Jack the Young Cowboy: An Eastern Boy's Experiance on a Western Round-up

by George Bird Grinnell

  CHAPTER XXIV

  FLAGGING AN ANTELOPE

  The days passed pleasantly and swiftly. It was not the season forkilling game, and except when fresh meat was required no hunting wasdone. Nevertheless, there was work enough. Every day one man rode offand made a long round of the basin looking carefully for the tracks ofcattle leading away from it. If fresh tracks were seen, the cattle werefollowed, rounded up, and driven back to the home range.

  The work on a ranch is never ended. The irrigating ditches had to belooked after and the water from time to time turned on or off thehay-fields or the garden-patch. Haying time would come before long,and in that country hay was money, and worth more than a cent a pound.When no work was pressing, Jack Danvers and Donald got on their horsesand rode down to the lake, and perhaps lay there on a little knoll andwith their glasses watched the young ducks swimming on the lake, or theyoung plover, sandpipers and curlews that fed along its borders. Thefirst two or three times the boys went down there, all the young birdshid, and the old ones made a great outcry, the curlews and ploversflying over them and whistling shrilly as if to frighten them away;but after a time the birds seemed to become accustomed to the boys andto regard them as ordinary objects the landscape and no longer to befeared.

  One of Donald's early visits to the lake resulted in a situationthat gave him some discomfort and uneasiness, and cost him a pair ofboots and spurs. He saw a brood of young ducks in a little cove and,intending to try to capture them, he ran into the water at the cove'smouth to cut them off from going back into the lake. Almost beforehe reached the edge of the water he sank so deep in the soft, soapymire that he wished to get back to firm ground, but found that hecould not stir. Jack had not seen what Donald was doing until he hadalmost reached the water, and then he called to him to come back. Henow shouted to Donald to stand still. Then he ran back thirty or fortyyards to his horse and, mounting, rode to the edge of the firm ground,and from there tossed his rope over Donald's head. Donald fixed itabout his chest, close under the arms, and Jack shortened the ropeand tried with his own strength to pull Donald out, but found thatimpossible. He was fast in the mire and, while he did not sink, hecould move his legs not at all. Jack took a turn on the rope about thesaddle-horn and started the horse away gradually. This pulled Donaldover, but did not move his legs. Jack rode back again and got Donald'shorse, and threw that rope also over Donald's head; then, stripping offhis own coat, he tossed it to Donald and told him to wrap it around hischest and so to make a pad against which the ropes could draw.

  Having thus put in operation the precise thing that Hugh had done forhim five or six years before, Jack stood the two horses side by sideand slowly led them forward. The strain on Donald was severe. The pullbowed him forward until his trunk was parallel with the sloping beachand then suddenly, with a mighty pluck, he was drawn from the mud andthrown heavily on the ground. Jack stopped the horses, and in a momentthe ropes were loosened and Donald recovered his breath. His legs wereuninjured, and Jack asked him how his chest felt.

  "Whew! I feel as if a grizzly bear had been hugging me, and huggingme tight! Honestly, I thought I heard my ribs crack just before I waspulled out."

  "Well, it's not very good fun. I had Hugh do that precise thing to meonce, when I was a little fellow, and I thought I was going to pull topieces."

  "Do you mean to say that you ever did so foolish a trick as to walkinto a mud hole like that?"

  Jack laughed.

  "In my case it was quicksand, but the effect was the same. My feet andlegs from the knees downward were gripped fast and I couldn't get out.I really don't suppose I ever came as near dying as I did that day. Itwas just the accident of Hugh's coming into camp at the right moment,and seeing and hearing me, that got me out of it. I think on that tripI learned a couple of lessons about doing what I was told to that Ihave never forgotten, and my instruction came in the shape of two hugescares. Say, you seem to have shed your foot-gear in that mud."

  "Yes," Donald replied. "If they had not let go, I would probably bethere still, or at least a part of me. You might have succeeded inpulling the upper part of my body away, but my feet and legs would havebeen down there yet."

  "Well," said Jack, "there's no hope of recovering anything from thatmud. You'll have to get new shoes and spurs."

  "Spurs I'll have to get, but I have shoes at the ranch."

  It was two or three weeks after their elk hunt that the two boys, onbeing told that fresh meat was again needed, decided that they would goover to Willow Creek, twenty-five miles from home, where the Pick ranchhad an old cabin, and camping there would try to kill three or fourbuck antelope. Donald was especially keen about that, for though inprevious trips to the United States he had killed one or two antelopehis experience with this curious and interesting animal was limited.

