PIGEONS AND BEAR 63 



bat out of hell, and I had to ride like a drunk 

 Injun to catch him." 



This was Button's last attempt to leave us. 

 John accredited him with a degree of intelli- 

 gence little short of human and insisted that he 

 had been waiting a long while for a favorable 

 opportunity to desert and that he "reckoned 

 Button had about decided we were a hard outfit 

 to shake." 



John's horse, a young dapple gray, had be- 

 come leg weary and now developed unmistak- 

 able signs of giving out. He was in such bad 

 shape that upon leaving Carrizo Canon, John 

 saddled Shorty, while I rode Button, and we 

 permitted the poor, fagged animal to jog along 

 unburdened. The hard mountain trails that we 

 had traversed, together with rather long marches 

 and continuous work, had proved too much for 

 him, and in addition to general weariness he had 

 gone lame. He was a more finely bred animal 

 than either Button or Billy, but he did not 

 possess the toughness and vigor of the ponies 

 and was not nearly so good a forager as they. 

 Button was, if anything, in better shape than 

 when we left Taylor. 



Large horses are not so well adapted to either 

 desert or mountain work as ponies, when they 

 are compelled to forage for themselves. 



