CHAPTER XVII--THE STAMPEDE
Be it said of the group of thoughtless cowboys (of whom were the wildestspirits of Number Two camp) that their first demonstration as theydashed out of the coulie upon the two girls was their only one. Theirimitation of an Indian attack was nipped in the bud by the bursting ofthe electric storm. There was no time for the continuance of theperformance arranged particularly to startle Jane Ann and Ruth Fielding.Ruth forgot the patter of the approaching ponies. She had instantlystruck into her song--high and clear--at her comrade's advice; and shedrew Freckles closer to the herd. The bellowing and pushing of thecattle betrayed their position in any case; but the intermittent flashesof lightning clearly revealed the whole scene to the agitated girls.
They were indeed frightened--the ranch girl as well as Ruth herself. Thefact that this immense herd, crowding and bellowing together, might atany moment break into a mad stampede, was only too plain.
Caught in the mass of maddened cattle, the girls might easily beunseated and trampled to death. Ruth knew this as well as did theWestern girl. But if the sound of the human voice would help to keep thecreatures within bounds, the girl from the Red Mill determined to singon and ride closer in line with the milling herd.
She missed Jane Ann after a moment; but another flash of lightningrevealed her friend weaving her pony in and out through the pressingcattle, using the quirt with free hand on the struggling steers andbreaking them up into small groups.
The cowboys who had dashed out of the coulie saw the possibility ofdisaster instantly; and they, too, rode in among the bellowing steers.With so many heavy creatures pressing toward a common center, many wouldsoon be crushed to death if the formation was not broken up. Each streakof lightning which played athwart the clouds added to the fear of thebeasts. Several of the punchers rode close along the edge of the herd,driving in the strays. Now it began to rain, and as the very cloudsseemed to open and empty the water upon the thirsty land, the swish ofit, and the moaning of the wind that arose, added greatly to theconfusion.
How it _did_ rain for a few minutes! Ruth felt as though she were ridingher pony beneath some huge water-spout. She was thankful for theslicker, off which the water cataracted. The pony splashed knee-deepthrough runlets freshly started in the old buffalo paths. Here and therea large pond of water gleamed when the lightning lit up theirsurroundings.
And when the rain stopped as abruptly as it had begun, the cattle beganto steam and were more troublesome than before. The lightning flashesand thunder continued, and when a second downpour of rain began it cameso viciously, and with so great a wind, that the girls could scarcelyride against it.
Suddenly a shout came down the wind. It was taken up and repeated byvoice after voice. The camp at the far end of the herd had been arousedere this, of course, and every man who could ride was in the saddle. Butit was at the camp-end of the herd, after all, that the first breakcame.
"They're off!" yelled Darcy, riding furiously past Ruth and Jane Anntoward where the louder disturbance had arisen.
"And toward the river!" shouted another of the cowboys.
The thunder of hoofs in the distance suddenly rose to a deafening sound.The great herd had broken away and were tearing toward the Rolling Riverat a pace which nothing could halt. Several of the cowboys were carriedforward on the fore-front of the wave of maddened cattle; but they allmanaged to escape before the leaders reached the high bank of thestream.
Jane Ann screamed some order to Ruth, but the latter could not hear whatit was. Yet she imitated the Western girl's efforts immediately. No suchtame attempts at controlling the cattle as singing to them was now inorder. The small number of herdsmen left at this point could only forcetheir ponies into the herd and break up the formation--driving the madbrutes back with their quirts, and finally, after a most desperatefight, holding perhaps a third of the great herd from running wildlyinto the stream.
This had been a time of some drought and the river was running low. Thebanks were not only steep upon this side, but they were twenty feet andmore high. When the first of the maddened beeves reached the verge ofthe bank they went headlong down the descent, and some landed at theedge of the water with broken limbs and so were trampled to death. Butthe plunging over of hundreds upon hundreds of steers at the same point,together with the washing of the falling rain, quickly cut down thesebanks until they became little more than steep quagmires in which thebeasts wallowed more slowly to the river's edge.
This heavy going did more than aught else to retard the stampede; butmany of the first-comers got over the shallow river and climbed upon theplain beyond. All night long the cowboys were gathering up the herd uponthe eastern shore of the river; those that had crossed must be leftuntil day dawned.
And a very unpleasant night it was, although the stampede itself hadbeen of short duration. A troop of cattle had dashed through the campand flattened out the tent that had sheltered the lady visitors.Fortunately the said visitors had taken refuge in the supply wagonbefore the cattle had broken loose.
But, led by The Fox, there was much disturbance in the supply wagon forthe time being. Fortunately a water-tight tarpaulin had kept the girlscomparatively dry; but Mary Cox loudly expressed her wish that they hadnot come out to the camp, and the other girls were inclined to be alittle fractious as well.
When Jane Ann and Ruth rode in, however, after the trouble was all over,and the rain had ceased, a new fire was built and coffee made, and thesituation took on a more cheerful phase. Ruth was quite excited over itall, but glad that she had taken a hand in the herding of the cattlethat had not broken away.
"And if you stay to help the boys gather the steers that got across theriver, to-morrow, I am going to help, too," she declared.
"Tom and Bob will help," Helen said. "I wish I was as brave as you are,Ruth; but I really am afraid of these horned beasts."
"I never was cut out for even a milkmaid, myself," added Heavy. "When acow bellows it makes me feel queer up and down my spine just as it doeswhen I go to a menagerie and hear the lions roar."
"They won't bite you," sniffed Jane Ann.
"But they can hook you. And my! the noise they made when they wentthrough this camp! You never heard the like," said the stout girl,shaking her head. "No. I'm willing to start back for the ranch-house inthe morning."
"Me, too," agreed Madge.
So it was agreed that the four timid girls should return to Silver Ranchwith Ricarde after breakfast; but Ruth and Jane Ann, with Tom Cameronand Bob Steele, well mounted on fresh ponies, joined the gang of cowpunchers who forded the river at daybreak to bring in the strays.
The frightened cattle were spread over miles of the farther plain and itwas a two days' task to gather them all in. Indeed, on the secondevening the party of four young folk were encamped with Jib Pottoway andthree of the other punchers, quite twenty miles from the river and in avalley that cut deeply into the mountain chain which sheltered the rangefrom the north and west.
"It is over this way that the trail runs to Tintacker, doesn't it, Jib?"Ruth asked the Indian, privately.
"Yes, Miss. Such trail as there is can be reached in half an hour fromthis camp."
"Oh! I do so want to see that man who killed the bear, Jib," urged thegirl from the Red Mill.
"Well, it might be done, if he's over this way now," returned Jib,thoughtfully. "He is an odd stick--that's sure. Don't know whether he'dlet himself be come up with. But----"
"Will you ride with me to the mines?" demanded Ruth, eagerly.
"I expect I could," admitted the Indian.
"I would be awfully obliged to you."
"I don't know what Mr. Hicks would say. But the cattle are in handagain--and there's less than a hundred here for the bunch to drive back.They can get along without me, I reckon."
"And surely without me!" laughed Ruth.
And so it was arranged. The Indian and Ruth were off up the valleybetimes the next morning, while the rest of the party started for theriver, driving the l
ast of the stray beeves ahead of them.
Ruth Fielding at Silver Ranch; Or, Schoolgirls Among the Cowboys Page 17
