But the prize was still at large--the time had come to finish up the hunt. Jo"s finest mount was caught. She was a mare of Eastern blood, but raised on the plains. She never would have come into Jo"s possession but for a curious weakness. The loco is a poisonous weed that grows in these regions. Most stock will not touch it; but sometimes an animal tries it and becomes addicted to it.
It acts somewhat like morphine, but the animal, though sane for long intervals, has always a pa.s.sion for the herb and finally dies mad. A beast with the craze is said to be locoed. And Jo"s best mount had a wild gleam in her eye that to an expert told the tale.
But she was swift and strong and Jo chose her for the grand finish of the chase. It would have been an easy matter now to rope the mares, but was no longer necessary. They could be separated from their black leader and driven home to the corral. But that leader still had the look of untamed strength. Jo, rejoicing in a worthy foe, went bounding forth to try the odds. The la.s.so was flung on the ground and trailed to take out every kink, and gathered as he rode into neatest coils across his left palm. Then putting on the spur the first time in that chase he rode straight for the Stallion a quarter of a mile beyond. Away he went, and away went Jo, each at his best, while the f.a.gged-out mares scattered right and left and let them pa.s.s. Straight across the open plain the fresh horse went at its hardest gallop, and the Stallion, leading off, still kept his start and kept his famous swing.
It was incredible, and Jo put on more spur and shouted to his horse, which fairly flew, but shortened up the s.p.a.ce between by not a single inch. For the Black One whirled across the flat and up and pa.s.sed a soap-weed mesa and down across a sandy treacherous plain, then over a gra.s.sy stretch where prairie dogs barked, then hid below, and on came Jo, but there to see, could he believe his eyes, the Stallion"s start grown longer still, and Jo began to curse his luck, and urge and spur his horse until the poor uncertain brute got into such a state of nervous fright, her eyes began to roll, she wildly shook her head from side to side, no longer picked her ground--a badger-hole received her foot and down she went, and Jo went flying to the earth. Though badly bruised, he gained his feet and tried to mount his crazy beast. But she, poor brute, was done for--her off fore-leg hung loose.
There was but one thing to do. Jo loosed the cinch, put Lightfoot out of pain, and carried back the saddle to the camp. While the Pacer steamed away till lost to view.
This was not quite defeat, for all the mares were manageable now, and Jo and Charley drove them carefully to the "L cross F" corral and claimed a good reward. But Jo was more than ever bound to own the Stallion. He had seen what stuff he was made of, he prized him more and more, and only sought to strike some better plan to catch him.
IV
The cook on that trip was Bates--Mr. Thomas Bates, he called himself at the post-office where he regularly went for the letters and remittance which never came. Old Tom Turkeytrack, the boys called him, from his cattle-brand, which he said was on record at Denver, and which, according to his story, was also borne by countless beef and saddle stock on the plains of the unknown North.
When asked to join the trip as a partner, Bates made some sarcastic remarks about horses not fetching $12 a dozen, which had been literally true within the year, and he preferred to go on a very meagre salary.
But no one who once saw the Pacer going had failed to catch the craze.
Turkeytrack experienced the usual change of heart. He now wanted to own that mustang. How this was to be brought about he did not clearly see till one day there called at the ranch that had "secured his services,"
as he put it, one, Bill Smith, more usually known as Horseshoe Billy, from his cattle-brand. While the excellent fresh beef and bread and the vile coffee, dried peaches and mola.s.ses were being consumed, he of the horseshoe remarked, in tones which percolated through a huge stop-gap of bread:
"Wall, I seen that thar Pacer to-day, nigh enough to put a plait in his tail."
"What, you didn"t shoot?"
"No, but I come mighty near it."
"Don"t you be led into no sich foolishness," said a "double-bar H"
cow-puncher at the other end of the table. "I calc"late that maverick "ill carry my brand before the moon changes."
"You"ll have to be pretty spry or you"ll find a "triangle dot" on his weather side when you get there."
"Where did you run across him?"
