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diff --git a/9412-8.txt b/9412-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4c86620 --- /dev/null +++ b/9412-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4033 @@ +Project Gutenberg's A Woman Tenderfoot, by Grace Gallatin Seton-Thompson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Woman Tenderfoot + +Author: Grace Gallatin Seton-Thompson + + +Release Date: December, 2005 [EBook #9412] +This file was first posted on September 30, 2003 +Last Updated: May 14, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A WOMAN TENDERFOOT *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan, and Project +Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders from images generously +made available by the Canadian Institute for Historical +Microreproductions + + + + + + + + +A WOMAN TENDERFOOT + +By Grace Gallatin Seton-Thompson + + +1900 + + + +In this Book the full-page Drawings were made by Ernest Seton-Thompson, +G. Wright and E.M. Ashe, and the Marginals by S.N. Abbott. The cover, +title-page and general make-up were designed by the Author. Thanks are +due to Miller Christy for proof revision, and to A.A. Anderson for +valuable suggestions on camp outfitting. (No illustrations are included +in this file.) + + + +THIS BOOK IS A TRIBUTE TO THE WEST. + + +I have used many Western phrases as necessary to the Western setting. + +I can only add that the events related really happened in the Rocky +Mountains of the United States and Canada; and this is why, being a +woman, I wanted to tell about them, in the hope that some +going-to-Europe-in-the-summer-woman may be tempted to go West instead. + +G.G.S.-T. + +New York City, September 1st, 1900. + + + + +CONTENTS + + I The Why of It + + II Outfit and Advice for the Woman-who-goes-hunting-with-her-husband + + III The First Plunge of the Woman Tenderfoot + + IV Which Treats of the Imps and My Elk + + V Lost in the Mountains + + VI The Cook + + VII Among the Clouds + + VIII At Yeddars + + IX My Antelope + + X A Mountain Drama + + XI What I Know about Wahb of the Bighorn Basin + + XII The Dead Hunt + + XIII Just Rattlesnakes + + XIV As Cowgirl + + XV The Sweet Pea Lady Someone Else's Mountain Sheep + + XVI In which the Tenderfoot Learns a New Trick + + XVII _Our_ Mine + + XVIII The Last Word + + + + +A LIST OF FULL-PAGE DRAWINGS. + +Costume for cross saddle riding + +Tears starting from your smoke-inflamed eyes + +Saddle cover for wet weather Policeman's equestrian rain coat + +She was postmistress twice a week + +The trail was lost in a gully + +Whetted one to a razor edge and threw it into a tree where it stuck +quivering + +Not three hundred yards away ... were two bull elk in deadly combat + +Down the path came two of the prettiest Blacktails + +A misstep would have sent us flying over the cliff + +Thus I fought through the afternoon + +We whizzed across the railroad track in front of the Day Express + +Five feet full in front of us, they pulled their horses to a dead stop + +The coyotes made savage music + +The horrid thing was ready for me I started on a gallop, swinging one +arm + +The warm beating heart of a mountain sheep + +I could not keep away from his hoofs + +We started forward, just as the rear wheels were hovering over the edge + +"You better not sit down on that kaig ... It's nitroglycerine" + +The tunnel caused its roof to cave in close behind me + +A mountain lion sneaked past my saddle-pillowed head + + + + +I. + +THE WHY OF IT. + + +Theoretically, I have always agreed with the Quaker wife who reformed her +husband--"Whither thou goest, I go also, Dicky dear." What thou doest, I +do also, Dicky dear. So when, the year after our marriage, Nimrod +announced that the mountain madness was again working in his blood, and +that he must go West and take up the trail for his holiday, I tucked my +summer-watering-place-and-Europe-flying-trip mind away (not without +regret, I confess) and cautiously tried to acquire a new vocabulary and +some new ideas. + +Of course, plenty of women have handled guns and have gone to the Rocky +Mountains on hunting trips--but they were not among my friends. However, +my imagination was good, and the outfit I got together for my first trip +appalled that good man, my husband, while the number of things I had to +learn appalled me. + +In fact, the first four months spent 'Out West' were taken up in +learning how to ride, how to dress for it, how to shoot, and how +to philosophise, each of which lessons is a story in itself. But briefly, +in order to come to this story, I must have a side talk with the +Woman-who-goes-hunting-with-her-husband. Those not interested please omit +the next chapter. + + + + +II. + +OUTFIT AND ADVICE FOR THE WOMAN-WHO-GOES-HUNTING-WITH-HER-HUSBAND. + + +Is it really so that most women say no to camp life because they are +afraid of being uncomfortable and looking unbeautiful? There is no reason +why a woman should make a freak of herself even if she is going to rough +it; as a matter of fact I do not rough it, I go for enjoyment and leave +out all possible discomforts. There is no reason why a woman should be +more uncomfortable out in the mountains, with the wild west wind for +companion and the big blue sky for a roof, than sitting in a 10 by 12 +whitewashed bedroom of the summer hotel variety, with the tin roof to +keep out what air might be passing. A possible mosquito or gnat in the +mountains is no more irritating than the objectionable personality that +is sure to be forced upon you every hour at the summer hotel. The usual +walk, the usual drive, the usual hop, the usual novel, the usual +scandal,--in a word, the continual consciousness of self as related to +dress, to manners, to position, which the gregarious living of a hotel +enforces--are all right enough once in a while; but do you not get enough +of such life in the winter to last for all the year? + +Is one never to forget that it is not proper to wear gold beads with +crape? Understand, I am not to be set down as having any charity for the +ignoramus who would wear that combination, but I wish to record the fact +that there are times, under the spell of the West, when I simply do not +_care_ whether there are such things as gold beads and crape; when the +whole business of city life, the music, arts, drama, the pleasant +friends, equally with the platitudes of things and people you care not +about--civilization, in a word--when all these fade away from my thoughts +as far as geographically they are, and in their place comes the joy of +being at least a healthy, if not an intelligent, animal. It is a pleasure +to eat when the time comes around, a good old-fashioned pleasure, and you +need no dainty serving to tempt you. It is another pleasure to use your +muscles, to buffet with the elements, to endure long hours of riding, to +run where walking would do, to jump an obstacle instead of going around +it, to return, physically at least, to your pinafore days when you +played with your brother Willie. Red blood means a rose-colored world. +Did you feel like that last summer at Newport or Narragansett? + +So enough; come with me and learn how to be vulgarly robust. + +Of course one must have clothes and personal comforts, so, while we are +still in the city humor, let us order a habit suitable for riding +astride. Whipcord, or a closely woven homespun, in some shade of grayish +brown that harmonizes with the landscape, is best. Corduroy is pretty, if +you like it, but rather clumsy. Denham will do, but it wrinkles and +becomes untidy. Indeed it has been my experience that it is economy to +buy the best quality of cloth you can afford, for then the garment always +keeps its shape, even after hard wear, and can be cleaned and made ready +for another year, and another, and another. You will need it, never +fear. Once you have opened your ears, "the Red Gods" will not cease to +"call for you." + +In Western life you are on and off your horse at the change of a thought. +Your horse is not an animate exercise-maker that John brings around for a +couple of hours each morning; he is your companion, and shares the +vicissitudes of your life. You even consult him on occasion, especially +on matters relating to the road. Therefore your costume must look equally +well on and off the horse. In meeting this requirement, my woes were +many. I struggled valiantly with everything in the market, and finally, +from five varieties of divided skirts and bloomers, the following +practical and becoming habit was evolved. + +I speak thus modestly, as there is now a trail of patterns of this habit +from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast. Wherever it goes, it makes +converts, especially among the wives of army officers at the various +Western posts where we have been--for the majority of women in the West, +and I nearly said all the sensible ones, now ride astride. + +When off the horse, there is nothing about this habit to distinguish it +from any trim golf suit, with the stitching up the left front which is +now so popular. When on the horse, it looks, as some one phrased it, as +though one were riding side saddle on both sides. This is accomplished by +having the fronts of the skirt double, free nearly to the waist, and, +when off the horse, fastened by patent hooks. The back seam is also open, +faced for several inches, stitched and closed by patent fasteners. Snug +bloomers of the same material are worn underneath. The simplicity of +this habit is its chief charm; there is no superfluous material to sit +upon--oh, the torture of wrinkled cloth in the divided skirt!--and it +does not fly up even in a strong wind, if one knows how to ride. The +skirt is four inches from the ground--it should not bell much on the +sides--and about three and a half yards at the bottom, which is finished +with a five-inch stitched hem. + +[Illustration: COSTUME FOR CROSS SADDLE RIDING. Designed by the Author.] + +Any style of jacket is of course suitable. One that looks well on the +horse is tight fitting, with postilion back, short on hips, sharp pointed +in front, with single-breasted vest of reddish leather (the habit +material of brown whipcord), fastened by brass buttons, leather collar +and revers, and a narrow leather band on the close-fitting sleeves. A +touch of leather on the skirt in the form of a patch pocket is +harmonious, but any extensive leather trimming on the skirt makes it +unnecessarily heavy. + +A suit of this kind should be as irreproachable in fit and finish as a +tailor can make it. This is true economy, for when you return in the +autumn it is ready for use as a rainy-day costume. + +Once you have your habit, the next purchase should be stout, heavy soled +boots, 13 or 14 inches high, which will protect the leg in walking and +from the stirrup leather while riding. One needs two felt hats (never +straw), one of good quality for sun or rain, with large firm brim. This +is important, for if the brim be not firm the elements will soon reduce +it to raglike limpness and it will flap up and down in your face as you +ride. This can be borne with composure for five or ten minutes, but not +for days and weeks at a time. The other felt hat may be as small and as +cheap as you like. Only see that it combines the graces of comfort and +becomingness. It is for evenings, and sunless rainless days. A small +brown felt, with a narrow leather band, gilt buckle, and a twist of +orange veiling around the crown, is pretty for the whipcord costume. + +One can do a wonderful amount of smartening up with tulle, hat pins, +belts, and fancy neck ribbons, all of which comparatively take up no room +and add no weight, always the first consideration. Be sure you supply +yourself with a reserve of hat pins. Two devices by which they may be +made to stay in the hat are here shown. The spiral can be given to any +hat pin. The chain and small brooch should be used if the hat pin is of +much value. + +At this point, if any man, a reviewer perhaps, has delved thus far into +the mysteries of feminine outfit, he will probably remark, "Why take a +hat pin of much value?" to which I reply; "Why not? Can you suggest any +more harmless or useful vent for woman's desire to ornament herself? And +unless you want her to be that horror of horrors, a strong-minded woman, +do you think you can strip her for three months of all her gewgaws and +still have her filled with the proper desire to be pleasing in your eyes? +No; better let her have the hat pins--and you know they really are +useful--and then she will dress up to those hat pins, if it is only with +a fresh neck ribbon and a daisy at her belt." + +I had a man's saddle, with a narrow tree and high pommel and cantle, such +as is used out West, and as I had not ridden a horse since the hazy days +of my infancy, I got on the huge creature's back with everything to +learn. Fear enveloped me as in a cloud during my first ride, and the +possibilities of the little cow pony they put me on seemed more +awe-inspiring than those of a locomotive. But I have been reading +Professor William James and acquired from him the idea (I hope I do not +malign him) that the accomplishment of a thing depends largely upon one's +mental attitude, and this was mine all nicely taken--in New York:-- + +"This thing has been done before, and done well. Good; then I can do it, +and _enjoy_ it too." + +I particularly insisted upon the latter clause--in the East. This +formula is applicable in any situation. I never should have gotten +through my Western experiences without it, and I advise you, my dear +Woman-who-goes-hunting-with-her-husband, to take a large stock of it made +up and ready for use. There is one other rule for your conduct, if you +want to be a success: think what you like, but unless it is pleasant, +_don't say it_. + +Is it better to ride astride? I will not carry the battle ground into the +East, although even here I have my opinion; but in the West, in the +mountains, there can be no question that it is the _only way_. Here is an +example to illustrate: Two New York women, mother and daughter, took a +trip of some three hundred miles over the pathless Wind River Mountains. +The mother rode astride, but the daughter preferred to exhibit her +Durland Academy accomplishment, and rode sidesaddle, according to the +fashion set by an artful queen to hide her deformity. The advantages of +health, youth and strength were all with the daughter; yet in every case +on that long march it was the daughter who gave out first and compelled +the pack train to halt while she and her horse rested. And the daughter +was obliged to change from one horse to another, while the same horse was +able to carry the mother, a slightly heavier woman, through the trip. And +the back of the horse which the daughter had ridden chiefly was in such a +condition from saddle galls that the animal, two months before a +magnificent creature, had to be shot. + +I hear you say, "But that was an extreme case." Perhaps it was, but it +supports the verdict of the old mountaineers who refuse to let any horse +they prize be saddled with "those gol-darned woman fripperies." + +There is also another side. A woman at best is physically handicapped +when roughing it with husband or brother. Then why increase that handicap +by wearing trailing skirts that catch on every log and bramble, and which +demand the services of at least one hand to hold up (fortunately this +battle is already won), and by choosing to ride side-saddle, thus making +it twice as difficult to mount and dismount by yourself, which in fact +compels you to seek the assistance of a log, or stone, or a friendly hand +for a lift? Western riding is not Central Park riding, nor is it Rotten +Row riding. The cowboy's, or military, seat is much simpler and easier +for both man and beast than the Park seat--though, of course, less +stylish. That is the glory of it; you can go galloping over the prairie +and uplands with never a thought that the trot is more proper, and your +course, untrammelled by fenced-in roads, is straight to the setting sun +or to yonder butte. And if you want a spice of danger, it is there, +sometimes more than you want, in the presence of badger and gopher holes, +to step into which while at high speed may mean a broken leg for your +horse, perhaps a broken neck for yourself. But to return to the +independence of riding astride: + +One day I was following a game trail along a very steep bank which ended +a hundred feet below in a granite precipice. It had been raining and +snowing in a fitful fashion, and the clay ground was slippery, making a +most treacherous footing. One of the pack animals just ahead of my horse +slipped, fell to his knees, the heavy pack overbalanced him, and away he +rolled over and over down the slope, to be stopped from the precipice +only by the happy accident of a scrub tree in the way. Frightened by this +sight, my animal plunged, and he, too, lost his footing. Had I been +riding side-saddle, nothing could have saved me, for the downhill was on +the near side; but instead I swung out of the saddle on the off side and +landed in a heap on the uphill, still clutching the bridle. That act +saved my horse's life, probably, as well as my own. For the sudden weight +I put on the upper side as I swung off enabled him to recover his balance +just in time. I do not pretend to say that I can dismount from the off +side as easily as from the near, because I am not accustomed to it. But I +have frequently done it in emergencies, while a side-saddle leaves one +helpless in this case as in many others. + +Besides being unable to mount and dismount without assistance it is very +difficult to get side-saddle broken horses, and it usually means a horse +so broken in health and spirits that he does not care what is being +strapped on his back and dangling on one side of him only. And to be on +such an animal means that you are on the worst mount of the outfit, and I +am sure that it requires little imagination on any one's part to know +therein lies misery. Oh! the weariness of being the weakest of the party +and the worst mounted--to be always at the tail end of the line, never to +be able to keep up with the saddle horses when they start off for a +canter, to expend your stock of vitality, which you should husband for +larger matters, in urging your beast by voice and quirt to further +exertion! Never place yourself in such a position. The former you cannot +help, but you can lessen it by making use of such aids to greater +independence as wearing short skirts and riding astride, and having at +least as good a horse as there is in the outfit. Then you will get the +pleasure from your outing that you have the right to expect--that is, if +you adhere to one other bit of advice, or rather two. + +The first is: See that for your camping trip is provided a man cook. + +I wish that I could put a charm over the next few words so that only the +woman reader could understand, but as I cannot I must repeat boldly: Dear +woman who goes hunting with her husband, be sure that you have it +understood that you do no cooking, or dishwashing. I think that the +reason women so often dislike camping out is because the only really +disagreeable part of it is left to them as a matter of course. Cooking +out of doors at best is trying, and certainly you cannot be care free, +camp-life's greatest charm, when you have on your mind the boiling of +prunes and beans, or when tears are starting from your smoke-inflamed +eyes as you broil the elk steak for dinner. No, indeed! See that your +guide or your horse wrangler knows how to cook, and expects to do it. +He is used to it, and, anyway, is paid for it. He is earning his living, +you are taking a vacation. + +Now for the second advice, which is a codicil to the above: In return for +not having to potter with the food and tinware, _never complain about +it_. Eat everything that is set before you, shut your eyes to possible +dirt, or, if you cannot, leave the particular horror in question +untouched, but without comment. Perhaps in desperation you may assume the +role of cook yourself. Oh, foolish woman, if you do, you only exchange +your woes for worse ones. + +If you provide yourself with the following articles and insist upon +having them reserved for you, and then let the cook furnish everything +else, you will be all right:-- + +_An aluminum plate made double for hot water_. This is a very little +trouble to fill, and insures a comfortable meal; otherwise, your meat and +vegetables will be cold before you can eat them, and the gravy will have +a thin coating of ice on it. It is always cold night and morning in the +mountains. And if you do not need the plate heated you do not have to +fill it; that's all. I am sure my hot-water plate often saved me from +indigestion and made my meals things to enjoy instead of to endure. + +_Two cups and saucers of white enamel ware_. They always look clean and +do not break. + +_One silver-plated knife and fork and two teaspoons_. + +_One folding camp chair_. + +N.B.--Provide your husband or brother or sister precisely the same; no +more, no less. + +_Japanese napkins_, enough to provide two a day for the party. + +_Two white enamel vegetable dishes_. + +_One folding camp table_. + +_One candle lamp, with enough candles_. Then leave all the rest of the +cooking outfit to your cook and trust in Providence. (If you do not +approve of Providence, a full aluminum cooking outfit can be bought so +that one pot or pan nests in the other, the whole very complete, compact +and light.) + +Come what may, you have your own particular clean hot plate, cup and +saucer, knife, fork, spoon and napkin, with a table to eat from and a +chair to sit on and a lamp to see by, if you are eating after dark--which +often happens--and nothing else matters, but food. + +If you want to be canny you will have somewhere in your own pack a modest +supply of condensed soups and vegetables, a box or two of meat crackers, +and three or four bottles of bouillon, to be brought out on occasions of +famine. Anyway it is a comfort to know that you have provided against the +wolf. So much for your part of the eating; now for the sleeping. If you +do not sleep warm and comfortable at night, the joys of camping are as +dust in the mouth. The most glorious morning that Nature ever produced is +a weariness to the flesh of the owl-eyed. So whatever else you leave +behind, be sure your sleeping arrangements are comfortable. The following +is the result of three years' experience:-- + +_A piece of waterproof brown canvas_, 7 by 10 feet, bound with tape +and supplied with two heavy leather straps nine feet long, with strong +buckles at one end and fastened to the canvas by means of canvas +loops, and one leather strap six feet long that crosses the other two +at right angles. + +_One rubber air bed_, 36 by 76 inches (don't take a narrower size or you +will be uncomfortable), fitted with large size double valve at each end. +This bed is six inches thick when blown full of air. Be sure that sides +are inserted, thus making two seams to join together the top and bottom +six inches apart. If the top and bottom are fastened directly together, +your bed slopes down at the sides, which is always disagreeable. + +_A sleeping bag_, with the canvas cover made the full 36 inches wide. +This cover should hold two blanket bags of different weight, and if you +are wise you will have made an eider-down bag to fit inside all of these +for very cold weather. The eider bag costs about $16.00 or $18.00, but +is worth it if you are going to camp out in the mountains after August. +Do without one or two summer hats, but get it, for it is the keynote of +camp comfort. + +Then you want a lamb's wool night wrapper, a neutral grey or brown in +color, a set of heavy night flannels, some heavy woollen stockings and a +woollen tam o' shanter large enough to pull down over the ears. A +hot-water bag, also, takes up no room and is heavenly on a freezing +night when the wind is howling through the trees and snow threatens. +N.B.