Captain Bayley's Heir: A Tale of the Gold Fields of California

by G. A. Henty

  CHAPTER X.

  A BUFFALO STORY.

  SOMETIMES, instead of taking his rifle and accompanying the otherhunters, Frank would borrow a shot-gun, and go out on foot and returnwith a good bag of prairie-fowl, birds resembling grouse. Occasionally,in the canyons, or wooded valleys, far away from the track, the hunterscame across the trail of wild turkeys; then two of them would camp outfor the night, and search under the trees until they saw the birdsperched on the boughs above them, and would bring into camp in themorning half a dozen dangling from each of their saddles. Frequently, intheir rides, they came across skunks, pretty black and white littleanimals. Frank was about to shoot the first he saw, but Peter, who waswith him, shouted to him not to fire.

  "It's a skunk," he said; "it ain't no use wasting your powder on thatvarmin. Why, if you were to kill him, and went to take it up, youwouldn't be fit to go into camp for a week; you would stink that bad noone couldn't come near you. They are wuss than pizen, skunks. Why, Ihave seen dogs sit up and howl with disgust after interfering with oneof them. I don't say as they can't be eaten, cos the Indians eat them;and, for the matter of that, I have ate them myself. But they have to bekilled plump dead, and then the stink-bag has to be cut out from themdirectly; but if you ain't hard pressed for food, I advise you to letskunks alone."

  The first time that they came across a large herd of buffalo was a dayFrank long remembered. He was out with the four hunters; they had justscampered to the top of one of the swells, when they simultaneouslyreined in their horses, for the valley--half a mile wide--in front ofthem was filled with a dark mass of moving animals, extending back fortwo or three miles.

  "There, Frank," Abe said, "there is meat for you--enough for an army formonths."

  Frank was too surprised to speak for a time; the number seemedcountless.

  "What a wonderful sight!" he exclaimed at last.

  "Ay, that it is, lad, to one who has never seen it afore; and to thinkthat thar are scores of herds like that out on these plains. It's one ofthe mightiest sights of natur. But it's nothing to see 'em now, goingalong quiet, to what it is to see 'em when they are on the stampede,when the ground shakes with thar tread, and the air seems in a quiverwith thar bellowing; thar don't seem nothing as could stop 'em, and tharain't. If it's a river, they pours into it; if it's a bluff, they goesover it, and tens of thousands of them gets killed. The Injins is mightywasteful of thar flesh, but I doubt whether all the Injins in thecontinent kills as many as kills themselves in them wild stampedes. Wewill just wait where we are until they are past, and then we will dropdown on 'em and cut three or four of 'em off. We will take one apiece;that will give us as much flesh as the waggons can load up, and I don'thold to taking life unless the meat's wanted. Now, lad, all that youhave got to do is, when you ride down just single out your beast, ridealongside of him, and empty your Colt behind his shoulder. Keep ratherbehind him, and have your horse well in hand to wheel if he twists roundand charges you."

  A few minutes later the signal was given, and the five horsemen dasheddown the slope. A deep bellow proclaimed that the herd had become awareof the presence of their enemies. The leisurely pace at which they wereproceeding changed instantly into a gallop on the part of thoseconscious of danger. The impulse was communicated to those in front, andin a few seconds the whole herd was tearing along like a mighty torrent.

  But they were too late to escape the hunters, who came down upon theirrear, and each proceeded to single out an animal. Following Abe'sinstructions, Frank ranged up alongside a fine bull, and opened firewith his revolver at a point just behind the shoulder. At the third shotthe great beast swerved sharply round, and had not Frank been on thealert he would have lost his seat, so sharply did the horse wheel toavoid the animal's horns. The buffalo at once resumed its course behindthe herd; but Frank was soon alongside again, and as he fired the lastshot of his revolver had the satisfaction of seeing the great beaststagger and then fall prostrate. He at once reined in his horse andlooked round. His companions were all some distance in the rear, havingbrought down their game with less expenditure of lead, knowing exactlythe right spot where a wound would be fatal.

  "That's a fair lot of meat," Abe said, as they gathered into a group."That will last 'em a long time. Now, if we had been Injins, we shouldhave gone on shooting and shooting till we had killed a score or more,and then taken just the best bits, and left the rest for the coyotes;but I call it downright wicked to waste meat. Kill what you want--that'snatural and right; but I am agin drawing a bead on an animal, whether hebe buffalo or deer, or what-not, onless you want his meat, or onless hishide be of value to you. If men acted on that thar rule there would begame on these plains for any time; it's wilful destruction as isclearing 'em out, not fair hunting.

