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Written for Burke’s Weekly.
THE YOUNG EXPLORERS;
OR, BOY-MFE IN TJSXAB.
BY JOHN O. DUVAL,
Author of “ J&ck Dobell; or, A Boy s Ad
ventures in Texas,” “ The Adventures
of Big-Foot Wallace,” etc.
CHAPTER TIL
A Good Night's Rest, and on the Road again—
Encampment at the Water Hole —Impromptu
Fishing—An Indian Spy—Throwing him off
his Guard—' The Nest Warm, but the Birds
Flown” —Unexpected Good Quarters —A
Good Old Custom —The Latest Neios — Hos
pitable Treatment, and Good-bye.
< fsfii R long as the Indians were in
sight, we rode slowly away;
' u t t }j e momen t we were hid
den from their view, by a slight depres
sion in the prairie, we put spurs to our
horses, and never drew rein until we
had travelled ten or twelve miles from
the place where we had encountered
our suspicious friends. Leaving the
trail as soon as it was dark, we went
off about a mile to the left of it, and
encamped in a little nook, surrounded
on all sides but one by dense chaparral.
After staking our horses, and eating a
cold snack for supper (for we did not
venture to build a fire, as we thought
it possible they might have found out
we were travelling alone, and followed
on our trail), we laid down upon our
ponchos, and slept comfortably till
morning.
We subsequently learned that a party
of four men (three white men and a
Mexican) were killed and scalped the
day after we had passed, at the very
spot where we had encountered our
“ buanos amigos.” I have no doubt
at all that our “good friends” were
present at the ceremony, and that they
would probably have served us in the
same way, if they had not been some
what intimidated by the bold front we
presented to them, and by the plausible
story I had told them.
The next morning, we were up by
daylight, boiled a cup of coffee, and
after a hasty repast we saddled our
horses and again took the road, anxious
to get away as soon as possible from
the dangerous proximity of our “good
friends.” Nothing of interest occurred
on the route that day; and about an
hour before sundown we struck camp
near a deep water hole in the prairie,
around which there grew a few
ed elms and live oaks.
This water hole was evidently fed by
subterranean springs, for it was very
deep ; and the water was so clear that
we could easily see the fish swimming
about in it eight or ten feet beneath the
surface. The fish looked very enticing,
and I thought a few of them would be
a desirable addition to our supper; but
how to get them was the question, as
BURKE’S WEEKLY FOR BOYS AND GIRLS.
we had neither line, hook, pole or bait.
However, it is said that “necessity is
the mother of invention,” and pulling
out a half-dozen of the longest hairs
from the tail of my horse, I tied them
together, and thus made quite a respect
able line. I then took a pin, which I
found sticking in the collar of my vest,
and bent it with my teeth to the re
quired shape (a feat I could not possibly
perform now). Then fastening it to my
line, and tying the other end to a straight
“iron weed” I picked up on the banks
of the pool, my angling apparatus was
complete.
In the meantime, Pitt had captured
with his broadbrim hat a few fat grass
hoppers, and with these for bait, in less
than fifteen minutes I had a dozen fine
bream safely landed on the bank. These
we wrapped up, alive and fluttering, in
strips of old newspaper, dampened, and
covering them with hot ashes and em
bers, we roasted them like so many
potatoes —a most excellent way to cook
fish, and if you don’t believe it, you can
try it the first time you have an oppor
tunity.
To the west of the water hole there
was quite an elevation in the prairie,
near the top of which there grew a
narrow fringe of cactus and chaparral
bushes. After supper, whilst Pitt and
I were reclining upon our ponchos, and
whiffing our cigarettes, I happened to
cast my eyes in the direction of this
narrow belt of chaparral, and thought
I perceived some dark object moving
cautiously behind it. I said nothing
about it, however, but continued to
watch closely. In a few minutes, I
plainly saw the head of an Indian
slowly and cautiously raised above the
fringe of low bushes.
“Pitt,” said I, “ cast your eyes, with
out moving, in the direction of that
chaparral on the hill, and tell me what
you see.”
“ Why,” said Pitt, in an excited tone,
“ I see an Indian’s head above the bush
es, as plainly as I can see the nose on
your face. Let us go at once and bring
up our horses.”
“Oh, no,” said I, “keep quiet, and
don’t let him suspect that we have seen
him. As soon as he has made his re
connoisance of our strength and posi
tion, he will return to his comrades,
wherever they are, and make his re
port, and they will assuredly attack us
to-night should we remain here ; but
of course we’ll not do that. As soon
as it is dark, we will quietly saddle our
horses, and leave for some healthier
locality.”
Pitt agreed with me that the course I
advised was the best; and in order the
more effectually to deceive the rascal,
whose prying eyes we knew were watch
ing our every motion, we went out and
restaked our horses on fresh grass, and
then returned and laid down upon our
ponchos, as if we had fully made up
our minds to camp there for the night.
