CHAPTER X
TRAILING BLACK-TAILS
It was pleasant that night after supper was over, as they lay aboutthe bright fire in the lodge. During the afternoon, while Jack hadbeen fishing, Joe had split fine a lot of dry cottonwood sticks,and a good pile of them lay within the lodge door, just to itsleft. The fire blazed and crackled merrily and the draft was good,so that there was no smoke even in the top of the lodge.
Joe said to Jack, "Jack, have you seen all this old beaver work upnorth of the camp?"
"No," said Jack, "I have seen plenty of small beaver cuttings.There have been lots of beaver here, but I haven't seen any bigwork."
"Well," said Joe, "you'd better go up fifty yards from the camp,and you'll see there bigger trees cut down by the beaver than I'veever seen, and I've seen some beaver work in my day. Why, there'scottonwood logs there cut down by the beaver that are bigger roundthan my body, and I believe they're more than a foot through. Yousurely ought to see them."
"Well," said Jack, "I will in the morning."
"This used to be a great place for fur, didn't it Hugh?"
"Yes," said Hugh, "I expect when the white men first came in herethat beaver were awful plenty. Wherever I've been since I came intothis valley I've seen lots of old work but not much new work. Allthe same, these sticks that Joe is talking about are not very old;they were cut down only a few years ago. I guess 'twas a great furcountry. But, Lord! I've told you about the stories that peopleused to tell about Jackson's Lake. They used to say that prettynearly everything good in the mountains was to be found here, andplenty of it.
"Do you know, boys," Hugh continued, "I've about made up my mindwhat we'd better do? Now, we don't know the country here, none ofus, but I expect we can find our way around pretty well with thepack-train. I think the best thing we can do is to go back to thatlast big creek that we crossed, and follow that up to its head;then cross the mountains there, and get over onto Wind River;and then we can follow Wind River down; and then over and strikeSweetwater, and follow Sweetwater down to the Platte; and then, youknow, we're pretty near home. What do you say? Would either of yourather go any other way, or will you leave it that way?"
The boys sat silent for a little while, and then Joe said, "I thinkit will be good to do as Hugh says; he is the leader, and we willfollow him."
"I think so, too," said Jack. "Neither of us boys knows anythingabout the country, and we want to do just what you think is best,Hugh."
"Well," said Hugh, "I guess that is best, and if you say so, we'lldo it; and we'll start to-morrow morning if the weather is goodand the things are dry."
"All right," said both boys.
The next morning saw the little train following its back trail upSnake River for a few miles, when Hugh turned off to the right, andentered the valley of a great stream which rushed down from the RedMountain Range. The hills were low and rounded and composed of sandand gravel, covered with grass and sage-brush. On either side, fromtime to time, the stream had cut into the hills and washed awaythe gravel, and its bed was full of huge boulders; so that it wasnecessary for them to keep back on the ridge, at some distance fromthe water. The river was so large and along it there were so manyevidences of a vast body of water running down through this valleyin the spring, that it seemed evident that it must be a very longstream, and must drain a wide area of country. Before they had gonevery far, the sun, which had been shining, went behind clouds; itbegan to rain hard; and before long they began to get wet. Early inthe day, therefore, Hugh drew up his horse in the shelter of somespruces on a little bench about thirty feet above the valley, andsaid, "Let's camp, boys, and get out of this wet." It took but alittle time to put up the lodge, to unsaddle, get things coveredand a fire in the lodge, and also one outside under a shelter ofmanta, so that they were soon dry and comfortable again. Jack triedthe fishing, but the fish would not bite. The rain continued, andby the middle of the afternoon had changed to snow, and before darkthe ground was white. When they went to bed at night the snow wasstill falling and the weather was growing colder.
