many contortions into
its execution that it seemed as if life and liberty depended on his
exertions. The usual applause greeted him on its conclusion, when Nat
Straw climbed up on the wagon wheel, and likewise whispered something
to his champion. The little, old, weazened mendicant took his cue, and
cut into "The Irish Washerwoman" with a great flourish, and in the
refrain chanted an unintelligible gibberish like the yelping of a
coyote, which the audience so cheered that he repeated it several
times. The crowd now gathered around the wagons and clamored for the
decision, and after consulting among ourselves some little time, and
knowing that a neutral or indefinite verdict was desired, we delegated
the bartender to announce our conclusions. Taking off his hat, he
arose, and after requesting quietness, pretended to read our decision.
"Gentlemen," he began, "your judges feel a delicacy in passing on the
merits of such distinguished artists, but in the first number the
decision is unanimously in favor of the darky, while the second is
clearly in favor of the white contestant. In regard to the last test,
your judges cannot reach any decision, as the selections rendered fail
to qualify under the head of"--
But two shots rang out in rapid succession across the street, and the
crowd, including the judges and fiddlers, rushed away to witness the
new excitement. The shooting had occurred in a restaurant, and quite a
mob gathered around the door, when the sheriff emerged from the
building.
"It's nothing," said he; "just a couple of punchers, who had been
drinking a little, were eating a snack, and one of them asked for a
second dish of prunes, when the waiter got gay and told him that he
couldn't have them,--'that he was full of prunes now.' So the lad took
a couple of shots at him, just to learn him to be more courteous to
strangers. There was no harm done, as the puncher was too unsteady."
As the crowd dispersed from the restaurant, I returned to the livery
stable, where Straw and several of our outfit were explaining to the
old mendicant that he had simply outplayed his opponent, and it was
too bad that they were not better posted in sacred music. Under
Straw's leadership, a purse was being made up amongst them, and the
old man's eyes brightened as he received several crisp bills and a
handful of silver. Straw was urging the old fiddler to post himself in
regard to sacred music, and he would get up another match for the next
day, when Rod Wheat came up and breathlessly informed Officer and
myself that The Rebel wanted us over at the Black Elephant gambling
hall. As we turned to accompany him, we eagerly inquired if there were
any trouble. Wheat informed us there was not, but that Priest was
playing in one of the biggest streaks of luck that ever happened.
"Why, the old man is just wallowing in velvet," said Rod, as we
hurried along, "and the dealer has lowered the limit from a hundred to
fifty, for old Paul is playing them as high as a cat's tack. He isn't
drinking a drop, and is as cool as a cucumber. I don't know what he
wants with you fellows, but he begged me to hunt you up and send you
to him."
The Black Elephant was about a block from the livery, and as we
entered, a large crowd of bystanders were watching the playing around
one of the three monte games which were running. Elbowing our way
through the crowd, we reached my bunkie, whom Officer slapped on the
back and inquired what he wanted.
"Why, I want you and Quirk to bet a little money for me," he replied.
"My luck is with me to-day, and when I try to crowd it, this layout
gets foxy and pinches the limit down to fifty. Here, take this money
and cover both those other games. Call out as they fall the layouts,
and I'll pick the card to bet the money on. And bet her carelessly,
boys, for she's velvet."
As he spoke he gave Officer and myself each a handful of uncounted
money, and we proceeded to carry out his instructions. I knew the game
perfectly, having spent several years' earnings on my tuition, and was
past master in the technical Spanish terms of the game, while Officer
was equally informed. John took the table to the right, while I took
the one on the left, and waiting for a new deal, called the cards as
they fell. I inquired the limit of the dealer, and was politely
informed that it was fifty to-day. At first our director ordered a
number of small bets made, as though feeling his way, for cards will
turn; but as he found the old luck was still with him, he gradually
increased them to the limit. After the first few deals, I caught on to
his favorite cards, which were the queen and seven, and on these we
bet the limit. Aces and a "face against an ace" were also favorite
bets of The Rebel's, but for a smaller sum. During the first hour of
my playing--to show the luck of cards--the queen won five consecutive
times, once against a favorite at the conclusion of a deal. My
judgment was to take up this bet, but Priest ordered otherwise, for it
was one of his principles never to doubt a card as long as it won for
you.
The play had run along some time, and as I was absorbed with watching,
some one behind me laid a friendly hand on my shoulder. Having every
card in the layout covered with a bet at the time, and supposing it to
be some of our outfit, I never looked around, when there came a slap
on my back which nearly loosened my teeth. Turning to see who was
making so free with me when I was absorbed, my eye fell on my brother
Zack, but I had not time even to shake hands with him, for two cards
won in succession and the dealer was paying me, while the queen and
seven were covered to the limit and were yet to be drawn for. When the
deal ended and while the dealer was shuffling, I managed to get a few
words with my brother, and learned that he had come through with a
herd belonging to one-armed Jim Reed, and that they were holding about
ten miles up the river. He had met Flood, who told him that I was in
town; but as he was working on first guard with their herd, it was
high time he was riding. The dealer was waiting for me to cut the
cards, and stopping only to wring Zack's hand in farewell, I turned
again to the monte layout.
Officer was not so fortunate as I was, partly by reason of delays, the
dealer in his game changing decks on almost every deal, and under
Priest's orders, we counted the cards with every change of the deck. A
gambler would rather burn money than lose to a citizen, and every
hoodoo which the superstition of the craft could invoke to turn the
run of the cards was used to check us. Several hours passed and the
lamps were lighted, but we constantly added to the good--to the
discomfiture of the owners of the games. Dealers changed, but our
vigilance never relaxed for a moment. Suddenly an altercation sprang
up between Officer and the dealer of his game. The seven had proved
the most lucky card to John, which fact was as plain to dealer as to
player, but the dealer, by slipping one seven out of the pack after it
had been counted, which was possible in the hands of an adept in spite
of all vigilance, threw the percentage against the favorite card and
in favor of the bank. Officer had suspected something wrong, for the
seven had been loser during several deals, when with a seven-king
layout, and two cards of each class yet in the pack, the dealer drew
down until there were less than a dozen cards left, when the king
came, which lost a fifty dollar bet on the seven. Officer laid his
hand on the money, and, as was his privilege, said to the dealer, "Let
me look over the remainder of those cards. If there's two sevens
there, you have won. If there isn't, don't offer to touch this bet."
But the gambler declined the request, and Officer repeated his demand,
laying a blue-barreled six-shooter across the bet with the remark,
"Well, if you expect to rake in this bet you have my terms."
Evidently the demand would not have stood the test, for the dealer
bunched the deck among the passed cards, and Officer quietly raked in
the money. "When I want a skin game," said John, as he arose, "I'll
come back and see you. You saw me take this money, did you? Well, if
you've got anything to say, now's your time to spit it out."
But his calling had made the gambler discreet, and he deigned no reply
to the lank Texan, who, chafing under the attempt to cheat him, slowly
returned his six-shooter to its holster. Although holding my own in my
game, I was anxious to have it come to a close, but neither of us
cared to suggest it to The Rebel; it was his money. But Officer passed
outside the house shortly afterward, and soon returned with Jim Flood
and Nat Straw.
As our foreman approached the table at which Priest was playing, he
laid his hand on The Rebel's shoulder and said, "Come on, Paul, we're
all ready to go to camp. Where's Quirk?"
Priest looked up in innocent amazement,--as though he had been
awakened out of a deep sleep, for, in the absorption of the game, he
had taken no note of the passing hours and did not know that the lamps
were burning. My bunkie obeyed as promptly as though the orders had
been given by Don Lovell in person, and, delighted with the turn of
affairs, I withdrew with him. Once in the street, Nat Straw threw an
arm around The Rebel's neck and said to him, "My dear sir, the secret
of successful gambling is to quit when you're winner, and before luck
turns. You may think this is a low down trick, but we're your friends,
and when we heard that you were a big winner, we were determined to
get you out of there if we had to rope and drag you out. How much are
you winner?"
Before the question could be correctly answered, we sat down on the
sidewalk and the three of us disgorged our winnings, so that Flood and
Straw could count. Priest was the largest winner, Officer the
smallest, while I never will know the amount of mine, as I had no idea
what I started with. But the tellers' report showed over fourteen
hundred dollars among the three of us. My bunkie consented to allow
Flood to keep it for him, and the latter attempted to hurrah us off to
camp, but John Officer protested.
"Hold on a minute, Jim," said Officer. "We're in rags; we need some
clothes. We've been in town long enough, and we've got the price, but
it's been such a busy afternoon with us that we simply haven't had the
time."
Straw took our part, and Flood giving in, we entered a general
outfitting store, from which we emerged within a quarter of an hour,
wearing cheap new suits, the color of which we never knew until the
next day. Then bidding Straw a hearty farewell, we rode for the North
Platte, on which the herd would encamp. As we scaled the bluffs, we
halted for our last glimpse of the lights of Ogalalla, and The Rebel
remarked, "Boys, I've traveled some in my life, but that little hole
back there could give Natchez-under-the-hill cards and spades, and
then outhold her as a tough town."
CHAPTER XVIII
THE NORTH PLATTE
It was now July. We had taken on new supplies at Ogalalla, and a week
afterwards the herd was snailing along the North Platte on its way to
the land of the Blackfeet. It was always hard to get a herd past a
supply point. We had the same trouble when we passed Dodge. Our long
hours in the saddle, coupled with the monotony of our work, made these
supply points of such interest to us that they were like oases in
desert lands to devotees on pilgrimage to some consecrated shrine. We
could have spent a week in Ogalalla and enjoyed our visit every
blessed moment of the time. But now, a week later, most of the
headaches had disappeared and we had settled down to our daily work.
At Horse Creek, the last stream of water before entering Wyoming, a
lad who cut the trail at that point for some cattle companies, after
trimming us up, rode along for half a day through their range, and
told us of an accident which happened about a week before. The horse
of some peeler, working with one of Shanghai Pierce's herds, acted up
one morning, and fell backward with him so that his gun accidentally
discharged. The outfit lay over a day and gave him as decent a burial
as they could. We would find the new-made grave ahead on Squaw Creek,
beyond the crossing, to the right hand side in a clump of cottonwoods.
The next day, while watering the herd at this creek, we all rode over
and looked at the grave. The outfit had fixed things up quite nicely.
They had built a square pen of rough cottonwood logs around the grave,
and had marked the head and foot with a big flat stone, edged up,
heaping up quite a mound of stones to keep the animals away. In a tree
his name was cut--sounded natural, too, though none of us knew him, as
Pierce always drove from the east coast country. There was nothing
different about this grave from the hundreds of others which made
landmarks on the Old Western Trail, except it was the latest.
That night around the camp-fire some of the boys were moved to tell
their experiences. This accident might happen to any of us, and it
seemed rather short notice to a man enjoying life, even though his
calling was rough.
