Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 1092 — page 5: what you’re looking at

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

oeaheaeainmameantiniaien tang aad coos acasaee aise aoe ae a IR ete a tt A I Old Cross-Eye, the Maverick-Hunter. 3 — the bulls were determined to have a clear | heat the irons. space, aud they had it. The ranchers were scattered like hares before wolves, and made for either side of the rush, their horses snorting with terror, and straining every nerve to flee. The man in the red blanket alone kept the straight track in front of the herd, and dashed away from the motte, in the direction in which the cowboys had been most anxious that the cattle should nat go, when they started to head them off. For a short time it was not possible for any one to tell what was going on, for the dust, noise and confusion; but when the herd had passed on, and the.Collingsworth people were outside the rush, their disappointment found vent in curses, loud and deep, at the man in the red blanket, who had decoyed away the herd by such a simple stratagem. ‘*Tt’s Old Cross-Eye, the darned old skunk!” said Limpy revengefully. ‘‘He’s death on Mavericks, and he musthave been a-watchin’ them, when we struck ’em fust. He’s got ’em, sure enough; and I wish him joy of’em. I’m darned if J want any more in mine.” The judge was the first to recover his equani- mity; for he made light of the accident, say- ing: ** Well, gentlemen, they say that stolen goods never do anybody any good, and those Maver- icks are an instance. We’re well rid of them. Come on and finish the drive. They might have stampeded the rest of the stock.” So they gathered together their discomfited squadron, and went on. atthe business of the day. The form of the man in red had vanished in the cloud of dust made by the frantic cattle, and wand could not tell what had become of him, or whether he bad managed to keep ahead. ‘If he don’t,” observed ‘‘ Punch”. Burleson, “‘1’'d not give much fur his karkidge, when the ponapee him. They’ll trample the life out of m. And, to judge from the faces and words of the party, they seemed to think such a consumma- | - pleasant one, as far as the number of cavaliers tion desirable; for, if there was one thing that fhey hated, it was a successful Maverick-Hunter, | Let’s git at it, boys, afore the moon rises. We'll have light fur a good hour ‘The advice was taken, for the cowboys of the homé ranch were already at work lighting the fire for the braniding-irons. Within a half-hour the red light of the blaze was illuminating the bars of the corral and the savage faces of the bulls behind them, as they dashed to and fro, trying to finda way out, Then the branding gate was opened, and the struggling cattle forced toward it by men who sent their long gads into the flanks of those on the other side so as to start a rush to the narrow gate, with its alleyway just wide enough to admit one beast atatime. The fire was outside of this, and as the animals came out, one at a time, it was the business of the branders to thrust the iron into the flank of the calf or steer that had not al- ready had the mystic letters of the Collings- worth mark imprinted on its tough hide. The job was a long one, and required good light, therefore the fires were kept up at high blaze till the rising of #he moon—two days past the full—gave them alJl they needed, One by one, the abimals were forced out by the alleyway and thé operation of applying the iron was followed by an angry bellow, after Which the indignant steer rushed out to the prai- rie and made the best of its way to the feeding- ground from which it bad been driven that morning. Of the ten or twelve thousand head, which Collingsworth owned; as far as he’ knew, about one fifth part required branding; for be had not _ executed the duty in the previous fall, and the | | t who got his herds without paying anything for | them in cash. To be sure, they were none -of them above taking a Maverick when they found it straying around loose, and had been trying, that very day, to circumvent a herd: that must have numbered several thousand head, calves had increased on his hands at a great rate, And the job had to be done that night; while the neighbors, who had come to help, bad to be sent off to the house, to be fed by details, Miss Diana Collingsworth was the guide for the first detail; and, to see the way in which the young men of the party crowded around her, as they went off, one would have thought that the fate of a lady in Texas must be a very was concerned, By midnight, the branding was completed, and the Jast of the riders was wending his way homeward with bis host to the hospitable ' shades of the log-house, where Collingsworth ' dispensed bis corn-dodgers and ‘ Old Rye” to But, to be tricked out of them by one man, | and left out in the cold, was a bitter pill to swallow; and it is probable that, if Old Cross- Eye had been in the midst of the party at that moment, he might have got into s, quarrel with more than one of the men whom he had scatter- ed so quickly. The horsemen proceeded on their way slowly, and by the time the sun was about an bour . above the western horizon, they had gathered the cattle, of.all grades, yi near the huge branding corral, and were beginning the serious work of the day. : The corral was built with a wide, funnel- , shaped entrance, into which the cattle were driven, with as little excitement as possible, till the leaders had been induced to enter the wedge-shaped passage that led to the corral, where they were to be kept till the branding D. : t wasimportant to get them in before it grew dark; for the perils of a stampede are always at their greatest in the night. The cattle had been there before, most of them, and knew what was coming, so they be- gan to get agitated. The cows, that had been running all the win- ter with their calves by their sides, were espe- cially excited; for they knew that it was the little ones to whom the hot branding-iron was ' to be applied, and they ran from side to side, bellowing and trying se ge out of the sloping inclosure that was cl by a line of welila rsemen with their terrible whips cracking. At last the leading bull of the herd made a dash for the line, trying to break through; and was met by a storm of blows, from which he fled in dismay, with a piece of flesh cut out of bis muzzle, from which the blood flowed in a stream that would have sickened a North- erner. £ His turn was the signal for the rest of the herd to break and flee for the corral, in fear of the deadly whips, and half an bour before the sun set the whole herd was in the corral, tearing from side to side, dashing against the tough rail- fence in a way that showed the wisdom dis- played when it was built, with trunks of trees, a foot in diameter, for the rails, and posts set in the ground as much as six or seven feet deep to make the place cattle-proof, . There was the snorting, bellowing crowd of animals, dashing from side to side like wild things, yet Punch observed, as he wiped ‘his brow: ‘ ‘‘Hem! darned if they ain’t gittin’ too tame fur anything, nowadays. [It’s all very well to have this British stock; but they don’t fight like the old ’uns—not fur stamps, they don’t. Why, I’ve knowed darned often the time when it took two days to git the herd inter the corral, let slone the brandin’, and here we are, all ready to eee the hungry and thirsty. The two Collingsworth girls were used to the stirand bustle Of round-up time, and did the bonors of the house with an ease that was at variance with their real sentiments; for they had beén Brgag! t up, before the war, at the city of Savannah, from whence the judge had emigrated, when the fate of the great Confed- eracy was settled against the wishes of the party to which he belonged. They felt out of place in the wilds of the cat- tle ranges, aud longed for a society more pol- ished and civilized than the rude drovers and cowboys that composed the principal popula- tion of Satauta county; but, as it was no use pining, they had come to the conclusion to make the best of it, and had been recently com- forted by the arrival ef the first piano that had ever been seen in that part of Texas, on which they were wont to discourse, in a way: that roused the envy of the marriageble men in the district, which included-a@ll who had not over twenty miles to ride, to get to dinner with the judge. CHAPTIR iil, | THE MAVERICK-HUNTERS. THat afternoon, while the Collingsworth party was roundiog-up the stock of the judge’s ranch, the man in the red blanket was fleeing from before the face of the herd of wild cattle, with a speed that showed he knew the danger of stopping. 5 He was mountedon a spotted pony, of the wild variety that used to be the favorite of the Indian chiefs for its beauty and fleetness, and the rider of this animal was equipped in a wa that showed him to be a dependent on himself alone for his clothing and horse-furniture, Except for the scarlet blanket, which was of the kind made in Mackinaw, and renowned through the West for its thickness and wearing capacity, his dress was of leather, trimmed in the old Indian and ranger style, with fringes of the same material. He rode in a home-made saddle, the tree of which was formed by a crooked root of a natural tree, in one piece, covered With green hide, sewed on wet, so as to shrink in drying. There was not a strap or buckle about it; thongs of leather doing duty for the contrivances of the saddler’s art, and the rude stirrups were made of wood, hollowed out of a single block. At bis right wrist dangled, from a thong, a long whip, and be wore a knife at bis belt; but was other- wise unarmed and lightly equipped. . His stature was small; bis. body thin and wesezened: while the face,.red and. weather- beaten, seamed witb “wrinkles, and furnished with a thin, straggling beard, was made addi- tionally quprepeneea from the fact that he squinted with both eyes, under the least excite- oo —_ & sage z i wee - - = . = 7 ‘ ——" oe ee ee ; : a | a ment, with an effect that was both ludicrous and ugly to see. This was Jake Mitchell, of ‘“ Maverick Ranch,” better known to the Texans of the neighborhood as ‘‘ Old Cross-Eye,” from the defect of bis vision; but famed as the most suc- cessful bunter of wild cattle that had been seen in that part of the State. . He had come in there some five or six years before, when the county was first settled, and had mot bad enough money even to take up a claim for a range of a square league or so. Had he done so, he would have been one of the aristocrats of the county, and entitled to mix with the rest on terms of equality; but, as it was, he came in under the: United States Homestead law, and took up a section of a quarter of a mile square—a mere farm holding, at which the cattle-men turned np their noses; fenced in a corralin tbe middle of it, and took to bunting Mavericks, with such persistence that he had -acquired a herd of several hundred head, and money enough to et up a new corral, The only thing that kept Old Cross-Eye from getting into trouble with the other residents of the county, was the fact that bis ranch or home- stead was such a long way off, at the very edge of the Indian Territory, that it was hoped he might yet be scalped by some of the roamers from the reservations, and in the meantime no one wanted to go out, that way. Where he lived; how he lived; what was the secret of his immunity from the depredations of the thieving parties of yOung braves that oc- ‘casionally stole out from the fostering care of the Government to lift ponies and cattle, were mysteries to the wortby people of Satanta county; but they knew he was always around when they did not want him, and picked up more stray, unbranded cattle, than any man in the county. His light weight and good horse made him as swift and untiring as an Indian in bis pursuit; yet he was never’ seen in company with any- body elise; and the cowboys often wondered where he got the skill that enabled him to han- dle the herds he did, singlesbanded. His face and figure were both well known at the station of the railroad, where the cattle were sbipped for the East, and he always sold at low figures; yet carried away more money than most of the other ranchers, because he had no weges to pay to bis men, as they had. : Now Old Cross-Kyes was riding his pony, ahead of the herd of savage bulls, in a manner that showed he felt anxious for the future of his undertaking. He was all alone, and the berd numbered more than a thousand head, with the bulls in the preponderance, a sure sign that they had not been wild for more than one generation. Really wild cattle, in Texas, are not found in herds, and the bulls are such fighters that they are very few in proportion to the cows. The Mavericks bebind Old Cross-Eye, except for their wildness, behaved the same as ordi- nary cattle on a range. They herded together and stuck in a bunch, the bulls in advance. ) They were thoroughly enraged at the sight of the red blanket, which be kept ibe Awe | displayed, but he knew that their rage woul not last for very long under tbe influence of fatigue, and the daring little skeleton—for he was little more—began to rein in bis swift pony, so as to cHeat them into the belief that they were gaining on bim, and encourage the pur- suit. ; It wasa bing that had to be warily done, for . the least s'umble of the pony, if he let them come too close, would be certain death. Old Cross-Eye knew this well enough, and kept his “ beard on his shoulder” all the time, watching the herd behind him, leaving the pony to take care of itself, knowing well the sure- footedness of the spotted mustang. The only attempt he made at guidance was when be occasionally ook a pull at the bridle, to make the pace slower, and he only did that when he saw that the cattle were flag- . ging. The bulls in advance kept bellowing till the lost their breath, and then they ran on with their tongues banging out, angry as ever, but rapidly getting blown. e chase had lasted about an hour, and the. cattle bad gone over ten or twelve miles already. : When the Maverick-Hunter saw. that they were inclined toBive up the chase he slackened hig pace, and the bulls made another run after bim, as he waved the red blanket before them, with a taunting yell. This rush lasted for another mile; then they slackened down again, and he found himself alone on the green prairie, near a motte of tim- — ber, for which the herd was making with the instinet of the wild creature when it is tired to seek cover. The bulls had slackened their pace to a walk, and refused to be coaxed into another rush, Then Old Cross-Eye drew out from under the blanket « brass bugle, of the kind used by cav- alry soldiers, and blew a long blast thereon,