CHAPTER VI.
AT THE RANCH.
The night was well advanced, and the boys, despite their fine physique,felt the effects of the prolonged ride. They had come a goodly distancesince morning, the tough little ponies most of the time maintaining asweeping canter, which placed many miles behind them. Jack and Fred werestiffened, tired and hungry, for no halt was made for supper, it beingthe intention of the guide to take that meal at the ranch, which hemeant to reach before drawing rein.
In the midst of the monotonous gallop of the animals the youths werestartled by the sound of a laugh, which suddenly rang out on the stillair. It was brief and hearty, such as a man emits who is highly pleasedover something said by a companion. There was no moon in the sky, butthe starlight was as bright as on the previous evening. Peering ahead inthe gloom, nothing was to be seen that explained the singular sound.
"Did you hear that?" asked Jack of Hazletine.
"I s'pose you mean that laugh? Not being deaf, it would have been cur'usif the same hadn't reached my ears."
"What was the meaning of it?"
"It meant, I s'pose, that somebody was pleased."
The lads had to be satisfied with this indefinite answer, but they didnot have to wait long for the explanation. Suddenly, from the obscurityahead, loomed the outlines of a building. It was long, low, and flat,consisting of a single story, like most of the structures in thatsection of the country.
At the same moment that it was observed, a tiny point of light shonethrough the gloom, and some one called to them:
"Is that you, Hank?"
"I reckon," was the reply.
At the same moment a tall man, rising from the stool on which he hadbeen seated, came forward. He was smoking a pipe, and the gleam of thefire in the bowl was what had been noted before he became visible.
"These are the younkers we expected," explained Hazletine, "and, if Iain't mistook, they've brought a purty healthy appetite with 'em."
"I've heard of such things afore. Howdy?"
The man, who was known as "Kansas Jim," his full name being JamesDenham, extended his hand to each boy in turn, and they dismounted.
"I'll look after the animals," he explained. "Go inside, and I reckonIra can give you some medicine fur that appetite Hank spoke about."
Hazletine led the way to the small covered porch where Ira Garrison,another cattleman, rose to his feet and shook hands with the boys,expressing his pleasure at receiving a visit from them. All three of thearrivals sat down at the front, while Ira passed inside and lighted anoil-lamp. It seemed that he was not absent ten minutes when he calledout that the meal was ready--a most welcome announcement to our youngfriends. The three were quickly seated at the pine table and feastingwith keen enjoyment. While they were thus engaged, Ira Garrison sat on astool a few paces away, smoking his pipe, and was soon joined by KansasJim, who brought the saddles and belongings of the ponies that he hadturned loose to look after their own wants.
Jack and Fred found their new acquaintances typical cowboys, dressedsimilarly to Hazletine, though neither wore as much beard as he. Bothhad long hair, pushed behind their ears, while Jim displayed a luxurianttawny mustache and goatee, had fine blue eyes, and was thin almost toemaciation. Garrison was short and stockily built, with a powerfulphysique. His hair, eyes and mustache were as black as coal. He had afine set of even white teeth, and was so full of jest and humor that itwas safe to conclude it was something said by him that had caused Jim tobreak into laughter.
The structure, as has been said, was a low, flat building, similar tothe majority found in that part of the country. It was made wholly ofwood, with only a single door at the front, where was a shaded porch,provided with seats, most of which were occupied at times by the cowmenthrough the day and late into the night.
There were five men employed at the ranch in looking after the immenseherd of cattle grazing over the surrounding country and acquiring theplumpness and physical condition which fitted them for the Easternmarket. Hank Hazletine was in charge of the four men, and would soremain until the task was finished and the stock disposed of. BartonCoinjock and Morton Blair were absent looking after the animals, whosewanderings in quest of food sometimes took them fifteen or twenty milesfrom the house. Most of the time, however, the cattle obtained theirgrazing on the ranch, a half of which belonged to Mr. Dudley, and whichextended into the foot-hills of the Wind River Mountains.