  "Now we will ride off and stop the teams as they come along and bring'em round here. It won't be so very far out of thar way. We can stop acouple of days to cut up and dry the meat. The rest will do the cattlegood, and there's nothing like having a supply of dried meat; I don'tsay it's as toothsome as fresh, but it ain't ter be despised, and thetime may come, in fact it's pretty sure to come, when we shan't be ableto do much hunting round the waggons. We are getting nigh the countrywhere we may expect to meet with Injin troubles. It's just as well wemet with this herd afore we got thar, for we should have been prettysure to find a party of them hanging on the rear of the buffalo."

  Three hours later the waggons arrived at the spot, the emigrants in highspirits at the news that such an abundant supply of meat had beenprocured. The hunters skinned and cut up the five buffaloes; the waggonswere placed some fifteen yards apart, and several cords stretchedtightly between them; upon these was hung the flesh, which was cut instrips some four inches wide and half an inch thick. By the end of thethird day the whole of the meat was dried by the united action of thesun and wind. The skins had been pegged out in the sun, and some of theboys, under Abe's instructions, roughly cured them, first scraping theminside, and then rubbing them with fat mixed with salt.

  "It's a rough way," Abe said, "and the Injin women would laugh to seeit; they just rub and rub at them till they get them as soft and pliableas the leather they make gloves of East. Still, they will keep as theyare, and will do to chuck in the bottom of the waggons for the women andchildren to sit upon; besides, we shall find it cold at night as we geton, and a buffalo-robe ain't to be despised,--even if it ain't dressedto perfection. When they dry and get stiff the boys can take another rubat 'em when we halts; it will give them something to do, and keep themout of mischief."

  "Talking of buffalo," Abe began, as the hunters were sitting round thefire on the evening of the hunt, "that reminds me that it wasn't so veryfar from this har spot that me and Rube was nearly wiped out by the Utessome ten years ago. Rube, he was a young chap then, and had not beenlong out on the plains. We war hunting with a party of Cheyennes, andhad been with them well-nigh all the summer. One day we war in pursuitof buffalo--they were plentiful then; you think they are plentiful now,but you would see ten herds then for every one you see now. But they aregoing, and I expect in another twenty years that a man might ride acrossthe plains and never catch sight of a hump. If the gold turns out to beas rich as they say, there will be hundreds of thousands of people crossthese plains, and, like enough, settlements be formed right across thecontinent. However, there war plenty of herds ten years ago.

  "We had come upon a big herd, and was chasing them. I had singled out anold bull, and had pushed right into the herd after him; Rube, he waspretty close to me. Well, I came up to the bull, and put a rifle-ballbetween his ribs. The herd had rather separated as we got amongst them,making way for us right and left as we rode after the bull. As he fell wereined in our horses, and looked round. Not a Cheyenne was to be seen:five minutes afore they had been hanging on the herd, sending theirarrows in up to the feather among the buffalo; now not a soul was to beseen. You may guess this staggered me and I says to Rube, 'Look out,Rube, there's something up, as sure as fate.'

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p; "Well, I had scarcely spoken afore I saw a big party of Injins comecharging down across our rear. 'Utes,' says I, 'by thunder! They areafter the Cheyennes! Fling yourself flat on your horse, Rube, and getinto the herd.'

  "The buffalo war only fifty yards away yet, and yer may be sure wespurred up pretty sharp till we got up to them. I seed at once it wasour only chance. Our horses war blowed, for we had had a sharp chaseafore we caught the herd, and there was no chance of our getting awayfrom the Utes in the open plains. We soon caught up the herd, andcharged in among them. The brutes were packed so close together thatthey could hardly make room for us; but we managed to wedge ourselvesin. Those next to us snuffed and roared, but they war too pressed bythose behind to do much; but by shouting and waving our hats we managedto keep a clear space three or four yards on either side of us. Allthis time we war lying down on our horses' necks, and there war no fearthat any one would see us in the midst of that sea of tossing cattle;but I war afraid they would have caught sight of us afore we got among'em. I cussed myself for having fired that last shot; they must haveheard it, and would have known that some of us hadn't seen them coming,and must be somewhere among the herd.

