AN INDIAN
"It's a cattle stampede!"
Before Russ and Laddie had a chance to think what this meant, though
Uncle Fred had told them in his stories, each little boy felt himself
caught up in strong arms, and set on a horse in front of a cowboy.
What had happened was that two of Uncle Fred's cowboys had ridden along
when Russ and Laddie were at the spring, and, fearing the little lads
might get into danger, they had taken them up on their saddles.
"Where are we going?" asked Laddie, undecided whether or not to cry.
"We are going home--that is, I'm going to take you home," said the
cowboy, smiling down at Laddie. "Then we'll try to stop these cattle
from running away."
"Are the cattle running away?" asked Russ of the cowboy who held him so
firmly in front on his saddle.
"That's what they are, little man," was the answer. "Something
frightened the steers, and they started to run. We've got to stop 'em,
too!"
"Will they run far?" asked Russ.
"Well, sometimes they do and sometimes they don't," answered the cowboy.
"It all depends. Out here on the plain, where there isn't any high land
or cliffs for them to topple over, there isn't much danger. The cattle
will run until they get tired out. But, of course, some of 'em get
stepped on and hurt, and that's bad. And sometimes our cattle get mixed
in with another herd, when they stampede this way, and it's hard to get
'em unmixed again. But we're going to take you two boys to the ranch
house, and then we'll try to stop the stampede. What were you doing out
here, anyhow?"
"Looking at the spring," answered Russ. "It's gone dry again."
"Has it?" asked the cowboy. "Then that means we'll lose more cattle, I
reckon. Maybe the men started this stampede."
"No, I think this stampede was started by Indians," said the cowboy who
had Laddie, and who had just ridden up alongside Russ in order to speak
to "his cowboy" as Russ afterward called him.
"Indians!" cried Russ.
"Yes. Sometimes they come off the reservation, and start to travel to
see some of their friends. A band of Indians will stampede a bunch of
cattle as soon as anything else."
"Could we see the Indians?" asked Laddie.
"Well, maybe you can, if they come to the ranch. Some do to get
something to eat," was the answer. "But hold tight now, we've got to
ride faster, if we want to get help in time to stop the runaway cattle."
So the two little boys held tightly to the horn, which is that part of
the saddle which was directly in front of them. This horn is what the
cowboys fasten their lassos around when they catch a wild steer or a
pony.
Behind the boys could be heard the thunder of the hoofs of the
stampeding steers. They were running close together, and, even in the
half-darkness of the evening, a big cloud of dust raised by the many
feet could be seen.
"What's the matter?" cried Uncle Fred, as the two cowboys rode up to the
ranch with Laddie and Russ.
"Stampede!" was the answer. "Big bunch of cattle running away."
"Oh, my!" exclaimed Uncle Fred. "Well, get right after 'em! Stop 'em!"
And this is what the cowboys did. The two who had seen the stampede
first, and ridden in to tell the news, bringing Laddie and Russ on the
way, were joined by other cowboys. They then rode toward the rushing
cattle, to head them off, or turn them back.
A stampede on a ranch means that a lot of steers or horses become so
frightened over something that they all run together, and don't pay any
attention to where they are going. If one of their number falls, the
others trample right over it. So, too, if a cowboy on his horse got too
close to the stampeding cattle, he would be trampled on.
To stop a stampede the cowboys try to turn the cattle around. This they
do by riding along in front of them, as close as they dare, firing their
big revolvers. They try to scare the steers from keeping on. Then if
they can turn the front ones back, and get them to run in a
circle--"milling," it is called--the others will do the same thing. The
cattle stop running, quiet down and can be driven back where they came
from.
It is hard work. Still it has to be done.
It soon grew so dark that the children and grown folk, watching from the
house, could see nothing. Mrs. Bunker wanted the six little Bunkers to
go to bed, but the four older children wanted to stay up and hear what
the cowboys had to say when they came back.
"Well, you may stay half an hour," their father told them. "If they
aren't back then off to bed you go!"
However, the cowboys came back about fifteen minutes later, saying they
had stopped the stampede and turned the cattle back where they belonged.
"That's good," said Uncle Fred. "What with the fire and a stampede these
are busy times at Three Star Ranch."
"And the spring is dried up again!" said Russ. "We forgot to tell you,
Uncle Fred."
"The spring dried up once more? Well, I suppose that means more trouble
and more cattle missing. I do wish I could find out this puzzle.
Laddie, why can't you solve that riddle for me?"
"I don't know, Uncle Fred. I wish I could," said Laddie, as he was taken
off to bed.
The next day Uncle Fred and Daddy Bunker went out to look at the spring,
to take some more pictures of it with the camera, and see if they could
find any reason for its going dry. Laddie and Russ and Vi, who usually
wanted to go where her twin did, went with them, the other children
staying at home to play.
"Yes, there's hardly any water in it," said Uncle Fred, as he looked
down in the rocky basin at which Laddie and Russ had taken a drink the
night before. "I think we'll have to dig back of those rocks," he said
to Daddy Bunker, "and see what's behind them."
"It might be a good plan," agreed the children's father. "There may be
some sort of secret channel through which the water runs out under the
ground. I think I would dig, if I were you."
"I will," said Uncle Fred. "I'll go back to the house now and get picks
and shovels. You can wait here for me."
"I'll come with you," said Daddy Bunker. "The children will be all right
here."
"I'll go with you, Daddy," said Vi. "I must look after my mud pie I left
in the sun to bake."
Uncle Fred started back toward the ranch buildings with Mr. Bunker and
Vi, while Laddie and Russ sat down near the spring to wait. There was
just a faint trickle of water coming through the rocks.
Suddenly the boys were surprised to hear a sort of grunt behind them,
and, turning quickly, they saw a figure such as they had often seen in
pictures.
"An Indian!" gasped Russ. "Oh, Laddie! It's an Indian!"