CHAPTER IX
The thunder clap which frightened the herd of cattle also rousedTuttle and Ellhorn, and through half-awakened consciousness they heardthe noise of the stampede.
"What's that! The cattle?" exclaimed Tuttle, rising on his elbow.Ellhorn jumped to his feet.
"Tom, there goes ten thousand dollars on the hoof and a-runnin' likehell!"
"Where are the horses? Come on, Nick! Buck! Buck! Hello, Buck! Whoa!Here's mine, Nick! Yours is over by the chuck wagon!"
Fumbling in the darkness, they hurried to release and saddle thehobbled horses, and, calling to the sick cow-boy that when the foremanshould come in the morning he must make haste after them, they jumpedupon the ponies and set out on the gallop through the darkness totrail the noise of the running cattle. With every flash of lightningNick Ellhorn looked about with keen, quick glances, and withhalf-blinded eyes located mountain peaks and arroyos, considered thedirection in which they were headed, and the general lay of the land,and after a time he broke out with a string of oaths:
"Tommy, them cow-brutes are headed straight for Sweetwater Springs,and the Fillmore outfit's camped there to-night! Jim Halliday isthere, and so is that measly Wellesly, if he hasn't gone back to town.He was out here two days ago. Emerson and the cattle will sure strikethe Springs just about daylight, if they keep up their gait andnothing stops 'em!"
Tuttle swore angrily under his breath. "That's just the snap they'vebeen waitin' for all this time! Their only show to get Emerson, or tokill him either, is to come down on him half a dozen to one, and theyknow it. Well, if they kill him he won't be the first to drop--nor thelast, either," he added with a little break in his voice, as he gavehis sombrero a nervous pull over his forehead.
"I reckon," Ellhorn replied, "they don't want to kill Emerson, as longas you and me are alive. They know what would happen afterward. JimHalliday has got that same old warrant over there, and what they wantto do is to shut him up in jail again."
The first stinging drops of rain dashed in their faces and theybuttoned their coats and galloped on in silence. Tuttle was the firstto speak again:
"What's that scrub Wellesly doing out here?"
"I don't know, unless he came to bring 'em some brains. They need somebad enough. Wellesly and Colonel Whittaker have been ridin' aroundover the range for the last two or three days, though I didn't knowabout it till yesterday. I guess they've been so everlastingly beatenon every proposition that he thought he'd better come out himself andsee if he couldn't save the day for 'em on something."
They hurried on in the trail of the roar from the stampeding herd, butsuddenly Ellhorn's horse struck his fore feet on the slope of a wetand slippery mound beside a prairie dog's hole. Before the animalcould recover, its feet slid down the bank into the mouth of the holewith a forward jerk, and it came down with a groaning cry of pain.Ellhorn rose to his feet in the stirrups, and as the horse struck theground he stood astride its body and with a quick leap jumped to oneside unhurt. By the light of a match, which Tuttle sheltered under hissombrero, standing bareheaded, meanwhile, with the rain running instreams down his neck, Ellhorn examined the fallen horse.
"He's broke both his forelegs, Tom. There's only one thing to do withhim, now."
Tuttle stroked the beast's nose. "I reckon so, Nick. You-all better doit." Then he turned away, while Ellhorn put his revolver to thehorse's head and ended its pain.
"Now, Tom, you go on after Emerson as fast as you can and I'll hoof itback to camp and get Bob's horse."
"No, you-all jump on behind me, Nick, and we'll go on together.Emerson will need us both in the morning. If that crowd gets after himmaybe he can stand 'em off till we-all get there. But he'll need us bydaylight, Nick."
"I 'low you're right, Tommy, but ain't you on that horse that alwaysbucks at double?"
"Yes, but I reckon he'll have to pack double, if you and me fork him."
"You bet he will!" and Ellhorn leaped to the horse's back behindTuttle. "Whoo-oo-ee-ee!" Two pairs of spurs dug the horse's flank anda rein as tight as a steel band held its head so high that bucking wasimpossible. The horse jumped and danced and stood on its hind legs andsnorted defiance and with stiffened legs did its best to hump its backand dismount its unwelcome double burden. It might as well have triedto get rid of its own mane. The riders swayed and bent with its motionas if they were a part of its own bounding body. Tuttle gave theanimal its head just enough to allow it to work off its disapprovalharmlessly, and for the rest, it did nothing that he did not allow itto do. Finally it recognized the mastery, and, pretending to bedreadfully frightened by a sudden vivid flash of lightning, it startedoff on a run.
"Hold on there, old man!" said Tuttle. "This won't do with two heavyweights on top of you. You've got to pack double, but you'd better goslow about it."
"WITH A WHOOPING YELL, HE DASHED AT THE HEAD OF THEPLUNGING HERD"--_p. 82_]
Calming the horse down to a quick trot, they hurried on in the wake ofthe stampede. They had lost all sound of the herd, and the trail whichthe ploughing hoofs had made at the beginning of the storm had beennearly obliterated by the beating rain. Once they thought theycaught the sound again and must be off the track. They followed it andfound it was the roaring of a high wave coming down an arroyo from acloudburst farther up in the mountain. Hurrying back, they kept to thegeneral direction the cattle had taken until the trail began to showmore plainly in the soaked earth, like a strip of ploughed land acrossthe hills. When they reached the next arroyo, they found it a torrentof roaring water. The greater part of the cloudburst had flowed downthis channel, and where Mead and the cattle had to cross merely wetsand and soaked earth, they would have to swim.
"See here, Tom," said Ellhorn, "two's too much for this beast in thewater. You take care of my belt and gun and I'll swim across."
"That's a mighty swift current, Nick. Don't you think we-all can makeit together?"
"I don't want to take any chances. Buck can get across with you allright, but if he's got us both on him he might go down and then we'dhave to follow Emerson on foot. We're coverin' ground almighty slow,anyway. I'm the best swimmer, and you-all can take care of my bootsand gun."
They waited a few moments for a flash of lightning to show them thebanks of the arroyo. By its light they saw a water course thirty feetwide and probably ten feet deep, bank-full of a muddy, foaming flood,in which waves two feet high roared after one another, carrying clumpsof bushes, stalks of cactus, bones, and other debris. As they plungedinto the torrent, Ellhorn seized the tail of Tuttle's horse, and,holding it with one hand and swimming with the other, made goodprogress. But in mid-stream a big clump of mesquite struck him in theside, stunning him for an instant, and he let go his hold upon thepony's tail. A high wave roared down upon him the next moment, andcarried him his length and more down stream. He fought with all hisstrength against the swift current, but, faint and stunned, couldbarely hold his own. He shouted to Tuttle, who was just landing, andTom threw the end of his lariat far out into the middle of the stream.Ellhorn felt the rope across his body, grasped it and called to Tuttleto pull.
"Tommy," he said, when safe on land, "I hope we'll find the wholeFillmore outfit just a-walkin' all over Emerson. I don't want more'nhalf an excuse to get even with 'em for this trip. Sure and I wish Ihad 'em all here right now! I'm just in the humor to make sieves of'em!"
With Hoops of Steel Page 9