by G. A. Henty
CHAPTER XI.
A FIRE ON THE PLAINS.
After the hard work at the round-up the journey north seemed almost aholiday. Of an evening the cook's accordion was again brought out, andthe men sang and, to Hugh's amusement, danced. He thought the proposalwas a joke when it was first made, but he soon saw that it was quiteserious. He had declined to take part in it, saying that he had neverdanced since he was a little boy; but it was as much as he could do torestrain his laughter, upon seeing the gravity with which eight of thecow-boys went through a quadrille to the music of the accordion. Thenfollowed waltzes, and then some Mexican dances, the entertainment beingkept up for a couple of hours.
Dancing, indeed, is one of the favourite amusements of cow-boys, andthere being no females to dance with they dance with each other, andare so accustomed to do so that it comes to them as naturally as ifdancing with women. When, however, they are camped within thirty orforty miles of a Mexican village, it is no unusual thing for a party ofhalf a dozen to ride over to it. Perhaps one has preceded them to makethe arrangements. These are simple. The Mexicans are very musical, andthere is not a village where men capable of playing upon the mandoline,and perhaps other instruments, cannot be found. An arrangement is madewith these and with the landlord of the little inn.
The preparations are not expensive--spirits for the men and a supply ofcakes and syrups for the women. The news spreads like lightning, and inthe evening Mexican villagers, male and female, in their best attire,from miles round arrive, some in carts and some on horseback. The musicstrikes up, and the dance is kept up until morning. Occasionally theseentertainments end with a fray, arising generally from the jealousyof some young Mexican at the complacency with which his sweetheartreceives the attentions of a cow-boy admirer. But these are quitethe exceptions. The Mexicans know that their hosts will be off in themorning, and that they shall probably never see them again, and theytherefore put up philosophically with the temporary inconstancy of thedamsels of their village.
To the Mexican girls, indeed, these cow-boys are veritable heroes.They have heard endless tales of their courage. They know that theIndians, who hold their countrymen in absolute contempt, fear to meetthese terrible herdsmen. The careless way in which they spend theirmoney, their readiness to bestow their gorgeous silk handkerchiefs,their really handsome and valuable sashes, or the gold cord of theirhats, upon their favourite partner for the evening, fills them withadmiration. They know, too, that when, as occasionally happens, acow-boy does marry a Mexican girl, and settles down upon some littleranche among them, the lot of his wife is greatly easier than that ofthose who marry Mexicans, and that she will be treated with an amountof consideration and courtesy undreamt of by the Mexican peasant,who, although an humble adorer before marriage, is a despotic masterafterwards. It is not surprising, then, that upon occasions like thesethe cow-boy hosts have a monopoly of the prettiest girls at the ball.
Round the camp fires in the evening Hugh heard many tales of suchevenings spent in the villages of New Mexico.
"I had a very narrow escape once," a cow-boy known as Straight Charleysaid. "There were six of us went up together to a Mexican village,and we gave a first-rate hop. There was a big crowd there, find thingswent on well until there was a muss between one of our fellows and aMexican. Jake was rather a hard man, and we hadn't much fancied hisbeing of our party, for he was fonder of drink than of dancing, andwas quarrelsome when the drink was in him. I don't know how the mussbegan, for I was dancing with as pretty a little Mexican girl as I evercame across. However, I haven't any doubt as Jake was in the wrong. Thefirst I knowed about it was that the music stopped, and then I heardloud voices. I saw a knife flash, and dropped my partner, and was goingto run in to stop it, but I hadn't more than thought about it whenthere was the crack of a pistol. Then knives were out all round, andthere was a pretty lively fight.
"It seemed, as I heard afterwards, that when Jake shot the Mexican--andI don't say he had no right to do so when the Mexican had drawnhis knife first, for if he had not shot he would have been killedhimself--two or three other Mexicans went for him, and, as a matter ofcourse, two of our fellows went for the Mexicans. If they hadn't beenall mixed up together the six of us could have cleared the hull lotout, but mixed up like that, and with girls about, our fellows hadn'tmuch show. I was just breaking through to take a hand in the game,when a fellow who had been looking pretty sour at me for some time,jumped on my back like a wild cat, so down I went, and in half a minutemy legs and arms were tied tight with their sashes. I didn't try tostruggle after I had fallen, for I knew well enough that our fellowshad got the worst of it.
