ANTELOPE KIDS
"Son, do you want to ride down to the lake with me," said Hugh one
day in June, as they sat at dinner.
"Yes, Hugh, I'd like to go. Right after dinner?" said Jack.
"Yes, if your uncle don't want me, we might as well start right off.
You get your gun and catch up the horses, and I'll come down and
saddle up as soon as I can."
Jack caught the horses and took them to the barn, where he found Hugh
waiting, and in a few moments they were on their way. When they had
nearly reached the lake, Hugh turned to Jack and said, "Now, maybe
we'll see some fun. This morning when I was in the pasture, I saw an
old doe antelope down on the flat here, and I reckon she's got kids
hidden somewhere. We can lie behind the hill and watch for them.
Maybe we'll have company too; there's likely to be a coyote or two
about, so you may as well fetch your gun with you."
They left the horses in a little hollow, and creeping up to the
top of the hill, carefully looked over it. At first they could see
nothing living, but after a moment Hugh said, "Look out! keep close!
there's a coyote coming out of the gulch over there." They watched
the cunning animal as it trotted out into the flat where the grass
was up to its belly, and there it began to quarter the ground, just
like a hunting dog, yet every moment or two it would pause and look
up toward the hills, as if it were afraid of something that was
coming. What this something was they soon saw, for presently a doe
antelope came galloping over the hills toward the flat, and when she
saw the coyote she ran faster, directly toward it. As soon as it saw
the doe, the coyote dropped its head and tail and started to run
away, at first slowly, but, as the antelope drew nearer to it, much
faster, until presently it was running nearly as fast as the doe.
Before it had crossed the flat the antelope had nearly caught it, and
now the coyote was running as fast as it could, with its tail tucked
between its legs, like a frightened cur. As the little wolf ran up
to the hill on which they were lying, the antelope caught up with
it, and several times struck it with her hoof, and each time she did
so, the wolf yelled with pain, just as a dog would yell when struck
with a whip. Wolf and antelope passed close by the watchers and soon
disappeared over the next hill.
Then Hugh said to Jack, "Look out, now! that coyote has a partner
somewhere about, and, unless I am mistaken, he will show up in two
or three minutes." Sure enough, when they turned around and looked
at the flat, there was a coyote just beginning to search through
the grass, as the other one had done. It was evident that these two
wolves were working together, and that while one led the doe away
from the neighbourhood of her young ones, the other searched to try
to find out where they were hidden. However, the old doe seemed to
be pretty wise and did not chase the first coyote far; so that the
one left on the ground had hardly time to begin his hunt before the
antelope made her appearance again on the flat, and drove him off.
As she began to do this, Hugh said to Jack, "Now, turn around and
keep a good look-out for the other coyote; you may get a chance to
kill him as he comes back." They had not been watching very long
when the little wolf that had just been chased away came trotting
unconcernedly around the base of the knoll, only a short distance
from them. They sat quite still and he did not notice them, but went
on until he reached the top of the rise from which he could see the
flat. Here he stopped only about forty yards from Jack, and a careful
shot dropped him in his tracks.
"Well," said Hugh, "that's a good shot, and a good job too. That
other coyote will have to go now and hunt up another partner. I
reckon we've saved them kids. Maybe if we lie here a little longer
and watch, the old doe will go up to her young ones, and we'll see
where they are hidden; then, if you like, we can catch them and take
them home."
"Let's wait and see if we can find them," said Jack. "I'd like
awfully well to see them and see what they look like, but I don't
want to take them away from the old one; she's had trouble enough
with these coyotes; let's leave her young ones with her."
"That suits me to a T," said Hugh. "Let's move down a little bit from
the top of the hill and skin this coyote, and we can look at the old
doe every little while, and if she isn't bothered, likely before long
she will go to her young ones."
They skinned the wolf, and every now and then either Hugh or Jack
went to the top of the hill and looked over at the antelope. The
coyotes bothered her no more; she fed about in the flat, and at
length went up on a little side hill and lay down for an hour or two.
Then she rose and began to feed again, and after wandering about in
rather an aimless fashion for half an hour, she walked over to a bare
hillside, where nothing seemed to be growing, and in a moment they
saw two tiny kids standing by her side.
"Now," said Hugh, "you notice well where those kids are, and we'll go
and get the horses and ride over to them. You will see that just as
soon as we show ourselves, the kids will disappear and the old one
will run off. You won't be able to see the kids until you're right on
top of them."
Sure enough, when they rode over the hills, and the old doe saw
them, she cantered away and no young ones were to be seen, but when
they reached the spot, two small grey objects looking at a little
distance like stones, lay on the ground there. Jack dismounted and
picked one up; its legs and head hung down as if it were dead; it
made no movement and uttered no sound, but its bright little eye was
full and round.
"That's the way it is with them," said Hugh. "Until they are a week
or ten days old they act just like that. I expect it's born in them
to act like they are dead until their mother tells them it's safe to
seem to be alive."
It was a little hard for Jack to leave the kids here. They were
such queer-looking little beasts that his wish to possess them
almost overcame the sympathy he had felt for their mother, but after
what he had said to Hugh he was ashamed to change; and so, rather
regretfully, he left the kids lying there on the hillside, for their
mother to find when she came back.
