Chapter IIKing Bison
"Up! Up, everybody!" was the shout that reached Dick's sleepingears. He sprang to his feet and found that the gorgeous sun wasflooding the prairie with light. Already the high, brilliantskies of the Great West were arching over him. Men were cookingbreakfast. Teamsters were cracking their whips and the wholecamp was alive with a gay and cheerful spirit. Everybody seemedto know now that they were going for the gold, and, like Dick,they had found it in fancy already.
Breakfast over, the train took up its march, turning at a rightangle from its old course and now advancing almost due north.But this start was made with uncommon alacrity and zeal. Therewere no sluggards now. They, too, had golden visions, and, as ifto encourage them, the aspect of the country soon began tochange, and rapidly to grow better. The clouds of dust that theyraised were thinner. The bunch grass grew thicker. Off on thecrest of a swell a moving figure was seen now and then."Antelope," said the hunters. Once they passed a slow creek.The water was muddy, but it contained no alkali, and animals andmen drank eagerly. Cottonwoods, the first trees they had seen indays, grew on either side of the stream, and they rested thereawhile in the shade, because the sun was now out in fullsplendor, and the vast plains shimmered in the heat.
Albert resumed his place in the wagon. Dick had a horse which,on becoming foot-sore, had been allowed to rest for a few days,and was now well. He mounted it and galloped on ahead. Theclouds were all gone away and the golden visions had come back.He felt so strong, so young, and the wonderful air of the plainswas such a tonic that he urged his horse to a gallop, and it washard for him to keep from shouting aloud in joy. He lookedeagerly into the north, striving already for a sight of the darkmountains that men called the Black Hills. The blue gave backnothing but its own blue.
His horse seemed to share his spirits, and swung along with swiftand easy stride. Dick looked back presently, and saw that thetrain which had been winding like a serpent over the plains waslost to sight behind the swells. The surface of the earth hadbecome more rolling as they advanced northward, and he knew thatthe train, though out of sight, was nor far away.
He enjoyed for the moment the complete absence of all humanbeings save himself. To be alone then meant anything butloneliness. He galloped to the crest of a higher swell thanusual, and then stopped short. Far off on the plain he saw tinymoving figures, a dozen or so, and he was sure that they wereantelope. They had seen antelope before at a great distance, buthad not bothered about them. Now the instincts of the hunterrose in Dick, and he resolved to make a trial of his skill.
He found in one of the depressions between the swells a stuntedcottonwood, to which he hitched his horse, knowing it would bewell hidden there from the observation of the herd. He thenadvanced on foot. He had heard that the antelope was a slave toits own curiosity, and through that weakness he intended tosecure his game.
When he had gone about half the distance he sank down on hishands and knees and began to crawl, a laborious and sometimespainful operation, burdened as he was with his rifle, and unusedto such methods of locomotion. Presently he noticed a flutteramong the antelope, a raising of timid heads, an alarmed lookingin his direction. But Dick was prepared. He lay flat upon hisface, and dug the point of the long hunting knife that he carriedinto the ground, while the wind blew out the folds of the redhandkerchief which he had tied to the handle.
Mr. Big Buck Antelope, the chief of the herd and a wary veteran,saw the waving red spot on the horizon and his interest wasaroused, despite his caution. What a singular thing! It must beinvestigated! It might be some new kind of food very good forMr. Big Buck's palate and stomach, and no provident antelopecould afford to let such an opportunity pass.
He was trembling all over with curiosity, and perhaps hisexcitement kept him from seeing the dark shape that blurred withthe earth just beyond the red something, or he may have taken itfor a shadow. At any event, his curiosity kept him from payingheed to it, and he began to approach. His steps were hesitating,and now and then he drew away a little, but that singular redobject lured him on, and yard by yard he drew nearer.
He suddenly saw the black shadow beyond the fluttering red objectdetach itself from the ground, and resolve into a terribleshape. His heart sprang up in his bosom, and he was about torush madly away, but it was too late. A stream of fire shotforth from the dark object and the buck fell, a bullet throughhim.
Dick prepared the animal for dressing, thinking of the tender,juicy steaks that Albert would enjoy, and then throwing the bodyacross the horse, behind him, rode back to the train, proud ofhis success.