"When matters cleared up a bit I found that four Mexicans had beenkilled, and five or six others pretty badly hurt. Jake and another ofour boys were dead; two others had broke out, run to their horses, andridden away. Another of the boys had been taken prisoner, but he hadgot two or three knife-cuts before he was knocked down. There was a bighubbub for some time, as you may guess, and then they told us we shouldbe taken to the town in the morning. Well, they took off the sashes,and marched us away to a house at the end of the village. It was aplank house, and built in the same fashion as their adobe huts, withone room behind the other. Of course they had taken our six-shootersand knives away from us, and they shoved us into the inner room, andthen a dozen of them sat down to play cards and keep watch in theother.
"The place had been built as a sort of lock-up, and there were heavybars to the window, just as you see in a good many Mexican houses. Theyhad left our legs free, but had put some ropes round our arms; but weknew that we could shift them easy enough. The Mexicans had shut thedoor between the two rooms, but we could hear their talk through it,and we heard that, though the thing had been brought on by Jake, therewould have been a muss anyhow sooner or later. Two white men had comeinto the village a fortnight before; they were dressed like cow-boys,but I reckon they were horse-stealers or outlaws, anyhow they hadkicked up a row and shot three men, and rode away, and the Mexicans hadseemed to make up their minds that they would take revenge on the nextparty that came in, whoever they were.
"Well, things looked pretty bad for us. If we had once got inside oneof their prisons, the Mexican judges would have made short work of us.The greasers would, of course, have sworn that we had begun the row,and shot down four or five of their people without the least cause,and it would have been a case of hanging, as sure as a gun; so Daveand I agreed that we had got to git somehow. It wur no use talking offighting, for there was a dozen fellows in the next room, and they hadall got their guns along with them. We hadn't got our knives, and therewas no chance of cutting our way out. We were talking it over whensomeone said, 'Are you there, Charley?' at the window. It was one ofthe boys who had got away. You bet I was there pretty sharp.
"'Here I am, Ginger,' I said. 'How goes it?' 'Pretty bad,' hesaid; 'Jeffries is cut pretty near to pieces, and I am wounded inhalf-a-dozen places, and can scarce crawl. Jeffries is with thehorses a mile away. He is too bad to stand. I made a shift to crawlback to see what had become of you. I have been creeping round, andheard the two of you were shut up here, and that you was going to betaken off to-morrow, and would be hung, sure, so I came round to seewhat could be done; here is my six-shooter if it will be any good toyou.' 'No, that won't be any good,' I said; 'there are twelve of them,and they have all got guns; but give me your knife; these planks arepretty thick, but we can cut our way through.' 'I haven't got it,'says Ginger; 'it was knocked out of my belt in the fight, and, worseluck, Jeffries has lost his too. A fellow got hold of his wrist, sohe couldn't use his pistol, and he drew his knife, and he was fightingwith it, when he got a slice across his fingers which pretty nigh cutthem off, and he dropped his knife, and, as luck would have it, justwrenched himself free and bolted.'
"'Well, we must do what we can,' I said; 'but it is hard luck on us.Look here, Ginger, you bring the two horses up to that clump of treesover there; Dave is pretty badly cut about, and cannot run far,
but hecan make a shift to get over there. If we don't come by an hour beforedaylight it ain't no use your waiting no longer; you go and pick upJeffries, and make tracks; but I reckon that somehow we shall manageto come.' 'All right!' says he, and went. 'Now, Dave,' I said, 'youturn over and let me get my teeth at your knots, it is hard if I don'tmanage to undo them.'
"Sure enough, in five minutes I had loosed a knot, and then the restwas easy. Dave untied me, and we were free so far. 'What next?' saysDave. 'We will have a look round,' says I. Luckily there was a moon,and there was plenty of light to see what was in the room. There wassome bits of furniture and bedding, just as they had been left by thepeople they had turned out to make room for us, but nothing that Icould find as would help us to cut our way out. 'Now, Dave,' says I,'you get to that corner and I will get to this, and just shove againstthe planks, and see if we can't push the hull side of this shanty out.'Well, it wur too strong for us. It was made of rough boards, prettystrongly nailed. I thought it gave a little, but nothing as would beany good. 'If we could throw ourselves against it both together itmight go,' I said; 'but it mightn't, and if it didn't we should havethem inside in a moment, and there would be an end to it. What do yousay to our burning ourselves out, Dave?'
