Chapter Twenty Four.
Hints on Bison-hunting.
“Ease off a bit, Master Bart,” cried Joses, after they had all been riding at full gallop for a couple of miles over the plains. “Whoo—hoop, my Injun friends! Whoo—hoop!”
“Whoo-hoop! whoo-hoop! whoo-hoop!” yelled back the Indians, excitedly; and taking it as an incentive to renewed exertion, they pressed the flanks of their horses, which responded freely, and they swept on more swiftly still.
“Tell Beaver to stop a bit,” cried Joses; “you’re nighest to him, my lad.” And Bart was about to shout some words to the chief, who was on his other side, riding with eyes flashing with excitement, and every nerve on the throb, thoroughly enjoying the wild race after so long a time of inaction in the camp. And it was not only the riders who enjoyed the racing; the horses seemed to revel in it, all tossing their massive manes and snorting loudly with delight, while swift as they went they were always so well-prepared that they would try to kick each other whenever two were in anything like close proximity.
Bart shouted to the Beaver to check his pace, but he was misunderstood, and the party swept on, whooping with delight, for all the world like a pack of excited schoolboys just let loose for a holiday.
“We shall have our nags regularly blown, my lad,” panted Joses;—“and then if we come upon unfriendly Injuns it’ll be the worse for us. Let’s you and me draw rein, then they’ll stop.”
A pause in the mad gallop came without the inciting of Bart and his follower, for all at once one of the Indians’ horses planted his hoof in a gopher hole, cunningly contrived by the rat-like creature just in the open part of the plain; and unable to recover itself or check its headlong speed, the horse turned a complete somersault, throwing his rider right over his head quite twenty feet away, and as the rest drew rein and gathered round, it seemed for the time as if both pony and rider were killed.
Bart leaped down to go to the poor fellow’s help, but just as the lad reached him, the Indian, who had been lying flat upon his back, suddenly sat up, shook his head, and stared round in bewilderment. The next moment he had caught sight of his steed, and leaped to his feet to run and catch the rein just as the pony was struggling up.