--See that your husband or brother has a similar outfit, or he will +borrow yours. + +The sleeping bags should be separated and dried either by sun or fire +every other day. + +_Always keep all your sleeping things together in your bed roll_, and +your husband's things together in his bed bundle. It will save you many a +sigh and weary hunt in the dark and cold. The tent and such things, you +can afford to leave to your guide or to luck. If one wishes to provide a +tent, brown canvas is far preferable to white. It does not make a glare +of light, nor does it stand out aggressively in the landscape. You have +your little nightly kingdom waiting for you and can sleep cosily if +nothing else is provided. Whenever possible, get your bed blown up and +your sleeping bags in order on top and your sleeping things together +where you can put your hands on them during the daylight, or if that is +impossible, make it the first thing you do when you make camp, while the +cook is getting supper. Then, as you eat supper and sit near the camp +fire to keep warm, you have the sweet consciousness that over there, in +the blackness is a snug little nest all ready to receive your tired self. +And if some morning you want to see what you have escaped, just unscrew +the air valve to your bed before you rise, and when you come down on the +hard, bumpy ground, in less time than it takes to tell, you will agree +with me that there is nothing so rare as resting on air. Nimrod used to +play this trick on me occasionally when it was time to get up--it is more +efficacious than any alarm clock--but somehow he never seemed to enjoy it +when I did it to him. + +For riding, it is better to carry your own saddle and bridle and to buy a +saddle horse upon leaving the railroad. You can look to the guides for +all the rest, such as pack saddles, pack animals, etc. + +My saddle is a strong but light-weight California model; that is, with +pommel and cantle on a Whitman tree. It is fitted with gun-carrying case +of the same leather and saddle-bag on the skirt of each side, and has a +leather roll at the back strapped on to carry an extra jacket and a +slicker. (A rain-coat is most important. I use a small size of the New +York mounted policemen's mackintosh, made by Goodyear. It opens front and +back and has a protecting cape for the hands.) The saddle has also small +pommel bags in which are matches, compass, leather thongs, knife and a +whistle (this last in case I get lost), and there are rings and strings +in which other bundles such as lunch can be attached while on the march. +A horsehair army saddle blanket saves the animal's back. Nimrod's saddle +is exactly like mine, only with longer and larger stirrups. + + +[Illustration: I. SADDLE COVER FOR WET WEATHER. Designed by A.A. +Anderson.] + +[Illustration: II. POLICEMAN'S EQUESTRIAN RAIN COAT.] + +You have now your personal things for eating, sleeping and riding. It +remains but to clothe yourself and you are ready to start. Provide +yourself with two or three champagne baskets covered with brown +waterproof canvas, with stout handles at each end and two leather straps +going round the basket to buckle the lid down, and a stronger strap going +lengthwise over all. Or if you do not mind a little more expense, +telescopes made of leatheroid, about 22 inches long, 11 inches wide and 9 +inches deep, with the lower corners rounded so they will not stick into +the horse, and fitted with straps and handles, make the ideal travelling +case; for they can be shipped from place to place on the railroad and can +be packed, one on each side of a horse. They are much to be preferred to +the usual Klondike bag for convenience in packing and unpacking one's +things and in protecting them. + +It is hardly necessary to say that clothes have to be kept down to the +limit of comfort. Into the telescopes or baskets should go warm flannels, +extra pair of heavy boots, several flannel shirt waists, extra riding +habit and bloomers, fancy neck ribbons and a belt or two--for why look +worse than your best at any time?--a long warm cloak and a chamois jacket +for cold weather, snow overshoes, warm gloves and mittens too, and some +woollen stockings. Be sure you take flannels. This is the advice of one +who never wears them at any other time. A veil or two is very useful, as +the wind is often high and biting, and I was much annoyed with wisps of +hair around my eyes, and also with my hair coming down while on +horseback, until I hit upon the device of tying a brown liberty silk veil +over the hair and partially over the ears before putting on a sombrero. +This veil was not at all unbecoming, being the same color as my hair, and +it served the double purpose of keeping unruly locks in order and +keeping my ears warm. A hair net is also useful. + +Then you must not forget a rubber bath tub, a rubber wash basin, sponge, +towels, soap, and toilet articles generally, including camphor ice for +chapped lips and pennyroyal vaseline salve for insect bites. A brown +linen case is invaluable to hold all these toilet necessaries, so that +you can find them quickly. A sewing kit should be supplied, a flask of +whiskey, and a small "first-aid" outfit; a bottle of Perry Davis pain +killer or Pond's extract; but no more bottles than must be, as they are +almost sure to be broken. In your husband's box, ammunition takes the +place of toilet articles. I shall pass over the guns with the bare +mention that I use a 30.30 Winchester, smokeless. For railroad purposes +all this outfit for two goes into two trunks and a box--one trunk for all +the bedding and night things: the other for all the clothing, guns, +ammunition, eating things, and incidentals. The box holds the saddles, +bridles, and horse things. + +In a pack train, the bed-rolls, weighing about fifty pounds each, go on +either side of one horse, and the telescopes on each side of another +horse--in both cases not a full load, and leaving room on the top of the +pack for a tent and other camp things. The saddles, of course, go on the +saddle horses. The cost of such an outfit, in New York, is about two +hundred dollars each; but it lasts for years and brings you in large +returns in health and consequent happiness. + +I am willing to wager my horsehair rope (specially designed for keeping +off snakes) that a summer in the Rockies would enable you to cheat time +of at least two years, and you would come home and join me in the ranks +of converts from the usual summer sort of thing. Will you try it? If you +do, how you will pity your unfortunate friends who have never known what +it is to sleep on the south side of a sage brush, and honestly say in the +morning, "It is wonderful how well I am feeling." + +But to begin:-- + + + + +III. + +THE FIRST PLUNGE OF THE WOMAN TENDERFOOT. + + +It was about midnight in the end of August when Nimrod and I tumbled off +the train at Market Lake, Idaho. Next morning, after a comfortable +night's rest at the "hotel," our rubber beds, sleeping bags, saddles, +guns, clothing, and ourselves were packed into a covered wagon, drawn by +four horses, and we started for Jackson's Hole in charge of a driver who +knew the road perfectly. At least, that was what he said, so of course he +must have known it. But his memory failed him sadly the first day out, +which reduced him to the necessity of inquiring of the neighbours. As +these were unsociably placed from thirty to fifty miles apart, there were +many times when the little blind god of chance ruled our course. + +We put up for the night at Rexburgh, after forty long miles of alkali +dust. The Mormon religion has sent a thin arm up into that country, and +the keeper of the log building he called a hotel was of that faith. The +history of our brief stay there belongs properly to the old torture days +of the Inquisition, for the Mormon's possessions of living creatures +were many, and his wives and children were the least of them. + +Another day of dust and long hard miles over gradually rising hills, with +the huge mass of the Tetons looming ever nearer, and the next day we +climbed the Teton Pass. + +There is nothing extraordinary about climbing the Teton Pass--to tell +about. We just went up, and then we went down. It took six horses half a +day to draw us up the last mile--some twenty thousand seconds of +conviction on my part (unexpressed, of course; see side talk) that the +next second would find us dashed to everlasting splinters. And it took +ten minutes to get us down! + +Of the two, I preferred going up. If you have ever climbed a greased pole +during Fourth of July festivities in your grandmother's village, you +will understand. + +When we got to the bottom there was something different. Our driver +informed us that in two hours we should be eating dinner at the ranch +house in Jackson's Hole, where we expected to stop for a while to +recuperate from the past year's hard grind and the past two weeks of +travel. This was good news, as it was then five o'clock and our midday +meal had been light--despite the abundance of coffee, soggy potatoes, +salt pork, wafer slices of meat swimming in grease, and evaporated +apricots wherein some nice red ants were banqueting. + +"We'll just cross the Snake River, and then it'll be plain sailing," he +said. Perhaps it was so. I was inexperienced in the West. This was what +followed:--Closing the door on the memory of my recent perilous +passage, I prepared to be calm inwardly, as I like to think I was +outwardly. The Snake River is so named because for every mile it goes +ahead it retreats half way alongside to see how well it has been done. I +mention this as a pleasing instance of a name that really describes the +thing named. But this is after knowledge. + +About half past five, we came to a rolling tumbling yellow stream where +the road stopped abruptly with a horrid drop into water that covered the +hubs of the wheels. The current was strong, and the horses had to +struggle hard to gain the opposite bank. I began to thank my patron saint +that the Snake River was crossed. + +Crossed? Oh, no! A narrow strip of pebbly road, and the high willows +suddenly parted to disclose another stream like the last, but a +little deeper, a little wider, a little worse. We crossed it. I made +no comments. + +At the third stream the horses rebelled. There are many things four +horses can do on the edge of a wicked looking river to make it +uncomfortable, but at last they had to go in, plunging madly, and +dragging the wagon into the stream nearly broadside, which made at least +one in the party consider the frailty of human contrivances when matched +against a raging flood. + +Soon there was another stream. I shall not describe it. When we +eventually got through it, the driver stopped his horses to rest, wiped +his brow, went around the wagon and pulled a few ropes tighter, cut a +willow stick and mended his broken whip, gave a hitch to his trousers, +and remarked as he started the horses: + +"Now, when we get through the Snake River on here a piece, we'll be +all right." + +"I thought we had been crossing it for the past hour," I was feminine +enough to gasp. + +"Oh, yes, them's forks of it; but the main stream's on ahead, and it's +mighty treacherous, too," was the calm reply. + +When we reached the Snake River, there was no doubt that the others were +mere forks. Fortunately, Joe Miller and his two sons live on the opposite +bank, and make a living by helping people escape destruction from the +mighty waters. Two men waved us back from the place where our driver was +lashing his horses into the rushing current, and guided us down stream +some distance. One of them said: + +"This yere ford changes every week, but I reckon you might try here." + +We did. + +Had my hair been of the dramatic kind that realises situations, it would +have turned white in the next ten minutes. The water was over the horses' +backs immediately, the wagon box was afloat, and we were being borne +rapidly down stream in the boiling seething flood, when the wheels struck +a shingly bar which gave the horses a chance to half swim, half plunge. +The two men, who were on horseback, each seized one of the leaders, and +kept his head pointed for a cut in the bank, the only place where we +could get out. + +Everything in the wagon was afloat. A leather case with a forty dollar +fishing rod stowed snugly inside slipped quietly off down stream. I +rescued my camera from the same fate just in time. Overshoes, wraps, +field glasses, guns, were suddenly endowed with motion. Another moment +and we should surely have sunk, when the horses, by a supreme effort, +managed to scramble on to the bank, but were too exhausted to draw more +than half of the wagon after them, so that it was practically on end in +the water, our outfit submerged, of course, and ourselves reclining as +gracefully as possible on the backs of the seats. + +Had anything given away then, there might have been a tragedy. The two +men immediately fastened a rope to the tongue of the wagon, and each +winding an end around the pommel of his saddle, set his cow pony +pulling. Our horses made another effort, and up we came out of the +water, wet, storm tossed, but calm. Oh, yes--calm! After that, earth +had no terrors for me; the worst road that we could bump over was but an +incident. I was not surprised that it grew dark very soon, and that we +blundered on and on for hours in the night until the near wheeler just +lay down in the dirt, a dark spot in the dark road, and our driver, +after coming back from a tour of inspection on foot, looked worried. I +mildly asked if we would soon cross Snake River, but his reply was an +admission that he was lost. There was nothing visible but the twinkling +stars and a dim outline of the grim Tetons. The prospect was excellent +for passing the rest of the night where we were, famished, freezing, and +so tired I could hardly speak. + +But Nimrod now took command. His first duty, of course, being a man, was +to express his opinion of the driver in terms plain and comprehensive; +then he loaded his rifle and fired a shot. If there were any mountaineers +around, they would understand the signal and answer. + +We waited. All was silent as before. Two more horses dropped to the +ground. Then he sent another loud report into the darkness. In a few +moments we thought we heard a distant shout, then the report of a gun +not far away. + +Nimrod mounted the only standing horse and went in the direction of the +sound. Then followed an interminable silence. I hallooed, but got no +answer. The wildest fears for Nimrod's safety tormented me. He had fallen +into a gully, the horse had thrown him, _he_ was lost. + +Then I heard a noise and listened eagerly. The driver said it was a +coyote howling up on the mountain. At last voices did come to me from out +of the blackness, and Nimrod returned with a man and a fresh horse. The +man was no other than the owner of the house for which we were searching, +and in ten minutes I was drying myself by his fireplace, while his +hastily aroused wife was preparing a midnight supper for us. + +To this day, I am sure that driver's worst nightmare is when he lives +over again the time when he took a tenderfoot and his wife into Jackson's +Hole, and, but for the tenderfoot, would have made them stay out +overnight, wet, famished, frozen, within a stone's throw of the very +house for which they were looking. + + + + +IV. + +WHICH TREATS OF THE IMPS AND MY ELK. + + +"If you want to see elk, you just follow up the road till you strike a +trail on the left, up over that hog's back, and that will bring you in a +mile or so on to a grassy flat, and in two or three miles more you come +to a lake back in the mountains." + +Mrs. Cummings, the speaker, was no ordinary woman of Western make. She +had been imported from the East by her husband three years before. She +had been 'forelady in a corset factory,' when matrimony had enticed her +away, and the thought that walked beside her as she baked, and washed, +and fed the calves, was that some day she would go 'back East.' And this +in spite of the fact that for those parts she was very comfortable. + +Her log house was the largest in the country, barring Captain Jones's, +her nearest neighbour, ten miles up at Jackson's Lake, and his was a +hotel. Hers could boast of six rooms and two clothes' closets. The +ceilings were white muslin to shut off the rafters, the sitting room had +wall-paper and a rag carpet, and in one corner was the post-office. + +The United States Government Post-office of Deer, Wyoming, took up +two compartments of Mrs. Cummings' writing desk, and she was called +upon to be postmistress fifteen minutes twice a week, when the small boy, +mounted on a tough little pony, happened around with the leather bag +which carried the mail to and from Jackson, thirty miles below. + +[Illustration: SHE WAS POSTMISTRESS TWICE A WEEK.] + +"I'd like some elk meat mighty well for dinner," Mrs. Cummings continued, +as she leaned against the kitchen door and watched us mount our newly +acquired horses, "but you won't find game around here without a +guide--Easterners never do." + +Nimrod and I started off in joyous mood. The secret of it, the +fascination of the wild life, was revealed to me. At last I understood +why the birds sing. The glorious exhilaration of the mountains, the +feeling that life is a rosy dream, and that all the worry and the fever +and the fret of man's making is a mere illusion that has faded away into +the past, and is not worth while; that the real life is to be free, to +fly over the grassy mountain meadow with never a limitation of fence or +house, with the eternal peaks towering around you, terrible in their +grandeur and vastness, yet inviting. + +We struck the trail all right, we thought, but it soon disappeared and we +had to govern our course by imagination, an uncertain guide at best. We +got into dreadful tangles of timber; the country was all strange, and the +trees spread over the mountain for miles, so that it was like trying to +find the way under a blanket; but we kept on riding our horses over +fallen logs and squeezing them between trees, all the time keeping a +sharp watch over them, for they were fresh and scary. + +Finally, after three hours' hard climbing, we emerged from the forest on +to a great bare shoulder of the mountain, from which the whole country +around, vast and beautiful, could be seen. We took bearings and tried to +locate that lake, and we finally decided that a wooded basin three miles +away looked likely to contain it. + +In order to get to it, we had to cross a wooded ravine, very steep and +torn out by a recent cloudburst. We rode the horses down places that I +shudder in remembering, and I had great trouble in keeping away from the +front feet of my horse as I led him, especially when there were little +gullies that had to be jumped. + +It was exciting enough, and hard work, too, every nerve on a tingle and +one's heart thumping with the unwonted exercise at that altitude; but oh, +the glorious air, the joy of life and motion that was quite unknown to my +reception and theatre-going self in the dim far away East! + +We searched for that lake all day, and at nightfall went home confident +that we could find it on the morrow. + +Mrs. Cummings' smile clearly expressed 'I told you so,' and she remarked +as she served supper: "When my husband comes home next week, he will take +you where you can find game." + +The next morning we again took some lunch in the saddle bag and started +for that elusive spot we had christened Cummings' Lake. About three +o'clock we found it--a beautiful patch of water in the heart of the +forest, nestling like a jewel, back in the mountains. + +We picketed the horses at a safe distance, so that they could not be seen +or heard from the lake. At one end the shore sloped gradually into the +water, and here Nimrod discovered many tracks of elk, a few deer, and one +set of black bear. He said the lake was evidently a favourite drinking +place, that a band of elk had been coming daily to water, and that, +according to their habits, they ought to come again before dusk. + +So we concealed ourselves on a little bluff to the right and waited. The +sun had begun to cast long lines on the earth, and the little circle of +water was already in shadow when Nimrod held up his finger as a warning +for silence. We listened. We were so still that the whole world seemed to +be holding its breath. + +I heard a faint noise as of a snapping branch, then some light thuds +along the ground, and to the left of us out of the dark forest, a dainty +creature flitted along the trail and playfully splashed into the water. +Six others of her sisters followed her, with two little ones, and they +were all splashing about in the water like so many sportive mermaids when +their lordly master appeared--a fine bull elk who seemed to me, as he +sedately approached the edge of the lake, to be nothing but horns. + +I shall never forget the picture of this family at home--the quiet lake +encircled by forest and towered over by mountains; the gentle graceful +creatures full of life playing about in the water, now drinking, now +splashing it in cooling showers upon one another; the solicitude of a +mother that her young one should come to no harm; and then the head of +them all proceeding with dignity to bathe with his harem. + +Had I to do again what followed, I hope I should act differently. Nimrod +was watching them with a rapt expression, quite forgetful of the rifle in +his hands, when I, who had never seen anything killed, touched his arm +and whispered: "Shoot, shoot now, if you are going to." + +The report of the rifle rang out like a cannon. The does fled away as if +by magic. The stag tried also to get to shore, but the ball had +inflicted a wound which partially paralysed his hindquarters. At the +sight of the blood and the big fellow's struggles to get away, the +horror of the thing swept over me. "Oh, kill him, kill him!" I wailed. +"Don't let him suffer!" + +But here the hunter in Nimrod answered: "If I kill him now, I shall never +be able to get him. Wait until he gets out of the water." + +The next few seconds, with that struggling thing in the water, seemed an +eternity of agony to me. Then another loud bang caused the proud head +with its weight of antlers to sink to the wet bank never to rise again. + +Later, as I dried my tears, I asked Nimrod: + +"Where is the place to aim if you want to kill an animal instantly, so +that he will not suffer, and never know what hit him?" + +"The best place is the shoulder." He showed me the spot on his elk. + +"But wouldn't he suffer at all?" + +"Well, of course, if you hit him in the brain, he will never know; but +that is a very fine shot. Your target is only an inch or two, here +between the eye and the ear, and the head moves more than the body. +But," he said, "you would not kill an elk after the way you have wept +over this one?" + +"If--if I were sure he would not suffer, I might kill just one," I +said, conscious of my inconsistencies. My woman's soul revolted, and yet +I was out West for all the experiences that the life could give me, and +I knew, if the chance came just right, that one elk would be sacrificed +to that end. + +The next day, much to Mrs. Cummings' surprise, we had elk steak, the most +delicious of meat when properly cooked. The next few days slipped by. We +were always in the open air, riding about in those glorious mountains, +and it was the end of the week when a turn of the wheel brought my day. + +First, it becomes necessary to confide in you. Fear is a very wicked +companion who, since nursery days, had troubled me very little; but when +I arrived out West, he was waiting for me, and, so that I need never be +without him, he divided himself into a band of little imps. + +Each imp had a special duty, and never left me until he had been crushed +in silent but terrible combat. There was the imp who did not like to be +alone in the mountains, and the imp who was sure he was going to be lost +in those wildernesses, and the imp who quaked at the sight of a gun, and +the imp who danced a mad fierce dance when on a horse. All these had been +conquered, or at least partially reduced to subjection, but the imp who +sat on the saddle pommel when there was a ditch or stream to be jumped +had hitherto obliged me to