The Last of the Plainsmen 



a bunch of wild pintos down in a canon below fer 

 two years. I reckon you can t find no better place 

 fer camp than right hyar. Listen. Do you hear thet 

 rumble? Thet s Thunder Falls. You can only see 

 it from one place, an thet far off, but thar s brooks 

 you can git at to water the hosses. Fer thet matter, 

 you can ride up the slopes an git snow. If you can 

 git snow close, it d be better, fer thet s an all-fired bad 

 trail down fer water.&quot; 



&quot; Is this the cougar country the Stewarts talked 

 about? &quot; asked Jones. 



&quot; Reckon it is. Cougars is as thick in hyar as 

 rabbits in a spring-hole canon. I m on the way 

 now to bring up my pintos. The cougars hev cost 

 me hundreds I might say thousands of dollars. I 

 lose hosses all the time ; an damn me, gentlemen, I ve 

 never raised a colt. This is the greatest cougar coun 

 try in the West. Look at those yellow crags ! Thar s 

 where the cougars stay. No one ever hunted em. It 

 seems to me they can t be hunted. Deer and wild 

 hosses by the thousand browse hyar on the mountain 

 in summer, an down in the breaks in winter. The 

 cougars live fat. You ll find deer and wild-hoss 

 carcasses all over this country. You ll find lions s 

 dens full of bones. You ll find warm deer left for 

 the coyotes. But whether you ll find the cougars, I 

 can t say. I fetched dogs in hyar, an tried to ketch 



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