Latest / The Boy Scout Book of Campfire Stories / Chapter 4: The Ole Virginia by Stewart Edward White

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Chapter 4: The Ole Virginia by Stewart Edward White · The Boy Scout Book of Campfire Stories

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  Speaker 1: Chapter four of the Boy Scout's Book of Campfire Stories.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recorded by Monte Spinero. The Boy
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  Speaker 1: Scout Book of Campfire Stories, Chapter four, The Old Virginia
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  Speaker 1: by Stuart Edward White. The ring around the sun had
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  Speaker 1: thickened all day long, and the turquoise blue of the
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  Speaker 1: Arizona sky had filmed. Storms in the dry countries are
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  Speaker 1: infrequent but heavy, and this surely meant storm. We had
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  Speaker 1: ridden since sun up over broad mass, down and out
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  Speaker 1: of deep canyons along the base of the mountains. In
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  Speaker 1: the widest part of the territory. The cattle were winding
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  Speaker 1: leisurely toward the high country. The jack rabbits had disappeared,
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  Speaker 1: the quail lacked. We did not see a single antelope
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  Speaker 1: in the open. It's a case of the hold up.
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  Speaker 1: The cattleman ventured his opinion, I have a ranch over
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  Speaker 1: in the double r Charlie and Windy Bill hold it down,
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  Speaker 1: we'll tackle it. What do you think? The four cowboys agreed.
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  Speaker 1: We dropped into a low, broad water course ascending its
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  Speaker 1: bed to big cottonwoods and flowing water followed it into
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  Speaker 1: the box canyons between rim rock carved fantastically and painted
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  Speaker 1: like a Moorish facade, until at last, in a widening
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  Speaker 1: below a round hill, we came upon an adobe house,
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  Speaker 1: a fruit tree, and a round corral. This was the
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  Speaker 1: double r Charlie and Windy Bill welcomed us with soda biscuits.
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  Speaker 1: We turned our horses out, spread our beds on the floor,
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  Speaker 1: filled our pipes, and squatted on our heels. The various
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  Speaker 1: dogs of various breeds investigated us. It was very pleasant,
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  Speaker 1: and we did not mind the ring around the sun.
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  Speaker 1: Somebody else coming, announced the cattleman. Finally, Uncle Jim, said Charlie.
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  Speaker 1: After a glance, a hawk faced old man with a
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  Speaker 1: long white beard and long white hair rode out from
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  Speaker 1: the cottonwoods. He had on a battered broad hat abnormally
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  Speaker 1: hive crown, carried across his saddle a heavy eight square rifle,
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  Speaker 1: and was followed by a half dozen lolloping hounds. The
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  Speaker 1: largest and fiercest of the latter, catching sight of our group,
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  Speaker 1: launched himself with lightening rapidity at the biggest of the
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  Speaker 1: ranch dogs, promptly nailed that canine by the back of
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  Speaker 1: the neck, shook him violently a score of times, flung
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  Speaker 1: him aside, and pounced on the next. During the ensuing
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  Speaker 1: few moments, that hound was the busiest thing in the west.
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  Speaker 1: He satisfactorily whipped four dogs, pursued two cats up a tree,
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  Speaker 1: upset the Dutch oven, and the rest of the soda
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  Speaker 1: biscuits stampeded the horses and raised a cloud of dust
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  Speaker 1: adequate to represent the smoke of battle. We others were
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  Speaker 1: too paralyzed to move. Uncle Jim sat placidly on his
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  Speaker 1: white horse, his thin knees bent to the ox bow,
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  Speaker 1: stirrups smoking. In ten seconds, the trouble was over, principally
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  Speaker 1: because there was no more trouble to make. That hound
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  Speaker 1: returned leisurely, licking from his chops the hair of his victims.
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  Speaker 1: Uncle Jim shook his head trailer said he sadly is
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  Speaker 1: a little severe. We agreed heartily and turned in to
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  Speaker 1: welcome Uncle Jim with a fresh batch of soda biscuits.
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  Speaker 1: The old man was one of the typical long hairs.
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  Speaker 1: He had come to the Galilero Mountains in sixty nine,
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  Speaker 1: and since sixty nine, he had remained in the Galilero
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  Speaker 1: Mountains spite a man or the devil. At present he
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  Speaker 1: possessed some hundreds of cattle, which he had reputed to
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  Speaker 1: water in a dry season from an ordinary dishpan. In
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  Speaker 1: times past he had prospected that evening the severe trailer.