"As for myself," said Rod Wheat, "I'm not going to fret. You can't
avoid it when it comes, and every now and then you miss it by a hair.
I had an uncle who served four years in the Confederate army, went
through thirty engagements, was wounded half a dozen times, and came
home well and sound. Within a month after his return, a plough handle
kicked him in the side and we buried him within a week."
"Oh, well," said Fox, commenting on the sudden call of the man whose
grave we had seen, "it won't make much difference to this fellow back
here when the horn toots and the graves give up their dead. He might
just as well start from there as anywhere. I don't envy him none,
though; but if I had any pity to offer now, it would be for a mother
or sister who might wish that he slept nearer home."
This last remark carried our minds far away from their present
surroundings to other graves which were not on the trail. There was a
long silence. We lay around the camp-fire and gazed into its depths,
while its flickering light threw our shadows out beyond the circle.
Our reverie was finally broken by Ash Borrowstone, who was by all odds
the most impressionable and emotional one in the outfit, a man who
always argued the moral side of every question, yet could not be
credited with possessing an iota of moral stamina. Gloomy as we were,
he added to our depression by relating a pathetic incident which
occurred at a child's funeral, when Flood reproved him, saying,--
"Well, neither that one you mention, nor this one of Pierce's man is
any of our funeral. We're on the trail with Lovell's cattle. You
should keep nearer the earth."
There was a long silence after this reproof of the foreman. It was
evident there was a gloom settling over the outfit. Our thoughts were
ranging wide. At last Rod Wheat spoke up and said that in order to get
the benefit of all the variations, the blues were not a bad thing to
have.
But the depression of our spirits was not so easily dismissed. In
order to avoid listening to the gloomy tales that were being narrated
around the camp-fire, a number of us got up and went out as if to look
up the night horses on picket. The Rebel and I pulled our picket pins
and changed our horses to fresh grazing, and after lying down among
the horses, out of hearing of the camp, for over an hour, returned to
the wagon expecting to retire. A number of the boys were making down
their beds, as it was already late; but on our arrival at the fire one
of the boys had just concluded a story, as gloomy as the others which
had preceded it.
"These stories you are all telling to-night," said Flood, "remind me
of what Lige Link said to the book agent when he was shearing sheep.
'I reckon,' said Lige, 'that book of yours has a heap sight more
poetry in it than there is in shearing sheep.' I wish I had gone on
guard to-night, so I could have missed these stories."
At this juncture the first guard rode in, having been relieved, and
John Officer, who had exchanged places on guard that night with Moss
Strayhorn, remarked that the cattle were uneasy.
"This outfit," said he, "didn't half water the herd to-day. One third
of them hasn't bedded down yet, and they don't act as if they aim to,
either. There's no excuse for it in a well-watered country like this.
I'll leave the saddle on my horse, anyhow."
"Now that's the result," said our foreman, "of the hour we spent
around that grave to-day, when we ought to have been tending to our
job. This outfit," he continued, when Officer returned from picketing
his horse, "have been trying to hold funeral services over that Pierce
man's grave back there. You'd think so, anyway, from the tales they've
been telling. I hope you won't get the sniffles and tell any."
"This letting yourself get gloomy," said Officer, "reminds me of a
time we once had at the 'J.H.' camp in the Cherokee Strip. It was near
Christmas, and the work was all done up. The boys had blowed in their
summer's wages and were feeling glum all over. One or two of the boys
were lamenting that they hadn't gone home to see the old folks. This
gloomy feeling kept spreading until they actually wouldn't speak to
each other. One of them would go out and sit on the wood pile for
hours, all by himself, and make a new set of good resolutions. Another
would go out and sit on the ground, on the sunny side of the corrals,
and dig holes in the frozen earth with his knife. They wouldn't come
to meals when the cook called them.
"Now, Miller, the foreman, didn't have any sympathy for them; in fact
he delighted to see them in that condition. He hadn't any use for a
man who wasn't dead tough under any condition. I've known him to camp
his outfit on alkali water, so the men would get out in the morning,
and every rascal beg leave to ride on the outside circle on the
morning roundup.
"Well, three days before Christmas, just when things were looking
gloomiest, there drifted up from the Cheyenne country one of the old
timers. None of them had seen him in four years, though he had worked
on that range before, and with the exception of myself, they all knew
him. He was riding the chuckline all right, but Miller gave him a
welcome, as he was the real thing. He had been working out in the
Pan-handle country, New Mexico, and the devil knows where, since he
had left that range. He was meaty with news and scarey stories. The
boys would sit around and listen to him yarn, and now and then a smile
would come on their faces. Miller was delighted with his guest. He had
shown no signs of letting up at eleven o'clock the first night, when
he happened to mention where he was the Christmas before.
"'There was a little woman at the ranch,' said he, 'wife of the owner,
and I was helping her get up dinner, as we had quite a number of folks
at the ranch. She asked me to make the bear sign--doughnuts, she
called them--and I did, though she had to show me how some little.
Well, fellows, you ought to have seen them--just sweet enough, browned
to a turn, and enough to last a week. All the folks at dinner that day
praised them. Since then, I've had a chance to try my hand several
times, and you may not tumble to the diversity of all my
accomplishments, but I'm an artist on bear sign.'
"Miller arose, took him by the hand, and said, 'That's straight, now,
is it?'
"'That's straight. Making bear sign is my long suit.'
"'Mouse,' said Miller to one of the boys, 'go out and bring in his
saddle from the stable and put it under my bed. Throw his horse in the
big pasture in the morning. He stays here until spring; and the first
spear of green grass I see, his name goes on the pay roll. This outfit
is shy on men who can make bear sign. Now, I was thinking that you
could spread down your blankets on the hearth, but you can sleep with
me to-night. You go to work on this specialty of yours right after
breakfast in the morning, and show us what you can do in that line.'
"They talked quite a while longer, and then turned in for the night.
The next morning after breakfast was over, he got the needed articles
together and went to work. But there was a surprise in store for him.
There was nearly a dozen men lying around, all able eaters. By ten
o'clock he began to turn them out as he said he could. When the
regular cook had to have the stove to get dinner, the taste which we
had had made us ravenous for more. Dinner over, he went at them again
in earnest. A boy riding towards the railroad with an important letter
dropped in, and as he claimed he could only stop for a moment, we
stood aside until he had had a taste, though he filled himself like a
poisoned pup. After eating a solid hour, he filled his pockets and
rode away. One of our regular men called after him, 'Don't tell
anybody what we got.'
"We didn't get any supper that night. Not a man could have eaten a
bite. Miller made him knock off along in the shank of the evening, as
he had done enough for any one day. The next morning after breakfast
he fell to at the bear sign once more. Miller rolled a barrel of flour
into the kitchen from the storehouse, and told him to fly at them.
'About how many do you think you'll want?' asked our bear sign man.
"'That big tub full won't be any too many,' answered Miller. 'Some of
these fellows haven't had any of this kind of truck since they were
little boys. If this gets out, I look for men from other camps.'
"The fellow fell to his work like a thoroughbred, which he surely was.
About ten o'clock two men rode up from a camp to the north, which the
boy had passed the day before with the letter. They never went near
the dug-out, but straight to the kitchen. That movement showed that
they were on to the racket. An hour later old Tom Cave rode in, his
horse all in a lather, all the way from Garretson's camp, twenty-five
miles to the east. The old sinner said that he had been on the
frontier some little time, and that there were the best bear sign he
had tasted in forty years. He refused to take a stool and sit down
like civilized folks, but stood up by the tub and picked out the ones
which were a pale brown.
"After dinner our man threw off his overshirt, unbuttoned his red
undershirt and turned it in until you could see the hair on his
breast. Rolling up his sleeves, he flew at his job once more. He was
getting his work reduced to a science by this time. He rolled his
dough, cut his dough, and turned out the fine brown bear sign to the
satisfaction of all.
"His capacity, however, was limited. About two o'clock Doc Langford
and two of his peelers were seen riding up. When he came into the
kitchen, Doc swore by all that was good and holy that he hadn't heard
that our artist had come back to that country. But any one that was
noticing could see him edge around to the tub. It was easy to see that
he was lying. This luck of ours was circulating faster than a secret
amongst women. Our man, though, stood at his post like the boy on the
burning deck. When night came on, he hadn't covered the bottom of the
tub. When he knocked off, Doc Langford and his men gobbled up what was
left. We gave them a mean look as they rode off, but they came back
the next day, five strong. Our regular men around camp didn't like it,
the way things were going. They tried to act polite to"--
"Calling bear sign doughnuts," interrupted Quince Forrest, "reminds me
what"--
"Will you kindly hobble your lip," said Officer; "I have the floor at
present. As I was saying, they tried to act polite to company that
way, but we hadn't got a smell the second day. Our man showed no signs
of fatigue, and told several good stories that night. He was tough.
The next day was Christmas, but he had no respect for a holiday, and
made up a large batch of dough before breakfast. It was a good thing
he did, for early that morning 'Original' John Smith and four of his
peelers rode in from the west, their horses all covered with frost.
They must have started at daybreak--it was a good twenty-two mile
ride. They wanted us to believe that they had simply come over to
spend Christmas with us. Company that way, you can't say anything. But
the easy manner in which they gravitated around that tub--not even
waiting to be invited--told a different tale. They were not nearly
satisfied by noon.
"Then who should come drifting in as we were sitting down to dinner,
but Billy Dunlap and Jim Hale from Quinlin's camp, thirty miles south
on the Cimarron. Dunlap always holed up like a bear in the winter, and
several of the boys spilled their coffee at sight of him. He put up a
thin excuse just like the rest. Any one could see through it. But
there it was again--he was company. Lots of us had eaten at his camp
and complained of his chuck; therefore, we were nice to him. Miller
called our man out behind the kitchen and told him to knock off if he
wanted to. But he wouldn't do it. He was clean strain--I'm not
talking. Dunlap ate hardly any dinner, we noticed, and the very first
batch of bear sign turned out, he loads up a tin plate and goes out
and sits behind the storehouse in the sun, all alone in his glory. He
satisfied himself out of the tub after that.
"He and Hale stayed all night, and Dunlap kept every one awake with
the nightmare. Yes, kept fighting the demons all night. The next
morning Miller told him that he was surprised that an old gray-haired
man like him didn't know when he had enough, but must gorge himself
like some silly kid. Miller told him that he was welcome to stay a
week if he wanted to, but he would have to sleep in the stable. It was
cruel to the horses, but the men were entitled to a little sleep, at
least in the winter. Miller tempered his remarks with all kindness,
and Dunlap acted as if he was sorry, and as good as admitted that his
years were telling on him. That day our man filled his tub. He was
simply an artist on bear sign."
"Calling bear sign doughnuts," cut in Quince Forrest again, as soon as
he saw an opening, "reminds me what the little boy said who went"--
But there came a rumbling of many hoofs from the bed ground. "There's
hell for you," said half a dozen men in a chorus, and every man in
camp ran for his horse but the cook, and he climbed into the wagon.