Conway frowned and said grudging words. He did not like, hesaid, for anybody to leave the train without his permission, andit was foolish, anyhow, for a boy to be galloping about as hepleased over the prairie; he might get lost, and there would benobody to take care of the other boy, the sick one. Dick made aneasy diplomatic reply. He knew that Conway merely wished to beunpleasant, but Dick was of a very good nature, and he wasparticularly averse just then to quarreling with anybody. He wastoo full of the glory of living. Instead, he offered some of theantelope steaks to Conway, who churlishly accepted them, and thatnight he broiled others for Albert and himself, dividing the restamong the men.
Albert found antelope steak tender and juicy, and he ate with anincreasing appetite. Dick noted the increase with pleasure.
"I wish I could go out and kill antelope," said Albert.
Dick laughed cheerfully.
"Kill antelope," he said. "Why, Al, in six months you'll betaking a grizzly bear by the neck and choking him to death withyour two hands."
"Wish I could believe it," said Albert.
But Dick went to sleep early that night, and slept peacefullywithout dreams or visions, and the next morning the train resumedits sanguine march. They were still ascending, and the characterof the country continued to improve. Bunch grass steadily grewthicker and buffalo chips were numerous. The heat in the middleof the day was still great, but the air was so dry and pure thatit was not oppressive. Albert dismounted from the wagon, andwalked for several miles by the side of his brother.
"Shouldn't be surprised if we saw buffalo," said Dick. "Heard'em talking about it in the train. Bright Sun says these arefavorite grazing grounds, and there's still a lot of buffaloscattered about the plains."
Albert showed excitement.
"A buffalo herd!" he exclaimed. "Do you think it can reallyhappen, Dick? I never thought I'd see such a thing! I hopeit'll come true!"
It came true much sooner than Albert hoped.
Scarcely a half hour after he spoke, Bright Sun, who was at thehead of the column, stopped his pony and pointed to indistincttiny shadows just under the horizon.
"Buffalo!" he said tersely, and after a moment's pause he added:"A great herd comes!"
Dick and Albert were on foot then, but they heard his words andfollowed his pointing finger with the deepest interest. The tinyblack shadows seemed to come out of the horizon as if theystepped from a wall. They grew in size and number, and all thewest was filled with their forms.
The train resumed its march, bending off under the guidance ofBright Sun a little toward the west, and it was obvious that theherd would pass near. Dick and Albert rejoiced, because theywished to see the buffaloes at close quarters, and Dick washoping also for a shot. Others, too, in the train, althoughtheir minds were set on gold, began to turn their attention nowto the herd. The sport and the fresh meat alike would bewelcome. It was Dick's impulse to mount his horse and gallopaway again, gun in hand, but he made a supreme conquest over selfand remained. He remembered Albert's longing words about theantelope, his wish that he, too, tireless, might be able topursue the game. Dick remained quietly by his brother's side.
The whole train stopped presently at Conway's order on the crestof a swell, and drew itself up in a circle. Many of the men werenow mounted and armed for an attack upon the herd, but at thesuggestion of Bright Sun they waited a lit
tle, until theopportunity should become more convenient.
"It is a big herd," said Bright Sun; "perhaps the biggest thatone can ever see now."
It certainly seemed immense to Dick and Albert. The greatanimals came on in an endless stream from the blue wall of thehorizon. The vast procession steadily broadened and lengthenedand it moved with unceasing step toward the south. The body ofit was solid black, with figures which at the distance blendedinto one mass, but on the flanks hung stragglers, lawless oldbulls or weaklings, and outside there was a fringe of hungrywolves, snapping and snarling, and waiting a chance to drag downsome failing straggler.
Far over the plain spread the herd, thousands and tens ofthousands, and the earth shook with their tread. Confused,bellowings and snortings arose, and the dust hung thick.
Dick and Albert stared with intent eyes at the wonderful scene.The herd was drawing nearer and nearer. It would pass only a fewhundred yards from the crest on which the train stood. Alreadythe hunters were shouting to one another and galloping away, butDick did not stir from Albert's side. Albert's eyes wereexpanded, and the new color in his face deepened. His breath camin the short, quick fashion of one who is excited. He suddenlyturned to his brother.
"The men are off! Why aren't you with them Dick?" he exclaimed.
