Harry Castlemon

“ Archie would certainly be discovered, for the path run close by the tree, behind which he was concealed, and what would the bear do then? It was something he did not like to think about. He knew, from what he had heard the trapper say, that the grizzly’s disposition is very different from that of the black bear. The latter, unless rendered desperate by hunger, will generally take to his heels at the sight of a human being; but the grizzly looks upon all who invade his dominions as enemies, and believes in punishing them accordingly. ”

“ Frank then began to skin and dress the buck, while Archie gathered a supply of wood, and kindled a fire. In half an hour several slices of venison were broiling on the coals, and the boys were lying before the fire, talking over the events of the day, and wondering what Dick and Bob would say when they learned that their “youngsters” had killed an antelope, when they were startled by a well-known bark, and the next moment Useless came bounding through the trees into the very center of the camp, where he frisked and jumped about with every demonstration of joy. ”

“ Game of every description was plenty; there were no Indians to trouble them; in short, they were leading a life that exactly suited the boys, who were in no hurry to resume their journey, which was becoming tiresome to them. Besides, their supply of bacon was exhausted, and the trappers undertook to replenish the commissary. This they did by “jerking” the meat of the buffaloes that had been killed during the hunt in which Frank had taken his involuntary ride. They cut the meat into thin strips, and hung it upon frames to dry—the sun and the pure atmosphere of the prairie did the rest. ”

“ But he was allowed no time for admiration, for, the moment the hunters made their appearance, the [Pg 139] buffaloes discovered them, and made off at the top of their speed, the noise of their hoofs sounding on the hard prairie like the rolling of thunder. Pete was not afraid of buffaloes, and he soon carried his master within easy range of the herd, the nearest of which fell at the crack of his rifle. Too impatient to reload his gun, Frank drew one of his revolvers, and, forgetting, in his excitement, all the trapper’s advice, spurred after the flying herd ”

“ Archie, too dispirited to raise any objections, followed his cousin’s example, and the old buffalo hunter, which, during the last two hours, had traveled with his head down, as if scarcely able to take another step, snuffed the air and bounded off at a rapid pace. For an hour the animals tore along at a tremendous rate; but discovering no signs of the wagon, Frank was rapidly [Pg 84] losing faith in the sagacity of his horse, when, as they came suddenly around the base of a swell, they found before them a long line of willows. ”

“ At that day, as the trapper had remarked, it was a very uncommon occurrence for a large train to be engaged in a regular fight with the Indians, for the latter had learned to their cost that the pioneers were always well armed, and that there were some among them who understood Indian fighting. They generally contented themselves with sudden and rapid raids upon the stock of the emigrants, and they seldom departed empty-handed. ”

“ This set Frank to thinking. He had often read of the remarkable sagacity sometimes displayed by the horse—how the animal had been known to carry his lost rider safely into the midst of his friends—and, turning to his cousin, he exclaimed:
“Archie, I’m going to let Pete take his own course. Both the horses want to go back, so let’s see where they will take us to. We can’t be in a much worse fix than we are now.” ”

“ The only course he could pursue was to compel Pete to keep pace with the herd. But this plan did not place him out of the reach of danger. He knew that buffaloes, when stampeded, turn aside for nothing. Neither hills nor rivers check their mad flight, and any living thing that stands in their way is trampled to death. Even the exhausted members of the herd, unable to keep pace with the others, are borne down and crushed to a jelly. They neither seem to hear or see any thing; all their senses being merged into the desire to get as far as possible from the object that has excited their alarm ”

“ According to Frank’s idea, the animal had improved considerably under the trapper’s system of training, for he would hardly wait for his rider to be fairly in the saddle before he would start off at the top of his speed. The boys, who considered themselves fully able to do any thing that had ever been accomplished by any one else, having seen Dick load and fire his rifle while riding at full speed, began to imitate his example, and in a short time learned the art to perfection. ”

“ This was an undertaking that a less experienced man would have found to be extremely hazardous, for the animals persisted in keeping their heels toward him, and it was only by skillful maneuvering that Dick succeeded in getting them hitched to the wagon. By the time this was accomplished, Uncle James and the boys had saddled their horses and followed the trapper, who drove off as though he perfectly understood what he was about, leaving the train to follow at its leisure. ”

“ Frank followed his example, and then, securing their rifles, they threw themselves on their hands and knees, and began to crawl toward the game, which was fully a mile and a half distant. But that was no obstacle to the boys then. They would willingly have gone twice that far to have a shot at an antelope, if for nothing more than to show the trapper that they were better hunters than he had supposed. It is true they did not expect to succeed, but the name “antelope killers” was well worth trying for, and they determined to do their best. ”

“ I wish you could allers stay with me. I’d take mighty good keer of you. But our trails lay in different directions. You go back to your friends, an’ me an’ ole Bob go to the mountains, to hunt, an’ trap, an’ fight Injuns, as we have done fur many a long year.”
“You’ll need a horse then, Dick,” interrupted Frank. “You certainly will not refuse the gray king! Take him, and keep him to remember us by.”
“Youngsters,” said the trapper, struggling hard to keep back something that appeared to be rising in his throat, “it don’t need no hoss to make me ’member you. ”

“ Then you had the force on your side; now the savages are the stronger party. But there’s no danger,” he added, quickly seeing that the boys looked rather anxious; “every man in the train is a good shot, and the most of them have been in Indian fights before. I don’t believe all the red-skins on the prairie could whip us while we have Dick and Bob with us.”
The boys themselves had great confidence in the trappers—especially Dick, who, they knew, would never desert them. But even he had several times been worsted by the Indians. Frank thought of the story of the lost wagon train. ”