  It was proposed that Jack Mason should go along. Each man would takehis saddle horse and while two would ride, the third would drive thewagon, his saddle animal carrying the saddle being tied up to the hamesof one of the team horses. In the wagon they would take a tent andthree or four days' grub.

  They started one morning in good season and were four or five milesfrom the ranch before the sun showed its face over the high easternhills.

  A little farther on, as Jack and Donald rode up on a low ridge, Jacksaw off to the left a yearling buck antelope, distant not more thansixty or seventy yards, which gazed steadily at them. Jack pulled upand motioned to Donald to get off his horse and kill the yearling,which, notwithstanding their movements, stood looking at them. Donaldgave Jack his reins and stepped behind the horses, where he threw acartridge into his gun and fired at the antelope. At the report theyearling trotted a few steps toward them, and Jack saw the ball strikethe prairie far beyond the animal. Again Donald fired, and again theantelope advanced a few steps. Jack saw the second bullet knock up thedust far toward the hillside.

  "You're shooting too high!" he called to Donald; "you're seeing toomuch of your foresight. Draw down a good deal finer and aim at thepoint of his breast."

  The third time Donald shot; and this time the antelope fell.

  "Where did you hold for that last shot?" asked Jack, as the two rode upto the fallen animal.

  "Square for the breast," said Donald.

  "Well, if that's the case, you must draw your sight still finer, for Ibelieve you hit that antelope in the neck, high up."

  When they dismounted this proved to be the fact. The antelope's neckwas broken by a ball which had entered the throat only about threeinches beneath the head.

  "Was this antelope insane?" Donald asked Jack, as they began the workof dressing the animal. "Why did he not run away? Instead of doing thathe kept coming closer at each shot."

  "That's easily explained. In the first place, the sun was shiningsquare in his eyes, and we were between him and the sun, therefore hecould not make out what we were. Besides that, you see he's a yearling,and it's quite possible that he never before heard the sound of a gun.Evidently it did not scare him at all."

  "Well," said Donald, "I'm glad to have that explained. If you had nottold me how it was, I should certainly have believed that I had killeda patient that had escaped from some antelope lunatic asylum."

  "That conundrum was an easy one," laughed Jack. "One trouble with mostof us is that we look at things from our own little view-point, andimagine that other creatures look at things as we do. You ought to talkto Hugh about that. He's thought more about it than anybody I evertalked to, and he's given me whatever ideas I may have."

  By this time the antelope was dressed and the team had driven up closeto it. The carcass was loaded in and they went on again. About eleveno'clock they crossed a little stream which was the last water theywould find until they reached camp at night, and they would have a longdrive of twelve or fifteen miles across a dry flat. Accordingly theystopped here, unsaddled their horses and let them drink and feed, andcooked themselves a cup of coffee. An hour later, hitch
ing up again,and with Jack in the wagon as driver, they started on; and an hour ortwo before sundown reached the willow-grown bottom where their camp wasto be pitched.

  As Jack and Donald were unhitching the team horses, Jack Mason, who hadbeen riding off to one side, galloped up and, dismounting and throwingdown his reins, jumped into the wagon and began rapidly to throw outthe beds, tent and tent-poles. Donald took the team horses down towater, and the grub box and meat were lifted out. In a moment they hadpicked out a place for the tent and were soon putting in the tent-poles.

  "Before we unsaddle, Jack," Mason said, "you and I had better ride offto take a look at some cattle that I see feeding on the prairie off tothe north. If they should happen to be Mr. Sturgis' cattle, we ought toturn 'em back to the ranch. It seems to me I heard Rube speak the othernight of seeing some tracks leading off in this direction, but somehowhe lost the trail and couldn't find 'em. It may be that these are thecattle, and if there's any beef among 'em they certainly ought to bethrown back now."

  "Right you are," said Jack. "Let's get the tent up and then we'll leaveDonald to pack wood and water and build the fire, and we'll go off andlook at the cattle."

