CHAPTER XII
AFTER THE RUSTLERS
"Rough riding," as it is called, made up more than half the fun thecowboys indulged in among themselves. There has, of late years, beenso much of this done in public, in traveling "wild west" shows, and inexhibitions of some features of the _rodeo_ in New York and other largecities, that I believe most of you are familiar with the feats ofcowboys on these trained and untrained "broncks," or outlawhorses--"mankillers" some of them are dubbed.
I might say that there are two classes of this rough riding. One isthe real thing, on horses or cow ponies that are naturally bad, andnever can be broken or trained to behave. The other is on what mightbe called "professional buckers." That is, horses which have trainedto try and unseat their riders as long as they are expected to do this.
I venture to say most of you have seen exhibitions of rough riding in awild west, traveling show, or in some _rodeo_, as an imitation round-upis called after its Spanish title. And most of you, I believe, havebeen impressed with the fact that as soon as the man got off the backof the bucking steed the said steed became as gentle as a lamb. Thisis what those that are trained to it do purposely, but it is not what areal dyed-in-the-wool outlaw does. For he does not let up in hisattack on the man even after the latter is out of the saddle.
Perhaps some of you, at a rodeo, have seen a rider come bursting out ofthe pen on the back of a rearing, bucking, leaping steed. After thefirst burst two cowboys would ride up, one on either side of thebucker, and take off, on their own stirrups or saddle the fearlessrider. And then the so-called "outlaw" would let himself be led meeklyback into the pen to be ready for the next performance, when it wouldall be gone through with again.
But occasionally you may have seen one of these horses lash outviciously with his heels, in an endeavor to kick anyone he could reach,not even excluding his fellow steeds. This is a specimen of a realoutlaw, who never lets up in his fight against man. But few of thesehorses are taken about in a traveling show. They are too dangerous.
However, the two that were fenced off in the corral at North Stationwere of the real "bad" variety. They had been partly tamed, but theirtempers had been spoiled and they were really dangerous to approach.Hence they were confined in a small space, and not allowed out.
However, cowboys are by nature reckless, and to them bucking horses arebut a source of amusement and rivalry. Each cowboy thinks he can ridesome steed no one else can mount. And for the purpose of contests orexhibitions, to relieve the monotony of "riding range," there arefacilities for saddling and bridling these horses without danger tothose doing it.
This method consists of putting the horse in a long narrow place like astall in a stable, through the bars of which the boys can reach in,throw on the saddle and tighten it. Then a rider can climb into thesaddle over the top rail of the fence and at a signal a gate can beopened, allowing the maddened steed to rush out.
Then the fun begins.
"I'm goin' t' ride!" yelled Snake.
"Take th' big one then," advised Sam. "He ain't quite so bad as th'other."
"I want th' meanest one!" insisted Snake, "an' if it's th' smallestI'll ride him!"
"Better not!" advised the foreman, but Snake was not to be persuadedagainst it. And the other cowboys, scenting fun, were not very anxiousto have Snake change his mind.
Accordingly some of the men who had handled Red Pepper before--RedPepper being the name of the horse--arranged to get a saddle on him,and to slip a sort of bridle over his head. But he had no bit, for itwas as much as a man's hands were worth to try and force the bar ofsteel between the teeth of this outlaw.
"Now you watch me!" cried Snake when, after hard work, the saddle hadbeen strapped on and pulled tight. "I'm goin' t' fan him."
I might explain that it is considered cowboy ethics to ride with onlyone hand on the reins, whether a bit is used or not, and in the otherhand, usually the left, the cowboy carries his hat with which he hitsthe steed on either side of the neck, "fanning him," it is called. Andno rough rider would ever think of sitting on the worst bucker in theworld without thus riding with one hand and "fanning" with the other.Meanwhile, of course, he keeps up a wild whooping sound, just to showhis spirits.
The feeling of a man on his back--a feeling he hates, the wildwhooping, the jab of the spurs and the flapping hat around his headserves further to madden the bucker and it is a wonder any human beingcan stay on his back a second. Yet cowboys do, and ride until they aretired of the sport.
"Are you ready?" called the cowboys who had saddled the "mankiller," asSam dubbed the small horse.
"Let him out!" yelled Snake.
The fastenings of the gate were loosed and out rushed the animal withthe cowboy bobbing about on his back. Red Pepper seemed a whirlwind offury. He rushed forward, his nose almost touching the ground, and thenhe began to go up in the air. Up he would leap, coming down with allfour legs held stiff and his back arched, to shake, if it werepossible, Snake from the saddle. The cowboy rose in his stirrups totake the shock as much as possible from his frame, and with a yell,began "fanning" Red Pepper.