"'How are we to do that, Charley?' he said. 'Well, I have got my boxof matches in my boot, and I suppose you have yours too. Let us pile upsome of these wooden things against the two corners; there is plenty ofstraw in this bed. Before we begin we will hang one of these blanketsover the doorway so as to keep the smoke from going through the cracks.I reckon they are all smoking in there, and they won't smell it veryquick.' So we made a pile, moving as quiet as we could, standing stillwhen they were not talking much in the next room, and moving wheneverthey made a row, which was pretty often. 'These things are as dry aschips,' I said, 'and what smoke there is will mostly go out throughthe window, but I expect there will be more than we shall like. Here isa big pitcher of water, we will soak these two blankets, and then liedown close to the floor; you cover your head over with one, and I willdo it with the other. Now, then!'
"We lit a couple of matches and touched off the straw, and in half aminute there was a blaze up to the roof. Then we lay down by the otherwall one on each side of the door, and waited. In about two minutesthere was a shout in the next room and a rush, then the door was flungopen and the blanket torn down, and such a yelling and cussing as younever heard. The smoke was pretty bad where we was lying, and I reckonthat up higher it was as thick as a wall. 'The cursed Americans havelighted the house and smothered themselves,' one of them shouted. Thenthey rushed out, coughing and choking, and we heard them shouting forwater, and there wur as much row as if the village had been attacked byInjuns.
"A COUPLE OF KICKS SENT OUT THE PLANKS, AND THEN WE BOLTED."]
"We waited another three or four minutes, and then Dave shouted, 'Ican't stand this no longer.' I had hoped they would have left the outerdoor open, and that we could have got out that way, but we had heard itshut. I expect someone more cute than the rest suspected we wur insidebiding our time. 'Take a long breath, Dave,' says I, 'and don't breatheagain until you are out; now jump up and join me.' We joined hands andmade a run, and threw ourselves against one corner of the end of thehut. Several of the planks fell, and a couple of kicks sent the restout, then off we bolted.
"There wur a yell outside, for by this time half the village werethere. Luckily the men with guns was mostly round by the door, andwhen the yells fetched them there was too many women and children aboutfor them to shoot. We went straight on, as you may guess, and we werehalf-way to the woods before the shooting began, and it wur pretty wildat that. Dave gave out afore he got to the trees, and I had to carryhim.
"'This way,' Ginger shouted. I lifted Dave on to a horse, and jumpedup behind him, and we wur off just as the Mexicans came running up.After that it wur easy enough. We rode to where Jeffries had been left,got him on to Ginger's horse, and made tracks for the camp. Jeffriesdied next day, but Dave got over it. That wur a pretty near touch, Ireckon."
"It was indeed," Hugh said. "That was a very lucky idea of yours ofburning out the corners of the house."
"Some of them Mexicans is cusses," another cow-boy put in. "I had asmart affair with them in one of their villages last year. I had ridin with Baltimore Rube. We had been searching some of the gulliesfor cows, and had run short of sugar and tea. Waal, I was on a youngbroncho I had only roped two days before, and the critter wur as wildas could be. When we rode in, a lot of them brutes of dogs that swarmsalmost as thick as their fleas in all these Mexican villages, camebarking round, while one big brute in particular made as if he wouldpin my broncho by the nose, and the pony plunged and kicked till Ithought he would have me off. There was a lot of their men standing attheir doors smoking, for it wur late in the afternoon, and they wur allback from what they called work. I shouted to them to call their dogsoff, but they just laughed and jeered, so I did the only thing as therewas to do, just pulled out my six-shooter and shot the dog. Waal, ifit had been a man there could not have been a worse sort of row. TheMexicans ran into their houses just as quick as a lot of prairie-dogswhen they scent danger, and in a moment were back with their guns, andbegan to blaze away. Waal, naturally, our dander riz, a bullet chippedthe bark off my cheek, and by the way my broncho jumped I knew one hadhit him, so Baltimore and I blazed away in return, and neither of usdidn't shoot to miss, you bet. We just emptied our six-shooters, andthen rode for it.
