HUGH CHASED BY INDIANS
Jack's first long ride had made him pretty sore; all his muscles
pained him. Hugh said he must keep riding and soon he would be all
right.
For several days after this, Hugh and Jack rode together, and each
day they went a little further and in a new direction. Each day Jack
found riding easier, and before long he felt perfectly at home on Old
Grey. Each day after they got home from the ride, they took the rifle
down on the flat in front of the house and fired a number of shots at
the white rock, and several times Jack hit it, and all his shots were
good ones, and the bullets struck close to the mark. Hugh was pleased
with the boy's steadiness and told him that before long they would go
out and take a hunt.
Besides the rifle-shooting Jack was learning something about horses
and how to use them. Now, when he went into the corral with Hugh,
he no longer felt afraid that the horses would run over him. The
day after their first ride, Hugh and Jack led Old Grey up to a big
section of a cottonwood log that Mrs. Carter used in mounting her
horse, and, standing on this, Jack saddled and bridled the grey.
Hugh showed him how to do it, and then stood by and watched, and when
Jack did anything wrong, he corrected him, and helped him change it.
After two or three days Jack understood how to saddle up so well that
Hugh no longer watched him.
One day Jack had his first lesson in roping--what he had always read
of as lassoing. Hugh called the rope a lassrope, or a reata--this
being a Spanish word meaning rope. The two took a rope and went into
the big corral, and for a time practised throwing at the snubbing
post, which stood in its centre. Hugh showed Jack just how it was
done, and after he had thrown the rope two or three times he handed
it to Jack, and told him to coil it and to throw it. In two or three
days Jack found that he could catch the post about half the time,
and that throwing the rope, which at first had seemed to him such
hard work, was very easy. Several times he caught Old Grey in the
corral. After he had come to understand as much as this, Hugh had him
practise on horseback, showing him how to throw from the saddle, and
how to fasten his rope by two or three turns about the horn, so as
to hold anything that he might catch with the noose. He warned him
how to handle his rope in taking the turns around the horn, with the
thumb and finger held up, not down, so that he should not get them
caught under the rope, for many men have lost their fingers in this
way, having them cut off between the rope and the horn when the
pull came in throwing a steer. So it was that as they rode along,
Jack would throw the rope at one sage-bush after another, pulling up
those which he caught and then gathering the rope for a fresh throw.
This was pretty good fun, and when he grew tired of it, he would coil
up his rope and hang it on his saddle by the loop that was fastened
there to hold it, and then he and Hugh would talk about the things
they saw, and those that Hugh had seen and heard in his long life on
the prairie.
The whole of each day was passed in the open air; and this life, so
different from that led by the boy in his city home, soon began to
affect his health and his spirits. His appetite increased enormously,
his flesh began to harden, and his face, under exposure to the keen
cool wind and the unshadowed rays of the sun, to take on a hue of
brown that it had never shown before. Each night he was heartily
and healthily tired, and an hour or two after supper he went to
bed, where he slept like a log until called next morning. Each day
began with the sun and was enjoyed through every hour. As he became
accustomed to his horse, Hugh taught him to mount from the right
side, as the Indians do, and urged him to learn to ride bareback,
telling him of the skill shown by the Indians in their war and
hunting trips, when they use no saddle, but cling to the naked horse.
After he had been a week at the ranch, his uncle told Jack that he
was going to send in to the railroad, and advised him to write to
his mother, and to tell her that it might be a month or more before
she would again hear from him, and the boy did so, sending a long
and enthusiastic account of the place and the people. Mr. Sturgis
also wrote to his sister and brother-in-law, telling what Jack's life
had been up to that time, of the marked interest felt by the boy in
all that he saw and did, and of his changed appearance and improved
health. These letters made two people in the distant city very happy.
One afternoon, after they had been practising with the rifle, and had
cleaned and put it away, Hugh said to Jack, "Now, son, to-morrow,
unless your uncle wants me to do something else, we'll ride over
toward Sand Creek and see if we can't kill something. Mrs. Carter
says we're about out of meat, and she wants me to kill an antelope.
