Chapter 8 WHAT JACK LEARNED FROM PEDRO.

Some weeks passed, and still Jack stayed on with his new friend. The time had not been lost for the boy, as he had learnt many things which he had not known before, and which were very useful to him in after-life. He was quick and deft with his lingers, and Pedro taught him in a few days how to cut and plait long strips of leather into lariats and bridle-reins, and to make ornamental belts.

'I wish you'd teach me to throw a lariat like the cowboys,' said Jack one day.

'Come and try, then,' returned Pedro, taking down a long leather rope that was coiled round the tent-pole and going outside. 'Now watch me. I take the rope up in loops, leaving the noose end out. Then swing it round in a circle over your head, quicker and quicker, while you take aim and try and throw it over the beast's head like that;' and as he spoke, Pedro let the noose fall gently over Se?or's neck, who was running past at some distance away.

'PEDRO LET THE NOOSE FALL OVER SE?OR'S NECK.'

He then put up a post, and showed Jack how to drop the noose over it. It was very hard at first to aim straight, but Jack had a quick eye, and after two or three days' hard practising, he made a very good attempt at throwing the rope in the right place. Day after day he went at it, until one never-to-be-forgotten morning he also succeeded in lariating Se?or as he trotted by. This was a great achievement, and quite repaid Jack for the trouble of practising so hard to accomplish it.

One place that pleased Jack very much was a prairie-dog village close by. Many an hour did he spend watching the fearless little prairie dogs, who came out of their holes and barked defiantly at him like so many cheeky puppies, until the tears ran down his face from laughing at their antics. Sometimes for fun Jack pretended to throw stones at them, and the instant he raised his arm they disappeared down their holes as if by magic, but peeped out again in a minute or two, quite ready to venture forth again.

Jack saw a great many rattlesnakes when he wandered about with Pedro on the prairie. He was very much afraid of them-and no wonder, for their poisonous bite is often fatal. Pedro was so familiar with them from his childhood, that he did not mind them in the least, and killed them by an extraordinary native trick. He would fearlessly follow a retreating snake, seize it by the tail, swing it rapidly round, and with a dexterous twist of his wrist would crack it like a whip, and dislocate its spine. Being thus rendered helpless, the reptile was easily despatched. As a rule, they tried to escape, but if by chance one showed fight, it was harder to kill, as it would twist itself up in a coil, shaking its rattles noisily, with its head out ready to spring and strike.

Jack had a boy's love for possessing things, and in a short time, with Pedro's help, had a small collection of treasures to carry away with him. He found plenty of rattles on the prairie, as the snakes cast off their rattles every year, and Pedro gave him a skin of a horned toad, a curious creature covered with tiny horns all over its body.

One day Pedro killed a strange-looking animal called a skunk. It was very handsome, like a large black-and-white striped cat with a magnificent bushy tail, but it had such a disagreeable smell it made Jack feel ill.

'You surely can't skin that nasty thing?' he asked.

'Wait and see,' returned Pedro, carrying the dead animal towards a creek. 'I'll show you how the Indians skin 'em.'

He put the skunk quite under the water and kept it there while he took off the skin, as this process destroyed the strong odour belonging to the creature. Jack was very interested, and watched him until the skin was hung out to dry.

Pedro taught Jack to know some of the principal grasses that grew on the prairie. There was the bunch grass, the buffalo grass, and the funny sickle-shaped 'gamma' grass, on which thousands of cattle fed, and amongst others, Pedro pointed out a terrible plant, the dread of many a ranchman. With its pretty white flowers it looked harmless enough; but woe to the poor animals who ate much of the plant, for it contained a deadly poison which had first the effect of driving them crazy, and ended by killing them. It was called 'loco,' which in English means 'crazy,' and some people call it the 'crazy weed.'

A great number of cactus bushes grew round the tent; some were quite big, with long arms stretching out, covered with prickles, and others grew close to the ground, and Jack had to look carefully when he walked, or he would have got badly pricked.

Pedro was a grand story-teller, and often as they sat watching the sheep or working in the tent, he would tell wonderful tales. When they heard the dismal howls of bands of coyotes, or prairie wolves, he would tell Jack what cowardly creatures they really were: how they were afraid to attack strong cattle, but would persistently follow a weak, sick animal for days, dogging its footsteps until the poor thing fell from exhaustion. Then they would pounce on it and tear it in pieces.

He would tell him, too, about the time when he lived on the Indian frontier, and had to help to protect the settlers from the bands of fierce Apaches, Utes, and Navajo Indians, who came making raids for cattle over the border, often setting fire to houses and killing the settlers. He described how the Indians had massacred thousands of buffaloes by driving them into deep ravines where they could not escape, and then killing them, not so much to provide themselves with food as to prevent their enemies getting them. It was cruel slaughter, and the result has been that the buffaloes are almost extinct now, where years ago they swarmed in vast herds on the prairie.

As Jack listened to Pedro's tales of wonderful escapes from mountain lions, wolves, and bears, he saw himself that the Mexican was right, when he said it was impossible for a little child like him to attempt to cross the big mountains all alone, and he wisely made up his mind to stay contentedly with Pedro until he got the chance of travelling with some nice companion. He would have been quite happy with the Mexican and his good dog, except for the great longing to see his parents, which sometimes almost impelled him to resume his journey at all risks.