"I thought I wouldn't go," replied Dick evasively. "There'll beenough without me."
Albert stared. Not hunt buffalo when one could. It wasunbelievable. Then he comprehended. But he would not have itthat way! It was noble of Dick, but it should not be so for amoment. He cried out, a note of anxiety in this voice:
"No, Dick, you shall not say here with me! My time will comelater on! Jump on your horse, Dick, and join 'em! I won'tforgive you if you don't!"
Dick saw that Albert was in earnest, and he knew that it would bebetter for them both now if he should go.
"All right, Al!" he cried, "I'll pick out a good fat one." Hejumped on his horse and in a moment was galloping at full speedover the plain toward the great herd which now rushed on, blackand thundering.
Dick heard shots already from those who had preceded him, and theexultant shouts of the men mingled with the roar of mightytramplings. But it was not all triumph for the men, few of whomwere experienced. Two or three had been thrown by shying horses,and with difficulty escaped being trodden to death under the feetof the herd. The herd itself was so immense that it did notnotice these few wasps on a distant flank, and thundered steadilyon southward.
Dick's own horse, frightened by such a tremendous sight, shiedand jumped, but the boy had a sure seat and brought him aroundagain. Dick himself was somewhat daunted by the aspect of theherd. If he and his hose got in the way, they would go downforever, as surely as if engulfed by an avalanche.
The horse shied again and made a mighty jump, as a huge bull,red-eyed and puffing, charged by. Dick, who was holding hisrifle in one hand, slipped far over, and with great difficultyregained his balance on the horse's back. When he was secureagain, he turned his mount and galloped along for some distanceon the flank of the herd, seeking a suitable target for hisbullet. The effect was dizzying. So many thousands were rushingbeside him that the shifting panorama made him wink his eyesrapidly. Vast clouds of dust floated about, now and thenenveloping him, and that made him wink his eyes, too. But hecontinued, nevertheless, to seek for his target a fat cow.Somehow he didn't seem to see anything just then but old bulls.They were thick on the flanks of the herd either as stragglers orprotectors, and Dick was afraid to press in among them in hissearch for the cow.
His opportunity came at last. A young cow, as fat as one couldwish, was thrown on the outside by some movement of the herd,caught, as it were, like a piece of driftwood in an eddy, andDick instantly fired at her. She staggered and went down, but atthe same instant a huge, shaggy bull careened against Dick andhis horse. It was not so much a charge as an accident, thechance of Dick's getting in the bull's way, and the boy's escapewas exceedingly narrow.
His horse staggered and fell to his knees. The violence of theshock wrested Dick's rifle from his hand, and he was barely quickenough to grasp it as it was sliding across the saddle. But hedid save it, and the horse, trembling and frightened, recoveredhis feet. By that time the old bull and his comrades were gone.
Dick glanced around and was relieved to see that nobody hadnoticed his plight. They were all too much absorbed in their ownefforts to pay any heed to him. The body took a deep, longbreath. He had killed a buffalo, despite his inexperience.There was the cow to show for it.
The herd thundered off to the southward, the clouds of dust andthe fringe of wolves following it. About a dozen of their numberhad fallen before the rifles, but Dick had secured the fattestand the tenderest. Albert, as proud as Dick himself of histriumph, came down on the plain and helped as much as he could inskinning and cutting up the cow. Dick wished to preserve therobe, and they spread it out on the wagon to dry.
The train made no further attempt to advance that day, butdevoted the afternoon to a great feast. Bright Sun showed themhow to cook the tenderest part of the hump in the coals, and farinto the night the fires blazed.
"We will see no more buffaloes for a while," said Bright Sun."To-morrow we reach another little river coming down from thehills, and the ground becomes rough."
Bright Sun told the truth. They reached the river about noon ofthe next day, and, as it flowed between steep banks, the crossingwas difficult. It took many hours to get on the other side, andtwo or three axles were broken by the heavy jolts. Conway ragedand swore, calling them a clumsy lot, and some of the men refusedto take his abuse, replying to his hard words with others equallyas hard. Pistols were drawn and there was promise of trouble,but it was finally stopped, partly by the persuasion of others,and partly of its own accord. The men were still feeling thedesire for gold too strongly to fight while on the way to it.Dick and Albert kept aloof from these contentions, steadilyminding their own business, and they found, as others do, that itpaid.