It has already been made clear that little was to be apprehended fromthe hostility of the red men in Wyoming. Rarely is anything of the kindknown north of Arizona and New Mexico, and in those Territories itseldom manifests itself since the conquest of the Apaches. There havebeen fierce collisions of late years between the cowmen and rustlers ofthe West, and at one time there was considerable bloodshed, but thequarrel seems to have been adjusted.
The reader need hardly be told that in the new States, where grazing hasbecome so important an industry, a perfect system prevails among thecattlemen. Large associations, with their enormous herds of cattle, havetheir own peculiar brands by which their stock is stamped with theirsign of ownership. All these brands are registered, and the cattlemanwho uses the same, or is found in possession of cattle with the brand ofanother, is subject to a severe penalty.
Comparatively slight friction, therefore, takes place in those sections.It is a stirring time when the wonderful horsemen are engaged for daysin branding the calves that have been added to their herds during theprevious months. Sometimes some of the branded cattle wander off whilegrazing, but if a cattleman from Central Wyoming came upon an animalhundreds of miles north in Montana, bearing his brand, he would promptlycut out the brute from another herd, whose owner would not think ofmaking objection.
It happens now and then that some of the cattle stray off before theyare branded. The difficulty of their owners identifying them will beunderstood. Such cattle are mavericks, and whoever comes upon them loseslittle time in scorching his brand into their shoulders or hips, afterwhich no one cares to dispute their ownership.
The cowmen whose duty it was to look after the large herd browsing overthe thousands of acres composing Bowman's ranch had two annoyances toguard against. It was their duty, as may be said, to keep the animalswell in hand. But for this precaution hundreds of them would graduallydrift apart until, when the time came for rounding them up, they wouldbe gone beyond recovery. Great loss, therefore, was averted by lookingafter them.
A more aggravating annoyance, however, brings loss to the owners of theherds. Despite the stringent law, there is always a certain number ofdesperate men who take perilous chances in stealing cattle and runningthem off beyond recovery by their owners. This practice is not soprevalent as formerly, for since the brands are registered, and theagents well known at Cheyenne, Helena, and other shipping-points, thethieves find it hard to explain their possession of the carcasses thusmarked and escape the arrest and imprisonment provided as a penalty.
One feature of this annoyance comes from the Indians. By far the greatermajority of those on the reservations are law-abiding. Under the patientand skilful tutorship of the Government agents they are advancing incivilization, and in a knowledge of the trades and of agriculture.Rarely is there any trouble with them; but it would be strange indeedif, among these people not yet fairly emerged from barbarism, there werenot a number sullen because of the change, and who cling to thetraditions and practices when the Indian looked upon every white man ashis enemy, whom it was his duty to kill upon the first opportunity. Thewatchfulness of the authorities prevents grave crimes, but no vigilancecan keep the dusky thieves from stealthily raiding upon the cattle andproperty of their white neighbors.
One of the tasks, therefore, of the cowmen of Bowman's ranch was toguard against aboriginal thieves. Since those fellows were sure to havethe same trouble as white pilferers in disposing of their stolen stock,they were fond of stampeding the cattle when not under the eyes of theircaretakers. About all that resulted from this amusement was extraexasperation a
nd work on the part of the cowmen.
A more serious mischief was that of killing the animals. Havingsatisfied themselves that they were safe from detection, three or fourIndians would entertain themselves for an hour or two in shooting downcattle in pure wantonness, and then making off before they were seen.True, this brought the dusky scamps no gain, but it served as a partialoutlet for their enmity of the white man, and that sufficed.
That this peculiar feature of ranch life sometimes assumed grave phaseswas proved by several narrations made by the cowmen to the boys on theirfirst night at the ranch. Less than a year previous, Kansas Jim shotfrom his horse an Indian whom he caught killing his cattle; and, notmany months previous, the five cowmen, under the leadership of HankHazletine, had a running fight for half an afternoon with a dozenBannocks, engaged in the same sport. At that time Barton Coinjock andKansas Jim were severely wounded, but three of the marauders were slain,and the mischief nearly ended for a time.