dismount and get over the space on foot. + +This morning, when we came to a nasty boggy place, with several small +water cuts running through it, I obeyed the imp with reluctance. Well, we +got over it--Blondey, the imp, and I--with nothing worse than wet feet +and shattered nerves. + +I attempted to mount, and had one foot in the stirrup and one hand on the +pommel, when Blondey started. Like the girl in the song, I could not get +up, I could not get down, and although I had hold of the reins, I had no +free hand to pull them in tighter, and you may be sure the imp did not +help me. Blondey, realising there was something wrong, broke into a wild +gallop across country, but I clung on, expecting every moment the saddle +would turn, until I got my foot clear from the stirrup. Then I let go +just as Blondey was gathering himself together for another ditch. + +I was stunned, but escaped any serious hurt. Nimrod was a great deal more +undone than I. He had not dared to go fast for fear of making Blondey go +faster, and he now came rushing up, with the fear of death upon his face +and the most terrible swears on his lips. + +Although a good deal shaken, I began to laugh, the combination was so +incongruous. Nimrod rarely swears, and was now quite unconscious what his +tongue was doing. Upon being assured that all was well, he started after +Blondey and soon brought him back to me; but while he was gone the imp +and I had a mortal combat. + +I did up my hair, rearranged my habit, and, rejecting Nimrod's offer of +his quieter horse, remounted Blondey. We all jumped the next ditch, but +the shock was too much for the imp in his weakened condition; he tumbled +off the pommel, and I have never seen him since. + +Our course lay along the hills on the east bank of Snake River that day. +We discovered another beautiful sapphire lake in a setting of green +hills. Several ducks were gliding over its surface. We watched them, in +concealment of course, and we saw a fish hawk capture his dinner. Then we +quietly continued along the ridge of a high bluff until we came to an +outstretched point, where beneath us lay the Snake Valley with its +fickle-minded river winding through. + +The sun was just dropping behind the great Tetons, massed in front of us +across the valley. We sat on our horses motionless, looking at the +peaceful and majestic scene, when out from the shadows on the sandy +flats far below us came a dark shadow, and then leisurely another and +another. They were elk, two bulls and a doe, grazing placidly in a little +meadow surrounded by trees. + +We kept as still as statues. + +Nimrod said. "There is your chance." + +"Yes," I echoed, "here is my chance." + +We waited until they passed into the trees again. Then we dismounted. +Nimrod handed me the rifle, saying: + +"There are seven shots in it. I will stay behind with the horses." + +I took the gun without a word and crept down the mountain side, keeping +under cover as much as possible. The sunset quiet surrounded me; the +deadly quiet of but one idea--to creep upon that elk and kill +him--possessed me. That gradual painful drawing nearer to my prey seemed +a lifetime. I was conscious of nothing to the right, or to the left of +me; only of what I was going to do. There were pine woods and scrub brush +and more woods. Then, suddenly, I saw him standing by the river about to +drink. I crawled nearer until I was within one hundred and fifty yards of +him, when at the snapping of a twig he raised his head with its crown of +branching horn. He saw nothing, so turned again to drink. + +Now was the time. I crawled a few feet nearer and raised the deadly +weapon. The stag turned partly away from me. In another moment he would +be gone. I sighted along the metal barrel and a terrible bang went +booming through the dim secluded spot. The elk raised his proud, antlered +head and looked in my direction. Another shot tore through the air. +Without another move the animal dropped where he stood. He lay as still +as the stones beside him, and all was quiet again in the twilight. + +I sat on the ground where I was and made no attempt to go near him. +So that was all. One instant a magnificent breathing thing, the +next--nothing. + +Death had been so sudden. I had no regret, I had no triumph--just a sort +of wonder at what I had done--a surprise that the breath of life could be +taken away so easily. + +Meanwhile, Nimrod had become alarmed at the long silence, and, tying the +horses, had followed me down the mountain. He was nearly down when he +heard the shots, and now came rushing up. + +"I have done it," I said in a dull tone, pointing at the dark, quiet +object on the bank. + +"You surely have." + +Nimrod paced the distance--it was one hundred and thirty-five yards--as +we went up to the elk. How beautiful his coat was, glossy and shaded in +browns, and those great horns--eleven points--that did not seem so big +now to my eyes. + +Nimrod examined the carcass. + +"You are an apt pupil," he said. "You put a bullet through his heart and +another through his brain." + +"Yes," I said; "he never knew what killed him." But I felt no glory in +the achievement. + + + + +V. + +LOST IN THE MOUNTAINS. + + +Have you ever been lost in the mountains?--not the peaceful, cultivated +child hills of the Catskills, but in real mountains, where the first +outpost of civilisation, a lonely ranch house, is two weeks' travel away, +and where that stream on your left is bound for the Pacific Ocean, and +that stream on your right over there will, after four thousand miles, +find its way into the Atlantic Ocean, and where the air you breathe is +twelve thousand feet above those seas? I have. + +The situation is naturally one you would not fish out of the grab bag of +fate if you could avoid it. When you suddenly find it on your hands, +however, there is only one thing to do--keep your nerve, grasp it firmly, +and look at it closely. If you have a horse and a gun and a cartridge, +it is not so bad. I had these and I had better than all these, I had +Nimrod--but only half of Nimrod. The working half was chained up by my +fears, for such is the power of a woman. I will explain. In crossing +over the Continental Divide of the Rocky Mountains, we were guests in the +pack train of a man who was equally at home in a New York drawing-room or +on a Wyoming bear hunt, and he had made mountain travelling a fine art. +Besides ourselves, there were the horse wrangler, the cook (of whom you +shall hear later), and sixteen horses, and we started from Jackson's Lake +for the Big Horn Basin, several hundred miles over the pathless +uninhabited mountains. + +No one who has not tried it knows how difficult it is for two or three +men to keep so many pack animals in line, with no pathway to guide; and +once they are started going nicely, it is nothing short of a calamity to +stop them, especially when it is necessary to cover a certain number of +miles before nightfall in order that they may have feed. + +We were on the Pacific side of the Wind River Divide, and must get to the +top that night. The horses were travelling nicely up the difficult +ascent, so when Nimrod got his feet wet crossing a stream about noon, he +and I thought we would just stop and have a little lunch, dry the shoes, +and catch up with the pack train in half an hour. + +From the minute the last horse vanished out of sight behind a rock, +desolation settled upon me. That slender line of living beings somewhere +on ahead was the only link between us and civilisation--civilisation +which I understood, which was human and touchable--and the awful vastness +of those endless peaks, wherein lurked a hundred dangers, and which +seemed made but to annihilate me. + +Of course, the fire would not burn, and the shoes would not dry. Blondey +wandered off and had to be brought back, and it seemed an age before we +were again in the saddle, following the trail the animals had made. + +But Nimrod was blithe and unconcerned, so I made no sign of the craven +soul within me. For an hour or two we followed the trail, urging our +horses as much as possible, but the ascent was difficult, and we could +not gain on the speed of the pack train. Then the trail was lost in a +gully where the animals had gone in every direction to get through. My +nerves were now on the rack of suspense. + +Where were they? Surely, we must have passed them! We were on the wrong +trail, perhaps going away from them at every step! + +The screws of fear grew tighter every moment during the following hours. +Nimrod soon found what he considered to be the trail, and we proceeded. + +At last we got to the top. No sign of them. I could have screamed aloud; +a great wave of soul destroying fear encompassed me--wild black fear. I +could not reason it out. We were lost! + +Nimrod scoffed at me. The track was still plain, he said; but I could not +read the hieroglyphics at my feet, and there was no room in my mind for +confidence or hope. Fear filled it all. + +There we were with the mighty forces of the insensate world around, so +pitiless, so silently cruel, it seemed to my city-bred soul. It was the +spot where Nature spread her wonders before us, one tiny spring dividing +its waters east and west for the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, for this +was the highest point. + +We attempted to cross that hateful divide, that at another time might +have looked so beautiful, when suddenly Nimrod's horse plunged withers +deep in a bog, and in his struggles to get out threw Nimrod head first +from the saddle into the mud, where he lay quite still. + +I faced the horror of death at that moment. Of course, this was what I +had been expecting, but had not been able to put into words. Nimrod +killed! My other fears dwindled away before this one, or, rather, it +seemed to wrap them in itself, as in a cloak. For an instant I could not +move--there alone with a dead or wounded man on that awful mountain top. + +But here was an emergency where I could do something besides blindly +follow another's lead. I caught the frightened animal as it dashed out of +the treacherous place (to be horseless is almost a worse fate than to be +wounded), and Nimrod, who was little hurt, quickly recovered and managed +to scramble to dry ground, and again into the saddle. + +Forcing our tired horses onward, we again found a trail, supposedly the +right one, but there was that haunting fear that it was not. For the only +signs were the bending of the grass and the occasional rubbing of the +trees where the animals had passed. And these might have been done by a +band of elk. + +It was growing dusk and still no pack train in sight. No criminal on +trial for his life could have felt more wretchedly apprehensive than I. +At last we came to a stream. Nimrod, who had dismounted to examine more +closely, said: + +"The trail turns off here, but it is very dim in the grass." + +"Where?" I asked, anxiously. + +He pointed to the ground. I could make out nothing. "Oh, let us hurry! +They must have gone on." + +"I think it would be safer to follow these tracks for a time at least, to +see where they come out. There are some tracks across the stream there, +but they are older and dimmer and might have been made by elk." + +"Oh, do go on! Surely the tracks across the stream must be the ones." To +go on, on, and hurry, was my one thought, my one cry. + +Nimrod yielded. Thus I and my wild fear betrayed the hunter's instinct. +We went on for many weary minutes. We lost all tracks. Then Nimrod fired +a shot into the air. He would not do it before, because he said we were +not lost, and that there was no need for worry--worry, when for hours +blind fear had held me in torture! + +There was no answer to the shot. + +In five minutes he fired again. Then we heard a report, very faint. I +would not believe that I had heard it at all. I raised my gun and fired. +This time a shot rattled through the branches overhead, unpleasantly +near. It was clearly from behind us. We turned, and after another +interchange of shots, the cook appeared. + +I was too exhausted to be glad, but a feeling of relief glided over me. +He led us to the stream where Nimrod had wanted to turn off, and from +there we were quickly in camp, very much to our host's relief. I dropped +at the foot of a tree, and said nothing for an hour--my companions were +men, so I did not have to talk if I could not--then I arose as usual and +was ready for supper. + +Of course, Nimrod was blamed for not being a better mountaineer. 'He +ought to have seen that broken turf by the trail,' or those 'blades of +fresh pulled grass in the pine fork.' How could they know that a woman +and her fears had hampered him at every step, especially as you see there +was no need? + +Always regulate your fears according to the situation, and then you will +not go into the valley of the shadow of death, when you are only lost in +the mountains. + + + + +VI. + +THE COOK. + + +I had but a bare speaking acquaintance with the grim silent mountaineer +who was cook to our party. Two days after he had appeared like an angel +of heaven on our gloomy path I had an opportunity of knowing him better. +I quote from my journal: + +Camp Jim, Shoshone Range, September 23: They left me alone in camp today. +No, the cook was there. They left me the cook for protection against the +vast solitude, the mighty grandeur of the mountains, and the possible, +but improbable, bear. Nice man, that cook--he confessed with pride to +many robberies and three murders! Only a month before engaging as cook on +this trip, he had been serving a life term for murder; but had been +released through some political 'pull.' + +Our host, in company with another game warden, had discovered him in the +mountains, where he had gone immediately from the penitentiary and +resumed his unlawful life of killing game. But he had hidden his prizes +so effectively that there was no evidence but his own, which, of course, +is not accepted in law. Thus he welcomed these two men of justice to his +camp, told graphically of his killing--then offered them a smoke, smiling +the while at their discomfiture. + +Both his face and hands were scarred from many bar room encounters, and +he unblushingly dated most of his remarks by the period when he 'was +rusticatin' in the Pen.' He had brought his own bed and saddle and pack +horses on the trip so that he could 'cut loose' from the party in case +'things got too hot' for him. + +Such was the cook. + +Immediately after breakfast Nimrod and our host equipped themselves for +the day's hunt, and went off in opposite directions, like _Huck Finn_ and +_Tom Sawyer_ on the occasion of their memorable first smoke. + +Our camp was beside a rushing brook in a little glade that was tucked at +the foot of towering mountains where no man track had been for years, if +ever. Around us sighed the mighty pines of the limitless forest. +Hundreds of miles away, beyond the barrier of nature, were human hives +weary of the noise and strife of their own making. Here, alone in the +solitudes, were two human atoms wandering on the trail of the hunted, +and--the cook and I. + +I sat on my rubber bed in the tent and thought--there was nothing else to +do--and was cold, cold from the outside in, and from the inside out. +There wasn't a thing alive, not even myself--no one but the cook. + +Outside, I could hear him washing the breakfast tinware, and whistling +some kind of a jiggling tune that ran up and down me like a shiver. This +went on for an eternity. + +Suddenly it stopped, and I heard the faintest crunch on the thin layer of +snow and the rattling of more snow as it slid off my tent from a blow +that had been struck on the outside. + +I jumped to the door of the tent. It was the cook. + +"Purty cold in there, ain't it? You'd a good sight better come to the +fire. Ain't you got a slicker?" + +I put on a mackintosh and overshoes and went to the fire. The weather +was now indulging in a big flake snow that slid stealthily to the ground +and disappeared into water on whatever obstacle it found there. It found +me. The cook was cleaning knives--the cooking knives, the eating knives, +and a full set of hunting knives, long and short, slim and broad, all +sharp and efficacious. + +He handled them lovingly, rubbed off some blood rust here and there, and +occasionally whetted one to a still more razor edge and threw it into a +near by tree, where it stuck, quivering. + +There was no conversation, but I did not feel forgotten. + +I turned my back on the cook and gazed into the fire, a miserable +smouldering affair, and speculated on why I had never before noticed how +much spare time there was in a minute. It may have been five of these +spacious minutes, it may have been fifteen, that had passed away when the +cook approached me. I could _feel_ him coming. He came very close to +me--and to the fire. + +He put on some beans. + +Then he went away, and there were many more minutes, many more. + +Then something touched my arm. At last it had come (what we expect, if it +be disagreeable, usually does come). I never moved a muscle. This time +the pressure on my arm was unmistakable. I turned quickly and saw--the +cook--with a gun! + +The cook, gun, knives, fire, snow, and stars danced a mad jig before me +for an instant. Then the cook suddenly resumed his proper position, and I +saw that his disengaged hand was held in an attitude of warning for +silence. He pointed off into the woods and appeared to be listening. Soon +I thought I heard a snapping of a branch away off up the mountain. + +"Bear," the cook whispered. "Follow me." + +I followed. It was hard work to get over logs and stones without noise, +in a long mackintosh, and, besides, I wished that I had brought a gun. I +should have felt more comfortable about both man and beast. I struggled +on for a while, when the thought suddenly struck home that if I went +farther I should not be able to find my way back to camp. Everything is +relative, and those empty tents and smouldering fire seemed a haven of +security compared to the situation of being unarmed, and lost in the +wilderness--with the cook. + +I watched my chance and sneaked back to camp to get a gun. I was willing +to believe the cook's bear story, but I wanted a gun. When I got to camp +there were many good reasons for not going back. + +After a time I heard two shots close at hand, and soon the cook appeared. +He said he could not find the bear's track, and lost me, so thought he +had better look me up and be on hand in case I had returned to camp, and +the bear should come. + +I thanked the cook for his solicitude. + +To while away the time, I put up a target and commenced practising with a +30-30 rifle at fifty yards range. + +I shot very badly. + +The cook obligingly interested himself in my performance and kept tally +on my aim, pointing out to me when it was high, when it was low, to the +right or to the left. + +Then he took his six shooter and put a half dozen bullets in the +bull's-eye offhand. + +I lost my interest in shooting. + +The cook gave me some lunch, and while I was eating he stood before the +fire looking at it through the fingers of his. Outstretched hand, with a +queer squint in his cold gray eyes, as though sighting along a rifle +barrel, while a cigarette hung limply from his mouth. + +Then in response to a winning smile (after all, a woman's best weapon) he +opened the floodgates of his thoughts and poured into my ears a +succession of bloodcurdling adventures over which the big, big 'I' had +dominated. "Yes," he said musingly of his _second_ murder, as he +removed his squint from the fire to me, and a ghost of a smile played +around his lips; "yes, it took six shots to keep him quiet, and you could +have covered all the holes with a cap box--and his pard nearly got me." + +"That was the year I lost my pard, Dick Elsen. We was at camp near Fort +Fetterman. We called a man 'Red'--his name was Jim Capse. Drink was at +the bottom of it. Red he sees my pard passing a saloon, and he says, +'Hello, where did you come from? Come and have a drink!' Pard says, 'No, +I don't want nothing!' 'Oh, come along and have a drink!' Dick says, 'No, +thanks, pard, I'm not drinking to-night.' 'Well, I guess you'll have a +drink with me'; and Red pulls out his six shooter. Dick wasn't quick +enough about throwing up his hands, and he gets killed. Then Irish Mike +says to Red, 'You better hit the breeze,' but we ketched him--a telegraph +pole was handy--I says, 'Have you got anything to say?' 'You write to my +mother and tell her that, a horse fell on me. Don't tell her that I got +hung,' Red says; and we swung him." + +By the time he had thus proudly stretched out his three dead men before +my imagination, in a setting of innumerable shooting scraps and horse +stealings, the hunters returned--my day with the multi-murderous cook was +over--and nothing had happened. + +It is only fair to quote Nimrod's reply to one who criticised him for +leaving me thus: + +"Humph! Do you think I don't know those wild mountaineers? They are +perfectly chivalrous, and I could feel a great deal safer in leaving my +wife in care of that desperado than with one of your Eastern dudes." + + + + +VII. + +AMONG THE CLOUDS. + + +Many a time as a child I used to lie on my back in the grass and stare +far into the wide blue sky above. It seemed so soft, so caressing, so far +away, and yet so near. Then, perhaps, a tiny woolly cloud would drift +across its face, meet another of its kind, then another and another, +until the massed up curtain hid the playful blue, and amid grayness and +chill, where all had been so bright, I would hurry under shelter to avoid +the storm. That, outside of fairy books, an earthbound being could +actually be in a cloud, was beyond my imagination. Indeed, it seems +strange now, and were it not for the absence of a cherished quirt, I +should be ready to think that my cloud experience had been a dream. + +The day before, we had been in a great hurry to cross the Wind River +Divide before a heavy snowfall made travel difficult, if not impossible. +We had no wish to be snowbound for the winter in those wilds, with only +two weeks' supply of food, and it was for this same reason we had not +stopped to hunt that grizzly who had left a fourteen inch track over on +Wiggins' Creek--the same being Wahb of the Big Horn Basin, about whom I +shall have something to say later. + +We were now camped in a little valley whose creek bubbled pleasantly +under the ice. Having cleared away three feet of snow for our tents, we +decided to rest a day or two and hunt, as we were within two days' easy +travel of the first ranch house. + +It was cold and snowy when Nimrod and I started out next morning to look +for mountain sheep. I followed Nimrod's horse for several miles as in a +trance, the white flakes falling silently around me, and wondered how it +would be possible for any human being to find his way back to camp; but +I had been taught my lesson, and kept silent. + +I even tried to make mental notes of various rocks and trees we passed, +but it was hopeless. They all looked alike to me. In a city, no matter +how big or how strange, I can find home unerringly, and Nimrod is +helpless as a babe. In the mountains it is different. When I finally +raised my eyes from the horse's tail in front, it was because the tail +and the horse belonging to it had stopped suddenly. + +We were in the middle of a brook. It is highly unpleasant to be stopped +in the middle of an icy brook when your horse's feet break through the +ice at each step, and you cannot be sure how deep the water is, nor how +firm the bottom he is going to strike, especially as ice-covered +brooks are Blondey's pet abhorrence, and the uncertainty of my +progress, was emphasised by Blondey's attempts to cross on one or two +feet instead of four. + +However, I looked dutifully in the direction Nimrod indicated and saw a +long line of elk heads peering over the ridge in front and showing darkly +against the snow. They were not startled. + +Those inquisitive heads, with ears alert, looked at us for some time, and +then leisurely moved out of sight. We scrambled out of the stream and +commenced ascending the mountain after them. The damp snow