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15 - Last of the Plainsmen by Zane Grey · Last of the Plainsmen

0:00
Speaker 1: All heroes but one. As we rode up the slope
0:04
Speaker 1: of Buckskin, the sunrise glinted red gold through the aisles
0:08
Speaker 1: of frosted pines, giving us a hunter's glad greeting. With
0:13
Speaker 1: all due respect to and appreciation of the breaks of
0:17
Speaker 1: the sea wash, we unanimously decided that if cougars inhabited
0:22
Speaker 1: any other section of canyon country, we preferred it and
0:26
Speaker 1: were going to find it. We had often speculated on
0:30
Speaker 1: the appearance of the rim wall directly across the neck
0:33
Speaker 1: of the canyon upon which we were located. It showed
0:36
Speaker 1: a long stretch of brakes, fissures, caves, yellow crags, crumbled ruins,
0:40
Speaker 1: and clefts green with pinion pine as a crow flies.
0:44
Speaker 1: It was only a mile or two straight across from camp,
0:47
Speaker 1: but to reach it we had to ascend the mountain
0:51
Speaker 1: and head the canyon, which indented the slope a thousand
0:57
Speaker 1: feet or more above the level bench. The character the
1:00
Speaker 1: forest changed. The pines grew thicker and interspersed among them
1:04
Speaker 1: were silver spruces and balsams. Here in the clumps of
1:09
Speaker 1: small trees and underbrush. We began to jump deer, and
1:13
Speaker 1: in a few moments a greater number than I had
1:15
Speaker 1: ever seen in all my hunting experiences. Loped within range
1:18
Speaker 1: of my eye. I could not look out into the
1:21
Speaker 1: forest where an aisle or lane or glade stretched to
1:25
Speaker 1: any distance without seeing a big, great deer cross it.
1:30
Speaker 1: Jones said. The herds had recently come up from the
1:33
Speaker 1: brakes where they had wintered. These deer were twice the
1:38
Speaker 1: size of the eastern species, and as fat as well
1:41
Speaker 1: fed cattle. They were almost astained too. Big herd ran
1:47
Speaker 1: over one glade, leaving behind several curious doves, which watched
1:52
Speaker 1: us intently for a moment, then bound off with a stiff,
1:55
Speaker 1: springy bounce that so amused me. Sounder crossed fresh trails
2:00
Speaker 1: one after another. Jude dig and Ranger followed him, but
2:05
Speaker 1: hesitated off and barked and whined. Don started off once
2:09
Speaker 1: to come, sneaking back at Jones's stern call, but surly
2:13
Speaker 1: old Mose either would not or could not obey, and
2:17
Speaker 1: away dashed bang. Jones sent a charge of fine shot
2:22
Speaker 1: after him. He helped, double uped as if stung, and
2:26
Speaker 1: returned as quickly as he had gone. Harry you, white
2:29
Speaker 1: and black coom dog, said Jones. Get him behind to
2:32
Speaker 1: stay there. We turned to the right after a while
2:35
Speaker 1: and got among shallow ravines. Gigantic pines grew on the ridges,
2:40
Speaker 1: in the hollows, and everywhere bluebells shone blue from the
2:44
Speaker 1: white frost. Why the frost did not kill these beautiful
2:48
Speaker 1: flowers was a mystery to me. The horses could not
2:52
Speaker 1: step without crushing them. Before long, the ravines became so
2:57
Speaker 1: deep that we had to zigzag up and down their sides,
3:00
Speaker 1: and to force our horses through the aspen thickets in
3:02
Speaker 1: the hollows. Once from a ridge, I saw a troop
3:05
Speaker 1: of deer and stopped to watch them. Twenty seven, I
3:08
Speaker 1: counted outright, but there must have been three times that number.
3:13
Speaker 1: I saw the herd break across the glade and watched
3:15
Speaker 1: them until they were lost in the forest. My companions
3:18
Speaker 1: having disappeared, I pushed on, and while working out of
3:21
Speaker 1: a wide, deep hollow, I noticed the sunny patches fade
3:25
Speaker 1: from the bright slopes, and the golden streaks vanished among
3:28
Speaker 1: the pines. The sky had become overcast in the forest
3:31
Speaker 1: of darkening. The wahoo, I cried out, returned a necko.