But Jack and Fred were tired, and, though interested in thereminiscences of the cowboys, they longed for rest. The house consistedof four rooms, one being generally reserved for visitors or to serve asa spare apartment. This contained a wooden bedstead and some simplefurniture, for luxuries are not popular on cattle-ranches. Surely no bedever felt more luxurious, however, than the blankets upon which thewearied youths flung themselves, sinking almost immediately into deep,dreamless sleep. There were no wolves or dog Indians to guard againstnow, and their sense of security was as strong as if in their own bedsat home.
The night was well past, when both lads were awakened by the sound ofrain pattering upon the roof, which, although they were on the groundfloor, was but a brief space above their heads. The storm foretold byHank Hazletine had come.
There are few sounds more soothing at night than the falling ofrain-drops upon the shingles over one's head, but in the presentinstance the music was anything but welcome to Jack and Fred. It meantthat there could be no hunting on the morrow, and probably not forseveral days. Their time in Wyoming was so limited that they begrudgedan hour of enforced idleness.
"But what's the use of kicking?" asked Fred, after they had fullydiscussed the situation; "it can't be helped."
Nevertheless, they condoled with each other for some time, until, lulledby the gentle patter, they floated off once more into the land of Nod,from which they did not emerge until morning.
The first doleful fact that impressed them was that it was stillraining. A peep through the single front window with which their roomwas provided showed the dull leaden sky, with its infinite reservoir,from which the drops were descending in streams that bid fair to lastfor days and weeks. The air was chilly, and the wood fire burning in theadjoining room was grateful.
The boys were surprised by a characteristic fact. At some time previousto their emerging from their sleeping-room Jim and Ira had departed totake their turn in looking after the cattle, while Bart and Mort, asthey were called, had come in to spend the day and night at thebuilding. When they saw the boys they greeted them pleasantly andconversed for some time. Blair showed himself a man of education, and itcame out afterward that he was a college graduate, who, having beenthreatened with pulmonary trouble, had gone to Arizona and engaged inthe cattle business. The experiment wrought a cure, and he was now oneof the sturdiest of the five men, not afraid to face the more rigorousclimate of the North and to expose himself to all sorts of weather. Itwas a surprise, indeed, to Jack Dudley and Fred Greenwood, in the courseof the day, when the conversation happened to drift to the subject ofhigher mathematics, to find this cowboy could give them instruction inthe most abstruse problems they had ever attempted to solve. Thus,although they would have preferred to be away on a hunt, they found thetime less monotonous than anticipated.
"This will let up afore night," said Hank, much to the delight of hisyoung visitors, "and to-morrow will be clear."
"I hope it will last several days," ventured Fred.
"So it will," remarked the cowman, with that air of assurance whichshowed he was more reliable than the Government in his forecasts of theweather.
Hazletine examined the Winchester repeating-rifles of the boys withgreat care. He pronounced them excellent weapons, as were the Smith &Wesson revolvers with which they were furnished.
"Your outfit is all right," he said, "but it remains to be seed whetheryou know how to handle 'em."
"We cannot claim to be skilful," was the modest remark of Jack, "but wehave had some experience at home, though when we hunted there it wasmostly with shotguns."
"The main thing, younker, is not to git rattled. Now, if you happen tosee old Ephraim sailing for you, all you have to do is to make your aimsure and let him have it between the eyes, or just back of the foreleg;or, if you don't have the chance to do that, plug him in the chest,where there's a chance of reaching his heart."
By "old Ephraim" the hunter referred to the grizzly bear, as the boysknew.
"I have heard that it generally takes several shots to kill a grizzly."
"That's 'cause the bullets are not put in the right place. You see, oldEphraim don't take any trouble to give you a better show than he has to,and you must look out fur yourself."
