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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Bred of the Desert, by Marcus Horton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Bred of the Desert
+       A Horse and a Romance
+
+Author: Marcus Horton
+
+Release Date: February 24, 2010 [EBook #31380]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BRED OF THE DESERT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.fadedpage.com
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+BRED OF THE DESERT
+
+A HORSE AND A ROMANCE
+
+BY
+
+MARCUS HORTON
+
+[Illustration]
+
+NEW YORK
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP
+
+PUBLISHERS
+
+Published by Arrangement with Harper & Brothers
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY HARPER & BROTHERS
+
+PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
+
+PUBLISHED APRIL, 1915
+
+
+
+
+TO
+
+A. D. B. S. H.
+
+WHO TAUGHT CONSIDERATION FOR THE DUMB
+
+THIS WORK IS LOVINGLY INSCRIBED
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+  Chapter                                                     Page
+       I. A COLT IS BORN                                         1
+      II. FELIPE CELEBRATES                                     15
+     III. A SURPRISE                                            27
+      IV. A NEW HOME                                            35
+       V. LONELINESS                                            47
+      VI. THE FIRST GREAT LESSON                                57
+     VII. A STRANGER                                            72
+    VIII. FELIPE MAKES A DISCOVERY                              85
+      IX. THE SECOND GREAT LESSON                               98
+       X. THE STRANGER AGAIN                                   112
+      XI. LOVE REJECTED                                        126
+     XII. ADVENTURE                                            145
+    XIII. IN THE WASTE PLACES                                  156
+     XIV. A PICTURE                                            172
+      XV. CHANGE OF MASTERS                                    175
+     XVI. PAT TURNS THIEF                                      186
+    XVII. A RUNNING FIGHT                                      199
+   XVIII. AN ENEMY                                             210
+     XIX. ANOTHER CHANGE OF MASTERS                            228
+      XX. FIDELITY                                             240
+     XXI. LIFE AND DEATH                                       256
+    XXII. QUIESCENCE                                           280
+   XXIII. THE REUNION                                          285
+
+
+
+
+BRED OF THE DESERT
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+A COLT IS BORN
+
+
+It was high noon in the desert, but there was no dazzling sunlight. Over
+the earth hung a twilight, a yellow-pink softness that flushed across
+the sky like the approach of a shadow, covering everything yet
+concealing nothing, creeping steadily onward, yet seemingly still,
+until, pressing low over the earth, it took on changing color, from pink
+to gray, from gray to black--gloom that precedes tropical showers. Then
+the wind came--a breeze rising as it were from the hot earth--forcing
+the Spanish dagger to dipping acknowledgment, sending dust-devils
+swirling across the slow curves of the desert--and then the storm burst
+in all its might. For this was a storm--a sand-storm of the Southwest.
+
+Down the slopes to the west billowed giant clouds of sand. At the bottom
+these clouds tumbled and surged and mounted, and then, resuming their
+headlong course, swept across the flat land bordering the river, hurtled
+across the swollen Rio Grande itself, and so on up the gentle rise of
+ground to the town, where they swung through the streets in ruthless
+strides--banging signs, ripping up roofings, snapping off branches--and
+then lurched out over the mesa to the east. Here, as if in glee over
+their escape from city confines, they redoubled in fury and tore down to
+earth--and enveloped Felipe Montoya, a young and good-looking Mexican,
+and his team of scrawny horses plodding in a lumber rigging, all in a
+stinging swirl.
+
+"Haya!" cried Felipe, as the first of the sand-laden winds struck him,
+"Chivos--chivos!" And he shot out his whip, gave the lash a twist over
+the off mare, and brought it down with a resounding thwack. "R-run!" he
+snarled, and again brought the whip down upon the emaciated mare. "You
+joost natural lazy! Thees storm--we--we get-tin'--" His voice was
+carried away on the swirling winds.
+
+But the horses seemed not to hear the man; nor, in the case of the off
+mare, to feel the bite of his lash. They continued to plod along the
+beaten trail, heads drooping, ears flopping, hoofs scuffling
+disconsolately. Felipe, accompanying each outburst with a mighty swing
+of his whip, swore and pleaded and objurgated and threatened in turn.
+But all to no avail. The horses held stolidly to their gait,
+plodding--even, after a time, dropping into slower movement. Whereat
+Felipe, abandoning all hope, flung down reins and whip, and leaped off
+the reach of the rigging. Prompt with the loosened lines the team came
+to a full stop; and Felipe, snatching up a blanket, covered his head and
+shoulders with it and squatted in the scant protection of a forward
+wheel.
+
+The storm whipped and howled past. Felipe listened, noting each change
+in its velocity as told by the sound of raging gusts outside, himself
+raging. Once he lifted a corner of the blanket and peered out--only to
+suffer the sting of a thousand needles. Again, he hunched his shoulders
+guardedly and endeavored to roll a cigarette; but the tempestuous blasts
+discouraged this also, and with a curse he dashed the tobacco from him.
+After that he remained still, listening, until he heard an agreeable
+change outside. The screeching sank to a crooning; the crooning dropped
+to a low, musical sigh. Flinging off the blanket, he rose and swept the
+desert with eyes sand-filled and blinking.
+
+The last of the yellow winds was eddying slowly past. All about him the
+air, thinning rapidly, pulsated in the sun's rays, which, beaming mildly
+down upon the desert, were spreading everywhere in glorious sheen. To
+the east, the mountains, stepping forth in the clearing atmosphere, lay
+revealed in a warmth of soft purple; while the slopes to the west, over
+which the storm had broken, shone in a wealth of dazzling yellow-white
+light--sunbeams scintillating off myriads of tiny sand-cubes. The desert
+was itself again--bright, resplendent-gripped in the clutch of solitude.
+
+Felipe tossed his blanket back upon the reach of the rigging. Then he
+caught up reins and whip, ready to go on. As he did so he paused in
+dismay.
+
+For one of the mares was down! It was the off mare, the slower and the
+older mare of the two. She was lying prone and she was breathing
+heavily. Covered as she was with a thin layer of fine sand, and tightly
+girdled with chaotic harness straps, she was a spectacle of abject
+misery.
