CHAPTER XXIX--PLENTY OF EXCITEMENT
The best laid plans are not always successfully, or satisfactorily,carried out. There was, as both boys knew, a big doubt as to whetherthey could drive the buffaloes in the way they desired; but, at least,there was a good chance that they would kill another of the big animals.
"Take a bull, Dig," advised Chet, as they rode up the brook. "Don't killthe cows or calves. If we should enclose any of the herd in our corral,besides the big fellow, I believe we'd have a mighty valuable catch."
"Say! that would be great," agreed Dig. "Mebbe we could sell 'em for asmuch as a hundred dollars."
"And that's better than selling a little old maverick for fivedollars--eh?" laughed his chum.
The boys trotted their eager mounts up the valley and finally came tothe last screen of bushes that stood between them and the buffalo herd.The animals were feeding down the valley, but the wind was not blowingdirectly in their faces. It was from the southwest; therefore, the odourof the young hunters would not be carried to the beasts.
Chet and Dig again saw the feeding ponies belonging to the two men whohad caused them so much trouble. "And maybe we'll put them in a holebefore we get through," muttered Dig vindictively.
The boys could be sure that the men were close by, when the ponies wereso plainly visible. Neither of them would start back for that islandcamp on the distant river, afoot.
So the boys gave their full attention to the buffaloes. Their rifleswere in trim and everything was ready for the charge. Chet had selectedan opening in the thicket; he knew the value of a good start inattacking such nimble animals as the buffaloes had already proventhemselves to be.
"Ready, Dig?" Chet asked.
"Let her go!" replied his friend, and at the same moment both horsesdashed forward.
They appeared upon the plain at full speed. They were aimed at about thecentre of the scattered herd. Could they have trusted the two men, theymight have helped with the chase and bunched the whole herd. Instead, itsplit, and a part of the buffaloes went up the valley, while the othersfled directly from the two boys, toward the stream.
The heavy rifles cracked almost simultaneously, Chet's shot brought avigorous young bull to his knees; but Dig missed his quarry. He came upand put a ball into Chet's kill, however, while Chet himself put thethird bullet through the wounded beast's vitals.
"Come on! come on!" yelled Chet, excitedly, starting Hero on the jumpafter the part of the herd that was scrambling through the brook.
Dig was after him at once. The boys spread out and their horses took thewater-jump splendidly. The mounts were as wildly excited as theirmasters.
The big bull that had inspired Chet and Dig with such enthusiasm was inthe lead. This was a piece of luck that delighted the young trailers.
"We've got him! we've got him!" cried Digby.
"Don't holler--till--you're out--of the--woods!" panted Chet. "Goodness!that big beast looks as though he could go right through a brick wall.Suppose he turns on us?"
"Then you'll see this boy take to his heels," returned Dig, withconviction.
They did not follow the buffaloes too closely; and they kept on thewater side of them, yet near enough so that the frightened animals didnot fancy turning to run back along the foot of the southern wall of thevalley.
The monster buffalo, head down and whip-like tail twirling, thunderedstraight on. The thicket of thorny trees was ahead. He couldn't getthrough that, and he knew it.
Towards the brook, where was easy escape, was likewise a figure onhorseback, waving both hands. That was Dig. The big buffalo did not wantto go that way.
He wheeled and there, right in front of him, was the welcome opening ofthe grassy gulch. In a moment he galloped into it. After him gallopedseven of the herd--all that had followed him in the stampede.
"Hurrah! We've got 'em!" shrieked Dig, spurring Poke up the hill.
"Keep right before the mouth of that pocket--but outside," cried Chet,throwing himself from the saddle, with the axe in his hand. "Keep Pokemoving. Don't let the beasts catch you afoot. If they charge back on us,try to scare them into the gulch again."
"Hot chance I'd have to do that," muttered Dig.
But he held his ground while Chet struck steel to timber with muchvigour. Cutting down a tree of this size was no easy task, and well theboy knew it; but he was determined to shut the buffaloes into the pocketin the hill. Once the big tree was felled across the mouth of the gulchhe was very sure the herd would be secure.
Chet was no poor woodsman. He could swing an axe as well as a full-grownman, for his father owned a wood-lot near the Silent Sue mine, and Chetfor two years had cut and sledded down to the Havens house the winter'swood.
But to hammer at this big tree trunk with a short-handled hatchet was amore difficult task.
