Bringing 'Em in Alive

FEBRUARY, 1935 ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 7 Bringing 'Em in Alive

I STARTED when my partner and I got caught in one of our weak moments and agreed to Frank Buck some animals for one of those Arizona road-side filling station zoos that are thrown up over-night from old corrugated iron, kerosene cans and packing boxes. I might remark right now that a lot of my grief must be chalked up against my partner, Bill. Maybe I'd better not mention the rest of Bill's name; he might be hiding out from somebody. He acts guilty sometimes, sort of like he'd been stealing sheep; especially after he has gotten both of us in some kind of a jam. He's a brave man though, Bill is. "A optimist," Bill calls himself, but that's not what I call him. It begins with a J and means a specie of burro. Bill had nerve. He'd contract to harpoon, shoot or rope and bring in alive, anything from a horned toad to a hippo, or possibly one of those racing camels Uncle Sam turned adrift on the Arizona desert years ago. Bill was with me when I augered upon this hopefulwho wanted the bear. I dragged Bill away from this purveyor of gas (both kinds), but not before he'd agreed to produce a brown bear, a pair of wild hogs, a couple of cougars and was just about to bring in Old Sandy, the silvertip that ranges up around Four Peaks when the pint of mula blanca he'd wheedled off the merchant kind of got the best of him to where I could handle him without killing. Trouble came loping over the rim in the shape of a Mex who'd been riding herd on the woolies for the White River outfit. He was broke and his brown mare was footsore and barefooted. He'd sell the horse for five bucks. I did not need a horse, but Bill insisted that she'd do to rope our managerie from. There is one thing I like about Bill, he'll keep his word, and his word was given to produce a zoo for that Oklahoman. I opined that the best way to subdue the wild beasts was to salt their tails or perhaps tunk them on the head with a club. Not hard enough to kill, you understand, but just enough to serve as an anesthetic until we could hog-tie them. This here boregero swore by all the saints that there never was a better roping horse than his Manuela,

Nellie, the Horse, Unwinds Underpinning to Save the Day and a Couple of Hides

By THE DUCO DEMON so Bill prevailed on me to part with a fiver off our meager roll. I'd just finished cleaning up the supper dishes at the creek when I heard a snore. I glanced up to survey my caballo a little closer. Her head drooped and one front leg was draped around the other like a grapevine twining around a sycamore limb. I did not dare yell at her for fear she'd wake up sudden and break a leg getting untangled from her underpinning. I'd learned to heave a mean rope in my day, so the next morning Bill insisted that I fork Nellie on our hunt for the wild varmints that we were bound to produce. Bill was to beat the brush while I rode the rimrock, ready to rope anything that broke from cover. I took up my position on a prominent point to watch the fun. Bill no more than got started before he flushed what he thought was a brown cub bear rustling through the manzanita. If you have ever tried to push your way through rank manzanita you know what I mean. The pesky thing shuttled here and there, squealing and grunting, Bill after him, on all fours half the time. I guess my partner had to come up for air at last, for suddenly he popped up out of a clearing, waving his arms and cussing. I could not hear what he said, but judging from his actions he was plumb flabbergasted. When I figured he was about to burst he went after his old hog-leg that he'd managed to retain while corousing through the tangled brush after the squealing animal. Bill cut loose with a couple of slugs then dove again. He was mad clean through. This time he headed into the head of a little arroya that was completely roofed over with interwoven manzanita limbs. Bill crawled down this little draw, just wide enough for his body to squeeze between the banks only to discover that he'd been trailing a young javelina. Bill heard a browling bark ahead and squinting through sweat-