+
+But Felipe did not see this. All he saw, in the blinding rage which
+suddenly possessed him, was a horse down, unready for duty, and beside
+her a horse standing, ready for duty, but restrained by the other.
+Stringing out a volley of oaths, he stepped to the side of the mare and
+jerked at her head, but she refused stubbornly to get up on her feet.
+
+Gripped in dismay deeper than at first, Felipe fell back in mechanical
+resignation.
+
+Was the mare dying? he asked himself. He could ill afford to lose a
+mare. Horses cost seven and eight dollars, and he did not possess so
+much money. Indeed, all the money he had in the world was three dollars,
+received for this last load of wood in town. So, what to do! Cursing the
+mare had not helped matters; nor could he accuse the storm, for there
+had been other storms, many of them, and each had she successfully
+weathered--been ready, with its passing, to go on! But not so this one!
+She--Huh? Could it be possible? Ah!
+
+He looked at the mare with new interest. And the longer he gazed the
+more his anger subsided, became finally downright compassion. For he was
+reviewing a something he had contemplated at odd times for weeks with
+many misgivings and tenacious unbeliefs. Never had he understood it!
+Never would he understand that thing! So why lose time in an effort to
+understand it now?
+
+Dropping to his knees, he fell to work with feverish haste unbuckling
+straps and bands. With the harness loose, he dragged it off and tossed
+it to one side. Then, still moving feverishly, he led the mate to the
+mare off the trail, turned to the wagon with bracing shoulder, backed it
+clear of the prostrate animal, and swung it out of the way of future
+passing vehicles. It was sweltering work. When it was done, with the
+sun, risen to its fierce zenith, beating down upon him mercilessly, he
+strode off the trail, blowing and perspiring, and flung himself down in
+the baking sand, where, though irritated by particles of sand which had
+sifted down close inside his shirt, he nevertheless gave himself over to
+sober reflections.
+
+He was stalled till the next morning--he knew that. And he was without
+food-supplies to carry him over. And he was ten miles on the one hand,
+and five up-canyon miles on the other, from all source of supplies. But
+against these unpleasant facts there stood many pleasant facts--he was
+on the return leg of his journey, his wagon was empty, and he had in his
+possession three dollars. Then, too, there was another pleasant fact.
+The trip as a trip had been unusual; never before had he, or any one
+else, made it under two days--one for loading and driving into town, and
+a second for getting rid of the wood and making the return. Yet he
+himself had been out now only the one day, and he was on his way home.
+He had whipped and crowded his horses since midnight to just this end.
+Yet was he not stalled now till morning? And would not this delay set
+him back the one day he had gained over his fellow-townsmen? And would
+not these same fellow-townsmen rejoice in this opportunity to overtake
+him--worse, to leave him behind? They would!
+
+"Oh, well," he concluded, philosophically, stretching out upon his back
+and drawing his worn and ragged sombrero over his eyes, "soon is comin'
+a _potrillo_." With this he deliberately courted slumber.
+
+Out of the stillness rattled a wagon. Like Felipe's, it was a lumber
+rigging, and the driver, a fat Mexican with beady eyes, pulled up his
+horses and gazed at the disorder. It was but a perfunctory gaze,
+however, and revealed to him nothing of the true situation. All he saw
+was that Felipe was drunk and asleep, and that before dropping beside
+the trail he had had time, and perhaps just enough wit, to unhitch one
+horse. The other, true to instinct and the law of her underfed and
+overworked kind, had lain down. With this conclusion, and out of sheer
+exuberance of alcoholic spirits, he decided to awaken Felipe. And this
+he did--in true Mexican fashion. With a curse of but five words--words
+of great scope and finest selection, however--he mercilessly raked
+Felipe's ancestors for five generations back; he objurgated Felipe's
+holdings--chickens, adobe house, money, burro, horses, pigs. He closed,
+snarling not obscurely at Felipe the man and at any progeny of his which
+might appear in the future. Then he dropped his reins and sprang off the
+reach of his rigging.
+
+Felipe was duly awakened. He gained his feet slowly.
+
+"You know me, eh?" he retorted, advancing toward the other. "All
+right--_gracios_!" And by way of coals of fire he proffered the
+fellow-townsman papers and tobacco.
+
+The new-comer revealed surprise, not alone at Felipe's sobriety, though
+this was startling in view of the disorder in the trail, but also at the
+proffer of cigarette material. And he was about to speak when Felipe
+interrupted him.
+
+"You haf t'ink I'm drunk, eh, Franke?" he said. "Sure! Why not?" And he
+waved his hand in the direction of the trail. Then, after the other had
+rolled a cigarette and returned the sack and papers, he laid a firm hand
+upon the man's shoulder. "You coom look," he invited. "You tell me what
+you t'ink thees!"
+
+They walked to the mare, and Franke gazed a long moment in silence.
+Felipe stood beside him, eying him sharply, hoping for an expression of
+approval--even of congratulation. In this he was doomed to
+disappointment, for the other continued silent, and in silence finally
+turned back, his whole attitude that of one who saw nothing in the
+spectacle worthy of comment. Felipe followed him, nettled, and sat down
+and himself rolled a cigarette. As he sat smoking it the other seated
+himself beside him, and presently touched him on the arm and began to
+speak. Felipe listened, with now and again a nod of approval, and, when
+the _compadre_ was finished, accepted the brilliant proposition.
+
+"A bet, eh?" he exclaimed. "All right!" And he produced his sheepskin
+pouch and dumped out his three dollars. "All right! I bet you feety
+cents, Franke, thot eet don' be!"
+
+Frank looked his disdain at the amount offered. Also, his eyes blazed
+and his round face reddened. He shoved his hand into his overalls,
+brought forth a silver dollar, and tossed it down in the sand.
+
+"A bet!" he yelled. "Mek eet a bet! A dolar!" Then he narrowed his eyes
+in the direction of the mare. "Mek eet a good bet! You have chonce to
+win, too, Felipe--you know!"
