SHORT STORY

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 347, 1 January 1903, Page 7

SHORT STORY

The landscapi consisted chiefly of the railroad depot, two or three broad Bheds, one with 'Saloon' painted on a shingle over the door, and the straight, shining railroad track, which climbed out of the eastern horizon and faded into the west. The rest waa alkali and sage. The only man in store clothes on the depot platform was a quiet, middle-aged person waiting for the 230 east. He wore glance and a trimmed beard. The other parties were Messrs. Brindle and Pegleg hummers, and the gentleman from Kentucky, who was known as 'Bluegrssa' for that reason. They sat around on packing cases ami smoked. The stranger in etore clothes was so obviously an Eisteraer and, a city man that it seemed inhospitable net to start a conversation which might include bint Mr. Sammrra looked round for inspiration, but th-j scenery as deseribed above was not inspiring. A small, white object some distance from the back K" rtened in the ran. and drew the eye of . Summers it was a buffalo skull bleached with years of weataer. * I remember/ said Fegleg; 'in the construction times, when I was fixing up telegraph wires alongside the railroad, j how the buffaloes meets* come and scratch * their hides agin the poles, and just rub and rub till, they boosted the poles oufn tbeyeartfc It was pal<w%ted to worry a man to l»k a&g&a Mem miles of potWhVaDeeiinxm' and see 'em saggin' like a snake fence.. We tried . fins' twelve-inch spikes with sharp p'ints ■ into the pales. Why, them buffaloes just smiled cheerful, and combed their ole pelts harder'n ever,' [* final <[ta*» ueQi 'I was tole/ said Bluegrass, 'that one of them ole Roman fellers, Caies-J. Caesar, write a book about the fightin* in the backwoods in Europe in his time. He slung some pretty tough remarks about huntin', too. Said the bull-elicks—or maybe it was the mouse-deer—anyhow he said they'd no knee j'ints, and didn't lie down to sleep, 'cause .if they had they couldn't «it up agin. So they slept leahin' against trees. And then the settlers took off their boots said, sneaked round with a rip-saw, and just sawed the tree——' ' Seems to ate,* said Fegleg, * tbat C. J. Cesar was makin' a statement. Any bull-elik ever I encountered north would have been in Alaska before that rip-saw got in its second yank. What's the use of him givin" that sorter muah to growedup folks F* - tsoftt * I'm hearin'/ iaid Hunky, cautiously. • That tiushyer C. J. Cesar was a bad man in & scrap. Maybe it was onhealtby to insinuate that he was handlin' the truth kinder keerlesa/ 'lthink,* said the quiet man in store. clothes, who seemed to be interested is the conversation, 'that Cesar was only repeating some tales the German tribesmen told him. These sort of people are given to decorating facts.' £.-. I Bluegraas began to look rather aggressive. Perhaps he felt that the German frontiersmen of Boman times were not so unlike the American frontiersmen of these days, and resented the stranger's •thatsort of people.' ~. ~ * I daresay/ he said, drily, 'that some city dudes who never saw any sort of a bulUelick thought the joke was on Cains Cesar.' ■ ' Well/ said the stranger, good-natur-edly, 'l'm afraid I'd as soon believe a man who said he'd seen 'a mastoden as an elk without knee-joints.* Bluegrass looked fixedly, at the stranger as one who bluffeth hia neighbour acem 5.3 ,>■* '■ ■- • ' I've teen a maataian,*. said he. 'The mastodon is extinct, and a fossil,' the stranger said, mildly. •-> >r?w* | Mr. Summers, who was in the Ji.ne of firs between Bluegrass and the Easterner, shored back bis packing-box slowly. ~.-,, * In this part of the country/ said Bluegrass, 'itis unusual for a tender-foot to inform an old inhabitant on the products of tha regatta** & "V*" ' I beg your pardon/ eaid thestranger, amiably. 'X am always open to receive new facts, Indted, I am rather anxious to hear your account of this—er—remarkable occurrence.' 'Hanky, here,' said Bluegrass,' or Pegleg, wilKlsOL jott 'that they have rid they'll say it honest. But, again, they may hate seen a mastodon without recognism* the animal/ 'l've hearin'/ - said- Pegleg, meekly, 'that a mastodon' is a sort ot elephant, only bigger. I think I should know him if 1 saw one.' ♦*** t

