JACK'S VISIT AT SWIFT CREEK RANCH.
The next morning Jack felt someone shaking him gently, and murmured
drowsily, 'I'm so sleepy, Pedro. It can't be time to get up yet;' and
then he opened his eyes to find Mr. Stuart standing by the sofa.
Jack woke up thoroughly at the sight of him, and remembering where he
must be, jumped up, exclaiming, 'Am I very late, sir?'
'No, my boy; but we have all finished breakfast, and as I felt sure you
must be ravenous after your long fast, I thought it wiser to wake you
up. You'll like to have a wash and a brush, and then come into the
kitchen.'
'Thank you, sir,' said Jack, following him, and after a good wash in a
big basin of clear creek water, he felt quite refreshed and terribly
hungry.
'There's the kitchen,' said Mr. Stuart, pointing to a door; 'find your
way in there and they'll give you your breakfast. I must go to the
corral.'
Jack walked to the house and knocked shyly at the door before entering.
Mrs. Stuart opened it and gave him a welcome.
'Come in, come in, Jack,' she said; 'I hope you are quite rested. I
saw you last night, but you were so tired and fast asleep, we decided
not to wake you up. We are very glad to see you here, and when you
have had your breakfast, you must make friends with my little boy and
girl. Look after him well, Martha,' she said, as she turned to leave
the room, 'and give him plenty to eat.'
'I'll see to him, marm,' said the servant, who was a rough girl, but
good-nature itself. She proceeded to heap his plate with food, and
poured him out a cup of nice hot coffee, which smelt delicious to the
hungry boy. She was very proud of her hot buckwheat cakes, and Jack
did ample justice to them, smothered as they were in butter and syrup.
When he had finished, he pleased Martha very much by helping her to
wash up the breakfast-things, and she was surprised and delighted to
find how careful he was in drying and putting by the cups and saucers
tidily in the cupboards.
He carried her in some buckets of water from the creek, and cleaned the
knives.
'Is there anything else for me to do?' he asked presently.
'Can you work a bucksaw?' she said dubiously.
'Yes, I can,' returned Jack. 'I cut all my uncle's wood at Longview
with one.'
'Well, I'd be glad enough for a few logs,' she said, 'for the boys are
so busy this morning, they've quite forgot it's baking day, and I want
plenty o' wood.'
'I'll cut it,' cried Jack, delighted to be of use, and hastened off to
the wood pile. Here he found the bucksaw, and cut off a number of
short lengths of wood. He was proceeding to split them with an axe,
when he found himself being surveyed by a little boy and girl who were
standing in front of him hand-in-hand. The boy was about six, and the
girl a year younger, and they gazed at Jack with admiring eyes.
'Are you Jack?' asked the boy shyly.
'Yes, I am,' answered Jack, smiling at him.
'Well, I'm Teddy Stuart,' answered the new arrival, evidently anxious
to converse, 'and this is Rita. She's my sister. Have you a sister?'
'No, I haven't,' returned Jack, 'but I've got a mother, though,' he
added, not to be outdone.
'I know that,' said Teddy approvingly, 'and you've come _hundreds_ of
miles to find her. I'd go a _million_ to see my mother if she went
away.'
'No, you wouldn't, Teddy,' broke in Rita, speaking for the first time,
'cos you're too little. You're ever so much littler than Jack. Jack,'
she went on, with a funny grave look in her face, 'my daddy says you're
a little hero, so I want to shake hands wiv you.'
She held out a small hand, and shook Jack's brown paw very solemnly, as
if it was an important ceremony. Teddy, not to be behindhand, shook
hands also.
'I like heroes,' Rita went on. 'Daddy tells me stories about them
doing such brave things in battles. What grand things have you done,
Jack?'
Jack looked puzzled at this question, but Teddy helped him by asking,
in an awe-stricken voice: 'Did you _kill_ anybody, Jack?'
'Oh, no!' returned our little friend; 'I never hurt nobody but those
Mexican boys as set on me at Las Vegas. I tried to hurt _them_ all I
could,' he said honestly, 'but they were too many of 'em and they
whipped me.'
