THE CROSSING
Darkness had scarcely fallen over the Larkin flocks and herd when the
former were set in motion. The bells had been removed and the sheep were
urged forward at the fastest possible pace.
Riders going by long detours had found a spot on the banks of the river
two miles up from the camp of the cowmen where the water was not more than
five or six feet deep at most, though of considerable swiftness. It was
here that it had been determined the sheep should cross. So, when the last
march was begun, the animals were driven at an angle, avoiding all the
pits and defenses of the cowmen's ingenuity.
The herders, some of them on horseback and others on foot, did not speak.
The only sounds that rose from the densely packed flocks were the clatter
of their hard feet on the earth, the cracking of their ankle bones, and an
occasional bawl of protest. But even this last was rare, for the sheep,
worn with fast traveling and ignorant of the meaning of the strange
things that were happening to them, were half-frightened; and only
contented flocks blether much.
Bud Larkin and Sims rode back and forth, one on each side of the dim,
heaving line, seeing that the herders and dogs kept their places and
preventing any tendency to bolt.
An hour after the start half the distance was accomplished. It was just at
this time that Larkin, looking northeast toward the camp of the cowmen,
saw a sudden brilliant flash of light, and knew that Lester had succeeded
in his daring project. A moment later and the distant rumble of the earth
told him of the stampeded horses.
In depriving the cowboys of their ponies Larkin had accomplished a
master-stroke, for he had played upon the one weakness of their equipment.
A cowboy without his horse is less effective than a seal on land. His
boots, tight-fitting and with high heels, make walking not only a
difficult operation, but a painful one. Unaccustomed to this means of
locomotion, a puncher is weary and footsore within two miles.
Aside from this fact, a cowboy disdains setting his foot on the ground
except in a cow town, and even there daring ones sometimes rode their
animals into saloons and demanded their drinks. It is a saying that a
puncher will chase his horse half a mile in order to ride a quarter of a
mile on an errand.
The _coup_ of Lester Larkin had, therefore, left the camp of the cowmen in
serious straits. Afraid to chase their animals and leave the camp
deserted, as soon as they recovered enough sight to recognize their
surroundings they took their places in the trenches to carry on their
defense as best they could.
Busy as Larkin's thoughts were with the duty of getting his sheep safely
across the river, his mind occasionally flashed back to the rear of the
flock where the cook-wagons were trailing, for there in the company of a
friendly sheepman rode Juliet Bissell.
Only that afternoon she had left the Bar T ranch-house, and, directed by
one of the men guarding the rustlers there, had set out to find the
sheepmen's camp. Not realizing how fast the outfit was traveling, she had
struck the trail far to the rear, and had not overtaken Larkin until just
at the time when the sheep were set in motion.
Then she realized her mission would have to wait until a later time. But
so sweet and full-hearted had been Bud's joyful greeting that her faith in
him had again returned, and she rode along meekly where he placed her,
fond and comforted.
The proprieties of the situation never occurred to her. She knew that she
was safe in his hands, and only bided the time when she could pour out her
sorrow and pain to him after all this struggle was over.
To Bud her coming had been inexpressibly sweet. He knew by her face that
some great necessity had driven her to him, but he did not question her,
and with the undisturbed security of a clean conscience he wondered
anxiously what had occurred.
At the time when the sheep were half-way to the river-bank there was
another movement back at the camp where the cattle had been left. Men
there working on schedule started the cattle-drive. But this drive was not
at any diverging angle. It led straight forward to the pits and sharpened
stakes of the cowmen's defenses.
Presently the outposts of the force by the ford heard a distant rumbling
of the earth. These men on their horses--for they had not been in camp at
the time of the flashlight--rode slowly forward and waited. But not long.
Nearer and nearer came the sound until there was no more doubt that an
animal-drive was headed in their direction.
Slowly they retreated to the camp and gave the warning. Immediately the
fire was extinguished, and the punchers, still cursing over their
misfortune, loaded every available weapon, breathing a hot and complete
vengeance against the men that had outwitted them. Much to their chagrin
they now recognized that Skidmore was but a clever member of the enemy,
for if he had not been they felt that he would not have accomplished such
a speedy and well-planned escape.
Now, as the sheepmen drove their animals nearer and nearer to the pits,
they urged them faster until the unhappy creatures, besides themselves at
the weird occurrences of a night of terror, were at a headlong gallop.
Suddenly one of the punchers heard that unmistakable accompaniment of
running steers and the clashing of horns as the animals with lowered heads
charged the works.
