CHAPTER XXI
HUGH GOES "ON DISCOVERY"
Meantime, Hugh was loping fast up the bottom of the Platte, on thetrail of the horses. It seemed to him to have been made the daybefore; and this would agree very well with the length of time thatthe mare bearing Mr. Sturgis' brand seemed to have been dead. Itwas not easy to tell, out here in the open under the hot sun and inthe dry wind, just when the tracks had been made.
An hour or two of hard, fast riding brought him to the pointwhere he had come upon the trail that morning, and he could see,looking ahead, that here it turned off and struck in toward thehills, apparently to go up one of two valleys. There was water inboth,--not much down here on the dry bottom, but further back inthe hills and among the timber he knew that these streams wererunning brooks, and that on both there were wide grassy meadowsand places very likely to be chosen by people driving a bunch ofhorses, in which to stop and let them feed and rest. If he had beenfollowing Indians who had driven off a band of horses that theyhad stolen from an Indian camp, he would have gone carefully, forIndians would have left behind scouts who, from the top of somehigh hill, would have watched the back trail for at least a fewhours; but he did not think that white men would do this. He hadreason to think that if these were rustlers--horse thieves--theyhad gone over the range after the horse round-up was over, andgathering these horses, had driven them slowly, perhaps by night,until they had got beyond the last ranch, and then had hurried themalong, hoping to get them out of the country without observation.
On the other hand, these might not be horse thieves, but might bepeople who were driving their own stock in a legitimate way, forsome purpose of their own; but he could not understand how thisshould be, and the presence in the bunch of an animal with Mr.Sturgis' brand made him feel that he must investigate.
The trail led toward the westernmost of the two valleys, and Hughfollowed it. The sun was almost down when he got well into thevalley, but he could see that the horses were still going fast, andhe hurried the dun along, for he was anxious if possible to findthe herd that night. It grew dark rapidly, but still he rode on,galloping fast over the grassy bottom, and going more slowly onlywhen he came to the crossings of streams, or to rocky ground, wherehis horse's hoofs made some noise. Of course the dun, like allthe other horses, was unshod, so that there was no clink of ironagainst stone, to be heard at a distance.
After he had ridden for three or four hours in the dark, hestopped, took off his saddle and bridle, and holding the rope whichwas about the dun's neck in his hand, let the animal walk about.It took a few bites of grass, and then lay down and rolled threeor four times, and then getting up, shook itself. Then Hugh putthe saddle on, re-mounted, and went forward. All the time he waslooking and listening as hard as he could. He had gone but a littledistance beyond this place, when suddenly he heard the whinney of alittle colt, and stopped.
Taking his horse by the bridle he walked forward, and before he hadgone very far saw a horse standing near him, and then another, andpresently a number of horses, and knew that he was in the midst ofthe bunch. He took a long look on every side. The valley here waswide, but on either side he could see the black mountains rising,and he did not know just how far the timber came down into thevalley. Now he wanted to find where the camp was, and mounting hishorse he took a long look up and down the stream on both sides, andthere on his right, and not far off, he detected what he thoughtwas the glow of a fire.
Passing on north, until he had gone well above the place where hesupposed the camp must be, he tied his horse to a little bush, andthen walking over to the edge of the valley, close to the stream,he silently drew nearer to the camp. Before long he was closeenough to see the dim light of the fire, and knew that some wherenear it must be lying the men who had the horses in charge. Thiswas enough for him. He went back, got his horse, and going furtherup the stream, crossed it, and finding an open place sat down,holding his horse's rope in his hand until the animal had eaten itsfill. Then, still on foot, he climbed the mountain, tied up hishorse in a thick bunch of brush where it could not be seen, tookoff the saddle, and after eating some dried meat, went along themountain side back to a point opposite the camp, and finding asmooth place, lay down, wrapped himself in his saddle blanket, andwent to sleep.
It was still dark when he awoke, but he sat up, stretched himself,and involuntarily felt in his pocket for his pipe, and then smileda little as he recollected that now he could not smoke. He foldedhis blanket, and laid it behind the trunk of a tree, and then veryslowly began to make his way down the mountain side toward thecamp. Before he had gone far, he began to hear the calls of earlywaking birds, and to be conscious that in the little patches ofsky that he saw from time to time the stars were growing paler.He went very slowly and carefully, feeling his way with hands andfeet, never brushing against the branch of a tree, or stepping ona stick which might crack. The men in the camp below were probablyfast asleep and would not notice the sounds that he might make, butthe matter was too important for him to run any risks. After a timeit grew lighter, and presently he could hear below him the rattleof the water as it flowed over the stones; and as it grew more andmore light, the dim shadows of the horses in the open, and the darkoutlines of the bushes on the stream were seen. The mountain sidejust over the camp was steep and thickly clothed with spruces,most of them of large size, but with many small ones growing amongthem. If he had himself chosen a place for these men to camp, hecould not have selected one that would have been better suited tohis purpose. As the light grew stronger, he worked down closer andcloser to the camp, until he was as near it as he dared go. Thenhe began to look about for a place from which he could see it,for first of all he wished to discover who the men were who hadthe horses. It might be that this would at once explain the wholematter.
