Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 272 — page 11: what you’re looking at

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

Seth S ~—-_ The wooden stirrups were exceedingly short, and Bat sat crouched up like a monkey, his knees above the pommel, while his body rested on the small of bis back, and he marked the time of every step of his horse with a light blow of the long buffalo whip he carried in his right band, witb a strap round the wrist, to let it hang on occasion. A more prosaic and unimposing figure could bardly be found, for he was muffled up in an old buffalo-robe, from which balf the hair bad been worn off, and looked as if he was half asleep. ds No,” said Slocum to George. “‘I should not think of him as ft to do any riding at all, He looks like an old woman.” George smiled, ‘‘He ean beat both of us on a horse, Mr, Slocum, and don’t you, forget it. Old Bat was adopted into the Sioux, lve heard say, because game.” ‘* What’s that?” “Don’t you know? Why I thought you was very nigh picked upfyourself in the Yellowstone ? e could beat ’em all at the pick-up Slocum shuddered at the remembrance, ‘‘ Yes, I was, but that was no game,” ‘‘Tt’s just this much of a game, that they practice at it all the time and drill like so many soldiers a-doing of it.” ‘* What do they practice at?’ “* At picking up each other,” And why?’ ‘* You see an Injun don’t like to leave bis dead bodies to be scalped any more’n a white man would; that’s nateral,”’ ‘Yes, I don’t wonder at that.” ‘* And if one of,’em gets killed or hit in a fight they’ll do all they can to carry him off.” ‘* Yes; and that’s why they drill?” ‘“Sarvinly. Two of.’em ‘ll rush past any common man and give him a swing upin the air, so as tocarry him off over the saddle of one, They driil at it reg’lar, in all their camps, They take turns to play dead or wounded,” ‘“To play dead?” ‘‘Sartinly. They go charging away, and one makes out he’s shot and tumbles off his hoss ata dead run.” ‘* Don’t he get burt?” , ‘Some of ’em do at first; but they l’arn how to tumble arter awhile. Ii’s practice, practice ali the time,” Well?” . ‘‘ Well, as soon as one tumbles, all the others make out they’re skeered and run like bl tilltwo of’em in passing stoop over him an yank bim up. If he makes believe he’s only wounded it’s easy enough, for he’il hold out bis bands, but.if be shams ded he jest lies flat, and they've got to do it by main strength and prac- tice. | ‘‘ [should imagine they were pretty perfect, from what experience I had.” if “That's nothing. [I’ve known men-and this Bat’s one of them—that can pick up a man all alone, and boist bim.” ‘‘ He must be strong then?’ ‘‘Reckon be is; butit ain’tso much that as knowing bow to doit, He uses the boss a good deal to help him and the bocy comes up quick as wiok,” Slocum looked over at the slouching and in- elegant figure of the French balf-breed, and could hardly believe the stories he beard of his skill in the saddle, | He was destined before the end of his journey to credit all and more than all he beard. They passed along through the same maze of ravines as that by which they bad come in, and Slocum could not but admire the certainty and skill witb which the Frenchman piloted them. At last, about an hour before sunset, they emerged on a green plain, clothed with grass much longer and richer than any they yet seen, and Bat Richards told them: “Dis vas de Prairie dw Lapin, ve call it. You say ‘Rabbeet.’ Ve must push on to get tade end before de moon set. After dat, ve laugh at de cavalrie.” ‘‘ Why before the moon sets?” asked Slocum, Bat made bim no answer, but spoke to his wives in Sioux and set off at a trot. Siocum noticed that, since they had got out into the wilderness and Bat had got his money and goods, be bad become very scornful and ctful to the claims of the Order.on which the engineer built such hopes. He made no remark on it, but trotted on after the train, and for several hours they continued on their way tbrough the long and very rich S"The ponies would have dearly liked to sto and feast; but Bat’s pace was so fast and b resolution so inexorable that they had no chance; and the race, at a trot and canter, | was kept up for bour after bour. The sun set and darkness came on with the stars overhead, but Bat never faltered in his direction, steering by a star till the moon rose bebind them, at about ten o’clock at night. On they went at the same pace till moon was ered