CHAPTER X
A MIRACULOUS ESCAPE
"That settles me!" said the lad bitterly.
The next instant he hit the ground with a force that partially stunnedhim. His pony, whose nose had ploughed the ground, was up like a flash.Realizing its danger, the little animal gave a snort and plunged intothe mesquite, leaving its rider lying on the ground with a fair prospectof being crushed to death beneath, the hoofs of the stampeding steers.
Tad recovered himself almost instantly. His first instinct was to run,in the hope of overtaking the fleeing pony.
"That'll be sure death," he told himself.
The cattle were almost upon him. If he were to do anything to savehimself he would have to act quickly.
It came to him suddenly that what the pony had fallen over might be madeto act as a shield for himself. The boy sprang forward, groping in thedark amid the roaring of the storm and the thunder of the maddened herd.His hands touched a log. He found that it had so rotted away on one sideas to make a partial shell. It was not enough to admit a human body, butit served as a sort of screen for him. Tad burrowed into it as far as hecould get.
"I hope there are no snakes in here," he thought, snuggling close.
Yet between the two he preferred to take his chances with snakes, atthat moment, rather than with the crazy steers.
The leaders of the steers cleared the log, just grazing it with theirhind feet as they went over, sending a shower of dust and decayed woodover Tad.
The cattle immediately following the leaders did not fare so well. Anumber of them, leaping over the log at the same instant, fell headlongas the pony had done before them. However, the steers were lessfortunate. Before they were able to scramble to their feet, othersfollowing had tumbled over on top of them, and Tad Butler found himselfwedged in behind a barricade of bellowing cattle, whose flying hoofsmade him hastily burrow deeper into the decayed log.
This obstruction soon caused the main body to swerve. Their solid fronthad been broken at last, yet they continued on as wildly as before,bellowing and horning one another in their mad flight.
The rain, which had held back during the brilliant electrical display,now came down in drenching torrents, packing down the sand of the plainwhich the wind, before, had picked up and tossed into the air in denseclouds.
Tad was soaked to the skin almost instantly. But he did not mind this.His thought, now, was to get out of his perilous position and follow theherd.
The cattle that had fallen so near him, were now one by one extricatingthemselves from their predicament, each one giving vent to a bellow asit did so and dashing after its companions.
The lad was not slow to crawl from his hiding place the moment heconsidered it safe to do so. As it was, he got away before the snarl ofsteers had entirely unraveled itself.
What to do Tad did not know. His pony gone, and, with no sense ofdirection left, he was in sore straits.
"I'll follow the cattle," he decided. "Besides, it's my business to staywith them if I can. I'll do it as long as I've got a leg to stand on,"he declared, cautiously working around those of the cattle that wereleaping from the heap and running away.
The mesquite was still full of stragglers dashing wildly here and there.In the darkness, the boy was really in great danger. There were no largetrees behind which he could dodge to get out of the way of the animalsas they rushed toward him, nor was he able to see them when they did getnear him. He was obliged to judge of their direction by sound alone.This was made doubly difficult since the rain had begun to fall, fornow, young Butler could scarcely distinguish one sound from another.
Once a plunging steer hit the lad a glancing blow with its great side,hurling him into a thicket of bristling mesquite. The thorns gashed hisface and body, almost stripping the remnants of his tattered clothesfrom him.
Still, with indomitable pluck, the lad sprang to his feet, stubbornlyworking his way through the thicket.
He came out finally on the other side and floundering about for a time,found himself once more on a plain, which he had observed in the lightfrom a flash of lightning extended away indefinitely. Off to the west,he plainly made out a large body of cattle. Apparently they were nowheaded to the northwest.
It was almost a hopeless task for one to expect to be able to overhaulthem on foot, and even were he to do so he could accomplish nothingafter reaching them.
But Tad kept on just the same, with the rain beating him until he wasgasping for breath, the lightning playing about him in lingering sheetsof yellow flame.
He had run on in this way for fully half an hour when a flash disclosedan object to the right of him. It was moving, but Tad was sure it wasnot a steer.
The boy changed his course somewhat and trotted along with more caution,shading his eyes with a hand that he might make out what it was when thenext flash came.
"It's a pony!" he shouted. "It's my pony!"
The animal was standing with lowered head, gazing straight at the boy.
Tad whistled and called with a long drawn "Whoa-oo-ope!"
The pony made no move to approach, nor did it attempt to run away. ButTad had had experience enough with the cow ponies by this time to knowthat the animal was not likely to stand still and permit him to come upwith it. At any moment it was likely to kick its heels in the air anddash away.
"I've got to make a run for him," decided the lad, stepping cautiouslyforward, making a slight detour that he might come up from the animal'sleft instead of approaching him directly from the front.