They came presently into a better country, and the way led for aday or two through a typical part of the Great Plains, not a flatregion, but one of low, monotonous swells. Now and then theycrossed a shallow little creek, and occasionally they came topools, some of which were tinged with alkali. There werenumerous small depressions, two or three feet deep, and Dick knewthat they were "buffalo wallows." He and Albert examined themwith interest.
"This is buffalo country again," said Dick. "Everything provesit. The grass here is the best that we have seen in a long time,and I imagine that it's just the sort of place they would love."
The grass was, indeed, good, as Dick had said, not merely clumpsof it, but often wide, carpeted spaces. It was somewhat dry, andturning brown, but so big and strong an animal as the buffalowould not mind it. In fact, they saw several small groups ofbuffaloes grazing at a distance, usually on the crest of one ofthe low swells. As they already had plenty of buffalo meat, themen of the train did not trouble them, and the great animalswould continue to crop the grass undisturbed.
About a week after the buffalo hunt they camped in a great plainsomewhat flatter than any that they had encountered hitherto, anddrew up the wagons in a loose circle.
The day had been very hot, but, as usual on the plains, the nightbrought coolness. The fire which Dick made of buffalo chips wasnot only useful, but it felt pleasant, too, as they sat besideit, ate their supper, and watched the great inclosing circle ofdarkness creep up closer and closer to the camp. There was notmuch noise about them. The men were tired, and as soon as theyate their food they fell asleep in the wagons or on the ground.The tethered horses and mules stirred a little for a while, butthey, too, soon rested in peace.
"You take the wagon, Al," said Dick, "but I think I'll sleep onthe ground."
Albert said good night and disappeared in the wagon. Dick stoodup and looked over the camp. Only two or three fires were yetburning, and not a dozen men were awake. He saw dark figuresher
e and there on the ground, and knew that they were those ofsleepers. Three sentinels had been posted, but Dick was quitesure from the general character of the train that later on theywould sleep like the others. All his instincts of order andfitness rebelled against the management of this camp.
Dick rolled himself in his blanket and lay down by the littlefire that he had built. The dry, clean earth made a good bed,and with his left elbow under his head he gazed into the fire,which, like all fires of buffalo chips, was now rapidly dying,leaving little behind but light ashes that the first breeze wouldscatter through space.
He watched the last blaze sink and go out, he saw the last coaldie, then, when a few sparks flew upward, there was blankdarkness where the fire had been. All the other fires were out,too, and only the dim figures of the wagons showed. He felt, fora little while, as if he were alone in the wilderness, but he wasnot afraid. All was darkness below, and the wind was moaning,but overhead was a blue sky filled with friendly stars.
Dick could not go to sleep for a long time. From the point wherehe lay he could now see two of the sentinels walking back andforth, rifle on shoulder. He did not believe that they wouldcontinue to do so many hours, and he had a vague sort of desireto prove that he was right. Having nothing else to do he watchedthem.
The nearer sentinel grew lazier in his walk, and his beat becameshorter. At last he dropped his rifle to the ground, leaned hisfolded arms on its muzzle, and gazed toward the camp, where, sofar as he could see, there was nothing but darkness and sleep.The other presently did the same. Then they began short walksback and forth, but soon both sat down on the ground, with theirrifles between their knees, and after that they did not stir.Watching as closely as he could Dick could not observe theslightest movement on the part of either, and he knew that theywere asleep. He laughed to himself, pleased, in a way, to knowthat he had been right, although it was only another evidence ofthe carelessness and indifference general throughout the train.
He fell asleep himself in another half hour, but he awoke aboutmidnight, and he was conscious at once that he had been awakenednot by a troubled mind, but by something external and unusual.He was lying with his right ear to the ground, and it seemed tohim that a slight trembling motion ran through the solid earth.He did not so much hear it as feel it, and tried to persuadehimself that it was mere fancy, but failed. He sat up, and he nolonger observed the trembling, but when he put his ear to theground again it was stronger.
It could not be fancy. It was something real and extraordinary.He glanced at the sentinels, but they were sound asleep. He felta desire to rouse somebody, but if it proved to be nothing theywould laugh at him, or more likely call him hard names. He triedear to earth once more. The trembling was still growing instrength, and mixed with it was a low, groaning sound, like theswell of the sea on the shore. The sound came with the wind fromthe north.