+
+Felipe did not respond immediately. Money was his all-absorbing
+difficulty. Never plentiful with him, it was less than ever plentiful
+now, and was wholly represented in the three dollars before him. A sum
+little enough in fact, it dwindled rapidly as he recalled one by one his
+numerous debts. For he owed much money. He owed for food in the
+settlement store; he owed for clothing he had bought in town; and he
+owed innumerable gambling debts--big sums, sums mounting to heights he
+dared not contemplate. And all he had to his name was the three dollars
+lying so peacefully before him, with the speculative Franke hovering
+over them like a fat buzzard over a dead coyote. What to do! He could
+not decide. He had ways for this money, other than paying on his debts
+or investing in a gambling proposition. There was to be a _baile_
+soon, and he must buy for Margherita (providing her father, a caustic
+_hombre_, bitter against all wood-haulers, permitted him the girl's
+society) peanuts in the dance-hall and candy outside the dance-hall. The
+candy must be bought in the general store, where, because of his many
+debts, he must pay cash now--always cash! So what to do! All these
+things meant money. And money, as he well understood, was a thing hard
+to get. Yet here was a chance, as Franke had generously indicated, for
+him to win some money. But, against this chance for him to win some
+money was the chance also, as conveyed inversely by Franke, of his
+losing some money--money he could ill afford to lose.
+
+"You afraid?" suddenly cut in Franke, nastily, upon these reflections.
+"I don' see you do soomt'ing!"
+
+Which decided Felipe for all time. "Afraid?" he echoed, disdainfully.
+"Sure! But not for myself! You don' have mooch money to lose! But I mek
+eet a bet--a good bet! I bet you two dolars thot eet--thot eet don' be!"
+
+It was now the other who hesitated. But he did not hesitate for long.
+Evidently the spirit of the gambler was more deeply rooted in him than
+it was in Felipe, for, after gazing out in the trail a moment, then
+eying Felipe another moment, both speculatively, he extracted from his
+pockets two more silver dollars and tossed them down with the others.
+Then he fixed Felipe with a malignant stare.
+
+"I bet you t'ree dolars thot eet cooms what I haf say!"
+
+Felipe laughed. "All right," he agreed, readily. "Why not?" He heaped
+the money under a stone, sank over upon his back with an affected yawn,
+drew his hat over his eyes, and lay still. "We go to sleep now, Franke,"
+he proposed. "Eet's long time--I haf t'ink."
+
+Soon both were snoring.
+
+Out in the trail hung the quiet of a sick-room. The long afternoon
+waned. Once a wagon appeared from the direction of town, but the driver,
+evidently grasping the true situation, turned out and around the mare in
+respectful silence. Another time a single horseman, riding from the
+mountains, cantered upon the scene; but this man, also with a look of
+understanding, turned out and around the mare in careful regard for her
+condition. Then came darkness. Shadows crept in from nowhere, stealing
+over the desert more and more darkly, while, with their coming, birds of
+the air, seeking safe place for night rest, flitted about in nervous
+uncertainty. And suddenly in the gathering dusk rose the long-drawn howl
+of a coyote, lifting into the stillness a lugubrious note of appeal.
+Then, close upon the echo of this, rose another appeal in the trail
+close by, the shrill nicker of the mate to the mare.
+
+It awoke Felipe. He sat up quickly, rubbed his eyes dazedly, and peered
+out with increasing understanding. Then he sprang to his feet.
+
+"Coom!" he called, kicking the other. "We go now--see who is winnin'
+thot bet!" And he started hurriedly forward.
+
+But the other checked him. "Wait!" he snapped, rising. "You wait! You in
+too mooch hurry! You coom back--I have soomt'ing!"
+
+Felipe turned back, wondering. The other nervously produced material for
+a cigarette. Then he cleared his throat with needless protraction.
+
+"Felipe," he began, evidently laboring under excitement, "I mek eet a
+_bet_ now! I bet you," he went on, his voice trembling with
+fervor--"I bet you my wagon, thee horses--thee whole
+shutting-match--against thot wagon and horses yours, and thee
+harness--thee whole damned shutting-match--thot I haf win!" He proceeded
+to finish his cigarette.
+
+Felipe stared at him hard. Surely his ears had deceived him! If they had
+not deceived him, if, for a fact, the _hombre_ had expressed a
+willingness to bet all he had on the outcome of this thing, then Franke,
+fellow-townsman, _compadre_, brother-wood-hauler, was crazy! But he
+determined to find out.
+
+"What you said, Franke?" he asked, peering into the glowing eyes of the
+other. "Say thot again, _hombre_!"
+
+"I haf say," repeated the other, with lingering emphasis upon each
+word--"I haf say I bet you everyt'ing--wagon, harness,
+_caballos_--everyt'ing!--against thot wagon, harness,
+_caballos_ yours--everyt'ing--thee whole shutting-match--thot I haf
+win thee bet!"
+
+Again Felipe lowered his eyes. But now to consider suspicions. He had
+heard rightly; Franke really wanted to bet all he had. But he could not
+but wonder whether Franke, by any possible chance, knew in advance the
+outcome of the affair in the trail. He had heard of such things, though
+never had he believed them possible. Yet he found himself troubled with
+insistent reminder that Franke had suggested this whole thing. Then
+suddenly he was gripped in another unwelcome thought. Could it be
+possible that this scheming _hombre_, awaking at a time when he
+himself was soundest asleep, had gone out into the trail on tiptoe for
+advance information? It was possible. Why not? But that was not the
+point exactly. The point was, had he done it? Had this buzzard circled
+out into the trail while he himself was asleep? He did not know, and he
+could not decide! For the third time in ten hours, though puzzled and
+groping, trembling between gain and loss, he plunged on the gambler's
+chance.
+
+"All right!" he agreed, tensely. "I take thot bet! I bet you thees
+wagon, thees _caballos_, thees harness--everyt'ing--against
+everyt'ing yours--wagon, horses, harness--everyt'ing! Wait!" he
+thundered, for the other now was striding toward the mare. "Wait! You in
+too mooch hurry yourself now!" Then, as the other returned: "Is eet a
+bet? Is eet a bet?"
+
+The fellow-townsman nodded. Whereat Felipe nodded approval of the nod,
+and stepped out into the trail, followed by the other.