■ Pegl'g/ «ud Bluegrass. ' thafs where your toe turns is, wusser'n an Injun's. You look acmes a big canyon, Bay Eicay Canyon, and yea see a black dot movin' at the bottom. It nay be a goat or a ' Navajo pony, but as you cayn't tell to several mile how far off it ia it may likewise be a mastodon. .A. lar?e calibre mastodon don't look big in the Kicay agin a cliff five thousand fest high.' „ t The stranger, who, to the delight of Hunk aad Pegleg, m busy taking notes in a memo, book, looked up and tapped his teeth with his pencil. ' bid you say 'five thousand feet r heasked. - • ' 'Four thousand eight hundred and fifty,'said Blue grass with apologetic pre- ' You'll say, perhaps, that a mastodon wouldn't be all the time too fir away for recognition, fidt he is a shy animal, and powerful keen in the smell. Stands to reason, he havin' a nose ua long as a fire hoee, than he should be keen in tbasmelL' ' But nobody ever came upon one even by chanee,' said Hunky. 'Somebody did/ raid Bluegrass «It was me Tom Bonner and I were camping in Kicay Canyon. You will ask— Why were we camping in Eicay Canyon. P You will inquire—ls there anything fox..a white man to do in Eicay Canyon 'cept heave rocks at horned toads and ache for a civilised drink t It was Bonner's particular brand of foolishness. Somebody had filled him up that .the dead and gone natives who built them stone ruins agin m fr/»<cliffs and dug out caves ia the rocks h*£?hidden a pile of gold in the further end of a particular cavern. But when we arrived we found that a big rock had slid down and blocked up the entrance completely. We couldn't tackle it nohow, so

Bloejrass's Masfodoh. !

Bonner said he'd stay by and see that nobody stole the cave, while I rode over to Fort Filjee and got some giant powder. It was a four days' ride there and back. Ism not a miner anyways, and didn't li-~eth* lx.k of the sticks of onpleasant, greasy-looki'.' stuff they called giant powder. They eaid it was all right long as I carried the detonators separate from the powder. I did so, you bet. I stowed the detonators in a bag on. my pony, and I packed the powder tight into a little tin pail and gave it to my dog Grab to carry/ This was rough on Grab you might say, but he liked to carry things, aid his feelings were not hurt, as he didn't know the pail was loadod. The .last day's ride on' the plateau I had trouble. My pony. went. lame. It was pretty late before I reached the canyon, and then I missed the trail and got along a narrer ridge, which stuck out into the canyon, with straight-down cliffs on each side, until I reached a sort of fUt-top bluff about a - mile across each way and perpendicular down a few thousand, feet into the canyon. It was bo dark now- that I concluded to camp and sarch, back fojr the trail in the morma*.' The moon was due in three hours or so. I didn't hobble my horse—him. -being so lame—but jnst turned him loose. I ate some cold grub I bad, and fed Grab after tellin' him to put his pail down beneath a tree a few yards away. ;I roHe&-'up ; iu my blanket 'and i went to sleep, tellin'- Grab to-watch.' 1 1 11 alep' a good while, and was woke up' by Grab pullin'my blanket and wbiaiu'. He never barked—too much lojun blood in him. I eat up sharp The moon had .riz.ibut was still low and shinin' level, with ifi lower edge touchin' a rise in the gronnd. The sky- was dear, without a :. Reg of cloud. I turned to look at Grab,; and right'then the-moon wont out! I swung j round' in time to see' the moon dodge into view agin round a corner, so to apeak,j with /something like an almighty sarpint twistin' acrost the face of her. 'lam. a sober man, and not given to seein' snakes, onlike my late lamented pardner, Tom Bonner. Poor Tom, he died about four years ago over at the Gila. He had never seen the poisonous lizards, what we call the Gila monsters, which Bre--th«-^ery^^UftbolißheßWoofin , rep tales you ever sot eyes on. Tom he came upon a reglar posse, about seven or . eight, one day when-he was soberer than' a deacon. He dida't believe them reptiles was genuine—be hadn't seen wusßerlookin'when he - on the jag—-and to . prove to himself that they wasn't real he sat down right atop of the biggest.* It was the bitin'est phantom, and it hung on when it took hold. I killed it, but poor Tom was a goner. He feebly drank;a gallon and a half of straight whisky, cut of a jug, which is good for poisin bites, and then he awolled up and expired.' ' Perhaps/ said the Easterner, thoughtfully, 'the lizard was not so deadly after all.' i-r-§*3 » . ' You don't know the Gila monster/ said the narrator. 'I mean,* explained the other, 'that perhaps the whisky killed him/ 'The whisky—the whisk—rr- Yon didn't know Tom Bonner!' said* Bluegrass. >

