CHAPTER XII. RESTING UP.
When Jack awoke next morning and tried to move he was unable to do so. For a moment he could not think what had happened; then suddenly the events of the day before flashed back into his memory. Hugh, who had been sitting by the fire, saw the blankets stir and walked over near to him.
"Well, son," he said, "how do you feel this morning? Pretty stiff and sore I reckon, ain't you?"
"Yes, indeed, Hugh, I am sore all over. I don't feel as if I could move; but except for that I am all right."
"Well," said Hugh, "lie still awhile till I make breakfast, and then we'll kind o' prop you up, and see whether you are off your feed or not."
Hugh went back to the fire and Jack could hear him walking about it and rattling the dishes. He wanted to get up and do his part, too, but he could not bend one of his joints without its hurting. By-and-by he managed very slowly to turn his whole body, so that he lay on his side and could look at the fire, and watch Hugh cooking the meat and waiting for the coffee to boil, and then taking the pot off the coals and setting it in a warm place, and finally clearing it by dashing a cupful of water into it. Then, when all was ready, Hugh brought the pack saddles close to Jack's bed, piled them up firmly so as to make a back, and then approaching Jack, put his arm under his shoulders, lifted him partly from the ground, and drew the whole bed over until the boy's back rested against the pack saddles, made soft by the piling against them of a number of blankets. Hugh did this so very slowly and gently that the bending of Jack's body at the thighs scarcely hurt him at all.
"There," said Hugh, "did it hurt you much? I reckon you'll feel better right off, now that you can sit up and look around; and now if you'll eat a good breakfast I think I can take and rub some of the soreness out of you pretty quick, as soon as it gets a little warmer."
"Thank you, Hugh," said Jack, gratefully, "it didn't hurt me a bit, and I believe if you'll help me a little bit I can get up and dress and walk around, after breakfast. I hate to lie here doing nothing. It's like being a prisoner."
"Well," said Hugh, "it ain't no fun, I reckon. I mind once when I was laid up with a broken leg, I got terrible uneasy until I was able to hobble about a little bit, and I know that being a prisoner ain't no fun, cause I was one myself once, and I was sure uncomfortable."
"When was that, Hugh?" said Jack. "I never heard about that before."
"Well," said Hugh, "you go on and eat your breakfast—here's your coffee and some meat and bread, and I'll tell you about it. It wan't so very long ago; only about ten years. I was working on a ranch at the head of one of the forks of the Loup, just after they first got cattle in the country, and we had a terrible lot of trouble with horse thieves. Doc Middleton and his gang was camped somewhere in the country, and some of the best horses out on the range kept disappearing all the time. We knew it wasn't Indians that was taking them, and we knew they wasn't running off themselves; so we calculated it was white men, and we figured that it was Middleton and his outfit. Still, there wasn't anything sure known about it. Some of the boys were for catching Middleton and hanging him, but it was easier to talk about that than it was to do it. He generally went with three or four men, not always the same ones though, and they were all of them always heeled, and it was liable to be a pretty hard matter to get the drop on them. Nobody knew where they was camped, but the boys that was riding on all the ranches in the country had orders to be on the lookout for them, and if they saw any signs of where they stopped, to let it be known right off.
"Finally one day one of the boys came in and reported that he'd come on a horse trail pretty well worn, leading down into one of the cedar canyons that runs into the Dismal, and he believed that Middleton's outfit was camped in there; and from the way the trail looked, he thought they had a lot of horses there. It didn't take long to gather up a dozen men, who said they'd start down there and find out what there was in the camp, anyhow; and other riders had been sent out to bring in more men from the furthest camps. Really, a dozen men wasn't enough to tackle this gang, for we could count eight or nine men that belonged to it, and if they wanted to put up a fight against us it wasn't any sure thing that we could best them. Anyhow, what there was of us started out about dark and rode down within two or three miles of the cedar canyon, leaving fellows along the road to bring up any of the other men that might come in. When we got down to the stopping place, Wilson, the ranch boss who was leading our party, asked me to go ahead down to the camp and see how many men there was there, and whether they had just their own horses, or a bunch besides.
"I started off, and when I got within a quarter of a mile of the camp, left my horse in the hollow in the sandhills, and went ahead on foot. It was easy to find the place. When I got close to it, I could see the light of the fire shine on the cedars long before I got within sight of the camp. I went along slow and easy, but when I got to the edge of the canyon I could not see anything except the fire and two or three wagons, and five or six men sitting around. Their horses were out of sight somewhere. I slipped down a side ravine, and keeping pretty well at the edge of the canyon, worked my way along until I got up above the men. I soon saw that there'd been quite a bunch of horses pastured there, and going along a little further found thirty or forty head feeding in the canyon. I went pretty careful, because I didn't know but I might run onto a horse guard any minute, for it didn't seem likely that these horses would stay down in the canyon there unless they was herded. They'd be more likely to get up onto the prairie where the grass was better.
"After I had seen the horses I went on back till I got nearly opposite where the fire was, and then I crept up on a little ridge of sand and looked over to count the men and see what they was doing, and how they was fixed. I lay there, I guess, fifteen or twenty minutes, trying to take the whole thing in, and then suddenly I heard a little rustle in the grass near me, and as I drew back out of sight, a couple of men landed on my back and yelled plenty for help. One of them was smart enough to grab my gun and throw it away, and we just scuffled around in the sand there for half a minute or two, and then the whole bunch that had been at the fire jumped on me, and I give up.
"They hauled me over to the fire, and stood around looking at me and calling me names, and presently Doc Middleton says, says he: 'Why, I know that old fool; he works over to Wilson's ranch. What were you doing,' says he, mighty mad, 'spying around this here camp? For two cents I'd blow you full of holes;' and he pulled out a six-shooter and stuck it in my face. I was some uneasy, because I knew they was a bad lot, and they was liable to kill me right there, and hide me in the sandhills, and then skin out of the country; but the fact is they'd been there so long without being bothered that I expect Doc thought he owned the country. And at last after a whole heap of talk they tied me up to a wagon wheel close to the fire, and Doc told two of the men to sit by me and watch me all night, and to kill me if I moved.
"I sat there most of the night. The two fellows that was guarding me spelled each other; one would sleep for an hour, and then the other would wake him and give him the watch, and then he'd sleep; and pretty soon they both went to sleep.
"Whenever I got a chance I worked some at the ropes, mainly those on my hands, and at last I got 'em free, and then I loosened the rope around my body; but I still sat there for I wanted both them fellows to get good and sound asleep before I commenced to sneak. By this time the fire had died down, so that it didn't give no light to amount to nothing. I'd just cast off the ropes and worked myself around behind the wagon, mighty slow, and was beginning to crawl off, when all of a sudden I heard horses coming, and the first I knew, the camp was surrounded. Doc and his gang didn't make no fight at all; they was too surprised. They was all of 'em brought up to the fire and tied up there, same as I'd been a little while before. Of course, as soon as the fellows came into the camp I holloard, because I didn't want 'em to be shooting at me. By the time the camp was captured it began to get light. Doc sat there by the fire and talked, and told Wilson what an outrage it was that a band of robbers should attack a lot of peaceable cowpunchers the way they had them. He swore he'd have the law on 'em just as soon as he could get to the Platte; but Wilson told him that he was liable never to get nearer to the Platte than the branches of one of them cedar trees up on the bluff.
"I told Wilson the way they'd mistreated me, and told him about the horses up the canyon. They was fetched down; they had all sorts of brands on 'em, but not one that belonged in the country. It was always my belief that them fellows stole our horses and sent them down into Colorado, trading 'em off, maybe, for horses that they had stolen down there. Anyhow, there wasn't a particle of evidence in the camp that we could find that justified hanging one of them men.
"Wilson gave Doc and his men a good talking to, and told them they'd have to leave the country. He gave 'em three weeks to get out, and then told them that if they was found there after that, they'd be killed. Well, they left within the time set, and that part of the country hasn't never been troubled with 'em since, though I have heard of Doc in a good many places since, and always with a pretty tough name."
Jack had long ago finished his breakfast, and the sun was now high in the heavens and beginning to beat down with fervor on the barren, yellow plain. After Hugh had washed the dishes, he said to Jack:—
"Now, I'll tell you what I want to do, son; I want to give you a good rubbing all over, to take the soreness out of you. After I have done that you'd better lie down and go to sleep again, and then toward evening maybe you can put on your clothes and walk around a bit, and to-morrow, if you feel all right, we'll start on again. I've found a good crossing up above here, and just as soon as you are able to travel we'll roll out." Accordingly, Hugh gave Jack a hard rubbing from head to foot, anointing the chafed and scratched parts of his body with sheep tallow, to which he added the crushed leaves and stems of a certain plant which he solemnly told Jack was his medicine, rolled Jack up in a blanket and left him to sleep. When the boy awoke again he felt fresh, and could move his arms and legs without much pain. Hugh helped him dress, and they walked a little distance up and down the river from camp; and after supper that night Jack said he certainly felt well enough to go on in the morning.