CHAPTER X--THE STAMPEDE
Their guide was fully as capable as a man, and proved it when it came tomaking camp. Her selection of the camping site could not have beenbettered; she wielded an axe as well as a man in cutting brush forbedding and wood for the fires.
As soon as Pedro and the burros arrived, Min proceeded to get supper forthe party with a skill and celerity that reminded him, so Tom said, ofone of those jugglers in vaudeville that keep half a dozen articles inthe air at a time.
Min broiled bacon, made coffee, mixed and baked biscuits on a boardbefore the coals, and finally made the popular flapjacks in unendingnumber--and attended to all these things without assistance.
"Pop can beat me at flapjacks. Them's his long suit," declared the girlguide. "Wait till you see him toss 'em--a pan in each hand."
Min's viands could only be praised, and the party made a hearty supper.
As dusk mantled them about, Tom suddenly saw a spark of light out acrossthe plain to the south.
"What's yonder?" he asked. "I thought you said there was no house nearhere, Miss Peters?"
"Gee! if you don't stop calling me _that_," gasped their guide, "Icertainly will go crazy. I ain't used to it. But that ain't a house."
"What is it, then?" asked the abashed Tom.
"One of the Lazy C outfits I reckon. Didn't you see the cattle grazin'yonder when we come over that last ridge?"
"Oh, my! a regular herd of cattle such as you read about?" demandedSally Blanchard. "And real cowboys with them?"
"I s'pect they think they're real enough," replied Min, dryly. "Punchin'steers ain't no cinch, lemme tell you."
"Doesn't she talk queerly?" said Rebecca, in a whisper. "She reallydoesn't seem to be a very proper person."
"My goodness!" gasped Jennie Stone, choked with laughter at this. "Whatdo you expect of a girl who's lived in the mines all her life? Polite,Back-Bay English and all the refinements of the Hub?"
"No-o," admitted Rebecca. "But, after all, refined people are ever somuch nicer than rude people. Don't you find it so yourself, Jennie?"
"Well, I s'pose that's so," admitted the plump girl. "For a steady diet.Just the same, if you judged it by its husk, you'd never know how sweetthe meat of a chestnut is."
The campfire at the chuckwagon of the herding outfit was several milesaway; and later in the evening it died down and the glow of itdisappeared.
The girls were tired enough to seek repose early. Min, Tom and theMexican boy had agreed to divide the night into three watches. OtherwiseRebecca declared she would be afraid even to close her eyes--and then herregular breathing announced that sleep had overtaken her within sixtyseconds of her lying down!
Min chose the first watch and Ruth was not sleepy. During the turnsbefore midnight the girl from the East and the girl who had lived aboy's life in the mining country became very well acquainted indeed.
There had not been any "lucky strikes" in this region since Min couldremember. But now and then new veins of gold were discovered on oldclaims; or other metals had been discovered where the early miners hadlooked only for gold.
"And pop's an old-timer," sighed Min. "He'll never be any good foranything but prospectin'. Once it gets into a man, I reckon there ain'tno way of his ever gettin' away from it. Pop's panned for gold in threeStates; he'll jest die a prospector and nothin' more."
"It's good of you to have stuck to him since you grew big," said Ruth.
"What else could I do?" demanded the Western girl. "Of course he lovesme in his way; and when he goes on his sprees he'd die some time if Iwasn't on hand to nurse him. But some day I'm goin' to get a bunch ofmoney of my own--an' some clo'es--and I'm goin' to light out and leave himwhere he lies. Yes, ma'am!"
Ruth did not believe Min would do quite that; and to change the subject,she asked suddenly:
"What's that yonder? That glow over the hill?"
"Moon. It's going to be bright as day, too. Them boys of the Lazy C willride close herd."
"Why?"
"Don't you know moonlight makes cattle right ornery? The shadows are soblack, you know. Then, mebbe there's something 'bout moonlight thataffects cows. It does folks, too. Makes 'em right crazy, I hear."
"I have heard of people being moonstruck," laughed Ruth. "But that wasin the tropics."
"Howsomever," Min declared, "it makes the cows oneasy. See! there's theedge of her. Like silver, ain't it?"
The moon flooded the whole plain with its beams as it rose from behindthe mountains. One might have easily read coarse print by its light.
Every bush and shrub cast a black reflection upon the ground. It wasvery still--not a breath of air stirring. Far, far away rose the whine ofa coyote; and the girls could hear one of the herdsmen singing as heurged his pony around and around the cattle.
"You hear 'em pipin' up?" said Min, smiling. "Them boys of the Lazy Cknow their business. Singin' keeps the cows quiet--sometimes."
Their own fire died out completely. There was no need for it. By and byRuth roused Tom Cameron, for it was twelve o'clock. Then both she andMin crept into their own blanket-nests, already arranged. The othergirls were sleeping as peacefully as though they were in their own bedsat Ardmore College.
Tom was refreshed with sleep and had no intention of so much as "battingan eye." The brilliancy of the moonlight was sufficient to keep himawake.
Yet he got to thinking and it took something of a jarring nature toarouse him at last. He heard hoarse shouts and felt the earth tremble asmany, many hoofs thundered over it!
Leaping up he looked around. Bright as the moon's rays were he did notat first descry the approaching danger. It could not be possible thatthe cattle had stampeded and were coming up the valley, headed for thetourists' camp!
Yet that is what he finally made out. He shouted to Pedro, and finallykicked the boy awake. Without thinking of the danger to the girls Tombelieved first of all that their ponies and burros might be swept awaywith the charging steers.
"Gather up those lariats and hold the ponies!" Tom shouted to theMexican. "The burros won't go far away from the horses. Hi, Min Peters!What do you know about this?"
Their guide had come out of her blanket wide awake. She appreciated theperil much more keenly than did Tom or the girls.
"A fire! We want a fire!" she shouted. "Never mind them ponies, Pedro!You strike a light!"
Up the valley came charging the forefront of the cattle, their wicked,long horns threatening dire things. As the Eastern girls awoke and sawthe cattle coming, they were for the most part paralyzed with fear.
"Fire! Start a fire!" yelled Min, again.
The thunder of the hoofs almost drowned her voice. But Ruth Fieldingsuddenly realized what the girl guide meant. The cattle would not chargeover a fire or into the light of one.
She grabbed something from under her blanket and leaped away from MissCullam's tent toward the stampede. Tom shouted to her to come back;Helen groaned aloud and seized the sleepy Jennie Stone.
"She'll be killed!" declared Helen.
"What's Ruth doing?" gasped the plump girl.
Then Ruth touched the trigger of the big tungsten lamp, and thespotlight shot the herd at about the middle of its advance wave.Snorting and plunging steers crowded away from the dazzling beam oflight, brighter and more intense than the moon's rays, and so dividedand passed on either side of the tourists' encampment.
The odor of the beasts and the dust they kicked up almost suffocated thegirls, but they were unharmed. Nor did the ponies and burros escape withthe frightened herd.
The racing punchers passed on either side of the camp, shouting theircongratulations to the campers. The latter, however, enjoyed littlefurther sleep that night.
"Such excitement!" murmured Miss Cullam, wrapped in her blanket andsitting before the fire that Pedro had built up again. "And I thoughtyou said, Ruth Fielding, that this trip would probably be no morestrenuous than a picnic on Bliss Island?"
But Min eyed the girl of the Red Mill with something
like admiration."Huh!" she muttered, "some of these Eastern tenderfoots are some good ina pinch after all."