Let me see that butcher knife of yours that I took off your belt the
other day. If it's a new one it'll need grinding, of course."
Jack ran and brought the knife, and Hugh looked at it and tried its
edge on his thumb. "Yes," said he, "it's just out of the shop and
we'll have to put an edge on it. No telling till I get it on the
stone what sort of a piece of steel it is. Come on and turn for me
and I'll find out."
They went down to the blacksmith's shop, and while Jack turned the
handle of the grindstone, Hugh ground the knife and afterwards
whetted it on the oil-stone until its edge was keen. "'Pears to me,"
he said, "that this is a pretty good knife. I expect your uncle
bought it for you! Most young fellows that come out here carry a dirk
knife with a big bone handle and a guard, that ain't no earthly use
except in a fight, and they don't expect to fight; they expect to use
the knife to butcher with. What you want is just a common skinning
knife, such as a butcher uses--what you've got here. Now put it back
in your sheath, and if we have any luck to-morrow, you'll have a
chance to try it."
When they had left the shop and walked up to the house, and Hugh
had seated himself on the ground in the sun, and Jack had thrown
himself down beside him, the boy said: "Hugh, you spoke the other day
about the Pawnees, and said you had seen them and had some friends
among them. I wish you'd tell me about them. I've read about them in
Cooper's novels. Don't you remember that Leather Stocking when he
got very old lived among the Pawnees, and had the young chief Hard
Heart, for his son. He must have been a splendid man. I remember the
description of the fight, when he killed the Dakota chief. It was
fine."
"Well," said Hugh, "I never knew any of them people; likely they were
before my time, but the story you read was likely true, for them
Pawnees has surely killed plenty Sioux. I expect there's nothing a
Pawnee likes better than to get at the Sioux. I have seen quite a
few Pawnees in my time, and I've stopped some in their villages, and
they're good people, no mistake about that. They are kind, and they
give you the best they've got; and they're brave. I don't want to be
with better people. Some of 'em helped me out of a bad fix once, and
I ain't never forgot it. That's the time I saw the prettiest horse
I ever looked at. It was while I was scouting up at the end of the
track that I saw him. He belonged to an Indian,--Sioux or Cheyenne, I
expect--anyhow they were hostiles, and they chased me, and if I had
had far to go, I expect they'd have caught me. They might have done
so anyhow if it hadn't been for them Pawnees.
"I had gone out from the graders' camp to see if I couldn't get an
antelope, for the camp was clean out of fresh meat. I rode up out
of the valley, and along on the high prairie, back from the creek,
but not too far back, for I expected likely I'd get jumped, and I
wanted to have a good show to make a run for it. There hadn't been
no Indians seen for quite a while, and the boys working on the track
were getting pretty bold. One of them even wanted to go hunting with
me. He didn't have no horse to ride, said he would go afoot, that he
could keep up, if I didn't ride too fast. I told him he had better
stop in camp if he wanted to keep his hair safe, and, anyhow, he
couldn't go with me. I knew that because Indians hadn't been seen,
that didn't signify there weren't none in the country. The more you
don't see them fellows--when you're in a hostile country--the harder
you've got to look out for 'em. And there was a company, or part
of a company, of Major North's Pawnees camped about ten or fifteen
miles further up the creek, and I expected that the Sioux, if there
was any about, would cut in behind the Pawnees, and likely tackle
the graders' camp, if they saw any show to get away with it. Well,
I hadn't gone more'n a couple of miles or so before I came over a
little rise, and saw a buck antelope feeding, in easy shot. I killed
him and tied him to the saddle, and started back to camp; but I
hadn't gone far when I saw three Indians come in sight, right between
me and the camp. They saw me as soon as I did them, and as soon as
they saw me, they charged. They were quite a ways off, maybe a mile
or more; but that did not give me much time to fool away. I cut loose
the meat from my saddle, and started for the bluffs, thinking I'd get
down into the creek valley, and either head them and get to camp, or
else ride for the Pawnee camp. When I got to the bluffs, looking all
the time for a place to get down, by George! I couldn't see one; it
was so steep, even in the best place, that you couldn't get no horse
down, without he had wings. Of course a man could have clumb down
afoot, but not a horse. Well, the Indians were a-coming all the time,
and one of 'em was nigh a half mile ahead of the other two; those
two had not gained much, but the fellow in the lead, he was surely
a-coming. While I was looking for a place to get down I'd noticed a
little point running out into the valley, with three pines on it, and
I made for them, for I says to myself, 'I ain't a-going to let them
fellows have this horse, and then get killed afoot.'