'I wish I'd been there,' cried Teddy valiantly. 'I'd have helped you,
Jack, and p'raps we'd have beaten them between us.'
'I'm afeared they'd have had the best o' it anyhow,' returned Jack,
shaking his head.
Rita listened to this conversation with a frightened look in her brown
eyes, but she felt a greater respect than heretofore for Teddy after
his brave speech. Mrs. Stuart joined them at this moment, and seemed
very pleased to see the work Jack had got through since breakfast.
'You are a useful boy,' she remarked pleasantly. 'You've wasted no
time this morning. Now, children, I see you have already made friends
with Jack. Help him to carry this firewood into the kitchen, and then
take him about and show him the animals.'
Delighted to be useful, Teddy and Rita helped Jack to carry in the
logs, and soon the big wood box behind the stove was quite full.
Then they took him off to a stable, where they showed him their two
little ponies which their father had brought them from New York. Jack
had never seen such tiny creatures before. They were real Shetlands,
and their shaggy manes and long flowing tails delighted the Western
boy, who lingered near them as if quite fascinated. He utterly failed
in his attempt to decide which he liked best, Teddy's black pony Raven,
or Rita's white one called Snowball; for if the latter was the
_prettiest_, Raven went the _fastest_ of the two. They were dear
little ponies, and so quiet; they followed the children about like a
couple of big dogs when they loosed them.
They came in their wanderings to the big corral, or yard, where a great
excitement was going on. Some cowboys were breaking in a very wild
colt, and it was giving them no end of trouble. Mr. Stuart was
present, and when he saw the children he put them into a safe place to
watch the proceedings. Jack was very excited, as he had never seen a
really wild broncho broken in before, and was most anxious to see it
done.
It was so unmanageable, a cowboy had at last to lasso it with a lariat
and throw it down. While two or three men kept it prostrate, the
others quickly put on a saddle and bridle, and strapped the 'cinches,'
or girths, up tight. The cowboy who was to ride the colt then gave a
signal. The men let the animal struggle to its feet, and before it was
aware, the youth with a quick bound was seated in the saddle.
Then began a terrible fight between the man and the horse. The latter
tried to get its head down between its fore-legs, arching up its back
and bucking wildly about, trying to unseat its rider, who, however, sat
firm as a rock, holding the reins tight. After the horse had plunged
and reared for some time, the bars of the corral were let down, and the
cowboy worked the refractory steed towards this opening and out on the
prairie. Here the animal made a fresh fight for victory; and, as if
inspired to try another method to get free of its unwelcome burden, it
suddenly darted away full gallop across the plain. They thundered
along for miles, the rider quite powerless to check the runaway, nor
did he wish to. He let the horse go, and at last it began to weary,
and, of its own accord, lessened its speed. Slower and slower it went,
until it would have stopped altogether, if the cowboy had permitted it.
But this was his opportunity to show he was master, and accordingly he
kept the colt going on; and when at last he turned its head towards
home and trotted it back to the corral, its sweat-stained coat and
drooping tail showed that the victory was won and the wild spirit
subdued. As it carried the cowboy quietly enough up to the waiting
group of spectators, they knew that the worst was over, and the colt,
after such a struggle, would never give the same trouble again.
Jack was very happy at the ranch, as everyone took an interest in such
a little traveller and was good to him. Mr. Stuart made him wild with
pleasure, as he said he would like to do Steve Byrne a good turn for
his kindness, and intended to write on the chance of his coming to
Longview, and offer to make him one of his cowboys. Jack knew Steve
would like nothing better, and it pleased him to think that his
good-natured cousin would benefit through him.
Jack had been only three days with the Stuarts, when one evening a
strange-looking vehicle, called a buckboard, drawn by an old white
mule, approached the ranch, and a tall, wiry old man jumped out and
knocked at the door. He held himself very erect, and although his hair
was gray, he looked many years younger than he really was. His
appearance was hailed with shouts of delight, for he was well known and
a favourite with all.