"There are other kinds of bears in Wyoming?"
"Rather--several of 'em. For instance, there's the cinnamon, which, inmy 'pinion, is about as bad as Ephraim. I've fit both kinds, and the onethat left that big scar down the side of my cheek and chawed a piece outof my thigh was a cinnamon, while I never got a scratch that 'mounted toanything from Ephraim."
"What about the black bear?"
"He's less dangerous than any of 'em. A black bear ain't much more thana big dog. Last fall I killed one with my revolver."
"What other kinds of game are we likely to meet?"
"Wal, it would be hard to name 'em all. There's the deer and antelope,of course, which you find in all parts of the West. Then there's themountain lion, that is fond of living on beef."
"I never saw one of the creatures."
"Have you ever seen the Eastern panther?" asked Garrison.
"No; though they used to be plentiful in the northern part of the Stateof New York."
"Well, the mountain lion is the same animal. Our climate and conditionshave made some changes in his appearance and habits, but there is nodoubt the two are identical."
"There's one kind of game that I wish we could meet," resumed Hazletine,"but they've got so scarce that I haven't seen one fur three years.That's the big-horn sheep."
"He seems to be disappearing from certain sections, like the buffalofrom the country," remarked Garrison.
"There's plenty of 'em in the mountains of Arizona and old Mexico, andI've no doubt there's thousands of 'em in the Wind River and other partsof the Rockies, but it's mighty hard to find 'em. Then there's the blackwolf."
"Is he fiercer than the gray one?"
"He's ten times worse. Whenever he meets the gray wolf he tears him tosmithereens. You never seen a wolf of any kind that wasn't as hungry asyou younkers was yesterday."
"He couldn't be any hungrier," said Fred, with a laugh.
"I have knowed one of them critters to foller a steamboat down the upperMissouri fur two days and nights, howling and watching fur a chance togit something to eat."
"The buffaloes have disappeared."
"The right name of the animal is the bison," suggested Garrison; "theyhave been slaughtered in pure wantonness. It is a crime, the way inwhich they have been extirpated."
"There are a few of 'em left, deep among the mountains," said Hazletine,"where no one has happened to find 'em, but it won't be long aforethey'll all be wiped out. Do you know," he added, indignantly, "thatlast year our boys found a herd of eighteen buffaloes some miles back inthe mountains. Wal, sir, we was that tickled that we made up our mindsto watch 'em and see that they wasn't interfered with. We kept track of'em purty well till their number had growed to twenty-four. Then oneafternoon a party of gentlemen hunters, as they called themselves, fromthe
States, stumbled onto 'em. Wal, as true as I'm a settin' here, theys'rounded that herd and never stopped shooting till they killed everyone of 'em!"
The cowman was so angry that he smoked savagely at his pipe for a minutein silence. His friends shared his feelings, and Kansas Jim remarked:
"Hank and me hunted two days fur them folks, and if we'd have got thechance to draw bead on 'em not all of 'em would have got home. Why, therapscallions just shot the whole twenty-four, and left 'em laying on theground. They didn't even take their hides. If there ever was such athing as murder that was."
"Yes," assented Garrison; "and although the Government is doing all itcan to protect the few in Yellowstone Park, somebody is continuallyshooting into the herd. The bison will soon be an extinct animal."
"It's too bad, but I don't see that we can help it," observed Hazletine,rousing himself; "there's plenty of other game left, and it'll lastlonger than any of us, but it don't make the killing of the buffaloesany better. We're likely to find a good many animals that I haven't toldyou 'bout and that I don't think of."
"How is it, Hank, that you don't keep any dogs?"
"'Cause they're no use. The hunters from the East seem to think theymust have a dozen or more sniffing at their heels, but I don't like 'em.We had a big hound a couple of years ago that I took with me on a hunt.The first critter we scared up was a cinnamon bear, and that dog hadn'tany more sense than to go straight for him. Wal," grinned Hank, "wehaven't had any dog since that time."