The roar of the running cattle was like approaching thunder, but the
flash from the six-shooters of the men on guard indicated they were
quartering by camp, heading out towards the hills. Horses became so
excited they were difficult to bridle. There was plenty of earnest and
sincere swearing done that night. All the fine sentiment and
melancholy of the hour previous vanished in a moment, as the men threw
themselves into their saddles, riding deep, for it was uncertain
footing to horses.
Within two minutes from the time the herd left the bed ground,
fourteen of us rode on their left point and across their front, firing
our six-shooters in their faces. By the time the herd had covered a
scant mile, we had thrown them into a mill. They had run so compactly
that there were no stragglers, so we loosened out and gave them room;
but it was a long time before they relaxed any, but continued going
round and round like a water wheel or an endless chain. The foreman
ordered three men on the heaviest horses to split them. The men rode
out a short distance to get the required momentum, wheeled their
horses, and, wedge-shaped, struck this sea of cattle and entered, but
it instantly closed in their wake as though it had been water. For an
hour they rode through the herd, back and forth, now from this
quarter, now from that, and finally the mill was broken. After
midnight, as luck would have it, heavy dark clouds banked in the
northwest, and lightning flashed, and before a single animal had lain
down, a drizzling rain set in. That settled it; it was an all-night
job now. We drifted about hither and yon. Horses, men, and cattle
turned their backs to the wind and rain and waited for morning. We
were so familiar with the signs of coming day that we turned them
loose half an hour before dawn, leaving herders, and rode for camp.
As we groped our way in that dark hour before dawn, hungry, drenched,
and bedraggled, there was nothing gleeful about us, while Bob Blades
expressed his disgust over our occupation. "If ever I get home again,"
said he, and the tones of his voice were an able second to his
remarks, "you all can go up the trail that want to, but here's one
chicken that won't. There isn't a cowman in Texas who has money enough
to hire me again."
"Ah, hell, now," said Bull, "you oughtn't to let a little rain ruffle
your feathers that way. Cheer up, sonny; you may be rich some day yet
and walk on brussels and velvet."
CHAPTER XIX
FORTY ISLANDS FORD
After securing a count on the herd that morning and finding nothing
short, we trailed out up the North Platte River. It was an easy
country in which to handle a herd; the trail in places would run back
from the river as far as ten miles, and again follow close in near the
river bottoms. There was an abundance of small creeks putting into
this fork of the Platte from the south, which afforded water for the
herd and good camp grounds at night. Only twice after leaving Ogalalla
had we been compelled to go to the river for water for the herd, and
with the exception of thunderstorms and occasional summer rains, the
weather had been all one could wish. For the past week as we trailed
up the North Platte, some one of us visited the river daily to note
its stage of water, for we were due to cross at Forty Islands, about
twelve miles south of old Fort Laramie. The North Platte was very
similar to the South Canadian,--a wide sandy stream without banks; and
our experience with the latter was fresh in our memories. The stage of
water had not been favorable, for this river also had its source in
the mountains, and as now midsummer was upon us, the season of heavy
rainfall in the mountains, augmented by the melting snows, the
prospect of finding a fordable stage of water at Forty Islands was not
very encouraging.
We reached this well-known crossing late in the afternoon the third
day after leaving the Wyoming line, and found one of the Prairie
Cattle Company's herds water-bound. This herd had been wintered on one
of that company's ranges on the Arkansaw River in southern Colorado,
and their destination was in the Bad Lands near the mouth of the
Yellowstone, where the same company had a northern range. Flood knew
the foreman, Wade Scholar, who reported having been waterbound over a
week already with no prospect of crossing without swimming. Scholar
knew the country thoroughly, and had decided to lie over until the
river was fordable at Forty Islands, as it was much the easiest
crossing on the North Platte, though there was a wagon ferry at Fort
Laramie. He returned with Flood to our camp, and the two talked over
the prospect of swimming it on the morrow.
"Let's send the wagons up to the ferry in the morning," said Flood,
"and swim the herds. If you wait until this river falls, you are
liable to have an experience like we had on the South Canadian,--lost
three days and bogged over a hundred cattle. When one of these sandy
rivers has had a big freshet, look out for quicksands; but you know
that as well as I do. Why, we've swum over half a dozen rivers
already, and I'd much rather swim this one than attempt to ford it
just after it has fallen. We can double our outfits and be safely
across before noon. I've got nearly a thousand miles yet to make, and
have just _got_ to get over. Think it over to-night, and have your
wagon ready to start with ours."
Scholar rode away without giving our foreman any definite answer as to
what he would do, though earlier in the evening he had offered to
throw his herd well out of the way at the ford, and lend us any
assistance at his command. But when it came to the question of
crossing his own herd, he seemed to dread the idea of swimming the
river, and could not be induced to say what he would do, but said that
we were welcome to the lead. The next morning Flood and I accompanied
our wagon up to his camp, when it was plainly evident that he did not
intend to send his wagon with ours, and McCann started on alone,
though our foreman renewed his efforts to convince Scholar of the
feasibility of swimming the herds. Their cattle were thrown well away
from the ford, and Scholar assured us that his outfit would be on hand
whenever we were ready to cross, and even invited all hands of us to
come to his wagon for dinner. When returning to our herd, Flood told
me that Scholar was considered one of the best foremen on the trail,
and why he should refuse to swim his cattle was unexplainable. He must
have time to burn, but that didn't seem reasonable, for the earlier
through cattle were turned loose on their winter range the better. We
were in no hurry to cross, as our wagon would be gone all day, and it
was nearly high noon when we trailed up to the ford.
With the addition to our force of Scholar and nine or ten of his men,
we had an abundance of help, and put the cattle into the water
opposite two islands, our saddle horses in the lead as usual. There
was no swimming water between the south shore and the first island,
though it wet our saddle skirts for some considerable distance, this
channel being nearly two hundred yards wide. Most of our outfit took
the water, while Scholar's men fed our herd in from the south bank, a
number of their men coming over as far as the first island. The second
island lay down the stream some little distance; and as we pushed the
cattle off the first one we were in swimming water in no time, but the
saddle horses were already landing on the second island, and our lead
cattle struck out, and, breasting the water, swam as proudly as swans.
The middle channel was nearly a hundred yards wide, the greater
portion of which was swimming, though the last channel was much wider.
But our saddle horses had already taken it, and when within fifty
yards of the farther shore, struck solid footing. With our own outfit
we crowded the leaders to keep the chain of cattle unbroken, and
before Honeyman could hustle his horses out of the river, our lead
cattle had caught a foothold, were heading up stream and edging out
for the farther shore.
I had one of the best swimming horses in our outfit, and Flood put me
in the lead on the point. As my horse came out on the farther bank, I
am certain I never have seen a herd of cattle, before or since, which
presented a prettier sight when swimming than ours did that day. There
was fully four hundred yards of water on the angle by which we
crossed, nearly half of which was swimming, but with the two islands
which gave them a breathing spell, our Circle Dots were taking the
water as steadily as a herd leaving their bed ground. Scholar and his
men were feeding them in, while half a dozen of our men on each island
were keeping them moving. Honeyman and I pointed them out of the
river; and as they grazed away from the shore, they spread out
fan-like, many of them kicking up their heels after they left the
water in healthy enjoyment of their bath. Long before they were half
over, the usual shouting had ceased, and we simply sat in our saddles
and waited for the long train of cattle to come up and cross. Within
less than half an hour from the time our saddle horses entered the
North Platte, the tail end of our herd had landed safely on the
farther bank.
[Illustration: SWIMMING THE PLATTE]
As Honeyman and I were the only ones of our outfit on the north side
of the river during the passage, Flood called to us from across the
last channel to graze the herd until relieved, when the remainder of
the outfit returned to the south side to recover their discarded
effects and to get dinner with Scholar's wagon. I had imitated
Honeyman, and tied my boots to my cantle strings, so that my effects
were on the right side of the river; and as far as dinner was
concerned,--well, I'd much rather miss it than swim the Platte twice
in its then stage of water. There is a difference in daring in one's
duty and in daring out of pure venturesomeness, and if we missed our
dinners it would not be the first time, so we were quite willing to
make the sacrifice. If the Quirk family never achieve fame for daring
by field and flood, until this one of the old man's boys brings the
family name into prominence, it will be hopelessly lost to posterity.
We allowed the cattle to graze of their own free will, and merely
turned in the sides and rear, but on reaching the second bottom of the
river, where they caught a good breeze, they lay down for their
noonday siesta, which relieved us of all work but keeping watch over
them. The saddle horses were grazing about in plain view on the first
bottom, so Honeyman and I dismounted on a little elevation overlooking
our charges. We were expecting the outfit to return promptly after
dinner was over, for it was early enough in the day to have trailed
eight or ten miles farther. It would have been no trouble to send some
one up the river to meet our wagon and pilot McCann to the herd, for
the trail left on a line due north from the river. We had been
lounging about for an hour while the cattle were resting, when our
attention was attracted by our saddle horses in the bottom. They were
looking at the ford, to which we supposed their attention had been
attracted by the swimming of the outfit, but instead only two of the
boys showed up, and on sighting us nearly a mile away, they rode
forward very leisurely. Before their arrival we recognized them by
their horses as Ash Borrowstone and Rod Wheat, and on their riding up
the latter said as he dismounted,--
"Well, they're going to cross the other herd, and they want you to
come back and point the cattle with that famous swimming horse of
yours. You'll learn after a while not to blow so much about your
mount, and your cutting horses, and your night horses, and your
swimming horses. I wish every horse of mine had a nigger brand on him,
and I had to ride in the wagon, when it comes to swimming these
rivers. And I'm not the only one that has a distaste for a wet
proposition, for I wouldn't have to guess twice as to what's the
matter with Scholar. But Flood has pounded him on the back ever since
he met him yesterday evening to swim his cattle, until it's either
swim or say he's afraid to,--it's 'Shoot, Luke, or give up the gun'
with him. Scholar's a nice fellow, but I'll bet my interest in goose
heaven that I know what's the matter with him. And I'm not blaming
him, either; but I can't understand why our boss should take such an
interest in having him swim. It's none of his business if he swims
now, or fords a month hence, or waits until the river freezes over in
the winter and crosses on the ice. But let the big augers wrangle it
out; you noticed, Ash, that riot one of Scholar's outfit ever said a
word one way or the other, but Flood poured it into him until he
consented to swim. So fork that swimming horse of yours and wet your
big toe again in the North Platte."
