A Waif of the Plains.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 434, 4 January 1890, Page 4

A Waif of the Plains.

[COPYRIGHT.] [Ale Rights Reserved.]

by BRET HARTE,

Author of * The Argonauts,’ ‘ The Luck of Roaring Camt,’ ‘ Ckessy,’ Etc. Copyright 1889 —By the Author. CHAPTER IV. -Continued. Thus re-assured, and having a general idea of the direction of the hunt, the boys pushed hilariously forward. Before them opened a vast expanse of bottomland, slightly sloping on the right to a distant half-tilled lagoon, formed by the main river overflow, on whose tributary they had encamped. The lagoon was partly hidden by straggling timber and ‘ brush,’ and beyond that again stretched the unlimitable plains —the pasture of their mighty game. Hither, Jimhoarsely informed hiscompanion, the buffaloes came to water. A few rods further on, he started arid alighting, proceeded to slowly, examine the ground. It seemed to be scattered over with half circular patches, which he pointed out mysteriously as 4 buffalo chip.’ To Clarence’s inexperienced-perception the plain bore a singular resemblance to the surface of an ordinary unromantic cattle pasture that somewhat chilled his heroic fancy. However, the two companions halted and professionally examined their arms and equipments. These I grieve to say, though varied, were scarcely full or satisfactory. The necessities of their flight had restricted Jim to an old double-barrelled fowling piece which he usually carried slung across his shoulders; an old fashioned ‘six-shooter’ whose barrels revolved (occasionally arid unexpectedly)—known as ‘Allen’s Pepper Box ’ on account of its culinary resemblance and a bowie knife ! Clarence carried an Indian bow and arrow, with which he had been exercising, and a hatchet which he had concealed under the flanks of his saddle. To this Jim generously added the six-shooter, taking the hatchet in exchange—a transfer that at first delighted Clarence, until seeing the warlike and picturesque effect of the hatchet in Jim’s belt,he regretted its transfer. The gun, Jim meantime explained, 4 extry charged,’ ‘ chuck up ’ to the middle with slugs and revolver bullets, could only be fired by himself, and even then, he darkly added, not without danger. This poverty of equipment was, however, compensated by apposive statements from Jim of the extraordinary results obtained by these simple weapons from ‘ fellers I knew.’ How he himself had once brought down.a ‘bull’ by a bold shot with a revolver through its open bellowing mouth that pierced its ‘innards.’ How a friend of his—an intimate in fact now in gaol at Louisville for killing a sheriffs deputy—had once found himself alone and dismounted with a simple clasp knife and a lariat among a herd of buffaloes ; how, leaping calmly upon the shaggy shoulders of the biggest bull, he lashed himself with the lariat firmly to its horns, goading it onward with his clasp knife, and subsisting for days upon the flesh cut from its living body, until abandoned by its fellows, and exhausted by loss of blood, it finally succumbed to its victor at the very outskirts of the camp to which he had artfully driven it ! It must be confessed that this recital somewhat took away Clarence’s breath, and he would have liked to ask a few questions. But they were alone on the prairie, they were linked by a common transgression ; the glorious sun was coming up victoriously, the pure, crisp air was intoxicating their nerves—in the bright forepast of youth everything teas possible ! The surface of the bottom land that they were crossing was here and there broken up by fissures and ‘ pot holes,’ and some circumspection in their progress became necessary. In one of these halts,- Clarence was struck by a dull monotonous jarring that sounded like the heavy, regular fall of water over a dam. Each time that they slackened their pace the sound would become audible, and was at last accompanied by that slight but unmistakable tremor of the earth that betrayed the vicinity of a waterfall. Hesitating over this phenomenon, which seemed to imply that their topography was wrong and that they had blundered from the track, they were presently startled by the fact that the sound was actually approaching them ! With a sudden instinct they both galloped towards the lagoon. As the timber opened before them Jim uttered' a long ecstatic shout, 4 Why, it’ st hem !’ ’ At a first glance it seemed to Clarence as if the whole plain beyond was broken up and rolling in tumbling waves or furrows towards'them. ‘ A second glance showed the tossing fronts of a vast herd of buffaloes,and here ar.d there, darting in and out and among them, or emergirig from the cloud of ; dust behind, wild'figures and flashes'of fire." With the idea of. water still in 1 his mind, it seethed as if somertrimultuous tidal wave were sweeping unseen towards the lagoon, carrying everything.before it,, He turned ( with eagerieyes in speechless expectancy to his companion. f Alack ! that redoubtable hero and mighty hunter was, to .all appearances, equally ‘speechless and astonished! It .was true that he.l remained rooted to,, the ..saddle, a lank, still heroic figure, alternately grasping hiV hatchet and gun with a kind of spasmodic regularity !. How long he would have continued this, could never be known, for the next moment with a deafening crash the Herd broke - through the .bush, and swerving at the right of the lagoon bore, down directly upon them. .- . All further doubt or hesitation on their part was stopped. . The far)speing, sagacious Mexi : ' can plug with a terrific snort ..wheeled and, fled furiously, with "liis, rider.: Moved: no ; doubt by touching fidelity,; Clarence’s 1 humbler, team-horse .instantly foirowedV " In a \ fe\y moments those .devoted’ animals struggled: neck to in. noble emula'fP n MT 'iVP {jKCt U'SfewT’ ir r |* What are-, wer ;goii>-’ off, this way for ? , gasped the simple Clarence. . ;

