A WILD IIORSE HUNT.
IT was in tho fall of the second year
I bad been on tho range, and I got
to know the country pretty well by
that time."
So spoke Frank Evans, an old college
chum of mine, an he sat comfortably
amoking a cigar, after a dinner at which
we had lingered several hours, recalling
old times, and ho had been telling mo
some of his experiences "out Wo it," on
the great cattle ranges east of the Rocky
mountains, where, when he should have
fully mastered the business, his father,
a wealthy fanner of Ohio, had promised
to buy a ranch and stock it for him.
" Yes," he continued, " it was on tho
Sweetwater range, in Wyoming, or, to
bo more precise, in tho hills at tho head,
waters of Bitter creek. I had been
hunting horses all the morning, six of
our band baring strayed away from our
night herder the evening before. It
was about 2:00 o'clock, and tho sun beat
down on tho sagebrush covered hills
with an almost deadening intensity, tho
wind coming in fitful gusts, carrying tho
whito alkali dust in clouds. I was head,
ing for camp, some fifteen mil's away,
and my horse, a wiry little buckskin col
ored broncho, was comparatively freb,
in spite of tho heat, although anyone
looking at him jogging along at a little
dog trot, bead down, eyes half closed,
cars flapping up and down, and an alto
gether dejected look about him, would
have supposed him to have been com
pletely tuckered out
" I expected to find our six tabuing
animals with a band of wild born, of
which there wero two or threo known to
mm
run among the bills, and I bad been re
serving my buckskin for a ran.
" As I got to the head of a long can
yon I saw a band of horses o(T to tho
left Dismounting, I looked at my
cinch, pulled it up a little tighter, and
Wing assured that my saddle was firm,
I took another look at tho band There
wero about fifty horses sent to red over a
littlo "dry lake," standing with heads
down, with flanks heaving, evideutly dis
tressed by tho intense heat Carefully
looking them over I found they wero alt
mares and colts, and our hows wero
not among thorn. There was ono excep
tion, a small blue stallion; I knew him
in a moment as being tho nervy littlo
captain of a band of wild how that
had nover yet boon run down, though
we had all bail a trial with him.
" Not caring to waste my hone's en
ergies on them, I mounted and was
about to move on, when ray attention
was attracts! to a mare and colt that
were evidently out of favor with tho
captain, for they wero aeveral hundred
foot away from the main band The
mare was a large, cloandimbM animal,
of beautiful proportions, and remark,
able color-she was ji black, curiomly
marked with white, looking m if snow
had fallen on her back and !nprinkl 1
both sides. The colt was a littlo runt
dwarfed ami stunted to a degree, and
with bis long, ungainly body and slcrt
logs, formed a striking eontrat to his
handsome thoroughbred mother. On
the Instant I thought that there was a
chance to g t that in arc, a:,d away I
went