As the orders had come from the foreman, there was nothing to do but
obey. Honeyman rode as far as the river with me, where after shedding
my boots and surplus clothing and secreting them, I rode up above the
island and plunged in. I was riding the gray which I had tried in the
Rio Grande the day we received the herd, and now that I understood
handling him better, I preferred him to Nigger Boy, my night horse. We
took the first and second islands with but a blowing spell between,
and when I reached the farther shore, I turned in my saddle and saw
Honeyman wave his hat to me in congratulation. On reaching their
wagon, I found the herd was swinging around about a mile out from the
river, in order to get a straight shoot for the entrance at the ford.
I hurriedly swallowed my dinner, and as we rode out to meet the herd,
asked Flood if Scholar were not going to send his wagon up to the
ferry to cross, for there was as yet no indication of it. Flood
replied that Scholar expected to go with the wagon, as he needed some
supplies which he thought he could get from the sutler at Fort
Laramie.
Flood ordered me to take the lower point again, and I rode across the
trail and took my place when the herd came within a quarter of a mile
of the river, while the remainder of the outfit took positions near
the lead on the lower side. It was a slightly larger herd than
ours,--all steers, three-year-olds that reflected in their glossy
coats the benefits of a northern winter. As we came up to the water's
edge, it required two of their men to force their _remuda_ into the
water, though it was much smaller than ours,--six horses to the man,
but better ones than ours, being northern wintered. The cattle were
well trail-broken, and followed the leadership of the saddle horses
nicely to the first island, but they would have balked at this second
channel, had it not been for the amount of help at hand. We lined them
out, however, and they breasted the current, and landed on the second
island. The saddle horses gave some little trouble on leaving for the
farther shore, and before they were got off, several hundred head of
cattle had landed on the island. But they handled obediently and were
soon trailing out upon terra firma, the herd following across without
a broken link in the chain. There was nothing now to do but keep the
train moving into the water on the south bank, see that they did not
congest on the islands, and that they left the river on reaching the
farther shore. When the saddle horses reached the farther bank, they
were thrown up the river and turned loose, so that the two men would
be available to hold the herd after it left the water. I had crossed
with the first lead cattle to the farther shore, and was turning them
up the river as fast as they struck solid footing on that side. But
several times I was compelled to swim back to the nearest island, and
return with large bunches which had hesitated to take the last
channel.
The two outfits were working promiscuously together, and I never knew
who was the directing spirit in the work; but when the last two or
three hundred of the tail-enders were leaving the first island for the
second, and the men working in the rear started to swim the channel,
amid the general hilarity I recognized a shout that was born of fear
and terror. A hushed silence fell over the riotous riders in the
river, and I saw those on the sand bar nearest my side rush down the
narrow island and plunge back into the middle channel. Then it dawned
on my mind in a flash that some one had lost his seat, and that
terrified cry was for help. I plunged my gray into the river and swam
to the first bar, and from thence to the scene of the trouble. Horses
and men were drifting with the current down the channel, and as I
appealed to the men I could get no answer but their blanched faces,
though it was plain in every countenance that one of our number was
under water if not drowned. There were not less than twenty horsemen
drifting in the middle channel in the hope that whoever it was would
come to the surface, and a hand could be stretched out in succor.
About two hundred yards down the river was an island near the middle
of the stream. The current carried us near it, and, on landing, I
learned that the unfortunate man was none other than Wade Scholar, the
foreman of the herd. We scattered up and down this middle island and
watched every ripple and floating bit of flotsam in the hope that he
would come to the surface, but nothing but his hat was seen. In the
disorder into which the outfits were thrown by this accident, Flood
first regained his thinking faculties, and ordered a few of us to
cross to either bank, and ride down the river and take up positions on
the other islands, from which that part of the river took its name. A
hundred conjectures were offered as to how it occurred; but no one saw
either horse or rider after sinking. A free horse would be hard to
drown, and on the nonappearance of Scholar's mount it was concluded
that he must have become entangled in the reins or that Scholar had
clutched them in his death grip, and horse and man thus met death
together. It was believed by his own outfit that Scholar had no
intention until the last moment to risk swimming the river, but when
he saw all the others plunge into the channel, his better judgment was
overcome, and rather than remain behind and cause comment, he had
followed and lost his life.
We patrolled the river until darkness without result, the two herds in
the mean time having been so neglected that they had mixed. Our wagon
returned along the north bank early in the evening, and Flood ordered
Priest to go in and make up a guard from the two outfits and hold the
herd for the night. Some one of Scholar's outfit went back and moved
their wagon up to the crossing, within hailing distance of ours. It
was a night of muffled conversation, and every voice of the night or
cry of waterfowl in the river sent creepy sensations over us. The long
night passed, however, and the sun rose in Sabbath benediction, for it
was Sunday, and found groups of men huddled around two wagons in
silent contemplation of what the day before had brought. A more broken
and disconsolate set of men than Scholar's would be hard to imagine.
Flood inquired of their outfit if there was any sub-foreman, or
_segundo_ as they were generally called. It seemed there was not, but
their outfit was unanimous that the leadership should fall to a
boyhood acquaintance of Scholar's by the name of Campbell, who was
generally addressed as "Black" Jim. Flood at once advised Campbell to
send their wagon up to Laramie and cross it, promising that we would
lie over that day and make an effort to recover the body of the
drowned foreman. Campbell accordingly started his wagon up to the
ferry, and all the remainder of the outfits, with the exception of a
few men on herd, started out in search of the drowned man. Within a
mile and a half below the ford, there were located over thirty of the
forty islands, and at the lower end of this chain of sand bars we
began and searched both shores, while three or four men swam to each
island and made a vigorous search.
The water in the river was not very clear, which called for a close
inspection; but with a force of twenty-five men in the hunt, we
covered island and shore rapidly in our search. It was about eight in
the morning, and we had already searched half of the islands, when Joe
Stallings and two of Scholar's men swam to an island in the river
which had a growth of small cottonwoods covering it, while on the
upper end was a heavy lodgment of driftwood. John Officer, The Rebel,
and I had taken the next island above, and as we were riding the
shallows surrounding it we heard a shot in our rear that told us the
body had been found. As we turned in the direction of the signal,
Stallings was standing on a large driftwood log, and signaling. We
started back to him, partly wading and partly swimming, while from
both sides of the river men were swimming their horses for the brushy
island. Our squad, on nearing the lower bar, was compelled to swim
around the driftwood, and some twelve or fifteen men from either shore
reached the scene before us. The body was lying face upward, in about
eighteen inches of eddy water. Flood and Campbell waded out, and
taking a lariat, fastened it around his chest under the arms. Then
Flood, noticing I was riding my black, asked me to tow the body
ashore. Forcing a passage through the driftwood, I took the loose end
of the lariat and started for the north bank, the double outfit
following. On reaching the shore, the body was carried out of the
water by willing hands, and one of our outfit was sent to the wagon
for a tarpaulin to be used as a stretcher.
Meanwhile, Campbell took possession of the drowned foreman's watch,
six-shooter, purse, and papers. The watch was as good as ruined, but
the leather holster had shrunk and securely held the gun from being
lost in the river. On the arrival of the tarpaulin, the body was laid
upon it, and four mounted men, taking the four corners of the sheet,
wrapped them on the pommels of their saddles and started for our
wagon. When the corpse had been lowered to the ground at our camp, a
look of inquiry passed from face to face which seemed to ask, "What
next?" But the inquiry was answered a moment later by Black Jim
Campbell, the friend of the dead man. Memory may have dimmed the
lesser details of that Sunday morning on the North Platte, for over
two decades have since gone, but his words and manliness have lived,
not only in my mind, but in the memory of every other survivor of
those present. "This accident," said he in perfect composure, as he
gazed into the calm, still face of his dead friend, "will impose on me
a very sad duty. I expect to meet his mother some day. She will want
to know everything. I must tell her the truth, and I'd hate to tell
her we buried him like a dog, for she's a Christian woman. And what
makes it all the harder, I know that this is the third boy she has
lost by drowning. Some of you may not have understood him, but among
those papers which you saw me take from his pockets was a letter from
his mother, in which she warned him to guard against just what has
happened. Situated as we are, I'm going to ask you all to help me give
him the best burial we can. No doubt it will be crude, but it will be
some solace to her to know we did the best we could."
Every one of us was eager to lend his assistance. Within five minutes
Priest was galloping up the north bank of the river to intercept the
wagon at the ferry, a well-filled purse in his pocket with which to
secure a coffin at Fort Laramie. Flood and Campbell selected a burial
place, and with our wagon spade a grave was being dug on a near-by
grassy mound, where there were two other graves.
There was not a man among us who was hypocrite enough to attempt to
conduct a Christian burial service, but when the subject came up,
McCann said as he came down the river the evening before he noticed an
emigrant train of about thirty wagons going into camp at a grove about
five miles up the river. In a conversation which he had had with one
of the party, he learned that they expected to rest over Sunday. Their
respect for the Sabbath day caused Campbell to suggest that there
might be some one in the emigrant camp who could conduct a Christian
burial, and he at once mounted his horse and rode away to learn.
In preparing the body for its last resting-place we were badly
handicapped, but by tearing a new wagon sheet into strips about a foot
in width and wrapping the body, we gave it a humble bier in the shade
of our wagon, pending the arrival of the coffin. The features were so
ashened by having been submerged in the river for over eighteen hours,
that we wrapped the face also, as we preferred to remember him as we
had seen him the day before, strong, healthy, and buoyant. During the
interim, awaiting the return of Campbell from the emigrant camp and of
the wagon, we sat around in groups and discussed the incident. There
was a sense of guilt expressed by a number of our outfit over their
hasty decision regarding the courage of the dead man. When we
understood that two of his brothers had met a similar fate in Red
River within the past five years, every guilty thought or hasty word
spoken came back to us with tenfold weight. Priest and Campbell
returned together; the former reported having secured a coffin which
would arrive within an hour, while the latter had met in the emigrant
camp a superannuated minister who gladly volunteered his services. He
had given the old minister such data as he had, and two of the
minister's granddaughters had expressed a willingness to assist by
singing at the burial services. Campbell had set the hour for four,
and several conveyances would be down from the emigrant camp. The
wagon arriving shortly afterward, we had barely time to lay the corpse
in the coffin before the emigrants drove up. The minister was a tall,
homely man, with a flowing beard, which the frosts of many a winter
had whitened, and as he mingled amongst us in the final preparations,
he had a kind word for every one. There were ten in his party; and
when the coffin had been carried out to the grave, the two
granddaughters of the old man opened the simple service by singing
very impressively the first three verses of the Portuguese Hymn. I had
heard the old hymn sung often before, but the impression of the last
verse rang in my ears for days afterward.
"When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow;
For I will be with thee thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress."