Dig had to laugh at him, despite the anxiety they both felt about thebuffaloes. "Cricky, Chet! why don't you use your pocketknife?" hedemanded. "You'd get it down just as quick."
"Can you suggest any better way?" asked Chet, stopping for breath.
"You might set fire to it," grinned his chum.
"You keep still, or I'll make you come here and spell me," said Chet."My goodness! but my hand is getting sore."
"You'll have some pretty blisters before you get through with thatstunt," said Dig.
And he was truly a prophet! Chet was more than an hour cutting down thetree, but he had used good judgment in placing it and when it fell themouth of the gulch was so closed that no buffalo could get out. But Chetwas lame, bruised, and blistered.
"I declare you had the worst half of the job," Dig said. "But justthink, old man! we've captured eight buffaloes, including the king ofthem all."
"We have them cornered--yes. Now we've got to find somebody either tobuy them just as they stand in there, or to help us get them out and toa market."
"Whew! That's so. We've only begun the job, eh?"
"That's right, Dig," Chet replied, nodding his head seriously.
"At any rate," the other boy said, "it's an ideal corral we have 'em in.There is that trickle of water, and plenty of grass and green bushes.'All the comforts of home.' What buffalo wouldn't be content in suchquarters?"
The boys climbed up the hillside, after tethering their horses, andcrept along over the rocks above the pocket until they could see theherd. Strangely enough the big buffalo and his seven companions werefeeding quietly and whisking flies at the upper end of the gorge, theirpanic entirely departed.
"Say! did you ever see a more peaceful scene?" chuckled Digby. "Theylook as tame as barnyard cattle, don't they?"
"That's all right," replied Chet, "but I'd hate to go down there and tryto milk one of those bossies."
The beasts were corralled. Chet wasted little time in congratulating hischum and himself. Luck and foresight had brought about the capture; butit would take something more to make it of any value to the chums. Boththe boys realised that.
"We have to get to Grub Stake and interest somebody in our haul," Digsaid. "That's the ticket for us."
"And we have something else to do first," Chet replied, as they got backto the horses. "We've left those two rascals, Steve and Tony, too longby themselves. I bet they've hiked out after those lost deeds already."
"What? without their meat?"
"Come on! I reckon the condition of that buffalo we shot will surpriseyou," said Chet.
And it did. Dig sputtered like an overfilled teakettle when they reachedthe place where they had dropped the young bull.
No animal had been drawn to the kill, although several timid coyotessneaked out of sight behind the nearest thicket. But the robe wasruined. The body had been slashed right into, without any pains beingtaken to butcher it properly. The better parts of the carcass had beentaken, and the mess that had been made of the remainder sickened the twoboys. They cut off a few shoulder steaks, and got away from the spot assoon as possible.
"They got their meat and have hiked out for t
hat island in the river,"Chet said, sternly. "That's all they wanted, of course. Steve saw hischance to start now instead of to-night, and he took it."
"We can follow their trail, Chet," exclaimed Dig. "The nasty things!They ruined that buffalo."
"We'll do better than follow their trail," Chet said quickly.
"How's that?"
"I believe I can find that island they spoke of myself. We'll see if wecannot beat them to it, Dig. Certainly we have the advantage of the bestmounts, if we don't know the country as well as Steve does."
They recovered their outfit, built a fire, and cooked dinner while theirhorses rested; then they set out toward the east without paying anyattention to the route followed by their two enemies, nor much to thecourse they had taken in coming to this sheltered valley.
Chet had his compass and he laid as direct a course as he knew for theshallow river in question.
The six remaining members of the buffalo herd were out of sight as theboys rode up the valley. Where they had gone to was a mystery.
"But you can bet Tony and that other fellow are not following them,"remarked Dig, in disgust.
"Quite right," responded Chet. "Those scamps have got all they wanted."
"I hope the time will come when we can 'call quits' with 'em," said Dig.
"Hear! hear! Satisfaction is what we're after--and those deeds."
The boys crossed the divide and as they went down the slope, they struckanother watercourse which, beginning as a small rill, increased in widthand volume of water very rapidly. They were in sight of this streamthrough the rough country spreading eastward until past mid-afternoon.
By that time they had ridden many miles and were saddle-weary. Thehorses, too, showed the effect of hard work.
"We'd ought to breathe them awhile," Dig urged, for he was very carefulof horseflesh.