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  Speaker 1: Having dropped to slumber, he held forth on big game
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  Speaker 1: hunting and dogs, corts, claims, and apaches. Did you ever
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  Speaker 1: have any very close calls? I asked? He ruminated a
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  Speaker 1: few moments, refilled his pipe with some awful tobacco, and
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  Speaker 1: told the following experience. In the time of Geronimo, I
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  Speaker 1: was living just about where I do now, and that
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  Speaker 1: was just about in line with the raiding. You see,
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  Speaker 1: Geronimo and jew and old local used to pile out
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  Speaker 1: of the reservation at Campache, raid south to the line,
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  Speaker 1: slip over in the Mexico when the soldiers got too promiscuous,
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  Speaker 1: and raid there until they got ready to come back.
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  Speaker 1: Then there was always a big medicine talk. Says Geronimo.
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  Speaker 1: I am tired of the war path. I will come
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  Speaker 1: back from Mexico with all my warriors, if you will
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  Speaker 1: escort me with soldiers and protect my people all right,
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  Speaker 1: said the General, being only too glad to get him
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  Speaker 1: back at all. So then in ten minutes there wouldn't
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  Speaker 1: be a bucking camp. But next morning they'd show up again,
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  Speaker 1: each with about fifty head of horses. Where'd you get
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  Speaker 1: those horses, asked the General, suspicious had them in the
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  Speaker 1: pasture in the hills, answered Geronimo. I can't take all
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  Speaker 1: those horses with me. I believe they're stolen, said the General.
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  Speaker 1: My people cannot go without their horses, said Geronimo. So
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  Speaker 1: across the line they goes and back to the reservation.
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  Speaker 1: In about a week, there's fifty two frantic gezers wanting
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  Speaker 1: to know where's their horses. The army is nothing but
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  Speaker 1: an importer of the stolen stock, and knows it and
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  Speaker 1: can't help it. Well. As I says, I'm between Camp
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  Speaker 1: and Pache in the Mexican line, so every raiding party
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  Speaker 1: goes right on past me. The point is that I'm
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  Speaker 1: a thousand feet or so above the valley, and the
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  Speaker 1: renegades is in such a hurry about the time, they
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  Speaker 1: ain't never stopped to climb up and collect me. Often
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  Speaker 1: I watched them trailing down the valley, and a cloth dust.
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  Speaker 1: Then in a day or two a squad of soldiers
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  Speaker 1: would come in and camp at my spring for a while.
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  Speaker 1: They used to send soldiers to guide every water hole
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  Speaker 1: in the country, so the renegades couldn't get water. After
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  Speaker 1: a while, from not being bothered none, I got to
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  Speaker 1: thinkin I wasn't worth while with them. Me and Johnny
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  Speaker 1: Hopper were pecking away at the old Virginia mine. Then
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  Speaker 1: we'd got down about sixty feet, all timbered, and was
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  Speaker 1: thinking a cross cutting. One day Johnny went to town,
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  Speaker 1: and that same day I got in a hurry and
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  Speaker 1: left my gun at camp. I worked all the morning
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  Speaker 1: down at the bottom of that shaft, and when I
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  Speaker 1: see by the sun it was getting along toward noon,
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  Speaker 1: I put in three good shots, tamped them down, lit
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  Speaker 1: the fuses, and started to climb out. It ain't no
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  Speaker 1: way as pleasant to light a fuse in a shaft
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  Speaker 1: and then had to climb out a fifty foot ladder
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  Speaker 1: with it burning behind you. I never did get used
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  Speaker 1: to it. You keep thinking, now, suppose there's a flaw
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  Speaker 1: in that fuse or something, and she goes off in
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  Speaker 1: six seconds instead of two minutes. Will you be then
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  Speaker 1: it will give you a good boost toward your home
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  Speaker 1: on high anyway. So I climbed fast and stuck my
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  Speaker 1: hat out the top without looking, and then I froze
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  Speaker 1: solid enough. There about fifty feet away, climbing up the
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  Speaker 1: hill on mighty tired horses, was a dozen of the
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  Speaker 1: ugliest cherry cowers you ever didn't want to meet, and
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  Speaker 1: in addition a Mexican renegade named Maria, who was worse
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  Speaker 1: than any of em i'd see at once. Their horses
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  Speaker 1: was tied out, and they had a notion of camping
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  Speaker 1: in my water hole, not knowing nothing about the old
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  Speaker 1: Virginia mine. For two bits, i'd have let go all
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  Speaker 1: holes and dropped backwards, trusted in my thick head for
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  Speaker 1: easy lighting. Then I heard little fuse and sputter from below,
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  Speaker 1: and that my hair raised right up so I could
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  Speaker 1: feel the breeze blow under my hat. For about six seconds.