As the notes of the hymn died away, there was for a few moments
profound stillness, and not a move was made by any one. The touching
words of the old hymn expressed quite vividly the disaster of the
previous day, and awakened in us many memories of home. For a time we
were silent, while eyes unused to weeping filled with tears. I do not
know how long we remained so. It may have been only for a moment, it
probably was; but I do know the silence was not broken till the aged
minister, who stood at the head of the coffin, began his discourse. We
stood with uncovered heads during the service, and when the old
minister addressed us he spoke as though he might have been holding
family worship and we had been his children. He invoked Heaven to
comfort and sustain the mother when the news of her son's death
reached her, as she would need more than human aid in that hour; he
prayed that her faith might not falter and that she might again meet
and be with her loved ones forever in the great beyond. He then took
up the subject of life,--spoke of its brevity, its many hopes that are
never realized, and the disappointments from which no prudence or
foresight can shield us. He dwelt at some length on the strange
mingling of sunshine and shadow that seemed to belong to every life;
on the mystery everywhere, and nowhere more impressively than in
ourselves. With his long bony finger he pointed to the cold, mute form
that lay in the coffin before us, and said, "But this, my friends, is
the mystery of all mysteries." The fact that life terminated in death,
he said, only emphasized its reality; that the death of our companion
was not an accident, though it was sudden and unexpected; that the
difficulties of life are such that it would be worse than folly in us
to try to meet them in our own strength. Death, he said, might change,
but it did not destroy; that the soul still lived and would live
forever; that death was simply the gateway out of time into eternity;
and if we were to realize the high aim of our being, we could do so by
casting our burdens on Him who was able and willing to carry them for
us. He spoke feelingly of the Great Teacher, the lowly Nazarene, who
also suffered and died, and he concluded with an eloquent description
of the blessed life, the immortality of the soul, and the resurrection
of the body. After the discourse was ended and a brief and earnest
prayer was covered, the two young girls sang the hymn, "Shall we meet
beyond the river?" The services being at an end, the coffin was
lowered into the grave.
Campbell thanked the old minister and his two granddaughters on their
taking leave, for their presence and assistance; and a number of us
boys also shook hands with the old man at parting.
CHAPTER XX
A MOONLIGHT DRIVE
The two herds were held together a second night, but after they had
grazed a few hours the next morning, the cattle were thrown together,
and the work of cutting out ours commenced. With a double outfit of
men available, about twenty men were turned into the herd to do the
cutting, the remainder holding the main herd and looking after the
cut. The morning was cool, every one worked with a vim, and in about
two hours the herds were again separated and ready for the final
trimming. Campbell did not expect to move out until he could
communicate with the head office of the company, and would go up to
Fort Laramie for that purpose during the day, hoping to be able to get
a message over the military wire. When his outfit had finished
retrimming our herd, and we had looked over his cattle for the last
time, the two outfits bade each other farewell, and our herd started
on its journey.
The unfortunate accident at the ford had depressed our feelings to
such an extent that there was an entire absence of hilarity by the
way. This morning the farewell songs generally used in parting with a
river which had defied us were omitted. The herd trailed out like an
immense serpent, and was guided and controlled by our men as if by
mutes. Long before the noon hour, we passed out of sight of Forty
Islands, and in the next few days, with the change of scene, the gloom
gradually lifted. We were bearing almost due north, and passing
through a delightful country. To our left ran a range of mountains,
while on the other hand sloped off the apparently limitless plain. The
scarcity of water was beginning to be felt, for the streams which had
not a source in the mountains on our left had dried up weeks before
our arrival. There was a gradual change of air noticeable too, for we
were rapidly gaining altitude, the heat of summer being now confined
to a few hours at noonday, while the nights were almost too cool for
our comfort.
When about three days out from the North Platte, the mountains
disappeared on our left, while on the other hand appeared a
rugged-looking country, which we knew must be the approaches of the
Black Hills. Another day's drive brought us into the main stage road
connecting the railroad on the south with the mining camps which
nestled somewhere in those rocky hills to our right. The stage road
followed the trail some ten or fifteen miles before we parted company
with it on a dry fork of the Big Cheyenne River. There was a road
house and stage stand where these two thoroughfares separated, the one
to the mining camp of Deadwood, while ours of the Montana cattle trail
bore off for the Powder River to the northwest. At this stage stand we
learned that some twenty herds had already passed by to the northern
ranges, and that after passing the next fork of the Big Cheyenne we
should find no water until we struck the Powder River,--a stretch of
eighty miles. The keeper of the road house, a genial host, informed us
that this drouthy stretch in our front was something unusual, this
being one of the dryest summers that he had experienced since the
discovery of gold in the Black Hills.
Here was a new situation to be met, an eighty-mile dry drive; and with
our experience of a few months before at Indian Lakes fresh in our
memories, we set our house in order for the undertaking before us. It
was yet fifteen miles to the next and last water from the stage stand.
There were several dry forks of the Cheyenne beyond, but as they had
their source in the tablelands of Wyoming, we could not hope for water
in their dry bottoms. The situation was serious, with only this
encouragement: other herds had crossed this arid belt since the
streams had dried up, and our Circle Dots could walk with any herd
that ever left Texas. The wisdom of mounting us well for just such an
emergency reflected the good cow sense of our employer; and we felt
easy in regard to our mounts, though there was not a horse or a man
too many. In summing up the situation, Flood said, "We've got this
advantage over the Indian Lake drive: there is a good moon, and the
days are cool. We'll make twenty-five miles a day covering this
stretch, as this herd has never been put to a test yet to see how far
they could walk in a day. They'll have to do their sleeping at noon;
at least cut it into two shifts, and if we get any sleep we'll have to
do the same. Let her come as she will; every day's drive is a day
nearer the Blackfoot agency."
We made a dry camp that night on the divide between the road house and
the last water, and the next forenoon reached the South Fork of the
Big Cheyenne. The water was not even running in it, but there were
several long pools, and we held the cattle around them for over an
hour, until every hoof had been thoroughly watered. McCann had filled
every keg and canteen in advance of the arrival of the herd, and Flood
had exercised sufficient caution, in view of what lay before us, to
buy an extra keg and a bull's-eye lantern at the road house. After
watering, we trailed out some four or five miles and camped for noon,
but the herd were allowed to graze forward until they lay down for
their noonday rest. As the herd passed opposite the wagon, we cut a
fat two-year-old stray heifer and killed her for beef, for the inner
man must be fortified for the journey before us. After a two hours'
siesta, we threw the herd on the trail and started on our way. The
wagon and saddle horses were held in our immediate rear, for there was
no telling when or where we would make our next halt of any
consequence. We trailed and grazed the herd alternately until near
evening, when the wagon was sent on ahead about three miles to get
supper, while half the outfit went along to change mounts and catch up
horses for those remaining behind with the herd. A half hour before
the usual bedding time, the relieved men returned and took the grazing
herd, and the others rode in to the wagon for supper and a change of
mounts. While we shifted our saddles, we smelled the savory odor of
fresh beef frying.
"Listen to that good old beef talking, will you?" said Joe Stallings,
as he was bridling his horse. "McCann, I'll take my _carne fresco_ a
trifle rare to-night, garnished with a sprig of parsley and a wee bit
of lemon."
Before we had finished supper, Honeyman had rehooked the mules to the
wagon, while the _remuda_ was at hand to follow. Before we left the
wagon, a full moon was rising on the eastern horizon, and as we were
starting out Flood gave us these general directions: "I'm going to
take the lead with the cook's lantern, and one of you rear men take
the new bull's-eye. We'll throw the herd on the trail; and between the
lead and rear light, you swing men want to ride well outside, and you
point men want to hold the lead cattle so the rear will never be more
than a half a mile behind. I'll admit that this is somewhat of an
experiment with me, but I don't see any good reason why she won't
work. After the moon gets another hour high we can see a quarter of a
mile, and the cattle are so well trail broke they'll never try to
scatter. If it works all right, we'll never bed them short of
midnight, and that will put us ten miles farther. Let's ride, lads."
By the time the herd was eased back on the trail, our evening
camp-fire had been passed, while the cattle led out as if walking on a
wager. After the first mile on the trail, the men on the point were
compelled to ride in the lead if we were to hold them within the
desired half mile. The men on the other side, or the swing, were
gradually widening, until the herd must have reached fully a mile in
length; yet we swing riders were never out of sight of each other, and
it would have been impossible for any cattle to leave the herd
unnoticed. In that moonlight the trail was as plain as day, and after
an hour, Flood turned his lantern over to one of the point men, and
rode back around the herd to the rear. From my position that first
night near the middle of the swing, the lanterns both rear and forward
being always in sight, I was as much at sea as any one as to the
length of the herd, knowing the deceitfulness of distance of campfires
and other lights by night. The foreman appealed to me as he rode down
the column, to know the length of the herd, but I could give him no
more than a simple guess. I could assure him, however, that the cattle
had made no effort to drop out and leave the trail. But a short time
after he passed me I noticed a horseman galloping up the column on the
opposite side of the herd, and knew it must be the foreman. Within a
short time, some one in the lead wig-wagged his lantern; it was
answered by the light in the rear, and the next minute the old rear
song,--
"Ip-e-la-ago, go 'long little doggie,
You 'll make a beef-steer by-and-by,"--
reached us riders in the swing, and we knew the rear guard of cattle
was being pushed forward. The distance between the swing men gradually
narrowed in our lead, from which we could tell the leaders were being
held in, until several times cattle grazed out from the herd, due to
the checking in front. At this juncture Flood galloped around the herd
a second time, and as he passed us riding along our side, I appealed
to him to let them go in front, as it now required constant riding to
keep the cattle from leaving the trail to graze. When he passed up the
opposite side, I could distinctly hear the men on that flank making a
similar appeal, and shortly afterwards the herd loosened out and we
struck our old gait for several hours.
Trailing by moonlight was a novelty to all of us, and in the stillness
of those splendid July nights we could hear the point men chatting
across the lead in front, while well in the rear, the rattling of our
heavily loaded wagon and the whistling of the horse wrangler to his
charges reached our ears. The swing men were scattered so far apart
there was no chance for conversation amongst us, but every once in a
while a song would be started, and as it surged up and down the line,
every voice, good, bad, and indifferent, joined in. Singing is
supposed to have a soothing effect on cattle, though I will vouch for
the fact that none of our Circle Dots stopped that night to listen to
our vocal efforts. The herd was traveling so nicely that our foreman
hardly noticed the passing hours, but along about midnight the singing
ceased, and we were nodding in our saddles and wondering if they in
the lead were never going to throw off the trail, when a great
wig-wagging occurred in front, and presently we overtook The Rebel,
holding the lantern and turning the herd out of the trail. It was then
after midnight, and within another half hour we had the cattle bedded
down within a few hundred yards of the trail. One-hour guards was the
order of the night, and as soon as our wagon and saddle horses came
up, we stretched ropes and caught out our night horses. These we
either tied to the wagon wheels or picketed near at hand, and then we
sought our blankets for a few hours' sleep. It was half past three in
the morning when our guard was called, and before the hour passed, the
first signs of day were visible in the east. But even before our watch
had ended, Flood and the last guard came to our relief, and we pushed
the sleeping cattle off the bed ground and started them grazing
forward.
