466 



FOREST AND STREAM, 



[Dec. si, 1891, 



JIM McLANE'S BAY PONY. 

 How He Got Him. 



SOME time ago a friend of mine suggested to me that 

 we two should take a trip in a flat boat down the 

 upper Mississippi. 



The railroad which pasaes near Fort Benton does not 

 again approach the river as you go east until near the 

 mouth of Milk River, a distance which, following down 

 the bends of the serpentine Missouri, is about 500 miles, 

 though by rail it is not half as long. 



We built a boat at Benton and went down past Oi'O- 

 quant dti Nez, past Cow Island , past the Rock (Jreek ferry 

 near the site of the old trading town of Carroll, which 

 caved bodily into the flooded Missouri one stormy night, 

 past the mouth of the Musselshell, with its buUet-riddled 

 cabin, and a hundred otber spots, resorts of wood hawks 

 and horse thieves, scenes famous for Indian skirmish and 

 border feud. 



It is not my purpose to tell about this trip other than 

 to say that after two weeks of toil, cold and exposure we 

 came again within sound of the engines' whistle. 



The road lay at some distance from the river, but we 

 ran ashore at the foot of a cut bank and I clambered up 

 to make inquiries at some cabins about a mile away. 



After plunging through the brushy thickets in the 

 gathering darkness I found open country, and reached the 

 cabins on the bluffs, but I was bardly better off'. The 

 householders were pure and primitive Indians, whokne^v 

 no tongue but their own, and even declined to under- 

 stand the few words of Piegan I had at my command. 



At last, after trying all my own resources from baby 

 talk to dog latin in vain, I made signs to a benevolent- 

 looking old fellow with two pairs of brass bangles in his 

 ears to follow me to the river and talk to my more accom- 

 plished companion. 



How Brassbangles understood me I can't say, perhaps 

 it was by reason of the necessity of the case. At all 

 events about half an hour later we stood on the bank and 

 my associate by ridiculous but efllective gestures made a 

 bargain with the savage to transport our baggage to the 

 railroad on condition that we should give him the boat 

 and its rigging. I afterward added a quantity of old 

 clothes for good measure. Brassbangles. however, was 

 earnest in his jjetitions for *' whisk." This, I assured him, 

 was bad, but he retorted by a most comic pantomime that 

 he smelt my breath. However, he smelt nothing more 

 in the way of whisky on that occasion, and soon we 

 were squatted with our baggage around us in his cabin, 

 where we were compelled to pass the night while await- 

 ing the morning train. 



We had eaten our supjier and distributed rations to 

 quite a circle of new-made friends. We had smoked a 

 little and seen a quantity of tobacco yield to the persistent 

 begging of our hosts, when my ear caught the sound of a 

 heavy wagon driving fast over the prairie. Brassbangles 

 dropped the blanket that was around his waist and 

 slouched swiftly out. Soon we heard the team stop out- 

 side and an imperative voice seemed to direct the unhar- 

 nessing of the horses, while from the crackling and snap- 

 ping of bushes we thought that some of the contents of 

 the wagon were being carried into the thicket. The 

 newly arrived driver soon came in. He was a dark, 

 sinewy fellow and wore for the moment an expression of 

 mingled distrust and menace. He was, in fact, a whisky 

 trader, and had come on to the Assinnaboine reservation 

 with a load of liquor, running the risk of the serious 

 penalties of the law. He fancied at first that we were 

 Government officers, but my friend's tact soon showed 

 him our harmless nature, and he began to make amends 

 for his previous distrust by a frank friendliness. 



Tor my part I was almost sorry that we were not offi- 

 cers, that we might make some effort to destroy the in- 

 famous traffic of selling whisky to the Indians, but I 

 became so much interested, as the night wore on, in the 

 trader's stories of the early frontier that my respect for 

 righteousness lost something of its vigor and became per- 

 haps sicklied over with thought of the valuable contribu- 

 tions to history and ethnography that the mistaken ad- 

 venturer was giving us, 



Jim's recollections (for the trader's name w^s Jim 

 McLane) were of many tribes and nations. He himself 

 was half Scotch, half French and half of each of the 

 tribes with which he did, or had done business either in 

 the present or past. How much real Indian blood ran in 

 Jim's veins was doubtful, but it appeared when he spoke 

 of the Piegans that he was half Piegan, when the Assin- 

 naboines had a place in the story he was half Assinna- 

 boine, and his claims to Crow and Gros Yentre blood 

 seemed to depend also on the association of the moment. 

 I am inclined to think that Jim's mother had been a half- 

 breed, but as he lost his mother in early life and was per- 

 fect master of many tongues, he could never quite decide 

 which tribe should claim him, and so gave each one its 

 due turn. 