Dick sprang to his feet. There, in the north was a faint lightwhich grew with amazing rapidity. In a minutes almost it seemedto redden the whole northern heavens, and the groaning soundbecame a roll, like that of approaching thunder.
A shadow flitted by Dick.
"What is it, Bright Sun?? What is it?" exclaimed the boy.
"The dry grass burns, and a mighty buffalo herd flees before it."
Then Bright Sun was gone, and the full sense of their dangerburst upon Dick in overwhelming tide. The flames came on, asfast as a horse's gallop, and the buffaloes, in thousands andtens of thousands, were their vanguard. The camp lay directly inthe path of fire and buffalo. The awakened sentinels were ontheir feet now, and half-clad men were springing from the wagons.
Dick stood perfectly still for perhaps a minute, while the firegrew brighter and the thunder of a myriad hoofs grew louder.Then he remembered what he had so often read and heard, and thecrisis stirred him to swift action. While the whole camp was ascene of confusion, of shouts, of oaths, and of running men, hesped to its south side, to a point twenty or thirty yards fromthe nearest wagon. There he knelt in the dry grass and drew hisbox of matches from his pocket. It happened that Conway saw.
"What are you doing, you boy?" he cried, threateningly.
But Dick did not care for Conway just then.
"Back fire! Back fire!" he shouted, and struck a match. It wentout, but he quickly struck another, shielded it with one hand andtouched the tiny flame to the grass. A flame equally tinyanswered, but in an instant it leaped into the size and strengthof a giant. The blaze rose higher than Dick's head, ran swiftlyto right and left, and then roared away to the south, eating upeverything in its path.
"Well done," said a voice at Dick's elbow. "It is the only thingthat could save the train."
It was Bright Sun who spoke, and he had come so silently thatDick did not see him until then.
Conway understood now, but without a word of approval he turnedaway and began to give orders, mixed with much swearing. He hada rough sort of efficiency, and spurred by his tongue and theirown dreadful necessity, the men worked fast. The horses andmules, except three or four which had broken loose and were lost,were hitched to the wagons in half the usual time. There were nosluggards now.
Dick helped, and Albert, too, but to both it seemed that the workwould never be done. The back fire was already a half mile away,gathering volume and speed as it went, but the other was comingon at an equal pace. Deer and antelope were darting past them,and the horses and mules were rearing in terror.
"Into the burned ground," shouted Conway, "an' keep the wagonsclose together!"
No need to urge the animals. They galloped southward over earthwhich was still hot and smoking, but they knew that something wasbehind them, far more terrible than sparks and smoke.
Dick made Albert jump into their own wagon, while he ran besideit. As he ran, he looked back, and saw a sight that might wellfill the bravest soul with dread. A great black line, crestedwith tossing horns, was bearing down on them. The thunder ofhoofs was like the roar of a hurricane, but behind the herd was avast wall of light, which seemed to reach from the earth to theheavens and which gave forth sparks in myriads. Dick knew thatthey had been just in time.
They did not stop until they had gone a full quarter of a mile,and then the wagons were hastily drawn up in a rude circle, withthe animals facing the center, that is, the inside, and stillrearing and neighing in terror. Then the men, rifle in hand, andsitting in the rear of the wagons, faced the buffalo herd.
Dick was with the riflemen, and, like the others, he began tofire as soon as the vanguard of the buffaloes was near enough.The wagons were a solid obstacle which not even King Bison couldeasily run over, but Dick and Albert thought the herd would neversplit, although the bullets were poured into it at a centralpoint like a driven wedge.
But the falling buffaloes were an obstacle to those behind them,and despite their mad panic, the living became conscious of thedanger in front. The herd split at last, the cleft widened toright and left, and then the tide, in two great streams, flowedpast the wagon train.
Dick ceased firing and sat with Albert on the tail of the wagon.The wall of fire, coming to the burned ground, went out in thecenter, but the right and left ends of it, swinging around, stillroared to the southward, passing at a distance of a quarter of amile on either side.
Dick and Albert watched until all the herd was gone, and whenonly smoke and sparks were left, helped to get the camp into trimagain. Conway knew that the boy had saved them, but he gave himno thanks.
