“How was that?” asked the captain, as they reached the provision wagon, and paused while the cook made their meal ready.
“A confounded lot of Comanches cut out 223 some of our cattle, and, despite all we could do, got off with them.”
“They have been hanging round us, but didn’t do anything. Seems to me, colonel, you shouldn’t have allowed that.”
“That’s what makes me so mad,” was the bluff response of the guest. “It was just after crossing the creek to the southwest, which doesn’t lie in your way. A lot of the beasts took fright at something, and away they went on a bee line for Arizona. I thought a couple of the boys would be able to bring them back, and I sent them off, while the other four looked after the main herd. Thank you,” said the colonel, as he took the hot coffee from the hand of his host.
“Well, I judge from what you said, they didn’t bring back the hoofs,” observed the captain, interested in the narrative of his friend.
“No, by George, it was worse than that. Three or four hours after the stampede, one of the men came in sight, riding like mad. There were no cattle with him, and he was 224 alone. I saw that one of his hands was bleeding badly, and he had a woful story to tell. He said he and the other fellow were working like the mischief to turn the animals back, and had almost succeeded, when the first they knew a dozen whooping Comanches were right upon them.
“It was bang, bang, shoot, cut, yell, and whoop her up again, with no thought of doing anything but save themselves. The other chap fought like a Trojan, but his horse was killed and he went down with half the fiends on him, fighting as long as the breath remained in his body.
“The one who came back with the news was pretty badly cut up and had the closest kind of a call, but his horse was better than any of the others and he managed to escape.”
“Of course it was idle to think of getting your cattle after that,” remarked the captain.
“I was so infuriated that I gathered the rest of the men, intending to take the trail, but by the time I was ready, I became cooler, 225 and saw it would never do. Haven’t you been troubled with the redskins?”