Conspicuous in many of the exploits which Jim nai-- 

 rated was a bay pony, a cause of war fruitful as the 

 beauty of Helen or the body of Patroclus. But to appre- 

 ciate our historical perspective we must now go back a 

 little nearer the beginning and get an idea of the upper 

 Missouri in the days of the fur trade. 



Fort Benton is now a town blessed with a railroad and 

 at the head of steamer navigation on the river, but it is 

 decaying with a rapidity which promises a speedy end. 

 Other towns with more railroads and cheaper freights are 

 taking away its reasons for existence, and the city of 

 Great Falls is relegating Fort Benton to the place of a 

 romantic but past tradition. 



Twenty or thirty years ago Fort Benton was pe)-haps 

 smaller than it is to-day, but it was then the center of a 

 great and growing trade. The square adobe tower and 

 the long mud walls, whose relics we may still see, in- 

 closed a past planted on a flat by the river and com- 

 manded by a semi-circle of bluffs, whence a single rifled 

 gun could have ruined the establishment with a dozen 

 shots; but the bluffs were too distant for the range of 

 small arms, and under the conditions of the time the fort 

 was strong. 



A firm of fur traders, whose members, Carroll & Steele, 

 had formerly worked for the American Fur Company, 

 had here set up an independent post. The Blackfobt 

 bands, which then held a vast, an almost undiminished 

 territory, biought their peltries here to exchange for the 

 treaBures they most loved. Further down the river lived 



the Gros Yentres, and these, as well as the Crees and 

 Sarcees from Canada and now and then even distant 

 Kootenays or hostile Crows, made this post a supply 

 point. 



Buffaloes were as thick on the prairies as the cattle are 

 now, Wolves and coyotes were numberless. Bear, elk, 

 mouhtain sheep, antelope and the precious beaver, with 

 otter, fisher, fox and mink, abounded on every side, but 

 chief of all these was the buffalo. The commerce in buf- 

 falo robes was immense. And as there was competition 

 among traders, the Indiana must be kept in good humor, 

 a task that needed both diplomacy and firmness. Some- 

 times, in spite of every precaution, the savages would 

 blaze out into hostility; and sly assassination was one of 

 the lesser evils to be feared from people who, when aroused , 

 delighted in the invention and practice of unspeakable 

 cruelties. 



One thing the best Indian could not understand, and 

 that is that warfare should be confined to conquering 

 warriors. The Indian on the warpath killed everything 

 and tortured everything that he met if he could. 



This is not an indictment of a race, all of whose bad 

 qualities have been fostered by alternations of coddling 

 philanthropy and cruel reprisal gi-afted on a consistent 

 policy of vulgar theft. It is the statement of a trait that 

 seemed inseparable from Indian blood in its original 

 savagery. 



Among the Blaokf oot braves who were trading at Fort 

 Benton was a young fellow of high renown as a hunter 

 and fighter, His cringing squaws would spread a robe 

 for him to alight on at the door of the lodge when he 

 came back from the chase. His leggings were beautifully 

 fringed, his blankets were of the most approved device, 

 and hie coppery cheeks glowed with broad stripes of red 

 paint. 



Tins proud young dandy, who was named Lone Wolf, 

 traded at the post, and from him Steele had bought the 

 bay pony that forms the subject of this monograph. 



But Lone Wolf's temper had for some reason become 

 clouded. Ho was low in purse and low in mind. Jim 

 McLane, who worked for Steele at the time, noticed the 

 changed demeanor. Lone Wolf no longer responded to 

 the compliments of the day. He neglected or repulsed 

 peace, offerings of sugar, even of tobacco, His heart 

 was poor. 



Still .amid all the bustle of the post, the sulky Blackfoot 

 did not attract much notice. Jim attended regularly to 

 the horses that were "kept up," that is to those which 

 were sheltered and grained for daily use, and had for a 

 stable a large double log cabin with a padlock on the 

 door. 



As he brought in the horses one morning after watering 

 them he passed Lone Wolf lying on the ground and 

 appai'ently chewing the cud of meditation, Jim tied the 

 horses in the stalls and then gave them hay, but before 

 he finished he heard some one calling his name in front 

 and interrupted his work to step oxxt and see what was 

 wanted. He came back in three or four minutes and 

 was going on with his business when he noticed that the 

 bay pony was gone. For a moment he was puzzled. 

 Then he rushed to the door. The Indian was gone too. 

 He looked up the river and down, he scanned the flat and 

 the bluffs, but neither horse nor Indian was to be seen, 

 nor dust cloud nor any sign of galloping creature. The 

 pair had vanished, 



Jim at once reported the facts to Steele and got a sharp 

 scolding, A few days after Steele bought a fine Oregon 

 horse and told Jim to take better care of him than he did 

 of the other one. This was Steele's last allusion to the 

 bay pony. But Jim's spirit was deeply gaUed, All his 

 Indian blood was boiling at the disgrace of being out- 

 witted by a horse stea ler. For in Indian esteem the clever 

 horse thief is but a little lower than the warrior who 

 dangles a hundred scalps, while a man or a tribe that 

 loses horses is as contemptible as a beaten enemy. 



