The Last of the Plainsmen - Zane Grey (bill gates books recommendations txt) š
- Author: Zane Grey
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Naturally, I here expressed a desire to know more of Old Tom.
āHeās the biggest cougar ever known of in these parts. His tracks are bigger than a horseās, anā have been seen on Buckskin for twelve years. This wranglerāhis name is Clarkāsaid heād turned his saddle horse out to graze near camp, anā Old Tom sneaked in anā downed him. The lions over there are sure a bold bunch. Well, why shouldnāt they be? No one ever hunted them. You see, the mountain is hard to get at. But now youāre here, if itās big cats you want we sure can find them. Only be easy, be easy. Youāve all the time there is. Anā any job on Buckskin will take time. Weāll look the calves over, anā you must ride the range to harden up. Then weāll ooze over toward Oak. I expect itāll be boggy, anā I hope the snow melts soon.ā
āThe snow hadnāt melted on Greenland point,ā replied Jones. āWe saw that with a glass from the El Tovar. We wanted to cross that way, but Rust said Bright Angel Creek was breast high to a horse, and that creek is the trail.ā
āThereās four feet of snow on Greenland,ā said Frank. āIt was too early to come that way. Thereās only about three months in the year the Canyon can be crossed at Greenland.ā
āI want to get in the snow,ā returned Jones. āThis bunch of long-eared canines I brought never smelled a lion track. Hounds canāt be trained quick without snow. Youāve got to see what theyāre trailing, or you canāt break them.ā
Frank looked dubious. āāPears to me weāll have trouble gettinā a lion without lion dogs. It takes a long time to break a hound off of deer, once heās chased them. Buckskin is full of deer, wolves, coyotes, and thereās the wild horses. We couldnāt go a hundred feet without crossinā trails.ā
āHowās the hound you and Jim fetched in lasā year? Has he got a good nose? Here he isāI like his head. Come here, Bowserāwhatās his name?ā
āJim named him Sounder, because he sure has a voice. Itās great to hear him on a trail. Sounder has a nose that canāt be fooled, anā heāll trail anythinā; but I donāt know if he ever got up a lion.ā
Sounder wagged his bushy tail and looked up affectionately at Frank. He had a fine head, great brown eyes, very long ears and curly brownish-black hair. He was not demonstrative, looked rather askance at Jones, and avoided the other dogs.
āThat dog will make a great lion-chaser,ā said Jones, decisively, after his study of Sounder. āHe and Moze will keep us busy, once they learn we want lions.ā
āI donāt believe any dog-trainer could teach them short of six months,ā replied Frank. āSounder is no spring chicken; anā that black and dirty white cross between a cayuse anā a barb-wire fence is an old dog. You canāt teach old dogs new tricks.ā
Jones smiled mysteriously, a smile of conscious superiority, but said nothing.
āWeāll shore hev a storm to-morrow,ā said Jim, relinquishing his pipe long enough to speak. He had been silent, and now his meditative gaze was on the west, through the cabin window, where a dull afterglow faded under the heavy laden clouds of night and left the horizon dark.
I was very tired when I lay down, but so full of excitement that sleep did not soon visit my eyelids. The talk about buffalo, wild-horse hunters, lions and dogs, the prospect of hard riding and unusual adventure; the vision of Old Tom that had already begun to haunt me, filled my mind with pictures and fancies. The other fellows dropped off to sleep, and quiet reigned. Suddenly a succession of queer, sharp barks came from the plain, close to the cabin. Coyotes were paying us a call, and judging from the chorus of yelps and howls from our dogs, it was not a welcome visit. Above the medley rose one big, deep, full voice that I knew at once belonged to Sounder. Then all was quiet again. Sleep gradually benumbed my senses. Vague phrases dreamily drifted to and fro in my mind: āJonesās wild rangeāOld TomāSounderāgreat nameāgreat voiceāSounder! Sounder! Sounderāā
Next morning I could hardly crawl out of my sleeping-bag. My bones ached, my muscles protested excruciatingly, my lips burned and bled, and the cold I had contracted on the desert clung to me. A good brisk walk round the corrals, and then breakfast, made me feel better.
āOf course you can ride?ā queried Frank.
My answer was not given from an overwhelming desire to be truthful. Frank frowned a little, as it wondering how a man could have the nerve to start out on a jaunt with Buffalo Jones without being a good horseman. To be unable to stick on the back of a wild mustang, or a cayuse, was an unpardonable sin in Arizona. My frank admission was made relatively, with my mind on what cowboys held as a standard of horsemanship.