Cattle will not graze freely in a heavy dew or too early in the
morning, and before the sun was high enough to dry the grass, we had
put several miles behind us. When the sun was about an hour high, the
remainder of the outfit overtook us, and shortly afterward the wagon
and saddle horses passed on up the trail, from which it was evident
that "breakfast would be served in the dining car ahead," as the
traveled Priest aptly put it. After the sun was well up, the cattle
grazed freely for several hours; but when we sighted the _remuda_ and
our commissary some two miles in our lead, Flood ordered the herd
lined up for a count. The Rebel was always a reliable counter, and he
and the foreman now rode forward and selected the crossing of a dry
wash for the counting. On receiving their signal to come on, we
allowed the herd to graze slowly forward, but gradually pointed them
into an immense "V," and as the point of the herd crossed the dry
arroyo, we compelled them to pass in a narrow file between the two
counters, when they again spread out fan-like and continued their
feeding.
The count confirmed the success of our driving by night, and on its
completion all but two men rode to the wagon for breakfast. By the
time the morning meal was disposed of, the herd had come up parallel
with the wagon but a mile to the westward, and as fast as fresh mounts
could be saddled, we rode away in small squads to relieve the herders
and to turn the cattle into the trail. It was but a little after eight
o'clock in the morning when the herd was again trailing out on the
Powder River trail, and we had already put over thirty miles of the
dry drive behind us, while so far neither horses nor cattle had been
put to any extra exertion. The wagon followed as usual, and for over
three hours we held the trail without a break, when sighting a divide
in our front, the foreman went back and sent the wagon around the herd
with instructions to make the noon camp well up on the divide. We
threw the herd off the trail, within a mile of this stopping place,
and allowed them to graze, while two thirds of the outfit galloped
away to the wagon.
We allowed the cattle to lie down and rest to their complete
satisfaction until the middle of the afternoon; meanwhile all hands,
with the exception of two men on herd, also lay down and slept in the
shade of the wagon. When the cattle had had several hours' sleep, the
want of water made them restless, and they began to rise and graze
away. Then all hands were aroused and we threw them upon the trail.
The heat of the day was already over, and until the twilight of the
evening, we trailed a three-mile clip, and again threw the herd off to
graze. By our traveling and grazing gaits, we could form an
approximate idea as to the distance we had covered, and the consensus
of opinion of all was that we had already killed over half the
distance. The herd was beginning to show the want of water by evening,
but amongst our saddle horses the lack of water was more noticeable,
as a horse subsisting on grass alone weakens easily; and riding them
made them all the more gaunt. When we caught up our mounts that
evening, we had used eight horses to the man since we had left the
South Fork, and another one would be required at midnight, or whenever
we halted.
We made our drive the second night with more confidence than the one
before, but there were times when the train of cattle must have been
nearly two miles in length, yet there was never a halt as long as the
man with the lead light could see the one in the rear. We bedded the
herd about midnight; and at the first break of day, the fourth guard
with the foreman joined us on our watch and we started the cattle
again. There was a light dew the second night, and the cattle,
hungered by their night walk, went to grazing at once on the damp
grass, which would allay their thirst slightly. We allowed them to
scatter over several thousand acres, for we were anxious to graze them
well before the sun absorbed the moisture, but at the same time every
step they took was one less to the coveted Powder River.
When we had grazed the herd forward several miles, and the sun was
nearly an hour high, the wagon failed to come up, which caused our
foreman some slight uneasiness. Nearly another hour passed, and still
the wagon did not come up nor did the outfit put in an appearance.
Soon afterwards, however, Moss Strayhorn overtook us, and reported
that over forty of our saddle horses were missing, while the work
mules had been overtaken nearly five miles back on the trail. On
account of my ability as a trailer, Flood at once dispatched me to
assist Honeyman in recovering the missing horses, instructing some one
else to take the _remuda_, and the wagon and horses to follow up the
herd. By the time I arrived, most of the boys at camp had secured a
change of horses, and I caught up my _grulla_, that I was saving for
the last hard ride, for the horse hunt which confronted us. McCann,
having no fire built, gave Honeyman and myself an impromptu breakfast
and two canteens of water; but before we let the wagon get away, we
rustled a couple of cans of tomatoes and buried them in a cache near
the camp-ground, where we would have no trouble in finding them on our
return. As the wagon pulled out, we mounted our horses and rode back
down the trail.
Billy Honeyman understood horses, and at once volunteered the belief
that we would have a long ride overtaking the missing saddle stock.
The absent horses, he said, were principally the ones which had been
under saddle the day before, and as we both knew, a tired, thirsty
horse will go miles for water. He recalled, also, that while we were
asleep at noon the day before, twenty miles back on the trail, the
horses had found quite a patch of wild sorrel plant, and were foolish
over leaving it. Both of us being satisfied that this would hold them
for several hours at least, we struck a free gait for it. After we
passed the point where the mules had been overtaken, the trail of the
horses was distinct enough for us to follow in an easy canter. We saw
frequent signs that they left the trail, no doubt to graze, but only
for short distances, when they would enter it again, and keep it for
miles. Shortly before noon, as we gained the divide above our noon
camp of the day before, there about two miles distant we saw our
missing horses, feeding over an alkali flat on which grew wild sorrel
and other species of sour plants. We rounded them up, and finding none
missing, we first secured a change of mounts. The only two horses of
my mount in this portion of the _remuda_ had both been under saddle
the afternoon and night before, and were as gaunt as rails, and
Honeyman had one unused horse of his mount in the hand. So when,
taking down our ropes, we halted the horses and began riding slowly
around them, forcing them into a compact body, I had my eye on a brown
horse of Flood's that had not had a saddle on in a week, and told
Billy to fasten to him if he got a chance. This was in violation of
all custom, but if the foreman kicked, I had a good excuse to offer.
Honeyman was left-handed and threw a rope splendidly; and as we
circled around the horses on opposite sides, on a signal from him we
whirled our lariats and made casts simultaneously. The wrangler
fastened to the brown I wanted, and my loop settled around the neck of
his unridden horse. As the band broke away from our swinging ropes, a
number of them ran afoul of my rope; but I gave the rowel to my
_grulla_, and we shook them off. When I returned to Honeyman, and we
had exchanged horses and were shifting our saddles, I complimented him
on the long throw he had made in catching the brown, and incidentally
mentioned that I had read of vaqueros in California who used a
sixty-five foot lariat. "Hell," said Billy, in ridicule of the idea,
"there wasn't a man ever born who could throw a sixty-five foot rope
its full length--without he threw it down a well."
The sun was straight overhead when we started back to overtake the
herd. We struck into a little better than a five-mile gait on the
return trip, and about two o'clock sighted a band of saddle horses and
a wagon camped perhaps a mile forward and to the side of the trail. On
coming near enough, we saw at a glance it was a cow outfit, and after
driving our loose horses a good push beyond their camp, turned and
rode back to their wagon.
"We 'll give them a chance to ask us to eat," said Billy to me, "and
if they don't, why, they'll miss a hell of a good chance to entertain
hungry men."
But the foreman with the stranger wagon proved to be a Bee County
Texan, and our doubts did him an injustice, for, although dinner was
over, he invited us to dismount and ordered his cook to set out
something to eat. They had met our wagon, and McCann had insisted on
their taking a quarter of our beef, so we fared well. The outfit was
from a ranch near Miles City, Montana, and were going down to receive
a herd of cattle at Cheyenne, Wyoming. The cattle had been bought at
Ogalalla for delivery at the former point, and this wagon was going
down with their ranch outfit to take the herd on its arrival. They had
brought along about seventy-five saddle horses from the ranch, though
in buying the herd they had taken its _remuda_ of over a hundred
saddle horses. The foreman informed us that they had met our cattle
about the middle of the forenoon, nearly twenty-five miles out from
Powder River. After we had satisfied the inner man, we lost no time
getting off, as we could see a long ride ahead of us; but we had
occasion as we rode away to go through their _remuda_ to cut out a few
of our horses which had mixed, and I found I knew over a dozen of
their horses by the ranch brands, while Honeyman also recognized quite
a few. Though we felt a pride in our mounts, we had to admit that
theirs were better; for the effect of climate had transformed horses
that we had once ridden on ranches in southern Texas. It does seem
incredible, but it is a fact nevertheless, that a horse, having
reached the years of maturity in a southern climate, will grow half a
hand taller and carry two hundred pounds more flesh, when he has
undergone the rigors of several northern winters.
We halted at our night camp to change horses and to unearth our cached
tomatoes, and again set out. By then it was so late in the day that
the sun had lost its force, and on this last leg in overtaking the
herd we increased our gait steadily until the sun was scarcely an hour
high, and yet we never sighted a dust-cloud in our front. About
sundown we called a few minutes' halt, and after eating our tomatoes
and drinking the last of our water, again pushed on. Twilight had
faded into dusk before we reached a divide which we had had in sight
for several hours, and which we had hoped to gain in time to sight the
timber on Powder River before dark. But as we put mile after mile
behind us, that divide seemed to move away like a mirage, and the
evening star had been shining for an hour before we finally reached
it, and sighted, instead of Powder's timber, the campfire of our
outfit about five miles ahead. We fired several shots on seeing the
light, in the hope that they might hear us in camp and wait; otherwise
we knew they would start the herd with the rising of the moon.
When we finally reached camp, about nine o'clock at night, everything
was in readiness to start, the moon having risen sufficiently. Our
shooting, however, had been heard, and horses for a change were tied
to the wagon wheels, while the remainder of the _remuda_ was under
herd in charge of Rod Wheat. The runaways were thrown into the horse
herd while we bolted our suppers. Meantime McCann informed us that
Flood had ridden that afternoon to the Powder River, in order to get
the lay of the land. He had found it to be ten or twelve miles distant
from the present camp, and the water in the river barely knee deep to
a saddle horse. Beyond it was a fine valley. Before we started, Flood
rode in from the herd, and said to Honeyman, "I'm going to send the
horses and wagon ahead to-night, and you and McCann want to camp on
this side of the river, under the hill and just a few hundred yards
below the ford. Throw your saddle horses across the river, and build a
fire before you go to sleep, so we will have a beacon light to pilot
us in, in case the cattle break into a run on scenting the water. The
herd will get in a little after midnight, and after crossing, we'll
turn her loose just for luck."
It did me good to hear the foreman say the herd was to be turned
loose, for I had been in the saddle since three that morning, had
ridden over eighty miles, and had now ten more in sight, while
Honeyman would complete the day with over a hundred to his credit. We
let the _remuda_ take the lead in pulling out, so that the wagon mules
could be spurred to their utmost in keeping up with the loose horses.
Once they were clear of the herd, we let the cattle into the trail.