"Wail, it was like this; I was riding the flat by Antelope Springs and I sees a lump on the dry mud inside the rush belt. I knowed I never seen that before, so I rides up, thinking it might be some of our stock, an"
seen it was a horse lying plumb flat. The wind was blowing like--from him to me, so I rides up close and seen it was the Pacer, dead as a mackerel. Still, he didn"t look swelled or cut, and there wa"n"t no smell, an" I didn"t know what to think till I seen his ear twitch off a fly and then I knowed he was sleeping. I gits down me rope and coils it, and seen it was old and pretty shaky in spots, and me saddle a single cinch, an" me pony about 700 again a 1,200 lbs. stallion, an" I sez to meself, sez I: "Tain"t no use, I"ll only break me cinch and git throwed an" lose me saddle." So I hits the saddle-horn a crack with the hondu, and I wish"t you"d a seen that mustang. He lept six foot in the air an"
snorted like he was shunting cars. His eyes fairly bugged out an" he lighted out lickety split for California, and he orter be there about now if he kep" on like he started--and I swear he never made a break the hull trip."
The story was not quite so consecutive as given here. It was much punctuated by present engrossments, and from first to last was more or less infiltrated through the necessaries of life, for Bill was a healthy young man without a trace of false shame. But the account was complete and everyone believed it, for Billy was known to be reliable. Of all those who heard, old Turkeytrack talked the least and probably thought the most, for it gave him a new idea.
During his after-dinner pipe he studied it out and deciding that he could not go it alone, he took Horseshoe Billy into his council and the result was a partnership in a new venture to capture the Pacer; that is, the $5,000 that was now said to be the offer for him safe in a box-car.
Antelope Springs was still the usual watering-place of the Pacer. The water being low left a broad belt of dry black mud between the sedge and the spring. At two places this belt was broken by a well-marked trail made by the animals coming to drink. Horses and wild animals usually kept to these trails, though the horned cattle had no hesitation in taking a short cut through the sedge.
In the most used of these trails the two men set to work with shovels and dug a pit 15 feet long, 6 feet wide and 7 feet deep. It was a hard twenty hours work for them as it had to be completed between the Mustang"s drinks, and it began to be very damp work before it was finished. With poles, brush, and earth it was then cleverly covered over and concealed. And the men went to a distance and bid in pits made for the purpose.
About noon the Pacer came, alone now since the capture of his band.
The trail on the opposite side of the mud belt was little used, and old Tom, by throwing some fresh rushes across it, expected to make sure that the Stallion would enter by the other, if indeed he should by any caprice try to come by the unusual path.
What sleepless angel is it watches over and cares for the wild animals?
In spite of all reasons to take the usual path, the Pacer came along the other. The suspicious-looking rushes did not stop him; he walked calmly to the water and drank. There was only one way now to prevent utter failure; when he lowered his head for the second draft which horses always take, Bates and Smith quit their holes and ran swiftly toward the trail behind him, and when he raised his proud head Smith sent a revolver shot into the ground behind him.
Away went the Pacer at his famous gait straight to the trap. Another second and he would be into it. Already he is on the trail, and already they feel they have him, but the Angel of the wild things is with him, that incomprehensible warning comes, and with one mighty bound he clears the fifteen feet of treacherous ground and spurns the earth as he fades away unharmed, never again to visit Antelope Springs by either of the beaten paths.
V
Wild Jo never lacked energy. He meant to catch that Mustang, and when he learned that others were be stirring themselves for the same purpose he at once set about trying the best untried plan he knew--the plan by which the coyote catches the fleeter jackrabbit, and the mounted Indian the far swifter antelope--the old plan of the relay chase.
The Canadian River on the south, its affluent, the Pinavet.i.tos Arroyo, on the northeast, and the Don Carlos Hills with the Ute Creek Canyon on the west, formed a sixty-mile triangle that was the range of the Pacer.
It was believed that he never went outside this, and at all times Antelope Springs was his headquarters.
Jo knew this country well, all the water-holes and canon crossings as well as the ways of the Pacer.
If he could have gotten fifty good horses he could have posted them to advantage so as to cover all points, but twenty mounts and five good riders were all that proved available.
The horses, grain-fed for two weeks before, were sent on ahead; each man was instructed how to play his part and sent to his post the day before the race. On the day of the start Jo with his wagon drove to the plain of Antelope Springs and, camping far off in a little draw, waited.
At last he came, that coal-black Horse, out from the sand-hills at the south, alone as always now, and walked calmly down to the Springs and circled quite around it to sniff for any hidden foe. Then he approached where there was no trail at all and drank.
