CHAPTER XXXIV.THE MUSTANG CATCHERS.
Bruce Clayton, the lover and promised husband of pretty Lena Forest, appeared at the cabin while Pawnee Bill and Nomad were greeting the famous scout.
Her face flushed prettily as Buffalo Bill spoke in praise of her heroic work in rescuing him from the fire. But it flushed even more, with a glow of love and joy, when Bruce appeared. He had not known of the death of the girl’s uncle, and was shocked by the news; but he declared his entire willingness to accompany her in the stage to the railroad station, and on East, if she wished it. There could be no doubt that such a journey with the girl he loved would be the supreme pleasure of his life.
Nomad drew Buffalo Bill aside at the first opportunity.
“Buffler,” he said, “we seen a feller hikin’ toward ther hills fast as his hoss could go, and he comed from this direction; seemed ter me he was scai’t about somethin’ er ’nother.”
The old trapper had seen the man who had fled from the cabin—the eavesdropper whom Buffalo Bill had surprised beneath the tree.
While they talked, Pawnee Bill joined them. He was the same gallant, debonair, handsome scout, dressed with an attention to appearance that marked him among the careless bordermen—his velvet jacket,his gold-mounted revolvers, and the costly saddle that was on the back of his horse, always drawing attention wherever he went.
“What, ho!” he said gayly, as he joined the scout and the trapper. “Cody, we’d found a band of mustangers, and we half think they are mixed up in some way with this stage-robbery business that’s making the land hereabout notorious. I think we’d better investigate them a bit.”
Buffalo Bill mentioned the man he had seen, and who had been sighted by Nomad.
“Oh, yes; he was riding as if the Old Boy was after him.” Pawnee Bill laughed at the recollection. “He was going so fast that he was only hitting the high places. And, come to think of it, he was heading in the direction of the valley where those mustangers hang out at present.”
Buffalo Bill told him what he suspected, told him of the death of the girl’s uncle, and of the valuable emeralds with which he had been intrusted.
“She’d better get out of here with them as quick as she can,” said Pawnee Bill. “The knowledge of such things can’t be kept; and if she isn’t held up and robbed of them, it will be because she moves out in a hurry.”
After discussing the matter with these friends, the scout had another talk with Lena, speaking also to young Clayton; and it was arranged that she and Bruce should go that day to Glendive, and there take the next stage for the railroad, thus getting out of the country with the emeralds as soon as they could.
Shortly after this talk, Buffalo Bill rode away with his two pards, disappearing from sight of the cabin, and journeying in the direction of the camp of the mustangers.
When they reached the valley where the mustangers were, they found that a mustang drive was in progress.
“This looks honest,” said Buffalo Bill. “Men who make a business of robbery and road-agent work aren’t going to fool with catching wild horses; they can make more money in the other line.”
He and his friends looked about for the man who had been seen by him at the cabin, but failed to find him.
The “boss” of the mustangers was a dark-skinned fellow known as Black John; a man of herculean build, whose great size did not hamper his movements, for he was light on his feet and as quick of motion as any man that followed him.
An extended semicircle of mustangers was closing in on a band of wild horses. Few words were spoken. Each man understood his duty, and was doing it.
The three pards rode close up to the line of mustangers and looked on with interest.
In the old days, the plains and foothills held many bands of mustangs, or wild horses, small, hardy animals, of great speed and endurance, and their capture in large numbers was a paying occupation. In some sections of the great West there are still considerable bodies of mustangs, but no such bands as once existed.
The method of catching these wild horses required great patience and persistence. They were not lassoed, after being run down in a hot race, as many people suppose; they were too fleet for that. The common method adopted was to walk them down. For days, and even weeks, the mustangers would follow slowly a band of wild horses. Always the mustangs held pretty close to a certain grazing ground to which they were accustomed, and if driven away from it, they invariably came back to it. Usually once a day they sought some river or water hole to drink.
Knowing their habits, the mustangers would drive toward a band and start the animals to moving. At first the wild horses would dash away, running in fright. The mustangers did not pursue rapidly, but kept their horses at a slow pace. The object was to keep the animals continually moving. The first day or so the mustangs would run a great deal and tire themselves.
The mustangers prevented them from stopping long enough to feed, and herded them away from the customary watering place. At the end of a week the mustangs began to show signs of exhaustion. Eventually, thirst, starvation, and fatigue would do their work, when the horses could be driven in any direction.