The mount Frank trotted out of the corral for me was a pure white, beautiful mustang, nervous, sensitive, quivering. I watched Frank put on the saddle, and when he called me I did not fail to catch a covert twinkle in his merry brown eyes. Looking away toward Buckskin Mountain, which was coincidentally in the direction of home, I said to myself: āThis may be where you get on, but most certainly it is where you get off!ā
Jones was already riding far beyond the corral, as I could see by a cloud of dust; and I set off after him, with the painful consciousness that I must have looked to Frank and Jim much as Central Park equestrians had often looked to me. Frank shouted after me that he would catch up with us out on the range. I was not in any great hurry to overtake Jones, but evidently my horseās inclinations differed from mine; at any rate, he made the dust fly, and jumped the little sage bushes.
Jones, who had tarried to inspect one of the poolsāformed of running water from the corralsāgreeted me as I came up with this cheerful observation.
āWhat in thunder did Frank give you that white nag for? The buffalo hate white horsesāanything white. Theyāre liable to stampede off the range, or chase you into the canyon.ā
I replied grimly that, as it was certain something was going to happen, the particular circumstance might as well come off quickly.
We rode over the rolling plain with a cool, bracing breeze in our faces. The sky was dull and mottled with a beautiful cloud effect that presaged wind. As we trotted along Jones pointed out to me and descanted upon the nutritive value of three different kinds of grass, one of which he called the Buffalo Pea, noteworthy for a beautiful blue blossom. Soon we passed out of sight of the cabin, and could see only the billowy plain, the red tips of the stony wall, and the black-fringed crest of Buckskin. After riding a while we made out some cattle, a few of which were on the range, browsing in the lee of a ridge. No sooner had I marked them than Jones let out another Comanche yell.
āWolf!ā he yelled; and spurring his big bay, he was off like the wind.
A single glance showed me several cows running as if bewildered, and near them a big white wolf pulling down a calf. Another white wolf stood not far off. My horse jumped as if he had been shot; and the realization darted upon me that here was where the certain something began. Spotāthe mustang had one black spot in his pure whiteāsnorted like I imagined a blooded horse might, under dire insult. Jonesās bay had gotten about a hundred paces the start. I lived to learn that Spot hated to be left behind; moreover, he would not be left behind; he was the swiftest horse on the range, and proud of the distinction. I cast one unmentionable word on the breeze toward the cabin and Frank, then put mind and muscle to the sore task of remaining with Spot. Jones was born on a saddle, and had been taking his meals in a saddle for about sixty-three years, and the bay horse could run. Run is not a felicitous wordāhe flew. And I was rendered mentally deranged for the moment to see that hundred paces between the bay and Spot materially lessen at every jump. Spot lengthened out, seemed to go down near the ground, and cut the air like a high-geared auto. If I had not heard the fast rhythmic beat of his hoofs, and had not bounced high into the air at every jump, I would have been sure I was riding a bird. I tried to stop him. As well might I have tried to pull in the Lusitania with a thread. Spot was out to overhaul that bay, and in spite of me, he was doing it. The wind rushed into my face and sang in my ears. Jones seemed the nucleus of a sort of haze, and it grew larger and larger. Presently he became clearly defined in my sight; the violent commotion under me subsided; I once more felt the saddle, and then I realized that Spot had been content to stop alongside of Jones, tossing his head and champing his bit.
āWell, by George! I didnāt know you were in the stretch,ā cried my companion. āThat was a fine little brush. We must have come several miles. Iād have killed those wolves if Iād brought a gun. The big one that had the calf was a bold brute. He never let go until I was within fifty feet of him. Then I almost rode him down. I donāt think the calf was much hurt. But those blood-thirsty devils will return, and like as not get the calf. Thatās the worst of cattle raising. Now, take the buffalo. Do you suppose those wolves could have gotten a buffalo calf out from under the mother? Never. Neither could a whole band of wolves. Buffalo stick close together, and the little ones do not stray. When danger threatens, the herd closes in and faces it and fights. That is what is grand about the buffalo and what made them once roam the prairies in countless, endless droves.ā
From the highest elevation in that part of the range we viewed the surrounding ridges, flats and hollows, searching for the buffalo. At length we spied a cloud of dust rising from behind an undulating mound, then big black dots hove in sight.
āFrank has rounded up the herd, and is driving it this way. Weāll wait,ā said Jones.
Though the buffalo appeared to be moving fast, a long time elapsed before they reached the foot of our outlook. They lumbered along in a compact mass, so dense that I could not count them, but I estimated the number at seventy-five. Frank was riding zigzag behind them, swinging his lariat and yelling. When he espied us he reined in his horse and waited. Then the herd slowed down, halted and began browsing.
āLook at the cattalo calves,ā cried Jones, in ecstatic tones. āSee how shy they are, how close they stick to their mothers.ā
The little dark-brown fellows were plainly frightened. I made several unsuccessful attempts to photograph them, and gave it up when Jones told me not to ride too close and that it would be better to wait till we had them in the corral.
He took my camera and instructed me to go on ahead, in the rear of the herd. I heard the click of the instrument as he snapped a picture, and then suddenly heard him shout in alarm: āLook out! look out! pull
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