Meanwhile Lone. Wolf had gone to his camp, about 

 seven miles from Benton, and was running buffaloes 

 earnestly to make up for lost time. Worse than that, he 

 now gave his custom to the rival traders, while old Four 

 Bears, a Blackfoot brave who was on good terms wdth 

 all sides, used to ride into the post every day or two 

 with tales of the prowess of Lone Wolf and his pony. 



•'Lone Wolf killed six buffalo to-day," Four Bears would 

 chuckle. "Lone Wolf got good horse, Lone Wolf big 

 chief," 



The largest tally for any cue day reported by Four 

 Bears was eleven buffalo for the bay pony, but the evident 

 merriment and satisfaction of the old runner were an 

 insult in themselves — and as for any attempt to reclaim 

 the stolen horse, such an idea had entered no one's head. 

 He was the spoil of wai'like success; and ugly hints of the 

 untoward fate that would befall Lone Wolf's enemies 

 were whispered around. 



But Jim's heart was hot, and yet he was crafty withal. 

 He would take a horse out for exercise and, as soon as he 

 was out of sight, would ride off toward the Blackfoot 

 camp, hide in the brush and watch with a iield glass 

 until it got so late he couldn't see, and then he would 

 ride back to the post, stable his horse qu.ietly, and be at 

 his work the next morning with so domestic an air as 

 never to arouse suspicion about his doings. 



But around the Blackfoot lodges there was good watch, 

 too, and many precautions were taken to keep all their 

 gains. 



Through his glass Jim could often see the band of 

 horses driven in in the evening or taken to water or 

 picketed around the lodges— but there was always a boy 

 or two on guard to give instant alarm, and the bay pony 

 had been disguised. His ears were tied back with a thong 

 passed around bis neck, and his skin was plastered in 

 spots with clay. Besides this, he was always tied by a 

 short neck rope to some companion pony, aothat it would 

 have been almost impossible to get away with him by a 

 rapid swoop. 



And after a month the Blackfoot lodges were moved 

 some six miles farther off, so that dim's scouting trips 

 took nearly the whole night, and were fast wearing out 

 his strength and patience. He became half despe.-ate. 

 and is it not written that fortune fav^ors such as this? 



One aftfrnoon Jim set out in an uncompromising mood. 

 He forded the Missouri, and left on an island a new grass 

 rope. Then be coiled his lariat and sneaked rapidly 

 toward the Indian lodges. With his glass he saw a boy 

 driving the horses to drink, and he made a rapid circuit 

 and pulled up behind some brush a couple of hundred 

 yards from the water hole, and as he halted he saw the 

 boy turn around and go into a lodge. 



Without a second's pause he dashed between the horses 

 and the lodges and urged the band off toward the prai- 

 ries, then, as they headed the right way, he rode through, 

 roped the bay pony around the neck, shortened up his 

 hold till he and his prize were close together, and send- 

 ing his spurs in made his best speed for the breaks of the 

 bad land bluff's. 



As he looked back he saw the excited bucks stream out 

 of the lodges and peer after him, shading their eyes with, 

 their hands against the rays of the fast declining sun. 

 Then the Indians dashed back to get their guns, and the 

 boys rounded up the scattered herd. It takes little time 

 for tough savages to get ready, and before Jim had half 

 a mile of a lead the Blackfoot braves were thronging 

 after, Jim was riding a grain-fed horse, stronger for 

 brief effort than the grass-pastured Blackfoot ponies, and 

 of course the captured pony had no load, so Jim chose a 

 direction that led him through a coxmtry seamed by steep 

 clay-sided barrancas 200ft. deep, and racing up and down 

 these discouragers of pursuit he hoped to distance Ms 

 hunters. But for a while the Indians gained ground. 

 Ilai'dly more than one wide ridge lay between the chasers 

 and the chased, but the sun had now gone down and the 

 orange sky of twilight brought the crest of the swell into 

 relief. On this crest Jim mounted, and with his utmost 

 efforts managed to maintain his interval of safety, riding 

 in full sight of his foes, 



A little later and in the darkness of the interim be- 

 tween the fading twilight and moonrise Jim turned sharp 

 off his course toward the river, and whUe the baffled 

 braves followed fiercely after nothing, he at his ease 

 again forded the Missouri and tied up his recaptured 

 pony with his grass-rope to a tree. Then he rode to the 

 post, and for the last time crept in with the caution of a 

 thief. 



