the Thundering Herd (1984)

by Grey, Zane

  "Eat, girl," called Jett, peremptorily.

  Milly was hungry enough, albeit she had been slow and, receiving her food and drink, she sat down upon a sack of grain. While she ate she watched from under the wide rim of her sun-bonnet.

  Did she imagine a subtle change had come over these men, now that the journey toward the wild buffalo country had begun? Follonsbee had been with Jett before and evidently had the leader's confidence, as was evinced by the many whispered consultations Milly had observed. He was a tall, spare man, with evil face, red from liquor and exposure, and eyes that Milly had never looked into twice. Pruitt had lately joined the little caravan. Small of stature, though hardy, and with a sallow face remarkable in that its pointed chin was out of line with the bulging forehead, he presented an even more repulsive appearance than Follonsbee. He was a rebel and lost no opportunity to let that fact be known.

  These men were buffalo-hunters, obsessed with the idea of large sums of money to be made from the sale of hides. From what little Milly had been able to learn, all the men except Catlee were to share equally in the proceeds of the hunt. Milly had several times heard argument to that effect--argument always discontinued when she came within hearing.

  Milly had become curious about her stepfather and his men. This interest of hers dated back no farther than yesterday, when her meeting with Tom Doan, and a few words exchanged with the pleasant Mrs. Hudnall, and her eager watching of the Hudnall camp, had showed her plainly that Jett's was a different kind of outfit. No good humor, no kindliness, no gay words or pleasant laughs, no evidence of wholesome anticipation! Jett had never been a man she could care for, yet up to the last few weeks he had been endurable.

  The force of him had changed with the advent of these other men and the journey into unsettled country. In him Milly now began to sense something sinister.

  They did not speak often. The business of eating and the hurry maintained by Jett were not altogether cause for this taciturnity.

  Catlee was the only one who occasionally made a casual remark, and then no one appeared to hear him.

  "Rustle along, you-all," ordered Jett, gruffly, as he rose from his meal.

  "Do you aim to camp at Wade's Crossin' tonight?" queried Follonsbee.

  "No. We'll water an' get wood there, an' go on," returned Jett, briefly.

  The other men made no comment, and presently they rose, to set about their tasks. The horses were hitched up while munching their grain out of the nose bags. Milly wiped the plates and utensils that Mrs. Jett hurriedly and silently washed.

  "Mother, I--I wish we were not going on this hunt," ventured Milly, at last, for no other reason than that she could not stand the silence.

  "I'm not your mother," replied the woman, tersely. "Call me Jane, if the name Mrs. Jett makes you jealous?"

  "Jealous? Why should I be jealous of that name?" asked Milly, in slow surprise.

  "You're no more related to Jett than I am," said Mrs. Jett, pondering darkly. She seemed a thick-minded person. "For my part, I don't like the hunt, either. I told Jett so, an' he said, 'Like it or lump it, you're goin'.' I reckon you'd better keep your mouth shut."

  Milly did not need such admonition, so far as her stepfather was concerned. But from that moment she decided to keep both eyes and ears open. Jett's domineering way might be responsible for the discontent of his wife and the taciturnity of his men.

  When all was in readiness to resume the journey Milly asked Jett if she could ride on the seat with the driver.

  "Reckon not," answered Jett, as he clambered to his own seat.

  "But my back gets tired. I can't lie down all the time," remonstrated Milly.

  "Jane, you ride with Catlee an' let Milly come with me," said Jett.

  "Like hob!" sneered his wife, with a sudden malignant flash of eyes that was a revelation to Milly. "Wouldn't you like that fine now, Rand Jett?"

  "Shut up!" returned Jett, in mingled anger and discomfiture.

  "You're mighty afraid some man will look at that girl," she went on, regardless of his gathering frown. "How's she ever goin' to get a husband?"

  Jett glared at her and ground his teeth.

  "Oh, I see," continued Mrs. Jett, without lowering her strident voice. "She AIN'T goin' to get a husband if YOU can help it. I've had that hunch before."

  "Will you shut up?" shouted Jett, furiously.

  Whereupon the woman lifted herself to the seat beside him. Jett started his team out toward the road. As Pruitt and Follonsbee had driven ahead in their wagon, Milly was left alone with Catlee, who seemed to be both amused and sympathetic.

  "Climb up heah, miss," said he.

  Milly hesitated, and then suddenly the new turn of her mind obstructed her old habit of obedience and she nimbly stepped to a seat beside the driver.

  "Reckon it'll be warmer out heah in the sun, but there's a breeze an' you can see around," he said.

  "It's much nicer."

  Catlee plied his long lash, cracking it over the horses without touching them, and they moved off in easy trot. The road lay downhill, and ahead the gray prairie rolled in undulating vast stretches to the horizon.

  "Are we going to Indian Territory?" Milly asked the driver.

  "Miss, we're in the Territory now," he replied. "I don't know when, but in a few days we'll cross the line into the Panhandle of Texas."

  "Is that where the buffalo are?"

  "I ain't shore aboot that. I heard Jett say the big herd would be comin' north an' likely run into the hunters somewheres near Red River."

  "Will all the hunters go to the same place?"

  "Shore they will, an' that'll be where the buffalo are."

  Milly did not analyze the vague hope that mounted in her breast.

  She felt surprised to find she wanted to talk, to learn things.

  "Is this strange country to you?" she asked.

  "Shore is, miss. I never was west of the Missouri till this trip.

  Reckon it's goin' to be hard. I met some hunters last night. They was celebratin' their arrival in town, an' I couldn't take too great stock in their talk. But shore they said it was bad down heah where we're goin'. I'm afraid it ain't no place for a girl like you."

  "I'm afraid so, too," said Milly.

  "Jett ain't your real father?" queried Catlee.

  "He's my stepfather," replied Milly, and then in a few words she told Catlee about herself, from the time her mother had married Jett.

  "Well, well, that accounts," rejoined Catlee, in tones unmistakably kind. But he did not vouchsafe to explain what he meant. Indeed, her simple story seemed to have silenced him. Yet more than before she felt his sympathy. It struck her singularly that he had stopped talking because he might have committed himself to some word against her stepfather.

  Thereafter Milly kept the conversation from personalities, and during the afternoon ride she talked at intervals and then watched the dim horizon receding always with its beckoning mystery.

  Sunset time found Jett's caravan descending a long gradual slope ending in a timbered strip that marked the course of a stream.

  Catlee pointed out two camps to Milly. White wagons stood out against the woodland; fires were twinkling; smoke was rising. The place appeared pleasant and sheltered. Jett drove across the stream, unhitched the horses, and he and Follonsbee watered them and filled the kegs while Pruitt and Catlee gathered firewood, which was tied on behind the wagons.

  One of the campers below the crossing came out in the open to halloo at Jett, more in friendly salutation than otherwise. Jett did not reply. He lost no time hooking up traces and harness and getting under way. He led on until nearly dark and halted at a low place where grass appeared abundant.

  "Why didn't my stepfather camp back there with the other outfits?" queried Milly, as Catlee halted his team.

  "Shore he's not sociable, an' he's bent on travelin' as far every day as possible," replied the driver.

  While Milly was busily engaged helping Mrs. Jett round the camp fire, d
arkness settled. Coyotes were yelping. A night wind rose and, sweeping down into the shallow coulee, it sent the white sparks flying. The morose mood of the travelers persisted. After supper was over and the tasks were finished Milly climbed to the seat of her wagon and sat there. It was out of earshot of the camp fire. Jett's wagon had been drawn up close beside the one she occupied. Heretofore camp had always been pitched in a sheltered place, in a grove or under the lea of a wooded hill. This site was out on the open prairie. The wind swept around and under the wagon, and it needed only a little more force to make it moan. But few stars lightened the cloudy sky. Lonesome, dismal, and forbidding, this prairie land increased Milly's apprehensions. She tried not to think of the future. Always before she had been dully resigned to a gray prospect. But now a consciousness grew that she could not go on forever like this, even if her situation did not grow worse. Of that, she had no doubt. Someone had told her that when she was eighteen years old she would be free to look out for herself. Yet even so, what could she do? She worked as hard for the Jetts as she would have to work for anyone else. Perhaps eventually she might get a place with a nice family like the Hudnalls. Suddenly the thought of Tom Doan flashed into her mind, and then of marriage. Her face burned. She hid it, fearful that even under cover of night someone might see her and read her thoughts. No use to try to repudiate them! She yearned for the companionship of women who would be kind to her, for a home, and for love.

  These thoughts became torture for Milly, but only so long as she strove against them. She had awakened. She could not be deprived of her feelings and hopes. Thus her habitual morbid brooding came to have a rival for the possession of her mind. When she went to bed that night she felt not only the insidious inception of a revolt, but also a realization that strength was coming from somewhere, as if with the magic of these new thoughts.

  Days passed--days that dragged on with the interminable riding over the widening prairie--with the monotony of camp tasks, and the relief of oblivion in sleep.

  Milly always saw the sun rise and set, and these were the only incidents of the day in which she found pleasure. She had exhausted Catlee's fund of stories and his limited knowledge of the frontier. He was the only one in the outfit that she could or would talk to. Follonsbee was manifestly a woman-hater. Pruitt had twice approached her, agreeably enough, yet offensive through his appearance; and she had cut his overtures short. Mrs. Jett's hawk eyes never failed to take note of any movement on her husband's part in Milly's direction, which notice finally had the effect of making Jett surlily aloof. Yet there was that in his look which made Milly shrink. As days and miles passed behind, Jett manifestly grew away from the character that had seemed to be his when Milly's mother married him. Here in this environment harshness and violence, and a subtle menace, appeared natural in him.

  Not a day went by now that Jett did not overtake and pass an outfit of two or more wagons bound for the hunting fields. These he passed on the road or avoided at camping grounds. When, however, he met a freighter going out with buffalo hides, he always had spare time to halt and talk.

  Jett pushed on. His teams were young and powerful, and he carried grain to feed them, thus keeping up their strength while pushing them to the limit. The gray rolling expanse of Indian Territory changed to the greener, more undulating and ridged vastness of the Panhandle of Texas. Where ten days before it had been unusual to cross one stream in a day's travel, now they crossed several. All of these, however, were but shallow creeks or washes. The trees along these stream bottoms were green and beautiful, lending contrast to the waving level of the plains.

  Milly conceived the idea that under happy circumstances she would have found a new joy and freedom in riding down into this wilderness.

  One afternoon, earlier than usual, Jett turned for good off the road, and following a tree-bordered stream for a couple of miles, pitched camp in a thick grove, where his wagons and tents could not readily be seen. Evidently this was not to be the usual one-night stand. If it were possible for Jett to be leisurely, he was so on this occasion. After helping unpack the wagons he gave orders to his men, and then saddling one of the horses he rode away under the trees.

  It was dusk when he returned. Supper had been timed for his arrival. About him at this moment there was an expansion, an excitement, combined with bluff egotism. Milly anticipated what he announced in his big voice.

  "Bunch of buffalo waterin' along here. We've run into the stragglers. It'll do to hang at this camp an' hunt while we wait to see if the big herd runs north."

  The announcement did not create any particular interest in his comrades. No one shared Jett's strong suppressed feeling. After supper he superintended the loading of shells and sharpening of knives, and the overlooking of the heavy rifles.

  "The old needle gun for me!" he exclaimed. "Most hunters favor the big fifty."

  "Wal, the fifty's got it all over any other guns fer shootin' buffs at close range," responded Follonsbee.

  "We might have to shoot some other critters at long range-- redskins, for instance," commented the leader, sardonically.

  Jett's superabundant vitality and force could not be repressed on this occasion. Apparently the end of the long journey had been cause for elation and anticipation, and also for an indulgence in drink. Milly had known before that Jett was addicted to the bottle. Under its influence, however, he appeared less harsh and hard. It tempered the iron quality in him. Likewise it roused his latent sentimental proclivities. Milly had more than once experienced some difficulty in avoiding them. She felt, however, that she need not worry any more on this score, while Mrs. Jett's jealous eyes commanded the scene. Still, Mrs. Jett could not be everlastingly at hand.

