The dinner-bell rang while they were talking, and when the meal was ended Tom went out with the two cowboys to look at a horse that Stanley had found for him in the morning. They were gone about two hours, and when they came back, Tom told himself that he was a cowboy at last; a horse, saddle, and bridle were waiting for him at the stable, and the poncho which he carried slung over his arm was roomy enough for his extra baggage. The first thing that attracted Stanley"s notice was a strange man talking to Mr. Kelley. The stump of his arm proclaimed who he was.
"It"s Black Dan," said he. "Now, Tom, let"s see how much your temperance principles will amount to."
Tom was startled, as well he might be, to know that he had it in his power to help a man who, in his palmy days, held an influence in Fort Hamilton second only to the commander of the station. He gazed steadily at him a moment, then threw his poncho on the table, asked the clerk for his valise, and took from it the pin Mr. Bolton had given him, and with this in his hand he approached Black Dan, while with a delicacy of feeling that some people who occupy prouder stations might have envied the cowboys turned toward the window. Hearing from the barkeeper that the man who wanted to see him was a "top-notch fellow," Dan had washed his face and brushed his hair, and made other efforts to improve himself. His holster was filled this time, so it showed that he was in a situation to defend himself. Mr. Kelley introduced Tom, and then moved away.
"How do you do, sir?" said Dan, gazing hard at Tom"s face and trying to recollect where he had seen him before. "You have got the advantage of me."
"I never saw you before, and I am sorry to find you this way," said Tom, trying to keep up his courage. "I want you to look at this pin and tell me if you ever saw it before."
Tom unwrapped the pin and placed it in Dan"s hands. The latter took it in surprise, and finally the wondering scowl his face had a.s.sumed gave way to an entirely different expression, and he sat for five minutes, turning the pin over in his hand, and doubtless hara.s.sed by gloomy reflections. When he gave that pin to the one from whom Tom had received it, he was worth half a million dollars.
"What was Bradshaw doing when he gave you the pin?" said he.
"He told me his name was Bolton," said Tom. "He had been doing some gambling, and, finding out from me that I was coming up here, he gave me the pin with a request that I should give it to you."
"You haven"t come out here with any intention of going into this business, have you?"
"What, gambling? Not much I haven"t. I think I have seen enough to keep me away from gambling forever. I"m going to get a grub-stake and go into the mountains. I think I can do better there."
"You are an honest boy, and I wish I could give you something for it.
One short year ago I could have sent you to the mountains with some prospects of success; but now----" Dan held up his crippled arm.
"I should think that would drive you from gambling forever," said Tom earnestly. "You have taken to drink, and that is just as bad."
"Well, seeing that you are going to preach, I guess I"ll go. Shake. So long."
Before Tom could think of another word to say Dan had squeezed his hand and was on his way to the door, walking along with his hat pulled over his eyes, as if he didn"t want to see anybody. When he reached the street, he simply touched his forehead to some people he met, and kept on his way to the saloon. Tom stepped to the window and saw him go in at the door.
"Well, what success did you meet with?" said Stanley.
"I didn"t meet with any success at all," said Tom, gazing helplessly out at the muddy street. "He said if I was going to preach he"d go. He seemed to think I had come out here to go into his business, but I told him I had seen enough to keep me away from cards forever."
"Well, I declare!" said Mr. Kelley. "It is the greatest wonder in the world he didn"t knock you down. He never lets anybody say anything against cards in his hearing. You have had a narrow escape."
As Tom sat there with his three friends and talked over the incidents of Dan"s past life he grew more frightened than ever, and thanked his lucky stars that he didn"t know more about it before he held his interview with the gambler. Tom had told him that he had taken to drink, which was as bad as gambling, and Dan had been known to floor a man who had said as much to him. That night, while Tom was lying on his bed and trying to go to sleep, he heard something more of the pin. High and loud above all the hubbub that arose on the streets came the chorus of a song in which one voice far outled the others. It was Dan"s voice, and proved that the pin had been p.a.w.ned for something besides water. He looked over toward Monroe, and saw that the latter was wide awake and looking at him.
"They"re going it, aint they?" Tom whispered.
"You"re right, they are. Poor Dan! You have done what you could for him." And with the words he rolled over and prepared to go to sleep.
The next morning everything was quiet enough. The drunkards had been put into the calaboose by the soldiers, and the others had gone to bed to sleep it off. Tom wanted to know what had become of Dan, but n.o.body said anything about him, and from that time his name was dropped. They ate their breakfast in haste, paid their bills, and in ten minutes more Tom was on his way in search of a grub-stake.