It took the ground a long time to cool, and they advanced all thenext day over a burned area. They traveled northward ten days,always ascending, and they were coming now to a wooded country.They crossed several creeks, flowing down from the highermountains, and along the beds of these they found cottonwood,ash, box elder, elm, and birch. On the steeper slops werenumerous cedar brakes and also groves of yellow pine. There wasvery little undergrowth, but the grass grew in abundance.Although it was now somewhat dry, the horses and mules ate iteagerly. The
buffaloes did not appear here, but they saw manysigns of bear, mule deer, panther or mountain lion, and othergame.
They camped one night in a pine grove by the side of a brook thatcame rushing and foaming down from the mountains, and the nextmorning Albert, who walked some distance from the water, saw asilver-tip bear lapping the water of the stream. The bear raisedhis head and looked at Albert, and Albert stopped and looked atthe bear. The boy was unarmed, but he was not afraid. The bearshowed no hostility, only curiosity. He gazed a few moments,stretched his nose as if he would sniff the air, then turned andlumbered away among the pines. Albert returned to camp, but hesaid nothing of the bear to anybody except Dick.
"He was such a jolly, friendly looking fellow, Dick," he said,"that I didn't want any of these men to go hunting him."
Dick laughed.
"Don't you worry about that, Al," he said. "They are hunting gold,not bears."
On the twelfth day they came out on a comparatively levelplateau, where antelope were grazing and prairie chickenswhirring. It looked like a fertile country, and they were gladof easy traveling for the wagons. Just at the edge of the pinewoods that they were leaving was a beautiful little lake ofclear, blue water, by which they stayed half a day, refreshingthemselves, and catching some excellent fish, the names ofwhich they did not know.
"How much long, Bright Sun, will it take us to reach the goldcountry?" asked Conway of the Indian, in Dick's hearing.
"About a week," replied Bright Sun. "The way presently will bevery rough and steep, up! up! up! and we can go only a few milesa day, but the mountains are already before us. See!"
He pointed northward and upward, and there before them was themisty blue loom that Dick knew was the high mountains. In thosedark ridges lay the gold that they were going to seek, and hisheart throbbed. Albert and he could do such wonderful thingswith it.
They were so high already that the nights were crisp with cold;but at the edge of the forest, running down to the little lake,fallen wood was abundant, and they built that night a great fireof fallen boughs that crackled and roared merrily. Yet theyhovered closely, because the wind, sharp with ice, was whistlingdown from the mountains, and the night air, even in the littlevalley, was heavy with frost. Dick's buffalo robe was dry now,and he threw it around Albert, as he sat before the fire. Itenveloped the boy like a great blanket, but far warmer, the soft,smooth fur caressing his cheeks, and as Albert drew it closer, hefelt very snug indeed.
"We cross this valley to-morrow," said Dick, "and then we begin asteeper climb."
"Then it will be mountains, only mountains," said Bright Sun."We go into regions which no white men except the fur hunters,have ever trod."
Dick started. He had not known that the Indian was near.Certainly he was not there a moment ago. There was somethinguncanny in the way in which Bright Sun would appear on noiselessfootstep, like a wraith rising from the earth.
"I shall be glad of it, Bright Sun," said Albert. "I'm tired ofthe plains, and they say that the mountains are good for manyills."
Bright Sun's enigmatic glance rested upon Albert a moment.
"Yes," he said, "the mountains will cure many ills."
Dick glanced at him, and once more he received the impression ofthought and power. The Indian's nose curved like an eagle'sbeak, and the firelight perhaps exaggerated both the curve andits effect. The whole impression of thought and force washeightened by the wide brow and the strong chin.
Dick looked back into the fire, and when he glanced around a fewmoments again, Bright Sun was not there. He had gone as silentlyas he had come.
"That Indian gives me the shivers sometimes," he said to Albert."What do you make of him?"
"I don't know," replied the boy. "Sometimes I like him andsometimes I don't."
Albert was soon asleep, wrapped in the buffalo robe, and Dick byand by followed him to the same pleasant land. The wind,whistling as it blew down from the mountains, grew stronger andcolder, and its tone was hostile, as if it resented the firstpresence of white men in the little valley by the lake.