"Not yet. I'm sorry for them," Chet said, "but we've got to keep movingjust as long as daylight holds, at least. You know, we don't know thiscountry after dark, and that Steve evidently does."
"But we must be travelling almost two miles to their one," Dig said.
"Granted. But they may be going more directly to that island than we,"Chet told him. "Though I believe this stream we're following emptiesinto the very river we're in search of."
"We never saw this creek before."
"No. It's a good deal farther south than the way we came with thoserascals."
"Well! I reckon you know, Chet."
"I know the points of the compass," returned his friend. "The sundoesn't fool us."
"Of course--we're going toward Silver Run again, not toward Grub Stake."
"Quite right. And goodness!" added Chet, "we are spending a lot moretime in this trip than I expected to. I wonder what father will say?"
"Say! It's been a lot different from what I expected. Whew! but we haveworked, Chet."
"Aren't you just right?" and Chet looked sadly at his blistered palms.
They rode hard and were weary and hungry long before sundown. The chumsdid not talk much--they seemed to be talked out. The uncertainty of theerrand they rode on, and what they had already gone through, made bothboys sober. There had been excitement enough, certainly, on thisjourney. They had been in peril and had taken part in sturdyadventure--enough in the past few days to satisfy most boys for a year.
"We were looking for a little fun on the trail," Chet said reflectively."But, my goodness, Dig! we certainly have got more than we bargainedfor."
"Yes, and it isn't ended," responded his chum, shaking his head. "Waittill we meet up with that Steve and Tony again--if we do!"
"That doesn't bother me so much as the chances, for and against, of ourmeeting up with those lost deeds. That's what's troubling yours truly,"said Chet.
CHAPTER XXX--HOW IT ENDED
In the dim dusk of late evening the trail boys suddenly came down to theriver bank. They were leading their mounts, for the way was so roughthey did not want to risk a misstep on the faithful creatures' part inthe dark.
As Chet Havens expected, the stream they had followed so long--almostfrom the valley where they had corralled the buffaloes--fell into thewide but shallow river they had crossed several days before on the trailof the thieves.
The horses' sides were heaving and their heads hung almost to theground; but Chet, as leader of the expedition, was not willing to allowthem much rest.
"Just a mouthful of grass and a drink of water after it," he said to hischum. "We must wait for our supper until later."
"All right as far as we are concerned, Chet," said the other boy, moreseriously than was his wont. "But I don't want you to forget oneimportant fact."
"What's that?"
"These horses have been grain fed until we brought them out on thistrip. We have ridden them mighty hard, Chet--mighty hard. They arebeginning to suffer now. Grass for a grain fed horse is like feeding aman on breakfast food when he's been used to a meat, Chet. The man willquickly give out, and so will the horse."
"I'm sorry," said his chum. "You know more about it than I do, Dig, Iadmit. But I feel that I just must push on up this river till I reachthat island. I want to get there before those scamps do. If there is anysuch thing as finding the lost deeds, I want to be on the ground first."
"Uh-huh! I'm on to your desire, Chet. But have a heart for thehorses--do!"
"You stay here and rest Poke, then," said Chet. "I'll have to punishpoor Hero. I'm sorry; but I must get on."
"Well!" retorted Dig, "you don't suppose I'd let you go alone, do you?"
"I believe I can handle those two fellows. Tony is only foolish," Chetsaid, with confidence--perhaps expressing a larger share than he reallypossessed.
"Well, you can bet your bottom dollar!" exclaimed the slangy Dig, "thatyou are not going to tackle them alone. I'm with you to the end of thedock, old man--and we'll jump off together.
"Say!" he added, "how far up the river do you think the island is?"
"I believe we must be all of twenty miles below the crossing to which wetrailed those fellows in the first place. But how far this side of thatcrossing the island is, I don't know. We'll just have to go up streamtill we come to it."
"Suppose there are several islands?" suggested Dig.
"Oh, don't!" exclaimed Chet. "Don't suggest more trouble. I'm just asworried about those deeds as I can be."
Chet gave the horses half an hour on the grass; then they cinched on thesaddles so the animals wouldn't drink too much, and were soon splashingup the shallow edge of the stream. At this time of the year, save incertain holes, the stream ran very shoal indeed. The way was smoother onthe beach than on the prairie above.