sweat; but the couductor had no y | high overhead, and all the ponies were cov- | a “rer TT. apg ei mma —_— AL ee A a we - a mercy, and Slocum could see him ambling away at the head, the same crouching, monkey- like figure, with his squaws following, and the pack-ponies jogging along to the tuneful sound of cracking whips. He got asbamed of punishing his own pony with his spurs, but found that be bad to do it or be left behind; for as soon as he ceased to urge the animal, it stood stock-still and tried to lie down and roll, seeming indifferent as to the companionship of its fellows, so long as it had a chance to rest and feed. So he made up his mind to follow Bat’s ex- ample and Montana George’s advice, and do as the Indians did, From the moment be became reckless and cruel, purring savagely and having no care for his beast, the broncho was another creature, stretching away at a free hand gallop, appar- ently as fresh as when it started; and when the dawn at last supplanted the moon, Slocum saw before bim, about a mile abead, the yellow line of a sandy desert which he recognized as hay- ing passed on the Yellowstone pedition on the sixth day out, and knew to be more than a hundred an thirty miles in a straight line from Fort Gladstone, which they had left only the night before, Here Bat Richards halted, before reaching the sand, at a pool of water, and gave the signal to go into camp, by stripping bis reeking horse of saddle and bridle and turning it out to graze as carelessly as if he bad never beard of ounder or colic, Slocum was so horrified at the idea, that he remonstrated on the imprudence of not keeping the animals from eating {ill cool; but Bat met him with the unanswerable argument, in broken English: ‘Vat for no? You see dat horse. Suppose he be sauvage, you say wild. Ver’ well. . We chase and chase and he beat us, Well, we stop and let him go, Vat dat horse do? He stop and valk about so he no get cold before he eat and drink? Nosare, he rush to de water. He drink, he roll in it. He get up, he kick, he jump. He say ‘ha! ha! LI beat you mon ami.’ en he go to eat. You leaf him alone. De horse he know vat be vant bettairedan de man. Vat you say, Sborge?’ Montana George was unsaddling his own horse, and now be turned it loose with a slap, observing to Slocum: -“ Horses on the plains, specially bronchos, ain't like horses in the Hast, Mr. Slocum, Tbey’re in the open air all the time, get fat on grass, and no one keers whether they live or die. Reckoxu they get on as well asif they was stabled. But there ain’t no half-way ’bout it. Turn him loose and let bim take his chance, or feed him with grain and keep him in a stable. Pll let my feller chance it.” | And, after watching some time, Slocum saw Bos symptoms of sickness among the hard-driven Sts. Reeking with sweat as they were, and mark- ed by cruel whips and spurs, they began to roll as soon as they were relieved of their burdens, kicked and bit at «ach other in vice and play, and behaved in anything but the style in which animals tired out would act. ‘‘Tough as hickory saplings,” said George, when Slocum commented on the fact. ‘** And we'll want all their toughness. Old Ireland’s coming after us for all he’s worth.” CHAPTER XITI. A BOLD SCHEME. THEY let the horses feed where they chose while the squaws pitched the teepee and began to cook, makiug a fire with dry sticks, almost destitute of smoke, Their provisions consisted of Indian dried beef bought at Giadstone, and Slocum was not sorry to break into some canned meat for bis own feed, having bad nothing but the raw dried beef since the day before, Bat ate but sparingly, and Montana George the same; while they were on their feet most of the time, scanning the plain round them for signs of some enemy. Slocum, now that be was fairly out on the flat treeless plains, with an unrestricted view all round bim, began to feel, for the first time, what a small party they had, and how far they were from human fabitations, ‘* It’s pretty lonely out here; isn’t it?’ he re- marked to George Rockwell. Montana George nodded absently: ‘“Ay, ay, lonesome enough. Wish it was ee SO, oy my part.” ‘**Cause as long as we don’t see no one we're all right; but when we meet any bumans they're pretty dead sure to be enemies, Mr. Slocum. f What? The Indians or the whites?” : Both,” replied George, laconically. eo Why should the Indians burt us?” ‘Cause they'll want what we've got.” But they’ll ndians,” | ‘Maybe