"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.
CHAPTER XIII. TO FORT BENTON AND BEYOND.
Jack was at first pretty stiff and sore when he arose next day, but as he moved about the camp, engaged in the work of helping to get breakfast and preparing to pack up, his stiffness wore off. He told Hugh that he felt able to ride, and Hugh replied that it would be better for him to be travelling than to lie in camp.
Accordingly, soon after sunrise the little train moved off up the river, crossed without incident at the ford that Hugh had found two days before, and started across the valley. Following up a little tributary that flowed in from the north, they journeyed onward, seeing all through the morning numbers of antelope which astonished even Hugh. They were chiefly bucks, in considerable bands, and entirely fearless, as if they had not been disturbed for a long time. Sometimes a band would start from below them on the hillside, gallop out into the creek bottom, and then turning parallel with the pack train would slowly gallop along not more than forty or fifty yards distant, occasionally stopping and staring, and then starting on again. Hugh declared that at this season of the year he had never seen antelope in such large bunches and said that he did not understand it.