Argosy, Vol. 1 (1882) — page 138: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

AN INDIAN ROUND UP. BY THEODORE ALBERT MACE. A long chase after a company of redskin cattle thieves, involving an extra hazardous bit of scouting and a surprise party calling for quick work. ‘OrTTXAIN’T so!” “Wal, now, it is!” drawled Ben Wilmarth emphatically, holding in his pawing pony with one hand while with the other he removed his broad brimmed hat out of respect to the ladies on the veranda of the long, low struc- ture in which lived the owner of Silver Bend Ranch. | “The whole bunch of cattle gone? ” repeated Mr. Peters, the “boss,” still incredulously. “Th’ whole fifty head,” Ben de- clared convincingly. ‘ Now, here’s how the thing came about,” he contin- ued, swinging his leg over the pony’s back and dropping to the ground. “ Me’n’ Nobby Benson hed the bunch well together an’ was trailin’ erlong towards Carlisle at a rattlin’ pace, when a gang of them red devils (beggin’ the ladies’ pardon), part o’ Gray Fox’s gang from the upper reservation, I reckon, jest swooped down on us an’ sent the whole kit an’ bilin’ of ’em akitin’. Glory! ’twas a stampede ’n’ no mistake.”’ “ And weren’t either you or Mr. Ben- son hurt by the Indians?” asked the ranch owner’s wife, Mrs. Boyd. - “Oh, no; ma’am. We Jest wheeled an’ scatted, fur there was ten or a dozen Injuns, an’ they come on us so blessed sudden that we warn’t able to do noth- in’. But on the way back Nobby’s horse fell with him, an’ strained his leg so’t he ain’t much use.” “That is too bad. I'll go and see what I can do for him,”’ Mrs. Boyd ex- claimed, and she bustled away at once to find lotions and ointment. “ Nobby ain’t hurt very bad, boss,” Ben continued, turning to Mr. Peters, “but he can’t ride none jest yet, an’ you'll hev ter give me a side pardner till he gits on his pins again.” “Vll tend to that, Ben,” Peters re- turned abstractedly. “I’m sorry about that stampede—fifty head o’ picked cattle, too, the best of the herd. I wish I’d sent more of the boys with ye.” “*Twouldn’t done no good—’nless there was enough of ’em to keep the Injuns from attacking us, or enough so’t we could have put after the red scamps. Nobby wanted to do it as it was, but I objected. There was surely a round dozen in the gang, an’ ’nless my eyes deceived me mightily—which I don’t think they did—Gray Fox him- self was with ’em. Then, likely’s not, there’s more of the scamps somewhere. It’s pleasant weather now, government rations ain’t good ’nough fur ’em, an’ the hull derned tribe had rayther have the settlers’ cattle.” : “ Boyd’ll be tearin’ mad about the loss of ’em,” said Peters reflectively, “an’ I shan’t blame him. That’s the second bunch this season. I don’t see why them blue coated monkeys” (’twas thus he designated the United States troops) “don’t keep the Injuns at home.” “ Huh! they ain’t no good,” Ben de- clared, with all the disgust of an old ranger for the military powers that be. ‘“ Might’s well set a lot o’ dummies up in that fort ter defend the country. Th’ ‘kern’ thinks as how, if the Injuns make a break, why they’ll come right ter his fort an’ tell him of it. Makes me ECORRIC OO© SS) eo