  "I raised my head a little at last, and took a look round. Sure enough,there was a dozen Utes coming up behind the herd. I puts spurs againinto my horse, and, catching up an old bull in front of me, progged himwith my bowie-knife, and Rube did the same to the beast next to him.They gave a roar and plunged on ahead through the mass, and we followedclose to their heels. It was tight work, I can tell you, for thebuffaloes on both sides war touching one another. We kept going abouthalf a length behind the beasts next to us, so that the horses'shoulders war just behind the shoulders of the buffaloes; as you know,the buffaloes have got no necks to speak of, and so, although they gavesavage thrusts with their horns, they couldn't get at the horses. Ourbeasts were frightened near out of their lives, but they war wellbroken, and we managed to keep 'em in hand.

  "The thing I was most afraid of was that they would be knocked off theirlegs, and in that case we should be trampled to death in a minute. As Ileaned forward I kept one hand fixed on the neck of the buffalo next me,and I shouted to Rube to do the same, so as we could make a shift tojump on to the buffalo's back if our horses fell; but, I tell you, I wasbeginning to fear that we shouldn't see any way out of it. What with usin the middle, and the Utes yelling behind them, the herd war fairlymad with fright; and there war no saying where they would go to, for,you know, a herd of buffaloes, when fairly stampeded, will go clean overa precipice a hundred yards high, and pile themselves up dead at thefoot till there is not one left. It war a bad fix, you bet, for I warsure that the Utes war after us, and not after the buffaloes, for theykept on, though they could soon have killed as many of the herd as theywanted. It was may be four in the afternoon when the chase commenced,and so it went on till it was dark. The buffaloes war going nigh as fastas when we started, but the horses could scarce keep their legs; I wassure they couldn't run much longer, so I says to Rube, 'We must get outof this, or else we shall be done for.'

  "So we sets to work a-probing the buffalo with our knives again. Theystarted on ahead as hard as they could, bursting a way through thecrowd. We followed close behind them, keeping up the scare until wefinds ourselves in front of the herd; then we spurred our horses on, anddashed out in front. Done as the horses were, they knew they had got togo, for, with the herd coming like thunder upon their heels, it wasdeath to stop. We swerved away to the right, but it took us half an hourafore we war clear of the front of the herd. We went a few hundred yardsfurther, and then drew rein.

  "Rube's horse fell dead as he stopped, and mine wasn't worth much more.For half an hour we could hear the herd rushing along, and then it hadpassed. We had got out of our biggest fix, but it warn't a pleasantposition.

  "There we war out on the plains, with only one horse between us, and heso done up that he couldn't put one foot afore the other.

  "Where the Cheyennes war there was no saying; the band might have beenwiped out by the Utes, or they might have got away. At any rate therewas no counting on them. The Utes who had followed the herd would besure to be on our trail in the morning; they would follow all night, oras long as the herd ran. When the buffalo war fairly tired out theywould lay down, and the Utes would see then as we warn't there. Thenthey would set out upon the back-trail, skirting along each side of theline trampled by the herd until they came upon our trail; the dead horsewas a sign as they could see a mile away, so it was clear that we mustfoot it as soon as we could. We gave the horse an hour's rest; and itdid us as much good as him, for I can tell you we war pretty well usedup. We drove him afore us until, after six hours' walking, we came to astream. We went up this for an hour, then we both filled ourhunting-shirts with stones and fastened them on the horse, and thendrove him off."

  "What did you put the stones on his back for?" Frank asked.

  "To make the Utes think as he was carrying double. Each of the loads wasabout the weight of a man, and the horse was so tired that he staggeredas he walked; so as they would see his tracks, and wouldn't see ours,they would naturally come to the conclusion as we war both on his back.It warn't likely as the critter would go far before he laid down,perhaps not more than half a mile; but that would do for us. We wentback a few hundred yards in the stream, and then struck off across theprairie, the same side as we had come from, taking care to make aslittle sign as possible.

  "The Utes would be riding along by the side of the stream and lookingfor a horse's print, and the chances war that they wouldn't see ours.When they came up to the horse and found out the trick, they wouldgallop back again; at least half of them would go up the stream and halfwould take the back-track; but, you see, as they went up they would havetrampled across our track, and they would find it mighty hard work topick it up again.

  "We footed it all day, and the prospect warn't a pleasant one. Thenearest settlement was nigh a thousand miles away, we had no horses, andwe daren't fire a gun for fear of bringing Utes down upon us. We hadmade up our minds to strike for the Cheyennes' country, that being thenearest where we could expect to find friends. For two days we trampedon. The third day we war sitting by the side of a stream, eating aprairie-dog as we had trapped, when Rube stopped eating suddenly, andsaid, 'Listen!'

