Having borrowed the javalina hound of which we were in search, we rode
off in quest of our game, the two dogs trotting gayly ahead. The one
which had been living at the ranch had evidently fared well, and was
very fat; the other was little else but skin and bone, but as alert and
knowing as any New York street-boy, with the same air of disreputable
capacity. It was this hound which always did most in finding the
javalinas and bringing them to bay, his companion's chief use being to
make a noise and lend the moral support of his presence.
We rode away from the river on the dry uplands, where the timber, though
thick, was small, consisting almost exclusively of the thorny mesquites.
Mixed among them were prickly pears, standing as high as our heads on
horseback, and Spanish bayonets, looking in the distance like small
palms; and there were many other kinds of cactus, all with poisonous
thorns. Two or three times the dogs got on an old trail and rushed off
giving tongue, whereat we galloped madly after them, ducking and dodging
through and among the clusters of spine-bearing tress and cactus, not
without getting a considerable number of thorns in our hands and legs.
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