He smoked a few moments in silence, and the stranger feared lest the .digression after the Gila monster had diverted; the tale of the inconstant moon. •Tori were telling us,' he said, invitr ingly, 'of a strange appearance like a large serpent across the moon V * Yaaa,' said Bluegraaa. ' That is what it resembled. I was badly rattled, which, is unusual for me, and I acted foolish. -1 drew my gim and fired two shots. next moment I was lightin' out on the dead run with Bomethiiig after iaforsomething ing like a —luseter roth but I would have been caught, in the first rush if my pnfornitpony fiadn't been hobblinf in the way. . He was snatohed and whirled -info the air like a rabbit. I looked '{back and saw this awiuHookin' zoological freak just flatteniri' out the poor : equine's remains. The beast was - long," straight tusks, and, and more" bony and slab-sided than an or'nery.ied-up-cirooa elephant. His hide was blaik anu*rifltlywilh l^Jte ( &&x3m tor I? gueßß-hewaß®te:~ *fc • I ran towards the moon so's to let the light into his eyes aa he followed me. 'My, howl ran! I soon found out that if I snaked left and right I could keep ahead, as he wasn't spry at turn in'. I think I ran twice round the top of .the, bluff, misain'the black trail along the ridge to the plateau- There was no other way out —the cliff was - sheer Grab, he came boundin' along with me, and when I recovered my senses enough to "take notice, I saw he had that darned tin pail in his mouth. Even a dog may be too conscientious. ■ I don't think he was scared, but just cams whiskin' along in a sporty mariner, while the tin pail clanked agin etpmps ] and" rouks. - I yelled at Grab pretty savage with what breath I could spare, for it is -tryin'; to the temper to have a keerleas dog gettin' around among your feet with a. pail of high explosive, while an extinct foeso, twenty feet high, is gambollin' behind*: '•' ■ Of course this sort of obstacle-race by moonlight couldn't last long. I was gettin' blown with divin' under falles trees and boundin' over gullies .which that blamed mastodon took in his stride. Poor Grab, top, began to find his tin pail too much to tote, as he couldn't hang hit tongue out on account of the handle. Ac I recovered after a handspring over s stump I saw the mastodon close upo-