3:35
Speaker 1: Only the wind blew hard in my face, and the
3:38
Speaker 1: pines began to bend and roar. An immense black cloud
3:42
Speaker 1: enveloped the buckskin. Satan had carried me no further than
3:47
Speaker 1: the next ridge. When the forest frowned dark as twilight,
3:52
Speaker 1: and on the wind whirled flakes of snow over the
3:55
Speaker 1: next hollow, A white pall roared through the trees toward me.
3:59
Speaker 1: Hardly he had high time to get the direction of
4:02
Speaker 1: the trail and its relation to the trees near by.
4:05
Speaker 1: When the storm enfolded me of his own accord, Satan
4:08
Speaker 1: stopped in the lee of a bushy spruce. The roar
4:12
Speaker 1: in the pines equaled that of the cave under Niagara,
4:15
Speaker 1: and the bewildering, whirling mass of snow was as difficult
4:18
Speaker 1: to see through as the tumbling, seething waterfall. I was
4:24
Speaker 1: confronted by the possibility of passing the night there, and
4:28
Speaker 1: calming my fears as best I could, hastily felt for
4:30
Speaker 1: my matches a knife. The prospect of being lost the
4:34
Speaker 1: next day in a white forest was also appalling, but
4:38
Speaker 1: I soon reassured myself that the storm was only a
4:41
Speaker 1: snowsquall and would not last long. Then I gave myself
4:46
Speaker 1: up to the pleasure and beauty of it. I could
4:49
Speaker 1: only faintly discern the dim trees. The lambs of the spruce,
4:52
Speaker 1: which partially preceded me, sag down to my head with
4:55
Speaker 1: their burden. I had but to reach out my hand
4:59
Speaker 1: for a snowball. Both the wind and snow seemed warm.
5:03
Speaker 1: The great flakes were like swan feathers on a summer breeze.
5:07
Speaker 1: There was something joyous in the quirl and snow and
5:11
Speaker 1: roar of wind. While bent over to shake the holster,
5:14
Speaker 1: the storm passed as suddenly as it had come. When
5:18
Speaker 1: I looked up, there were the pines like pillars of
5:21
Speaker 1: Parian marble, and a white shadow. A vanishing cloud fled
5:26
Speaker 1: with receding roar on the wings of the wind. Fast
5:30
Speaker 1: on this retreat burst the warm, bright sun. I faced
5:33
Speaker 1: my course and was delighted to see through an opening
5:36
Speaker 1: where the ravine cut out of the forest, the red
5:39
Speaker 1: tipped peaks of the canyon, and the vaulted dome I
5:42
Speaker 1: had named Saint Mark's. As I started, a new and
5:46
Speaker 1: unexpected after feature of the storm began to manifest itself.
5:50
Speaker 1: The sun, being warm even hot, began to melt the
5:53
Speaker 1: snow and under the trees. A heavy rain fell, and
5:56
Speaker 1: in the glades and hollows. Fine mist blue exquisite rainbows
6:00
Speaker 1: hung from white tipped branches and curved over the hollows.
6:04
Speaker 1: Glistening patches of snow fell from the pines and broke
6:08
Speaker 1: the showers. In a quarter of an hour, I rode
6:11
Speaker 1: out of the forest to the rim wall. On dry
6:13
Speaker 1: ground against the green pinions. Frank's whitehorse stood out conspicuously,
6:17
Speaker 1: and near him browsed the mouths of Jim and Wallace.
6:20
Speaker 1: The boys were not in evidence. Concluding they had gone
6:23
Speaker 1: down over the rim, I dismounted and kicked off my shafts,
6:27
Speaker 1: and taking my rifling camera, hurried to look the place over.
6:31
Speaker 1: To my surprise and interest, I found a long succession
6:35
Speaker 1: of rim wall in ruins. It lay in a great
6:38
Speaker 1: curve between the two giant capes, and many short, sharp
6:42
Speaker 1: projecting promontories, like the teeth of a saw, overhung the canyon.
6:46
Speaker 1: The slopes between these points of cliff were covered with
6:49
Speaker 1: a deep growth of pinion, and in these places descent
6:52
Speaker 1: would be easy. Everywhere in the corrugated wall where rents
6:57
Speaker 1: and rifts, cliffs stood detached like islands near a shore,
7:01
Speaker 1: yellow crags rose out of green clefts, jumble of rocks
7:04
Speaker 1: and slines of rim wall broken into blocks massed under
7:09
Speaker 1: their promontories. The singular, raggedness and wildness of the scene
7:14
Speaker 1: took hold of me and was not dispelled until the
7:17
Speaker 1: baying of sounder and dawn roused to action in me.