After having done this, Tad waited, crouching low. He chuckled tohimself as he observed that the pony was looking straight ahead, nothaving discovered his master's new position.
The boy was not more than two rods from him.
Measuring the distance with his eyes, he waited until the lightningflash died out, then ran on his toes straight for where he believed thehorse was standing. It was Tad's purpose to grab the animal about theneck.
Instead he ran straight against the pony's side with a resounding bump.
The pony uttered a grunt of fear, springing straight up into the air.
"Whoa, Barney!" coaxed the lad. But Barney had no idea of obeying thecommand at that moment. It is doubtful if, in the fright of the suddencollision, he even understood what was wanted of him.
Tad's hands had missed the neck. Instead they had grasped the pommel andcantle of the saddle, so that when the pony leaped, Tad's feet werejerked clear of the ground.
As the animal came down on all fours, Tad threw himself into the saddle.
Instantly the pony's back arched, and, with a cough, it went off into aseries of bucks, twisting, whirling and making desperate efforts tounseat its rider.
For the first few minutes the lad could do no more than hold on. At thefirst opportunity, however, he let go of the pommel long enough to reachforward and pick up the reins, which hung well down on the pony's neck.
"Now, buck, Barney, you rascal!" shouted Tad gleefully, giving a gentlepressure with the spurs.
Barney at once decided to stop bucking.
Tad clucked to him and shook out the reins.
Away they went on the trail of the cattle, heading to the northwest,where the lad could plainly see them running.
At the pace the pony was going they were able to overhaul the herd in ashort time. Tad had clung to his quirt when he was thrown. Reaching thehead of the line of charging beasts, he rode straight at the leaders,bringing the quirt again and again across the noses of those nearest tohim. This treatment served to deflect the line a little; yet, try as hewould, Tad seemed unable to turn the bunch toward home. Yet he keptsteadily at his work, "milling" the steers, as the turning process iscalled, until pony and rider were well-nigh exhausted.
Tad knew he was a long way from camp and alone with the herd. After atime the animals seemed to him to be slackening their speed. Discoveringthis, he untied the slicker or rubber blanket from the saddle cantle,and, riding against the leaders again, flaunted the slic
ker in theirfaces, shouting and urging at the same time.
"If I had a gun I believe I could stop them right away," he said. "ButI'm going to turn them if it's the last thing I ever do."
The fury of the storm was abating and the lightning flashes werebecoming less frequent.
Now that he had succeeded in turning the point of the herd, it provedmuch easier to keep them under control. Besides, it gave both boy andpony a breathing spell. The hard riding was not now necessary.
Round and round young Butler kept the herd circling for nearly an hour.The steers, moving more and more slowly, Tad concluded wisely that theywere growing tired of this and that they would quiet down. His judgmentproved correct. The storm passed. He could hear it roaring off to thenorthwest where the lightning flamed up in intermittent flashes.
"Wonder what time it is," queried Tad aloud, searching about in hisclothes for his watch.
"Pshaw, I've lost it," he exclaimed. "Well, it is not so much of a lossafter all. I paid only a dollar for it and I've had more than a dollar'sworth of fun to-night. I wonder what I look like. I must be a sight."
It now lacked only an hour of dawn, but, of course, the boy did not knowthis. In the darkness preceding the dawn he had no idea of the size ofthe bunch of cattle that he had led out over the plain. He knew it mustbe large, however.
At last daybreak was at hand, the landscape and the herd being faintlyoutlined in the thin morning light. Tad was surprised to find that hehad milled the cattle into a compact bunch. Now the boy began gallopingaround the herd, speaking words of encouragement to the animals as hewent, whistling and trying to sing, until finally he was rewarded byseeing some of them begin to graze.
"I've done it," shouted Tad gleefully. "I've bagged the whole bunch. Iwonder what Mr. Stallings will say to that. I don't believe Big-footSanders could beat that. The next question is, where am I? I don't know.I guess I'm lost for sure. But I've got lots of company."
To add to his perplexity, a light fog was drifting over the plain fromthe southeast, shutting out what little view there was in the earlymorning light.
The cattle were now grazing as contentedly as if they never had knownsuch an experience as a stampede. It was useless, however, to attempt todrive them, for he might be leading them away from camp instead oftoward it.
Tad was wet and hungry, and now that he was able to get a look athimself, he discovered that his belt was about the only whole thing leftof his equipment. Scarcely a vestige of his trousers remained; his shirthung in ribbons, his hat was lost and his leggins had been stripped offclean.
Tad laughed heartily as he surveyed himself.
"Well, I am a sight! I guess I shall need a whole new harness before Idrive cattle much more."
All he could do now was to wait for the sun to rise. Then, he might beable to determine something about his position.
But the sun was a long time in making its appearance that day.