Our ruse evidently had the desired es-
feet, for in a little while I observed the
Indian cautiously crawling off behind
the bushes, and in a moment he disap
peared, and we saw him no more. He
undoubtedly had gone off under the be
lief that we intended to remain at the
water hole all night. But as soon as it
was dark, I went out and brought up
the horses, and saddled them as quickly
as I could. Silently we mounted them,
and rode off in the direction opposite
to that taken by the spy.
It was a star-light night, and we had
no difficulty in steering the course we
wished tQ go. When we had gone per
haps a mile, we suddenly heard a terri
ble yelling, apparently at the water hole
we had just left, and immediately after
wards the reports of several guns fired
in rapid succession. We had evidently
effected our retreat just in time to save
our scalps. “ The nest was warm, but
the birds had flown.” Spurring our
horses, we rode on for six or seven
miles, and then halted as we had done
the night before in a small prairie, shut
in upon all sides by thick chaparral.
Dismounting, we staked our horses,
spread our blankets on the sward, and
stretching ourselves upon them were
soon fast asleep.
Nothing disturbed us during the night,
and before sunrise the next morning
we had taken a cup of coffee, and were
again on our way, taking the direction
towards the trail we had left the evening
previous. Shortly after regaining our
trail, we came to a heavily-timbered
bottom, near the edge of which we des
cried a house about half a mile off to
our right.
We steered our course towards this
house, but had not gone more than two
or three hundred yards, when we saw a
man mounted on horseback emerge
from a “mot” of timber, a short dis
tance ahead of us. He started off in a
gallop, thinking, I suppose, that we
were Indians ; but discovering his mis
take before he had gone far, he wheeled
his horse, and rode back to meet us.
Accosting us politely, he invited us to go
with him to the house we had seen on
the edge of the bottom, of which he in
formed us he was the owner and occu
pant. On our arrival, a crowd of little
negroes and dogs rushed out to wel
come us, and our companion greeted
them all by their names ; but there was
such a crowd of them, and they were
so mixed up together, and the names
were so similar, we couldn’t tell which
belonged to the dogs and which to the
darkies.
On entering the house, our compan
ion requested us to take a seat in the
entry, and immediately gave orders for
a pot of coffee to be prepared for us.
At that day, it was the universal cus
tom among the “old Texans,” to pre
sent a cup of hot coffee to a visitor as
soon as he entered the house; and even
yet, especially among the settlers on
the frontiers, the custom is kept up.
And a very good one it is too; for there
is nothing more grateful and refreshing
to the weary wayfarer than a cup of hot
strong coffee. But it must be strong, for
“coffee-tea,” and “water bewitched”
won’t answer at all.
Whilst we were discussing the bever
age, our host informed us that he had
but lately settled at that place ; that he
had moved there only a few months
previously from the red lands of East
ern Texas, which were becoming en
tirely too thickly settled to suit the
notions of one like himself, engaged in
the business of stock-raising. He told
us we were the first strangers he had
seen for five or six weeks, and that
consequently he was entirely ignorant
of everything that had transpired in the
“old States” for that length of time,
and would be thankful to us for any
thing in the way of news. Pitt drew a
couple of late New Orleans papers from
his coat pocket (they were not more
than six weeks old), which he said con
tained all the news. Our host eagerly
accepted the offer of these “late pa
pers,” and no doubt perused them with
as much gusto and relish as a man in
the same region would now read the
“latest telegraphic despatches, three
days old from New York.”
By this time, we had finished our
coffee, and having rested ourselves suf
ficiently, I proposed to Pitt that we
should start again ; but our host insist
ed on our remaining all night with him,
saying that no stranger was ever per
mitted to pass his house without break
ing bread, and tarrying at least a day.
“Besides,” said he, “I have already
had your horses stripped, and put up ;
so you see there is no help for it. To
morrow, if you wish, to do so, you can
make a fresh start, and I will ride with
you to the Bernard, which is pretty well
up, and dangerous to cross, unless you
have someone with you who is ac
quainted with the ford.”
This settled the question, and we
thanked him for his kind invitation.
At supper, our host said to us, as
he handed round a huge dish of “ big
homminy,” almost as white as snow:
“I cannot, as you see on this occa
sion, always compel the wayfarer to
1 break bread ’ with me, for sometimes
I have no bread to break, as our near
est mill is twenty-fivq miles off, and
now and then we get out of meal. But
we always have some sort of substitute
that answers pretty well when a man is
hungry.”
We found the lack of bread no great
matter after all, as the table was boun
tifully supplied with everything else w'e
could have desired —good coffee, rich
cream, venison steaks, milk and butter,
etc. When bedtime came, our landlord
showed us into a room in which there
were several nice beds, and bidding us
good night he left us to ourselves.
“Dobell,” said Pitt, when we were
alone, “don’t you think we ought to
offer our landloid pay for his entertain
ment, in the morning?”