They had refused to bed down, for they were uneasy with thirst, but
the cool weather had saved them any serious suffering. We all felt
gala as the herd strung out on the trail. Before we halted again there
would be water for our dumb brutes and rest for ourselves. There was
lots of singing that night. "There's One more River to cross," and
"Roll, Powder, roll," were wafted out on the night air to the coyotes
that howled on our flanks, or to the prairie dogs as they peeped from
their burrows at this weird caravan of the night, and the lights which
flickered in our front and rear must have been real Jack-o'-lanterns
or Will-o'-the-wisps to these occupants of the plain. Before we had
covered half the distance, the herd was strung-out over two miles, and
as Flood rode back to the rear every half hour or so, he showed no
inclination to check the lead and give the sore-footed rear guard a
chance to close up the column; but about an hour before midnight we
saw a light low down in our front, which gradually increased until the
treetops were distinctly visible, and we knew that our wagon had
reached the river. On sighting this beacon, the long yell went up and
down the column, and the herd walked as only long-legged, thirsty
Texas cattle can walk when they scent water. Flood called all the
swing men to the rear, and we threw out a half-circle skirmish line
covering a mile in width, so far back that only an occasional glimmer
of the lead light could be seen. The trail struck the Powder on an
angle, and when within a mile of the river, the swing cattle left the
deep-trodden paths and started for the nearest water.
The left flank of our skirmish line encountered the cattle as they
reached the river, and prevented them from drifting up the stream. The
point men abandoned the leaders when within a few hundred yards of the
river. Then the rear guard of cripples and sore-footed cattle came up,
and the two flanks of horsemen pushed them all across the river until
they met, when we turned and galloped into camp, making the night
hideous with our yelling. The longest dry drive of the trip had been
successfully made, and we all felt jubilant. We stripped bridles and
saddles from our tired horses, and unrolling our beds, were soon lost
in well-earned sleep.
The stars may have twinkled overhead, and sundry voices of the night
may have whispered to us as we lay down to sleep, but we were too
tired for poetry or sentiment that night.
CHAPTER XXI
THE YELLOWSTONE
The tramping of our _remuda_ as they came trotting up to the wagon the
next morning, and Honeyman's calling, "Horses, horses," brought us to
the realization that another day had dawned with its duty. McCann had
stretched the ropes of our corral, for Flood was as dead to the world
as any of us were, but the tramping of over a hundred and forty horses
and mules, as they crowded inside the ropes, brought him into action
as well as the rest of us. We had had a good five hours' sleep, while
our mounts had been transformed from gaunt animals to round-barreled
saddle horses,--that fought and struggled amongst themselves or
artfully dodged the lariat loops which were being cast after them.
Honeyman reported the herd quietly grazing across the river, and after
securing our mounts for the morning, we breakfasted before looking
after the cattle. It took us less than an hour to round up and count
the cattle, and turn them loose again under herd to graze. Those of us
not on herd returned to the wagon, and our foreman instructed McCann
to make a two hours' drive down the river and camp for noon, as he
proposed only to graze the herd that morning. After seeing the wagon
safely beyond the rocky crossing, we hunted up a good bathing pool and
disported ourselves for half an hour, taking a much needed bath. There
were trails on either side of the Powder, and as our course was
henceforth to the northwest, we remained on the west side and grazed
or trailed down it. It was a beautiful stream of water, having its
source in the Big Horn Mountains, frequently visible on our left. For
the next four or five days we had easy work. There were range cattle
through that section, but fearful of Texas fever, their owners gave
the Powder River a wide berth. With the exception of holding the herd
at night, our duties were light. We caught fish and killed grouse; and
the respite seemed like a holiday after our experience of the past few
days. During the evening of the second day after reaching the Powder,
we crossed the Crazy Woman, a clear mountainous fork of the former
river, and nearly as large as the parent stream. Once or twice we
encountered range riders, and learned that the Crazy Woman was a stock
country, a number of beef ranches being located on it, stocked with
Texas cattle.
Somewhere near or about the Montana line, we took a left-hand trail.
Flood had ridden it out until he had satisfied himself that it led
over to the Tongue River and the country beyond. While large trails
followed on down the Powder, their direction was wrong for us, as they
led towards the Bad Lands and the lower Yellowstone country. On the
second day out, after taking the left-hand trail, we encountered some
rough country in passing across a saddle in a range of hills forming
the divide between the Powder and Tongue rivers. We were nearly a
whole day crossing it, but had a well-used trail to follow, and down
in the foothills made camp that night on a creek which emptied into
the Tongue. The roughness of the trail was well compensated for,
however, as it was a paradise of grass and water. We reached the
Tongue River the next afternoon, and found it a similar stream to the
Powder,--clear as crystal, swift, and with a rocky bottom. As these
were but minor rivers, we encountered no trouble in crossing them, the
greatest danger being to our wagon. On the Tongue we met range riders
again, and from them we learned that this trail, which crossed the
Yellowstone at Frenchman's Ford, was the one in use by herds bound for
the Musselshell and remoter points on the upper Missouri. From one
rider we learned that the first herd of the present season which went
through on this route were cattle wintered on the Niobrara in western
Nebraska, whose destination was Alberta in the British possessions.
This herd outclassed us in penetrating northward, though in distance
they had not traveled half as far as our Circle Dots.
After following the Tongue River several days and coming out on that
immense plain tributary to the Yellowstone, the trail turned to the
northwest, gave us a short day's drive to the Rosebud River, and after
following it a few miles, bore off again on the same quarter. In our
rear hung the mountains with their sentinel peaks, while in our front
stretched the valley tributary to the Yellowstone, in extent, itself,
an inland empire. The month was August, and, with the exception of
cool nights, no complaint could be made, for that rarefied atmosphere
was a tonic to man and beast, and there was pleasure in the primitive
freshness of the country which rolled away on every hand. On leaving
the Rosebud, two days' travel brought us to the east fork of Sweet
Grass, an insignificant stream, with a swift current and rocky
crossings. In the first two hours after reaching it, we must have
crossed it half a dozen times, following the grassy bottoms, which
shifted from one bank to the other. When we were full forty miles
distant from Frenchman's Ford on the Yellowstone, the wagon, in
crossing Sweet Grass, went down a sidling bank into the bottom of the
creek, the left hind wheel collided with a boulder in the water,
dishing it, and every spoke in the wheel snapped off at the shoulder
in the felloe. McCann never noticed it, but poured the whip into the
mules, and when he pulled out on the opposite bank left the felloe of
his wheel in the creek behind. The herd was in the lead at the time,
and when Honeyman overtook us and reported the accident, we threw the
herd off to graze, and over half the outfit returned to the wagon.
When we reached the scene, McCann had recovered the felloe, but every
spoke in the hub was hopelessly ruined. Flood took in the situation at
a glance. He ordered the wagon unloaded and the reach lengthened, took
the axe, and, with The Rebel, went back about a mile to a thicket of
lodge poles which we had passed higher up the creek. While the rest of
us unloaded the wagon, McCann, who was swearing by both note and
rhyme, unearthed his saddle from amongst the other plunder and cinched
it on his nigh wheeler. We had the wagon unloaded and had reloaded
some of the heaviest of the plunder in the front end of the wagon box,
by the time our foreman and Priest returned, dragging from their
pommels a thirty-foot pole as perfect as the mast of a yacht. We
knocked off all the spokes not already broken at the hub of the ruined
wheel, and after jacking up the hind axle, attached the "crutch." By
cutting a half notch in the larger end of the pole, so that it fitted
over the front axle, lashing it there securely, and allowing the other
end to trail behind on the ground, we devised a support on which the
hub of the broken wheel rested, almost at its normal height. There was
sufficient spring to the pole to obviate any jolt or jar, while the
rearrangement we had effected in distributing the load would relieve
it of any serious burden. We took a rope from the coupling pole of the
wagon and loosely noosed it over the crutch, which allowed leeway in
turning, but prevented the hub from slipping off the support on a
short turn to the left. Then we lashed the tire and felloe to the
front end of the wagon, and with the loss of but a couple of hours our
commissary was again on the move.
The trail followed the Sweet Grass down to the Yellowstone; and until
we reached it, whenever there were creeks to ford or extra pulls on
hills, half a dozen of us would drop back and lend a hand from our
saddle pommels. The gradual decline of the country to the river was in
our favor at present, and we should reach the ford in two days at the
farthest, where we hoped to find a wheelwright. In case we did not,
our foreman thought he could effect a trade for a serviceable wagon,
as ours was a new one and the best make in the market. The next day
Flood rode on ahead to Frenchman's Ford, and late in the day returned
with the information that the Ford was quite a pretentious frontier
village of the squatter type. There was a blacksmith and a wheelwright
shop in the town, but the prospect of an exchange was discouraging, as
the wagons there were of the heavy freighting type, while ours was a
wide tread--a serious objection, as wagons manufactured for southern
trade were eight inches wider than those in use in the north, and
therefore would not track on the same road. The wheelwright had
assured Flood that the wheel could be filled in a day, with the
exception of painting, and as paint was not important, he had decided
to move up within three or four miles of the Ford and lie over a day
for repairing the wagon, and at the same time have our mules reshod.
Accordingly we moved up the next morning, and after unloading the
wagon, both box and contents, over half the outfit--the first and
second guards--accompanied the wagon into the Ford. They were to
return by noon, when the remainder of us were to have our turn in
seeing the sights of Frenchman's Ford. The horse wrangler remained
behind with us, to accompany the other half of the outfit in the
afternoon. The herd was no trouble to hold, and after watering about
the middle of the forenoon, three of us went into camp and got dinner.
As this was the first time since starting that our cook was absent, we
rather enjoyed the opportunity to practice our culinary skill. Pride
in our ability to cook was a weakness in our craft. The work was
divided up between Joe Stallings, John Officer, and myself, Honeyman
being excused on agreeing to rustle the wood and water. Stallings
prided himself on being an artist in making coffee, and while hunting
for the coffee mill, found a bag of dried peaches.
"Say, fellows," said Joe, "I'll bet McCann has hauled this fruit a
thousand miles and never knew he had it amongst all this plunder. I'm
going to stew a saucepan full of it, just to show his royal nibs that
he's been thoughtless of his boarders."
Officer volunteered to cut and fry the meat, for we were eating stray
beef now with great regularity; and the making of the biscuits fell to
me. Honeyman soon had a fire so big that you could not have got near
it without a wet blanket on; and when my biscuits were ready for the
Dutch oven, Officer threw a bucket of water on the fire, remarking:
"Honeyman, if you was _cusi segundo_ under me, and built up such a big
fire for the chef, there would be trouble in camp. You may be a good
enough horse wrangler for a through Texas outfit, but when it comes to
playing second fiddle to a cook of my accomplishments--well, you
simply don't know salt from wild honey. A man might as well try to
cook on a burning haystack as on a fire of your building."