+
+It was night, and quite a dark night. Stretching away to east and west,
+the dimly outlined trail was lost abruptly in engulfing darkness; while,
+overhead, a starless sky, low and somber and frowning, pressed close.
+But, dark though the night was, it did not wholly conceal the outlines
+of the mare. She was standing as they approached, mildly encouraging a
+tiny something beside her, a wisp of life, her baby, who was struggling
+to insure continued existence. And it was this second outline, not the
+other and larger outline, that held the breathless attention of the men.
+Nervously Felipe struck a match. As it flared up he stepped close,
+followed by the other, and there was a moment of tense silence. Then the
+match went out and Felipe straightened up.
+
+"Franke," he burst out, "I haf win thee bet! Eet is not a mare; eet is a
+li'l' horse!" He struck his _compadre_ a resounding blow on the
+back. "I am mooch sorry, Franke," he declared--"not!" He turned back to
+the faint outline of the colt. "Thees _potrillo_," he observed,
+"he's bringin' me mooch good luck! He's--" He suddenly interrupted
+himself, aware that the other was striding away. "Where you go now,
+Franke?" he asked, and then, quick to sense approaching trouble: "Never
+mind thee big bet, Franke! You can pay me ten dolars soom time! All
+right?"
+
+There was painful silence.
+
+"All right!" came the reply, finally, through the darkness.
+
+Then Felipe heard a lumber rigging go rattling off in the direction of
+the canyon, and, suddenly remembering the money underneath the stone,
+hurried off the trail in a spasm of alarm. He knelt in the sand and
+struck a match.
+
+The money had disappeared.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+FELIPE CELEBRATES
+
+
+It was well along in the morning when Felipe pulled up next day before
+his little adobe house in the mountain settlement. The journey from the
+mesa below had been, perforce, slow. The mare was still pitiably weak,
+and her condition had necessitated many stops, each of long duration.
+Also, on the way up the canyon the colt had displayed frequent signs of
+exhaustion, though only with the pauses did he attempt rest.
+
+But it was all over now. They were safely before the house, with the
+colt lying a little apart from his mother--regarding her with curious
+intentness--and with Felipe bustling about the team and now and again
+bursting out in song of questionable melody and rhythm. Felipe was
+preparing the horses for the corral at the rear of the house, and soon
+he flung aside the harness and seized each of the horses by the bridle.
+
+"Well, you li'l' devil!" he exclaimed, addressing the reclining colt.
+"You coom along now! You live in thees place back here! You coom wit' me
+now!" And he started around a corner of the adobe.
+
+The colt hastily rose to his feet. But not at the command of the man. No
+such command was necessary, for whither went his mother there went he.
+Close to her side, he moved with her into the inclosure, crowding
+frantically over the bars, skinning his knees in the effort, coming to a
+wide-eyed stand just inside the entrance, and there surveying with
+nervous apprehension the corral's occupants--a burro, two pigs, a flock
+of chickens. But he held close to his mother's side.
+
+Felipe did not linger in the corral. Throwing off their bridles, he
+tossed the usual scant supply of alfalfa to the horses, and filled their
+tub from a near-by well. Then, after putting up the bars, he set out
+with determined stride across the settlement. His direction was the
+general store, and his quest was the loan of a horse, since his team now
+was broken, and would be broken for a number of days to come.
+
+The store was owned and conducted by one Pedro Garcia. Pedro Garcia was
+the mountain Shylock. He loaned money at enormous rates of interest, and
+he rented out horses at prohibitive rates per day. Also, being what he
+was, Pedro had gained his pounds of flesh--was alarmingly fat, with
+short legs of giant circumference. Usually these legs were clothed in
+tight-fitting overalls, and his small feet incased in boots of
+high-grade leather wonderfully roweled. Yet many years had passed since
+Pedro had been seen in a saddle. Evidently he held to the rowels in fond
+memory of his days of slender youth and coltish gambolings. Pedro was
+seated in his customary place upon an empty keg on the porch, and
+Felipe, ignoring his grunted greeting, plunged at once into the purpose
+of his call.
+
+He had come to borrow a horse, Felipe explained. One of his own was
+unfit for work, yet the cutting and drawing must go on. While the mare
+was recuperating, he carefully pointed out, he himself could continue to
+earn money to meet some of his pressing debts. Any kind of horse would
+do, he declared, so long as it had four legs and was able to carry on
+the work. The horse need not have a mouth, even, he added, jocosely, for
+reasons nobody need explain. After which he sat down on the porch and
+awaited the august decision.
+
+Pedro remained silent a long time, the while he moistened his lips with
+fitful tongue, and gazed across the tiny settlement reflectively. At
+length he drew a deep breath, mixed of disgust and regret, and proceeded
+to make slow reply.
+
+It was true, he began, that he had horses to rent. And it was further
+true, he went on, deliberately, that he kept them for just this purpose.
+But--and his pause was fraught with deep significance--it was no less
+true that Felipe Montoya bore a bad reputation as a driver of
+horses--was known, indeed, to kill horses through overwork and
+underfeed--and that, therefore, to lend him a horse was like kissing the
+horse good-by and hitching up another to the stone-boat. Nevertheless,
+he hastened to add, if Felipe was in urgent need of a horse, and was
+prepared to pay the customary small rate per day, and to _pay in
+advance--cash--_
+
+Here Pedro paused and popped accusing eyes at Felipe, in one strong
+dramatic moment before continuing. But he did not continue. Felipe was
+the check. For Felipe had leaped to his feet, and now stood brandishing
+an ugly fist underneath the proprietor's nose. Further--and infinitely
+worse--Felipe was saying something.
+
+"Pedro Garcia," he began, shrilly, "I must got a horse! And I have coom
+for a horse! And I have thee money to pay for a horse! And if I kill
+thot horse," he went on, still brandishing his fist--"if thot horse he's
+dropping dead in thee harness--I pay you for thot horse! I haf drive
+horses--"
+
+"_Si, si, si!_" began Pedro, interrupting.