7:21
Speaker 1: Apparently the hounds were widely separated. Then I heard jem yell,
7:26
Speaker 1: but it ceased when the wind lulled, and I heard
7:28
Speaker 1: it no more. Running back from the point I began
7:31
Speaker 1: to go down, the way was steep, almost perpendicular, but
7:34
Speaker 1: because of the great stones in the absence of slides,
7:37
Speaker 1: was easy. I took long strides and jumps, and slid
7:41
Speaker 1: over rocks and swung on pinion branches, and covered distance
7:45
Speaker 1: like a rolling stone. At the foot of the rim
7:47
Speaker 1: wall or at a line where it would have reached
7:50
Speaker 1: had it extended regularly, the slope became less pronounced. I
7:54
Speaker 1: could stand up without holding on to his support. The
7:58
Speaker 1: largest pinions I had seen made the forest that almost
8:01
Speaker 1: stood on end. These trees grew up, down and out,
8:06
Speaker 1: and twisted in curves, and many were two feet in thickness.
8:10
Speaker 1: During my descent, I halted at intervals to listen, and
8:13
Speaker 1: always heard one of the hounds, sometimes several. But as
8:17
Speaker 1: I descended for a long time and did not get
8:19
Speaker 1: anywhere or approach the dogs, I began to grow impatient.
8:24
Speaker 1: A large pinion with a dead top suggested a good outlook,
8:28
Speaker 1: so I climbed it and saw I could sweep a
8:31
Speaker 1: large section of the slope. It was the strange thing
8:34
Speaker 1: to look down hill over the tips of green trees below.
8:38
Speaker 1: Perhaps four hundred yards was the slide open for a
8:41
Speaker 1: long way. All the rest was green incline and with
8:44
Speaker 1: many dead branches sticking up like spears, and an occasional crag.
8:50
Speaker 1: From this perch I heard the hounds, then followed a
8:52
Speaker 1: yell I thought was Dims, and after it up the
8:55
Speaker 1: bellowing of Wallace's rifle. Then all was silent. The shots
9:00
Speaker 1: had effectively checked the yelping of the hounds. I let
9:03
Speaker 1: out a yell another cougar that Jones would not last
9:07
Speaker 1: so all at once I heard a familiar sliding of
9:10
Speaker 1: small rocks below me, and I watched the open slope
9:13
Speaker 1: with greedy eyes. Not a bit surprised was I to
9:16
Speaker 1: see a cougar brick out of the green and go
9:19
Speaker 1: tearing down the slide in less than six seconds, I
9:23
Speaker 1: had sent six steel jacket bullets after him. Puffs of
9:27
Speaker 1: dust rose closer and closer to him. Each bullet went
9:30
Speaker 1: nearer the mark, and the last showered him with gravel
9:33
Speaker 1: and turned him straight down the canyon slope. I slid
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Speaker 1: down the dead pinion and jumped nearly twenty feet to
9:40
Speaker 1: the soft sand below, and, after putting a loaded clip
9:43
Speaker 1: in my rifle, began kangaroo leaps down the slope. When
9:47
Speaker 1: I reached the point where the cougar had entered the slide,
9:50
Speaker 1: I called the hounds, but they did not come nor
9:52
Speaker 1: answer me. Notwithstanding my excitement, I appreciated the distance to
9:57
Speaker 1: the bottom of the slope before I reached it. In
10:00
Speaker 1: my haste, I ran upon the verge of a press
10:02
Speaker 1: up twice as deep as the first rim wall, but
10:06
Speaker 1: one glance down sent me shudderingly backward. With all the
10:10
Speaker 1: breath I had left, I yelled woo woo from the
10:15
Speaker 1: echoes flung at me. I imagined at first that my
10:17
Speaker 1: friends were right on my ears, but no real answer came.
10:21
Speaker 1: The cougar had probably passed along this second rim wald
10:24
Speaker 1: to a break and had gone down His trail could
10:27
Speaker 1: easily be taken by any of the hounds. Vexed and anxious,
10:31
Speaker 1: I signaled again and again once long after the echo
10:35
Speaker 1: had gone to sleep in some hollow canyon. I caught
10:38
Speaker 1: a faint wahooooo, but it might have come from the clouds.