"Oh, certainly you"ll get it," said Monroe, who rode beside him. "That is the way the bosses always treat a tender-foot when they haven"t anything in particular for him to do. Some of our best known men have got their start that way."
"I should think that some of the men you trust that way would run off when they find something good," said Tom.
"Why, bless you, they can"t take their find with them. They"ve got to stay and work it. I did hear of a fellow who found a lot of iron pyrites, and filled his pockets with them. He ran away, making the best course he could for Denver, and when he was found, his pockets might just as well have been filled with clay."
"Dead?" said Tom.
"Yes; and he was two hundred miles from where he belonged."
"And his find didn"t amount to anything?"
"No. It is a bra.s.sy substance and looks very much like the precious metal, but you need a mine to work it."
"What do you suppose killed him?"
"Don"t know. Some people suppose that his mule got away from him, and ran away with his outfit. At any rate, there was nothing near him, and the fellow got desperate and died from exhaustion. Oh, it"s one of the things that will happen out here."
"That"s a queer way to do," said Tom musingly. "By the way, I haven"t got any revolver."
"Oh, the old man will give you a pop. You will get everything you need to last you two or three months. While that lasts, you are expected to do some hunting; when it begins to give out, you want to come home."
"But how will I know the way?"
"The mule will bring you. He will stay there about two months,--that is, if he doesn"t get frightened,--and when he gets tired of staying, he will come home, and you had better come, too."
It was by such talks as this that Tom learned a great deal about the business upon which he was soon to embark. It never occurred to him that he was to engage in any other business. Cowboys--or, as they were called in those days, "vaqueros"--were not as plenty as they became a few years later, and if a ranchman could be found who thought him able to make his living by riding for a stake, well and good. He certainly would not run away with his pockets filled with pyrites. He expected to make a good many blunders, but Tom told himself he was used to that. What he thought of more than anything else was that nugget worth eight thousand dollars.
They camped that night with a party of emigrants, and for the first time Tom had the luxury of sleeping out of doors; but the appet.i.te he brought to the breakfast-table with him amply made amends for that. In all the hunting excursions he had enjoyed for a week or more on his uncle"s plantation he always had a darky along to build a shelter for him, cook his breakfast for him, and do any other work that happened to be necessary, and all he had to do was to ride to and from his hunting-grounds and shoot the turkeys after he got there. The next night they drew up before a dugout, the first one he had ever seen. The only thing that pointed out its place of location were a couple of hay-racks, which had been torn to pieces by mules. There was not a human being in sight, not even standing in the door to bid them welcome.
"Boys, I am glad my trip is done," said Mr. Kelley, as he threw himself from his horse, relieving him of his bridle as he did so. "Tom, what do you think of your new home?"
"Why, there is n.o.body around here," said Tom, gazing on all sides of him.
"Oh, they are around here somewhere. It isn"t dark yet, and we"ll get in and light a fire for them. They are out somewhere, looking for some lost cattle. We left two hundred head here when we went to the mountains."
"To the mountains?" repeated Tom.
"Yes. I tell you we want to get away from here when the blizzards fly, for there isn"t a thing to shelter us. I don"t expect we shall find more than fifty head of those cattle, if we do that."
"What do you suppose will become of them?"
"They will be dead, of course. You see, when cattle are loose on the prairie and a storm comes up, and they can"t stand it any longer, they start and travel in the same way the storm is going; and as the storm lasts from three to four days, you can readily imagine that they must get exhausted before they stop. When the hailstones come down as large as hens" eggs, you can----"
"Haw, haw!" laughed Monroe.
"Well, as large as pigeons" eggs," said Kelley, "and I won"t come down another grain in weight. Why, an army officer went by here two years ago hunting for his thirty-five mules that had been stampeded by a storm, and when he found them, there were only four that were able to stand alone. Oh, you get out, Monroe! You haven"t seen any blizzard yet. Now, let"s go in and get some supper."
"But what makes the mules run so? Why don"t they go under shelter?"
added Tom, as he picked up his poncho and saddle and followed the man inside the house.
"There was just where they were going--for shelter. There aint a piece of timber within twenty-five miles of this place to shelter a rabbit."
"Then what do you use for fuel?"
"Buffalo chips. There, Tom, put your plunder in there and set down and look around you. You wouldn"t think the man who owns this place was worth two hundred thousand, but it is a fact."