"Besides," Chet said, in a low tone, "we can't be seen down here. Evenour hats aren't above the edge of the bank. Anybody riding on the plainwould not know we were here, unless near enough to hear the horsessplashing along."
"Those fellows have never got over here so soon on their miserablecayuses--take it from me," Dig urged.
Nevertheless, Chet's mind was in a turmoil as they rode on. The sunsetfaded; but the stars shone brilliantly over the plains that night--big,and sparkling, just as they do at sea. The chums from Silver Run did notlack for light.
It was nine o'clock when they spied the wooded island in the river whichChet believed must be the site of the camp of which Steve and Tony hadspoken. The water grew suddenly deep, too, and the boys had to forcetheir tired horses out upon the sandy shore.
Chet remembered that Steve had spoken of having hard work swimming hispony ashore from the island, and he believed this must be the place forwhich they had been searching.
"We'll halt here, boy," he said to Dig. "There's some greasewood upthere. You make the fire and I'll hobble the nags. The water must bevery shallow on the other side of this island. Those thieves rode easilyout to it from the east bank of the river, and then had to swim theirponies over here."
"Sure!" agreed Dig.
"It was somewhere along here Steve thinks he dro
pped the packet ofpapers he stole from me. Keep your eyes open."
"You bet you!" exclaimed his chum, going to work at once to make a fireunder the shelter of the bank.
They had their welcome supper as soon as it could be cooked, and thenDig took the first watch. He patrolled the camp on the bank overlookingit, so that he might see all about upon the plain. Their enemies mustcome from this direction.
The men, however, did not appear during Dig's watch. The boys hadtravelled very rapidly, and the sorry beasts ridden by Steve and Tonycould not have brought them very fast on the trail to the river.
Chet, however, spied them before dawn. The stars were just beginning topale when two hazy figures loomed out of a distant thicket, and the boymade them out to be two mounted men. He soon heard them talking, too,for the sound of voices carried far in the damp air.
The boy was excited; but he felt that he had the situation well in hand.He awoke Dig, and ordered him to keep quiet until the men rode nearer.Then the chums stepped out upon the bank boldly and hailed thetravellers.
"We're here first, you fellows," Chet said. "And we have located a claimall up and down this creek. Don't come any nearer, for if you do I shallshoot your ponies--and I'm sure you don't want to be left afoot out herein the open."
Both men burst into ejaculations of anger and disappointment. But Tony'sanger seemed aimed at his companion.
"What did I tell ye?" he cried. "Didn't I say these lil' boys of Havens'and Fordham's was too smart for us? Now I'm goin' ter hike out for thetrail an' git to some man's town--you hear me? You ain't nothin' but afrost, Mr. Steve Brant--that's what you be."
As for the leading rascal, his hard words could not hurt the chums. Heretired with Tony, and they made camp far up stream--at least tworifle-shots away. The boys, however, never lost sight of them.
As the light increased, Chet began to search the shore of the river. Hadthere been a rain since they had come over it, the level of the waterwould have risen and washed out the marks of the pony's struggles whereSteve Brant had got him ashore. In this dry time, however, it was easyfor the boy to discover just the spot.
And, strange as it seemed, the packet of papers was right there, too.Nothing had disturbed the papers. The packet lay under the bank halfhidden by a bunch of weeds, and all the papers were intact, as Chet verysoon made sure.
"Cricky! aren't you the lucky boy?" cried Dig, when he saw them.
"I'm very grateful that I found them," his chum said, soberly. "And letme tell you that nobody's going to pry them away from me again withanything less than a crowbar. This losing of the deeds has been the mostworrisome thing that I hope will ever happen to me."
"And we've had about as exciting a time as I suppose we ever shallhave," added Dig, shaking his head.
Both boys, however, were somewhat mistaken in these prognostications, asthe sequel will show, for we hope to meet Chet and Dig again in anothervolume, to be called, "The Trail Boys in the Gold Fields; Or, The SearchFor the Lost Nugget."
They saddled their horses soon after finding the packet and rode awayfrom the vicinity of the villains' camp. Their mounts were refreshedand, considering the condition of the men's ponies, the boys were verysure that they could keep ahead of Steve and Tony Traddles all the wayto Grub Stake.
Chet insisted on following the river down-stream till they struck theGrub Stake trail, although Dig was eager to go back by the way of thegulch in which they had corralled the buffaloes.
