A TRIP TO SMITH'S HOLE
Some weeks passed. The work of the ranch went on. Jack was now
becoming a useful member of the society there, for he had come to
feel so much at home that there were many things that he could do
about the place. Every day he gained more confidence in himself and
it was no longer thought necessary that he should have some one with
him when he rode out away from the ranch on the prairie. One night
his uncle had suggested that he should go out and bring in the milk
cows, and he did so, and after this it became his regular duty to
look for them, if they did not come up to the corral to be milked
at night. A little later Joe had asked him one morning to go out
and bring in the saddle horses, which were feeding high up in the
mountain, but could be seen from the house. He did so, and after a
few days this became a part of his regular work. For such riding
as this he did not use Pawnee, but rode, instead, old Grey, or the
Pilot, or any one of three or four other gentle horses that were
always close about the ranch. He remembered Hugh's advice, given to
him soon after he had come out, and always carried his gun with him.
During these rides he had killed two coyotes and a badger, the skins
of which he had taken off and stretched quite nicely, under Hugh's
direction. He had had two or three chances to shoot antelope, too,
but always close to the house, and so he had not fired at them, for
Mr. Sturgis liked to see these wild creatures of the prairie near
the ranch, and had asked that no hunting be done close at home. Jack
had tended his live stock, and his ducks were now quite large and
full feathered birds, and were very tame, and pretty well able to
take care of themselves. When they were still little bits of fluffy
things, Hugh had advised him to cut off the tip of one wing from
each, and he had done so. The birds, therefore, could not fly, and
wandered about on foot, feeding with the hens and dabbling in the
brook. Hugh warned him that he would have to look out for them when
the weather got cool, or else they might start off to go south on
foot, and if they ever wandered off on the prairie the coyotes would
surely pick them up at once. The calf elk had grown very large, and
was annoyingly tame. It was sure to be where it was not wanted, and
Mrs. Carter once declared to Jack that she wished some one would kill
the little brute, for if she left the kitchen door open it would go
in, and put its nose into every dish in the place.
Although he had many things to do, they did not take up all Jack's
time. He spent many hours lying on the hills, watching the beasts
and the birds and the insects, and this seemed to him better fun
than anything about the ranch, except the long talks that he had with
Hugh, whose stories of old times were always interesting. He had
gotten down his uncle's bird book from the shelf in the sitting-room,
and had learned the names of many birds of the prairie, and from Hugh
he had learned also how the larger beasts and birds lived, and what
they did in summer and autumn and winter and spring.
One evening as Hugh and Jack were sitting on the steps of the
bunk-house, watching the lengthening shadows of the mountains creep
further and further out over the prairie, Hugh said to Jack:
"Son, your uncle wants me to go off and get a horse load of meat, and
I am thinking of going over to Smith's Hole, to see if I can't kill
a couple of blacktail bucks; they ought to be getting pretty fat by
this time. I expect I'll have to be gone two or three days, and I
thought maybe you'd like to go, if you can get Joe and Rube to look
after your live stock. What do you say?"
"Oh, Hugh," said Jack, "that would be fine. Do you know, I have been
out here now nearly four months and I've never slept out of doors
yet. I don't know what a camp is. I'd love to go over there with you,
and it would be splendid to see these deer. You see, I have never
seen a deer since I have been here."
"Well," said Hugh, "I expected maybe you'd like to go, and I'd surely
like to have you come. We'll speak to your uncle about it. I expect
we'd better start day after to-morrow, because I've got to look over
them pack riggings, and see if they're all in order. I expect we'd
better take two pack horses. We won't have much of anything to carry
going, besides our beds, but if we get two or three deer, the horses
will both have loads coming back, and I'd rather lead a pack horse
than walk and lead my own horse loaded with meat."
Mr. Sturgis was quite willing that Jack should go. The following
day was devoted to putting in order the pack saddles, blankets and
necessary ropes, and the morning after, they started.
Hugh rode old Baldy, and Jack, Pawnee. One of the pack horses had
nothing on his saddle, while the other carried the blankets, their
few cooking utensils and provisions. Hugh and Rube put the load on
the pack horse, and threw ropes about it and pulled them tight in a
very short time, but although Jack watched closely, he had no idea
how the ropes went over the load, nor why they held it fast. When
they were ready, Hugh mounted, and, taking the rope of the pack
horse, started on, while Jack followed, leading the unloaded animal.
Half the morning had passed without a word having been exchanged
between the two riders, when Hugh, halting in a sheltered spot out of
the wind, dismounted, threw down his rope and his bridle rein, and
felt in his pocket for his pipe. "'Light down," he said to Jack, as
he came up, "and let the horses rest a while. I want to smoke."
Jack was quite willing to do so, for he felt as if his right arm
would soon be pulled out of the socket, with the labour of dragging
the lazy pack horse.
"What's the matter with you?" continued Hugh. "Arm tired?"