Grab, stop, and rope the pore dog in with his trunk. He opened a cavernyous mouth, licked pore Grab in, and swallowed him like a pie. Last thing I Baw wan the tin pail which the faithful old dog kept holt of fci the end. It foilered him down.' ' But the maptedon,* said the stranger, with a startled air, 'ia not held to have been a carnivorous animal.* 'I have before mentioned,' said-Blue." - grass, with a pained expression, c that it is unusual in Arizona for an uninstructed person tb correct an expert on matters of ..observation. This mastodon was carnivorous—also dognivorous. You sabe?' 'I see,' said the stranger, making a note, ' the mastodon is a carnivorous animal.' His face was funereal. .' We resumed,' said Bluegrass, * but the end was nigh. I thought that soon 1 would be travflllßi' inside passage, with Grab, and the pail of powder. In death

r<w* 'Would ftctf'W- dfiridetC didn't perceive that the ..mastoaou had chewiewpi toy before be aulpfid I eoulci hear'hlnV'feetf'pqundin' behind ma liko thunder. I doubledligain down jk gentle slope, but found all at once that I had ran oat upon. a spur with the lip of the canyon right down before me. I just had time to fall flat, with my face over nothin'. That is, I was' looking straight down four thousand eight hundred and fifty feet. I remember in a second or two BPein' the Eicay River glistenin' in the moonlight at the bottom of the arroya, and a small apart in the distant shadow below, which was Tom Bonner's camp-fire. And, then the mastodon jumped clean Over me; •I watched him/ said Bluegrass, impressively, ' a-fallin', and a-fallin'. He turned over slowly, spreading his forelegs and quiling his trunk round his off hind leg, while his tail, which was bristly at the tip, stuck straight .ont. He grew smaller and smaller as he fell, but he kept on fallinV

Pegieg Summers leant a somnolent head against Mr. Brindle; ; ! Wake me/ 'he? whispered, 'when the critter touches the bottom. ' Four thousand eight hundred and jßf:tj .feet,' xepeate&.JJluegrassr., ilt was too far. He was twenty foot high, and thereabouts in length,, but he grew too small for me to sea him. Batf at last he must have fetched-the floor of the canyon. I* tipect he jhifc|a rgbk.l, ,|Je weighed several tons, of course, and I guess ,he hit if hard. Under" which circumstances giant powder will explode without a detonator. I saw a bright flaab, and a long time after a muffled bang came fkatin' up. ~ , ,-.- ? i* -- --;. v |,r f% r 'ln the mornin'l struck the trail and got down on foot to the camp I found Tom Bonner trying to wash hia shirt in a pail of the gummy mud and alkali alleged to be the Eicay Biver water. ' Bluegrass/ says be, ' last night, one of them ykerpluaked jntofe the%canyon Inot| far'JEronv' herejind %lsdVj&e thurfuerl *ffiad rmHimblasted/ says Tom, ' if it didn't jnst kiver thisyer camp and 'me with half, cooked Bassidge-mpat. ,Whar',s GrabP' * Jedgin' from them yaller bairs in the pail/ says I, .'he reached camp last evening" sssaiunvj eMS»a '■ *« uO-Ji-S^ All arose, £or; the &SO had pulled' in. The stranger pocketed nis notebook, and shook handswith the crowd before boarding his car. 'Sir/: he said to Biuegrssa, 'your talents are great, but unsuited for the sceptical East. Even if from motives of humamtyjou spared .half of those who wouldbe sure to dissent from your statements, the toil of killing the other half wouldprobably exoeed yourpowers.''Still/ if you do come as far as Washington, p.C., I shall b? pleased, to; see you.' He handed Bluegrass an envelope from the car platform, and the express left. H Mr. Brindle. read the address over the shoulder of the recipient; ■: ■'■--■"• -■■■'■ ' • *.* H. Griscom Shearer, B Sc, * : ' -" '- r '/ 'U.S. Geographical Survey.' ~ i I mentioned/ said Pegieg to the.sky, 'thatit is unusual in Arizona for an uninstructed person to correct an expert on matters of observation.' ; f[ maftojon/ added Huhky, 'is a carnivorous animal—also dognivorous.' ■ i' jßDys,' isaid Bluegraas, ' the joke is on m«j and the saloon is near. Kama your poison/ ~, ~..-.. a, m •_, : •.•■' « ?sgleg, * ont'n ajug. »Iguess we know Tom Bonner.*— .W.4JVrEB,MAcE^WAN.: