Lonely On the Mountain (1980) Read Online Free PDF Page A

come up with the Pipestem again.
    The herd was trail broke now, and the country was level to low, rolling hills. We saw no Indians or any tracks but those of buffalo or antelope. The following day, we put sixteen miles behind us.
    Each night, just shy of sundown, Tyrel, Cap, or I would scout the country around.
    Several times, we caught whiffs of smoke from another campfire, but we made no effort to seek them out.
    Short of sundown on the third day, after our rest, I killed a buffalo, and the Ox came up to lend a hand. I never did see a buffalo skinned out faster or meat cut and trimmed any better. I said as much.
    "Pa was a butcher, and I growed up with a knife in hand. Then I hunted buffalo on the southern plains." "Take only the best cuts," I said, "an' leave the rest." He was bent over, knife in hand. He turned his head to look at me. "Leave it? For varmints?" "There's some Indians close by, and they're having a bad time of it. Leave some for them." "Injuns? Hell, let 'em rustle their own meat. What d'we care about Injuns?" "They're hungry," I said, "and their best hunter is wounded and laid up." Obviously, he believed me crazy. "I never knew an' Injun worth the powder it took to kill him." "Back in the mountains," I said, "I knew quite a few. Generally speakin', they were good folks.
    "We had trouble with them a time or two and they're good, tough fightin' men. I've also hunted and trapped with them, slept in their lodges. They are like everybody else. There's good an' bad amongst them." We left some meat on the buffalo hide, and I stuck a branch in the ground and tied a wisp of grass to it. Not that they'd need help findin' it.
    Come daylight, when we moved out with the cattle, I took a look, and every last bit of meat was gone, and the hide, also. I counted the tracks of a boy and two women. They'd have read the sign and would know that meat was left a-purpose.
    With Cap ridin' point, the cattle strung out along the trail, and I rode drag. Tyrel was off scoutin' the country. Pipestem Creek was east of us now, and the country was getting a mite rougher. Maybe it was my imagination. Off on the horizon, far ahead and a hair to the west, I could see the top of a butte or hill.
    By noontime, that butte was showing strong and clear.
    It was several hundred feet high and covered with timber. When Tyrel came back to the drag, I rode ahead to talk to Cap.
    "Heard of that place," he said. "They call it the Hawk's Nest. There's a spring up yonder--good water." After a bit, he added, "Big lake off to the north. Maybe a mite east. Devils Lake, they call it. Got its name, they say, from a party of Sioux who were returning victorious from a battle with the Chippewa.
    Owanda, the Sioux medicine man, had warned them not to make the attack, but they were young bucks, eager for battle and reputation, and they didn't listen.
    "Their folks were watching from the shore, saw them coming far out on the lake, and could tell from the scalps on the lifted lances that they'd been victorious.
    "Well, some say that night came down. It had been dusk when they were sighted. Night came, but the war party didn't. That day to this, nobody's seen hide nor hair of them. Devils in the lake, the Injuns say." "Owanda must have been really big medicine after that," I commented.
    "You can bet he was. But the way I hear it, he was one of the most powerful of all medicine men.
    Lot of stories about him. First I heard of him was from the Cheyenne." Cap went on to his flank position, and I took over the point, riding well out in front, studying the country as we moved. Wherever possible, I held the herd down off the skyline. We didn't want to get in the bottoms and among the trees but at least as low as we could move while handling the cattle. There were Indians about, and if they did not know of us now, they would very soon, but I wanted to attract as little attention as possible.
    At the same time, I was studying our future.
    The grass was growing, and soon it