+
+"I haf drive horses on thees trail ten years!" persisted Felipe,
+yelling, "and in all thot time, Pedro Garcia, I'm killin' only seven
+horses, and all seven of thees horses is dyin', Pedro Garcia, when I haf
+buy them, and I haf buy all seven horses from you, Pedro Garcia, thief
+and robber!" He paused to take a breath. "And not once, Pedro Garcia,"
+he went on, "do I keeck about thot-a horse is a horse! But I haf coom to
+you before! And I haf coom to you now! I must got a horse quick! And I
+bringin' thot horse back joost thee same as I'm gettin' thot horse--in
+good condition--better--because everybody is knowin.' I feed a horse
+better than you feed a horse--and I'm _cleanin'_ the horse once in
+a while, too!" Which was a lie, both as to the feeding and the cleaning,
+as he well knew, and as, indeed, he well knew Pedro knew, who,
+nevertheless, nodded grave assent.
+
+"_Si_," admitted Pedro. "_Pero ustede--_"
+
+"A horse!" thundered Felipe, interrupting, his neck cords dangerously
+distended. "You give me a horse--you hear? I want a horse--a horse! I
+don' coom here for thee talk!"
+
+Pedro rose hastily from the keg. Also, he grunted quick consent. Then he
+stepped inside the store, followed by Felipe, who made several needed
+purchases, and, since he had his enemy cowed, and was troubled with
+thirst created by the protracted harangue, to say nothing of the strong
+inclination within him to celebrate the coming of the colt, he made a
+purchase that was not needed--a bottle of _vino_, cool and dry from
+Pedro's cellar. With these tucked securely under his arm, he then calmly
+informed Pedro of the true state of his finances, and left the store,
+returning across the settlement, which lay wrapped in pulsating noonday
+quiet. In the shade of his adobe he sat upon the ground, with his back
+comfortably against the wall. Directly the quiet was broken by two
+distinct sounds--the pop of a cork out of the neck of a bottle, and the
+gurgle of liquid into the mouth of a man.
+
+Thus Felipe set out upon a protracted debauch. In this debauch he did
+nothing worth while. He used neither the borrowed horse nor his own
+sound one. Each day saw him redder of eye and more swollen of lip; each
+day saw him increasingly heedless of his debts; each day saw him more
+neglectful of his duties toward his animals. The one bottle became two
+bottles, the two bottles became three, each secured only after
+threatened assault upon the body of Pedro, each adding its store to the
+already deep conviviality and reckless freedom from all cares now
+Felipe's. He forgot everything--forgot the stolen money, forgot the
+colt, forgot the needs of the mare--all in exhilarated pursuit of
+phantoms.
+
+Yet the colt did not suffer. Becoming ever more confident of himself as
+the days passed, he soon revealed pronounced curiosity and an aptitude
+for play. He would stare at strutting roosters, gaze after straddling
+hens, blink quizzically at the burro, frown upon the grunting pigs, all
+as if cataloguing these specimens, listing them in his thoughts, some
+day to make good use of the knowledge. But most of all he showed
+interest in and playfulness toward his mother and her doings. He would
+follow her about untiringly, pausing whenever she paused, starting off
+again whenever she started off--seemingly bent upon acquiring the how
+and why of her every movement.
+
+But it was his playfulness finally that brought him first needless
+suffering. The mare was standing with her nose in the feed-box. She had
+stood thus many times during the past week; but usually, before, the box
+had been empty, whereas now it contained a generous quantity of alfalfa.
+But this the colt did not know. He only knew that he was interested in
+this thing, and so went there to attempt, as many times before, to reach
+his nose into the mysterious box. Finding that he could not, he began,
+as never before, to frisk about the mare, tossing up his little heels
+and throwing down his head with all the reckless abandon of a seasoned
+"outlaw." He could do these things because he was a rare colt, stronger
+than ever colt before was at his age, and for a time the mare suffered
+his antics with a look of pleased toleration. But as he kept it up, and
+as she was getting her first real sustenance since the day of his
+coming, she at length became fretful and sounded a low warning. But this
+the colt did not heed. Instead he wheeled suddenly and plunged directly
+toward her, bunting her sharply. Nor did the single bunt satisfy him.
+Again and again he attacked her, plunging in and darting away each time
+with remarkable celerity, until, her patience evidently exhausted, she
+whisked her head around and nipped him sharply. Screaming with pain and
+fright, he plunged from her, sought the opposite side of the inclosure,
+and turned upon her a pair of very hurt and troubled eyes.
+
+Yet all the world over mothers are mothers. After a time--a long time,
+as if to let her punishment sink in--the mare made her way slowly to the
+colt, and there fell to licking him, seeming to tell him of her lasting
+forgiveness. Under this lavish caressing the colt, as if to reveal his
+own forgiveness for the dreadful hurt, bestowed similar attention upon
+her--in this attention, though he did not know it, softening flesh that
+had experienced no such consideration in years. Thus they stood, side by
+side, mother and son, long into the day, laying the foundation of a love
+that never dies--that strengthens, in fact, with the years, though all
+else fail--love between mother and her offspring.
+
+Other things, things of minor consequence, added their mite to his early
+development. One morning, while the mare was asleep, the colt, alert and
+standing, was startled by the sudden movement of a large rooster. The
+rooster had left the ground with loud flapping of wings, and now stood
+perched upon the corral fence, like a grim and mighty conqueror,
+ruffling his neck feathers and twisting his head in pre-eminent
+satisfaction. But the colt did not understand this. Transfixed, he
+turned frightened eyes upon the cause of the unearthly commotion. Then
+suddenly, with another loud flapping of wings, the rooster uttered a
+defiant crow, a challenge that echoed far through the canyon. Whereat
+the colt, eyes wide with terror, whirled to his mother, whimpering
+babyishly. But with the mare standing beside him and caressing him
+reassuringly, all his nervousness left him, and he again turned his eyes
+upon the rooster and watched him till the cock, unable to stir combat
+among his neighbors, left the fence with another loud flapping of wings,
+and returned to earth, physically and spiritually, there to set up his
+customary feigned quest for worms for the ladies. But the point was
+this--with this last flapping of wings the colt remained in a state of
+perfect calm.
