Jack the Young Explorer: A Boy's Experiances in the Unknown Northwest

by George Bird Grinnell

  CHAPTER XV

  LONE WOLF'S BAY PONY

  It did not take Jack long to skin the lynx, but before he had finishedstretching it, Hugh and Joe came back and reported that the horses wereall right.

  By this time the sun had come out and was shining hot, and the snowmelting rapidly. A warm breeze blew down the valley from the westward,and as they watched the mountainsides above them, the boys thought thatthey could see the dark patches not covered by snow increase in size asthey looked at them.

  "Well, boys," said Hugh, "if you want to climb up and look over intoBelly River, go ahead and do it, and get back as early as you can. Thisspot here is mighty pretty, but I reckon we've seen about all of it thatwe want to, and unless you've got some special chore that you want toattend to, we might as well pack up and go up one of the other forks. Idon't see any special reason for stopping here. We've got what meat weneed, and what we want to see is new country."

  "That's so, Hugh," said Jack; "we'll go up to the top of the mountainand then come back and move down to the forks as soon as you like."

  "And look here, son," said Hugh, "why don't you go up there alone, andwhile you are gone, Joe and I will start in to dry this meat we've gotcut out."

  "All right," said Jack. "I'll do that, or if you like, I'll not go upthere, but stay here and fix the meat."

  "No," said Hugh, "you go on and make your climb, and Joe and I'll fixthe meat, and if you get back in time maybe we can move camp down belowthis afternoon, or if not we can start the first thing in the morning."

  "All right," said Jack; and he took up his rifle and started up themountainside.

  It was a long, slow climb. For the first half, the way was over steepopen mountainside, dotted here and there with small spruces and cedars,and the soil was now wet with the melting snow, and often slippery.Still he made good time. The side of the mountain was seamed withravines, and broken here and there by low rock ledges; and two or threetimes as he went on he found himself within easy shot of little bunchesof goats. When Jack saw these, if he could do it without losing time, hecrept as close to them as possible, and then showing himself, hurriedon. Some of the goats seemed quite shy and ran off, while others lookedat him for a long time until he got quite close to them, and then turnedand paced slowly off along the hillside.

  When he reached the rocks, he found, as Hugh had told him, a break inthe wall, cut by falling water, and entering this, began to climb amongthe steep rocks and ledges, which it often required some care tosurmount, but which were not difficult nor at all dangerous.

  An hour and a half of climbing of this sort brought him to the crest ofthe wall, and creeping upon this he hung over and looked down into awonderfully deep and dark canyon beyond. From the other side of thecanyon a great mountain rose sharply, and its summit was covered with avast snowbank which lay upon a great mass of ice. Evidently, thoughtJack, here is a glacier. The mass of ice was apparently moving towardthe valley and would break off over this cliff and then fall a thousandfeet into the valley below.

  It was a wonderfully impressive sight, yet Jack stayed but a littletime. He was wet with perspiration, and up here the breeze blew strongand cold. Besides, he thought of his friends in camp, and was anxious toget back to them and help them with their work. So after some minutes'study of the scene, during which he tried to impress all its featuresupon his memory, he turned about and slipping off the crest of the rockwall, picked his way down the ravine.

  The journey to camp seemed much shorter than the climb, and when Jackstrode up to the fire warm and muddy and wet up to the knees, theafternoon had not half gone.

  Hugh and Joe had built a large platform of poles supported on fourcrotched sticks. Under this they had kindled a slow smoky fire, and onthe poles rested flakes of elk meat, which were being dried by the sunabove and the fire and smoke beneath. A part of the meat had evidentlybeen already partially dried and was hanging in bundles from thebranches of one of the trees.

  "Well, son," remarked Hugh, "you've got back, have you? Quite a climb,wasn't it?"

  "Yes," said Jack, "it was quite a climb, but I think it was worth it.That's a mighty pretty view from the top of that ridge, and I'm glad Isaw it. You're getting on pretty well with your meat, I see."

