Part 35 (1/2)
When Watson arose Allen had breakfast ready and all ate without delay.
Even Slavin got around, but it was plain to see that he was suffering.
”I want ter show ye I mean ter do what I said,” he told Allen. ”I'll go on if I drop in my tracks.”
”We won't start just yet, Slavin,” answered Allen, ”and when we do we'll take it rather easy, both for your benefit and for Mr. Urner's.”
It was past ten o'clock when they left the cave. Their horses were much refreshed by the rest taken, and despite Slavin's hurts fair progress was made along the foothills.
It was a lonely section of the State through which they were traveling and Allen could not help mentioning this fact to Ike Watson. But at his words the old hunter merely laughed.
”Lonely,” he snorted. ”Gosh all hemlock, Allen, it ain't half as lonely as it used ter be, not by a jugful. Why, I remember the time ye could ride fer days an' days an' see nuthin' but buffalo or some other wild critters.”
”The buffalo are almost all gone now, aren't they?”
”Putty much, an' it's a great shame, too, fer they were fine game. But them sports used ter come out west an' kill 'em off by the score, worse luck! Didn't want 'em fer nuthin' either!” And Watson shook his head sorrowfully.
”Were you ever caught in a buffalo stampede, Ike?”
”Onct, Allen, onct, an' it's an experience I'll never fergit as long as I live.”
”I should like to hear the particulars.”
”Thet ain't really much ter tell, Allen. I wuz out on Crazy Tom Mountain at the time. Reckon ye know the place.”
”Fairly well.”
”Well, it wuz while the buffalo had been over to the Fork. Grazin'
wuzn't very good thet season an' the critters wuz rather ugly in consequence.”
”Yes, I've heard they get bad when their feed is cut short.”
”As I wuz sayin', I wuz up alongside o' Crazy Tom Mountain, looking fer b'ar, an' I had jes' struck a fine trail when I heered a curious sound on the tudder side o' the hill. I couldn't make it out nohow at fust, but byme-by I thought it must be buffalo, an' I wuz right.”
”Did they come right down on you?”
”No, worse luck, they didn't. If they hed I might have scooted to one side or tudder. But instead o' comin' straight over the mountain--'tain's high, ye remember--they came around on both sides, an' afore I knowed it, I wuz right in the middle o' 'em.”
”What did you do?” asked Allen, as Watson paused reflectively.
”At fust I didn't know what ter do persackly. I shot one of 'em, but bless ye, thet wuzn't nuthin', and I calkerlated as how I'd have ter ride fer it. Then of a sudden my hoss got scared and shot me over his head into a big thorn bush and made off like a streak o' greased lightnin', leaving me alone.”
”With the buffalo all around you?”
”Jes' so, more'n twenty o' 'em, an' more'n a hundred others comin' up fast as they could leg it. I kin tell ye I wuz in a fix an' no error.”
”It must have hurt you to land in the thorn bush?”
”Hurt? Wall say, it wuz like bein' dumped into a pit full o' daggers, that wuz! Hain't fergot the awful stickin' pain yit an' never will! But bein' chucked into thet thorn bush saved my life.”
”Didn't the buffalo touch the bush?”