The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1935-05-31

I explained that we would have to
swing to the northwest in order to get
to the ford on Two Medicine river. The
lights, marking the end of our journey,
lay in the southwest. Although I
could not see her face in the starlit
started to cry from the strain of the
day and night. Most of my life had
been spent in company with men on
mountain trails, and I found myself
in what seemed to me, a worse pre-
dicament than I had ever been in be-
fore. I had left the wagon with all the
bedding two hours walking distance
to travel ahead.
seemed to have lost her confidence in
me as a guide, and she started in the
direction of the lights, in spite of my
explanations. I dropped my lines on
the horses and started after her before
she should become lost in the darkness.
She refused to listen to reason, so I
had to use strength. I found it took
as l.. She screamed and pulled while
I gathered up the lines on my horses,
and tried to drive them on, but the
lead team refused to move.
I talked some more to the girl, and
then threatened to tie her feet together
should she try to run away again. I
took the harness off the lead team and
turned them loose. The rest, while
waiting for me, seemed to bring back
her reason, and when I started on she
was willing to follow.
Another hour brought us down the
steep east bank of the Two Medicine
river. Here I was confronted with an
other problem, for I did not know if
either Of the horses had ever been rid
den before, and the ony way to cross
the deep cold ford was to ride a horse.
] got on the big mare and turned her
around several times to make sure she
was not going to buck. I helped the
girl onto the mares back, and Chamber
ed on the back of the big brown stall
lion, my other team horse. Leading
the mare, I headed down into the dark
swift ford.
AS we came out of the opposite side of
the ford, we could hear the welcome
sound of mems voices, and oon two
lanterns were seen swinging down the
trail from the west bank. It was a
party of searchers the old plainsman,
Dawson, had gathered, and led out to
look for us. He had begun to worry for
u safety as the night turned into the
morning, and we did not arrive at his
home. The girl mounted a good saddle
horse, IS Mr.. Dawson said the mare
Ildu, dG OIle IllIle, Uttll d LEGALLY 1dIlOuS
bucking horse. I found that the stall
ion had never been ridden before, but
since they were both played out, they
had carried us through the ford.
The next morning Gray and I start
ed riding the range, looking for the
two horses I had turned loose the night
before. We hauled the wagon with its
valuable load of bedding to the end of
the trip.
While I was out doing this work, the
girl and her parents had bathed and
dressed in their store Clothes" and
had taken the only train that stopped
at our "boXcar" station. They travelled
to their home in the east where they
would enjoy the comforts and safety of
city life. Probably never again would
they find themselves sleeping under a
freight wagon, being sung to sleep by
the distant cry of a coyote, the boom
ing boot of the owls or the bullying bull
elk calling to its mate.
To me. it meant that I had finished
my job and collected my $50 in wages.
Now I was to go to work as a guide
for an engineer who wa blazing the
way through the forest of the east
slope Of the Hudson Bay divide. This
was the first move to start the con-
struction of the 10-foot stage road that
was built in 1912. It was the fore-run-