The next morning the snow had stopped, but it was two or threeinches deep on the ground. Everything was wet, and it looked as ifit might snow again at any time. Jack got tired of sitting roundthe fire, and watching Hugh fill his pipe, and light it and smokeit out, and then fill and light it again, and presently he proposedto Joe that they should go out and try to kill a deer. Joe wasready and they started. For a short distance, they followed thetrail up the river, and then turning to the left, took the firstridge and began to climb the hill on the north side of the valley.It was pretty wet. It had begun to rain again, and the snow wasdamp, and under the snow there seemed to be an inch or two ofwater. When they had to pass through willows and other underbrush,these wet the upper parts of their bodies. The ground was soft andslippery, and the down timber and the loose stones made walking andclimbing quite hard work. Nevertheless, they pushed on, and havingreached the top of the ridge, could see beyond other ridges towardwhich they climbed.
They crossed one or two elk tracks, made since the snow had stoppedfalling, but the animals were going pretty fast and they did notfollow them. A few deer tracks, made while the snow was falling,tempted them; but they did not follow them and continued to climb.The higher they went the harder it seemed to rain, and every littlewhile a heavy fog would rise from the valley, and creeping slowlyalong the mountains would shut out from sight one hilltop afteranother, until it reached them and hid everything from their sight.There was a little breeze blowing from the west, and these fogs didnot last long; but while they were about them the boys could onlystand still and wait for the mist to lift.
As they climbed they saw a good many birds: flickers, robins, andblue snow-birds, as well as some other western birds that Jack didnot know.
The boys climbed hill after hill for several hours, but saw nothingbut tracks, and none of these seemed worth following. At last Jackturned to Joe and said, "What do you say, Joe, shall we go anyfurther? It's pretty cold, and we can't see far, and perhaps wemight as well go down the hill again and get back to camp."
"Well," said Joe, "it's pretty cold and wet up here and we don'tsee much."
They turned and followed the ridge they were on for some littledistance, trying to see down into the valley, and to determinejust where the camp was. As they were doing this, all at oncethe fog lifted, and Jack saw, a little way before them, a greentimbered ridge leading down into the valley, pretty near where thecamp should be. As he looked down into the valley, Jack heard Joewhisper, "Hold on!" Jack stopped, slowly turned his head and threwa cartridge into his gun, and then stood motionless; for over thecrest of the ridge just above them had risen the horns, head andbody of an enormous black-tailed buck. Almost at once, two others,much smaller, followed him, and in a moment more two others, onenearly as large as the leader, and the other smaller, came up tothe top of the ridge and looked over. They were a long way off,perhaps three hundred yards, and neither boy dared move for fear ofstartling them, for two or three jumps would have taken them outof sight. The great leader had seen the boys at once, but couldnot make out what they were, and perhaps for ten minutes he stoodthere and watched. He was not alarmed or suspicious, but thesetwo upright objects, which might be stumps or might be somethingelse, excited his curiosity, and he kept looking at them. The deerstood on the very crest of the ridge, with only a white sky fora background; so that the outline of his graceful form and largebranching horns was plainly visible.
While he stood there watching, the other deer wandered about,now taking a bite of grass and again giving a long look over thecountry. One of the smallest came a few steps down the face of theridge to a low pine, three or four feet in height, against which hebegan to rub his horns and head, just as a deer or an elk does whenridding the antlers of the velvet, or, as it is termed, "shaking."The large one, next in size to the leader, came still further downthe bluff and began to feed at a bush that grew there. A third, thesmallest of all, was very playful and frisked
about almost as afawn might do.
At length, after his long, long stare, during which the boysscarcely breathed, the big leader seemed satisfied. He shookhimself, and then turned and gave a long look to the east and oneto the west; then he lowered his head, took a bite of some weed,and stepping proudly along the ridge for a few yards, turned awayand walked out of sight. While he was doing this, two of the youngdeer, like boys when the schoolmaster's back is turned and theyfeel that they can begin to play, backed away from each other, andthen charged each other, coming together vigorously, head to head.It did not seem to be done angrily, but rather in sport, and one ofthem, being evidently much the stronger of the two, as he was thelarger, pushed the other a few feet backward, when the smaller onesprang lightly out of the way, and both turned and walked off afterthe big buck.