When the fire had burned down sufficiently, the cooks got their
respective utensils upon the fire; I had an ample supply of live coals
for the Dutch oven, and dinner was shortly afterwards announced as
ready. After dinner, Officer and I relieved the men on herd, but over
an hour passed before we caught sight of the first and second guards
returning from the Ford. They were men who could stay in town all day
and enjoy themselves; but, as Flood had reminded them, there were
others who were entitled to a holiday. When Bob Blades and Fox
Quarternight came to our relief on herd, they attempted to detain us
with a description of Frenchman's Ford, but we cut all conversation
short by riding away to camp.
"We'll just save them the trouble, and go in and see it for
ourselves," said Officer to me, as we galloped along. We had left word
with Honeyman what horses we wanted to ride that afternoon, and lost
little time in changing mounts; then we all set out to pay our
respects to the mushroom village on the Yellowstone. Most of us had
money; and those of the outfit who had returned were clean shaven and
brought the report that a shave was two-bits and a drink the same
price. The town struck me as something new and novel, two thirds of
the habitations being of canvas. Immense quantities of buffalo hides
were drying or already baled, and waiting transportation as we
afterward learned to navigable points on the Missouri. Large bull
trains were encamped on the outskirts of the village, while many such
outfits were in town, receiving cargoes or discharging freight. The
drivers of these ox trains lounged in the streets and thronged the
saloons and gambling resorts. The population was extremely mixed, and
almost every language could be heard spoken on the streets. The men
were fine types of the pioneer,--buffalo hunters, freighters, and
other plainsmen, though hardly as picturesque in figure and costume as
a modern artist would paint them. For native coloring, there were
typical specimens of northern Indians, grunting their jargon amid the
babel of other tongues; and groups of squaws wandered through the
irregular streets in gaudy blankets and red calico. The only
civilizing element to be seen was the camp of engineers, running the
survey of the Northern Pacific railroad.
Tying our horses in a group to a hitch-rack in the rear of a saloon
called The Buffalo Bull, we entered by a rear door and lined up at the
bar for our first drink since leaving Ogalalla. Games of chance were
running in the rear for those who felt inclined to try their luck,
while in front of the bar, against the farther wall, were a number of
small tables, around which were seated the patrons of the place,
playing for the drinks. One couldn't help being impressed with the
unrestrained freedom of the village, whose sole product seemed to be
buffalo hides. Every man in the place wore the regulation six-shooter
in his belt, and quite a number wore two. The primitive law of nature
known as self-preservation, was very evident in August of '82 at
Frenchman's Ford. It reminded me of the early days at home in Texas,
where, on arising in the morning, one buckled on his six-shooter as
though it were part of his dress. After a second round of drinks, we
strolled out into the front street to look up Flood and McCann, and
incidentally get a shave. We soon located McCann, who had a hunk of
dried buffalo meat, and was chipping it off and feeding it to some
Indian children whose acquaintance he seemed to be cultivating. On
sighting us, he gave the children the remainder of the jerked buffalo,
and at once placed himself at our disposal as guide to Frenchman's
Ford. He had been all over the town that morning; knew the name of
every saloon and those of several barkeepers as well; pointed out the
bullet holes in a log building where the last shooting scrape
occurred, and otherwise showed us the sights in the village which we
might have overlooked. A barber shop? Why, certainly; and he led the
way, informing us that the wagon wheel would be filled by evening,
that the mules were already shod, and that Flood had ridden down to
the crossing to look at the ford.
Two barbers turned us out rapidly, and as we left we continued to take
in the town, strolling by pairs and drinking moderately as we went.
Flood had returned in the mean time, and seemed rather convivial and
quite willing to enjoy the enforced lay-over with us. While taking a
drink in Yellowstone Bob's place, the foreman took occasion to call
the attention of The Rebel to a cheap lithograph of General Grant
which hung behind the bar. The two discussed the merits of the
picture, and Priest, who was an admirer of the magnanimity as well as
the military genius of Grant, spoke in reserved yet favorable terms of
the general, when Flood flippantly chided him on his eulogistic
remarks over an officer to whom he had once been surrendered. The
Rebel took the chaffing in all good humor, and when our glasses were
filled, Flood suggested to Priest that since he was such an admirer of
Grant, possibly he wished to propose a toast to the general's health.
"You're young, Jim," said The Rebel, "and if you'd gone through what I
have, your views of things might be different. My admiration for the
generals on our side survived wounds, prisons, and changes of fortune;
but time has tempered my views on some things, and now I don't enthuse
over generals when the men of the ranks who made them famous are
forgotten. Through the fortunes of war, I saluted Grant when we were
surrendered, but I wouldn't propose a toast or take off my hat now to
any man that lives."
During the comments of The Rebel, a stranger, who evidently overheard
them, rose from one of the tables in the place and sauntered over to
the end of the bar, an attentive listener to the succeeding
conversation. He was a younger man than Priest,--with a head of heavy
black hair reaching his shoulders, while his dress was largely of
buckskin, profusely ornamented with beadwork and fringes. He was
armed, as was every one else, and from his languid demeanor as well as
from his smart appearance, one would classify him at a passing glance
as a frontier gambler. As we turned away from the bar to an unoccupied
table, Priest waited for his change, when the stranger accosted him
with an inquiry as to where he was from. In the conversation that
ensued, the stranger, who had noticed the good-humored manner in which
The Rebel had taken the chiding of our foreman, pretending to take him
to task for some of his remarks. But in this he made a mistake. What
his friends might safely say to Priest would be treated as an insult
from a stranger. Seeing that he would not stand his chiding, the other
attempted to mollify him by proposing they have a drink together and
part friendly, to which The Rebel assented. I was pleased with the
favorable turn of affairs, for my bunkie had used some rather severe
language in resenting the remarks of the stranger, which now had the
promise of being dropped amicably.
I knew the temper of Priest, and so did Flood and Honeyman, and we
were all anxious to get him away from the stranger. So I asked our
foreman as soon as they had drunk together, to go over and tell Priest
we were waiting for him to make up a game of cards. The two were
standing at the bar in a most friendly attitude, but as they raised
their glasses to drink, the stranger, holding his at arm's length,
said: "Here's a toast for you: To General Grant, the ablest"--
But the toast was never finished, for Priest dashed the contents of
his glass in the stranger's face, and calmly replacing the glass on
the bar, backed across the room towards us. When half-across, a sudden
movement on the part of the stranger caused him to halt. But it seemed
the picturesque gentleman beside the bar was only searching his
pockets for a handkerchief.
"Don't get your hand on that gun you wear," said The Rebel, whose
blood was up, "unless you intend to use it. But you can't shoot a
minute too quick to suit me. What do you wear a gun for, anyhow? Let's
see how straight you can shoot."
As the stranger made no reply, Priest continued, "The next time you
have anything to rub in, pick your man better. The man who insults
me'll get all that's due him for his trouble." Still eliciting no
response, The Rebel taunted him further, saying, "Go on and finish
your toast, you patriotic beauty. I'll give you another: Jeff Davis
and the Southern Confederacy."
We all rose from the table, and Flood, going over to Priest, said,
"Come along, Paul we don't want to have any trouble here. Let's go
across the street and have a game of California Jack."
But The Rebel stood like a chiseled statue, ignoring the friendly
counsel of our foreman, while the stranger, after wiping the liquor
from his face and person, walked across the room and seated himself at
the table from which he had risen. A stillness as of death pervaded
the room, which was only broken by our foreman repeating his request
to Priest to come away, but the latter replied, "No; when I leave this
place it will not be done in fear of any one. When any man goes out of
his way to insult me he must take the consequences, and he can always
find me if he wants satisfaction. We'll take another drink before we
go. Everybody in the house, come up and take a drink with Paul
Priest."
The inmates of the place, to the number of possibly twenty, who had
been witness to what had occurred, accepted the invitation, quitting
their games and gathering around the bar. Priest took a position at
the end of the bar, where he could notice any movement on the part of
his adversary as well as the faces of his guests, and smiling on them,
said in true hospitality, "What will you have, gentlemen?" There was a
forced effort on the part of the drinkers to appear indifferent to the
situation, but with the stranger sitting sullenly in their rear and an
iron-gray man standing at the farther end of the line, hungering for
an opportunity to settle differences with six-shooters, their
indifference was an empty mockery. Some of the players returned to
their games, while others sauntered into the street, yet Priest showed
no disposition to go. After a while the stranger walked over to the
bar and called for a glass of whiskey.
The Rebel stood at the end of the bar, calmly rolling a cigarette, and
as the stranger seemed not to notice him, Priest attracted his
attention and said, "I'm just passing through here, and shall
only be in town this afternoon; so if there's anything between us that
demands settlement, don't hesitate to ask for it."
The stranger drained his glass at a single gulp, and with admirable
composure replied, "If there's anything between us, we'll settle it in
due time, and as men usually settle such differences in this country.
I have a friend or two in town, and as soon as I see them, you will
receive notice, or you may consider the matter dropped. That's all I
care to say at present."
He walked away to the rear of the room, Priest joined us, and we
strolled out of the place. In the street, a grizzled, gray-bearded
man, who had drunk with him inside, approached my bunkie and said,
"You want to watch that fellow. He claims to be from the Gallatin
country, but he isn't, for I live there. There 's a pal with him, and
they've got some good horses, but I know every brand on the headwaters
of the Missouri, and their horses were never bred on any of its three
forks. Don't give him any the best of you. Keep an eye on him,
comrade." After this warning, the old man turned into the first open
door, and we crossed over to the wheelwright's shop; and as the wheel
would not be finished for several hours yet, we continued our survey
of the town, and our next landing was at The Buffalo Bull. On entering
we found four of our men in a game of cards at the very first table,
while Officer was reported as being in the gambling room in the rear.
The only vacant table in the bar-room was the last one in the far
corner, and calling for a deck of cards, we occupied it. I sat with my
back to the log wall of the low one-story room, while on my left and
fronting the door, Priest took a seat with Flood for his pardner,
while Honeyman fell to me. After playing a few hands, Flood suggested
that Billy go forward and exchange seats with some of our outfit, so
as to be near the door, where he could see any one that entered, while
from his position the rear door would be similarly guarded. Under this
change, Rod Wheat came back to our table and took Honeyman's place. We
had been playing along for an hour, with people passing in and out of
the gambling room, and expected shortly to start for camp, when
Priest's long-haired adversary came in at the front door, and, walking
through the room, passed into the gambling department.
John Officer, after winning a few dollars in the card room, was
standing alongside watching our game; and as the stranger passed by,
Priest gave him the wink, on which Officer followed the stranger and a
heavy-set companion who was with him into the rear room. We had played
only a few hands when the heavy-set man came back to the bar, took a
drink, and walked over to watch a game of cards at the second table
from the front door. Officer came back shortly afterward, and
whispered to us that there were four of them to look out for, as he
had seen them conferring together. Priest seemed the least concerned
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