When this much had been accomplished, nooses were concealed in the grass, with men hidden by them. The mustangs were driven over these nooses, which were jerked, securing the mustangs by the legs. One by one they were thus trapped, being driven time aftertime over the hidden nooses, until all fell victims to the cunning of the mustangers.
There were two hundred mustangs or more being driven that day upon the nooses concealed in the grass along the little stream where the mustangers had their camp; and Buffalo Bill and his friends, sitting their horses near by, watched with interest the work of the capture of these wild horses.
When a mustang was captured, a short chain was affixed to one foreleg, and he was then released. He could not run; when he tried it he invariably stepped on the chain with one of his hind feet and either threw himself or gave himself such a wrench that he soon gave up trying. Besides, the mustangs were now too tired to make much effort to get away.
When all had been captured they were to be driven into a high-fenced corral, and left to recuperate; after which there would be exciting times in “breaking” them, when such stunts of wild riding and bucking would be seen as could probably be witnessed nowhere else.
Twenty or thirty of the mustangs that were being crowded upon the hidden nooses broke away, and made a dash to escape.
Buffalo Bill and his companions were near the point where they broke out, and started in pursuit of them.
One of them, a handsome fellow, separated from the others; Pawnee Bill, whirling his lariat, started in chase.
The lariat flew out, and its noose circled the head of the mustang.
But the horse ridden by Pawnee Bill set its foot in a dog hole, and fell, throwing the dead shot to the ground. At the same instant, the jerk on the lariat tore it from the saddle. As it flew out it became wrapped round the body of the fallen rider, dragging him across the plain.
Buffalo Bill shouted, and rode to the help of his friend, driving his horse at its highest speed.
Pawnee Bill, caught in the lariat and dragged by the frightened mustang, would have been dragged to his death if Buffalo Bill had not ridden quickly to his rescue.
Leaning from his saddle, Buffalo Bill slashed the rope with his knife; and the mustang raced on, leaving Pawnee Bill on the ground, somewhat crestfallen and bruised, but practically unhurt. He sprang up, and ran to get his horse, which had got its foot out of the dog hole, and seemed to be uninjured.
“Cody, yours forever!” he shouted. “I’ll come to your aid likewise and also whenever you get into trouble like that.”
Then he was in the saddle, chasing the running mustang, which was dragging the severed end of the rope. He succeeded in riding around it, and drove it back toward the herd, where Buffalo Bill noosed it, and it was subdued.
“Great work, Cody!” called Black John, the leader of the mustangers. “That is your mustang, if you want him.”
“I’ll make you a present of him, so far as my interest goes,” said Buffalo Bill. “It seems a pity,though, that such a fine fellow has to be subdued and turned into a work animal.”
“True enough, Cody; but we men have to work, and why not horses? He’ll never do enough work to harm him, in my judgment. I get twenty dollars apiece for these, after they’re a bit broken, and there’s some money in it.”
A man was galloping across the valley.
“Some one is coming,” said the scout, drawing Black John’s attention to the horseman. “Who is he?”
Black John looked at the man.
“That’s Toby Sam,” he said; “one of my men.”
“Why Toby Sam?” said the scout.
“Just the name we call him by, that’s all; I dunno what his real name is.”
Toby Sam was the rascal who had been under the tree at Gordon’s and had fled when spoken to by Buffalo Bill. He was one of the mustangers! It was a fact so suspicious that the scout decided to watch the mustang catchers a while longer, and to find out more about Toby Sam.
When Toby Sam arrived, and discovered that Buffalo Bill and his friends were there, he showed much confusion, but tried to cover it up.
Old Nick Nomad rode up to him.
“Stranger,” he said bluntly, “I’m glad ter know ye, but I has seen yer before, when you was ridin’ at sech a lickety-clip toward this valley, from the direction of Gordon’s cabin, over on ther stage trail. Thet war this mornin’.”
“You’re mistaken,” said Toby Sam. “I wasn’t over there this mornin’.”
“You were not at Forest’s this morning?” said Buffalo Bill, his sharp eyes boring Toby Sam. “Didn’t I see you under the tree there close by the house; and, when I spoke to you, didn’t you run and get your horse, and ride away without answering me?”
“It’s a mistake,” said Toby Sam. “I wasn’t over there at all.”
“Then I beg your pardon,” said the scout. “It was a mistake.”
But he knew that Toby Sam had lied, and he wondered why.
In connection with the fact that Toby Sam might have seen those emeralds, or heard talk about them, it was so suggestive that the scout became uneasy.