‘ Peyton and Gildersleeves are backthere —and they’ll see us,’ gasped Jim in reply. It*struck Clarence that]the buffaloes were much nearer them than the hunting party, and that 'thei tramping hoofs of a dozen bulls were close behind them, but with another-gasp he shouted: 4 When are we , going to hunt ’em V * Hunts-k them,’ screamed Jitn with a hysterical outburst of truth, * Why, they’re hunting —dash it.’. , ; .j. , Indeed, there was no doubt that their frenzied horses were flying before ; tho equally frenzied herd behind them. They gained a momentary advantage- by,riding into one of the fissures, and out. again on the other side while their pursuers were obliged to make a detour. .But in a fow :(: minutes they were overtaken by that part of the herd who had taken the other and s nearer side of the lagoon, and were now fairly in the midst of them. The ground shook with, their trampling hoofs; their steaming breath mingling with the stinging dust that filled the air’ half-choked and blinded .Clarence. He was dimly conscious that Jim had wildly thrown his hatchet at a cow-buffalo pressing close upon his flanks. As they swept down into another gully he saw him raise his fateful gun in utter desperation. Clarence crouched low on his .horse’s neck. There was a blinding flash; a single stunning report from both barrels; Jim reeled in one way half f out of the saddle, while the smoking gun seemed to leap in another over his head, and then rider and horse vanished in a choking cloud of dust and gunpowder. A moment after Glarenco’s horse stopped with . a sudden check, and the boy felt himsolf hurled over its head into the gully, alighting on something that seemed to be a bounding cushion of curled and twisted hair. It was the shaggy shoulder of an enormous buffalo ! For Jim’s desperate random shot end double charge had taken ; effect on the near hind leg, of a preceding bull, tearing away the fleslf and ham-string-ing the animal, who had dropped in, the gully just in front of Clarence’s horse. Dazed, but unhurt, the boy rolled from the lifted fore-quarters of the brute to the ground. When he'staggered to his feet again not only his horse was gone but the whole herd of buffaloes seemed to have' passed too, and he could hear the shouts of unseen hunters now ahead'of him:' They had evidently overlooked his fall, and the gully had concealed him. - The sides before Him were too steep for his aching limbs to climb ; the slope by which he and the bull had descended when the collision occurred was behind the wounded animal. Clarence was staggering towards it when the bull, by a supreme effort, lifted itself on three legs, half turned, and faced him . These events had passed too quickly for ‘ the inexperienced boy to have felt any active fear, or indeed anything but wild , excitement and confusion. But the spectacle of that shaggy ancl enormous front, that seemed to fill the whole gully, rising with awful deliberation between him ana escape, sent a thrill ot terror through his fram6. The great, dull, bloodshot eyes glared at him with a dumb, wondering fury; the large wet nostrils were so near that their first snore of inarticulate rage made him reel backwards as from a blow. The gully was only a narrow and short fissure or subsidence of the plain ; a few paces more of retreat and he would be at its end, against an almost perpendicular bank fifteen feet high. If ho attempted to climb its crumbling sides and fell, there would be those short, but terrible, horns waiting to impale him ! It seemed too terrible, too cruel ! He was so small beside this overgrown monster. It wasn’t fair. The tears started to his eyes, and then, in a rage at the injustice of Fate, he stood doggedly still with clenched fists. He fixed his gaze with half hysterical, childish fury on those lurid eyes ; he did not know that, owing to the strange magnifying power of the bull’s convex pupils, he (Clarence) appeared mucli bigger than he really was to the brute’s heavy consciousness,the distance from him most deceptive, and that it was to this fact that hunters so often owed their escape. He only thought of some desperate means of attack. Ah ! the six-shooter;, lb was still in his pocket. He drew it nervously, hopelessly—it looked so small compared with his large enemy. He presented it with flashing eyes, and pulled the trigger. A feeble click followed, another, and again ! Even this mocked him. He pulled the trigger once more wildly ;. there was a sudden explosion, and another. He stepped back, the balls had apparently flattened themselves harmlessly on the bull’s' forehead. He . pulled again, hopelessly, there, was - another - report, • a sudden furious bellow, and the enormous -brute threw his head savagely to one «de, burying his left liorn deep in the crumbling bank' beside him. Again and again he charged the bank, driving his left horn home, arid bringing down the stones and earth in showers. It was some seconds before Clarence saw in a single glimpse of that wildly-tossing crest the reason of this fury., The blood was pouring from his left eye, penetrated by the last bullet; the bull was blinded! A terrible revulsion of feeling, a sudden sense of remorse that was for the moment more awful than even his previous fear, overcame him. He had done that thing ! As much to fly " from the dreadful spectable as any instinct of self-preservation, lie took advantage of tho next mad paroxysms of pain and blindness that always impelled the suffering beast toward 1 the left;:to slip 'past, him on the right, reach the incline and scramble wildly up to the plain again. Here he ran confusedly forward —not knowing whither —only caring to. escape , that agonised bellovving, to shut but for ever the accusing look of that huge blbod-weltering eye. Suddenly he heard a distant angry shout. To his ffirst hurried glance the plain had seemed empty, but looking up he saw two horsemen rapidly advancing with a led horse behind'them—his own. '■ • With the blessed sense of relief that overtook'him now came the fevered desirb-for sympathy;and to tell them all.--' But as they came nearer he saw that they were GuilderelCeve, the scout,'and Harry Beftnam, andthat'frirfrom sharing any delight in his deliverance, thCir faces drily exhibited irascible"