"Baltimore got a shot in his shoulder. I had one in the leg, and therewas two in the saddle. We talked it over and agreed it wur best to saynothing about it. Them Mexicans will swear black is white, and whenthere is a whole village swearing one way, and only two men swearingthe other way, them two has got but a poor show of being believed. Sowe concluded to leave those parts altogether, and we rode a hundred andfifty miles in the next two days, and then camped for a week till ourwounds healed up a bit.
"A fortnight after that we went into the station, and there Ihappened to light upon one of them rags the Mexicans calls papers, andthere sure enough was the account of that business. 'Two cow-boys,unknown, rode last week into the quiet village of Puserey, andwithout the slightest provocation commenced a murderous attack uponits inhabitants, and after killing four and wounding eight men, theygalloped off before the inhabitants had time to betake themselves totheir arms to defend themselves. A reward of five hundred dollars isoffered for their apprehension.' Now, that wur a pretty tall pieceof lying; but Baltimore and I agreed it wur best to keep dark aboutit altogether, for if it wur talked about, it might get to the earsof some of the half-caste Mexicans about the station, and some day orother, when we went into a village, we might find ourselves roped in."
"That is the way," Broncho Harry said indignantly, "us cow-boys geta bad name. Now, I dare say that air article wur copied in half thenewspapers in the States, and folks as know nothing about it wouldsay, 'Them cow-boys is a cuss; they ought to be wiped off the arthright away.' It is always so whenever there is a row between any of usand the Mexicans. They give thar account of it, and we goes away andthinks no more about it one way or the other, and there is no one toshow it up as a lie from beginning to end; and I know there's peoplethink we are as bad as the Injuns, if not worse, and that we ride aboutshooting down people just for amusement. Then all these outlaws andhorse-thieves and bad men near the settlements dress as much as theycan like us, and every murder as they commits, every horse that gitsstolen, every man that gits held up and robbed, it is just put downto the cow-boys. While if the truth wur known, for every one of thesefellows caught or wiped out by the sheriff and their posse, there istwenty gets wiped out by us."
There was a cordial "That is so, Broncho," all round the fire, for theinjustice connected with their reputation was a very sore point amongthe cow-boys.
"Well, some day, Broncho," Hugh said, "when I get away from here, for,as you know, I haven't come here to stay, I will take pen in hand andtry to give a true account of you and
your doings, so that people maysee that there are two sides to the question."
"Bully for you, Hugh!" Long Tom said; "just you put it in hot andstrong. I tell you it ain't nice if one does go down to the settlementsin the winter, when work is slack, to see people look at you as ifyou wur a wild beast, who is only waiting his chance to hold up thehull town. Why, I have seen women pull their children indoors as Icame along, as if I wur a mountain lion, and was meaning to draw mysix-shooter on them just for amusement."
"Well," Hugh said, "I must say I heard stories at M'Kinney of cow-boyscoming down to a town and riding about shooting off the hats ofthe inhabitants, making targets of the bottles in the saloons, andgenerally turning the place topsy-turvy. Of course I didn't believe itall."
There was silence round the fire, and then Straight Charley said:
"Well, Lightning, I won't say as you have been altogether deceived asto that, and I won't deny as I have taken part in sprees myself, butyou see it don't hurt no one. It is just fun. If we do shoot the headsoff the bottles, we pays for them, and it makes one laugh till one canscarcely sit in a saddle to see an old cuss jump when you put a bulletthrough his stove-pipe hat. It is his fault for wearing such a thing,which is an unnatural invention altogether and should be discouraged."
"We do carry on," Broncho Harry agreed, "thar ain't no denying it. Whena man has been out in these plains for six months working worse than anigger, and that without a drop of liquor, it is natural as he shouldgo in for a high old time when he gits down to a town with money in hispockets; but thar ain't no real harm in it. We know how we can shoot,and that if we fire at a hat there ain't no chance of our hitting thehead inside. It just makes things lively for them for a bit, and thereis never no trouble, unless anyone is fool enough to take the matter upand make a muss about it."