The next morning, after doing his chores in, I fear, a 

 sleepy and imperfect manner, Jim asked Steele what he 

 would take for the chance of getting back his stolen 

 horse, Steele, with the quick sure suspicion of a fron- 

 tiersman, said, "You've got the horse." 



Jim speaking but a partial truth, said he thought he 

 knew how he could get him, but Steele had no fancy for 

 so dangerous a piece of property and thought it would in- 

 jure his trading with the Blackfoot bands also; so, as he 

 was a generous fellow, he told Jim that he could have the 

 pony if he got him, It did not take long for Jim after 

 thanking Steele to have the animal back in the stable, 

 and hardly was this business done when old Foxxr Bears 

 turned up looking for his accxxstomed cup of coffee and 

 full to the brim of the deeds of Lone Wolf on the bay 

 pony; for Four Bears's band was camped in a different 

 place from Lone Wolf, and his news was a day old. 



"Lone Wolf kill four buffalo yesterday," said the old 

 man, with his triumphant chuckle as he swallowed his 

 coff'ee, 



"Major Steele has a new black horse," said Jim when 

 Four Bears had finished his cup, "Come and see it," 



Now, the black horse stood in the first stall and the bay 

 pony in the second. Four Bears while looking critically 

 at the Major's mount caught sight of a white stocking on 

 a bay hindleg in the stall beyond that seemed familiar. 

 He stepped qxxickly and eagerly around and recognized 

 the animal. He turned toward Jim with his eyes as big 

 as saucers and his mouth open, and covering his mouth 

 with his hand by an Indian gesture eloqxxent of confusion, 

 he walked out without a word. 



Thus the famous pony became the property of Jim 

 McLane, But as that good old rule of owrership, "Let 

 him keep who can," then prevailed in Montana, the 

 future possession of this chattle proved full of chance and 

 change. 



The Blackfoot brave, chagrined at being beaten at his 

 own game, was all for reprisal, and his threats were of ten 

 reported at the post. 



When Jim rode his horse out for exercise he always 

 chose the brightest part of a bright day, and rode along 

 the crest of the wide barren ridges whence the eye coxxld 

 command a wide view and easily defeat any attempt at 

 ambuscade. But after three or four weeks of watchful- 

 ness there was a little relaxation of tension, and, hasten- 

 ing one day on a distant errand, -Jim swung around a 

 curve in the trail, and lo! about a hundi'ed yards off and 

 ambling toward him came Lone Wolf with his rifle across 

 his lap and looking, as usual, grim, Jim had but a re- 

 volver which, however, was somewhat hidden on his 

 thigh. He was afraid to reach for his weapon, for that 

 would be a signal for instant war, and at a hundred yards 

 the rifle had all the advantage. He was afraid to turn 

 and lun lest his enemy should, as he expressed it, "paste 

 me in the back, you know. Them fellows is awful good 

 shots on horseback." So Jim put on a caressing smile and 

 whirling his whip in an ornamental manner, let his whip 

 hand finally rest unnoticed on the handle of his pistol, 

 I while every stride of his horse made him feel happier 

 because it put the arms of the possible combatants more 

 on an equality; indeed, at very short range Jim would 

 have the advantage. 



Lone Wolf was evidently as much surprised as Jira at 

 the encounter, and sat unmoving while .Jim rode up with 

 profuse courtesy and turned bis horse swiftly around so 

 as to be on the Indian's right, next the butt of his rifle; 

 then Jim, with the prompt mendacity of a born diplo- 

 matist, told Lone Wolf that Major Steele had sent him to 

 Lone Wolf to invite that celebrity to the post in order to 

 present him with gifts and renew their friendly relations. 

 For a moment the Indian pondered. Then he looked at 

 the bay pony and smiled, Then he grunted approval and 

 they rode together to Fort Benton, friendly but very 

 watchful and alert. Arrived at the store Lone Wolf was 

 seated with honor and laden with coftee and tobacco and 

 cartridges, while he for his part gave the Major a hand- 

 somely painted parfleohe of raw-hide which he carried 

 tied behind his saddle, and between Jim and the Black- 

 foot reigned white-winged peace for several years, until, 

 in fact, Lone Wolf met his death fighting the Crows. 

 How He Lost Him. 



There was a good deal of nervousness felt at the post, 

 for the Indians were getting xxneasy. The Blackfoot 

 bands had drawn off' and the scattered parties of Gros 

 Ventres seemed to be concentrating. 



The town which had grown up in the flat alongside of 

 the post wag laid out in a rough square, and volunteer 

 patrols watched all night on each of the four sides to 

 guard against surprise. 



The patrols were divided into three reliefs: the evening 

 watch from six to ten, the middle watch froin ten to two> 

 and the morning watch from two until sunrise. 



