It is better to give them away than to pay
for their transportation such a long distance.
Both horses have been sold and beautiful King has gone. The young man
who bought him was a stranger here, and knew absolutely nothing about
the horse except what some one in Las Animas had told him. He rode him
around the yard only once, and then jumping down, pulled from his
pocket a fat roll of bills, counted off the amount for horse, saddle,
and bridle, and then, without saying one word more than a curt "good
morning," he mounted the horse again and rode out of the yard and
away. I saw the whole transaction from a window - saw it as well as
hot, blinding tears would permit. Faye thinks the man might have been
a fugitive and wanted a fast horse to get him out of the country. We
learned not long ago, you know, that King had been an Indian race pony
owned by a half-breed named Bent. He sent word from Camp Supply that I
was welcome to the horse if I could ride him! The chaplain has bought
Powder-Face, and I am to keep him as long as we are here. Hal will go
with us, for I cannot give up that dog and horses, too.
Speaking of Hal reminds me of the awful thing that occurred here a few
days ago. I have written often of the pack of beautiful greyhounds
owned by the cavalry officers, and of the splendid record of
Magic - Hal's father - as a hunter, and how the dog was loved by
Lieutenant Baldwin next to his horse.
But unless the dogs were taken on frequent hunts, they would steal off
on their own account and often be away a whole day, perhaps until
after dark. The other day they went off this way, and in the
afternoon, as Lieutenant Alden was riding along by the river, he came
to a scene that made him positively ill. On the ground close to the
water was the carcass of a calf, which had evidently been filled with
poison for wolves, and near it on the bank lay Magic, Deacon, Dixie,
and other hounds, all dead or dying! Blue has bad teeth and was still
gnawing at the meat, and therefore had not been to the water, which
causes almost instant death in cases of poisoning by wolf meat.
As soon as Lieutenant Alden saw that the other dogs were past doing
for, he hurried on to the post with Blue, and with great difficulty
saved her life. So Hal and his mother are sole survivors of the
greyhounds that have been known at many of the frontier posts as
fearless and tireless hunters, and plucky fighters when forced to
fight.