packed on +Blondey's hoofs, so that he was walking on snowballs. When these got +about five inches high, they would drop off and begin again. It is +needless to say that these varying snowballs did not help Blondey's +sure-footedness, especially as the snow was just thick enough to conceal +the treacherous slaty rocks beneath. For the first time I understood the +phrase, to be 'all balled up.' + +Between being ready to clear myself from the saddle and jump off on the +up side, in case Blondey should fall, and keeping in sight of the tail of +the other horse, I had given no attention to the landscape. + +Suddenly I lost Nimrod, and everything was swallowed up in a dark misty +vapour that cut me off from every object. Even Blondey's nose and the +ground at my feet were blurred. Regardless of possibly near-by elk, I +raised a frightened, yell. My voice swirled around me and dropped. I +tried again, but the sound would not carry. + +The icy vapour swept through me--a very lonely forlorn little being +indeed. I just clung to the saddle, trusting to Blondey's instinct to +follow the other animal, and tried to enjoy the fact that I was getting a +new sensation. Even when one could see, every step was treacherous, but +in that black fog I might as well have been blind and deaf. Then Blondey +dislodged some loose rock, and went sliding down the mountain with it. +There was not a thing I could do, so I shut my eyes for an instant. We +brought up against a boulder, fortunately, with no special damage--except +to my nerves. Not being a man, I don't pretend to having enjoyed that +experience--and there, not six feet away, was a ghostly figure that I +knew must be Nimrod. + +He did not greet me as a long lost, for such I surely felt, but merely +remarked in a whisper: + +"We are in a cloud cap. It is settling down. The elk are over there. +Keep close to me." And he started along the ridge. I felt it was so +thoughtful of him to give me this admonition. I would much rather have +been returned safely to camp without further injury and before I froze to +the saddle; but I grimly kept Blondey's nose overlapping his mate's back +and said nothing--not even when I discovered that my cherished riding +whip had left me. It probably was not fifty feet away, on that toboggan +slide, but it seemed quite hopeless to find anything in the freezing +misty grayness that surrounded us. + +We continued our perilous passage. Then I was rewarded by a sight seldom +accorded to humans. It was worth all the fatigue, cold, and bruises, for +that appallingly illogical cloud cap took a new vagary. It split and +lifted a little, and there, not three hundred yards away, in the +twilight of that cold wet cloud, on that mountain in the sky, were two +bull elk in deadly combat. Their far branching horns were locked +together, and they swayed now this way, now that, as they wrestled for +the supremacy of the herd of does, which doubtless was not far away. We +could not see clearly: all was as in a dream. There was not a sound, only +the blurred outlines through the blank mist of two mighty creatures +struggling for victory. One brief glimpse of this mountain drama; then +they sank out of sight, and the numbing grayness and darkness once more +closed around us. + +On the way back to camp, Blondey shied at a heap of decaying bones that +were still attached to a magnificent pair of antlers. They were at the +foot of a cliff, over which the animal had probably fallen. The gruesome +sight was suggestive of the end of one of those shadowy creatures, +fighting back there high up on the mountain in the mist and the darkness. + +We saw no mountain sheep, but oh, the joy of our camp fire that night! +For we got back in due time all right--Nimrod and the gods know how. To +feel the cheery dancing warmth from the pine needles driving away cold +and misery was pure bliss. One thing is certain about roughing it for a +woman:--there is no compromise. She either sits in the lap of happiness +or of misery. The two are side by side, and toss her about a dozen times +a day--but happiness never lets her go for long. + + + + +VIII. + +AT YEDDAR'S. + + +Life at Yeddar's ranch on Green River, where Nimrod and I left the pack +train, is different from life in New York; likewise the people are +different. And as every Woman-who-goes-hunting-with-her-husband is sure +to go through a Yeddar experience, I offer a few observations by way of +enlightenment before telling how I killed my antelope. (If you wish to +be proper, always use the possessive for animals you have killed. It is a +Western abbreviation in great favour.) + +A two-story log house, a one-room log office, a log barn, and, across the +creek, the log shack we occupied, fifty miles from the railroad, and no +end of miles from anything else, but wilderness--that was Yeddar's. + +Old Yeddar--Uncle John, the guides and trappers and teamsters called +him--had solved the problem of ideal existence. He ran this rough road +house without any personal expenditure of labour or money. He sold whisky +in his office to the passing teamsters and guides, and relied upon the +same to do the chores around the place, for which he gave them grub, the +money for which came from the occasional summer tourist, such as we. + +Mrs. Spiker 'did' for him in the summer for her board and that of her +little girl, and in the winter he and a pard or two rustled for +themselves, on bacon, coffee, and that delectable compound of bread and +water known as camp sinkers. He got some money for letting the horses +from two Eastern outfits run over the surrounding country and eat up the +Wyoming government hay. Thus he loafs on through the years, outside or +inside his office, without a care beyond the getting of his whisky and +his tobacco. Of course he has a history. He claims to be from a 'high up' +Southern family, but has been a plainsman since 1851. He has lived among +the Indians, has several red-skinned children somewhere on this planet, +and seems to have known all the wild tribe of stage drivers, miners, and +frontiersmen with rapid-firing histories. + +Once a week, if the weather were fine, Uncle John would tie a towel and a +clean shirt to his saddle, throw one leg across the back of Jim, his cow +pony, blind in one eye and weighted with years unknown, and the two would +jog a mile or so back in the mountains, to a hot sulphur spring, where +Yeddar would perform his weekly toilet. He was not known to take off his +clothes at any other time, and if the weather were disagreeable the +pilgrimage was omitted. + +The cheapest thing at Yeddar's, except time, was advice. You could not +tie up a dog without the entire establishment of loafers bossing the job. +A little active co-operation was not so easy to get, however. One day I +watched a freighter get stuck in the mud down the road 'a piece.' One by +one, the whole number of freighters, mountaineers and guides then at +Yeddar's lounged to the place, until there were nine able-bodied men +ranged in a row watching the freighter dig out his wagon. No one offered +to help him, but all contented themselves with criticising his methods +freely and inquiring after his politics. + +During the third week of our stay, Uncle John raised the price of our +board--and such board!--giving as an excuse that when we came he did not +know that we were going to like it so well, or stay so long! Please place +this joke where it belongs. + +The charm that held us to this rough place was the abundance of game. The +very night we got there, I was standing quietly by the cabin door at +dusk, when down the path came two of the prettiest does that the whole +of the Blacktail tribe could muster. Shoulder to shoulder, with their big +ears alert, they picked their way along, and under cover of the deepening +twilight advanced to examine the dwelling of the white man. + +I watched them with silent breath. They were not ten yards away. Then +they saw me and, wheeling around, stopped, the boldest a little in +advance of her companion, with the right forefoot raised for action. I +made no move. The graceful things eyed me suspiciously for several +seconds and then advanced a little in a one-sided fashion. + +A laugh from Yeddar's office, across the creek, where Uncle John and Dave +were having a quiet game of pinochle, caused a short retreat up the +road. About fifty yards away, they stopped, and there, in the twilight, +in that wild glen, they put themselves through a series of poses so +graceful, so unstudied, so tender, so deer-like, that my heart was +thrilled with joy at the mere artistic beauty of the scene. Then the +loudmouthed alarm of a dog sent them silently into the forest gloom. + +Nimrod wanted some photographs of animals from life, and the energy which +we put forth to obtain these was a constant surprise and disturbance to +Uncle John and his co-loafers. They could understand why one might trap +an animal, but to let it go again unhurt, after spending hours over it +with a camera, was a problem that required many drinks and much quiet +cogitation in the shade of the office. + +For days we tried to get a wood-chuck. At last we succeeded, and I find +this note written in my journal for that date:-- + +"Oct. 15th: Nimrod caught a woodchuck to-day, a baby one, and we called +him Johnny. Johnny stayed with us all day in his cage, while Nimrod made +a sketch of him and I took his picture. Then, in the late afternoon, we +took him back to his home in the stone-clad hill, and put him among his +brothers and sisters, who peeped cautiously at us from various rocky +niches, higher up the hill." + +Little Johnny must have had a great deal to say of the strange ways and +food of the big white animal. It must have been hard, too, for him to +have found suitable woodchuck language to express his sensations when he +was carried, oh! such a long way, in a big sack that grew on the side of +his captor; and of the taste of peppermint candy, which he ate in his +prettiest style, sitting on his haunches and clutching the morsel in both +forepaws like any well-bred baby woodchuck. And then those delicious +sugar cookies that Mrs. Spiker had just baked! How could he make his +ignorant brother chuckies appreciate those cookies! Poor little Johnny is +a marked woodchuck. He has seen the world. + +When Nimrod went hunting skunks, the group at the office gave us up. +"Locoed, plumb locoed," was the verdict. + +Have you ever been on a skunk hunt? But perhaps you have no prejudices. I +had. My code of action for a skunk was, if you see a black and white +animal, don't stop to admire its beautiful bushy tail, but give a good +imitation of a young woman running for her life. This did not suit +Nimrod. He assured me that there was no danger if we treated his +skunkship respectfully, and, as I was the photographer, I put on my old +clothes and meekly fell in line. Nimrod set several box traps in places +where skunks had been. These traps were merely soap boxes raised at one +end by a figure four arrangement of sticks, so that when the animal goes +inside and touches the bait the sticks fall apart, down comes the box, +and the animal is caged unhurt. The next morning we went the rounds. The +first trap was unsprung. The second one was down. Of course we could not +see inside. Was it empty? Was the occupant a rat or a skunk, and if so, +_what_ was he going to do? + +Nimrod approached the trap. Just then a big tree chanced to get between +me and it. I stopped, thinking that as good a place as any to await +developments. + +"It's a skunk all right," Nimrod announced gleefully. + +The box was rather heavy, so Nimrod went to Yeddar's, which was not far +away, to see if he could get one of the loungers to help carry the +captive to a large wire cage that we had rigged up near our shack. + +There were six men near the office, bronzed mountaineers, men of guns and +grit, men who had spent their lives facing danger; but, when it came to +facing a skunk, each looked at Nimrod as one would at a crazy man and had +important business elsewhere. For once I thoroughly appreciated their +point of view, but as there was no one else I took one end of the box, +and we started. It was a precarious pilgrimage, but we moved gently and +managed not to outrage the little animal's feelings. + +When the men saw us coming across the creek, with one accord they all +went in and took a drink. + +We gingerly urged Mr. Skunk into the big cage, and with the greatest +caution, never making a sudden move, I took his picture. All was as merry +as a marriage bell, and might have continued so but for that puppy Sim. +That is the trouble with skunks; they will lose their manners if +startled, and _dogs startle skunks_. + +Of course the puppy barked; of course the skunk did not like it. He +ruffled up his cold black nose, and elevated his bushy tail--his +beautiful, plumy tail. I opened the door of his cage and, snatching +the puppy, fled. The skunk was a wise and good animal, really a +gentleman, if treated politely. He appreciated my efforts on his +behalf. He forbearingly lowered his tail, composed his fur, and walked +out of the cage and into the near-by woods as tamely as a house tabby +out for a stroll. + + + + +IX. + +MY ANTELOPE. + + +It was a week later when I did something which those old guides could +understand and appreciate--I made a dead shot. I committed a murder, and +from that time, the brotherhood of pards was open to us, had we cared to +join. It was all because I killed an antelope. + +Nimrod and I started out that morning with the understanding that, if we +saw antelope, I was to have a chance. + +In about six miles, Nimrod spied two white specks moving along the rocky +ridge to the east of us, which rose abruptly from the plain where we +were. I was soon able to make out that they were antelope. But the +antelope had also seen us, and there was as much chance of getting near +to them, by direct pursuit, as of a snail catching a hare. So we rode on +calmly northward for half a mile, making believe we had not seen them, +until we passed out of sight behind a long hill. Then we began an +elaborate detour up the mountain, keeping well out of sight, until we +judged that the animals, providing they had not moved, were below us, +under the rocky ledge nearly a mile back. + +We tied up the horses on that dizzy height, and stole, Nimrod with a +carbine, I with the rifle, along a treacherous, shaly bank which ended, +twenty feet below, in the steep rocky bluffs that formed the face of the +cliff. Every step was an agony of uncertainty as to how far one would +slide, and how much loose shale one would dislodge to rattle down over +the cliff and startle the antelope we hoped were there. To move about on +a squeaking floor without disturbing a light sleeper is child's play +compared with our progress. A misstep would have sent us flying over the +cliff, but I did not think of that--my only care was not to startle the +shy fleet-footed creatures we were pursuing. I hardly dared to breathe; +every muscle and nerve was tense with the long suspense. + +[Illustration: A MISSTEP WOULD HAVE SENT US FLYING OVER THE CLIFF.] + +Suddenly I clutched Nimrod's arm and pointed at an oblong tan coloured +bulk fifty yards above us on the mountain. + +"Antelope! Lying down!" I whispered in his ear. He nodded and motioned me +to go ahead. I crawled nearer, inch by inch, my gaze riveted on that +object. It did not move. I grew more elated the nearer it allowed me to +approach. It was not so very hard to get at an antelope, after all. I +felt astonishingly pleased with my performance. Then--rattle, crash--and +a stone went bounding down. What a pity, after all my painful contortions +not to do it! I instantly raised the rifle to get a shot before the swift +animal went flying away. + +But it was strangely quiet. I stole a little nearer--and then turned and +went gently back to Nimrod. He was convulsed with silent and unnecessary +laughter. My elaborate stalk had been made on--a nice buff stone. + +We continued our precarious journey for another quarter of a mile, when +I motioned that I was going to try to get a sight of the antelope, which, +according to my notion, were under the rock some hundred feet below, and +signed to Nimrod to stay behind. + +Surely my guardian angel attended that descent. I slid down a crack in +the rock three feet wide, which gave me a purchase on the sides with my +elbows and left hand. The right hand grasped the rifle, to my notion an +abominably heavy awkward thing. One of these drops was eight feet, +another twelve. A slip would probably have cost me my life. Then I +crawled along a narrow ledge for about the width of a town-house front, +and, making another perilous slide, landed on a ledge so close to the +creatures I was hunting that I was as much startled as they. + +Away those two beautiful animals bounded, their necks proudly arched and +their tiny feet hitting the only safe places with unerring aim. They were +far out of range before I thought to get my rifle in position, and my +random shot only sent them farther out on the plain, like drifting leaves +on autumn wind. + +It was impossible to return the way I had come; so I rolled and jumped +and generally tumbled to the grassy hill below, and waited for Nimrod to +go back along the shaly stretch, and bring down the horses the way they +had gone up. + +Then we took some lunch from the saddle bags and sat down in the waving, +yellow grass of the foot hill with a sweep of miles before us, miles of +grassy tableland shimmering in the clear air like cloth of gold in the +sun, where cattle grow fat and the wild things still are at home. + +During lunch Nimrod tried to convince me that he knew all the time that +the antelope I stalked on the mountainside was a stone. Of course wives +should believe their husbands. The economy of State and Church would +collapse otherwise. However, the appearance of a large band of antelope, +a sight now very rare even in the Rockies, caused the profitless +discussion to be engulfed in the pursuit of the real thing. + +The antelope were two miles away, mere specks of white. We could not +tell them from the twinkling plain until they moved. We mounted +immediately and went after those antelope--by pretending to go away +from them. For three hours, we drew nearer to the quietly browsing +animals. We hid behind low hills, and crawled down a water-course, and +finally dismounted behind the very mound of prairie on the other side of +which they were resting, a happy, peaceful family. There were twenty +does, and proudly in their midst moved the king of the harem, a powerful +buck with royal horns. + +The crowning point of my long day's hunt was before me. That I should +have my chance to get one of the finest bucks ever hunted was clear. What +should I do, should I hit or miss? Fail! What a thought--never! + +Just then a drumming of hoofs which rapidly faded away showed that +the wind had betrayed us, and the whole band was off like a flight +of arrows. + +"Shoot! Shoot!" cried Nimrod, but my gun was already up and levelled on +the flying buck--now nearly a hundred yards away. + +Bang! The deadly thing went forth to do its work. Sliding another +cartridge into the chamber, I held ready for another shot. + +There was no need. The fleet-footed monarch's reign was over, and already +he had gone to his happy hunting ground. The bullet had gone straight to +his heart, and he had not suffered. But the does, the twenty beating +hearts of his harem! There they were, not one hundred yards away, huddled +together with ears erect, tiny feet alert for the next bound--yet waiting +for their lord and master, the proud tyrant, so strangely still on the +ground. Why did he not come? And those two creatures whose smell they +feared--why did he stay so near? + +They took a few steps nearer and again waited, eyes and ears and +uplifted hoofs asking the question, "Why doesn't he come? Why does he +let those dreadful creatures go so close?" Then, as we bent over their +fallen hero, they knew he was forever lost to them, and fear sent them +speeding out of sight. + + + + +X. + +A MOUNTAIN DRAMA. + + +But hunting does not make one wholly a brute, crying, 'Kill, kill!' at +every chance. In fact I have no more to confess in that line. Another +side to it is shown by an incident that happened about a week later. + +We were riding leisurely along, a mile or so from the spot where my +antelope had yielded his life to my vanity, when we saw, several +miles away in the low hills, two moving flecks of white which might +mean antelope. + +We watched. The two spots came rapidly nearer, and were clearly antelope. +We were soon able to make out that one was being chased by the other; +then that they were both bucks, the one in the rear much the heavier and +evidently the aggressor. Then from behind a hill came the cause of it +all--a bunch of lady antelope, who kept modestly together and to one +side, and watched the contest that should decide their master. Surely +this unclaimed harem was my doing! + +All at once, the two on-coming figures saw us. The first one paused, +doubtful which of the two dangers to choose. His foe caught up with him. +He wheeled and charged in self-defence, their horns met with a crash, +and the smaller was thrown to the ground. He was clearly no match for +his opponent. + +He sprang to his feet. His only safety was in flight, but where? His +strength was nearly gone. He ran a short distance away from us, circling +our cavalcade. His foe was nearly up to him again. He stopped an instant +with uplifted foot, then turned and made directly for _us_. Three loaded +guns hung at our saddles, but no hand went towards them. Not thirty feet +away from our motionless horses the buck dropped, exhausted. We could +easily have lassoed him. His adversary kept beyond gunshot, not daring to +follow him into the power of an enemy all wild things fear; and an eagle +who had perched on a rock near by, in hopes of a coming feast, flapped +his wings and slowly flew away to search elsewhere for his dinner. The +conquering buck walked back to his spoils of war, and soon marshalled +them out of sight behind a hill. + +The young buck almost at our feet quickly recovered. He was not seriously +hurt, only frightened and winded. He rose to his feet and stood for an +instant looking directly at us, his head with its growing horns held high +in the air, as if to thank us for the protection from a lesser foe he had +so boldly asked and so freely received of an all powerful enemy. Then, +turning, he lightly sped over the plain in an opposite direction, and the +eagle, who had kept us in sight until now, perhaps with a lingering hope, +rose swiftly upwards and was lost to sight. + +One elk with an eleven-point crown, and one antelope, of the finest ever +brought down, is the tax I levied on the wild things. Of the many, many +times I have watched them and left them unmolested, and of the lessons +they have taught me, under Nimrod's guidance, I have not space to tell, +for the real fascination of hunting is not in the killing but in seeing +the creature at home amid his glorious surroundings, and feeling the +freely rushing blood, the health-giving air, the gleeful sense of joy and +life in nature, both within and without. + + + + +XI. + +WHAT I KNOW ABOUT WAHB OF THE BIGHORN BASIN. + + +A fourteen-inch track is big, even for a grizzly. That was the size of +Wahb's. The first time I saw it, the hole looked big enough for a +baby's bath tub. + +We were travelling in Mr. A.'s pack train across the Shoshones from Idaho +to Wyoming. It was the first of October, and by then, in that region, +winter is shaking hands with you--pleasant hands to be sure, but a bit +cool. The night before we had made a picturesque camp on the lee side of +a rock cliff which was honeycombed with caves. A blazing camp fire was +built at the mouth of one of these and we lounged on the rock ledges +inside, thoroughly protected from the wind and cold. A storm was brewing. +We could hear the pine trees whistle and shriek as they were lashed about +in the forest across the brook. The lurid light of the fire showed us +ourselves in distorted shadows. The whole place seemed wild and wicked, +like a robber