  "Yes," said Hugh, "we've given it all a little touch of the sun andsmoke, and I don't believe the flies will get at it right away."

  "What are you going to do?" asked Jack. "Wait here and finish with themeat, or go on down and camp at that lake we passed?"

  "Why," said Hugh, "I believe we might as well get up the horses and ridedown to the lake. It won't take us more than a couple of hours, and wecan stop there to-morrow and put this meat out again, go up that shortfork that lies in the middle, and then the next day poke over and see ifwe can get up the other fork that lies beyond the lake."

  "All right," said Jack. "Shall I go out and bring in the horses?"

  "Say you do," said Hugh. "Joe and me'll pull down the tent and make upthe packs, and it'll take us a mighty short time to get started."

  The snow had disappeared from the valley. The horses were in sight andJack got around them and brought them in. Joe helped him catch andsaddle them, and by the time this was done, the tent was down and Hugh'spacks were mostly made up. The work of packing was speedily finished,and a little later the three were following back their trail of a fewdays before.

  Instead of stopping by the lake, where there was but little feed and nota very good camping place, Hugh went on to their old camp, where thetent was pitched and the scaffold erected and covered with meat. A goodbreeze was blowing, and Hugh declared that if they stayed here one daymore, the meat would be in shape to pack.

  By the time the camp was made, the sun was touching the westernmountains, and it was too late to do anything that day.

  "If we had a little more daylight, son," said Hugh, "I'd send you outwith that fishing rod of yours to catch some trout, but it's too latefor that. Now, I'll just get supper, and we'll have a good long nightand to-morrow morning we can all go up the middle fork of this creek,and see what there is there."

  The wind fell with the sun, and after supper they sat around the fire,resting. Toward the mountains they could hear the never-ceasing rumbleof the falls from the river, and now and then this sound would bedrowned by a thunderous roar from the mountains, ending in a long,hissing sound. After the boys had listened to these noises for sometime, Joe said to Hugh, "What is this we hear, White Bull? It soundslike the Thunder Bird flapping his wings at first, and then kind of diesoff into a smaller noise."

  "Why," said Hugh, "those are snowslides coming down from the mountainshere and there. You see to-day has been pretty warm, and the sun hasshone hot and heated up the rocks, and in lots of places the snow hasmelted so much that it lets go its hold on the steep slopes and rushesdown the mountainside. You boys have never been in the mountains at thistime of the year, but you'll find that when the snow is melting inspring, it's always sliding down the mountains. It's a mighty dangeroustime to be in the high hills, because a man can never tell when one ofthese snowslides is going to start, and when it does, it gets going sofast there's no chance for a man to dodge it. Lots of men have beenkilled by being covered up by such slides, and often they are so bigand come so hard that they smash everything that gets in their way."

  "Yes, White Bull, that's so," said Joe. "Jack and I saw two places nearwhere we were camped yesterday where the snow had come down and brokenoff big strong trees, trees bigger around than your body."

  "Yes," said Hugh. "There are lots of such places in the mountains, andwe're likely to see more of them before we get out. These mountains," hewent on, "are a great place to see what wind and water can do. There'sno place that I know of where the wind can blow so hard; there's noplace where the snow is worse, and there's no place where the floods aremore powerful. Of course, none of those things lasts very long, but anyone of them can do a heap of damage in a mighty short time. Down in thehigh mountains of Colorado I have seen some b
ad snowslides, and I knew alittle fellow down there that used to carry the mail over the range thatgot caught in a snowslide once. Luckily, he only got caught on the edgeof it and it didn't kill him. It just carried him along a little ways,rolling him over and over, and fetched him out on a point of solid rockthat he managed to hang on to, but although he wasn't in the snow morethan a minute or two, he was all bruised up and felt for a good manydays afterward as if he'd been beaten with a club.

  "Joe Bruce, too," he continued, "got caught in a snowslide once when hewas crossing the mountains, and came pretty near being killed; but he,too, only got caught on the edge and got thrown around some and came outwith his life."