Four of the deer had now moved out of sight, and there remainedonly the large one feeding on the hillside. A couple of deadtrees, one leaning against the other, stood sixty or seventy yardsin front of the boys, between them and the deer, and it seemedpossible by moving up behind these to approach within rifle-shot.He was busily eating, and when he had his head down the boyswhispered to each other. Jack said, "Let us sneak up behind thosetrees, and we can get near enough to kill him, I guess."
"Better wait," said Joe, "pretty soon he'll go off over the hill,and then we can follow him, and get one sure."
But Jack had not yet learned the patience which makes an Indianso certain of his game; he began to make a slow approach, but hadtaken only a few steps when suddenly the deer stopped feeding,looked about him, walked briskly up to the top of the ridge,and then pausing for a moment to see where his companions were,followed them over the ridge and out of sight.
At last the coast was clear; the boys hurried toward the ridge,and clambered up its steep face with breathless haste. When theyreached the crest they cautiously looked over, but saw nothing,and still as they slowly advanced in the direction which the deerseemed to have taken, the game was not seen. They were just aboutto go back and take the deers' tracks, when suddenly, without aninstant's warning, a mountain hurricane of hail, rain and snowswept down upon them, blotting from view every object save thosedirectly at their feet. The wind blew cold, and the rain and hailpelted them. There was no shelter, and all they could do was toturn their backs to the blast and stand there waiting. The stormlasted but a few moments, and as soon as it was over they startedback, and soon crossed the tracks of the deer, not far from theridge. All had been walking slowly, except the last one, who wastrotting to catch up with the others. The trail led over therolling ground, toward two little groups of spruces, and when theboys saw these, and could not see the deer on the open groundbeyond, they looked at each other and nodded, each feeling surethat the animals would be found in this timber.
They were still a hundred yards from the nearest clump of treeswhen Joe's eye caught sight of something moving just beyond them,and almost at the same time Jack saw something dark move againstthe snow. They made themselves very small, and keeping the thickfoliage of the trees between themselves and the deer, creptcarefully up almost to the timber. Suddenly, through a littleopening in the branches, Jack saw three deer standing closetogether--the big leader and two of the yearlings. He wanted theleader, of course, and yet he could see only his head and neck,and hesitated to shoot at the neck, for he was chilled and shakingwith the cold. However, he determined to risk it, and looking roundat Joe saw that he was ready, and that he nodded. Jack fired, theleader disappeared, and a moment later four deer ran out over thesnow, beyond the trees, and stopped; and as they turned to lookback, Joe fired, and killed the other big deer.
"Hurrah!" said Jack, and he shook Joe's hand, "we've surely gotplenty of meat now."
"Yes," said Joe, "good meat, too."
They found the big leader lying on the snow just beyond the trees,his neck broken, and the other big deer not more than fifty yardsbeyond him.
"Now, Jack," said Joe, "I tell you what we'd better do: you goback to camp and get two pack horses, and fetch 'em up here, andI'll butcher these deer, and then we can take 'em back to the campto-night. We don't want to make two trips."
"That's so," said Jack, "I'll either go back for the horses orbutcher, whichever you like."
"No," said Joe, "you go back, and when I get through butcheringI'll make a little fire here and dry off, and wait for you."
"All right," said Jack, "I'll do it. I don't believe it'll take mevery long to get back to camp, and I'll be back here in an hour ortwo, anyhow."
He at once started, and was soon following the green timberedridge down to the stream. When he reached there he found thatcamp was only a short distance further down the creek, and he wassoon standing by the fire. Hugh had heard the shots, and was notsurprised when Jack told them that they had two deer. Jack wentout to look up the horses, and soon returned with two of them, andputting saddles on them, mounted one, and rode off up the hillleading the other.