"I am not saying you do any real harm, Broncho, only you see the peoplein the towns don't know how well you shoot. If you knock a pipe out ofmy mouth, as you have done once or twice, I only laugh, because I knowthere was no chance in the world of your hitting me; but you see theydon't all know that. And so when a man finds there are two holes in hishat an inch above his head, he thinks he has had a marvellous escape ofbeing murdered."
"I don't deny as there is something in that," Broncho Harry saidreflectively; "but you see it is in their ignorance that the mistakecomes in, not in our shooting. Anyhow, you see we have got to dosomething to amuse ourselves, and we might do worse than just skeer afew store-men, who take it out of us by charging us about double theprice they charge anyone else."
Hugh was not convinced by the argument, but he felt that it was of nouse to pursue the subject further.
"How do the cows know their calves?" he asked one day, as at the end ofa march some of the cows were loudly lowing for their offspring to cometo them.
"By smell," Broncho Harry replied promptly.
"You don't see much of their ways here, for the calves are pretty wellgrown up; but when you are driving a herd, as I have done many a time,made up altogether of cows and young calves, you see a lot of it. Tenor twelve miles a day is as much as you can do with a herd of thatsort. What steers there are always go ahead, grazing as they go. Thecows will come straggling along next, and then the calves strung outall over the place, and the rear-guard have pretty hard work to hurrythem up. You see calves have got no sense, and run anywhere--under yourhorse's legs or anywhere else; while the cows don't pay much attentionto them till they get to the end of the march. Then they begin to bawlfor their calves to come to them, and the calves begin to bawl fortheir mothers, and I tell you that for a bit there is such a row goingon that you would think the end of the world had come. Two thousandcows and as many calves can kick up a row, you bet, that will well-nighscare you."
"But don't the calves know their mothers' voices?"
"Not a bit of it; it is just smell and nothing else that brings themtogether. You would think the cows would know something about thecolour of their young uns, but they don't. I have seen a cow that Iknew had a white calf run up to a black calf and smell it, then to abrown one, and then to a spotted one, while her own white calf stoodbawling fit to kill herself a dozen yards away. It is wonderful howthey do find each other at all, and the job often takes them two orthree hours. Some of the cows concludes at last that their calves havebeen left behind, and then off they set, and would go all the way backto the place they had started from in the morning if you didn't stopthem. Sometimes they don't find them at all that night."
"But what happens to the calves then?"
"The calves shift for themselves. They run up to other cows which havegot their own calves sucking. Each cow will generally let them have asuck or two, and then drive them off, and in that way they get enoughto last them on till they find their mothers in the morning.
"There is a good deal of trouble in keeping night-watch over a herdlike that. It isn't that there is any risk of a stampede. A cow herdwill never stampede if there are a lot of young calves in it; but theydon't settle themselves comfortable to sleep. The calves want to wanderabout, and the cows who haven't found their young ones keep trying toslip off to take the back track, and you have got to be always on thewatch for them. Take it altogether, I would rather drive a beef herdthan a cow herd."
After a week's travel they reached the spot that had been fixed uponfor the herd to graze. The cow-boys' work was now much lighter. Partiesof twos and threes could often be spared for a day's excursion up tosome Mexican village among the hills, or they would go off for three orfour days' hunt among the valleys to pick up any cattle that had evadedsearch during the round-up. One day, when there were but four of themin camp, two of the party who had been absent a couple of days rodein at full speed, and reported to the head of the outfit that they hadseen the light of a fire up north.
"Then there is no time to be lost," Colley said. "Will you two men stophere and look after things? I will ride off with the other four andfight the fire. When the others come back do you start out after us.The last two who come in must stop here. Give us what food you havegot, darkey; we may be away four or five days. Directly we have goneset to and cook something for the others."
Hugh and Bill Royce had returned the day before from an expeditionamong the foot-hills. Broncho Harry and another cow-boy were also incamp. In five minutes the horses were saddled, and they dashed off atfull speed.
"It is lucky that the wind is not blowing strong," Colley said, "or weshould have the fire down here before we got news of it, and there isno place handy where we could drive the herd. I expects those blessedInjuns lit the fire."
Hugh was very pleased that he was in camp when the news came. He hadheard many stories from the cow-boys of these terrible fires, and knewthat at times they had wrought havoc among the herds, whose only hopeof escape lay in reaching a stream wide enough to check the progress ofthe flames.
After riding twenty miles they could distinguish a faint odour of smokein the air, and as they gained a crest soon after sunset could see along line of light in the distance.
"It is a big un," Broncho Harry said, "and no mistake."
They lost no time in getting to work, for the wind was rising, andthere was but little time to spare. They had on their way picked out asteer from a bunch they came upon, and had driven it before them, andhad also stopped and cut faggots of wood from a clump of bushes in ahollow. A shot from Broncho Harry's revolver brought the bullock deadto the ground, and while Royce lit a fire the others with their longknives proceeded to split the bullock into two portions, dividing itfrom its head down to its tail.
"Now, Broncho, will you go east with Lightning while Royce and Jake gowest? Keep on until you meet some fellows from the other outfits. Theyare sure to be at work all along the line. If you don't meet any bythe time you get to the end of the flames, then work back and fight thefire as you come. I expect the other four man will be up in an hour ortwo."
Broncho Harry and Royce at once lit two of the long faggots, andfastened the others to thei
r saddles. They then tied the ends oftheir ropes to the blazing faggots and started. Hugh having beenalready instructed in his part, fastened his rope to a leg of the halfbullock, and mounted his horse--he had not brought Prince this time,as he feared that he might get burned. He waited until Broncho Harrywas a quarter of a mile ahead. Already a line of fire was rising inhis track, the dried grass catching like tinder as the blazing faggotpassed over it. It had already run along a width of twenty feet or so,burning fiercely on the leeward side, and making its way in a thin redline to windward. It was the leeward side that Hugh had to attend to,and galloping his horse along the ground over which the flame had justpassed, he dragged the half carcass of the bullock behind him, so thatin its course it passed over the line of flame, which its weight andthe raw under-surface instantly crushed out. For ten miles he rode on,and then found that Harry had stopped.
"We are beyond the edge of the fire," the latter said. "It is the otherside where there is most danger, unless Smith's outfit have got news intime. Waal, we have done our part of the job so far."
Looking back Hugh saw a sea of fire approaching across the plains. Thewind was blowing stronger now, and the air was full of smoke and ashes.Far along the track they had come a thin line of fire was advancingagainst the wind to meet the great wave that was sweeping down towardsit.
"We passed some bushes half a mile back," Harry said. "We will rideback to them, and then let the horses go. We sha'n't want them anymore, and they are pretty well mad with fright now."
As soon as they reached the bushes they leapt off, and letting thehorses go cut as many boughs as they could carry. Then retiring fromthe strip of burnt ground, already forty or fifty yards wide, theyawaited the flames. Their approach was heralded by burning fragments,and they were both soon at work beating out the flames as fast as theywere kindled to leeward of the burnt strip. Single-handed they wouldnot have succeeded, but other cow-boys speedily arrived, and along thewhole line parties were at work fighting the fire. At times it got suchhold that it was only checked by lighting fresh fires to leeward, andcrushing them out as had been done at first, and it was thirty hoursbefore the fire was extinguished along that part of the line.
Then the news came that further west it had burst through, and thecow-boys, mounting fresh horses that had been brought up, rode offand joined in the fight there, and it was not until after three days'unremitting effort that the danger was finally subdued. During all thistime the men had not a moment's rest. Their food and water had beensent up from the waggons, and a hasty meal was snatched occasionally.When all was done they were blackened with smoke and ashes. Their hairand clothes were singed, and they were utterly exhausted with theirefforts. However, they had saved the herds, and were well content withtheir work; but, as soon as it was over, each man threw himself downwhere he stood and slept for many hours, watch being kept by some ofthe last arrivals, for it was by no means improbable that the Indianswould swoop down to take advantage of the confusion and drive offcattle.
As soon as the cow-boys were roused next morning they rode off totheir respective outfits, and Hugh's party on their arrival enjoyed theluxury of a bathe in the stream, near which the waggon of No. 2 outfitwas placed. Then, after their change of clothes, they gathered for acomfortable meal.
"Waal, Lightning, that has been a fresh experience for you," BronchoHarry said.