  "Well," said Joe, "I never heard him speak about that."

  "No," said Hugh, "I reckon not. You know Bruce ain't no great talker; heain't much of a hand to tell about things that have happened to himself.And that reminds me, did I ever tell you about the way Bruce got back ahorse that was stolen once from Carroll & Steele, when they ran atrading-post down in Benton in the early days? That's a pretty goodstory, but it's better to hear Joe Bruce tell it than anybody else.Still, maybe I can give you an idea of what happened."

  "That's bully, Hugh," said Jack, "I love to hear your stories."

  "I've forgotten," went on Hugh, "what year it was, but it was in theearly '60's that Matt Carroll and George Steele were running theirtrading-post in Benton. Both Carroll and Steele had been working for theAmerican Fur Company in years gone by, but now they had formed apartnership, and were trading on their own account. The country was fullof buffalo and there was a big trade in robes. Of course the Piegans didall their trading at Benton, and every now and then a party of Bloodsand Blackfeet would bring in a lot of robes from the north. TheseIndians were masters of the whole country then, and they were prettyindependent. They were fighting all their enemies and now and then theykilled a white man, when they got a good chance. Of course, they werenot openly at war, but any Indian who saw a white man that had somethingthat he wanted was liable to kill him if he got a good chance. Now, atthis time in one of the Piegan camps close to Benton there was a youngfellow named Lone Wolf, who did his trading with Carroll & Steele, andone day George Steele bought a horse from him, a bay pony, that LoneWolf said was an awful good horse and a good buffalo runner. After LoneWolf had sold the horse he got sorry that he had done so, and he used tocome to the store and sit around looking sullen and sad; his heart waspretty bad.

  "Bruce, who was then only a boy, noticed that Lone Wolf was sulky, buthe did not know what the matter was. He had charge of the horses, and,of course, fed and watered those that were kept in the barn, a biglog-stable with a padlock and chain on the door.

  "One morning as he was coming back from watering the horses and drovethem into the stable, he saw Lone Wolf sitting on the ground not faroff. Bruce followed the horses into the stable, tied them in theirstalls and fed them, but before he had finished, someone called to him,and he went out of the barn to find out what was wanted.

  "He wasn't gone more than a few minutes, and when he came back and wentinto the stable he saw in a moment that the bay horse was missing. Heran to the door and looked out. Lone Wolf was gone, too; up and down theflat and along the bluffs he could see no sign of the Indian nor of thehorse, nor was there any dust rising to show where they had gone.

  "Bruce went into the store and told Steele, and Steele blew him up forhis carelessness. Of course, there was nothing to be done, but Steeletold him that he must look out and not lose any more horses.

  "It made the boy feel pretty badly to have had the horse taken rightunder his nose, and to have had an Indian play such a trick on him.Bruce made up his mind that he would try to get the horse back, but heknew that this was going to be quite a job.

  "For some time after that Lone Wolf was not seen in Benton. If he wantedanything at the store, he sent in for it by his wife or some otherIndian and did not send to Carroll & Steele's, but to the othertrading-store.

  "Old Four Bears--the same one that you boys know--used to come into townevery day to Carroll & Steele's and tell Bruce about the good luck thatLone Wolf was having chasing buffalo with his fast horse. Every day ortwo he'd come in and report that Lone Wolf had killed six buffalo orfour buffalo or eight buffalo or eleven, and when Four Bears made thesereports, why, he used to laugh over them as if they were the best jokesin the world, but you can imagine that they didn't seem very funny toBruce.

  "Every day, when he went out to ride a horse, Bruce would go off towardthe Piegan camp, and hide in the brush or on top of some hill, and watchthe camp with a field glass, so as to find out how they were treatingthe stolen horse, in the hope that some day he would have a chance tosteal it back again. There didn't seem to be much likelihood that thiswould happen, because the camp was a big one, and when the horses weresent out they were almost always herded by one or two boys. Besidesthat, Bruce found that they had tried to change the looks of the pony.His ears were tied back so that he looked crop-eared, and they hadpainted him with white clay in spots, so that at a distance he lookedlike a pinto. However, after a while Bruce found out which horse it wasand then discovered that he was always necked to another horse.