they will and maybe they won’t. Injuns ain’t so easy fooled on a trail.” + But we've no shod horses with us.” That's true; but they'll know there’s white locum, Railroad Surveyor. | trail,” 4 1 1 a a a oe men in the party, as soon as they strike the see the lodge and take us for ‘From the way we ride.” ‘‘Way weride? How’s that? I don’t quite understand what you mean. How can a man tell from a trail the character of the rider of an animal unless be bas a shod horse?” Montana George smiled, and said to Bat: ‘* Here, Bat, you tell him. IT ain’t as good as you on a trail, though I don’t. give in to no common white man onit, Tell Mr. Slocam bow you could find out whether a Injun or a white man rode a pony.” Slocum seconded the request by saying in French to the balf-breed: ‘‘My brother is at home on the plains, as I am at home under the Black Cloud. When we reach Sitting Bull’s camp I will give him of m knowledge. Now let him give to me of bis. am a child that waits to be instructed,” Bat Richards instantly relaxed from. his scornful superiority and became as gracious as ssible, but patronizing to a degree that would ave irritated some men, though it only amused Slocum. ‘You come vid me,” he said, how ve trail,” He made a circuit with Slocum.in the grass, till they came on the trail they had taken to come to camp. 1 ‘* You look dere,” he said, ‘‘and tell me how many horse pass? ‘‘But I know that already,” objected Slocum, ne at the track and feeling topelessly con- sed, Bat laughed, ‘* Ver’ goot. Now you tell me vich vas de first horse here, and vich vas de last, Piek out de track.” Slocum locked some time, Bat watching him with a smile on his dark face. Presently the young man said: ‘‘] think this one must have been the last, because it’s plain all the way through”... Bat nodded and smiled. bith ‘* Tres bien—ver well. You haf eyes and use dem, Yes, dat is de last. Who rode bim?” ‘*T don’t know.” Bat laughed beartily. “Eh, mon Dieu! you ride him.” “ How do you know?” a Bat stooped down and pointed to the hoof- track, saying: ‘Dat iseasee. You see de shape of dat foot, | It was different from de rest. I know dat horse —he have a foot like a mule, Dat was your | horse. You go look when you go back, you see, You learn all de track cf all de Horse. Dat is first Ving. S’pose you get lose from de camp, how you get back you no tell de track of your own horse—ba?”’ Slocum colored slightly, ‘I know I’m ignorant, but I want to learn,” he answered. ‘ Now tell me if there is any dif- ference between the track of a horse ridden by a white man and an Indian?” ny ‘*Certainement,” rephed Bat, looking as ‘if’ no one but a fool could dispute the statement under any circumstances. * Certainement. V not? You ride like de white man, hard on do horse shoulder, He make deep track front, light one bebind—dat is easee,” , Slocum was puzzled. ‘ What’s that you say? he asked. ‘I ride bard on the borse’s shoulder, I don’t under~ stand you. Bat wt again and said to Monte na George who was listening with a grin on bis sunburnt ace: ‘You tell heim vat I mean. I am not good viz ze Engleesh.” Montana translated. ‘“Reckon Bat means that you and he ride different ways, You sit up in your seat and ride in a Whitman saddle that comes well on the horse’s shoulder. You carry your legs well down and sit fer forward, with most of your weight on the beast’s forelegs, so they make a deep track, That’s how be knows a white man rides the hoss,” " ‘* But don’t every one ride the same?” Montana laughed, “Not much. Bat rides Injun-fashion, 60 as to let all four legs get it even on the march, with the bind legs a little the most weight, ’cause they’re the best able to bear it. Then he lets bis pony go like a free boss, only keepin bim on the move, and his track ain’t as straighb as yours, unless he’s on the war-path. Then it’s one huss arter the other in one track, so it takes a master band at trailin’ to tell how man passed. That’s how he tells whether a In rode it or not,” oe This first lesson in trailing interested the young engineer so much that be spent an hour | onthe trail of bis own’ rty, with Bat and Montana for mentors. trying interpret from the signs what the different animals haddone at times, and gaining great pleasure from bis ac- quisitions in knowledge. Bee He was so intent on bis track that he forgot everything else, and was recalled from his ab-~ wer y a sharp cry from Bat, who ex- ciaimed; ‘IT show you COMNGDOOCKS co