The Whitetail Deer 61 



it, and then, as one of my men remarked, "the 

 whole darned outfit slid into the coulie." 



These hunting trips after deer or antelope with 

 the wagon usually take four or five days. I always 

 ride some tried hunting horse; and the wagon it- 

 self when on such a hunt is apt to lead a checkered 

 career, as half the time there is not the vestige of 

 a trail to follow. Moreover we often make a hunt 

 when the good horses are on the round-up, or .other- 

 wise employed, and we have to get together a scrub 

 team of cripples or else of outlaws vicious devils, 

 only used from dire need. The best teamster for 

 such a hunt that we ever had on the ranch was a 

 weather-beaten old fellow known as "Old Man 

 Tompkins." In the course of a long career as 

 lumberman, plains teamster, buffalo hunter, and 

 Indian fighter, he had passed several years as a 

 Rocky Mountain stage driver; and a stage driver 

 of the Rockies is of necessity a man of such skill 

 and nerve that he fears no team and no country. 

 No matter how wild the unbroken horses, Old Tomp- 

 kins never asked help; and he hated to drive less 

 than a four-in-hand. When he once had a grip on 

 the reins, he let no one hold the horses' heads. All 

 he wished was an open plain for the rush at the 

 beginning. The first plunge might take the wheel- 

 ers' forefeet over the cross-bars of the leaders, but 

 he never stopped for that; on went the team, run- 

 ning, bounding, rearing, tumbling, while the wagon 