  "After a while, the camp that Lone Wolf lived in moved further away fromBenton, so that when Bruce wanted to go to it he had about athirteen-mile ride to make. It seemed that his chances of getting thehorse were growing smaller. However, one afternoon he started outfeeling pretty desperate and made his ride and got as close as he couldtoward the Indian lodges, and commenced to watch again. At length he sawa boy drive the horses to water, and keeping behind some hills andtimber he managed to ride within two hundred yards of the place wherethe horses were drinking, and stopped there, hidden behind some brush.Presently, he saw the boy who was herding them go into a lodge, and in amoment he rushed out, dashed between the horses and the lodges andstarted the band off toward the prairie. As soon as he got them going herode through them, roped the bay pony, cut it loose from its mate, andshortening up his lariat and sticking the spurs into his own mount, hestarted off over the bad land bluffs.

  "As he looked back he saw the Indians rushing out of the lodges andlooking after him, shading their eyes from the sun. Then they rushedback to get their guns, and the boys brought in the horses.

  "It was not long before a string of Indians were riding hot after Bruce.His horse was grain-fed and strong and tough and better able to run fora long time than the Indian ponies, which, of course, had been fed ongrass. The captured pony could go fast enough, as he had no load tocarry, so Bruce commenced to ride across the roughest country that hecould find, down the side of one clay bluff and up the next, following aroad that was heartbreaking to a rider. More than that, the sun wasabout to set, and before long it would be dark.

  "For a little while, all the same, the Indians seemed to gain on him,and he did not feel any way sure how matters were coming out. He managedto keep ahead, however, and when it got dark, turned sharp off hiscourse and followed the ravine down to the river, while the Indians keptriding as hard as they could in the direction that he had previouslybeen following, and nobody knows when they stopped.

  "Bruce rode down to the river and crossed to an island where he tied thebay horse in the brush with a rope that he had previously left there.Then he went on to the post and went to bed.

  "The next morning he went to Steele and asked him what he would give toget the bay pony back again. Steele knew Bruce pretty well, and said tohim at once, 'You've got him.'

  "'Well,' said Bruce, 'I think I know how I could get him.'

  "'Well,' said Steele, 'if I were to get him he'd only be stolen again,and if you've got him you can have him.'

  "So, presently, Bruce went over to the island and got the horse andbrought him back and put him in the stable. He hadn't much more thantied him and got out of the stable again, when he saw old Four Bearscoming. Four Bears had not heard the news, because his band was campedin a different place from that of Lone Wolf, and the old man came upbubbl
ing over with joy and told Bruce how many buffalo Lone Wolf hadkilled yesterday. He thought this was just as good a joke now as he hadthe first time he had told a similar story, and Bruce thought it a muchbetter one. However, Bruce after a while remarked, 'Steele's got a newblack horse in the stable. Don't you want to come in and see it?' FourBears went along and went into the stable and looked at the black horse,and then saw the hips of the horse in the next stall, and steppingforward where he could see the whole of the animal, he recognized it. Hehadn't a word to say, but just clapped his hand over his mouth insurprise and walked out without a word. You can bet that Bruce watchedthat stable good after that, so that there was no chance for Lone Wolfto steal the horse back again."

  "Well," exclaimed Jack, "that's a bully story, but, what became of thehorse finally?"

  "Well," said Hugh, "if you'll hold your horses a little bit I'll goahead. The story ain't half finished yet."

  "I beg your pardon, Hugh," replied Jack, "I was in a little too much ofa hurry."