'Come in, man!' cried Mr. Stuart, greeting him like an old friend. 'No
one could be more welcome than yourself. I've not seen you for months.'
'I've been up in Nebraska till lately,' returned the man. 'I've stayed
there a bit too long, as I ought to be in the Gunnison by now. Anyhow,
I couldn't cross the Range without running in to have a look at you
all.'
'That's right, Joe,' said Mr. Stuart. 'You'll stay here the night, of
course? Get your mule to his alfalfa, and come on in to supper.'
The man went off to the stables, and Jack felt in a great flutter of
excitement, wondering if Mr. Stuart meant to ask the stranger to let
him accompany him. A cowboy told him the man's name, and in Jack's
eyes the new-comer was to be looked upon with respectful awe, for he
was one of the most famous hunters in the West. He had long since
earned the sobriquet among other hunters of 'Champion Joe,' from the
long list of triumphs he had achieved in the destruction of wild
animals.
Numberless mountain lions, bears, wolves, and other wild creatures had
fallen victims to his unerring aim, and many a fierce fight for life
had he had with dangerous foes. The hunter's fame had reached even the
lonely village of Longview, and his name was quite familiar to Jack.
When Joe came in again, Mr. Stuart at once opened up the subject, told
Jack's story briefly, and asked him to allow the little lad to be his
companion.
'The boy can't go alone, Joe,' he said, 'and I'd sooner trust him to
you than anyone. I was going to keep him here this winter, but as this
opportunity has occurred, I think it is a pity to miss it, if you'll
take him along. His people are somewhere on the Cochetopa Creek, and
that can't be so very far the other side of the divide.'
'I'll take him for you,' said the hunter. 'Where is he?'
'Here, Jack, come along!' called out Mr. Stuart. 'I can tell you,
you're in luck to have fallen in with such a travelling companion.
Here's the safest man to cross the mountains with, and he is going to
take you with him.'
Jack came forward, and looked in the grizzled, tough old face with
something akin to awe. The bright, keen eyes looked searchingly at him
in return, as if their owner would read him through, and then the
veteran held out his hand, saying in a deep mellow voice that sounded
pleasantly in Jack's ears: 'Well, young un, so you and me's to be mates
for a spell, eh? And I'm to keep the track clear of bears for you--is
that so?'
'I'm awfully skeared of bears,' returned Jack truthfully; 'but I don't
believe I'd be skeared of anything much if I were along with you;' and
he looked confidently at the stalwart figure of the hunter.
'There's a genuine compliment for you, Joe,' remarked Mr. Stuart,
laughing. 'You ought to appreciate that.'
'Aye, so I do,' returned Champion Joe, well pleased at the boy's
unfeigned admiration. 'And now, kid, can you tell me whereabouts on
the Cochetopa Creek your folks have located themselves?'
Jack shook his head. He had come over two hundred and fifty miles on
that one word 'Cochetopa,' and now, when only about sixty miles from
the nearest point of the creek, he had not the remotest idea if his
parents lived near any town or village. He knew nothing beyond the
name of the creek, and said so.
'That's a bit awkward,' said Champion Joe, 'for that 'ere creek runs
down from the Range for about forty miles afore it joins the river; so
I guess it'll be a trifle hard to find your folks.'
'My dad does freighting where he is,' ventured Jack.
'That's good,' returned Joe hopefully, 'for there's more chance o'
hearin' summat o' him as we get over the Range in some o' the villages
we'll pass through.'
'I think you'd better run off to bed, Jack,' said Mrs. Stuart, 'as you
will have to be up early to-morrow morning.
'Yes,' joined in the hunter; 'get all the sleep you can. I start first
thing in the mornin', as we ain't got no time to fool away. For all
the sky's so bright, I'm mighty sure there's a snowstorm not far off,
and I ain't one as enjoys a blizzard on the Range.'
Jack felt too restless to sleep much; and at last, when he dozed off,
he dreamt he was being pursued by a bear, and it was just catching him,
when Champion Joe came to his rescue and carried him away, while the
bear vanished at the sight of the hunter.