After a little manoeuvering he found a place where, through thethin branches of a young spruce, he could look directly down intothe camp. There were the ashes of a fire, and not far from it, onthe smooth dry grass, were three piles, two of them covered withcanvas such as cow punchers commonly use to wrap their beds in, andthe other with a gray blanket. He knew that he might now have towait a long time, and was prepared to exercise patience. He had sethis gun on the hillside, against a tree, where it would not falldown, and at the same time would be in easy reach of his hand if heshould need it.
He sat there for an hour, occasionally looking at the sleeping men,but for the most part studying through the glasses the horses thatfed not far from him.
After the light grew strong but a glance was needed to see thatthis was not a bunch of work horses, but was range stock, pickedup anywhere. He could see the fresh brands on colts and yearlings,and could recognize some of them without his glasses. Through theglasses these fresh brands, many of which had as yet scarcelybegun to peel, stood out very plainly, and in many cases the oldbrand could readily be distinguished. Besides this, there weremany horses which he perfectly well knew, without seeing thebrands,--animals that he recognized as occupying the range whichhe was accustomed to ride over. He chuckled to himself as he sawthese, and thought, "My, my, wouldn't Mr. Sturgis and Powell andJoe be hot if they were here;" and then he thought, "I wish theywere here, for if they were we could take in these three fellowsmighty easy."
From what he had already seen Hugh had made up his mind that thiswas a bunch of horses stolen from the range about the Swiftwaterranch, but he wished to wait a little longer in order to be surewho the men were who had them.
After a while, one of the heaps that he was looking down uponstirred, and a few moments later the covering was thrown off, and aman sat up.
He rubbed his eyes sleepily, and stretched and yawned, and finallyput his hand under the edge of his blanket, pulled out his shoes,and then put them on and stood up. Hugh chuckled as he recognizedRed McClusky, a man whom he well knew as living along the railroad.He was a cowboy who had come up from Texas and had worked at oddtimes on the range, but who spent most of his time in the town,consuming bad whiskey an
d occasionally disappeared for a few weeks,and then turned up again.
McClusky filled his pipe and lighted it, and then going over to thefireplace, began to kindle a fire, at the same time calling out,"Here, get up, you lazy cusses; the sun's high, and we want to getbreakfast." Soon after this the other two men sat up. One of themwas Black Jack Dowling, another bad character along the railroad,well known to Hugh; but the third was a boy or young man, whom Hughdid not know, with a pleasant but rather weak face, who seemed alittle bit afraid of both his companions.
Dowling seemed in rather bad temper, and as he walked toward thecreek growled at McClusky, asking him why he hadn't let them sleeplonger. "We've had an awful hard ride," he said, "and I feel as ifI could sleep all day, and all to-morrow too."
"Pshaw," said McClusky, "that's no ride; if you're goin' to let alittle pleasure gallop like that tire you out, you'd better stickto holding up trains. I feel as fresh to-day as if I hadn't been inthe saddle for a week; don't you, Pete?" he laughed, speaking tothe young man.
"Yes," said Pete, "that wasn't no ride. I guess Jack here aint muchused to the saddle."
Dowling snarled out "Used to the saddle or not, you don't stir meout of this for two days more."
"Well," said McClusky, "it don't make much difference when we goon, but I want to get these horses up north before snow comes, andwe've got quite a ways to go. We ought to leave here to-morrow,sure; anyhow, the day after to-morrow."
The fire was now burning, and operations for breakfast went on.The coffee-pot and frying pan were brought out from beneath thewillows; Pete brought some water, and McClusky cooked, while theother two sat by the fire and smoked. Hugh had now seen enough,and began very slowly to work his way up the mountain. It was notlong before he was out of sight and hearing of the camp, and takingup his blanket on the way, he went on up the stream. Graduallydescending the hill, he at length reached the valley's level, andspent some time in the willow and alder bushes, studying thehorses that were within sight. As nearly as he could figure, therewere about a hundred head of horses, and most of them seemed prettytired. After feeding for some time, they lay down and were seenresting all over the meadow.
Returning to his horse, he led him for a long distance up thestream, to a point where the timber on both sides reached out wellinto the valley, and here crossing a little open spot, which wasalmost out of sight of the horses below, he turned down the stream,and keeping himself always well back from the valley in the timber,again stopped opposite the camp. From here, for a time he watched.The men loafed about the camp; but toward the middle of the morningthe boy walked out among the horses, and catching one that wasevidently picketed, took it back to camp, saddled it, and rode upthe stream. He was not gone long, and indeed did not pass out ofHugh's sight. His only purpose was to round up the horses, drivingthose up stream down opposite the camp, and when he had done thathe rode down stream and started the animals that were feeding thereup to the others.
Hugh could now make a close estimate of the number of the animals,and after having counted them a number of times, he made up hismind that there were between ninety and a hundred. Of these threeseemed to be picketed, and he took careful note of their location,for he had already made up his mind what he intended to do.
After the boy had rounded up the horses he caught A fresh horse,put it on picket and then riding back to the camp, unsaddled andturned loose the horse he had been riding.