The Long Dim TrailHooker, Forrestine C. (Forrestine Cooper)
General
The Long Dim Trail
Hooker, Forrestine C. (Forrestine Cooper)
Arizona -- Fiction; Cowboys -- Fiction; Ranch life -- Fiction; Western stories
The cowboy threw his leg across the horn of his saddle, sitting sidewise
as he rolled a cigarette, which he proffered to Powell. Then making one
for himself, the two men smoked as they rode.
"Juan told me last night that he had found another dead calf up the
riverbed, and poisoned it," said Limber. "Thar was fresh lion tracks. He
thinks it's the lion that was in the cave, but it ain't been thar since
the day we found Mrs. Glendon and Donnie. It must of smelt our tracks
and quit. Juan has been watchin' for it ever since I tole him about it."
"How much is the bounty?" asked Powell, puffing at his cigarette.
"Twenty-five dollars for a lion scalp," replied Limber. "I hope Juan
gets it. We've been having lots of calves killed this year. Mr. Traynor
figgers on puttin' a couple of men out trappin' and poisonin' them and
the coyotes. It'll pay to do it. We had to shoot two horses not long
ago, because their backs was broke."
"Do they fight at close quarters?" asked Powell. "The South American
ones are nasty things."
"Well, sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. Say, did any one ever
tell you about the time Hasayampa fit the mountain lion?"
"No, or I should not have forgotten it, I am sure," Powell smiled in
anticipation.
Limber tossed away his dead cigarette, swung around in his saddle and
began, "Hasayampa had a peculiar experience with a mountain-lion onct.
You see, he was livin' in a one-room stone cabin down Aravaipa Canon all
alone by hisself, exceptin' for an ol' brindle dog named Killem.
Hasayampa allowed that Killem was a canine orphun asylum, because he was
related to near every dog between Willcox and the San Pedro. Killem's
nose was bull-dog, his ears was collie, his tail looked something like a
pug's the way it tried to curl up in a doughnut. He had a brindle coat
of hair that was sprinkled with white patches and them mixed with black.
He sure done his best to bear a resemblance to every one of his family
connections. He had been a dandy scrapper when he was young, but he was
so ol' he shed all his teeth, but his ki-yi was guaranteed
indestructible. Hasayampa had trouble with a mountain-lion what wanted
to make sociable calls, but was too bashful to come in daylight. It
formed a strong attachment for some pigs Bill was raisin', an' that lion
adopted 'em on the installment plan, an' the ol' sow took on somethin'
dreadful. So between the pigs squealin' and Killem ki-yiing, he was
pretty near crazy. Hasayampa said he couldn't stand the lady pig's
grief, so he killed her and then he guv Killem a good kick to make him
shet up, and went back to bed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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