Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1898-10-13
THE GRAY STEER.

-
resistance to like winged attacks, the
cattle of the higher range were begin
ming to ''bunch" on each open stamp
ing-ground Toward these trampled
circles the scattered steers were one
by one making their way.
"The boys can run in all these
steers tomorrow" said Holden. "You
and l, Jim, are going to twine that
gray steer today"
HE got big scare yesterday; too
sharp to show up on stampin' ground
today" Jim suggested.
Like enough" Holden assented,
"but We'll rustic him out The boys
lost him late yesterday in the long
quaking asp patch in that gulch up
there, just below the rim-rock."
He pointed to the rim-rock Of the
spruce ridge, rising yet loftily above
them with innumerable aspen gulches
and brushy slopes draining down into
the side canons.
Quickening their horses, they pres
emily rode into the green gloom of the
gulch, where the quaking-aspens
trembled over hidden springs. Here
mighty footprints dinted deep the
mud and the sodden trails.
''Dere his track, fresh" said Jim,
STOPPING from his saddle over print
like post-hole. ''He lie close, some
where"
"We'll put him up" said Holden,
confidently; 'and once he shows, stay
with him, JIM"
''You betI stey!' said Jim, simply.
They threaded the winding thicket
on separate trails and met near its
head without sight of the gray steer
It's no use looking for him
down in here" said Holden. "He's
gone up higher. Let's try in the
spruce below the rim-rock.' %
He led the way upward along the
steep, brushy side of the gulch until,
stopped by the rim-rock, they sat in
their saddles and looked down and
back in disappointment.
Below them the gulch enclosed the
fastness of the deer, space darkened
to twilight by growth of young
spruce and aspen saplings.
''Maybe he down in those" said
Jim, with drop alike of voice and
hand. "Hide hisself in daytime like
black tail buck
''But we can't get into that pocket
on horses" Holden replied loudly, in
vexation. "Waitl I'll try for himr'
AS he spoke he dismounted to act
oi~a, boyish Inspiration
nynad noticed big block fallen
from the rim-rock and lying tiltod up
oa thile slene With mighty heaving
.he overturned it, ans down The slope
it crashed in smashing leaps through
the brush and swaying timber to the
very heart of the spruce thicket.
Shorts came up from below; Holden
marked the course of startled, hurry
ing creatures by the lines of swaying
tops furrowing the still, green sur
face, and three grand bucks sprang
out, their horns showing brown in the
velvet as they topped the lower brush;
but bearer of mightier horns was
breaking through the plant young
trees, and glimpse of grizzly hide
was exultantly caught by the young
foreman.
s'Ah, he show up now" shouted
Navajo Jim, erect in the stirrups, as
| the great steer came out below.
Bred from the finest of the Lazy j
stock, he would have weighed near
1000 pounds; but such speed and bot
tom were his 'rustling" on that rough
range that the big body rose over the
brush with the wild grace OF buck,
and with deer-like ease his frontlet,
black and threatening, was thrown
back over his grizzly shoulder as he
stopped and eyed his hunters for an
instant. One defiant shake of his per-
feet horns, then he raced onward, and
only bending brush marked his path.
Holden was already galloping after
him, smashing the underground in
straight course down the slope to in
tercept him below, shouting as he ran.
Jim, with Indian circumspection ran
his horse in an easier descent along
the slope, keeping his eyes on the
swaying brush beneath and waiting
for an opportunity of closing in more
open ground.
Now Holden's horse, the blue out
law, showed once more his spirit and
his staying power. Shying through
the brush, leaping the fallen logs,
darting under the leaning trunks, he
held so stanchly to the chase that he
brought Holden close behind the
game Navajo Jim emerged from the
thicket to see the young foreman in