As they rode toward the house, talking of the animals they had
been watching, Jack was loud in his sympathy for the antelope, and
declared that if he could do so, he would kill every coyote in the
country. "Well, I don't know, son," said Hugh, "Coyotes are mean
and do right smart of mischief, but they've got feelings, just like
folks. Did ye ever think of that?"
"How do you mean, Hugh?" asked Jack.
"Why, I mean that they've got to eat and drink, and sleep, just like
the antelope, or, for the matter of that, just like us. They've got
little ones to look out for and feed, and I make no doubt the old
mother coyote thinks just as much of her young ones as the antelope
does of hers. I don't mean to say that I like coyotes; they're pesky
critters, and often I get mad with them and feel, like you do, that
I'd like to kill 'em all; but what I say is that it ain't no more
cruel for a coyote to kill an antelope, than it is for an antelope to
take a bite of grass."
"I never thought of it in that way, Hugh, but that is so. But you
can't help feeling sorry for the little kids and for the old ones,
too."
"That's all right enough, but what I say is, if you are going to feel
sorry for one thing, you've got to feel sorry for all. And what's
more, talking about coyotes, they're so almighty smart, that you
can't help admiring them, and thinking they earn all they get."
Talking about these things, they rode over the low hills till they
had come to the edge of the valley leading up to the house. Here Hugh
checked his horse and pointed to a small animal, walking about in an
aimless way near the gully through which the creek flowed. "There's a
badger," he said. "Now, if you like, we can get down into the creek
bed and creep up close to him and watch him for a spell. What do you
say?"
"That'll be bully; let's do it; but can we get close enough to see
him well?"
"There won't be any trouble about that, but we'll have to go back a
little ways," said Hugh. "Come on."
They rode back a short distance, and around a little hill, and
dismounting, walked down into the bed of the stream. The banks of the
narrow water-course were eight or ten feet high, and of course hid
them from anything on the level of the valley. After they had gone
some little distance, Hugh signed with his hand to Jack to wait, and
slowly raising his head above the bank, looked through a bunch of
grass growing on its edge. After a moment he motioned Jack to come
up beside him, and whispered to him, "He's right close, not twenty
feet away;" and he pointed. Jack looked carefully over the bank and
saw a queer short-legged grey animal with white stripes on his face,
walking about and smelling at some little piles of earth. The long
hair on either side of its body almost swept the ground, its face had
an expression of great cunning, and its nose was long and pointed.
It was a heavy, thickset animal, only about two feet long and very
broad, but it stepped lightly enough from place to place, snuffing
at each lump of earth or tuft of grass that it came to, not as if
it were very much interested in it, but as if it felt that it would
not do to pass by anything without examining it. Sometimes it would
scrape away a little dirt, and smell the ground, and then move on.
Often it lifted its head high and sniffed the air, moving its nose
about and wrinkling it, as if to catch the faintest scent.
Now and then it sat up on its haunches and looked about, as if to see
if any danger were near. When it did this, it held itself much as
Jack had seen a woodchuck. "He keeps a pretty good look-out, don't
he?" whispered Hugh.
"You bet," said Jack, "he looks as if he knew pretty well how to take
care of himself. How strong he seems to be, and what a sly, cunning
face he has."
A few moments later the badger suddenly sat up very straight, with
his fore legs hanging down by his side, and looked sharply toward a
hill away from the house. In a few seconds the animal dropped down
on all fours and galloped away toward a near-by hillside. "I expect
he hears something coming, and he's making tracks for his hole. Ah,
that's what it is," said Hugh, and he pointed to the hill toward
which the badger had looked. Over this hill a man came riding, and
about his horse were trotting half a dozen great, gaunt hounds. One
of them saw the badger, and instantly the whole pack swept down the
hill toward it, but just before the leading dog overtook it, the
badger disappeared, and the dogs checked themselves and stopped. "I
expect that's the Powell kid," said Hugh, as he climbed up the bank,
followed by Jack. "He has a lot o' hounds, and catches considerable
many coyotes."
As they walked back toward their horses, they met the rider, a boy
only a little older than Jack, who seemed to know Hugh very well, and
who shook hands with Jack, giving him a hard grip that almost hurt
him. "Well, kid," said Hugh, "did ye get any coyotes to-day?" "Yes, I
got three, and started two more, but they got so big a start on me
that I couldn't catch 'em. I got a kitfox too, but the dogs tore him
all to pieces. Like to have got that badger that was near you, but he
holed too quick."
"Better ride on up to the house and unsaddle, and get supper, and
stop," said Hugh. "It's too late for ye to get home to-night."
"All right," said the boy, and whistling to his dogs, he rode on.
Hugh and Jack soon overtook him, and when the three reached the barn,
the stranger's horse was put in a stall, while the others were turned
out. At the house young Powell was cordially welcomed by Mr. Sturgis,
and soon all were seated at the supper table.
That evening the two boys had a long talk, and afterward a
consultation with Hugh. Then Hugh went to Mr. Sturgis and asked him
if he was willing to have Jack and himself go over the next day to
the Powell ranch for two or three days, so that Jack might have a
chance to see the hounds run coyotes. Jack's uncle said that he
thought it a very good idea. So the next morning, just about sunrise,
they set out on the thirty-mile ride.