  "I threw myself down and put my ear to the ground, and, sure enough,could hear the gallop of horses. 'Injins,' says I, and chucks a lot ofwet sand and gravel over the fire, which was fortunately a small one. Iknew, in course, if they came close that way, as they would see it; butif they passed at some distance they would not notice us. Then Rube andI bounded into the water, and laid down close under a high bank, wherethe grass grew long, and drooped over to the water so as to cover ourheads.

  "We heard the redskins coming nearer and nearer, and they stopped at thestream a quarter of a mile or so above us. We listened, I can tell you,for the sound of their going on again; but no such luck, and after aquarter of an hour we knew as they were going to camp there. I feltpretty thankful as it was late in the afternoon, for I guessed, in thefirst place, as they would light their fire and cook their food, so noneof them war likely to be coming down our way until it was after dark.

  "We waited and waited, till it got quite dark; then we followed thestream down for another four or five miles, and then took to the plainsagain. It was another three days afore we fell in with a party ofCheyennes. It seemed as how most of those we had been with had beenkilled by the Utes; the others had taken the news home, and the wholetribe had been turned out. We war pretty well done up, but the chiefdismounted two of his men and put us on their horses, and we set off atonce. We knew pretty well the line that the party as was following ushad taken, and the next night we saw the fires of their camp, and youbet not one of them went home to tell the tale."

  "That was a narrow escape indeed, Abe," Frank said.

  "It war all that. It war lucky that it war late afore the hunt began; ifit had been early in the day nothing could have sav
ed us--onless, ofcourse, our horses had been fresh, and faster than those of the Utes,and then we should have made straight away instead of getting into theherd."

  "They don't seem to go as fast as a horse, Abe. I seemed to keep upquite easily with that bull I shot."

  "Yes, for a burst a horse is faster than a buffalo, but when they oncegets going on a downright stampede they will tire out any horse, and gowell-nigh as fast too. I tell you you have to be pretty spry, even ifyou are well-mounted, when a downright big herd, well on the stampede,comes on you. It's a terrible sight, and it makes one tingle, I can tellyou, especially as the horse is pretty nigh mad with fear."

  "It must be as bad as a prairie fire."

  "Worse, my lad; ever so much worse. You can see a prairie fire fiftymiles away--more nor that at night, ever so much--and you have plenty oftime to set the grass afire ahead of you, and clear the ground afore itcomes up, though it does travel, when the wind is blowing, much fasterthan a horse can gallop. I have seen it go thirty miles an hour, theflames just leaping out ahead of it and setting grass alight a hundredyards before the main body of the fire came up. I tell you it is aterrible sight when the grass has just dried, and is breast-high; but,as I say, there ain't no cause to be afraid if you do but keep yourhead. You just pulls up a band of grass a couple of feet wide, andlights it ahead of you; the wind naturally takes it away from you, andyou look sharp with blanket or leggings to beat it down, and prevent itworking back agin the wind across the bit of ground you have stripped.As it goes it widens out right and left, and you have soon got a widestrip cleared in front of you. In course you don't go on to it as longas you can help it, not till you are drove by the other fire coming up;that gives it time to cool a bit. If you must go on soon, owing to beingpressed, or from the fire you have lit working round agin the wind--asit will do if the grass is very dry--the best plan is to cut up yourleggings, or any bit of hide you have got with you, the rawer thebetter, and wrap them round your horse's feet and legs; but it ain'toften necessary to do that, as it don't take long for the ashes to coolenough so as to stand on."

  Fortunately a bottom with good grass had been found close at hand to theplace where they encamped, and when the caravan proceeded the draft oxenwere all the better for their two days' rest.

  "We shall have to begin to look out pretty sharp for Injin signs," Abesaid, as they started early next morning. "Fresh meat is good, but wecan do without it; there's enough pork and jerked meat in the waggons tolast pretty nigh across the plains; but we are getting where we mayexpect Injins in earnest. We might, in course, have met 'em anywhere,but as they know the caravans have all got to come across their ground,it don't stand to reason as they would take the trouble to travel veryfar east to meet 'em. I don't say as we won't knock down a stag, now andagin, if we comes across 'em, but the less firing the better. We havebeen hunting up till now, but we must calculate that for the rest of thejourney we are going to be hunted; and if we don't want our scalpstaken, not to talk of all these women and children, we have got to lookout pretty spry. I reckon we can beat them off in anything like a fairfight--that is, provided we have got time to get ready before they areon us, and it depends on us whether we do have time or not."