+
+Thus he learned, and thus he continued to learn, in nervous fear one
+moment, in perfect calm the next. And though his hours of life were few
+indeed, he nevertheless revealed an intelligence far above the average
+of his kind. He learned to avoid the mare's whisking tail, to shun or
+remove molesting flies, to keep away from the mare when she was at the
+feed-box. All of which told of his uncommon strain, as did the rapidity
+with which he gained strength, which last told of his tremendous
+vitality, and which some day would serve him well against trouble.
+
+Yet in it all lurked the great mystery, and Felipe, blustering to
+occasional natives outside the fence during his week of debauch, while
+pointing out with pride the colt's very evident blooded lineage, yet
+could tell nothing of that descent. All he could point out was that the
+mare was chestnut-brown, and when not in harness was kept close within
+the confines of the corral, while here was a colt of a dark-fawn color
+which would develop with maturity into coal-black. And there was not a
+single black horse in the mountains for miles and miles around. Nor was
+the colt a "throw-back," because--
+
+"Oh, well," he would conclude, casting bleared eyes in the direction of
+the house, wearily, "I got soom _vino_ inside. You coom along now.
+We go gettin' a drink." Which would close the monologue.
+
+One morning early, Felipe, asleep on a bed that never was made up, heard
+suspicious sounds in the corral outside. He sprang up and, clad only in
+a fiery-red undershirt, hurried to a window. Cautiously letting down the
+bars, with a rope already tied around the colt's neck, was the mountain
+Shylock, Pedro Garcia, intent upon leading off the innocent new-comer.
+Pedro no doubt had perceived an opportunity either to force Felipe to
+meet some of his debts, or else hold the colt as a very acceptable
+chattel. Also, he evidently had calculated upon early dawn as the time
+best suited to do this thing, in view of Felipe's long debauch upon
+unpaid-for wine. At any rate, there he was, craftily letting down the
+bars. Raging with indignation and a natural venom which he felt toward
+the storekeeper, Felipe flung up the window.
+
+"_Buenos dias, seņor!_" he greeted, cheerfully, with effort
+controlling his anger. "Thee early worm he's takin' thee
+_potrillo_! How cooms thot, _seņor_?" he asked, enjoying the
+other's sudden discomfiture. "You takin' thot li'l' horse for thee
+walk--thee exercise?" And then, without waiting for a reply, had there
+been one forthcoming, which there was not, he slammed down the window,
+leaped to the door, flung it open--all levity now gone from him. "Pedro
+Garcia!" he raged. "You thief and robber! I'm killin' you thees time
+sure!" And, regardless of his scant attire, and stringing out a volley
+of oaths, he sprang out of the doorway after his intended victim.
+
+But Pedro Garcia, though fat, was surprisingly quick on his feet. He
+dropped the rope and burst into a run, heading frantically past the
+house toward the trail. And, though Felipe leaped after him, still clad
+only in fiery-red undershirt, the storekeeper gained the trail and set
+out at top speed across the settlement. Felipe pursued. Hair aflaunt,
+shirt-tail whipping in the breeze, bare feet paddling in the dust of the
+trail, naked legs crossing each other like giant scissors in frenzied
+effort, he hurtled forward exactly one leap behind his intended victim.
+He strained to close up the gap, but he could not overtake the equally
+speedy Pedro, whose short legs fairly buzzed in the terror of their
+owner. Thus they ran, mounting the slight rise before the general store,
+then descending into the heart of the settlement, with Pedro whipping
+along frantically, and Felipe still one whole leap behind, until a
+derisive shout, a feminine exclamation of shrieking glee, awoke Felipe
+to the spectacle he was making of himself before the eyes of the
+community. He stopped; growled disappointed rage; darted back along the
+trail. Once in the privacy of his house, he hurriedly donned his clothes
+and gave himself over to deliberations. The result of these
+deliberations was that he concluded to return to work.
+
+After a scant breakfast of chili and coffee he moved out to the corral.
+He leaned his arms upon the fence and surveyed the colt with fresh
+interest.
+
+"Thot li'l' _caballo_," he began, "he's bringin' me mooch good
+luck. Thot _potrillo_ he's wort' seven--he's
+wort'--_si_--eight dolars--thot _potrillo_. I t'ink I haf sell
+heem, too--queek--in town! But first I must go cuttin' thee wood!" With
+this he let down the bars and entered the inclosure. Then his thoughts
+took an abrupt turn. "I keel thot Pedro Garcia soomtime--bet you' life!
+He's stealin' fleas off a dog--thot _hombre_!"
+
+Felipe drove the borrowed horse out of the inclosure, and then singled
+out the mate to the mare. As he harnessed up this horse, the colt,
+standing close by, revealed marked interest. Also, as Felipe led the
+horse out of the corral the colt followed till shut off by the bars,
+which Felipe hurriedly put up. But they did not discourage him. He
+remained very close to them, peering out between the while Felipe
+hitched the team to his empty lumber rigging. Then came the crack of a
+whip, loud creaking of greaseless wheels, the voice of Felipe in lusty
+demand, all as the outfit set out up the trail toward the timber-slopes.
+But not till the earth was still again, the cloud of dust in the trail
+completely subsided, did the colt turn away from the bars and seek his
+mother, and then with a look in his soft-blinking eyes that told of
+concentrated pondering on these mysteries of life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+A SURPRISE
+
+
+Next morning, having returned from the timber-slopes, Felipe, fresh and
+radiant, appeared outside the corral in holiday attire. Part of this
+attire was a pair of brand-new overalls. Indeed, the overalls were so
+new that they crackled; and Felipe appeared quite conscious of their
+newness, for he let down the bars with great care, and with even greater
+care stepped into the inclosure. Then it was seen, since he was a
+Mexican who ran true to form, there was a flaw in all this splendor. For
+he had drawn on the new overalls over the older pair--worse, had drawn
+them on over _two_ older pairs, as revealed at the bottoms, where
+peered plaintively two shades of blue--lighter blue of the older pair,
+very light blue of the oldest pair--the effect of exposure to desert
+suns. So Felipe had on three pairs of overalls. Yet this was not all of
+distinction. Around his brown throat was a bright red neckerchief, while
+between the unbuttoned edges of his vest was an expanse of bright
+green--the coloring of a tight-fitting sweater.
