I have an exciting Hunt and get some Game, which I bring Home with a
vast deal of Labor, only to lose Part of it in a startling Manner:
together with a Dream and an Awakening.
I had not had my eyes to the loophole ten seconds when I found out
something more about the coming invaders; what I had taken for cattle
were buffaloes, a thing which surprised me very much, for they were
even then extremely scarce. There were about a dozen of them, and they
were coming on all in a bunch and throwing up the snow like a
locomotive.
I saw that the buffaloes would follow the swell of ground and that it
would bring them in close to town, and perhaps right across the square
between the stores and the depot. But I did not believe that they
could ever flounder through the drifts to the south and east, so it
seemed as if the hunters would overtake them so near that they would
probably stay and again take possession of the town. I think I should
rather have seen the outlaws coming. I decided to fire at them and see
if I could not drive them off. But it was not necessary. I think some
of them must have been the same Indians that called on me Christmas
Day, and went away so suddenly, without stopping to say good-by.
I am sure of this, because when still a good half-mile from town they
stopped and began circling around, and waving their guns in the air,
and making all sorts of strange motions. I suppose they were trying to
drive away the evil spirit which they thought was in the place, and
which I had had in the pumpkin lantern, and which had also been in
Fitzsimmons's barrel. Then one of them who had been sitting still on
his horse rode a little forward and got off, and I could see a thin
ribbon of blue smoke arising. I suppose he was the medicine-man of the
tribe making medicine to frighten the evil spirit; or rather, perhaps,
to get up their own courage to face it. This kept up for half an hour.
The buffaloes in the mean time had walked slowly along till they were
not much more than a hundred yards away, and stood looking at the
houses in the greatest wonder; the first they had ever seen, it is
safe to say.
But it appeared that the Indian's medicine did not work any better
than white men's medicine sometimes does; for they began very slowly
to go back the way they had come. I could see them stop often, and
circle around and, I suppose, hold long talks; but they could not get
up their courage to venture closer to the place where the awful spirit
with the flaming eyes and the fiery teeth had looked down upon them
and chased them with his terrible limping gait. At last they passed
entirely out of sight.
My next thought was, of course, to try getting a buffalo myself, since
I needed fresh meat as badly as the Indians, or worse. But by this
time they had drawn back some distance and were out of range for any
but a very good marksman, a thing which I was not. I should have to
follow them, which I decided to do quick as a flash. Through the
tunnel I rushed and out to the barn. In another minute I brought out
Dick saddled and bridled. He had not been beyond a small yard for a
month. He began to jump like a whirlwind. How I ever got on with my
gun I don't know, but I think I must have seized the horn of the
saddle and hung to it like a dog to a root, and some of his jumps must
have thrown me up so high that I came down in the saddle. Anyhow, I
found myself riding away straight south as if I were on a streak of
chain-lightning.
This would not do, so I pulled with all my strength and tried to turn
him. I might as well have tried to turn a steamboat by saying "haw!"
and "gee!" to it. But the pulling on the big curb-bit made him mad and
he stopped and began to buck. I hung on with all hands and legs, and
at last he bucked his head around in the right direction, and then I
yelled at him, making the most outlandish noise I could, and he
started across the square and straight for the buffaloes as if he had
been shot out of a gun. You may see the exact course we took, and
where the buffaloes were, by looking at my map. This map I have drawn
with great care and much hard labor, spoiling several before I got one
to suit me. I hope every one who reads this book will look at the map
often, since it shows the lay of the land very well, I think, and just
where everything happened.
When Dick saw the buffaloes I think he knew what was up, because he
began to act more reasonable. They saw me coming and stopped and
looked back surprised. I thought they were going to wait, but they
soon galloped on. I saw I must go to one side if I wished to get
within range, and turned to the right. In a few minutes I came up
abreast of them and within easy range, but I soon found that though I
could guide my horse I could not stop him, pull as hard as I might. I
could not even make him stop and buck again. He was going straight
toward the north pole, and I thought it would not take him long to get
there. One way to stop him came to me. It was a rash plan, but I saw
no other.
Ahead and a little more to the right was a mighty bank of snow in the
lee of a little knoll. It sloped up gradually and did not look
dangerous. I turned him full into it. At the third jump he was down to
his chin, and I had gone on over his head. When at last I struck I
went down a good ways beyond my chin; in fact my chin went down first,
and if any part of me was in sight it must have been my heels. All I
knew was that I was hanging to my gun as if it were as necessary as my
head.
Why the breath of life was not knocked out of me I don't know, but it
wasn't, and I kicked and thrashed about till I got my head and
shoulders to the surface, with a peck of snow down the back of my
neck. I looked for the buffaloes, and there they stood in blank
astonishment, wondering, I guess, if I always got off of a horse that
way. I ran my sleeve along the barrel of my rifle, rested it over a
lump of frozen snow and fired at the nearest one, which was standing
quartering to me. I saw the ball plow up the snow beyond and to the
left. They all started on. As mine turned his side square to me I
fired again. He went down with a mighty flounder. The others rushed
away. I waded nearer and finished him with one more shot.
Dick was still aground in the snow, snorting like a steam-engine, but
by the time I had tramped the drift down and got him out he was over
his nonsense and carried me back to the barn quite decently. I was all
for skinning and dressing my buffalo. To Taggart's I went and got some
good sharp knives, and, taking Kaiser and the sled, started back. I
don't think I ever worked so hard in my life as I did at that job. It
was not very cold, which was one good thing. Every minute I expected
the wolves, and I did not have long to wait either. Before three
o'clock they came howling along the trail the buffaloes had made, and
I had to stop and fire at them every few minutes to keep them off. I
am sure they were not so hungry as usual or I never could have kept
them back at all. Twice I killed one when I shot, but I dared not go
up and get them, and they were soon devoured by the others. The pack
kept growing larger as others came over from the timber north of the
Butte.