  Donald was ready to attend to the cooking so far as he could. Therereally was not much to do, for they had brought some bread; and allthat was necessary was to cut and fry some meat, and boil the coffee.Jack suggested that Donald might skin the antelope and get the meatready for frying. It would take the two Jacks only a short time to rideover to the cattle, but if they proved to be Sturgis' cattle they oughtto be looked after. If they had located themselves up on the high benchand were likely to stay there, there was no special reason for drivingthem back into the Basin; on the other hand, if they were slowlytraveling away from the Basin they ought to be turned back.

  When the boys reached the cattle--only fifteen or eighteen head--theyfound that they were Sturgis' cattle, chiefly cows and young stock,but with them four or five steers, some of which would be ready forshipment that autumn. A careful look over the ground, and the discoveryof a more or less worn trail where the cattle seemed for several daysto have been going to water, made the men think that the animals werenot traveling, but would stay there, or thereabout, for some time.

  "Well," said Jack Danvers, "I believe these cattle have stopped here.Why not leave them alone, and keep an eye on them for the day or twothat we are hunting here, and then when we start back two of us candrive them along to the ranch and turn them loose down by the lake?"

  "I guess that's the thing to do," agreed Jack Mason. "Meantime, if theyshould move away, one of us can pick up the trail and probably overtake'em. I don't seem to remember any of these cows on the round-up, but ofcourse they were there."

  "I remember that black and white cow and her calf, and that bob-tailedbay steer over there. I think the day they were cut out was about thetime you went into town to interview your friend Claib Wood."

  Mason laughed.

  "I just envy you fellows the fun you had out of that little argumentthat Claib and I had in town. I believe I've been better than a comicpaper to that round-up camp, and it didn't cost 'em anything, either."

  When they returned to camp they found that Donald had been busy. Thebeds were in the tent ready for unrolling; the antelope had beenskinned and meat cut for frying; the coffee had been boiled and wasstanding in the ashes near the fire where it would keep hot. Donald hadunsaddled his horse and turned it loose with drag-rope, and had tiedthe ropes of the two work horses to bunches of sage-brush.

  "Bully for you!" called Jack. "This looks like business. Just as soonas we picket our horses we can have supper."

  The work of picketing the horses so that they could get as much grassas possible and yet would not get tangled in one another's ropes wassoon over, and before the sun had set the simple meal was finished andthe dishes washed, ready for breakfast.

  The night was clear and warm, with a full moon, and nothing disturbedthe rest of the hunters, though as they fell asleep they heard thechorus of coyotes from the nearby hills.

  It was not light the next morning when Jack Danvers heard Mason puttingon his shoes, and a moment later pushing aside the flap of the tent.Jack also began to dress and in a very few minutes the two men werepreparing breakfast around the dancing fire. Dawn had come and wasswiftly spreading over the sky. Jack called to Donald, who groaneda response but before long appeared at the fire just in time to besaluted by Jack, who had returned from the stream with the bucket andthe coffee-kettle filled with water.

  After breakfast, the three rode a little way to the north, where froma high knoll they could see the cattle, placed just about as they hadbeen the night before; and then, turning east and passing through somebroken country, they came to a rolling plateau more or less interruptedby ravines, where they saw not a few antelope. Most of these werebusily feeding on the higher ground and for a time the boys could seeno way of approaching any of them. Finally Donald and Jack Danvers,leaving their horses, set out to crawl up a low swale which they hopedmight bring them within long shot of a herd of eight or ten antelopeguarded apparently by a big buck. They crawled and crawled under thehot sun, and Donald thought that he had never been in any place whereit was so hot as this. Moreover, flies--small but very hungry--buzzedabout his head, and stung his neck and ears, and he seriously wonderedwhether the antelope they were after were worth all this effort.

  They were still a long way from the game when the little water-coursein which they were crawling spread out and became so shallow that itwas impossible to proceed farther without being seen.

  "This seems to be our finish," Jack said, "unless you feel likeshooting at them at this distance; and if I were you, I wouldn't do it.There's a possibility of hitting, but no more than that; and if youmiss, when these antelope run, everything that sees them will be on thelookout and ready to run."

  "It isn't likely that I could hit at this distance," answered Donald."I wish that they would come up nearer."

  "I'm afraid wishing won't do you much good," laughed Jack.

  "Say, I used to read about flagging antelope. Have you ever tried it?"

  "No; I never have. I guess likely they used to do it in old times,but I fancy in these days the antelope are too smart to be fooled byanything like that. To be sure, I've seen antelope come back to looka second time, or a third time, at something that they had seen butcouldn't make out; but I'm afraid the flagging business won't work."

