Evening star., 1898-10-22

mayor said he thought Bill had better re-
sign, so he passed in his badge and came
TO Medora. Ard when he heard of the ten
derfoot who had tanned White-faced KID.
bllI SAID he guessed he was the kind of
man he'd like to work for. BY the time |
went there Bill was foreman of the Elk
norm norm ranch, and Sylvan Ferris, Joes
vain had stayed sober ali summer sos TO
be O. *. for the big hunt
DOC Lambert mounted Sorrel Joe, the
C lohel str&ddled Muley. Bill rode Tom and
1 drove the White-faced Kid and linn in
the army wagon, The colonel said il wasn't
any fun to ride the Kid any more since
ne pull to harness. Besides he hadn't
ever quite forgiven the Kid for bucking
MIN SO hard that he lost a new hunting
knife that day at Medora
our third day out we saw antelope.
mere big bull, but he's GOO yards or 5
SAID Bill Jones when We first caught sight
OF the game. But the doctor hadn't got
used to a country where distances are
so deceiVing. In that high dry air the
pfong-horn didn't lCok, to a New York
nan, farther off than across Madison
Square. You see 1 can talk town now like
a tenderfoot since / got to be a soldier and
came east.
An Antelope Mt Long Range.
"As l was saying the doctor paid no
attention when Bill said the bull was Gbo
yards off, but just blazed away with his
1910; he missed the antelope by 100 yards
shot that far short of him. Then the doc
tor played Fourth of July with the critter
shooting half dozen shells at him almost
as fast as the Spanish machine guns
banged at US on Kettle HILL He didn't
nit the beast, either. which was not strange
at the distance, but his fusilade turned
the game off toward Roosevelt. And L
never saw prettier piece of work in my
life than he did then with his rifle. 1t was
Just the same caliber as the Doctors and
when the colonel can't help calling him
that, though war was the last thing any
of US expected then-pulled the trigger
twice at Sd yards, the bull keeled over
With one ball through his side and the other
through his chest.
L saw the colonel get fire sheep one
day. He and Bin and / were sitting on the
porch, taking it easy, when Bill says: L
saw a Sleeps track up on that butte yaS-
terday,' pointing to the range right in
! front of us, across the valley. A Rocky
mountain sheep is about the rarest game
We get out there. Bill had no more than
got the words out of his mouth when so.na-
thing poked its head up over the edge of
the cliff. There's the sheep now says
| Roosevelt. No, believe it's black-tailed
antelope, and I've a mind to go after him.
'B!ack-taiied nothing said Bill. That's
| the whitest-tailed antelope you ever saw.
EagiimS "a Mountain sheep.
by this time the colonel was creeping up
the river, with his rife. We two sat still
'iA-O "sAttLiSu LIIl he AIT WAS calm ana
clear ball. and when he was a half
| mile off he could hear every word we said.
He ought to keep to the left and climb
that cculee, said Bill, never thinking the
colonel could hear him. But he did kaep
to the left and began crawling up the
butte, which was all fiuted with guli9s
q mTne them opery glasses said Bill-he
always called the coiOnels field glasscs
opary glaSses-and just then the colonel
rt-H an for
and / went after him IS hard as we could.
Did you get your antelope? called Bill,
as the colonel stuck his head up from be
hind a boulder.
It's a sheep yelled the colonel push
ing III critter up over the rock in front of
him. It's a Shaep, by George, and / shot
him through the heart
My last hunt with Col. Roosevelt was
late in November. l guess he and | re-
member it mainly because we both froze
our ears getting home 10 the ranch. II
was anxious to kill a mountain ram before
he went back east It's all right to shoot
Rocky mountain sheep, but a Whacking big
ram. with horns spread like all out door. is
different. So we both made up our minds
he must have ram, and started early in
the morning o.er the divide between the
Yellowstone and the Little Missouri rivers.
by that time of year the bunch grass
was so brown you couldn't tell ii from tha
rocks. The country looked about as desc
late you imagine. The buttes raised
thtlr Jagged edges against cold gray sky
ard the only color in the landscape was In
the sandstone and porphyry strata Of the
cliffs. We had hard time of it making our
way UP to the crest Of the 6ivide, and just
as W got there, along toward evening, /
saw something moving ahead of US.
4 Difficult Shot.
Easy now,' says l, and you'll get your
ram Where? says he. and I could see by
his voice he was all on thorns We had
I'D bor fn oh 10
his 1880 rifle swinging easy over his left
arm. / pointed about four hundred yards in
front of US a little down the ridge. 1t was
one of the finest rams | ever saw. his long
brown hair so much lighter in color than
a ewes that he stood out tolerably plain
even among the boulders and at that dis
tanCe.
Il was just pointing the critter out, when
he faced about, lifted his big horns over a
rock he'd been grazing behind, and caught
sight of us against the sky line. There he
goes 1 yelled, for twas use keeping
quiet any longer. Maybe that ram didn't
run. But the colonel had seen him from
the first jump and had his gun going.
'Spat,' went a bullet against the sand
stone. Too far TO the left | yelled 'Biff
the next one, quicker than L can tell it,
knocked up the dust almost under the rams
feet. 'Now's your chance said l. for the
beast had been running almost parallel with
the crest of the range and was afraid
every second he'd plunge down the bluff
and we'd lose him.
With that the rifle cracked once more
and that time l didn't see where the bail
struck. But | did see the ram jump into
the air, headed straight down the bluff and
disappear. When we got to where we lost
him, fearing TO find he'd made one of those
gigantic leaps down a precipice that the
big horns are fond of in an emergency, the
colonel gave a yell you could have heard
two miles. The Rough Riders say Sherman
Bell of Troop X can beat 'em all on the yell
but the colonel was right in il with him
that day, The ram lay ten feet down the
ciiff, on little shelf of rock, half over the
edge and half propped again t a dwarf pine
He was stone dead, and we got the finest
pair of horns | ever saw off of him. 1t was
after midnight when we got home that
night. and We were happy even If our ears
were frozen.
We can get new skin our ears said
the colonel but we'll never get another
ram like that one. "
MINSSIS Al