CATCHING A MAVERICK.
One day while waiting for a gravel train going west, we all got to
talking about catching mavericks. Eatumup Jake said he'd always been too
honest to go out on the range and hunt mavericks; Dillbery Ike said he
was too, but he wasn't so durned honest as to let a maverick chase him
out of his own corral, and they asked me what I thought about branding
mavericks. I told them that I thought it was a bad practice to hunt
mavericks all the time, but whenever a maverick came around hunting me
up, I generally built a fire and put a branding iron in to heat. But I
told them I would always remember one maverick I had an adventure with,
and after they had all promised me not to ever tell the story to any
one, I told them the following:
One hot day in the spring of '84 I started across the hills from my
ranch to town, fifteen miles away. I generally had a good riata on my
saddle, but this day, for some reason, I didn't take anything but a
piece of rope fifteen feet long. I didn't expect to meet any mavericks,
as it was just after the spring roundup and there wasn't a chance in a
hundred of seeing one. My way was across a high, broken country, without
a house or a ranch the entire distance. There was bunches of cattle and
horses everywhere eating the luxuriant grass, drinking out of the clear
running streams of mountain water or lying down too full to eat or drink
any more. I was riding one of my best hosses, as everybody did when they
went to town; had my high-heeled boots blacked till you could see your
face in them; was wearing a brand-new $12 Stetson hat that was made to
order; had on a pair of new California pants--they were sort of a
lavender color with checks an inch square, and I was more than proud of
them. I had on a white silk shirt and a blue silk handkerchief round my
neck, a red silk vest with black polka dots on it, but didn't have any
coat to match this brilliant costume, so was in my shirt sleeves.
I rode along, setting kind of side ways, my hat cocked over my ear,
a-looking down at myself from time to time, and I was about the most
self-satisfied cowpuncher ever was, didn't envy a saloon-keeper in the
territory, and saloon-keepers had as much influence in Wyoming them days
as a sheepman does now, and that's saying all you can say, when it's
known that the sheepmen to-day in Wyoming fill almost every office,
elective and appointive.
Well I had got about half way to town and was a studying 'bout a girl I
bid good-bye to in the East fifteen years before, and sort a-wishing she
could see me now, when all of a sudden I looked up and right there, not
fifty feet away, was a big, fat, black bull maverick. He was about a
year and a half old and would weigh 800 pounds. He was wild as an elk
and had given a loud snuff on seeing me, which had called my attention
to him. I immediately commenced making that short piece of rope into a
lasso. There wasn't much more than enough for the loop. But I knew old
Bill, the hoss I was riding, could catch him on any kind of ground, so
throwed the spurs in and went sailing over the breaks and coolies after
that wild bull maverick. I soon caught up with him, but found it almost
impossible to throw the loop over his head with such a short rope, as he
dodged to one side or the other every time I got in reach. However, I
finally got it over his horns just as he went over a bank, but before I
could take any [2]dallys, he jerked the rope out of my hands and was gone
with it.
Now I had got to pick up the rope, and as it only dragged five or six
feet behind him, I would have to ride by him and grab the rope near his
head as I went by: but he was still on the dodge, and I made several
passes at it and missed. The bull was getting mad by this time, and
lowering his head and elevating his tail he soon had me on the dodge.
Whenever I wasn't chasing the bull, he was chasing me. Thus we had it up
one gulch and down another. Many times I grabbed the rope only to have
it jerked out of my fingers, but finally got a wrap around my saddle
horn and a knot tied. It never had occurred to me I couldn't throw him
with that short rope till I was tied hard and fast to him and riding
down the gulch at break-neck speed with that black bull a close second.
We had been chasing each other now for over an hour and my hoss was
getting tired, but Mr. Bull seemed to be fresher than ever. I had lost
my new Stetson hat early in the game, and, as we had soused through a
good many alkali mud-holes, I was spattered from head to foot with mud.
My white silk shirt and lavender-colored pants were a total wreck. But
something had got to be done, and watching the bull till he was veering
a little to the left of my hoss I made a quick turn to the right, and
stopping right quick, turned Mr. Bull over on his back. Before he could
get up I was off and on top of him, had his tail between his hind legs,
my knees in his flank, and, as every cowpuncher knows, I could hold him
down. My hoss was pulling on the rope same as any well-trained cow hoss
would, keeping the bull's head stretched out, and there wasn't the least
possible show of him getting up; but as I didn't have any short foot
ropes to tie his feet with, I just had to set in his flank and keep
tight hold of his tail. Billy, my hoss, had got hot and excited during
the race and kept surging on the rope more than was necessary. I kept
saying, "Whoa, Bill," but directly he give an extra hard pull, the rope
broke right at the bull's head, and despite my nice talk, Billy turned
his back to me and started across the hills for home. In vain I
hollered, "Whoa, Bill; come, Billy," he never looked around but once,
and that was just as he disappeared over the hill. He sort a-looked back
for a moment, as much as to say, "Well you wanted that darn little black
bull so bad, now you got him stay with him," and that's what I had to
do. He was twice as hard to hold now without any rope on his head, but I
knew if he ever got up, he would gore me to death, as there wasn't a
tree or rock to get behind.