  It turned out that Milly's fear was justified, for not long after this very idea presented itself, Jett took advantage of his wife being in the wagon, or somewhere not visible, to approach Milly as she sat in the door of the wagon.

  "Milly, I'm goin' to be rich," he said in low hoarse tone.

  "Yes? That'll be--good," she replied, bending back a little from his heated face.

  "Say, let's get rid of the old woman," he whispered. His eyes gleamed in the flickering firelight, with what seemed devilish humor.

  "Who--what?" stammered Milly.

  "You know. The wife."

  "Mrs. Jett! Get rid of her. . . . I--I don't understand."

  "Wal, you're thicker 'n usual," he continued, with a laugh. "Think it over."

  "Good night," faltered Milly, and hurriedly slipped into her wagon and tried with trembling fingers to lace up the flaps of the door.

  Her head whirled. Was Jett merely drunk? Pondering over this incident, she was trying to convince herself that Jett meant no more than ill humor toward his wife, when she heard him speak a name that made her heart leap.

  "Hudnall, yes, I told you," he said, distinctly. "His outfit is somewhere in this neck of the woods. I saw his wheel tracks an' horse tracks."

  "Wal, how do you know they're Hudnall's outfit?" queried Follonsbee.

  "Huh! It's my business to know tracks," replied Jett, significantly. "There's two outfits camped below us. I saw horses an' smoke."

  "Rand, if I was runnin' this outfit I wouldn't hunt buffalo anywhere's near Hudnall."

  "An' why not?" demanded Jett.

  "Say, you needn't jump down my throat. I jest have an idee.

  Hudnall's pardner, Pilchuck, is a plainsman, an'--"

  "Huh! I don't care what the hell Pilchuck is," retorted Jett, gruffly ending the discussion.

  Chapter VI

  Jett had chosen this secluded camp site, as he had all the others on the way down into the buffalo country, to render his whereabouts less liable to discovery. Anyone hunting for camps along the river would have found him, but the outfits traveling casually by would not have been aware of his proximity.

  Next morning he had everybody up at dawn, and never had his dominating force been so manifest.

  "Catlee, your job is horses," he said, curtly. "Keep t
hem on this side of the river. The road's on the other side. You'll find the best grass along this strip of timber. Some time to-day I'll ride in an' help you hitch up to haul hides."

  To his wife he gave a more significant order.

  "Jane, I don't want any fire burnin' except when I'm in camp with the men. You an' Milly keep your eyes open, an' if you see Indians or anybody, slip off in the brush an' hide."

  With that he rode off, accompanied by Follonsbee and Pruitt.

  Manifestly the hunt was on.

  Milly, despite apprehension at the possibility of Indians, was glad to see the buffalo-hunters ride away. From what she had heard, this hide-hunting was an exceedingly strenuous business, consuming all of the daylight hours and half of the night. She had accepted her stepmother's sulky aloofness, finding relief also in that. The work given her to do she performed speedily and thoroughly. Then with a book and her sewing she slipped away from camp into the dense growth of underbrush.

  By taking time she threaded a way without undue difficulties, and finally came out upon a beautiful grass-covered and flower-dotted bank above the stream. The place delighted her. The camp was within call, yet might have been miles away; the brush leaned over the fragrant shady nook, and above spread the giant elms; the stream widened here at a turn and formed a pool, the only one she had seen on the ride. A wide strip of sand ran along the opposite slope. On that side the wood appeared open, and led gently up to the plain. Milly could see the bright sky line barred by black trunks of trees. The road ran along the edge of the timber, and if any travelers passed she could see them. What would she do if she recognized the Hudnall outfit? The very thought made her tremble.

  Perhaps such hope dominated her watching there. For the rest, she could have hours alone, to think and dream, or to sew and read, and all the time she could see everything opposite her without being seen herself.