‘impatience. Overcome’ by this new defeat the boy stopped, again dumb and dogged.' ‘ Now,' tlieii, blank 1 it all, to/W you get up and come 3 along, or do you reckon to ' keep the train waiting another hour over - your blanked foolishness ?’ said Guiidergleeve;' savagely. ~ The : boy nesitated, and then mounted " mechanically, without a word; ' " r 1 ‘’Twould have served ’em riglit to have gone and left'-’em/'" muttered - Benham vindictively.. , . ;; - >.. ; For onej wild instant Clarence ?thought : .of throwing himself oft' his horse and bidding them- go ..on. and- leave, him. But ; before he could put this thought into action the two men were galloping, forward, with his horse led by a lariat fastened to the horn otGuildersleeve’s saddle.. ... In two hours more they had overtaken ■the train, already on : the march, and were :iri the midst of the group of: outriders Judge Peyton’s face, albeit a trifle per-plexed;-turned - towards: Clarence - with a kindly; half-tolerant look of welcome. The boy’s heart instantly melted with for- ' •givjbnewJdc- fJT .<■!■ - ‘ Well,- my ?boyi' let’s hear’yo«r story 1 . ':; What happened?’ !

Clarence cast a hurried glance around, and saw Jim, with face averted, riding gloomily behind. Then, nervously and hurriedly, he told how he had been thrown into the gully on the back of the wounded buffalo, and the manner of hia escape. An audible titter ran through the cavalcade; Mr Peyton regarded him gravely. ‘But how did the buffalo get so conveniently into the gully ?’he asked. ‘ Jim Hooker lamed him with a shotgun, and he fell over,’ said Clarence timidly. A roar of Homeric laughter went up from the party. Clarence looked up, stung and startled, but caught a single glimpse of Jim Hooker’s face that made him forget his own mortification. In its hopeless, heart-sick, and utterly beaten dejection—the first and only real expression he had seen on it —he read the dreadful truth ! Jim’s reputation had ruined him! The one genuine and striking episode of his life—the one trustworthy account he had given of it—had been unanimously accepted as the biggest and most consummate lie of his record ! (To be continued.)