"I am glad I have seen it," Hugh replied; "but I don't want to repeatit."
"This was nothing, Hugh. Four years ago there was a fire here thatswept right across the plains; there was a strong wind and no stoppingit, and there were over 100,000 cattle burned. I suppose some day orother they will be passing laws for putting up fences. If they do, Itell you it will be something like ruin to a good many ranches, forit will prevent cattle from running before the flames. As it is now,their instinct takes them either to a stream or to some high bluff.But if there was fences they would never get away. In the north theylose whole herds in the same way from snow-storms. A herd will driftbefore snow and wind for hundreds of miles, but if there is anythingthat stops them they just get snowed up and die. Ranchmen have troublesenough, but if they was obliged to fence it would go far to break upthe business.
"Look out, lads, here comes someone galloping into camp. I expect hehas got news of the Red-skins. I reckoned they would be out on thetrack of the fire.
"Oh, it's Tom Newport," he said, as the man approached. "Waal, what hesays you may take for gospel. He is not one of them fellows who getshold of the tail-end of a story and then scares the whole country.Waal, Tom, what is it?"
"Just mount up, Broncho, and get all your crowd together. There ain'tno time for talking now; I will tell you all about it when we get onthe track."
In an incredibly short time the men had all saddled, and were readyfor a start, filling their water-skins, and getting from the cook whatbread and cold meat remained over from breakfast. "Now, which way,Tom?"
"North-east. I will tell you about it. The Injuns have come down andattacked Gainsford. They have killed five or six men and most of thewomen and children. They have carried off five or six girls, and oldman Rutherford's Rose is among them."
An exclamation of fury broke from several of the cow-boys.
"Where is Gainsford? and who is Rutherford's Rose?" Hugh asked.
"Gainsford is a small place just among the foot-hills south of theInjun country. There are about twenty houses. Rutherford, he wur thefirst to settle there. We told him over and over agin that it wur tooclose to the Injuns, and that there would, sure, be trouble sooner orlater; but Steve, that is Rutherford, is one of those pesky obstinatecusses who just go their own way, and won't listen to reason fromno one. He got a little herd of cattle up in the valley there, anda patch of cultivated land, and he reckoned he wouldn't be solitarylong. He was right enough there, for, as I told you, the place grew,and there are pretty nigh twenty houses there now, that is, there wurtwenty houses; I don't suppose one is standing now. Rutherford, he wara cow-boy once, and married and settled down there, and Rose is hisdaughter, and as good a lass as there is west of Missouri. Rutherford'shouse is free quarters for those of us who likes to drop in. In coursewe makes it up to him by taking in a deer or a bear's ham, or maybe afew bottles of whisky, if we have been down to the settlement and laidhands on them, and if we come across any mavericks when we are alone,we just brand them R.R., and I reckon Rosie has got 200 cattle outhere, and they will come in mighty handy for her when she chooses ahusband."
"Is that often done?" Hugh asked.
"You bet. There are a score and more girls, whose fathers' shantieslie up in the foot-hills, and who are friends of ours, have got a nicelittle clump of cattle out on these plains. Of course any man, livingnear the plains, can turn his cattle out, and there are dozens ofprivate marks. Waal, you see, if a girl only gets twenty branded forher it increases every year, because the calves running with the cowsget the same brand put on them; and I have known many a girl when shewas married have a little herd of three or four hundred. So, I tellyou, it hits us all that Rose Rutherford has been carried away, and weare bound to get her back if it air to be done. When was it, Tom, thatit happened?"
"Yesterday evening, 'bout ten o'clock, I wur riding that way andintended to sleep at Steve's, when I saw a light burst up, and thentwo or three others. I galloped pretty hard, you may guess, but beforeI got thar it wur over and the Injuns had gone; but I larned from aboy who had been hiding among the bushes, but who came out when he sawme, how it wur. He said he had seen Rose and five or six other girlscarried off. Whether old Steve wur rubbed out I don't know. I didn'tstop to ask no questions. I knew whereabout your outfit was, and rodestraight for it."
"Then the skunks have got sixteen or seventeen hours' start," Bronchosaid. "There is no chance of our catching them till they are right backinto their own country. I reckon we shall have a pretty sharp fight ofit before we get them gals back."