"They're cows!" he yelled. "Don't shoot!"
But it was too late. The maddened cattle were already at the first pits,
plunging in with terrified bellows, or being transfixed on the stakes by
the onrush of those behind. The pits were not more than ten feet deep,
and only served to check the herd until they were full. Then those
following trampled over their dying companions and charged the trenches
where the cowboys lay.
"Fire!" yelled Bissell, who was in command, and the guns of nearly seventy
men poured a leaden hail of death into the forefront of the heedless
cattle.
Larkin's men by this time had drawn off to see that the havoc ran its
course, and when they heard the desperate volleys they turned and rode
southwest along the river-bank to the point where the sheep expected to
cross.
The cattle, which had been driven in a rather narrow column, continued to
come on endlessly. The leaders dropped in windrows, but the followers
leaped over them only to fall a little farther on.
Driven by the resistless impulse of these behind, the animals
unconsciously appeared like a charging regiment. Nearer and nearer the
tide approached the cowboys' defenses; but now it was coming more slowly
because of the dead bodies and the wounded animals that dragged themselves
here and there, bellowing with pain and terror.
At last, at the very mouths of the spitting guns the last of the steers
dropped, and the few that remained alive turned tail and fled wildly back
the way they had come. In front of the trenches was a horrible tangle of
trampled, wounded creatures, rearing as best they could and stabbing one
another with their long, sharp horns.
"Everybody out an' kill the ones that ain't dead!" yelled Bissell, and the
cowboys leaped over the breastworks on this hazardous errand of mercy.
"Where are the sheep?" was the question every man asked himself and his
neighbor, but no one could reply.
It had been reported to Bissell by the scouts that with the sheep were a
body of cattle. Consequently when the steers charged all had expected the
sheep to follow. But in all that grisly battle-field there was not a head
of mutton to be found, and the punchers looked at one another in mystified
wonder.
"They must be crossin' somewheres else," said Bissell, wringing his hands
in despair. "Oh, blast that man that stampeded them horses!"
The thought was in every man's mind, for here the beauty of that strategy
was made manifest. Uninjured, full of fight, and furious, the forces of
the cowmen were helpless because they had nothing to ride, and were
utterly useless on foot.
Two miles away on the bank of the river another scene was being enacted.
Here the eight thousand sheep had come to a halt with the leaders on the
very bank, and the herders walking back and forth talking to them to keep
them quiet. The river was not more deep than the height of a man, but the
current was swift and icy with the snows of the far-off Shoshone
Mountains.
"Are you ready, boys?" sang out Larkin.
"All ready."
"Strip and into it, then," and, the first to obey his own command, he
hurried off his clothes and plunged into the frigid river.
Sims, who had devised this scheme from memory of an Indian custom, stood
at the head of the leaders to superintend the crossing.
Now the men entered the water by tens, and stretched out in a double line
all the way from bank to bank, facing each other and leaving but a scant
yard between them.
"Ready?" yelled Sims.
"Ready! Let 'em go!" sang out Larkin.
The chief herder and others heaved the leading sheep into the water
between the first two men. These lifted it along to the next pair who
shoved it on, swimming all the time. So it came snorting and blatting to
the other side and climbed up the bank.
After it came the next, and then the next, and as the work became easier
the sheep caught the notion that man had suggested and incorporated it
into the flock mind. They took to the water because their predecessors
had.
And now the stream of sheep was steady and continuous. The current was
swift and the men's bodies ached and grew numb in the intense cold, but
they stood their ground. Only in one place was the water too deep to work,
and here they lost a few terror-stricken animals who turned aside from the
chain and were swept downstream.
The river between the men was churned like that of a rapid; there was
heard the constant _slap-slap!_ of their arms as they smote the water in
pushing the sheep along. A man took cramp and clung to a companion until
he could kick it out of himself.
At last, though, all the sheep had passed over the river, and Bud Larkin
had won!
Then came the getting over of the wagons and camp outfits, all done in the
dark, and with scarcely sound enough to be heard a furlong away. As some
men worked, others dressed and swam the horses over, leading them in
bunches.
Presently, dressed, happy, and glowing with the reaction from his icy
bath, Bud Larkin appeared out of the dark beside Juliet Bissell.
"You are the one who has enabled me to do all this," he said gently. "Now,
will you go over with me or will you go down the river to your father two
miles away?"
She looked up at him proudly.
"To the victor belongs the spoils," she said, and lifted her face to him.
"Are you going to make me go?"
"Darling!" he cried in the sweet, low voice she loved and drew her to him.