  "Well," said Hugh, "Bruce took good care of the horse and whenever herode him after that kept a bright lookout. Nothing happened, and after awhile he got a little careless, and one day, as he was riding along andwent around a point of the bluffs he saw, not a hundred yards away, LoneWolf riding along the trail toward him, with his rifle across hissaddle. Bruce had a revolver, but he didn't dare to reach for it,because he knew that would mean a fight, and at the distance whichseparated the two men, the rifle would be likely to get him before hecould do anything with his pistol. He was afraid to turn and run, forLone Wolf might paste him in the back, so he kept on, never letting onthat he noticed Lone Wolf, or had any feeling about him. He played withhis quirt some and finally after twisting it about a little, let hishand fall on the handle of his pistol. All the time he was gettingnearer and nearer to the Indian, which gave him a lot of comfort.

  "Lone Wolf never said or did anything, and presently Bruce rode up tohim, and turning his horse so as to bring him on the side opposite thebutt of the rifle, told Lone Wolf that Steele had sent him out to lookfor him to ask him to come to the post, where he had a present for him,because he wanted to make friends. The Indian looked at the pony andsmiled a little and then said he'd go, and the two rode side by sideinto the fort, talking in a friendly way, but each one of them on thewatch, you can bet.

  "When they got to the store Lone Wolf was fed and given a lot of tobaccoand ammunition, and he made Steele a present of a handsome parfleche,which he had on his saddle.

  "Bruce kept the horse, and Lone Wolf and he never had any trouble again.Lone Wolf was killed a few years afterwards by the Crows.

  "Well, that's the end of how Bruce got the horse; and now, if you like,I'll tell you what finally became of him.

  "It was some years afterwards, in the late '60's, and the Indians werebad. A good many men had been killed, miners and trappers andfreighters; and a lot of horses had been run off. People did not like togo far from the post, and at night they had a guard round the town,fearing that maybe the Indians would attack them. The horses were onshort commons; there was mighty little hay in town and the only placefolks dared to pasture them was down on the flat where the feed wasmighty poor, because that was where the freighters camped and fed theirstock. There were a few people whose horses were on ranches at somedistance from the post, and as there was nobody traveling back and forthin the country, most of these people thought that their horses were goneand made up their minds to pocket the loss. However, a friend of MattCarroll's had a couple of fine driving horses that were running on aranch about fifteen miles below Benton. This man needed his team.

  "Two or three times Carroll had tried to get men to go for the horses,but nobody was willing to make the ride. At last it occurred to Carrollthat Bruce might go, and he offered him fifty dollars to ride down andbring up the animals. With a good horse, it would take him only twohours to go down and perhaps three more to return, so that by making anearly start, he could get back to the post in time for dinner. Brucenever was afraid of much of anything, and he had a good deal ofconfidence in his luck, and fifty dollars to him looked like a lot ofmoney; so he agreed to go.

  "That evening, feeling pretty good about the money that he was going toearn, Bruce started out for a good time in the barrooms and dance-housesof the town, but about the middle of the night, when he started to gohome, he remembered that he was on patrol duty for the morning watch, soinstead of going to bed he simply slept a little in a chair by thebarroom stove until called to go on patrol.

  "After breakfast, Bruce saddled up the bay pony that he had got fromLone Wolf and started.

  "He was pretty stupid and dull from lack of sleep, and rode much moreslowly than he intended to. When he reached the bottom of a steepravine, down which his horse went slowly and carefully, he was suddenlygrabbed by a dozen hands, pulled out of the saddle, his gun taken fromhim, his horse captured, and a half dozen Indians were standing abouthim, one of whom had a butcher knife at his throat. He thought theyintended to kill him right there, but an old man who was with themstopped the young men, and said that the captive must be taken beforethe chiefs. Accordingly they stripped off all his clothing, except hisdrawers, undershirt and moccasins, and then took him up to where a groupof warriors were gathered on the bluff.

  "The old man who had saved his life was present and seemed to bewatching him. It was a war party that had got him. There were no women,no travois, no pack ponies, and the men, wrapped in blankets and robes,carried nothing but their arms.

  "Of course, you know that Bruce talks half a dozen languages--Sioux,Mandan, Blackfoot, some Crow and two or three more.

