Cow-Country

are tricky. Perhaps his first ideas on that subject were gleaned from the friendly tribes who lived along the Chisolm Trail and used to visit the chuck-wagon, their blankets held

d were left over from the preceding meal. He used to say that Indians could smell grub as far as a buzzard can smell a dead carcase, and Buddy believed it, for they always arrived at meal time or shortly afterwards. Step-and-a-Half would m

e saw them steal whatever their dirty brown hands could readily snatch and hide under th

and lifted him from the ground and rode off with him. Buddy did not struggle much. He saved his breath f

gnal flag in the arms of his captor, and so it happened that the bullets whistled close to that particular Indian. He gathere

little dizzy and very indignant, and s

added hatred to his

thrills to keep a movie-mad boy of to-day sitting on the edge of his seat gasping e

nd watching out for Indians, and killing rattlesnakes was what any boy in th

er had come north with the trail herd, and he was wise beyond the wisdom of most horses. He would drive cattle out of the brush without a rider to guide him, if only you put a saddle on him. He had helped Buddy to mount his back-when Buddy was much smaller than now-by lowering

ulled his horse into the shelter of rocks, untied his rifle from the saddle and crept back to reconnoitre. It was the first time he had ever been sho

ent, shot wild; but not so wild that the Indian could afford to scoff and ride closer. After ano

ed where he was, pretty well hidden in the rocks, and let the bullets he himself had "run" in father's bullet-mold follow the enemy to the fringe of bushes. His last shot knocked the Indian off his horse-or so it looked to Buddy.

and did not tell anyone about the Indian, th

and Dulcie what they were deprived of learning in schools, and to play the piano-a wonderful old squa

th pure savagery in his life. To him the secret regret that he had not dared ride into the bushes to scalp the Indian he believed he had shot, and the fact that his hands were straining at the full chords of the A

ests, he debated the wisdom of telling mother, and decided that