camp, and under its spell one thought things and felt +things that would have been impossible in the sun shine, where everything +is revealed. It began to snow, but we laughed at that. What did it matter +in the shelter of the cave? For the first time in days I was thoroughly +toasted on all sides at once. We had changed abruptly from the +steam-heated Pullman to camping in snow, and it takes a few days to get +used to such a shock. We told tales as weird as the scene, until far into +the night. The next morning the sun was bright, but the cook had to cut a +hole in the ice blanket over the brook to get water. We dared not linger +at our robber camp, for at any time a big snowstorm might come that would +cover the Wind River Divide, which we had to cross, with snow too deep +for the horses to travel. + +Two days later, the weather still promising well, we decided to camp for +a few days on the Upper Wiggin's Fork to hunt. It was a lovely spot; one +of those little grassy parks which but for the uprising masses of +mountains and towering trees might have surrounded your country home. + +That first night as we sat around the camp fire there came out of the +blackness behind us a faint greeting--_Wheres Who_--_Wheres Who_--from a +denizen of this mountain park, the great horned owl. The next morning we +packed biscuits into our saddle-bags and separated for the day into two +parties, Nimrod and the Horsewrangler, the Host and myself, leaving the +Cook to take care of camp. We were hunting for elk, mountain lion, or +bear. Nimrod had his camera, as well as his gun, a combination which the +Horsewrangler eyed with scant tolerance. + +The Host led me down the Wiggin's Fork for two miles, when we came out +upon a sandy, pebbly stretch which in spring the torrents entirely +covered, but now had been dried up for months. I was following +mechanically, guiding Blondey's feet among the cobblestones, for nature +had paved the place very badly, without much thought for anything beyond +the pleasure of being alive, when the Host suddenly stopped and pointed +to the ground. There I made out the track of a huge bear going the way we +were, and beyond was another, and another. Then they disappeared like a +row of post-holes into the distance. The Host said there was only one +bear in that region that could make a track like that; in spite of the +fact that this was beyond his range, it must be Meeteetsee Wahb. He got +off his horse and measured the track. Yes, the hind foot tracked fourteen +inches. What a hole in the ground it looked! + +The Host said the maker of it was probably far away, as he judged the +track to be several weeks old. I had heard so many tales of this monster +that when I gazed upon his track I felt as though I were looking at the +autograph of a hero. + +We saw other smaller grizzly and black bear tracks that day, so it was +decided to set a bear bait. Our Host was a cattle king, and could wage +war on bears with a good conscience. The usual three-cornered affair of +logs was fixed, the trap in the centre and elk meat as a decoy. Horse +meat is more alluring, but we deemed we would not need that, since we had +with us "a never-failing bear charm." Its object was to suggest a lady +bear, and thus attract some gallant to her side. The secret of the +preparation of this charm had been confided to Nimrod by an old hunter +the year before. It was a liquid composed of rancid fish oil, and--but I +suppose I must not tell. A more ungodly odour I have never known. Nimrod +put a few drops of it on his horse's feet, and all the other horses +straightway ostracised him for several days till the worst of it wore +away. Even the cook allowed "it was all-fired nasty." So some of this +bear charm went on the bait. + +The next morning, as we started out for the day to roam the mountains, we +first inspected the bear pen. Nothing had been near it. Indeed that charm +would keep everything else away, if not the bear himself. + +The next day it was the same story, but this really was no argument for +or against the charm, because, as I was told, bears in feeding usually +make about a two weeks' circuit, and although we had seen many tracks +they were all stale, demonstrating in a rough way that if we could linger +for a week or two we would be sure to catch some one of the trackers on +the return trip. + +This we could not do, as the expected snow-storm was now threatening, +and we were still two days from the Divide. To be snowed up there would +be serious. Before we could get packed up the snow began, falling +steadily and quietly as though reserving its forces for later violence. +We had been travelling about an hour from where we broke camp, when +Nimrod beckoned me to join him where he had halted with the Horsewrangler +a little off the line the pack train was following. I rode up quietly, +thinking it might be game. But no; Horsewrangler pointed to a little bank +where there was a circular opening in the trees. I looked, but did not +understand. + +"Do you see that dip in the ground there where the snow melts as fast as +it drops?" + +"Yes." + +"Wal, that there's a bear bath." + +"A bear's bath!" I exclaimed, suspecting a hoax. + +"Yes, a sulphur spring. I reckon this here one belongs to the Big +Grizzly." + +We examined the place with much interest, but found no fresh tracks, and +the snow had covered most of the stale ones, as "of course he ain't got +no call for it in winter. Like as not, he's denned up somewheres near, +though it's a mite early." + +This was thrilling. Perhaps we might pass within a few feet of Wahb and +never know it. It was like being told that the ghost of the dear departed +is watching you. Nimrod pointed out to me a tree with the bark scratched +and torn off for several feet--one of Wahb's rubbing trees. He located +the sunning ledge for me, and then we reluctantly hurried on, for the +journey ahead promised to be long and hard. Indeed I found it so. + +There were many indications that the storm was a serious one, and not the +least of these was the behaviour of the little chief hare, or pika. As we +ascended the rocky mountain-side we saw many of these little creatures +scurrying hither and thither with bundles of hay in their mouths, which +they deposited in tiny hay-cocks in sheltered places under rocks. So hard +were they working that they could not even stop to be afraid of us. As +all the party, but myself, knew, this meant bad weather and winter; for +these cute, overgrown rats are reliable barometers, and they gave every +indication that they were belated in getting their food supply, which had +been garnered in the autumn after the manner of their kind, properly +housed for winter use. + +All that day we worked our way through the forest with the silent snow +deepening around us, ever up and up, eight thousand, nine thousand, ten +thousand feet. It was an endless day of freezing in the saddle, and of +snow showers in one's face from the overladen branches. I was frightfully +cold and miserable. Every minute seemed the last I could endure without +screeching. But still our Host pushed on. It was necessary to get near +enough to the top of the Continental Divide so that we could cross it the +next day. It began to grow dark about three o'clock; the storm increased. +I kept saying over and over to myself what I was determined I should not +say out loud: + +"Oh, please stop and make camp! I cannot stay in this saddle another +minute. My left foot is frozen. I know it is, and the saddle cramp is +unbearable. I am so hungry, so cold, so exhausted; oh, please stop!" +Then, having wailed this out under my breath, I would answer it harshly: +"You little fool, stop your whimpering. The others are made of flesh and +blood too. We should be snowbound if we stopped here. Don't be a +cry-baby. There is lots of good stuff in you yet. This only seems +terrible because you are not used to it, so brace up." + +[Illustration: THUS I FOUGHT THROUGH THE AFTERNOON.] + +Then I would even smile at Nimrod who kept keen watch on me, or wave my +hand at the Host, who was in front. This appearance of unconcern helped +me for a few seconds, and then I would begin the weary round: "Oh, my +foot, my back, my head; I cannot endure it another moment; I can't, I +can't." Yet all the while knowing that I could and would. Thus I fought +through the afternoon, and at last became just a numb thing on the horse +with but one thought, "I can and will do it." So at last when the order +came to camp in four feet of snow ten thousand feet above the sea, with +the wind and snow blowing a high gale, I just drew rein and sat there on +my tired beast. + +We disturbed a band of mountain sheep that got over the deep snow with +incredible swiftness. It was my first view of these animals, but it +aroused no enthusiasm in me, only a vague wonder that they seemed to be +enjoying themselves. Finally Nimrod came and pulled me off, I was too +stiff and numb to get down myself. Then I found that the snow was so deep +I could not go four feet. Not to be able to move about seemed to me the +end of all things. I simply dropped in the snow--it was impossible to +ever be warm and happy again--and prepared at last to weep. + +But I looked around first--Nimrod was coaxing a pack animal through the +snow to a comparatively level place where our tent and bed things could +be placed. The Host was shovelling a pathway between me and the spot +where the Cook was coaxing a fire. The Horsewrangler was unpacking the +horses alone (so that I might have a fire the sooner). They were all +grim--doubtless as weary as I--but they were all working for my ultimate +comfort, while I was about to repay them by sitting in the snow and +weeping. I pictured them in four separate heaps in the snow, all weeping. +This was too much; I did not weep. Instead by great effort I managed to +get my horse near the fire, and after thawing out a moment unsaddled the +tired animal, who galloped off gladly to join his comrades, and thus I +became once more a unit in the economic force. But bad luck had +crossed its fingers at me that day without doubt, and I had to be taught +another lesson. I tell of it briefly as a warning to other women; of +course--men always know better, instinctively, as they know how to fight. +I presume you will agree that ignorance is punished more cruelly than any +other thing, and that in most cases good intentions do not lighten the +offence. My ignorance that time was of the effect of eating snow on an +empty stomach. My intentions were of the best, for, being thirsty, I ate +several handfuls of snow in order to save the cook from getting water out +of a brook that was frozen. But my punishment was the same--a severe +chill which made me very ill. + +I had been cold all day, but that is a very different thing from having a +chill. I felt stuffed with snow; snow water ran in my veins, snow +covered the earth, the peaks around me. I was mad with snow. They gave me +snow whisky and put me beside a snow fire. I had not told any one what I +had done, not realising what was the mischief maker, and it really looked +as though I had heart disease, or something dreadful. + +They put rugs and coats around me till I could not move with their +weight; but they were putting them around a snow woman. The only thing I +felt was the icy wind, and that went through my shivering, shaking self. +The snow was falling quietly and steadily, as it had fallen all day. We +_must_ cross yonder divide to-morrow. It was no time to be ill. Every one +felt that, and big, black gloom was settling over the camp, when I by way +of being cheerful remarked to the Host: "Do you-ou kno-ow, I feel as +though there was n-nothing of me b-but the sno-ow I ate an hour ago." + +"Snow!" he exclaimed. "Did you eat much? Well, no wonder you are ill." + +The effect was instantaneous. Everybody looked relieved; I was not even +a heroine. + +"I will soon cure you," said the Host, as he poured out more whisky, and +the Cook reheated some soup and chocolate. The hot drinks soon succeeded +in thawing me from a snow woman back to shivering flesh and blood which +was supportable. + +Nimrod looked pleasant again and began studying the mountain sheep +tracks. The cook fell to whistling softly from one side of his mouth, +while a cigarette dangled from the other, as was his wont when he +puttered about the fire. The Horsewrangler was making everything tight +for the night against wind and snow. The Host lighted a cigarette, a calm +expression glided over his face, and he became chatty, and, although the +storm was just as fierce and the thermometer just as low, peace was +restored to Camp Snow. + +The next day we crossed the divide, and not a day too soon. The snow was +so deep that the trail breaker in front was in danger of going over a +precipice or into a rock crevice at any time. After him came the pack, +animals, so that they could make a path for us. The path was just the +width of the horse, and in some places the walls of it rose above my +head. In such places I had to keep my feet high up in the saddle to +prevent them from being crushed. For a half day we struggled upwards +with danger stalking by our sides, then on the very ridge of the divide +itself, 11,500 feet in the air, with the icy wind blowing a hurricane of +blinding snow, we skirted along a precipice the edge of which the snow +covered so that we could not be sure when a misstep might send us over +into whatever is waiting for us in the next world. + +But fortunately we did not even lose a horse. Then came the plunging +down, down, with no chance to pick steps because of the all-concealing +snow. Those, indeed, were "stirring times," but we made camp that night +in clear weather and good spirits. We were on the right side of the +barrier and only two days from the Palette Ranch--and safety, not to +say luxury. + +If you had Aladdin's lamp and asked for a shooting box, you could hardly +expect to find anything more ideal than the Palette Ranch. There is no +spot in the world more beautiful or more health giving. It is tucked away +by itself in the heart of the Rockies, 150 miles from the railroad, 40 +miles from the stage route, and surrounded on the three sides by a +wilderness of mountains. And when after travelling over these for three +weeks with compass as guide, one dark, stormy night we stumbled and +slipped down a mountain side and across an icy brook to its front lawn, +the message of good cheer that streamed in rosy light from its windows +seemed like an opiate dream. + +We entered a large living room, hung with tapestries and hunting trophies +where a perfectly appointed table was set opposite a huge stone +fireplace, blazing with logs. Then came a delicious course dinner with +rare wines, and served by a French chef. The surprise and delight of it +in that wilderness--but the crowning delight was the guestroom. As we +entered, it was a wealth of colour in Japanese effect, soft glowing +lanterns, polished floors, fur rugs, silk-furnished beds and a crystal +mantelpiece (brought from Japan) which reflected the fire-light in a +hundred tints. Beyond, through an open door, could be seen the tiled +bath-room. It was a room that would be charming anywhere, but in that +region a veritable fairy's chamber. Truly it is a canny Host who can thus +blend harmoniously the human luxuries of the East and the natural glories +of the West. + +In our rides around the Palette I saw Wahb's tracks once again. The Host +had taken us to a far away part of his possessions. Three beautiful wolf +hounds frisked along beside us, when all at once they became much excited +about something they smelt in a little scrub-pine clump on the right. We +looked about for some track or sign that would explain their behaviour. I +spied a huge bear track. + +"Hah!" I thought, "Wahb at last," and my heart went pit-a-pat as I +pointed it out to Nimrod. He recognised it but remained far too calm +for my fancy. I pointed into the bushes with signs of "Hurrah, it's +Wahb." I received in reply a shake of the head and a pitying smile. How +was I to know that the dogs were saying as plainly as dogs need to "A +bobcat treed"? + +So I followed meekly and soon saw the bobcat's eyes glaring at us from +the topmost branches. The Host took a shot at it with the camera which +the lynx did not seem to mind, and calling off the disappointed dogs we +went on our way. The Host allows no shooting within a radius of twelve +miles of the Palette. Any living thing can find protection there and the +result is that any time you choose to ride forth you can see perfectly +wild game in their homeland. + + * * * * * + +It was not till the next year that I really saw Wahb. It was at his +summer haunt, the Fountain Hotel in the Yellowstone National Park. If +you were to ask Nimrod to describe the Fountain geyser or Hell Hole, +or any of the other tourist sights thereabouts, I am sure he would +shake his head and tell you there was nothing but bears around the +hotel. For this was the occasion when Nimrod spent the entire day in +the garbage heap watching the bears, while I did the conventional +thing and saw the sights. + +About sunset I got back to the hotel. Much to my surprise I could not +find Nimrod; and neither had he been seen since morning, when he had +started in the direction of the garbage heap in the woods some quarter of +a mile back from the hotel. Anxiously I hurried there, but could see no +Nimrod. Instead I saw the outline of a Grizzly feeding quietly on the +hillside. It was very lonely and gruesome. Under other circumstances I +certainly would have departed quickly the way I came, but now I must find +Nimrod. It was growing dark, and the bear looked a shocking size, as big +as a whale. Dear me, perhaps Nimrod was inside--Jonah style. Just then I +heard a sepulchral whisper from the earth. + +"Keep quiet, don't move, it's the Big Grizzly." + +I looked about for the owner of the whisper and discovered Nimrod not +far away in a nest he had made for himself in a pile of rubbish. I +edged nearer. + +"See, over there in the woods are two black bears. You scared them away. +Isn't he a monster?" indicating Wahb. + +I responded with appropriate enthusiasm. Then after a respectful silence +I ventured to say: + +"How long have you been here?" + +"All day--and such a day--thirteen bears at one time. It is worth all +your geysers rolled into one. + +"H'm--Have you had anything to eat?" + +"No." Another silence, then I began again. + +"Aren't you hungry? Don't you want to come to dinner?" + +He nodded yes. Then I sneaked away and came back as soon as possible with +a change of clothes. The scene was as I had left it, but duskier. I stood +waiting for the next move. The Grizzly made it. He evidently had finished +his meal for the night, and now moved majestically off up the hill +towards the pine woods. At the edge of these he stood for a moment, +Wahb's last appearance, so far as I am concerned, for, as he posed, the +fading, light dropped its curtain of darkness between us, and I was able +to get Nimrod away. + + + + +XII. + +THE DEAD HUNT. + + +To hunt the wily puma, the wary elk, or the fleet-footed antelope is to +have experiences strange and varied, but for the largest assortment of +thrills in an equal time the 'dead hunt' is the most productive. My +acquaintance with a 'dead hunt'--which is by no means a 'still +hunt'--began and ended at Raven Agency. It included horses, bicycles, and +Indians, and followed none of the customary rules laid down for a hunt, +either in progress or result. + +And, not to antagonise the reader, I will say now that it was very +naughty to do what I did, an impolite and ungenerous thing to do, on a +par with the making up of slumming parties to pry into the secrets of the +poor. It was the act of a vandal, and at times--in the gray dawn and on +the first day of January--I am sorry about it; but then I should not have +had that carved bead armlet, and as that is the tail of my story, I will +put it in the mouth and properly begin. + +Nimrod and I went to the United States agency for the Asrapako or Raven +Indians in--well, never mind, not such a far cry from the Rockies, unless +you are one of those uncomfortable persons who carry a map of the United +States in your mind's eye--because Burfield was there painting Many +Whacks, the famous chief; because Nimrod wanted to know what kind of +beasties lived in that region; and because I wanted a face to face +encounter with the Indian at home. I got it. + +The first duty of a stranger at Raven Agency is to visit the famous +battlefield, three miles away; and the Agent, an army officer, very +charmingly made up a horseback party to escort us there. He put me on a +rawboned bay who, he said, was a "great goer." It was no merry jest. I +was nearly the last to mount and quite the first to go flying down the +road. The Great Goer galloped all the way there. His mouth was as hard as +nails, and I could not check him; still, the ride was no worse than being +tossed in a blanket for half an hour. On the very spot, I heard the +story of the tragic Indian fight by one who claimed to have been an +eye-witness. Every place where each member of that heroic band fell, +doing his duty, is marked by a small marble monument, and as I looked +over the battle ground and saw these symbols of beating hearts, long +still in death, clustered in twos and threes and a dozen where each had +made the last stand, every pillar seemed to become a shadowy soldier; the +whole awful shame of the massacre swept over me, and I was glad to head +my horse abruptly for home. And then there were other things to think +about, things more intimate and real. No sooner did the Great Goer's nose +point in the direction of his stable than he gave a great bound, as +though a bee had stung him; then he lowered his head, laid back his ears, +and--gallopped home. + +[Illustration: WE WHIZZED ACROSS THE RAILROAD TRACK IN FRONT OF THE +DAY EXPRESS.] + +I yanked and tugged at the bit. It was as a wisp of hay in his mouth. I +might as well have been a monkey or a straw woman bobbing up and down on +his back. Pound, pound, thump, thump, gaily sped on the Great Goer. +There were dim shouts far behind me for a while, then no more. The +roadside whipped by, two long streaks of green. We whizzed across the +railroad track in front of the day express, accompanied by the engine's +frantic shriek of "down brakes." If a shoe had caught in the track--ah! +I lost my hat, my gold hatpin, every hairpin, and brown locks flew out +two feet behind. + +Away went my watch, then the all in two pockets, knife, purse, +match-box--surely this trail was an improvement on Tom Thumb's' bread +crumbs. One foot was out of the stirrup. I wrapped the reins around the +pommel and clung on. There is a gopher hole--that means a broken leg for +him, a clavicle and a few ribs for me. No; on we go. Ah, that stony brook +ahead we soon must cross! Ye gods, so young and so fair! To perish thus, +the toy of a raw-boned Great Goer! + +Pound, pound, pound, the hard road rang with the thunder of hoofs. Could +I endure it longer? Oh, there is the stream--surely he will stop. No! He +is going to jump! It's an awful distance! With a frantic effort I got my +feet in the stirrups. He gathered himself together. I shut my eyes. Oh! +We missed the bank and landed in the water--an awful mess. But the Great +Goer scrambled out, with me still on top somehow, and started on. I +pulled on the reins again with every muscle, trying to break his pace, or +his neck anything that was his. Then there was a flapping noise below. We +both heard it, we both knew what it was--the cinch worked loose, that +meant the saddle loose. + +In desperation I clutched the Great Goer's mane with both hands and, +leaning forward, yelled wildly in his ears: + +"Whoa, whoa! The saddle's turning! Whoa! Do you wa-ant to _ki-ill_ me?" + +Do not tell me that the horse is not a noble, intelligent animal with a +vast comprehension of human talk and sympathy for human woe. For the +Great Goer pulled up so suddenly that I nearly went on without him in +the line of the least resistance. Then he stood still and went to +nibbling grass as placidly as though he had not been doing racing time +for three miles, and I should have gone on forever believing in his +wondrous wit had I not turned and realised that he was standing in his +own pasture lot. + +Seeking to console my dishevelled self as I got off, I murmured, "Well, +it was a sensation any way--an absolutely new one," just as Nimrod +gallopped up, and seeing I was all right, called out: + +"Hello, John Gilpin!" That is the way with men. + +My scattered belongings were gathered up by the rest of the party, and +each as he arrived with the relic he had gathered, made haste to explain +that his horse had no chance with my mount. + +I thanked the Agent for the Great Goer without much comment. (See advice +to Woman-who-goes-hunting-with-her-husband.) But that is why, the next +day, when Burfield confided to me that he knew where there were some +'Dead-trees' (not dead trees) that could be examined without fear of +detection, I preferred to borrow the doctor's wife's bicycle. + +Dead-trees? Very likely you know what I did not until I saw for myself, +that the Asrapako, in common with several Indian tribes, place their dead +in trees instead of in the ground. As the trees are very scarce in that +arid country, and only to be found in gullies and along the banks of the +Little Big Buck River, nearly every tree has its burden of one or more +swathed-up bodies bound to its branches, half hidden by the leaves, like +great cocoons--most ghastly reminders of the end of all human things. + +It was to a cluster of these "deadtrees," five miles away, that Burfield +guided me, and it was on this ride that the wily wheel, stripped of all +its glamour of shady roads, tête-à-têtes, down grades, and asphalts, +appeared as its true, heavy, small seated, stubborn self. + +I can undertake to cure any bicycle enthusiast. The receipt is simple and +here given away. First, take two months of Rocky Mountains with a living +sentient creature to pull you up and down their rock-ribbed sides, to +help out with his sagacity when your own fails, and to carry you at a +long easy lope over the grassy uplands some eight or ten thousand feet +above the sea in that glorious bracing air. Secondly, descend rapidly to +the Montana plains--hot, oppressive, enervating--or to the Raven Agency, +if you will, and attempt to ride a wheel up the only hill in all that +arid stretch of semi desert, a rise of perhaps three hundred feet. + +It is enough. You will find that your head is a sea of dizziness, that +your lungs have refused to work, that your heart is pounding aloud in +agony, and you will then and there pronounce the wheel an instrument of +torture, devised for the undoing of woman. + +I tried it. It cured me, and, once cured, the charms of the wheel are as +vapid as the defence of a vigilant committee to the man it means to hang. +Stubborn--it would not go a step without being pushed. It would not even +stand up by itself, and I literally had to push it--it, as well as myself +on it--in toil and dust and heat the whole way. Nimrod said his bicycle +betrayed itself, too, only not so badly. Of course, that was because he +was stronger. The weaker one is, the more stubbornly bicycles behave. +Every one knows that. And they are so narrow minded. They needs must +stick to the travelled road, and they behave viciously when they get in a +rut. Imagine hunting antelope across sage-brush country on a bicycle! I +know a surveyor who tried it once. They brought him home with sixteen +broken bones and really quite a few pieces of the wheel, improved to +Rococo. Bah! Away with it and its limitations, and those of its big +brother, the automobile! Sing me no death knell of the horse companion. + +At last, with the assistance of trail and muscle, the five miles were +covered, and we came to a dip in the earth which some bygone torrent had +hollowed out, and so given a chance for a little moisture to be retained +to feed the half-dozen cottonwoods and rank grass, that dared to struggle +for existence in that baked up sage-brush waste which the government has +set aside for the Raven paradise. + +We jumped--no, that is horse talk--we sprawled off our wheels and left +the stupid things, lying supinely on their sides, like the dead lumpish +things they are, and descended a steep bank some ten feet into the gully. + +It was a gruesome sight, in the hour before sunset, with not a soul but +ourselves for miles around. The lowering sun lighted up the under side of +the leaves and branches and their strange burdens, giving an effect +uncanny and weird, as though caused by unseen footlights. Not a sound +disturbed the oppressive quiet, not the quiver of a twig. Five of the six +trees bore oblong bundles, wrapped in comforters and blankets, and bound +with buckskin to the branches near the trunk, fifteen or twenty feet from +the ground, too high for coyotes, too tight for vultures. But what caught +our attention as we dropped into the gully was one of the bundles that +had slipped from its fastenings and was hanging by a thong. + +It needed but a tug to pull it to the ground. Burfield supplied that tug, +and we all got a shock when the wrappings, dislodged by the fall, parted +at one end and disclosed the face of a mummy. I had retreated to the +other end of the little dip, not caring to witness some awful spectacle +of disintegration; but a mummy--no museum-cased specimen, labelled 'hands +off', but a real mummy of one's own finding--was worth a few shudders +to examine. + +I looked into the shrivelled, but otherwise normal, face of the Indian +woman. What had been her life, her heart history, now as completely gone +as though it had never been--thirty years of life struggle in snow and +sun, with, perhaps, a little joy, and then what? + +Seven brass rings were on her thumb and a carved wooden armlet encircled +the wrist. These I was vandal enough to accept from Burfield. There were +more rings and armlets, but enough is enough. As the gew-gaws had a +peculiar, gaseous, left-over smell, I wrapped them in my gloves, and +surely if trifles determine destiny, that act was one of the trifles that +determined the fact that I was to be spared to this life for yet a while +longer. For, as I was carelessly wrapping up my spoil, with a nose very +much turned up, Burfield suddenly started and then began bundling the +wrappings around the mummy at great speed. Something was serious. I +stooped to help him, and he whispered: + +"Thought I heard a noise. If the Indians catch us, there'll be trouble, +I'm afraid." + +We hastily stood the mummy on end, head down, against the tree, and tried +to make it look as though the coyotes had torn it down, after it had +fallen within reach, as indeed they had, originally. Then we crawled to +the other end of the gully, scrambled up the bank, and emerged +unconcernedly. + +There was nothing in sight but long stretches of sage brush, touched +here and there by the sun's last gleams. We were much relieved. +Said Burfield: + +"The Indians are mighty ugly over that Spotted Tail fight, and if they +had caught us touching their dead, it might have been unhealthy for us." + +"Why, what would they do?" I asked, suddenly realising what many white +men never do--that Indians are emotional creatures like ourselves. The +brass rings became uncomfortably conspicuous in my mind. + +"Well, I don't suppose they would dare to kill us so close to the agency, +but I don't know; a mad Injun's a bad Injun." + +Nevertheless, this opinion did not deter him from climbing a tree where +three bodies lay side by side in a curious fashion; but I had no more +interest in 'dead-trees,' and fidgeted. Nimrod had wandered off some +distance and was watching a gopher hole-up for the night. The place in +the fading light was spooky, but it was of live Indians, not dead ones, +that I was thinking. + +There is a time for all things, and clearly this was the time to go +back to Severin's dollar-a-day Palace Hotel. I started for the +bicycles when two black specks appeared on the horizon and grew +rapidly larger. They could be nothing but two men on horseback +approaching at a furious gallop. It was but yaller-covered-novel +justice that they should be Indians. + +"Quick, Burfield, get out of that tree on the other side!" It did not +take a second for man and tree to be quit of each other, at the imminent +risk of broken bones. I started again for the wheels. + +"Stay where, you are," said Burfield; "we could never get away on those +things. If they are after us, we must bluff it out." + +There was no doubt about their being after us. The two galloping figures +were pointed straight at us and were soon close enough to show that they +were Indians. We stood like posts and awaited them. Thud, thud--ta-thud, +thud--on they charged at a furious pace directly at us. They were five +hundred feet away--one hundred feet--fifty. + +Now, I always take proper pride in my self possession, and to show how +calm I was, I got out my camera, and as the two warriors came chasing up +to the fifty-foot limit, I snapped it. I had taken a landscape a minute +before, and I do not think that the fact that that landscape and those +Indians appeared on the same plate is any proof that I was in the least +upset by the red men's onset. Forty feet, thirty--on they came--ten--were +they going to run us down? + +Five feet, full in front of us they pulled in their horses to a dead +stop--unpleasantly, close, unpleasantly sudden. Then there was an +electric silence, such as comes between the lightning's flash and the +thunder's crack. The Indians glared at us. We stared at the Indians, each +measuring the other. Not a sound broke the stillness of that desolate +spot, save the noisy panting of the horses as they stood, still braced +from the shock of the sudden stop. + +For three interminable minutes we faced each other without a move. Then +one of the Indians slowly roved his eyes all over the place, searching +suspiciously. From where he stood the tell-tale mummy was hidden by the +bank and some bushes, and the tell-tale brass rings and armlet were in my +gloves which I held as jauntily as possible. He saw nothing wrong. He +turned again to us. We betrayed no signs of agitation. Then he spoke +grimly, with a deep scowl on his ugly face: + +[Illustration: FIVE FEET FULL IN FRONT OF US, THEY PULLED THEIR HORSES TO +A DEAD STOP.] + +"No touch 'em; savey?" giving a significant jerk of the head towards +the trees. + +We responded by a negative shake of the head. Oh, those brass rings! Why +did I want to steal brass rings from the left thumb of an Indian woman +mummy! Me! I should be carving my name on roadside trees next! + +There was another silence as before. None of us had changed positions, +so much as a leaf's thickness. Then the second Indian, grim and ugly as +the first, spoke sullenly: + +"No touch 'em; savey?" He laid his hand suggestively on something in his +belt. + +Again we shook our heads in a way that deprecated the very idea of such a +thing. They gave another dissatisfied look around, and slowly turned +their horses. + +We waited breathless to see which way they would go. If they went on the +other side of the gully, they must surely see that bundle on the ground +and--who can tell what might happen? But they did not. With many a look +backwards, they slowly rode away, and with them the passive elements of +a tragedy. + +I tied my ill-gotten, ill-smelling pelt on the handle bar of the doctor's +wife's bicycle, and we hurried home like spanked children. That night, +after I had delivered unto the doctor's wife her own, and disinfected the +gewgaws in carbolic, I added two more subjects to my Never-again +list--bicycling in Montana and 'dead hunts.' + + + + +XIII. + +JUST RATTLESNAKES. + + +It is a blessing that a rattlesnake has to coil before it can spring. No +one has ever written up life from a rattler's point of view, although it +has been unfeelingly stated that fear of snakes is an inheritance from +our simian ancestors. + +To me, I acknowledge, a rattler is just a horrid snake; so, when we were +told at Markham that rattlers were more common than the cattle which +grazed on every hill, I discovered that there were yet new imps to +conquer in my world of fear. Shakspere has said some nice things about +fear--"Of all the wonders, ... it seems to me most strange that men +should fear"--but he never knew anything about squirming rattlesnakes. + +The Cuttle Fish ranch is five miles from Markham. That thriving +metropolis has ten houses and eleven saloons, in spite of Dakota being +'prohibition.' Markham is in the heart of the Bad Lands, the wonderful +freakish Bad Lands, where great herds of cattle range over all the +possible, and some of the impossible, places, while the rest of +it--black, green, and red peaks, hills of powdered coal, wicked land cuts +that no plumb can fathom, treacherous clay crust over boiling lava, arid +horrid miles of impish whimsical Nature--is Bad indeed. + +Nimrod and I had been lured to the Cuttle Fish ranch to go on a wolf +hunt. The house was a large two storey affair of logs, with a long tail +of one storey log outbuildings like a train of box cars. We sat down to +dinner the first night with twenty others, a queer lot truly to find in +that wild uncivilised place. There was an ex-mayor and his wife from a +large Eastern city; a United States Senator--the toughest of the +party--who appeared at table in his undershirt; four cowboys, who were +better mannered than the two New York millionaires' sons who had been +sent there to spend their college vacation and get toughened (the process +was obviously succeeding); they made Nimrod apologise for keeping his +coat on during dinner; the three brothers who owned the ranch, and the +wife of one of them; several children; a prim and proper spinster from +Washington--how she got there, who can tell?--and Miss Belle Hadley, the +servant girl. + +In studying the case of Belle I at last appreciated the age-old teaching +that the greatest dignity belongs to the one who serves. Else why did +the ex-mayor's wife bake doughnuts, and the rotund Senator toil at the +ice cream freezer with the thermometer at 112 degrees, and the +millionaires' sons call Belle "Miss Hadley," and I make bows for her +organdie dress, while she curled her hair for a dance to be held that +evening ten miles away, and to which she went complacently with her pick +of the cowboys and her employers' two best horses, while they stayed at +home and did her work! Else why did this one fetch wood for her, that +one peel the potatoes, another wash the dishes? And when she and the +rest of us were seated at meals, and something was needed from the +kitchen, why did the unlucky one nearest the door jump up and forage? +Belle was never nearest the door. She sat at the middle of the long +table, so that she could be handy to everything that was 'circulating.' +But I refer this case to the author of those delightful papers on the +"Unquiet Sex," and hark back to my story. + +That night the moon was full, and the coyotes made savage music around +the lonely ranch house. First from the hill across the creek came a +snappy _wow-wow, yac-yac_, and then a long drawn out _ooo-oo_; then +another voice, a soprano, joined in, followed by a baritone, and then the +star voice of them all--loud, clear, vicious, mournful. For an instant I +saw him silhouetted against the rising moon on the hill ridge, head +thrown back and muzzle raised, as he gave to the peaceful night his +long, howling bark, his "talk at moon" as the Indians put it. The +ranchman remarked that there were "two or three out there," but I knew +better. There were dozens, perhaps hundreds, of them; I am not deaf. + +The next morning we were up with the dawn and started by eight to run +down Mountain Billy, the grey wolf who lived on the ranchmen of the Bad +Lands. Our outfit was as symmetrical as a pine cone;--dogs, horses, mess +wagon, food, guns and men. All we needed was the grey wolf. I was the +only woman in the party, and, like "Weary Waddles," tagged behind. + +[Illustration: THE COYOTES MADE SAVAGE MUSIC.] + +It was the middle of September, and the weather should have known +better. But it was the Bad Lands, and there was a hot spell on. By three +o'clock the thermometer showed 116-1/2 in the shade, and I believed it. +The heat and glare simmered around us like fire. The dogs' tongues nearly +trailed in the baked dust, the horses' heads hung low, an iron band +seemed ever tightening around my head, as the sun beat down upon all +alike with pitiless force. + +When we came to the Little Missoula, even its brackish muddy water was +welcome, and I shut my eyes to the dirt in the uninviting brown fluid, +and my mind to the knowledge of the horrid things it would do to me, and +drank; Tepid, gritty, foul--was it water I had swallowed? The horse +assigned to me, a small, white, benevolent animal named 'Whiskers,' +waded in knee deep and did the same. Whiskers was a 'lady's horse,' +which, being interpreted, meant aged eighteen or twenty, with all spirit +knocked out by hard work; a broken down cow pony, in fact, or, in local +parlance, a 'skate,' a 'goat.' He had lagged considerably behind the +rest of the party. + +However, Whiskers did not matter; nothing mattered but the waves on +waves of heat that quivered before my eyes. I shut them and began +repeating cooling rhymes, such as 'twin peaks snow clad,' 'From +Greenland's Icy Mountains,' and the 'Frozen North,' by way of living up +to Professor James' teachings. Whiskers was ambling on, half-stupefied +with the heat, as I was, when from the road just in front came a +peculiar sound. I did not know what it was, but Whiskers did, and he +immediately executed a demi volte (see Webster) with an energy I had +not thought him capable of. + +Again came the noise, yes, surely, just as it had been described--like +dried peas in a pod--and gliding across the road was a big rattlesnake. I +confess had Whiskers been so inclined, I should have been content to have +passed on with haughty disdain. But Whiskers performed a left flank +movement so nearly unseating me that I deemed it expedient to drop to the +ground, and Whiskers, without waiting for orders, retreated down the road +at what he meant for a gallop. The rattler stopped his pretty gliding +motion away from me, and seemed in doubt. Then he began to take on a few +quirks. "He is going to coil and then to strike," said I, recalling a +paragraph from my school reader. It was an unhappy moment! I knew that +tradition had fixed the proper weapons to be used against rattlesnakes: +a stone (more if necessary), a stick (forked one preferred), and in rare +cases a revolver (when it is that kind of a story). I had no revolver. +There was not a stick in sight, and not a stone bigger than a hazelnut; +but there was the rattler. I cast another despairing glance around and +saw, almost at my feet and half hidden by sage brush, several inches of +rusty iron--blessed be the passing teamster who had thrown it there. I +darted towards it and, despite tradition, turned on the rattler armed +with the goodly remains of--a frying pan. + +[Illustration: THE HORRID THING WAS READY FOR ME.] + +The horrid thing was ready for me with darting tongue and flattened +head--another instant it would have sprung. _Smash_ on its head went my +valiant frying pan and struck a deadly blow, although the thing managed +to get from under it. I recaptured my weapon and again it descended upon +the reptile's head, settling it this time. Feeling safe, I now took hold +of the handle to finish it more quickly. Oh, that tail--that awful, +writhing, lashing tail! I can stand Indians, bears, wolves, anything but +that tail, and a rattler is all tail, except its head. If that tail +touches me I shall let go. It did touch me, I did not let go. Pride held +me there, for I heard the sound of galloping hoofs. Whiskers' empty +saddle had alarmed the rest of the party. + +My snake was dead now, so I put one foot on him to take his scalp--his +rattles, I mean--when horrid thrills coursed through me. The uncanny +thing began to wriggle and rattle with old-time vigour. I do not like to +think of that simian inheritance. But, fortified by Nimrod's assurance +that it was 'purely reflex neuro-ganglionic movement,' I hardened my +heart and captured his 'pod of dry peas.' + +Oh, about the wolf hunt! That was all, just heat and rattlesnakes. + +The hounds could not run; one died from sunstroke while chasing a jack +rabbit. No one lifted a finger if it could be avoided. All the world was +an oven, and after three days we gave up the chase, and leaving Mountain +Billy panting triumphantly somewhere in his lair, trailed back to the +ranch house with drooping heads and fifteen rattle-snakes' tails. Oh, no, +the hunt was not a failure--for Mountain Billy. + + + + +XIV. + +AS COWGIRL. + + +Till the time of the "WB" round-up all cows looked alike to me. We were +still at the Cuttle Fish ranch, which was in a state of great activity +because of the fall roundup. Belle, the servant girl, had received less +attention of late and had been worked harder, a combination of +disagreeables which caused her to threaten imminent departure. The +cowboys, who had been away for several days gathering in the stragglers +that had wandered into the wild recesses of those uncanny Bad Land hills, +assembled in full force for the evening meal, and announced, between +mouthfuls, that the morrow was to be branding day for the several +outfits, about two thousand head of cattle in all, the 'WB' included, +which were rounded up on the Big Flat two miles distant from the ranch. + +This was the chance for me to be relieved of my crass ignorance +concerning round-ups, really to have a definite conception of the term +instead of the sea of vagueness and conjecture into which I was plunged +by the usual description--"Oh, just a whole lot of cattle driven to one +place, and those that need it are cut out and frescoed." How many was a +whole lot, how were they driven, where were they driven from, what were +they cut out with, how were they branded, and when did they need it? My +ignorance was hopeless and pathetic, and those to whom I applied were all +too familiar with the process to be able to describe it. I might as well +have asked for a full description of how a man ate his dinner. + +"Will you take me to the round-up to-morrow?" I asked of the 'WB' boss. + +"Well, I could have a team hitched up, and Bob could drive you to the +Black Nob Hill, where you can get a good view," was the tolerant reply. + +Bob had wrenched his foot the day before, when roping a steer, and was +therefore incapacitated for anything but 'woman's work'--'a soft job.' + +"Oh, but I do not want to be so far away and look on; I want to +be _in_ it." + +He looked at me out of the angle of his eye to make sure that I was in +earnest. "Tain't safe," he said. + +"Then you mean to say that every cowboy risks his life in a round-up?" + +"Oh, well, they're men and take their chances. Besides, it's their +business." + +I never yet have been able to have a direct question answered by a true +mountaineer or plainsman by a simple yes or no. Is there something in the +bigness of their surroundings that causes the mind to spread over an +idea and lose directness like a meadow brook? + +However, by various wiles known to my kind, the next morning at daybreak +I was mounted upon the surest-footed animal in the 'bunch.' + +"She's a trained cow pony and won't lose her head," the boss remarked. + +Thus equipped, I was allowed to accompany the cowboys to their work, with +the understanding that I was to keep at a safe distance from the herd. +Van Anden, a famous 'cutter out,' whatever that meant, was deputed to +have an especially watchful eye upon me. Van Anden was a surprisingly +graceful fellow, who got his six foot of stature in more places during +the day than any of the smaller men. He was evidently a cowboy because he +wanted to be one. There were many traces of a college education and a +thorough drilling in good manners in an Eastern home, which report said +could still be his if he so wished; and report also stated that he +remained a bachelor in spite of being the most popular man in the +country, because of a certain faithless