Jack Among the Indians; Or, A Boy's Summer on the Buffalo Plains

by George Bird Grinnell

At the signal Jack had loosened Pawnee's reins, and pressed his heels against the horse's side, and a splendid race began. There were only half a dozen men in front of Jack, and before they had gone very far, he could see that he was over-hauling most of these, but he could also see that Hugh on his right and Joe on his left were holding their own with him. These three horses seemed to be nearly the swiftest of all. Little by little they drew up on the heels of the herd and in a few moments were riding in a cloud of dust and flying gravel thrown up by the feet of the buffalo. Through this dust Jack could now see the huge forms not more than twenty or thirty yards ahead of him. He threw a cartridge into his gun to be ready to shoot, and presently, when he was within five or six yards of the nearest bull, fired, and to his great delight the beast fell. As he loaded his gun again, he heard a shout from Hugh, but couldn't understand what he said. He shot again, and another buffalo fell and then from out of the dust by which he was surrounded, Hugh rode up close to him and called out, "Don't bother with these bulls, push on ahead and kill cows."

This advice rather dampened Jack's spirit, for he remembered now, how much talk he had heard about killing cows, and here he had been wasting cartridges on the bulls, which as he had been told, always brought up the rear of the herd. He threw his gun into the hollow of his arm and spurred Pawnee, and before long the bulls had been left behind, and he was riding across a part of the plain where there were scarcely any buffalo, but before him he could see a dark mass rising and falling, which he was sure must be the cows. Hugh had drawn away from him and a little ahead, and was now close on the heels of the herd. Pawnee, too, was rapidly drawing up to them, but before he had got among them, Jack heard Hugh shoot twice. A moment later, Jack was galloping along surrounded by buffalo, which drew away from him on either side and ahead, but still were so close to him, that it made him feel a little bit nervous. Over the billowing brown backs of the buffalo, he could see, dimly, other riders who went in silence, but often leaned down from the backs of their steeds and pulled the bow to the arrow's head. Jack shot again and again, but no buffalo fell. After two more ineffective shots, he began to wonder what was the matter; then suddenly it flashed across him that he was excited and was shooting without using care and taking aim. He remembered what Hugh had said about the importance of shooting low, and he realised that the excitement of the chase and the crowd of cows all about had made him forget the care that he should have exercised. His next shot was a careful one at a great cow running along just before him, and swinging her huge head from side to side; at the shot she went down, and so did the next one he shot at and the next. Then Jack noticed that most of the buffalo had disappeared. There were still half a dozen running near him, but these were turning off in one direction and another. He noticed, too, that Pawnee was running more slowly than he had been, and he made up his mind that he would stop. He had done well enough and he did not want to overtax his horse.

"Pulled the bow to the arrow's head."—Page 234

As he drew rein and Pawnee slackened his pace, at first to a gallop and then to a trot and a walk, he had an opportunity to look about him. In many directions, in front and on both sides, he could see scattering bunches of buffalo climbing the hills; some of them were still pursued by Indians, and looking back over the plain he could see many brown dots which he supposed were carcasses lying there, and many Indians riding hither and thither in confusion. A few buffalo were to be seen standing about, and near each were one or two riders.

At a little distance to his right he recognised Hugh, who was trotting toward him. When he came up, Hugh said to him, "Well, son, you done pretty well after all. You kind of lost your nerve one while though, didn't you?"

"Why yes, Hugh," said Jack, "I did. I couldn't hit anything. But where were you? I didn't see you."

"Oh well," said Hugh, "I wasn't so far off but I could see what was going on. I saw, though, that you caught yourself after a while and killed two or three cows. I expect likely, them you wounded has all been killed before now, but let's ride back and see if we can pick out the buffalo we killed."

They started back and Jack pointed out what he thought were the three cows that he killed, and Hugh examined the wounds and said that Jack was right. Crossing a little gully through which flowed a tiny stream, which in the excitement of the run, Jack had wholly failed to notice, Hugh pointed to a low clump of bushes to their right, and said, "Ride over and kill that cow, son." Jack then saw, standing among the bushes, a buffalo cow evidently wounded, and riding over near to her, was about to dismount, when Hugh said, "Hold on, shoot from the saddle, don't never get on the ground near a wounded cow; if she were to make a charge, she might scare your horse and if he ran off you wouldn't have a good time dodging the cow." Jack shot from the saddle and the cow fell, and when they went up to her, they found that her previous wound was made by a rifle ball, so that she was undoubtedly one of those that Jack had shot at.