Pecks Bad Boy with the Cowboys | Page 7

ponies, went out on the mesa and turned the dogs loose, and pretty soon
they were after a wolf and Pa led out ahead on his racing pony, cheered
by the yells of the squaws, and it was a fine race for about two miles.
Pa and the cowboy and the big game hunter and I got ahead of the
squaws, and after awhile we got up pretty near to the wolf, and the big
game hunter said to pa: "Now, old man, is your chance to make
yourself solid with the squaws. We will hold hack and when the dogs
get the wolf surrounded you rush in and kill him or your name's
Dennis." Pa said: "You watch my smoke, and see me eat that wolf
alive." So we held up our horses, and let Pa go ahead. He rode up to the
wolf, and I never saw a man with such luck as Pa had. Just as he got

near the wolf and the animal showed his teeth, Pa tried to steer his
horse away from the savage animal, but the horse stumbled in a prairie
dog hole, and fell right on top of the wolf, crushing the life out of the
animal, and throwing Pa over his head. Pa was stunned, but he soon
came to, and when he realized that the wolf was dead, he grabbed the
animal by the neck with one hand, and by the lower jaw with the other,
and held on to it till the crowd came up, and when the squaws saw that
Pa had killed the biggest wolf ever seen on the reservation, by rushing
in single handed and choking the savage animal to death, they gave Pa
an ovation that was enough to turn the head of any man. Us white
fellows knew that Pa couldn't have been hired to go near that wolf until
the horse fell on it and killed it, but we wanted to give Pa a reputation
for bravery, and so we let the squaws compliment Pa and hug him, and
make him think he was a holy terror. So they tied the wolf on the
saddle in front of pa, and we all went back to camp, the squaws
shouting for pa, and telling the Indians how the great white father had
strangled the father of all wolves, and then the Indians served the fish
supper, and all looked as though there had been a bloodless revolution,
and that the squaws were in charge of the government, and Pa was "it,"
but I could see the Carlisle Indian whispering to the Indians, and it
seemed to me I could see signs of an uprising, and when the Indians
had the supper dishes washed, and all seemed going right, and the
squaws were rejoicing at being emancipated, just as the sun was setting,
every Indian pulled out a bull whip and began to lash the squaws to
their tents, and some young braves grabbed Pa and removed the leopard
skin cloak, and the elk's teeth necklace, and tied his hands and feet, and
carried him into a circle made by the Indians. I asked the Carlisle
Indian what was the matter, and he said, pointing to some wood that
had been piled at the roots of a tree: "The great white father is going to
be tried for inciting a rebellion among the squaws, and the chances are
that before the sun shall rise tomorrow your old dad will be broiled,
fricasseed and baked to a turn." I went up to Pa and said: "Gee, dad, but
they are going to burn you at the stake," and Pa called the cowboy, and
told him to ride to the military post and ask for a detail of soldiers to
hurry up and put a stop to it, and then Pa said to me: "Hennery, it may
look as though I was in a tight place, but I place my trust in the squaws
and soldiers," and Pa rolled over to take a nap.

[Illustration: The Horse Stumbled, Throwing Pa Over His Head and
Killing the Wolf]

CHAPTER III
.
How the Old Man Subdued the Indians with an Electric Battery and
Phosphorus--He Tries His Hand at Roping a Steer--The Disastrous
Result.
Gee, but I thought Pa was all in when I closed by last letter, when the
Indians had him bound on a board, and had lighted a fire, and were just
going to broil him. Jealousy is bad enough in a white man, but when an
Indian gets jealous of his squaw there is going to be something doing,
and when a whole tribe gets jealous of one old man, 'cause he has
taught the squaws to be independent, and rise up as one man against