Jo watched and wished that he would drink a hogs-head. But the moment that he turned and sought the gra.s.s Jo spurred his steed. The Pacer heard the hoofs, then saw the running horse, and did not want a nearer view but led away. Across the flat he went down to the south, and kept the famous swinging gait that made his start grow longer. Now through the sandy dunes he went, and steadying to an even pace he gained considerably and Jo"s too-laden horse plunged through the sand and sinking fetlock deep, he lost at every bound. Then came a level stretch where the runner seemed to gain, and then a long decline where Jo"s horse dared not run his best, so lost again at every step.
But on they went, and Jo spared neither spur nor quirt. A mile--a mile--and another mile, and the far-off rock at Arriba loomed up ahead.
And there Jo knew fresh mounts were held, and on they dashed. But the night-black mane out level on the breeze ahead was gaining more and more.
Arriba Canon reached at last, the watcher stood aside, for it was not wished to turn the race, and the Stallion pa.s.sed--dashed down, across and up the slope, with that unbroken pace, the only one he knew.
And Jo came bounding on his foaming steed, and on the waiting mount, then urged him down the slope and up upon the track, and on the upland once more drove in the spurs, and raced and raced, and raced, but not a single inch he gained.
Ga-lump, ga-lump, ga-lump, with measured beat he went--an hour--an hour, and another hour--Arroyo Alamosa just ahead with fresh relays, and Jo yelled at his horse and pushed him on and on. Straight for the place the Black One made, but on the last two miles some strange foreboding turned him to the left, and Jo foresaw escape in this, and pushed his jaded mount at any cost to head him off, and hard as they had raced this was the hardest race of all, with gasps for breath and leather squeaks at every straining bound. Then cutting right across, Jo seemed to gain, and drawing his gun he fired shot after shot to toss the dust, and so turned the Stallion"s head and forced him back to take the crossing to the right.
Down they went. The Stallion crossed and Jo sprang to the ground. His horse was done, for thirty miles had pa.s.sed in the last stretch, and Jo himself was worn out. His eyes were burnt with flying alkali dust. He was half blind so he motioned to his "pard" to "go ahead and keep him straight for Alamosa ford."
Out shot the rider on a strong, fresh steed, and away they went--up and down on the rolling plain--the Black Horse flecked with snowy foam.
His heaving ribs and noisy breath showed what he felt--but on and on he Went.
And Tom on Ginger seemed to gain, then lose and lose, when in an hour the long decline of Alamosa came.
And there a freshly mounted lad took up the chase and turned it west, and on they went past towns of prairie dogs, through soapweed tracts and cactus brakes by scores, and p.r.i.c.ked and wrenched rode on. With dust and sweat the Black was now a dappled brown, but still he stepped the same.
Young Carrington, who followed, bad hurt his steed by pushing at the very start, and spurred and urged him now to cut across a gulch at which the Pacer shied. Just one misstep and down they went.
The boy escaped, but the pony lies there yet, and the wild Black Horse kept on.
This was close to old Gallego"s ranch where Jo himself had cut across refreshed to push the chase. Within thirty minutes he was again scorching the Pacer"s trail.
Far in the west the Carlos Hills were seen, and there Jo knew fresh men and mounts were waiting, and that way the indomitable rider tried to turn, the race, but by a sudden whim, of the inner warning born perhaps--the Pacer turned. Sharp to the north he went, and Jo, the skilful wrangler, rode and rode and yelled and tossed the dust with shots, but down on a gulch the wild black meteor streamed and Jo could only follow. Then came the hardest race of all; Jo, cruel to the Mustang, was crueller to his mount and to himself. The sun was hot, the scorching plain was dim in shimmering heat, his eyes and lips were burnt with sand and salt, and yet the chase sped on. The only chance to win would be if he could drive the Mustang back to the Big Arroyo Crossing.
Now almost for the first time he saw signs of weakening in the Black.
His mane and tail were not just quite so high, and his short half mile of start was down by more than half, but still he stayed ahead and paced and paced and paced.
An hour and another hour, and still they went the same. But they turned again, and night was near when Big Arroyo ford was reached--fully twenty miles. But Jo was game, he seized the waiting horse. The one he left went gasping to the stream and gorged himself with water till he died.