Arizona Nights

TIN

flat, free from bushes and dog holes. Each sat at ease on his horse facing the cattle, watching lazily the clouds of dust and t

ries he delivered to each a low command, but without slacking pace. Some of those spoken to wheeled t

to me; so I swung after the file traveling at

nimal loose. Then he flipped a loop in his rope and disappeared in the eddying herd. The discarded horse, with many grunts, indulged in a satisfying roll, shook himself vig

ving screen of their friends. The latter, seeming as usual to know they were not wanted, made no effort to avoid the men, which probably accounted in

e swept down on the chuck wagon. There we fell off our saddles and descended on the meat and bread like ravenou

fore others, so across the plain formed an endless procession of men returning

r walked slowly to and fro in the confines allotted by the horsemen, so that the herd looked from a distance like a brown carpet whose patter

way in and out among the standing cattle, pausing in brutish amazement at the edge of the herd, and turning back immediately to endless journeyings. The bulls, excited by so much company forced on their accustomed solitary habit, roared defiance at each other until the air fairly trembled. Occasion

ighbours. Once in a while some enterprising cow, observing the opening between the men, would start to walk out. Others would fall in behind her until the

with infinite patience, she tried it again the moment my back was turned. I tried driving her far into the

bour. "Everybody knows her. She's at ever

y representing owners at a distance, here to pick up the strays inevitable to the season's drift. The round-up captain appointed two men to hold the cow-and-calf cut,

ed in as sluggishly behind us, so that we were always closely hemmed in wherever we went. Over the shifting sleek backs, throug

e in ranks so closely crowded it would be physically impossible actually

his most prominent feature. So when a brand is quite indistinguishable because, as now, of press of numbers, or, as in winter, from extreme length of hair, the cropped

one, we had to ascertain his ownership by examining the ear-marks of his mother,

the stirrup, all the cows immediately about me shrank suspiciously aside. Little G stepped forward daintily, his nostrils expanding, his ears working back and forth, trying to the best of his ability to unders

ght shelter. I felt Little G's muscles tighten beneath me. The moment for action had come. Before the cow had a chance to dodge among her companions the pony was upon her like a thunderbolt. She broke in alarm, trying desperately to avoid the rush. There ensued an exciting contest of dodgings, turnings, and doublings. Wherever she turned Little G was before her. Some of his evolutions were marvellous. All I had to do was to sit my saddle, and apply just that final

d tail up. After the first short struggle to force her from the herd, all I had to do was to start her in the proper direction and keep her at it until her decisio

n also, and to drive her out by main force; but the temptation had to be resisted. A dash into the thick of it might break the whole band. At once

e orders for the steer cut to begin, and steers are rapid and resourceful and full of natural cusse

rose from these movements, clouds of it, to eddy and swirl, thicken and dissipate in the currents of air. Now it concealed all but the nearest dimly-outlined animals; again it parted in rifts through which mistily we discerned the riders moving in and out of the fog; again it lifted high and thin, so that we saw

y some particularly enterprising cow would conclude that one or another of the cut-herds would suit her better than this mill of turmoil. She would start confidently out, head and tail up, find herself chased back, get stubborn on the question, and lead her pursuer a long, hard run

as necessary to the work. Nobody told me anything different. One day we were making a drive in an exceedingly broken country. I was bringing in a small bunch I had discovered in a pocket of the hills, but was excessively annoyed

f a mile at top speed. She declined to be headed. Finally she

ou!" said I, and set mysel

insisted, and, like a good pony, he obeyed. I yelled at the cow, and slapped my bat, and used my quirt. Wh

in on one straight rush. But a cow looks to see what she is doing; her eyes are open every minute,

ntervened. Then we retired to a distance in order to plan further; but we did not succeed in inducing that cow to revise her ideas, so a

at gets on the prod that away 'thout you ropes her; and

one thing mor

erd for strays of their brands. These were thrown into the stray-herd, which had been brought up from th

of the Dragoon Mountains, and swept rapidly across the zenith. Before we knew it the rain had begun. In ten seconds it had incre

l the cattle, heads lowered, advanced with slow and sullen persistence that would not be stemmed. If we held our ground, they divided ar

question. "There's cows and calves in them. If th

rm in my face, the unbroken front of horned heads bearing down on me, resistless

our hats free of water, and drove the

their haunches and slid when negotiating a sudden stop, while quick turns meant the rapid scramblings that only a cow-horse could accomplish. Nevertheless the work went fo

un, their heads thrown forward as they snuffed their freedom. On the mesa side the sentinel riders quietly withdrew. From the rear and flanks the horsemen closed in. The cattle poured out in a steady stream through the opening thus left on the mesa side. The fringe of cowboys followed, urging t

rider. At once the animal lunged to his feet, only to be immediately seized by the nearest rider. But the Dos Cabesas man lay still, his arms and legs spread abroad, hi

one of them, "the ho

wagon, by means of which the sufferer was shortly transported to camp. By the end of the week he was again in the saddle. How men escape from this common accident with injuries so s

y chance steers of his own had been included in them. When all had express

om the other, crawled leisurely along; the riders, their hats thrust back, lolled in their saddles, shouting conversation to each other, relaxing