10:43
Speaker 1: I did not hear a hound barking above me on
10:45
Speaker 1: the slope, but suddenly, to my amazement, Saunders Deep Bay
10:50
Speaker 1: rose from the abyss below. I ran along the rim
10:53
Speaker 1: called till I was hoarse, leaned over so far that
10:56
Speaker 1: the blood rushed to my head, and then sat down.
11:00
Speaker 1: I concluded this canyon hunting could bear some sustained attention
11:03
Speaker 1: and thought, as well as fornzied action. Examination of my
11:09
Speaker 1: position showed how impossible it was to arrive at any
11:12
Speaker 1: clear idea of the depth, or size or condition of
11:15
Speaker 1: the canyon slopes. From the main rim wall. Above the
11:18
Speaker 1: second wall, a stupendous yellow faced cliff two thousand feet
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Speaker 1: high curved to my left round to a point in
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Speaker 1: front of me. The intervening canyon might have been half
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Speaker 1: a mile wide, and it might have been ten miles.
11:32
Speaker 1: I became disgusted with judging distance. The slope above this
11:37
Speaker 1: second wall facing me ran up far above my head.
11:40
Speaker 1: It fairly towered, and this routed all my former judgments,
11:44
Speaker 1: because I remembered distinctly that from the rim, this yellow
11:47
Speaker 1: and green mountain had appeared an insignificant little ridge. But
11:51
Speaker 1: it was when I turned my gaze up behind me
11:53
Speaker 1: that I fully grasped the immensity of the place. This
11:57
Speaker 1: wall and slope were the first two steps down the
11:59
Speaker 1: lawn long stairway of the Grand Canyon, and they towered
12:03
Speaker 1: over me, straight up a half mile in dizziting height.
12:08
Speaker 1: To think of climbing it took my breath away. Then again,
12:13
Speaker 1: Sounder's Bay floated distinctly to me, but it seemed to
12:17
Speaker 1: come from a different point. I turned my ear to
12:20
Speaker 1: the wind, and in the succeeding moments I was more
12:23
Speaker 1: and more baffled. One bay sounded from below, and next
12:28
Speaker 1: from far to the right, another from the left. I
12:31
Speaker 1: could not distinguish voice from echo. The acoustic properties of
12:35
Speaker 1: the amphitheater beneath me were too powerful for my comprehension.
12:41
Speaker 1: As the bay grew sharper and correspondingly more significant, I
12:45
Speaker 1: became distracted and focused the strained vision on the canyon deeps.
12:51
Speaker 1: I looked along the slope to the notch where the
12:53
Speaker 1: wall curved and followed the baseline of the yellow cliff.
12:57
Speaker 1: Quite suddenly I saw a very small black object moving
13:00
Speaker 1: with snail like slowness. Although it seemed impossible for Sounder
13:05
Speaker 1: to be so small, I knew it was he, having
13:08
Speaker 1: something now to judge distance from my conceived it to
13:11
Speaker 1: be a mile without the drop. If I could hear Sounder,
13:16
Speaker 1: he could hear me. So I yelled encouragement. The echoes
13:19
Speaker 1: clapped back at me like so many slaps in the face.
13:23
Speaker 1: I watched the hound until he disappeared among the broken
13:26
Speaker 1: heaps of stone, and long after that his bay floated
13:29
Speaker 1: to me. Having rested, I essayed the discovery of some
13:33
Speaker 1: of my lost companions or the hounds, and began to climb.
13:38
Speaker 1: Before I started, however, I was wise enough to study
13:40
Speaker 1: the rim wall above to familiarize myself with the breaks,
13:44
Speaker 1: so I would have a landmark. Like horns and spurs
13:47
Speaker 1: of gold. The pinnacles loomed up, massed closely together. They
13:52
Speaker 1: were not unlike an astounding pipe bargain. I had a
13:56
Speaker 1: feeling of my littleness that I was lost and should
14:00
Speaker 1: vote every moment in effort to the saving of my life.