+
+There was reason for all this. Felipe was going to town, and he was
+taking the mare along with him, and the mare naturally would take her
+colt; and because he had come to know the value of the colt, Felipe
+wished to appear as prosperous in the eyes of the Americans in town as
+he believed the owner of so fine a colt ought to appear.
+
+Therefore, still careful of his overalls, he set about leisurely to
+prepare the team for the journey. He crossed to the shed, hauled out the
+harness, tossed it out into the inclosure. Promptly both horses stepped
+into position. Also, the older mare, whether through relief or regret,
+sounded a shrill nicker. This brought the colt to her side, where he
+fell to licking her affectionately, showing his great love for her bony
+frame. And when Felipe led the horses out of the corral he followed
+close beside her, and when outside held close to her throughout the
+hitching, and to the point even when Felipe clambered to the top of the
+high load and caught up the reins and the whip. Then he stepped back,
+wriggling his fuzzy little tail and blinking his big eyes curiously.
+
+"Well, _potrillo_," began Felipe, grinning down upon the tiny
+specimen of life, "we goin' now to town! But first you must be ready!
+You ready? All right! We go now!" And he cracked the whip over the team.
+
+They started forward, slowly at first, the wagon giving off many creaks
+and groans, then fast and faster, until, well in the descent of the hard
+canyon trail, the horses were jogging along quite briskly.
+
+The colt showed the keenest interest and delight. For a time he trotted
+beside the mare, ears cocked forward expectantly, eyes sweeping the
+canyon alertly, hoofs lifting to ludicrous heights. Then, as the first
+novelty wore off, and he became more certain of himself in these
+swift-changing surroundings, he revealed a playfulness that tickled
+Felipe. He would lag behind a little, race madly forward, sometimes run
+far ahead of the team in his great joy. But he seemed best to like to
+lag. He would come to a sudden stop and, motionless as a dog pointing a
+bird, gaze out across the canyon a long time, like one trying to find
+himself in a strange and wonderful world. Or, standing thus, he would
+reveal curious interest in the rocks and stumps around him, and he would
+stare at them fixedly, blinking slowly, a look of genuine wonderment in
+his big, soft eyes. Then he would strain himself mightily to overtake
+the wagon.
+
+Once in a period of absorbed attention he lost sight of the outfit
+completely. This was due not so much to his distance in the rear as to
+the fact that the wagon, having struck a bend in the trail, had turned
+from view. But he did not know that. Sounding a baby outcry of fear, he
+scurried ahead at breakneck speed, frantic heels tossing up tiny spurts
+of dust, head stretched forward--and thus soon caught up. After that he
+remained close beside his mother until the wagon, rocking down the mouth
+of the canyon, swung out upon the broad mesa. Here the outfit could be
+seen for miles, and now he took to lagging behind again, and to frisking
+far ahead, always returning at frequent intervals for the motherly
+assurance that all was well.
+
+As part of the Great Scheme, all this was good for him. In his brief
+panic when out of sight of his mother he was taught how very necessary
+she was to his existence. In his running back and forth, with now and
+again breathless speeding, he developed the muscles of his body, to the
+end that later he might well take up an independent fight for life. In
+the curious interest he displayed in all subjects about him he lent
+unknowing assistance to a spiritual development as necessary as physical
+development. All this prepared him to meet men and measures as he was
+destined to meet them--with gentleness, with battle,--with
+affection--like for like--as he found it. It was all good for him, this
+movement, this change of environment, this quick awakening of interest.
+It shaped him in both body and spirit to the Great Purpose.
+
+This interest seemed unbounded. Whenever a jack-rabbit shot across the
+trail, or a covey of birds broke from the sand-hills, he would come to a
+quick pause and blink curiously, seeming to understand and approve, and
+to be grateful, as if all these things were done for him. Also, with
+each halt Felipe made with _compadres_ along the trail, friends who
+entered with him in loud badinage over the ownership of the colt--an
+ownership all vigorously denied him--the colt himself would cock his
+ears and fix his eyes, seemingly aware of his importance and pleased to
+be the object of the cutting remarks. And thus the miles from mountain
+to the outskirts of town were covered, miles pleasurable to him, every
+inch revealing something of fresh interest, every mile finding him more
+accustomed to the journey.
+
+They reached a point on the outskirts where streets appeared, sharply
+defined thoroughfares, interlacing one with the other. And as they
+advanced vehicles began to turn in upon the trail, a nondescript
+collection ranging from an Indian farm-wagon off the Navajo reservation
+to the north to a stanhope belonging to some more affluent American in
+the suburbs. With them came also many strange sounds--Mexican oaths,
+mild Indian commands, light man-to-man greetings of the day. Also there
+was much cracking of whips and nickering of horses along the line. And
+the result of all this was that the colt revealed steadily increasing
+nervousness, a condition enhanced by the fact that his mother, held
+rigidly to her duties by Felipe, could bestow upon her offspring but
+very little attention. But he held close to her, and thus moved into the
+heart of town, when suddenly one by one the vehicles ahead came to a
+dead stop. Felipe, perched high, saw that the foremost wagons had
+reached the railroad crossing, and that there was a long freight-train
+passing through.
+
+Team after team came into the congestion and stopped. Cart and wagon and
+phaeton closed in around the colt. There was much maneuvering for space.
+The colt's nervousness increased, and became positive fear. He darted
+wild eyes about him. He was completely hedged in. On his right loomed a
+large horse; behind him stood a drowsing team; on his left was a
+dirt-cart; while immediately in front, such was his position now, stood
+his mother. But, though gripped in fear, he remained perfectly still
+until the locomotive, puffing and wheezing along at the rear of the
+train, having reached the crossing, sounded a piercing shriek. This was
+more than he could stand. Without a sound he dodged and whirled. He
+plunged to the rear and rammed into the drowsing team; darted to the
+right and into the teeth of the single horse; whirled madly to the left,
+only to carom off the hub of a wheel. But with all this defeat he did
+not stop. He set up a wild series of whirling plunges, and, completely
+crazed now, darted under the single horse, under a Mexican wagon, under
+a team of horses, and forth into a little clearing. Here he came to a
+stop, trembling in every part, gazing about in wildest terror.