siren who with gay unconcern +casts languishing glances and spends papa's dollars at Newport. + +But this was no Beau Brummel day. There was work to do, and hard work, +as I soon discovered. We had ridden perhaps a mile; my teeth were +still chattering in the early morning cold (breaking ice on one's bath +water and blowing on one's fingers to enable one to lace heavy boots +may suit a cowboy: I do not pretend to like it), when we began to +notice a loud bellowing in the distance. Instantly my companions +spurred their horses and we went speeding over the Little Missoula +bottom lands, around scrub willows and under low hanging branches of +oak, one of which captured my hat, after breaking both of the hat pins, +and nearly swept me from the saddle. + +On I rushed with the rest, hatless, and as in a cloud of fury. Van Anden +took a turn around that tree and was at my side again with the hat before +I realised what, he was doing. I jerked out a "thank you" between lopes, +and of course forbore to remark that a hat without pins was hollow +mockery. I dodged the next low branch so successfully that the pommel in +some miraculous way jumped up and smashed the crystal in my watch, the +same being carried in that mysterious place, the shirt waist front, where +most women carry their watches, pocket books, and love letters. + +When we got into the open the terrible bellowing--a combination of +shriek, groan, and roar in varying pitch--grew louder, and I could just +discern a waving ghostly mass in the gray morning mist. I wondered if +this were the herd, but found it was only the cloud of dust in which it +was enveloped. + +Four of the cowboys had already disappeared in different directions. I +heard the 'WB' boss say, "Billy, to the left flank. Van, them blamed +heifers," as he flew past them. + +Van dashed forward, I gave my black mare a cut with the quirt and +followed. Van's face, as he turned around to remonstrate, was a study of +surprise, distress, and disgust, for I was undoubtedly breaking rules. + +"Don't bother about me," I called as airily as possible, as I shot past +him. He had checked his horse's speed, but now there was nothing to do +but to follow me as fast as he could. I shall have to record that he +swore, as he turned sharply to the right into a group of cattle. Poor +man, it was dreadful to saddle him with a woman at such a juncture, but +I was not a woman just then. I was a green cowboy and frightened to +death, as the cattle closed around me, a heavy mass of ponderous forms, +here wedged in tightly and bellowing, some with the pain of being +crushed, some for their calves. I expected every instant to be trampled +under foot. + +"Stick to your horse, whatever you do, and work to the left," I heard Van +shouting to me over the backs of a dozen cows. The dust, the noise, and +the smell of those struggling creatures appalled and sickened me. How was +I ever going to work to the left in that jam? I could see nothing but +backs and heads and horns. I allowed myself one terrified groan which was +fortunately lost in the general uproar. But the pony had been in such a +situation before, if I had not, and she taught me what to do. She gave a +sudden spring forward when a space just big enough for her appeared, then +wove her way a few paces forward between two animals who had room enough +on the other side of them to give way a little, while the space I had +just left had closed up, a tight mass of groaning creatures. + +Thus we worked our way to the left whenever there was a chance, and at +last through the dust I could see the heavenly open space beyond. +Forgetting my tactics, I made straight for it, and was caught in one of +those terrible waves of tightly pressed creatures which is caused by +those on the outside pressing towards the centre, and the centre giving +until there is no more space, when comes the crush. Fortunately I was on +the outskirts of this crush, and by holding my feet up high we managed to +squeeze through that dreadful, dust covered, stamping, snorting bedlam +into the glorious free air and sunshine. Already I had a much better +conception of what a 'whole lot' of cattle meant. + +From the vantage ground of a little hill I could see the whole herd, and +realised that I had been in only a small bunch of it, composed of cows +and calves. Had I gone to the right I should soon have gotten into a +raging mass of some thousand head of bulls. They were pawing and tearing +up the ground that but a little before had been covered with grass and +late flowers, and occasionally goring one another. The cowboys were +riding on the outskirts of this life-destroying horde, forcing the +stragglers back into line, and by many a sudden dash forward, then to the +right, sharp wheel about, and more spurts this way and that, were slowly +driving it toward another mass of cattle, a half mile further on, which +could be distinguished only by the clouds of dust which enveloped it. + +Van Anden, meanwhile, in the small bunch with which I had had such an +intimate acquaintance, was acting as though he had lost his wits, or so +it seemed to me until I began to understand what he was doing. He would +dart into the bunch, scattering cattle right and left, and would weave +in and out, out and in, waving his arms, shouting, throwing his rope, +occasionally hitting an animal across the nose or the flank, sometimes +twisting their tails, dodging blows and kicks, and finally emerge driving +before him a cow followed by her calf. These another cowboy would take +charge of and drive to a small bunch of cows and calves which I now +noticed for the first time, separating them from their relations, who +remonstrated in loud bellowings, stampings and freakish, brief, ill +judged attacks. And then I understood what it meant to 'cut out' cattle +from 'a whole lot.' + +When the calves and cows were finally separated, it was necessary to +drive them also to the Big Flat for the afternoon's work of branding +those that 'needed it.' Van guarded the rear of the bunch and of course +I rode with him, that is as near as I could, for he was as restless as a +blue bottle fly in a glass jar, dashing hither and thither, keeping those +crazy creatures together, and ever pushing them forward. The dust and +heat and noise and smell and continual action made my head ache. So this +was cowboy life, Van's choice! I thought of a certain far away, well +ordered home, with perhaps a sweet voiced mother and well groomed sister, +and wondered, even while I knew the answer. On the one hand, peace, +comfort, affection, and the eternal sameness; on the other, effort, +hardship, fighting sometimes, but ever with the new day a whole world of +unlived possibilities, change, action, and bondage to no one. + +A particularly fractious heifer at this point suddenly changed my +contemplation of Van Anden's character into a lively share of Van +Anden's job. The creature was making good time straight towards me, and +as I had dropped considerably behind the herd in order to breathe some +fresh air and to be free from the dust, I knew that it meant a long hard +chase for Van and his tired horse if I did not head off that heifer; I +felt I owed him that much. I had seen the cowboys do that very thing a +hundred times that morning, but you cannot stand on your toe by watching +a ballet dancer do it. However, I started on a gallop, slanting +diagonally towards the creature, swinging one arm frantically (I really +could not let go with both) and yelling "Hi, hi!" I wondered what would +happen next, for to be honest, I was exquisitely scared. Why scared? It +is not for me to explain a woman's dread of the unknown and untried. + +[Illustration: I STARTED ON A GALLOP, SWINGING ONE ARM.] + +I heard Van shouting, but could not understand. To know you are right and +then go ahead is a pretty plan, but how to know? The animal did not stop +or swerve from its course. We would surely collide. What was I to do? Oh, +for a precedent! Evidently the mare was aware of one, for she wheeled to +the right just in time to miss the oncoming heifer, and we raced +alongside for a few seconds. I had so nearly parted company with my mount +in the last manoeuvre (centaurs would have an enormous advantage as +cowboys) that I had lost all desire to help Van and only wanted to get +away from that heifer, to make an honourable dismount, and go somewhere +by myself where a little brook babbled nothings, and the forget-me-nots +placidly slept. Rough riding and adventures of the Calamity Jane order +tempted me no more. + +Whether now the heifer did the proper thing or not, I cannot say, but +she circled around with me on the outer side (I suspect my cow pony knew +how it was done) and was half way back to the herd when Van took it in +charge. His face bore a broad grin for the first time that day, from +what emotions caused I have never been able to determine. I, of course, +said nothing. + +Then, oh, the joy of that round up dinner! The 'WB' outfit had a meal +tent, a mess wagon, and a cook for the men, and a rope corral, food and +water for the horses. Everybody was happy for the noon hour, save the +unlucky ones whose turn it was to guard the herd. Bob had driven the +ex-mayor's wife, the sad eyed spinster, and Nimrod over to join us at +dinner. The boss greeted Nimrod with the assurance that I was 'all right' +and could apply any time for a job. I may as well say that Nimrod had +allowed me to go without him in the morning, because the cattle business +was no novelty to him; because daybreak rising did not appeal to him as a +pastime; and because, at the time I broached the subject, being engaged +in writing a story, he had removed but one-eighth of his mind for the +consideration of mundane affairs, and that, as any one knows, is +insufficient to judge fairly whether the winged thing I was reaching out +for was a fly or a bumble bee. In the morning, the story being finished +and the other seven-eights of brain at liberty to dwell upon the same +question, he decided to follow me, with the result that in the afternoon +I rode in the wagon. + +The cowboy meal, which I believe was not elaborated for us, was a healthy +solid affair of meat, vegetables, hot biscuit, coffee, and prunes, +appetisingly cooked and unstintingly served, for the Bad Land appetite is +like unto that of the Rocky Mountains, lusty and big. The saddling of +fresh horses made a lively scene for a few moments in the corral; then +the men rode off for the afternoon's business of branding. + +The ranch party packed itself into a three-seated buckboard and we +followed behind. We went at a wide safe distance from the half-crazed +herds, which had been driven this way and that until they knew not what +they wanted, nor what was wanted of them, to where a huge fire was +blazing and rapidly turning cold black iron to red hot. These irons were +fashioned in curious shapes, from six to ten inches long and fastened to +a four foot iron handle. The smell of burning flesh was in the air, and +horrid shrieks. Beyond was the ceaseless bellowing and stamping and +weaving of the herds. + +From the time I got into the wagon and became a mere onlooker, my point +of view changed. The exhilaration of action had disappeared. I was a +cowboy no longer. The cattle in the morning had been stupid foolish +creatures, dangerous in their blind strength, which must be made to do +what one willed. Now they were poor, dumb, persecuted beasts which must +be tormented, even tortured (for who shall say that red hot iron on +tender flesh is not torture?) and eventually butchered for the swelling +of man's purse. I saw the riders dash towards an animal who 'needed +branding'--which I discovered to mean one that had hitherto escaped the +iron, or that had changed owners--throw a rope over its head or horns, +fasten the other end to the pommel, and drag it to the fire, where it was +thrown and tied. Then it was seized by several men who sat on its head +and legs to hold it comparatively still while another took the hot brand +from the fire and pressed it against the quivering side of the animal. It +was then released and, bawling with pain and fright, allowed to return to +its mother, who had been kept off by another rider. A sound at my side +informed me that the little old maid was weeping copiously. + +It is a pity I could not have had the cowboy's point of view, for mine +was most unpleasant, but my little glimpse of the other side was gone, +and gladly I drove away from the mighty smells and sounds of that +unfortunate mass of seething life, subjected to the will of a dozen men, +Van Anden the worst of the lot. And as we went silently through the sweet +cool air, crisp as an October leaf, where a bluebird was twittering a +wing-free song on the poplar yonder, where silver-turned willows were +gently swaying, and a jolly chipmunk was rippling from log to stone, I +wondered whether the Newport girl had really done so wrong after all. + + + + +XV. + +THE SWEET PEA LADY SOMEONE ELSE'S MOUNTAIN SHEEP. + + +It was at Winnipeg (you do not want to know how we got there) that I +first walked into the aura of the Sweet Pea Lady, and by so doing +prepared the way for the shatterment of another illusion--namely, that +'little deeds of kindness' always result in mutual pleasure. + +Flowers and fruit in Manitoba are treasured as sunshine in London, for +you must remember that Manitoba is a very new country, that it is only a +paltry few thousands of years since its thousands of miles were scraped +flat as a floor. Everything even yet looks so immodest on those vast +stretches. The clumps of trees stand out in such a bold brazen fashion. +The houses appear as though stuck on to the landscape. Even an honest +brown cow can not manage to melt herself into the endless stretch of +prairies. In fact, the little scenic accidents of trees and hollows, +which mean fruit and flowers, are mainly due to man. + +So, when our friends who saw us off on the west-bound Canadian Pacific +left in our sleeper two huge bouquets of sweet peas and ten pounds of +blackberries, we knew that the finest garden in Winnipeg had been rifled +to do us pleasure. Now, I dearly love flowers and fruit, as I did the +giver, but ten pounds of great, fat blackberries and an armful of sweet +peas in a cramped stuffy Pullman caused my heart to resound in the minor +chords. We rallied again and again to demolish the fruit as we voyaged, +and sat with one foot on top of the other to avoid crushing the lovely +pea blossoms as we fidgeted about, but the results of our efforts, messy +fruit in hopeless abundance and withering leaves in dreary profusion, +were discouraging. + +When the noon hour came, Nimrod carried the fruit basket into the +Diner and set it down on the table. The waiter eyed us askance. +"It's a dollar each for dinner, sah." It was clear we were emigrants. +We paid the waiter's demand and then from soup to coffee ate +blackberries--blackberries until we were black in the mouth and pale in +the face. Then we picked up our basket, upon the contents of which our +labours had apparently made no impression, and, hastily pushing a plate +over the rich red stain it had left on the table cloth, departed with our +fruit and a grieved feeling in the region of our hearts. It may not be +amiss to remark that I have never eaten a blackberry since. To get to our +car it was necessary to pass through another sleeper, where I noticed a +made up berth in which was reclining a young woman, and hovering over her +solicitously a man, evidently the husband. + +Hope and joy awoke within me--perhaps she would like some blackberries! +No, she would not venture to eat fruit, and with many thanks, oh, many, +many thanks, she declined it. But the blessedness of giving I felt must +be mine, so I bribed the porter to take as many sweet peas as he could +carry and present them to the sick lady in the next car, and on no +account to tell where he got them. I did not want the thanks, neither did +I want the sweet peas, but I was illogical enough to hope that the +Recording Angel would be busy and accept the act at its face value as a +"deed of kindness." + +It must have been a slack day with the angel, for this is a brief but +accurate account of what followed, and I am willing to leave it to any +human, whether my punishment was not out of all proportion to the offense +committed: + +_One hour later_. Train stops for ten minutes. I got out for fresh air +and promenade on platform. Behold, the first object that meets my gaze is +the sick lady, miraculously recovered. She swooped down upon me with the +deadly light of determination in her eyes. I was discovered. There was no +escape. I was going to be thanked--and I was thanked. Up and down, +backwards and forwards, inside and out, and all hands around. And when +she paused breathless her husband took up the theme. It seems she was a +semi invalid, and the sweet peas were quite the most heavenly thing that +could have happened to her. Nimrod joined me at this moment and he was +thanked separately and dually, for being the husband of his wife, I +suppose. At last we were able to retire with profuse bows, tired but +exceedingly thankful that the incident, though trying, was ended. + +_Three minutes later_. Have been driven indoors by the sweet pea woman, +as each turn of the walk brought us face to face, when it immediately +became necessary to nod and smile, and for our husbands to lift hats and +smile, until we looked like loose-necked manikins. At least, the sleeper +is tranquil, if stuffy. + +_Supper time_. Have been thanked again by the Sweet Pea Lady, who sat at +our table. She had sweet peas in her hair, and at her belt. The husband +had a boutonnière of them. + +_Next morning, Carberry_. Bade an elaborate farewell to the Sweet Pea +Lady. She is going straight to the coast where they catch steamer for +Japan. Praise be to Allah! I shall see her no more. The heavy polite +is wearing. + +_Next day, Banff Hot Springs_. First person on the hotel steps I see +is the S.P. Lady. She rushed up and assured me that the S.P.'s were +still fresh, and that she and her husband had unexpectedly stopped +over for a day. + +_Next day_. Spent the day avoiding S.P.L. Left for Glacier House in the +evening. At least, I shall not see S.P.L. there, as they have to go right +through to catch steamer. + +_Two days later, Glacier House_. Had horrid shock. Found apparition of +S.P. Lady sitting beside me at breakfast table. She began to speak, then +I knew it was the real thing. She assured me that many of the S.P.'s were +still fresh, as she had clipped their stems night and morning. I again +said good by to her, and to those ghastly flowers. She just has time to +catch her steamer. + +_Three days later: Vancouver_. Ran across the S.P. Lady in hotel +corridor. She saw me first. There was another weary interchange of the +heavy polite. Her steamer had been delayed from sailing for two days--in +order that we might meet again, I have no doubt. + +_Next morning. She's gone_. Ring the bells, boom the cannon! I saw the +Japan steamer bear the Sweet Pea Lady rapidly into deep water. At last +easeful peace may again dream on my shoulder. When I returned to the +hotel the clerk handed me an envelope enclosing a lady's visiting card +(kind fate, she lives in Japan) on which was written "In grateful +appreciation of your kindness," and with the card were two sprays of +Pressed Sweet Peas. + +After this when it comes to "scattering deeds of kindness on the weary +way," I shall be the woman who didn't, and who shall say me nay? +However, all this flower and fruit piece was but an episode; the event of +that journey was the intimate acquaintance we made of the Great Glacier +of the Selkirks, and the nice opportunity I had to lose my life. And the +only reason this tale is not more tragic is because, given the choice, I +preferred to lose the opportunity rather than the life. + +I wonder if I can give any idea to one who has not seen it what a snow +slide really is; how it sweeps away every vestige of trees, grass, and +roots, and leaves a surface of shirting, unstable earth almost as +treacherous as quicksand. + +Nimrod and I had paid a superficial visit to the Glacier the day before: +that is, we had gone as far as its forefoot, a hard but thoroughly safe +climb, and had explored with awe the green glass ice caves with which the +Great Glacier has seen fit to decorate its lower line, wonderful rooms of +ice, emerald in the shadows, with glacial streams for floors. + +[Illustration: THE WARM BEATING HEART OF A MOUNTAIN SHEEP.] + +So the next morning we started out, intending a little bit to further +explore the vast, cold, heartless ice sheet (vaster than all the Swiss +glaciers together), but more to hunt for the warm beating heart of a +mountain sheep, whose home is here. We had been travelling for miles in +the wildest kind of earth upheavals, for the Selkirks are still hard and +fast in the grip of the ice king; huge boulders, uprooted trees, mighty +mountains, released but recently from the glacial wet blanket, when +Nimrod discovered the stale track of a mountain sheep. We followed it +eagerly till it brought us across the path of a snow slide. At that point +it was about five hundred feet across, at an angle of forty-five +degrees; below us a thousand feet was a vicious looking glacial torrent; +above, an equal distance, was the lower edge of the glacier, the mother +of all this devastation. + +The fearless-footed mountain sheep had crossed this sliding crumbling +earth and gravel incline with apparent ease. For us it was go on or go +back. There was no middle course. The row of tiny hoof marks running +straight across from one safe bank to the other deceived us. It could not +be so very difficult. We dismounted; Nimrod threw the bridle over his +horse's head and started across, leading his beast. The animal snorted as +he felt the foot-hold giving way beneath him, but Nimrod pulled him +along. It was impossible to stand still. It would have been as easy for +quicksilver to remain at the top of an incline. Amid rattling stones and +sliding earth they landed on the firm bank beyond, fully three hundred +feet below me. + +It was a shivery sight, but I started expecting the horse would follow. +He, however, jerked back snorting and trembling, which unexpected move +upset my equilibrium, uncertain at best, and I fell. Nothing but the +happy chance of a tight grip on the reins kept me from sliding down that +dreadful bank, over the rock into the water, and so into eternity (Please +pardon the Salvation Army metaphor). + +I had barely time to right myself and get out of the way of my horse, +which now plunged forward upon the sliding rock with me. The terrified +animal lost his head completely. I could not keep away from his hoofs. He +would not let me keep in front, I dare not get above for fear I should +slip under his feet, or below him for fear he should slide upon me. I +lost my balance again while dodging away from him as he plunged and +balked, but managed to grab his mane and we both slid a horrible +distance. I could hear Nimrod shouting on the bank, but did not seem to +understand him. I had the stage, centre front, and it was all I could +attend to. + +We were now opposite to Nimrod, but only half way across. Such an ominous +rolling and tumbling of stones and tons of earth sliding down over the +low precipice into the water! I expected to be with it each instant. +Nimrod had started out after me. + +[Illustration: I COULD NOT KEEP AWAY FROM HIS HOOFS.] + +Then I understood what he was shouting: "Let go that horse." Why, of +course! Why had I not thought of that? I did let go and, thus freed, +managed to get across, falling, slipping, but still making progress +until I reached the safe ground one hundred feet lower in a decidedly +dilapidated condition. My animal followed me instinctively for a short +distance, and Nimrod got him the rest of the way--I do not know how. It +did not interest me then. + +And the saddest of all, the mountain sheep had vanished into the unknown, +taking his little tracks with him, so we had to go back in a roundabout +way, without sheep, without joy--and without a tragedy. + + + + +XVI. + +IN WHICH THE