14:04
Speaker 1: It did not seem possible I could be hunting. Though
14:07
Speaker 1: I climbed to agony and rested often, my heart pumped
14:11
Speaker 1: so hard I could hear it. A yellow crag with
14:14
Speaker 1: a round head like an old man's cane appeared to
14:16
Speaker 1: me as near the place where I had last heard
14:19
Speaker 1: from Jim, and toward it I labored. Every time I
14:23
Speaker 1: glanced up, the distance seemed the same. A climb, which
14:27
Speaker 1: I decided would not take more than fifteen minutes require
14:30
Speaker 1: an hour. While resting at the foot of the crag,
14:33
Speaker 1: I heard more baying of hounds, but for my life,
14:35
Speaker 1: I could not tell whether the sound came from up
14:38
Speaker 1: or down, and I commenced to feel that I did
14:41
Speaker 1: not much care. Having signaled till I was hoarse and
14:44
Speaker 1: receiving none but mock answers, I decided that if my
14:48
Speaker 1: companions had not toppled over a cliff, they were wisely
14:51
Speaker 1: withholding their breath. Another stiff pull up the slope brought
14:56
Speaker 1: me under the rim wall, and there I groaned because
14:59
Speaker 1: the wall was smooth and shiny. Without a break, I
15:02
Speaker 1: plodded slowly along the base with my rifle ready. Cougar
15:06
Speaker 1: tracks were so numerous I got tired of looking at them,
15:09
Speaker 1: But I did not forget that I might meet a
15:11
Speaker 1: tawny fellow or two along those narrow passages of shattered
15:14
Speaker 1: rock and under the thick, dark pinions. Going on in
15:19
Speaker 1: this way, I ran point blank into a pile of
15:21
Speaker 1: bleached bones before a cave. I had stumbled on the
15:25
Speaker 1: layer of a lion, and from the looks of it,
15:28
Speaker 1: one like that of old Tom. I flinched twice before
15:32
Speaker 1: I threw a stone into the dark mouthed cave. What
15:35
Speaker 1: impressed me as soon as I found I was in
15:37
Speaker 1: no danger of being pawed and clawed around the gloomy
15:40
Speaker 1: spot was from the fact of the bones being there,
15:44
Speaker 1: How did they come on a slope where a man
15:47
Speaker 1: could hardly walk? Only one answer seemed feasible. The lion
15:51
Speaker 1: had made his kill one thousand feet above and pulled
15:54
Speaker 1: the quarry to the rim and pushed it over. In
15:57
Speaker 1: view of the theory that he might have had to
16:00
Speaker 1: drag his victim from the forest, and that very seldom
16:03
Speaker 1: two lions worked together, the fact that the location of
16:06
Speaker 1: the bones was startling. Skulls of wild horses and deers, antlers,
16:11
Speaker 1: and countless bones, all crushed into shapelessness furnished the inaudible
16:16
Speaker 1: proof that the carcasses had fallen from a great height.
16:21
Speaker 1: Most remarkable ball was the skeleton of a cougar lying
16:24
Speaker 1: across that of a horse. I believed I could not
16:28
Speaker 1: help but believe that the cougar had fallen, with his
16:31
Speaker 1: last victim not ringing rods. Beyond the lion den, the
16:35
Speaker 1: rim wall split into towers, crags, and pinnacles. I thought
16:39
Speaker 1: I had found my pipe organ and began to climb
16:42
Speaker 1: toward a narrow opening in the rim, but I lost it.
16:46
Speaker 1: The extraordinary cut up condition of the wall made holding
16:49
Speaker 1: to one direction impossible. Soon I realized I was lost
16:53
Speaker 1: in a labyrinth. I tried to find my weight down again,
16:57
Speaker 1: but the best I could do was to reach the
16:59
Speaker 1: verge of a clip, from which I could see the canyon.
