"It was back in September, 1899," I said. "My wife and I were camping in the high Sierra near Mt. Tallac. At this season rain is unknown, so we took no tent. Each of us had a comfortable rubber bed and we placed these about a foot or two apart. In the narrow alley between we put a waterproof canvas, and on that each night we laid the guns.
"We had a couple of cowboys to look after the outfit. A fortnight had gone by with sunny skies and calm autumn weather, when one evening it began to blow. Black, lumpy clouds came up from the far-off sea; the dust went whirling in little eddies, and when the sun went down it was of a sickly yellowish. The horses were uneasy, throwing up their noses, snorting softly and p.r.i.c.king their ears in a nervous way.
"Everything promised a storm in spite of the rule "no rain in September," and we huddled into our tentless beds with such preparation as we could make for rain.
"As night wore on the windstorm raged, and one or two heavy drops spattered down. Then there was a loud snort or two and a plunge of the nearest horse, then quiet.
"Next morning we found every horse gone, and halters and ropes broken, while deep hoofprints showed the violence of the stampede which we had scarcely heard. The men set out on foot after the horses, and by good luck, recovered all within a mile. Meanwhile I made a careful study of the ground, and soon got light. For there were the prints of a huge Mountain Lion. He had prowled into camp, coming up to where we slept, sneaked around and smelt us over, and--I think--walked down the alley between our beds. After that, probably, he had got so close to the horses that, inspired by terror of their most dreaded foe, they had broken all bonds and stampeded into safety. Nevertheless, though the horses were in danger, there can be no question, I think, that we were not."
The reporter thought the situation more serious than I did, and persisted that if I dug in my memory I should yet recall a really perilous predicament, in which thanks to some wild brute, I was near death"s door. And as it proved he was right. I had nearly forgotten what looked like a hairbreadth escape.
IN PERIL OF MY LIFE
It was on the same Sierra trip. Our outfit had been living for weeks among the tall pines, subsisting on canned goods; and when at length we came out on the meadows by Leaf Lake we found them enlivened by a small herd of wild--that is, range-cattle.
"My!" said one of the cowboys, "wouldn"t a little fresh milk go fine after all that ptomaine we"ve been feeding on?"
"There"s plenty of it there; help yourself," said I.
"I"d soon catch one if I knew which, and what to do when I got her," he answered.
Then memories of boyhood days on the farm came over me and I said: "I"ll show you a cow in milk, and I"ll milk her if you"ll hold her."
"Agreed! Which is the one?"
I put my hands up to my mouth and let off a long bleat like a calf in distress. The distant cattle threw up their heads and began "sniffing."
Another bleat and three cows separated from the others; two ran like mad into the woods, the third kept throwing her head this way and that, but not running. "That one," I said, "is your cow. She"s in milk and not too recently come in."
[Ill.u.s.tration: Milk Lady]
Then away went the cowboys to do their part. The herd scattered and the cow tried to run, but the ponies sailed alongside, the lariats whistled and in a flash she was held with one rope around her horns, the other around one hind leg.
"Now"s your chance, Milk-lady!" they shouted at me, and forward I went, pail in hand, to milk that snorting, straining, wild-eyed thing. She tried to hold her milk up, but I am an old hand at that work. She never ceased trying to kick at me with her free hind leg, so I had to watch the leg, and milk away. The high pitched "_tsee tsee_" had gradually given place to the low "_tsow tsow_" of the two streams cutting the foam when a peculiar smell grew stronger until it was nothing less than a disgusting stench. For the first time I glanced down at the milk in the pail, and there instead of a dimpled bank of snowy foam was a great yeasty ma.s.s of yellowish brown streaked with blood.
Hastily rising and backing off, I said: "I"ve got plenty of milk now for you two. The rest of us don"t care for any. Hold on till I get back to the trees."
Then, when I was safely under cover, the boys turned the cow loose. Of course, her first impulse was revenge, but I was safe and those mounted men knew how to handle a cow. She was glad to run off.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
"There"s your milk," I said, and pointed to the pail I had left.
Evidently that cow had been suffering from more than one milk malady.
The boys upset the b.l.o.o.d.y milk right there, then took the pail to the stream, where they washed it well, and back to camp, where we scalded it out several times.
THE DANGEROUS NIGHT VISITOR
That night about sundown, just as we finished supper, there came from the near prairie the mighty, portentous rumbling roar of a bull--the bellow that he utters when he is roused to fight, the savage roar that means "I smell blood." It is one of those tremendous menacing sounds that never fail to give one the creeps and make one feel, oh! so puny and helpless.
We went quietly to the edge of the timber and there was the monster at the place where that evil milk was spilt, tearing up the ground with hoofs and horns, and uttering that dreadful war-bellow. The cowboys mounted their ponies, and gave a good demonstration of the power of brains in the ruling of brawn. They took that bull at a gallop a mile or more away, they admonished him with some hard licks of a knotted-rope and left him, then came back, and after a while we all turned in for the night.
Just as we were forgetting all things, the sweet silence of the camp was again disturbed by that deep, vibrating organ tone, the chesty roaring of the enraged bull; and we sprang up to see the huge brute striding in the moonlight, coming right into camp, lured as before by that sinister blood trail.
The boys arose and again saddled the ready mounts. Again I heard the thudding of heavy feet, the shouts of the riders, a few loud snorts, followed by the silence; and when the boys came back in half an hour we rolled up once more and speedily were asleep.
To pa.s.s the night in peace! not at all. Near midnight my dreams were mixed with earthquakes and thunder, and slowly I waked to feel that ponderous bellow running along the ground, and setting my legs a-quiver.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
"_Row-ow-ow-ow_" it came, and shook me into full wakefulness to realize that that awful brute was back again. He could not resist the glorious, alluring chance to come and get awfully mad over that "bluggy milk." Now he was in camp, close at hand; the whole sky seemed blocked out and the trees a-shiver as he came on.
"_Row-ow-ow-ow_" he rumbled, also snorted softly as he came, and before I knew it he walked down the narrow s.p.a.ce between our beds and the wagon. Had I jumped up and yelled, he, whether mad or scared, might have trampled one or other of us. That is the bull of it; a horse steps over.
So I waited in trembling silence till that horrid "_Row-ow-ow-ow_" went by. Then I arose and yelled with all my power:
"Louie! Frank! Help! Here"s the bull."
The boys were up before I had finished. The ready ponies were put in commission in less than three minutes. Then came the stampede, the heavy thudding, the loud whacks of the ropes, and when these sounds had died in the distance, I heard the "pop, pop" of side arms. I asked no questions, but when the boys came back and said, "well, you bet he won"t be here again," I believed them.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
[Ill.u.s.tration: x.x.xVIII. Sketch of the Bear Family as made on the spot _By E. T. Seton_]
[Ill.u.s.tration: x.x.xIX. Two pages from my journal in the garbage heap _By E. T. Seton_]
XII
Bears of High and Low Degree
[Ill.u.s.tration: The Snorer]
XII
Bears of High and Low Degree
Why is snoring a crime at night and a joke by day? It seems to be so, and the common sense of the public mind so views it.