This added to the fury of the beast, and it fairly screamed in rageand, reaching back, tried to bite Snake's legs. But they wereprotected by heavy leather "chaps," and the animal soon realized this.
He now began leaping sideways, a form of bucking that often unseats arider, but Snake was proof against this. And all the while the animalwas dashing around the larger corral, on the fence of which sat the boyranchers and their friends, watching this cowboy fun. As they watchedthey laughed and called such remarks as:
"Fan him, Snake! Fan him!"
"Whoopee! That's stickin' to him!"
"Tickle him in the ear, Snake!"
"Want any court plaster t' hold you down?"
Snake paid little attention to this "advice" of his friends. In facthe had little time, for he discovered that his "work was all cut outfor him," before he had been many seconds on the back of Red Pepper.The steed in very truth was an outlaw of the worst type.
Finding that the methods usually successful--those of bucking andkicking out with his hind feet--were of no avail, the animal adoptednew tactics. He reared high in the air, with a scream of rage--rearedso high that there was a gasp of dismay from the spectators. Forsurely it seemed that the horse would topple over backward and, fallingon Snake, would crush and kill him.
But the cowboy had ridden horses like this before, and with a smartblow between the animal's ears Snake gave notice that it would beconsidered more polite if his steed would keep on all four feet.
Down came Red Pepper with a jar that shook every bone in Snake's body,but he remained in the saddle, and with more wild yells brought hisbroad-brimmed hat down again and again on the animal's neck.
Again Red Pepper dashed forward, bucked again, worse than before andstill finding the hated rider on his back began to play one of his mostdesperate tricks.
This consisted of lying down and trying to roll over his rider. Ifsuccessful, it would crush the rider almost as badly as if he had beentoppled on from a backward fall.
"Look out, Snake! He's going to roll!" warned Sam.
But Snake was ready.
Suddenly Red Pepper stopped bucking. But before Snake could catch hislabored breath the horse knelt down and started to roll over, at thesame time opening his mouth to bite whatever portion of Snake firstcame within reach.
Snake, however, had been through an experience like this before. In aninstant he had leaped from the saddle and was out of danger. That is,out of danger in a way. But he and the others realized that as soon ashe could Red Pepper would get to his feet again and run after thecowboy. It was that which made this particular animal so dangerous.He never gave up fighting his rider, even when the latter was unseated;and he had killed two men.
"Watch yourself!" cried Sam.
But Snake was ready, and so were some of the other cowboys, for theyhad feared just this ending of the att
empt to ride Red Pepper. Nosooner was Snake out of the saddle than two of his friends dashedtoward him, picking him up between them so that he rode with a foot oneither of their inner stirrups.
Meanwhile some other cowboys rode up to get the outlaw back into thecorral. This was no easy work, but they had given him little chance,and with two lariats about his neck, so that he could be held fromeither side, he was, after some time, gotten back in his pen.
"Well, I rode him," chuckled Snake, when it was all over.
"And you came out of it luckier than lots of 'em," added the foreman."Red Pepper sure is a bad one!"
"Oh, shucks!" laughed Snake. "That jest gave me an appetite."
And, really, it seemed to. But perhaps Snake was hungry, anyhow.
After the meal there was a general talk about the raid of the rustlers.And then as the cowboys sat about in the evening they indulged invarious forms of sport and fun, in which the boy ranchers joined.
Bright and early those who were to take the trail after the cattlethieves were on their way, taking with them enough food to last forseveral days. They were now better prepared than when they had firststarted out from Diamond X.
It was comparatively easy to pick up the trail left by the rustlers andsoon our friends were riding after them, though of course several hoursbehind them. But as had been said, the ground was of a nature that didnot lend itself well to haste, and if the thieves stampeded theiranimals they would, very likely, lose them. They could only go so fastand Billee and his cowboys hoped soon to come up to the raiders.
It was nearly noon when one of the cowboys who was riding on ahead,came to a stop on a little rise of land and, shading his eyes from thesun, looked long and earnestly off to his left.
"See anything?" asked Bud, who with his cousins rode up.
"I think so, but I'm not sure," was the reply. "But doesn't it looklike a bunch of cattle there?" and he pointed.
The boy ranchers gazed earnestly.
"It sure does look like 'em to me!" declared Nort.
"Could it be one of our regular herds?" Dick asked.
"None of our cattle are down that way," the cowboy said.
"Then they're rustlers!" cried Bud. "After 'em, boys!"