“ I’m an ole chap now, Dick; but when I hunted an’ trapped with your ole man, when me an’ him warn’t bigger nor them two youngsters, an’ hadn’t hardly strength enough to shoulder a rifle, I never thought that I should live to be the last of our comp’ny. In them days the prairy war different from what it is now. It war afore the hoss-thieves an’ rascals began to come in here to get away from the laws of the States; an’ them that called themselves trappers then war honest men, that never did harm to a lone person on the prairy. But they’ve gone, one arter the other, an’ only me an’ you are left. ”

“ The boys, after rolling up their blankets and packing them away in the wagon, [Pg 26] amused themselves in watching the movements of the emigrants, who now began their preparations for their day’s journey. By the time Uncle James awoke, the trapper pronounced their breakfast ready. After they had done ample justice to the homely meal (and it was astonishing what an appetite the fresh invigorating air of the prairie gave them) , the boys packed the cooking utensils away in the wagon while the trapper began to harness the mules. ”

“ After a short consultation with old Bob, they both approached and announced their determination of returning to the mountains immediately.
“We’ve got to go sometime,” said Dick, “that ar’ sartin; an’ the longer we stay, the harder it ’comes to leave.”
Mr. Winters then broached the subject of payment for their services, to which the trappers would not listen, neither would they accept the offer of the horses, mules, and wagon, Dick declaring that by acting as their guide he had found a “chum” in the oldest and best trapper on the prairie, and that was worth more to him than any thing else. ”

“ Now if you war lost in the settlements, and didn’t know whar to go to find your hum, you would think twice afore you would camp with a teetotal stranger, an’ a feller oughter do the same thing on the prairy. I larnt that long ago, an’ through that same feller, Black Bill. Years ago, when Dick’s old man war alive, it warn’t so. If a feller got a leetle out of his reckonin’, an’ walked into a stranger’s camp, he could roll himself up in his blanket an’ sleep as safe an’ sound as he could any whar, an’ neither man warn’t afraid that the other would rub him out afore daylight. ”

“ Black Bill let’s off so easy. Climb up behind me, an’ let’s travel back to the ole bar’s hole.”
Frank handed his rifle to his companion, mounted Sleepy Sam, and the trappers drove toward the camp, slowly and thoughtfully. For nearly an hour they rode along without speaking to each other. Dick, occasionally shaking his head and muttering “Bar an’ buffaler—you keerless feller.” But at length he straitened up in the saddle, and holding his heavy rifle at arm’s length, exclaimed:
“Youngster, I don’t own much of this world’s plunder, an’ what’s more, I never expect to. ”

“ The grizzly’s struggles grew weaker, his growls fainter, and finally he sank on the prairie dead. The trappers slackened up their lassos, and Mr. Winters and the boys, who had closely watched this singular contest, rode up to examine their prize.
“Thar’s your bar, you keerless fellers,” said Dick. “If you don’t let these yere varmints alone, you’ll git yourselves in a bad scrape, one of these days, now, I tell you. A grizzly don’t [Pg 133] wait fur a feller to walk up an’ shake his fist in his face, an’ say, ‘Do ye want to fight?’ He b’lieves in makin’ war on every one he sees.” ”

“ Archie was astonished to hear the trapper speak so lightly of Sleepy Sam, a horse that had several times proved himself to be possessed of great speed; but Dick hastened to explain.
“I aint sayin’ nothin’ ag’in your hoss, little one, no more’n I am ag’in Bob’s. But if you had chased wild hosses as often as I have, you would know that a hoss can beat any thing in a wagon [Pg 203] train, an’ yet have no bisness with the king of a drove. I won’t say that we’ll ketch that gray fur you, Frank, but we’ll try hard, an’ if he is too fast fur us, we’ll lasso one of the others, sartin. ”

“ The oldest man war to go fust; the next oldest, second; an’ so on; an’ that them as got away should draw a bee-line fur Fort Laramie, an’ get thar to onct, so that we might know who got off an’ who didn’t. We didn’t think we should all get away. Some war sartin to go under; an’, Dick, we didn’t forget to promise each other that those of us that lived would never let a red Injun cross our trail. When every thing was settled, I, bein’ the oldest man in the comp’ny, began to get ready fur the start. I put fresh primin’ in my rifle; seed that my knife and tomahawk war all right ”

“ The Injuns, up to this time, had rid clost together; but when they seed that we warn’t goin’ to run no further jest then, they scattered as if they war goin’ to surround us; an’ then we all knowed that them four Injuns warn’t alone. So, without stoppin’ to fight ’em, we turned an’ run ag’in, makin’ tracks for the woods at the foot of the mountains. An’ we warn’t a minit too soon, fur all of a sudden we heered a yell, an’ lookin’ back we seed ’bout fifty more red-skins comin’ arter us like mad. They had a’most got us surrounded; but the way to the mountains war open, an’ we run fur our lives. ”

“ He warn’t jest the kind of a man a feller would take to be a trader—he smelt too much of the settlements—an’ even at the fort, among rough trappers an’ soldiers, he would spruce up an’ strut like a turkey. ’Sides, he had a nigger to wait on him an’ take keer of his hoss. As I war sayin’, we noticed all these things, but we didn’t keer fur ’em, fur, in course, it warn’t none of our consarn; all we wanted war fur him to pay us fur the spelter we ketched, an’ we knowed he could do that, fur the fellers all said he had a big pile of gold an’ silver that he carried in his saddle-bags. ”