17:03
Speaker 1: Then I knew where I was. Yet I did not know,
17:06
Speaker 1: so I plodded wearily back many a blind cleft did
17:10
Speaker 1: I ascend in the maze of crags I could hardly
17:13
Speaker 1: crawl along. Still I kept at it, for the place
17:16
Speaker 1: was conducive to dire thoughts. A tower of babel menaced
17:21
Speaker 1: me with tons of loose shale. A tower that leaned
17:24
Speaker 1: more frightfully than the tower of Pizza, threatened to build
17:28
Speaker 1: my tomb. Many a lighthouse shaped crag sent down little
17:32
Speaker 1: scattering rocks in ominous notice. After tolling in and out
17:36
Speaker 1: passageways under the shadows of these strangely formed crift, and
17:40
Speaker 1: coming again and again to the same point a blind pocket,
17:44
Speaker 1: I grew in desperate. I named the baffling Place Deception Pass,
17:49
Speaker 1: and then ran down a slide. I knew if I
17:52
Speaker 1: could keep my feet I could beat the avalanche, more
17:55
Speaker 1: by good luck than management. I outran the roaring stones
17:58
Speaker 1: and landed safely. Then rounding the cliff below, I found
18:02
Speaker 1: myself on a narrow ledge, with the wall to my
18:04
Speaker 1: left and to the right, the tips of pinion trees
18:07
Speaker 1: level with my feet. Innocently and wearily, I passed round
18:12
Speaker 1: a pillar like cornered wall to come face to face
18:14
Speaker 1: with an old lioness and cubs. I heard the mother snarl,
18:18
Speaker 1: and at the same time her ears went back flat,
18:22
Speaker 1: and she crouched the same fire of yellow eyes, the
18:26
Speaker 1: same grim snarling expression so familiar in my mind since
18:29
Speaker 1: Old Tom had leaped at me. Faced me here my
18:33
Speaker 1: ric and bow of extermination was entirely forgotten, and one
18:38
Speaker 1: frantic spring carried me over the ledge crash. I felt
18:43
Speaker 1: the brushing and scratching of branches and saw a green blur.
18:48
Speaker 1: I went down, straddling limbs and hit the ground with
18:51
Speaker 1: a thump. Fortunately I landed mostly on my feet in
18:55
Speaker 1: sand and suffered no serious bruise. But I was stunned
18:59
Speaker 1: and my right arm was numb for a moment. Then
19:02
Speaker 1: I gathered myself together. Instead of being grateful the ledge
19:06
Speaker 1: had not been on the face of the point sublime
19:09
Speaker 1: from which I would most assuredly have leaped. I was
19:13
Speaker 1: the angriest man ever let loose in the Grand Canyon.
19:17
Speaker 1: Of course, the cougars were far on their way by
19:19
Speaker 1: that time and were telling their neighbors about to brave
19:22
Speaker 1: Hunter's leap for life. So I devoted myself to further
19:25
Speaker 1: efforts to find an outlet. The niche I had jumped
19:29
Speaker 1: into open below, as did most of the brakes, and
19:33
Speaker 1: I worked out of it to the base of the
19:35
Speaker 1: rim wall and tramped a long, long mile before I
19:38
Speaker 1: reached my own trail leading down, resting every five steps,
19:42
Speaker 1: I climbed and climbed my rifle brutal way A ton,
19:46
Speaker 1: My feet were lead, the camera stacked, my shoulder was
19:50
Speaker 1: the world soon. Climbing meant trapee work, long reach of
19:55
Speaker 1: arm and pull of weight, high step of foot and
19:58
Speaker 1: spring of body. Where I had slood down with ease,
20:01
Speaker 1: I had to strain and raise myself by sheer muscle.
20:05
Speaker 1: I wore my left glove to tatters and threw it
20:07
Speaker 1: away to put the right one on my left hand.
20:11
Speaker 1: I thought many times I could not make another move.
20:14
Speaker 1: I thought my lungs would burst, but I kept on.
20:17
Speaker 1: When at last I surmounted the rim, I saw Jones
20:20
Speaker 1: and flop down beside him and lay panting, dripping boiling,
20:24
Speaker 1: with scorched feet, aching limbs and numb chest. I've been
20:29
Speaker 1: here for two hours, he said, And I knew things
20:32
Speaker 1: were happening below, but to climb up that slide would
20:35
Speaker 1: kill me. I'm not young anymore, and a steep clime
20:39
Speaker 1: like this takes a young heart. As it was, I
20:43
Speaker 1: had enough work. Look, he called my attention to his trousers.
20:47
Speaker 1: They had been cut to shreds, and his right trouser
20:50
Speaker 1: leg was missing from the knee down. His shin was bloody.
20:53
Speaker 1: Moves took a line along the rim, and I went
20:56
Speaker 1: after him with all my horse could do. El for boys,
21:00
Speaker 1: but they didn't come right here. It is easy to
21:03
Speaker 1: go down, but below where Mos started this lion, it
21:07
Speaker 1: was impossible to get over the rim. The lion lit
21:10
Speaker 1: straight out of the pinions. I lost ground because of
21:14
Speaker 1: the thick brush and numerous trees. Then Mos didn't bark
21:17
Speaker 1: often enough. He treated the lion twice. I could tell
21:21
Speaker 1: by the way he opened up and bade the rascal
21:23
Speaker 1: coon dog climbed the trees and chased the lion out.