At last I got off the hide and loaded it on the sled. I wanted to take
all of the meat, but it made too big a load, and I had to be satisfied
with two quarters. I even had to give up taking the head, which was a
fine large specimen. A little after four o'clock as the sun began to
sink low the wolves became bolder, and I knew it was not safe to stay
longer. The load was more than Kaiser could pull, so I saw I must take
hold and help him. I fired five or six shots at the wolves as fast as
I could pump them up, seized the rope and off we went. We were not ten
rods away when the whole pack was upon the carcass fighting and
tearing at it. They kept up the hideous battle all night and howled so
much that it seemed as if their throats must be worn raw.
Once back home I set at my regular work tired enough. But the fires
were all low and I expected a day or two more of good weather, and the
ease with which the Indians and buffaloes had got down from the north
made me fear more than ever the coming of the outlaws from the west. I
still had little hope of ever getting out of the place alive, but I
could only work on and do all I could for my safety.
I laid the quarters of meat on some boxes in the shed and bolted the
door. I was so tired I think I must have slept sounder that night than
for a long time. In the morning I found that the shed door had been
forced open, one of the bolts being torn off and the other one
broken. Even the hinges were bent. A big piece of the best part of
each quarter was gone. I could not tell if it had been torn off or
haggled off with a dull knife. It might even have been gnawed off; I
could not tell.
I looked for tracks of the robber with, as the saying is, my heart in
my mouth; but to no purpose. Although it had neither snowed nor blown
during the night, a deep layer of frost, like feathers made out of the
thinnest ice, had settled everywhere toward morning and I could find
nothing.
That this new reminder of my unknown enemy brought on another attack
of terror I need hardly say; but it was daylight and I conquered it
better. The worst feeling I had to fight with was that whatever the
thing was, it might be looking at me as I moved about town. I thought
I saw eyes peering at me, sometimes of one kind, sometimes of another,
out of every window, through every crack, over every roof, around
every corner, from behind every chimney; even the tops of the freshly
made snowbanks, blown over like hoods, were not free from them; and
when I looked out on the prairie I expected to see something coming
to catch me. I could scarce tell if I were more afraid on top of the
drifts or under them in my tunnels, for here I constantly expected to
meet something, or look back and see eyes. I think the loneliness and
the strain of the expected robbers must have half turned my mind. If I
had known what to look for and dread I think I should not have cared
so much, but, not knowing, I imagined everything and became more
terrified about I knew not what than were the Indians at my pumpkin
lantern. Sometimes I was sorry that I had driven the Indians away; and
there were times when I thought I should be glad to have the Pike gang
come, just for company.
Three days after the buffalo hunt, in the night, I thought the gang
had come indeed; I was not more frightened at any time while I was at
Track's End than I was that night. I had gone to bed as usual in the
empty building, taking in my drawbridge and closing both windows
behind me. The northwest wind had died away at sundown, and the night
was still and the sky becoming cloudy. I looked for an east wind the
next day and probably snow later.
What hour I woke up I knew not, but it must have been about midnight.
I know I awoke gradually, because I had a long dream before doing so.
I thought a giant was shouting at me from a grove of green trees on a
hillside; it kept up for a long time, deep, hoarse shouts which fairly
shook the earth; I could not see him, but seemed to know what he was.
I was not frightened, but stood in a meadow listening. Then there was
a crash of a tree falling on the hillside, and the giant's shouts came
twice as loud, and I awoke and fought the bed-clothes off my head and
knew it was Kaiser barking.
At first this did not startle me, since he often barked in the hotel
at night, sometimes at the wolves, and other times, I had reason to
think, at the thing which prowled in the night. The next instant I
realized that his barks were much louder and that he was nearer. I
started up and saw that a dull, flickering light was coming through
the cracks in the boards over the window and moving on the wall. I
thought of northern lights, then saw that it was on the north wall
and not on the south. I leaped to the window and peeped out a crack
and saw that there was a great fire somewhere; the snow was lit up
like day almost, and I could see black cinders floating above the
barn.
I got into such of my clothes as I had taken off and rushed to the
side window. Here the light did not come much, but I could see Kaiser
standing with his feet on the hotel windowsill and his head and
shoulders out the window. He had smashed through the glass, as he had
that day when the wolves came. Not once did he stop his terrific
barking.
I pushed up my window and seized the drawbridge. I started to put it
across, as I had done so many times before, but I was so excited and
in such a foolish fright that it slipped out of my hands and fell
between the buildings. I stood a full minute unable to move. The lower
part of the hotel window was divided into two panes, and Kaiser had
broken one of them. I could see that he had cut himself, and I was
afraid of doing likewise. But there was no other way to get out. I put
on my mittens and got out of my window, clinging to the upper sash
and standing on the outside sill. Then, with a prodigious step, I
landed on the other sill, seized the opening regardless of the jagged
glass, crouched down and plunged into the room head first. Kaiser had
drawn back as he saw me coming, but as I shot into the room he bounded
in front of me, and we rolled over together there on the floor in the
darkness. I was half dazed, but knew I smelled smoke, and heard the
crackling of a great fire.