It was about noon. The hot sun was pouring down on my bare head and I
was choking with thirst. No one ever traveled that way but me. Miles
away to any habitation, there I would have to stay in that stooping
position, holding on to that little black bull's tail. I was young and
strong, but my back began to ache, my hand would cramp clasping that
bull's tail so tightly, but still I held on somehow, for I knew certain
death awaited me if I let go. A bunch of cattle came along and circled
around me with wide-eyed astonishment, then trotted off; a couple of
antelope came running over the hill, and catching sight of me in that
ridiculous position, their curiosity overcame their timidity and they
kept getting nearer and nearer, till only a few rods away, the old buck
antelope stopped and snuffed very loudly and stamped with his fore feet,
but, not being able to get any response out of the black bull and me,
finally left. Then a silly jackrabbit came hopping up on three legs, and
after standing up several times on his hind legs as high as possible and
pulling his whiskers some, he shook his big ears as much as to say,
"It's beyond me," and he, too, left.
[Illustration: _Catching a Maverick._]
Just then the bull took a new fit of struggling and I heard the loud
buzz of a rattlesnake behind me. I almost dropped my holt on the bull's
tail then, but I had acquired the habit of holding on to it by this
time, so glanced over my shoulder to see how far the snake was from me.
I discovered he was only about ten feet behind me, coiled up and mad
about something. He was about four and a half feet long and big around
as my wrist, and didn't seem to have any notion of going around, but
just laid there coiled up, and every time the bull or me moved, would
begin to rattle and draw his head back and forth, run out his tongue and
act disagreeable. Several times he started to uncoil and crawl in my
direction, but I stirred up the bull to floundering around and bluffed
the snake out of coming any closer. Still he seemed to like our company,
and finally went to sleep; but every time I and the bull got to
threshing around, he would drowsily sound his rattle, as much as to say,
"I am still here; don't crowd me any." It was now about two o'clock in
the afternoon. I felt a kind of a goneness in my stomach, but my thirst
was something awful, and in my mind's eye I could see the boys in town
setting in the card-room of the saloon around the poker tables behind
stacks of red, white and blue chips, drinking Scotch highballs, while I
was out on that high mesa dying of thirst and holding down a little
black bull maverick with nothing for company but that old fat
rattlesnake who insisted on staying there to see how the bull and I come
out.
I hoped against hope that when old Billy arrived at the ranch some one
would start back with him to hunt me up, but I remembered that most
everybody at the ranch had gone up in the mountains trout fishing and
wouldn't be back till night, and then I wondered which would live the
longest, me or the bull, and I thought about slipping away from him
while he was quiet; but the moment I would loosen up on his tail he
would commence threshing around trying to get up, still I kept fooling
with him. I'd loosen up on his tail, and then when he tried to get up,
throw him back; so pretty soon he didn't pay any attention when I
loosened up, and I thought I would try a sneak. However, in order to
make him think I still had hold of his tail, I tied the end of it into a
hard knot.
I looked around for his snakeship, as I had got to sneak back towards
him, but he was sound asleep, and as the bull was pretty quiet, I sized
up the country back of me and spied a gulch with steep broken banks
about one hundred and fifty yards away, and made up my mind that that
was the place to get to. So slipping by the snake I made the star run
of my life for that gulch.
I had run about fifty feet when that bull first realized some of his
company was missing, and jumping to his feet looked around and caught
sight of me, and giving a snuff that I can hear in my dreams to this
day, he was after me. Talk about running. I remember a jackrabbit jumped
up in front of me, but I hollered to him to get out of the way. The bull
caught up before I quite got to the gulch, but hesitated for a moment
where to put his horns, and sort a-throwed his head up and down for a
time or two, like he was practicing--kind a-getting a swing like
throwing a hammer. When he got his neck to working good, biff! he took
me and I went sailing through the air, but when I come down it was on
the bank of the gulch, and before he could pick me up again I was over
and under that bank. It was about fifteen feet to the bottom and
straight up and down, but there was a little shelf of hard dirt on the
side, and I caught on there and was safe. He had gone clear over me into
the gulch, but was up and bawling and jawing around in a minute.
However, he couldn't get up to me, so looked around, found a trail
leading out of the gulch, and went up on top, then come around and
looked down at me. He was mad clear through; went and hunted up the old
rattlesnake, and after pawing and bellowing around him, charged him and
got bit on the nose. Then he saw my Stetson hat, and giving a roar, went
after it, and putting his horn through it, went off across the hills mad
clear through, full of snake poison, with my Stetson hat on one horn,
and that was the last I saw of the little black bull.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] Wrapping rope around the saddle horn.