21:27
Speaker 1: That's what Mos did. I got to an open space
21:30
Speaker 1: and saw him and was coming up fine when he
21:33
Speaker 1: went down over a hollow which ran into the canyon.
21:36
Speaker 1: My horse dripped and fell, turning clear over with me
21:39
Speaker 1: before he threw me into the brush. Tore my clothes
21:42
Speaker 1: and got this bruise, but it wasn't much hurt. The
21:45
Speaker 1: horse is prelame. I began a recital of my experience,
21:50
Speaker 1: modestly admitting the incident where I bravely faced an old lioness.
21:55
Speaker 1: Upon consulting my watch, I found I had been almost
21:58
Speaker 1: four hours climbing out. At that moment, Frank poked a
22:01
Speaker 1: red face over the rim. He was in his shirt sleeves,
22:04
Speaker 1: sweating freely, and wore a frown I had never seen before.
22:09
Speaker 1: He puffed like a porpoise and at first could hardly speak. Well,
22:15
Speaker 1: we're all, he panted say, But maybe this hasn't been
22:20
Speaker 1: a chase. Jim and Wallace and me went tumblin down
22:23
Speaker 1: after the dogs, each one looking out for this particular dog.
22:27
Speaker 1: An darn me if I didn't believe his lion too.
22:30
Speaker 1: Don took one oozin down the canyon with me hot
22:33
Speaker 1: footin after him. An somewhere he treated that lion right
22:37
Speaker 1: below me in a box canyon, sort of an offshoot
22:40
Speaker 1: of the Second Rim, and I couldn't locate him. I'm
22:43
Speaker 1: blame near killed myself more'n once look at my knuckles
22:47
Speaker 1: barked him slidin down a mile down a smooth wall.
22:51
Speaker 1: I thought once the line had jumped on, but soon
22:53
Speaker 1: I heard him barkin again. All that time I heard sounder,
22:58
Speaker 1: and once I heard the pup. Jim yelled, and somebody
23:01
Speaker 1: was shooting. But I couldn't find nobody or make nobody
23:04
Speaker 1: hear me. That canyon, it is a mighty des ephin' place.
23:10
Speaker 1: You'd never think so to you go down. I wouldn't
23:13
Speaker 1: climb up it again. For all the lions and buckskin, Hello,
23:16
Speaker 1: here come Jim, oozin up. Jim appeared just over the rim,
23:20
Speaker 1: and when he got up to us, Dusty torn and
23:23
Speaker 1: fagged out, with Don, Tig and Ranger showing signs of collapse.
23:27
Speaker 1: We all blurted out questions, but Jim took his time
23:31
Speaker 1: share that canyon is one hell of a place. He
23:34
Speaker 1: began finally, where was everybody? Tig and the pup went
23:38
Speaker 1: down with me and treated cougar. Yes they did, and
23:41
Speaker 1: I said an opinion, holding the pup while Tig kept
23:44
Speaker 1: the cougar treat. I yelled and yelled. After about an
23:47
Speaker 1: hour or two, Wallace came pounding down like a giant.
23:51
Speaker 1: It was a sure thing we'd get the cougar, and
23:54
Speaker 1: Wallace was taking his picture when the blame cat jumped.
23:57
Speaker 1: It was embarrassing because he wasn't about how he jumped.
24:02
Speaker 1: We scattered some, and when Wallace got his gun, the
24:05
Speaker 1: cougar was humping down the slope and he was going
24:08
Speaker 1: so fast, and the opinions was so thick that Wallace
24:11
Speaker 1: couldn't get a fair shot and missed. Tigging. The pup
24:14
Speaker 1: was so scared by the shots, they wouldn't take the
24:16
Speaker 1: trail again. I heard someone shoot about a million times,
24:20
Speaker 1: and sure thought the cougar was done for. Wallace went
24:23
Speaker 1: plunging down the slope, and I followed. I couldn't keep
24:27
Speaker 1: up with him. He sure takes long steps, and I
24:29
Speaker 1: lost him. I'm reckoning he went over the second wall.
24:34
Speaker 1: Then I made tracks for the top boys. The way
24:37
Speaker 1: you can see and hear things down in that canyon,
24:40
Speaker 1: the way you can't hear and see things is pretty funny.
