Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1911-02-24

a paper bag Of bread and cheese. Mr..
Ruggles, in his private car, was on
his trip south for the winter season.
For a week that car was trundled
southwark, shifted, laid over, and
manipulated after the manner OF roll
| ing stock, but Chicken stuck to IT,
leaving it only at necessary times TO
satisfy his hunger and thirst. He
knew 1t must go down to the cattle
country. and San Antonio, in the heart
of it, was his goal. There the air
was salubrious and mild; the people
indulgent and ong-suffering. The bar
tenders there would not kick him. Ii
| he should eat too long or too often
at one place they would swear at him
as If by rote and without heat. They
swore so drawlingly, and they rarely
paused short of their full vocabulary,
which was copious, SO that Chicken
had often gulped a good meal during
the process Of the vituperat1Ve pro-
hibition. The season there was al
ways springIke; the plazas were
pleasant at night, with music and
gavety: exceut during the slight and
infreuuently cold snaps one could
sleep comfortably out of doors IN case
the interiors should develop inhospi-
tally.
At Texarkana the car was switched
to the l. & c. N. Then still south
ward it trailed until, at length, it
crawled across the Colorado bridge
at Austin, and lined out, straight as
an arrow, for the run to San An
tonic
When the freight halted at that
town Chicken was fast asleep. In ten
minutes it was off again for Laredo,
the end of the road. Those empty
cattle cars were for distribution along
| the line at points from which the
ranches shipped their stock.
When Chicken awoke his car was
| stationary. Looking out between the
| Stats he saw it was a bright, moonlit
! night. Scrambling out, he saw his
| car with three others abandoned on
a. little siding in wild and lonesome
| country. A cattle pen and chute
stood on one side Of the track. The
railroad bisected a vast, dim ocean
| of prairie, in the midst of which
Chicken, with his futile rolling stock,
was as completely stranded as was
Robinson Crusoe with his land-locked
boat,
A white post stood near the rails.
! Going up to it, Chicken read the let
| tiers at the top, S. A. 80. Laredo was
| nearly as far to the south. He was
almost a hundred miles from any
| town. Coyotes began to yelp in the
mysterious sea around him. Chicken
| felt lonesome. He had lived in Bos-
| ton without an education, in Chicago
| without nerve, in Philadelphia with
| out sleeping place, in New York
| without a pull. and in Pittsburg sober.
and yet he had never felt so lonely
| as now.
Suddenly through the intense 81
lence, be heard the Wicker of a
| horse. The sound came from the side
of the track toward the east. and
Chicken began to explore timorously
| in that direction. He stepped hig
along the mat of curly mesquite grass.
for he was afraid of everything there
rats, brigands, centipedes, Eirages,
cowboys, fandangoes, tarantulas, Ia
| males-he had read of them in the
story papers Rounding a clump of
prickly pear that reared high its fan
tastic and menacing array of rounded
heads, he was struck to shivering Ter
J ror by a snort and a thunderous
plunge. as the horse, himself startled,
bounded away some fifty yards, and
then resumed his grazing. But here
was the one thing in the desert that
Chicken did not fear. He had been
reared on a farm; he had handled
horses, understood them, and could
ride
Approaching slowly and speaking
soothingly, he followed the animal,
which, after it's first flight, seemed
of the twenty-foot lariat that dragged
after him in the grass. 1t required
him but few moments to contrive
tn rope into, an ingenious nose-bridle,
after the style Of the Mexican borsal.
In another he was upon the horses
back and off at a splendid lope, Civ
ing the animal free choice of direc-
ton. He will take me somewhere, -
said Chicken to himself.
It would have been a thing of joy,
that untrammeled gallop over the
moonlit prairie, even to Chicken, who
loathed exertion, but that his mood
was not for it. His head ached;
growing thirst was upon him; the
somewhere" whittier his lucky mount
might convey him was full OF dismal
peTadventure.
And now he noted that the horse
moved to definite goal. Where the
prairie lay smooth he kept his course
straight as an arrows toward the
east. DETECTED by hill or arroyo or
impracticable spinous brakes, he
quickly flowed again into the current,
charted by his unerring instinct. At
last. upon the side of gentle rise,
he suddenly subsidized to a complacent
walk. A stones cast away stood a