  "Well," suggested Donald, "why not try it anyhow? If we don't showourselves it isn't likely to scare them; and it's possible that theymay notice it."

  "How are you going to work it?" Jack asked.

  "This red handkerchief around my neck will do for a flag. But there'snothing to tie it to except our two guns, and if it succeeds we oughtto use them for another purpose."

  "Why, here," said Jack, "I'll take this rod from my rifle and we cantie the flag to that."

  Jack's rifle was fitted with tubes below the barrel and through theseran the slender steel rod which might be used to drive out a shell, ifby any chance one should stick in the breech of the gun.

  Jack took the rod from its place and tied Donald's handkerchief to oneend and then slowly raised it in the air and waved it in plain sightof the antelope. For a short time they did not notice it, and thenan old doe faced around toward the boys and stood there looking; andin a moment all of them were looking. Presently the old doe startedoff on a canter to get nearer to the flag. She galloped for forty orfifty yards, then stopped and looked. Then she turned and trotted offa short distance, and turned and looked again; and then galloped upstill nearer. And what this old doe did all the others did. Presentlyit seemed as if the buck took courage--as if perhaps he wanted to showoff before his family. He galloped up to within seventy-five or eightyyards, and then, turning to the left, made as if he would circle aroundthis strange thing that fluttered to the wind.

  "Now!" whispered Jack. "He may not come any nearer. If you can, hit himwhen he is trotting; or, if you'll wai
t for him to stop, I believe youcan get him. I think I would wait; he'll probably stop before he hasgone far."

  So it turned out. Before long the buck stopped and faced squarelyaround, and Donald, with the memory of the previous night's shootingin his mind, drew a very fine sight on the antelope's chest, low down,and fired. The buck reared on his hind legs and, holding his fore legsstiffly out before him, fell over backward. The does looked at him fora moment and then scurried off like so many frightened rabbits, whilethe boys, rising from the ground, stretched their cramped limbs andstamped about to restore the circulation.

  "That was another good shot, Donald. I'd like to know how you held, andwe'll see just where the ball hit."

  "I drew the sight just as fine as I possibly could, and held on thevery lower edge of his breast. If the ball flew as high as last nightit seems to me it ought to have broken the lower part of his neck, butif I held right, and the life line is as low as I fancy you say it is,I believe that I must have hit his heart."

  When they reached the buck, they found that Donald had done just that.The ball had entered an inch and a half or two inches above the lowerlevel of the breast, and a little to one side of the breast-bone; hadpierced the heart and gone entirely through the antelope.

  Jack shook hands with Donald.

  "A good shot!" he exclaimed. "I shouldn't be surprised if you couldbeat us all with the rifle."

  The shot had so thoroughly bled the antelope that it was unnecessaryto cut its throat, and when it was ripped up all the blood in its bodyseemed to have gathered in the visceral cavity.

  Before the antelope was dressed Jack Mason came up with their horses.

  "My!" he exclaimed, bending over and resting on the saddle-horn as hewatched the boys at work, "that's a fine head. You don't often see onelike that. Why don't you take it, Donald, and carry it back to the oldcountry to ornament the walls of your baronial hall?"

  "I believe I will, Mason," said Donald; "and when I get it hung onthose walls, I'll invite you and Claib Wood to come over and give usyour little barroom act. We can have lots of Western color in thevillage where I live, with just a few of the properties."

  Mason laughed.

  "I believe it would have been better if I'd killed Claib," he said."You fellow's wouldn't have so much to josh about then."

  The two following days spent at this camp resulted in the capture ofthree more buck antelope, and the next morning camp was broken andthe wagon started back to the basin. Donald drove, while Jack Masonand Jack Danvers rode well out on the prairie and rounded up all thecattle they could see and drove them slowly toward the ranch. In theearly part of the day the cattle were slow to move, but after the sungot hotter and more directly overhead they seemed to work along better,and shortly after noon had the appearance of really striking out afterwater, which, of course, in due time they found.

  At the place where the road crossed the water Donald had stopped,unhitched his team, taken off the bridles and tied the animals out tofeed; and Mason and Jack were delighted when they came in sight of thecamp to see Donald fussing about the fire and to find a good meal justabout ready.

  A few hours later the cattle were turned loose just outside the bigpasture beyond the lake, and the little hunting party rode up to theranch, its mission accomplished.