24:45
Speaker 1: If Wallace went over the second rim wall, we'll he
24:47
Speaker 1: get back today, we all asked. They're no telling. We
24:52
Speaker 1: waited lounge and slept for three hours, and we're beginning
24:55
Speaker 1: to worry about a comrade. When he hove inside eastward
24:58
Speaker 1: along the rim, he walked like a man whose next
25:02
Speaker 1: step would be his last. When he reached this he
25:05
Speaker 1: fell flat, only breathing heavily for a while. Some one
25:10
Speaker 1: once mentioned Israel Putnam's ascent of a hill. He said, slowly,
25:14
Speaker 1: with all respect to history and a patriot, I wished
25:18
Speaker 1: to say, Putnam never saw a hill. Oos for camp
25:22
Speaker 1: called out Frank. Five o'clock found us round a bright fire,
25:27
Speaker 1: all casting ravenous eyes. At his smoking supper. The smell
25:31
Speaker 1: of the Persian meat would have made a wolf of
25:33
Speaker 1: a vegetarian. I devoured four chops and could not have
25:37
Speaker 1: been counted in the running. Jim opened a can of
25:40
Speaker 1: maple syrup, which he had been saving for a grand occasion,
25:43
Speaker 1: and frank wenty one better with two cans of peaches.
25:46
Speaker 1: How glorious to be hungry, to feel the craving for food,
25:50
Speaker 1: and to be grateful for to realize that the best
25:54
Speaker 1: of life lies in the daily needs of existence, and
25:58
Speaker 1: to battle for them. Nothing could be stronger than a
26:02
Speaker 1: simple enumeration and statement of the facts of Wallace's experience.
26:06
Speaker 1: After he left Jim, he chased the cougar and kept
26:09
Speaker 1: it in sight until it went over the second rim wall.
26:13
Speaker 1: Here he dropped over a precipice twenty feet high to
26:16
Speaker 1: a light on a fan shaped slide which spread toward
26:19
Speaker 1: the bottom. It began to slip and move by jerks,
26:22
Speaker 1: and then started off steadily with an increasing roar. He
26:26
Speaker 1: rode an avalanche for one thousand feet. The jar loosened
26:29
Speaker 1: boulders from the walls. When the slide stopped, Wallace extricated
26:33
Speaker 1: his feet and began to dodge the boulders. He had
26:37
Speaker 1: only time to jump over the large ones or dart
26:39
Speaker 1: to one side out of their way. He dared not run,
26:43
Speaker 1: he had to watch them coming. One huge stone hurled
26:46
Speaker 1: over his head and smashed a pinion tree below. When
26:50
Speaker 1: these had ceased rolling and he had passed down to
26:52
Speaker 1: the red shale, he heard Sounder being near and knew
26:56
Speaker 1: a cougar had been treed or cornered. Hurtling the stones
26:59
Speaker 1: and dead opinions, Wallace ran a mile down the slope,
27:02
Speaker 1: only to find he had been deceived in the direction
27:07
Speaker 1: he shared. Off to the left, Saunder's Elusive Bay came
27:10
Speaker 1: up from a deep cleft. Wallace plunged into opinion, climbed
27:13
Speaker 1: to the ground, skidded down a solid slide to come
27:16
Speaker 1: upon an impassable obstacle in the form of a solid
27:20
Speaker 1: wall of red granite. Sounder appeared and came to him,
27:23
Speaker 1: evidently having given up the chase. Wallace consumed four hours
27:27
Speaker 1: in making the ascent. In the notch of the curve
27:30
Speaker 1: of the second rim wall, he climbed the slippery steps
27:33
Speaker 1: of a waterfall. At one point, if he had not
27:36
Speaker 1: been six feet five inches tall, he would have been
27:39
Speaker 1: compelled to attempt retracing his trail, an impossible task, but
27:44
Speaker 1: his height enabled him to reach a root by which
27:46
Speaker 1: he pulled himself up Sounder. He lassued Alah Jones and
27:50
Speaker 1: hauled up. At another spot which Sounder climbed, he lassued
27:54
Speaker 1: Opinion above and walked up, with his feet slipping from
27:58
Speaker 1: under him at every step. The these of his corduroy
28:01
Speaker 1: trousers were holes, as were the elbows of his coat.
28:04
Speaker 1: The sole of his left boot, which he used most
28:07
Speaker 1: in climbing, was gone, and so was his hat. End
28:12
Speaker 1: of Chapter fourteen