"I got to the trees and stopped and got off. The lead Indian kept
a-coming; and, sir, he surely had a good horse. It was a big
iron-grey, powerful and swift, I could tell by the way he overhauled
my horse, for mine wan't no slouch, and I hadn't let him linger
much by the way. Why, when that grey's foot struck the ground it
seemed like he was galloping on cushions, it was so easy. The Indian
came up to within about four hundred yards of the trees, and then
he wheeled his horse and rode off in a wide circle and met his
party, and they stopped and talked a while, and then they started
and charged straight at me. They did not worry me much, for I knew
they wouldn't come right close, and they couldn't get around me.
If they'd been able to circle in behind me, I expect they'd have
bothered me considerable. As it was, I kept watching that grey
horse, and thinking about him, and figuring to see if there wasn't
some way I could get hold of him; but I did not see any. The Indians
kept a-charging up and a-charging up, every time coming a little
closer. One of them had a gun, and every time they turned off, he
would shoot toward me; but they were too far off to hit anything. You
see, in them days, britch-loaders weren't very common anywhere, and
the Indians, of course, knew less about 'em than white people. They
calculated on my having a muzzle-loader, and were trying to tempt me
to shoot, so as to make a charge when my gun was empty, and finish
me before I could load. I had a little britch-loading Sharp's rifle,
with paper cartridges, but I could load pretty fast if I had to,
could beat a muzzle-loader all to death.
"At last the Indians came up so close that I made up my mind I would
give them a shot, and I thought I would try the man riding the grey,
just on the chance that if I killed him, the grey might keep on
towards my horse and I would get a chance to catch him. I stood up
against the tree and took a careful aim at the man, shooting plenty
high, for they were a long shot off. Just as I pulled though, the man
I was shooting at swung his horse, and my ball went by him and killed
the horse of the man behind him. It fell, and the rider jumped up and
ran off, jumping from side to side, like he was plenty scared I would
shoot at him. They all stopped away out of range and began to talk
again, when, all of a sudden, I saw six more men ride up in sight,
quite a long way off. Thinks I to myself, 'If these is more Sioux, I
am surely in for it now;' but in a moment I noticed that these six
men were coming in pairs, the way soldiers ride, and then I knew it
was a bunch of Pawnees. I ran to untie my horse and charge out, but
the Sioux had seen the Pawnees as soon as I did, and they had just
everlastingly lit out over the prairie. The Pawnees struck out after
the Sioux, and by the time I was in the saddle and riding, they were
a couple of miles ahead of me, and going hard. I knew it was no use
for me to run my horse down trying to catch them, so I rode out to
where I had dropped my meat, picked it up, and went back to the
graders' camp.
"The next day I went up to the Pawnee camp, for I kept thinking about
that grey horse, and if the Pawnees had captured him, I wanted to
buy him. I knew that they would understand just as well as I did how
good a horse he was, and I thought likely that if they had got him,
they would not sell him; but I was going to make a bluff at buying
him, anyhow. When I got to the camp I talked a while with Major
North's brother, who was in command there, and at last told him about
the chase that they had had yesterday, and how the Sioux had had me
cornered. I said I wanted to see one of the Indians that was in the
fight. When the head man of these six came to the tent, I saw that it
was old Ik[=u]ts tár[=u]sh, and I talked with him about the chase,
and asked him what they had done. He said that they had killed two of
the Sioux. Then I asked him about the grey horse, and whether they
had got it. He shook his head.
"'No,' he said, 'that horse got killed. The horse and the two men who
were riding him were both killed, and the other man and his horse
got away.' I don't know when I've been more sorry about the death of
any dumb beast, that wasn't a dog, than I was that time. Ik[=u]ts
tár[=u]sh was sorry too."