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  Speaker 1: I stood there like an imbecile, grinning amiably. Then one
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  Speaker 1: of those cheery cowers made a sort of grunt, and
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  Speaker 1: I said they'd seen the original exhibit your uncle Jim
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  Speaker 1: was making of himself then, and that FEUs gave another sputter,
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  Speaker 1: and one of the apaches said undah that means white man.
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  Speaker 1: It was harder to turn my head than if I
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  Speaker 1: had a stiff neck, but I managed to do it.
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  Speaker 1: And I see that my oar dump wasn't more than
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  Speaker 1: ten foot away. I mighty near over jumped it, and
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  Speaker 1: next I knew I was on the side of it,
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  Speaker 1: and know was a patches on the other. Probably I
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  Speaker 1: flew these ways. I don't seem to remember jumping. That
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  Speaker 1: didn't seem to do me much good. Renege is grinning
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  Speaker 1: and laughing, and think how easy a thing they had.
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  Speaker 1: I couldn't rightly think up any argument against the notion,
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  Speaker 1: at least from their standpoint. They were chattering away at
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  Speaker 1: each other in Mexican for the benefit of Maria. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: they had me all disturbed, down to my suspender buttons,
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  Speaker 1: and me squatting behind that oar dump about as formidable
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  Speaker 1: as a brush rabbit. Then all at once one of
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  Speaker 1: my shots went off down in the shaft. Boom, says
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  Speaker 1: she plenty big and a slather of rocks and stone
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  Speaker 1: come out of the mouth and begin a dump down
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  Speaker 1: promiscuous on the scenery. I got one little one in
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  Speaker 1: the shoulder blad and found time to wish my oar
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  Speaker 1: dump had a roof, but those renegades caught it square
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  Speaker 1: in the thicker trouble. One got knocked out entirely for
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  Speaker 1: a minute by a nice piece of country rock in
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  Speaker 1: the head. Or Travess yelled I, which means again boom,
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  Speaker 1: goes the old Virginia prompt as an answer. I put
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  Speaker 1: in my time dodging. But when I gets a chance
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  Speaker 1: to look, the Apaches has all got to cover and
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  Speaker 1: is looking scared. Or Travess yells eye again, Boom says
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  Speaker 1: the old Virginia. This was the biggest shot of a lot,
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  Speaker 1: and she surely cut loose. I ought to have been
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  Speaker 1: half way up the hill watching things from a safe distance,
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  Speaker 1: but I wasn't lucky for me. The shaft was a
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  Speaker 1: little on the drift, so she didn't quite shoot my way,
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  Speaker 1: but she distributed about a ton over those renegades. They
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  Speaker 1: sort of half got to their feet uncertain. Arthra vas
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  Speaker 1: yell's eye once more as bold as if I could
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  Speaker 1: keep her shooting all day. It was just a cold
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  Speaker 1: raw blazer, and if it didn't go through I could
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  Speaker 1: see me as an Apache parlor artament. But it did.
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  Speaker 1: Those cherry howis give one yell and skipped. It was
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  Speaker 1: surely a funny sight after they got aboard their war ponies,
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  Speaker 1: to see them try to dig out on horses too
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  Speaker 1: tired to trot. I didn't stop to give her all
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  Speaker 1: the laughs, though, In fact I gave one jump off
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  Speaker 1: that ledge, and I lit a running a quarter. A
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  Speaker 1: horse couldn't have beat me on that shake. There. I
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  Speaker 1: grabbed my good old gun, old meat in a pot
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  Speaker 1: an made a climb for the tall country. Uncle Jim
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  Speaker 1: stopped with an air of finality, and began lazily to
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  Speaker 1: refill his pipe from the open mud fireplace. He picked
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  Speaker 1: the cold outside the rain, faithful to the prophecy of
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  Speaker 1: the wide ringed sun, beat fitful against the roof. That
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  Speaker 1: was the close call I ever had, said he at
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  Speaker 1: last end of Chapter four, recorded by Monty Spinero,