"Yes," said Jack, "that horse pulls back so he nearly drags me out of
the saddle."
"Sho!" said Hugh. "You ought to put a hackamore on him, and then pass
the rope under your leg and take a turn of it round the saddle horn.
If he pulls back then, it cuts off his wind, and he won't do it very
long."
"I'll do it," said Jack; "wish I'd thought of it before. I'd almost
made up my mind to turn him loose and drive him."
"We'll do that after we get a little further," said Hugh. "We can't
drive that horse you're leading yet awhile, he'd keep trying to turn
back and go home, and make us more trouble than it is to lead him."
"Hugh, I wish you'd tell me how you tied that load on this morning,"
said Jack. "It seems to be firm, and yet I should think the ropes
would come loose and you'd have to tie it up every little while."
"Well," said Hugh, "that's something you've got to learn, of course,
packing; it's a regular trade, and when you know how to do it right,
your load stays on your horse; if you don't know how to do it, your
load comes loose and makes you trouble from the time you start in the
morning till you get into camp at night. I calculated that that would
be one of the things you'd learn something about on this trip. You
see, it takes two to pack a horse; one man on the nigh side and one
on the off side. Now, we'll probably get into camp early to-night,
and have a chance to look round a little bit and see if there's any
deer in the hills right close to where we camp, and if there ain't,
we'll move on five or six miles further to-morrow, and then I'll give
you your first lesson in packing. Let's look at this load now;" and
he rose to his feet. They went up to the pack horse, and Hugh, taking
Jack in front of it, told him to look at the two loads that hung on
either side of the animal. "You see," he said, "they just balance
each other, and that is the main secret of packing, to put the loads
on the two sides of the horse so that each pulls against the other.
If either one is heavier than the other, it is pulling down all the
time upon its side, and makes the saddle and everything swing over
that way; that tends to loosen the ropes, and is likely to make the
horse's back sore besides. You'll notice that when I make up the
side packs to-morrow morning, I'll weigh them in my hands, and if I
find that one is lighter than the other, I'll put something into it
to make the weights even. But I can tell you more in five minutes by
showing you, than I can in an hour by talking, so let's move on; but
first we'll make a hackamore for that horse of yours."
Hugh showed Jack how to fix his rope around the horse's head and
nose, so that it made a sort of headstall for it, like a halter; then
when Jack mounted, he passed the rope under his leg, took a couple
of turns around the saddle, and the pack animal, after pulling
back once or twice, gave it up and followed readily enough close to
Pawnee's hips.
It was three o'clock in the afternoon when, after passing over some
low hills, they rode down to a little spring, near which stood a
grove of small cottonwoods. Beyond was a great stretch of rough,
broken, bad land country where there seemed to be no grass, and which
looked like a jumble of steep naked hills, separated by deep ravines.
"That's the Hole," said Hugh, "and it's a terrible good
hunting-ground for deer and elk in winter."
"Why," said Jack, "it doesn't look to me as if there were grass
enough there to feed a jack rabbit, let alone an elk."
"Well," said Hugh, "that's so; it does look pretty barren, but
there's lots of feed there, all the same. There's little fine grass
grows on them hills, and the wind keeps them always bare through the
winter. Besides that, it's a heap sight warmer over here than it is
on the prairie, close to the house. You wouldn't think there'd be
much difference, but there's lots. Then, down in the bottom of these
ravines there's worlds of good feed. It's a great wintering place for
the elk and the deer that summers over on the mountains back of the
house."
They stopped their horses on a little level spot, close to the trees,
and dismounted there.
"Throw down your bridle rein, son," said Hugh, "and come and help me
take off this pack. Whenever you're travelling with a pack train, and
stop to camp, the first thing is to take off the packs, and after
the pack animals have all been attended to, you can unsaddle your own
horse. Now, look here!"
Jack went up to Hugh, who was standing on the nigh side of the loaded
pack horse, and saw him untie the end of the rope from the cinch, and
throw it off the load in front.
"Now," said Hugh, "you go around to the off side and loosen up that
rope, so that I can get it off this side."
Jack did so; first pulling at two or three different parts of the
rope, and as he pulled at each, Hugh called: "No." At last he pulled
on a rope which came easily to him, and as the part slacked toward
him, the rope dropped off the forward corner of the pack.
"Now," said Hugh, "take it off the hinder corner;" and when Jack took
hold of the rope about the hinder corner, it was loose and slipped
off. Hugh pulled the slack toward him and freed the pack on his side,
and then threw the big rope off the horse. "Now," he said, "stand
under that bundle and let it down easy when I untie the swings;" and
in a moment more the bundle dropped into Jack's arms and he put it on
the ground.
They unsaddled all the horses and picketed them out. Hugh put the
saddles and all their camp furniture in the brush, saying: "We won't
make camp until we come back. Let's go out now and see what the
prospect is for game."