"We've fooled away enough time on this journey already," Chet saiddecisively. "Why, Dig! to-day is Sunday. We've been a week on the trail.We must hurry."
"Whew! I'd like to see if those creatures are safe."
"They're safe enough. Nobody will roll that tree away--not even ourfriends back yonder. We'll hurry on to town and see what arrangements wecan make for selling the whole herd."
"By the last hoptoad that was chased out of Ireland!" ejaculated Dig,vigorously. "If you do that, Chet Havens, you'll be the very smartestfellow I ever met!"
"I bet we can sell the buffaloes a whole lot more easily than you couldhave sold that little old Stone Fence you started to bring along,"laughed his chum.
And so it proved. The boys reached the regular trail to Grub Stakewithout mishap, and on Monday evening rode into the mountain mining townand put up at the best hotel. After more than a week on the trail theywere glad to get a bath and crawl in between sheets again.
Tuesday morning Chet went to the express office, identified himself,made arrangements for the payment of his father's money to the owner ofa certain share in the Crayton claim, and then hunted up Mr. JohnMorrisy.
The chums found him to be a very pleasant old man, if illiterate. Aftertheir business with him was transacted, Mr. Morrisy, who had heard thestory of the boys' adventures, found the very man for them who waswilling to invest in a herd of buffaloes.
This man agreed to pay the boys a hundred dollars in cash on the groundwhere the buffaloes were corralled. Of course, the beasts were worth agreat deal more; but the boys were not prepared to transport them to anymarket. There was a public-spirited citizen farther east who was willingto pay well for live buffaloes and this man at Grub Stake was acting ashis agent.
He gathered together a party of old cattlemen and various paraphernalia,and all set out with the boys for the valley in which the herd wasconfined. On the way out of Grub Stake they met Tony Traddles and SteveBrant, coming in.
Tony, when he heard what the expedition meant, asked the boss for a joband got it, for he was a husky looking fellow and said he was anxious towork. He parted company with Steve Brant with no apparent regret oneither side.
Brant himself, the chums learned, was a man who went about the miningcountry picking up claims cheap and reselling them to easterncapitalists. He had been suspected of "salting" some of these claims,and he might have intended to salt the Crayton claim when he was at workthere.
However, neither the boys nor Mr. Havens were ever troubled by thefellow again. The signing of the deed by Mr. John Morrisy settled that.The old claim was controlled by Mr. Havens; and if ever anything ofvalue should come from the mine, it would belong to him.
The party of bison hunters found the big old bull and his seven comradesjust as the boys had left them. The men praised Chet and Dig highly fortheir work in corralling the beasts. And when the head of the expeditionsaw the size of the big buffalo, he added a ten dollar bill to theagreed price he paid the happy boys.
Chet and Dig could not wait to see the bison snared; they had been toolong from home now. So they pushed for the train and cantered a longday's travel toward Silver Run before they pulled up.
Then, riding down into a sandy bottom they suddenly heard some creaturebawling. Dig looked all about, noting the landmarks, and suddenlyexclaimed:
"By _all_ the hoptoads that were chased out of Ireland! It's StoneFence!"
He dismounted instantly and found the calf in the thicket nearby.Whether it was glad to see the boys or not it suffered itself to beroped and this time it led very peaceably. In spite of anything Chetcould say, Dig was determined to take the maverick home with him.
That is how it came about that the two friends rode into the outskirtsof Silver Run with a little red yearling trailing behind them and"blatting its head off," as Dig expressed it. Everybody made commentsupon it; but that did not disturb Digby Fordham.
"I feel just like a brother towards this dogy," he confessed. "Come on,Stone Fence! Lift your heels!"
At Hardpan the boys came upon a curious sight. There was an excitinggame of baseball going on in the empty lot. A nine of pure-bloodIndians, captained by Amoshee, the lame Cheyenne, was matched against ascrub team of the neighbourhood boys, and, as Dig inelegantly put it,"the redskins were licking the socks off the white boys."
"I bet Amoshee is going after the scalps of the high school nine--andserve 'em right!" Chet said. "Those Indians can play some; can't they?"
Finally the trail boys arrived at home, and were welcomed by theirpa
rents and friends. They had had more than a week of adventures on thetrail, had accomplished an important errand satisfactorily, and,secretly, were hoping for other adventures during their vacation.
THE END
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