  "As they were approaching the group, the old man told him that they weregoing to question him and that he must answer them truthfully.

  "'If you do this you will be protected. You and I have slept in the samelodge and have eaten together, but you must answer the questions. Thehearts of these young men are bad, and they want horses and scalps.'

  When they had got to the chiefs, who were sitting about on the ground,Bruce was asked how many men were at the post, how they were armed,whether they were on the watch for enemies, how many horses there were,and where they were herded.

  These questions had to be answered, and answered as truthfully aspossible, and when it was proposed to kill Bruce and take his scalpfirst, for luck, his old friend objected. At last they decided to takeBruce down to the river and send him across, because when he was on theother side, it would be impossible for him to give the alarm. So theytied his hands to the tail of a horse ridden by one man, while anotherrode behind--to keep him from pulling back, I reckon--and they startedfor the river.

  "His moccasins did him little good now and his underclothing tore atevery bush they passed. The horses galloped at an ordinary rate andBruce had to keep up, for if he had fallen he would have been draggedand kicked to death.

  "It took but a little time to reach the river, but it seemed a long timeto Bruce, whose feet and legs were cut, and his back and shoulderscreased with blows from the quirts.

  "When they got to the river, his hands were loosened and the Indiansdismounted, took the covers off their guns and signed Bruce to jump in.He jumped and swam under water just as far as he possibly could hold hisbreath.

  "The current was swift, and when he came up he was a long way below theIndians, but he took only one breath and dived again, keeping on untilat last he reached a shallow place and dragged himself out on the northside of the river, where he sat down to get back his breath and thinkwhat he could do.

  "Before this he had no time to think. The prospect had been so blackfor him that he had been looking only to see what would happen the nextminute. He was now in bad shape, bruised and bleeding and half frozen todeath, and he just broke down and cried like a little child.

  "At last he climbed the bank and found himself at an old cabin, longabandoned. Here, looking aimlessly about, he happened to find an oldColt's revolver, which had been lost or thrown away. It was now entirel
yuseless, and, besides, even if it had been in good order he had noammunition.

  "He took this up, however, and started back toward the post, going inlow places and traveling out of sight, like an Indian.

  "It was well along in the afternoon when he heard on the wind, that wasblowing hard, faint sounds of yelling and shooting. The noise sounded asif it came from the post, but he was not going to take any risks, so hehid himself until after sunset. It was bitter cold by that time, and hewas obliged to start on or freeze to death.

  "He now traveled at a better speed, and quite early in the eveningrounded a lofty bluff and kept along on top of it. Presently on therising wind he heard the sound of voices, but he could not tell whetherthey were those of the whites or Indians. He lay flat on the ground andwaited, and as the sounds came nearer, presently he could distinguishthe forms of men against the sky.

  "BRUCE HAD TO KEEP UP, FOR IF HE HAD FALLEN HE WOULD HAVEBEEN DRAGGED AND KICKED TO DEATH."--_Page 211_]

  "They stopped not very far away and talked, and he thought then thatthey were the Indians, and had almost made up his mind to drop over thebluff and take his chances of being killed by the fall, when a suddenwhiff of wind brought him some words in English, and he knew that themen were from the post.

  "The gale made it useless for him to try to call to them, but he feltthat he must do something, for at any time they might see his whiteclothing and shoot at him. He gave a shout, calling, 'Don't shoot, don'tshoot,' and holding both his hands above his head, ran forward and foundhimself in the midst of a party that had been sent out to look for him.A raid on the town had captured a few horses and had cost the life of awhite man, while two of the Indians had been killed, but among thehorses lost was Lone Wolf's bay pony, which, so far as I know, was neverheard of again."

  "That certainly is a bully story, Hugh," said Jack.

  "Yes," said Joe, "that story is good. I have heard the people talk aboutit sometimes, but I never heard it all, as White Bull has told it to usto-night. I like it.

  "Those Indians were Gros Ventres," he went on, "and at that time theywere still enemies of my people, but soon after peace was made."