CHAPTER IX
CHASED BY A STAMPEDING HERD
"Whoa-oo-ope! Whoa-oo-ope!"
The long soothing cry echoed from guard to guard.
It was the call of the cowman, in an effort to calm the frightenedanimals. Here and there a gun would flash as the guards shot in front ofthe stampeding herd, hoping thereby to turn the rush and set the animalsgoing about more in a circle in order to keep them together until theycould finally be quieted.
It was all a mad chaos of noise and excitement to the lad who sat in hissaddle hesitatingly, not knowing exactly what was expected of him underthe circumstances.
Off toward the camp a succession of flashes like fireflies told thecowpunchers on guard that their companions were racing to theirassistance as fast as horseflesh could carry them.
The storm had disturbed the herd from the instant of the first flash oflightning, and, as other flashes followed, the excitement of the animalsincreased until, at last, throwing off all restraint, they dashedblindly for the open prairie.
Desperately as the guards struggled to turn the herd, their efforts hadno more effect than if they had been seeking to beat back the waves ofthe sea.
Tad was recalled to a realization of his position when, in a dazzlingflash of lightning, he caught a momentary glimpse of Big-foot Sandersbearing down on him at a tremendous speed. Tad saw something else,too--a surging mass of panic-stricken cattle, heads hanging low, hornsglistening and eyes protruding, sweeping toward him.
"Ride! Ride!" shouted Big-foot.
"Wh--where?" asked Tad in as strong a voice as he could command.
"Keep out of their way. Work up to the point as soon as you can and tryto point in the leaders. We've got to keep the herd from scattering.I'll stay in the center and lead them till the others get here. Bob willsend along some of the fellows to help you as soon as possible."
While delivering his orders Big-foot had turned his pony, and, with Tad,was riding swiftly in advance of the cattle, in the same direction thatthey were traveling. To have paused where they were would have meantbeing crushed and trampled beneath the hoofs of the now maddenedanimals.
"Now, git!"
Tad pulled his pony slightly to the right.
"Use your gun!" shouted Big-foot. "Burn plenty of powder in front oftheir noses if they press you too closely!"
He had forgotten that the lad did not carry a gun, nor did he realizethat he was sending the boy into a situation of the direst peril.
Tad, by this time, had a pretty fair idea of the danger of the task thathad been assigned to him. But he was not the boy to flinch in anemergency.
Pressing the rowels of his spurs against the flanks of the reaching ponyand urging the little animal on with his voice, Tad swept obliquelyalong in front of the herd.
Now and then a flash of lightning would show him a solid mass of cattlehurling themselves upon him. At such times the lad would swerve hismount to the left a little and shoot ahead for a few moments, in anattempt to get sufficient lead of them to enable him to reach the rightor upper end of the line.
In this way Tad Butler soon gained the outside of the leaders. Bydropping back and working up the line, he pointed them in to the best ofhis ability.
The lightning got into his eyes as he strained them wide open to takeaccount of his surroundings. He would pass a hand over his faceinstinctively, as if to brush the flash away, groping for an instant forhis bearings after he had done so.
He remembered what Bob Stallings had said in speaking of a stampede.
"Keep them straight and hold them together. That's all you can do. Youcan't stop them," the foreman had said.
The lad was doing this now as best he could, yet he wondered that noneof the cowmen had come to his assistance.
Again and again did Tad Butler throw his pony against the greatunreasoning wave on the right of the line, and again and again was hebuffeted back, only to return to the battle with desperate courage.
All at once the lad found himself almost surrounded by the beasts. Alightning flash had shown him this at the right time. Had it been a fewseconds later Tad must have gone down under their irresistible rush.
The pony, seeming to realize the danger fully as much as did its rider,bent every muscle in its little body to bear itself and rider to safety.
Yet try as they would, they were unable to get back to the right pointto take up the turning work again.
The cattle had closed in about the lad in almost a crescent formation,Tad's position being about the center of it.
"Whoa-oo-ope! Whoa-oo-ope!" shouted Tad, taking up the cry that he hadheard the cowboys utter earlier in the stampede.
His voice was lost in the roar of the storm and the thunder of therushing herd.
Tad realized that there was only one thing left for him to do. That wasto keep straight ahead and ride. He would have to ride fast, too, if hewere to keep clear of the long-legged Mexican cattle.
They were descending a gradual slope that led down into a broad, sandyarroyo where still stood the rotting stumps of oak and cottonwood treesthat once lined the ancient water course.
By this time the main herd lay to the rear nearly two miles, the cattlehaving separated into several bands. However, the lad was unaware ofthis.
Suddenly, in the darkness, rider and pony crashed into a dense mesquitethicket.
There was not a second to hesitate, for they were already in. Theleading cattle tore in after Tad with a crashing of brush and a rattleof horns--sounds that sent a chill up and down his spine in spite of allthe lad's sturdy courage.
The herd was closing in on him, leaving the boy no alternative but to gothrough the thicket himself, and to go fast at that.
Tad formed his plan instantly. He made up his mind to ride it out andlet his pony have its own way. Yet the boy never expected to comethrough the mesquite thicket without being swept from his pony andtrampled under the feet of the savage steers.
He gave the pony a free rein, clutched both cantle and pommel of thesaddle and braced himself for the shock that he was sure would come. Thecow pony tore through the growth at a fearful pace, while the boy'sclothes hung in shreds where they had been raked by the mesquite thorns.
All at once Tad felt himself going through the air with a differentmotion. He realized that he was falling. The pony had stumbled and withits rider was plunging headlong to the ground. The cattle werethundering down upon them.