TENDERFOOT LEARNS A NEW TRICK. + + +For those who have driven four-in-hand, this will have no message. But as +four-in-hand literature seems to be somewhat limited and my first lesson +was somewhat drastic, I shall venture to tell you how it felt. + +Of coaching there are two kinds: Eastern coaching, with well-groomed +full-fed horses, who are never worked harder than is good for them; with +silver-plated harness, and coach with the latest springs and running +gear, umbrella rack, horn, lunch larder, and what not; with footmen or +postilions, according to the degree of style, to run to the horses' heads +at the first hitch; with the gentleman driver in cream box coat and +beribboned whip; with everything down to the pole pin correct and +immaculate. + +Then there is Western coaching, which is more properly termed staging, +for which is used any vehicle that will hold together and whose wheels +will turn round. This is pulled by half-broken shaggy horses which would +kick any man who ventured near them with brush or currycomb, and which +are sometimes made to travel until they drop in the road. The harness on +such coaching trips is an assortment of single, double, leaders and +wheelers sets, mended with buckskin or wire and thrown on irrespective of +fit. Lucky the cayuse who happens to be the right size for his harness. + +And the driver! No cream box coat for him--provident the one who owns a +slicker and a coat of weather green (the same being the result of sun and +rain on any given color). And the people in the stage hoist no white and +red silk parasols. They are there because they are "going somewhere." My +multi-murderous cook taught me the distinction between "just travellin'" +and "going somewhere." + +As for the roads--oh, those Rocky Mountain roads! They make coaching +quite a different thing from that on the smooth boulevards around New +York. I have twice made seventy-five miles in twelve hours, by having +four relays, but the average rate of travel is about twenty miles in +eight hours. And the day when I first took the ribbons in my hands to +guide--four horses we were from nine in the morning till five at night +going twelve miles. This was the way of it: Nimrod and I were on a +hunting trip in the Canadian Rockies, and as the government map said +there was a road, though not a good one, we decided to carry our +belongings in a four-horse wagon, in which we could also ride if we +liked, and to have saddle horses besides. + +Green, a man of the region, was the driver and cook, and we had as guest +a famous bear hunter from the Sierra Nevadas. On the first two days out +from the little mountain town where we started, we saw many tracks of +black bear, which encouraged the hunters to think that they might find a +grizzly (which, by the way, they did not). + +The dust was thick and red, enveloping us all day long like some horrible +insistent monster that had resolved itself into atoms to choke, blind and +strangle us. Nimrod looked like a clay man--hair, eyebrows, mustache, +skin, and clothes were all one solid coating of red dust. We were all +alike. Even the sugar, paper-wrapped in the bottom of a box, covered by +other boxes, bags and a canvas, became adulterated almost past use. + +On the fourth day this changed, and we camped at the foot of a granite +mountain. It made one think of the Glass Mountain of fable, with its +smooth stretches of polished rock shining in the sun. That a human being +should dare to take a wagon over such a place seemed incredible. Yet +there the road was, zigzagging up the rocky slope, while here and there +the jagged outlines of blasted rock showed where the all-powerful +dynamite had been used to make a resting place for straining horses. + +That morning excitement surrounded our out-of-door breakfast table. We +had had strange visitors during the night, while we slept. A mountain +lion, the beautiful tan-coated vibrant-tailed puma, had nosed within ten +feet of me and then, not liking the camp-fire glow and unalarmed by my +inert form, had silently retreated. + +It made me feel creepy to see how easily that lithe-limbed powerful +creature might have had me for a midnight meal. But I was not trying to +do him harm, and so he granted me the same tolerance. Then, too, not +far away was a bear track, and the canned peaches were fewer than the +night before. + +All of this caused Nimrod and the bear-hunter to saddle their horses +early; and agreeing to meet us at night on the other side of the +mountain, where the map showed a stream, they set out for a day's hunt. +Nimrod's horse having gone slightly lame, I offered mine, a swift-footed +intelligent dear, and agreed to ride in the wagon. + +It was the same old story. Virtue is somebody else's reward. I never had +a worse day in the mountains. Green and I started blithely enough by +nine, which had meant a 5:30 rising in the cold gray dawn. The horses had +been worked every day since the start, and were jaded. + +We went slowly along the only level road in our journey that day; but the +load did not seem to be riding well, and at the beginning of the ascent +Green got out to investigate. He said the spring was out of order. The +wagon was what is known as a thorough-brace, which means that there are +two large loopy steel bands on which the wagon box rests; the loops are +filled in with countless strips of leather, forming a pad for the springs +to play on. (The Century Dictionary will please not copy this +definition.) The Deadwood stage coach was a thorough-brace, I believe. +Another interesting out-of-date detail in the construction of this wagon +was that the brake had no mechanical device for holding it in position +when it was put on hard, and the driver had to rely upon his strength of +limb to keep it in place. It seems that Green, in pounding these bits of +leather in the spring, had badly crushed his left hand. He said nothing +to me, and I did not notice that, contrary to custom, he was driving with +his right hand, which he usually reserved for the whip and the brake. + +We crossed the shallow brook and started up the very steep and very +rocky road, when everything happened at once. Two of the horses refused +to pull and danced up and down in the one spot, a sickening thing for a +horse to do. This meant the instant application of the brake. We had +already begun to slip backward (the most uncomfortable sensation I know, +barring actual pain). Nimrod's horse, tied on behind, gave a frightened +snort and broke his rope. Green attempted to take the reins with his +left hand. They dropped from his grasp, and I saw that his fingers were +purple and black. + +"Grab the lines, can you?" he said, as he seized the whip and put both +feet on the brake. The leaders were curveting back on the wheelers in a +way which meant imminent mix up, their legs over traces and behind +whiffle-trees. On the right, of us was solid rock up, on the left solid +rock down, one hundred feet to the stream, and just ahead was the sharp +turn the road made to a higher ledge in its zigzag up the mountain. I +had always intended to learn to drive four-in-hand, but this first lesson +left me no pleasure in the learning. There were no little triumphs of +difficulties mastered, no gentle surprises, no long, smooth, broad, and +level stretches with plenty of room to pull a rein and see what would +happen. I had to spring into the situation with knowledge, as Minerva did +into life, full grown. It was no kindergarten way of learning to drive +four-in-hand. + +I grabbed the reins in both hands. There were yards of them, rods of +them, miles of them--they belonged to a six or sixteen horse set. I do +not know which. I sat on them. They writhed in my lap, wrapped around my +feet, and around the gun against my knee, in a hopeless and dangerous +muddle. Of course the reins were twisted. I did not know one from the +other. I gave a desperate jerk which sent the leaders plunging to the +right, where fortunately they brought up against the rock wall. Had they +gone the other way nothing but our destiny could have saved us from going +over the edge. _Crack_ went the whip in the right place. + +"Slack the lines!" Green cried, as he eased the brake. A lash of the whip +for each wheeler, and we started forward, the horses disentangling +themselves from the harness as by a miracle, just as the rear wheels were +hovering over the bluff. Green dropped the whip (his left hand was quite +useless) and straightened out the reins for me. + +"Can you do it?" he asked, grasping the whip, as the horses showed signs +of stopping again. To attend to the brake was physically impossible. +Green could not do it and drive with one hand. + +"Yes," I said, "but watch me"--an injunction scarcely necessary. + +[Illustration: WE STARTED FORWARD, JUST AS THE REAR WHEELS WERE HOVERING +OVER THE EDGE.] + +If ever a woman put her whole mind to a thing, I did on that +four-in-hand. There was no place for mistakes. There was no place for +anything but the right thing, and do it I must or run the risk of +breaking my very dusty, very brown, but none the less precious neck. + +A sharp turn in a steep road with rocks a foot high disputing the right +of way with the wheels, a heavy load, horses that do not want to pull, +and a green driver--that was the situation. If it does not appeal to you +as one of the horribles in life, try it once. + +"Run your leaders farther up the bank--left, left! _Get up, Milo! +Frank, get out of that_! Now sharp to the right. _Whoa! Steady_! +Left--left, I say! _Milo, whoa_! Now to the right, quick! Let 'em on +the bank more. _Nellie, easy_--_Whoa! Steady, George_!" Crack went the +whip on the leaders. + +"Hold your lines tighter. Pull that nigh leader. _Get out of that, Frank! +Now steady, boys_! Don't pull--there!" + +Down went the brake; we were safely round the turn, and all hands rested +for a moment. + +Thus we worked all that morning, Green with the brake, the whip, and his +tongue; I with the lines, what strength I had and mother wit in lieu of +experience. + +There were stretches of two hundred feet of granite, smooth and polished +as a floor, where the horses repeatedly slipped and fell, and where the +wheels brought forth hollow mocking rumbles. + +There were sections where the rocky ledges succeeded one another in +steps, and the animals had to pull the heavy wagon up rises from a foot +to eighteen inches high by sheer strength--as easy to drive up a flight +of brownstone steps on Fifth Avenue. There were places between huge +boulders where a swerve of a foot to the right or to the left would have +sent us crashing into the unyielding granite. + +When we got to the top there was no place to rest--only rock, rock +everywhere. No water, no food for the exhausted horses, nothing to do but +to push on to the bottom--and such going! Have you ever felt the +shuddering of a wagon with brake hard on, as it poised in air the +instant before it dropped a foot or two to the next level, from hard rock +to hard rock? Have you ever tried to keep four horses away from under a +wagon, and yet sufficiently near it not to precipitate the crash? Have +you ever at the same time tried to keep them from falling on the rocks +ahead and from plunging over the bank as you turn a sharp curve on a +steep down grade? If you have, then you know the nature of my first +lesson in four-in-hand driving. + +We got to the bottom at dusk. I was too tired to speak. Every muscle set +up a separate complaint and I had had nothing to eat since morning, as we +had expected to make camp by noon. The world seemed indeed a very drab +place. We found the hunters careering around searching for us. They +thought they had missed us--as they had done the bear. + +I have driven, and been driven, hundreds of miles since, but there never +was a ride like those twelve, cruel, mocking, pitiless miles over +Granite Mountain, when necessity taught me a very pretty trick, which, +however, I have not yet been tempted to display at the Madison Square +Garden in November. + + + + +XVII. + +_OUR_ MINE. + + +It now behooves me to state that, between the events of the last chapter +and this, Nimrod and I heard the hum, the wail, and the shriek that make +the song of the Westinghouse brake before we found ourselves deposited at +the flourishing mining camp of Red Ridge in the Arizona Rockies, nine +thousand feet in the air. + +Did ever a tenderfoot escape from the mountains without at least having a +try at making his or her fortune in a mine--gold one preferred? We, of +course, had the chance of our lives, and who knows what might have +happened if only the fat woman and the lean woman had not gotten jealous +of each other, and thereby wrecked the company? + +The gold is, or is not, in the fastnesses of the earth as before, but +where, oh, where, is the lean woman of lineage and the fat woman of +money? The lean woman had quality. She was the daughter of somebody +who had done something, but, unlike _Becky Sharp_, she had not been +successful in living richly in San Francisco on nothing a year. Nobody +knows whose daughter the fat woman was, but in her very comfortable +home in Kansas that had not mattered, and, besides, she had saved a +few hundreds. + +These two women had husbands, who had entered into a mining scheme +together. The man from Frisco was a good-looking, well-educated, jovial +fellow, with the purses of several rich friends to back him up, and with +a great desire to replenish his purse with the yellow metal direct, +rather than to acquire it by the sweat of his brow. He was many other +things, but, to be brief, he was a promoter. The man from Kansas had the +pride of the uneducated, and a little money, and was also not averse to +getting rich fast. + +Nimrod, the third partner, likewise encumbered with a wife on the spot, +desired to make _his_ everlasting fortune, retire from the painting of +pictures and the making of books, and grub in the field of science and +live happily ever after. + +For two weeks we were all together at the only hotel at Cartersville, a +hamlet of perhaps thirty souls. It took only two weeks to wreck the +company. The mine was a mile and a half away, over a very up-and-down +mountain road which on the first day the fat woman and I walked with +our husbands, and which Mrs. Frisco and her husband had travelled in +Mrs. Kansas' phaeton--the result of a little way Mrs. Frisco had of +getting the best. + +Three days of this calm appropriation of her carriage while she walked +ruffled Mrs. Kansas' temper. When she heard a rumour that Mrs. Frisco had +stated disdainfully to the landlady that there could be no thought of +recognising Mrs. Kansas socially, but that she must be tolerated because +of her money in the enterprise, her politeness grew frigid and the +trouble began to brew. + +While perfectly willing to watch the logomachy when it should arrive, I +had no wish to take part. I was willing to make money, but not to make +enemies, so Nimrod and I removed ourselves as much as possible from the +Cartersville Hotel, took long walks and rides over the glorious Chihuahua +Mountains, poked around the abandoned mines, spied out the deer and +mountain lion and the ubiquitous coyote and all the indigenous beasts and +birds of the air thereof. We usually managed to arrive at the mine when +the partners and their wives were elsewhere. + +The mine, _our_ mine, was a long horizontal hole in the mountain, with a +tiny leaf-choked stream trickling past the entrance, heavy timbers +propping up the inert mass of dirt and stone just above our heads, piles +of uninteresting rock dumped to one side, the "pay dirt." I had seen such +things before, and they had said nothing to me. But this was _our_ mine, +_our_ stream, _our_ dump. + +McCaffrey, the foreman, put rubber boots on me in the little smithy which +formed a part of the entrance of the tunnel, and thus equipped I entered +the tunnel. The day shift, represented by two dancing lights far off in +the blackness, was preparing to blast. + +I advanced uncertainly, my own candle blinding me. Water trickled from +the roof and walls of this rock-bound passage seven feet high and four +feet wide. A stream of it flowed by the tiny tram track. The hollow sound +of the mallet on the crowbar forcing its way into the stubborn wall grew +louder as we approached, until we stood with the miners in a foot or so +of water which showed yellow and shining in the flickering light of four +candles. Then we went back to the smithy to wait the result of the blast. + +There was a horrid jarring booming sound. The miners listened intently. +McCaffrey said, "One." Another explosion in the tunnel followed--"Two." +Another--"Three." Then a silence. "That's bad," said McCaffrey, shaking +his head. "An unexploded cap." + +"What do you mean?" I asked. + +"There were four charges and should have been four explosions. It's +liable to go off when we go in there." + +"Oh!" I said. + +The miners waited a while for the fumes of the dynamite to be dissipated +and kept me away from the tunnel mouth, saying: + +"If you ever get a dynamite headache you will never want to come near the +mine again. And, besides, that unexploded cap may do damage yet." + +I went back to the smithy to wait, for it was the last of October, and +snow in the mountains at ten thousand feet is cold. I attempted to sit +down on a keg behind the little sheet-iron stove, which was nearly red +hot. + +"You better not sit down on that kaig," said one of the men calmly, +without pausing in his work. + +"Why?" + +"Well, it's dirty, and, besides, it's nitro-glycerine." + +"Nitro-glycerine! Why is it in _here_, and so close to the stove? Won't +it explode?" and I checked a desire to retreat in disorder. + +"No, 't'ain't no danger, if it don't get too hot and ain't jarred. You +see, it won't go off if it's too cold, so we keep a little in here and +kind o' watch it." + +The keg was within two feet of the stove. Suppose that a dog or something +were to knock it over! But miners do not suppose. + +Just then a tremendous explosion in the tunnel seemed to make the whole +earth vibrate. It was followed by a rattling and crashing of rocks, which +told us that the last cap had gone off and had done good work. + +Half an hour later, when it was safe from dynamite fumes, I went back to +our hole in the ground. Nimrod had left me, lured away by some fox tracks +trailing up the mountain. The weird scene was too interesting for me to +leave until the arrival of the fat and lean women (Mrs. Frisco had +persuaded Mrs. Kansas to drive her over) caused me to remember that the +parlour fire at the Cartersville Hotel must be very comfortable, and that +it was a mile and a half of tiresome snow away. + +Evidently the wives of my husband's partners had disagreed on the way, +for the air was electric as they greeted me, and to avoid another +tête-à-tête they at once turned to accompany me out of the tunnel. I +was the last. + +The scene was now properly set for a mining accident, so there was +nothing for a self respecting tunnel to do but to accordingly, which it +did. Just as the fat woman and the lean woman passed into the open air, +and I was nearly at the mouth of the tunnel, it caused its roof to cave +in so close behind me that, had I not instinctively rushed out, some of +the flying stones, timbers, and dirt must have knocked me to the ground. + +[Illustration: THE TUNNEL CAUSED ITS ROOF TO CAVE IN CLOSE BEHIND ME.] + +As it was, I landed sprawling in the snow outside, sweeping the lean +woman down with me. It was very like a dime novel. Three lone women who, +for purposes of intensification, may be called enemies, staring with +white faces at a wall of dirt, and trying to realise that a minute before +it had been a black hole. And at the other end of that hole now were two +men horribly imprisoned in a rock-walled tomb without air or food, +perhaps dead. We could not tell how much of a cave-in it was. + +The lean woman rushed for Mrs. Kansas' horse and wagon and went to alarm +the hamlet. I dashed up the hill a quarter of a mile to awaken the night +shift, who were in their cabin sleeping. And the fat woman at a safe +distance wrung her hands and uttered exclamations of horror and ill +judged advice to our departing forms. + +Between the fright, the altitude, and the hill I had no breath left to +speak with as I pounded on the door of the miner's hut. Mountaineers +sleep lightly and do not make toilets, so it was barely ten minutes from +the time of the cave-in when three men were working at the tunnel's mouth +with pickaxes and shovels. + +The tunnel had not meant to be malicious, but merely to do the proper +thing (it had not even disturbed the nitro-glycerine in the smithy). Not +much earth had fallen, and in less than an hour we heard the shouts of +the imprisoned men; in two hours they crawled into the air unhurt, and +soon were helping the others to shore up the treacherous entrance, so +that such a stirring thing could not happen again. + +There is not much more to tell. I believe that the tunnel is still there, +boring its way into the heart of the mountain, where, perhaps, the lovely +yellow gold is; but we no longer refer to it as _ours_, and Nimrod still +has to work for our daily jam. For the insolence of Mrs. Frisco in +leaving Mrs. Kansas stranded in the snow and obliging her to walk home on +the cave-in day developed the brewing storm into such proportions that +the next day their husbands did not speak as we gathered round the +morning coffee. And the Kansases moved away into one of the other five +houses in Cartersville. Mr. Kansas was not "going to see his wife +insulted by an upstart--not he: he'd soon show them," and he did so +effectively that the Red Ridge Mining Company was soon no more. We +docketed our golden dreams 'unusable,' stowed them away, and returned +with tranquil minds, if lighter purse, to milder and slower ways of +getting rich. + + + + +XVIII. + +THE LAST WORD. + + +Now this is the end. It is three years since I first became a +woman-who-goes-hunting-with-her-husband. I have lived on jerked deer +and alkali water, and bathed in dark-eyed pools, nestling among vast +pines where none but the four footed had been before. I have been sung +asleep a hundred times by the coyotes' evening lullaby, have felt the +spell of their wild nightly cry, long and mournful, coming just as the +darkness has fully come, lasting but a few seconds, and then heard no +more till the night gives place to the fresh sheet of dawn. I have +pored in the morning over the big round footprints of a mountain lion +where he had sneaked in hours of darkness, past my saddle pillowed +head. I have hunted much, and killed a little, the wary, the beautiful, +the fleet-footed big game. I have driven a four-in-hand over corduroy +roads and ridden horseback over the pathless vasty wilds of the +continent's backbone. + +I have been nearly frozen eleven thousand feet in air in blinding snow, +I have baked on the Dakota plains with the thermometer at 116 degrees, +and I have met characters as diverse as the climate. I know what it +means to be a miner and a cowboy, and have risked my life when need be, +_but_, best of all, I have felt the charm of the glorious freedom, the +quick rushing blood, the bounding motion, of the wild life, the joy of +the living and of the doing, of the mountain and the plain; I have +learned to know and feel some, at least, of the secrets of the Wild Ones. +In short, though I am still a woman and may be tender, I am a Woman +Tenderfoot no longer. + +[Illustration: A MOUNTAIN LION SNEAKED PAST MY SADDLE-PILLOWED HEAD.] + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Woman Tenderfoot, by +Grace Gallatin Seton-Thompson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A WOMAN TENDERFOOT *** + +***** This file should be named 9412-8.txt or 9412-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/9/4/1/9412/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan, and Project +Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders from images generously +made available by the Canadian Institute for Historical +Microreproductions + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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