+
+Following its shrill blast, the engine puffed across the crossing, the
+gates slowly lifted, and the foremost vehicles began to move. Soon the
+whole line was churning up clouds of dust and rattling across the
+railroad tracks. Felipe was of this company, cracking his whip and
+yelling lustily, enjoying the congestion and this unexpected opportunity
+to be seen by so many American eyes at once in his gorgeous raiment. In
+the town proper, and carefully avoiding the more rapidly moving
+vehicles, he turned off the avenue into a narrow side street, and pulled
+up at a water-trough. As he dropped the reins and prepared to descend, a
+friend of his--and he had many--hailed him from the sidewalk. Hastily
+clambering down, he seized the man's arm in forceful greeting, and
+indicated with a jerk of his head a near-by saloon.
+
+"We go gettin' soomt'ing," he invited. "I have munch good luck to tell
+you."
+
+Inside the establishment Felipe became loquacious and boasting. He now
+was a man of comfortable wealth, he gravely informed his friend--a
+wizened individual with piercing eyes. Besides winning a bet of fifteen
+dollars in money, he explained, he also held a note against Franke
+Gamboa for fifty dollars more on his property. But that was not all.
+Aside from the note and the cash in hand, he was the owner of a colt now
+of great value--_si_--worth at least ten dollars--which, added to
+the other, made him, as anybody could see, worthy of recognition. With
+this he placed his empty glass down on the bar and swung over into
+English.
+
+"You haf hear about thot?" he asked, drawing the back of his hand across
+his mouth. Then, as the other shook his head negatively, "Well, I haf
+new one--_potrillo_--nice li'l' horse--_si_!" He cleared his
+throat and frowned at the listening bartender. "He's comin' couple days
+before, oop on thee mesa." He picked up the glass, noted that it was
+empty, placed it down again. "I'm sellin' thot _potrillo_ quick,"
+he went on--"bet you' life! I feed heem couple weeks more mebbe--feed
+heem beer and soom cheese!" He laughed raucously at the alleged
+witticism. "Thot's thee preencipal t'ing," he declared, soberly. "You
+must feed a horse." He said this not as one recommending that a horse be
+well fed, but as one advising that a horse be given something to eat
+occasionally. "_Si!_ Thot's thee preencipal t'ing! Then he's makin'
+a fast goer--bet you' life! I haf give heem--" He suddenly interrupted
+himself and laid firm hold upon the man's arm. "You coom wit' me!" he
+invited, and began to drag the other toward the swing-doors. "You coom
+look at thot _potrillo_!"
+
+They went outside. On the curb, Felipe gazed about him, first with a
+look of pride, then with an expression of blank dismay. He stepped down
+off the curb, roused the drowsing mare with a vigorous clap, again
+looked about him worriedly. After a long moment he left the team,
+walking out into the middle of the street, and strained his eyes in both
+directions. Then he returned and, heedless of his new overalls, got down
+upon his knees, sweeping bleared eyes under the wagon. And finally, with
+a last despairing gaze in every direction, he sat down upon the curb and
+buried his face in his arms.
+
+For the colt was gone!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+A NEW HOME
+
+
+With the beginning of the forward movement across the railroad the colt,
+ears cocked and eyes alert, moved across also. Close about him stepped
+other horses, and over and around him surged a low murmuring,
+occasionally broken by the crack of a whip. Yet these sounds did not
+seem to disturb him. He trotted along, crossing the tracks, and when on
+the opposite side set out straight down the avenue. The avenue was
+broad, and in this widening area the congestion rapidly thinned, and
+soon the colt was quite alone in the open. But he continued forward,
+seeming not to miss his mother, until there suddenly loomed up beside
+him a very fat and very matronly appearing horse. Then he hesitated,
+turning apprehensive eyes upon her. But not for long. Evidently
+accepting this horse as his mother, he fell in close beside her and
+trotted along again in perfect composure.
+
+Behind this horse was a phaeton, and in the phaeton sat two persons.
+They were widely different in age. One was an elderly man, broad of
+shoulders and with a ruddy face faintly threaded with purple; the other
+was a young girl, not more than seventeen, his daughter, with a face
+sweet and alert, and a mass of chestnut hair--all imparting a certain
+esthetic beauty. Like the man, the girl was ruddy of complexion, though
+hers was the bloom of youth, while his was toll taken from suns and
+winds of the desert. The girl was the first to discover the colt.
+
+"Daddy!" she exclaimed, placing a restraining hand upon the other.
+"Whose beautiful colt is that?"
+
+The Judge pulled down his horse and leaned far out over the side. "Why,
+I don't know, dear!" he replied, after a moment, then turned his eyes to
+the rear. "He must belong with some team in that crush."
+
+The girl regarded the colt with increasing rapture. "Isn't he a perfect
+dear!" she went on. "Look at him, daddy!" she suddenly urged,
+delightedly. "He's dying to know why we stopped!" Which, indeed, the
+colt looked to be, since he had come to a stop with the mare and now was
+regarding them curiously. "I'd love to pet him!"
+
+The Judge frowned. "We're late for luncheon," he declared, and again
+gazed to the rear. "We'd better take him along with us out to the ranch.
+To-morrow I'll advertise him in the papers." And he shook up the mare.
+"We'd better go along, Helen."
+
+"Just one minute, daddy!" persisted the girl, gathering up her white
+skirts and, as the Judge pulled down, leaping lightly out of the
+phaeton. "I've simply _got_ to pet him!" She cautiously approached
+the colt.
+
+He permitted her this approach. Nor did he shy at her outstretched hand.
+Under her gentle caresses he stood very still, and when she stooped
+before him, as she did presently, bringing her eyes upon a level with
+his own, he gazed into them very frankly and earnestly, as if gauging
+this person, as he had seemed to tabulate all other things, some day to
+make good use of his knowledge. After a time the girl spoke.
+
+"I wish I could keep you always," she said, poutingly. "You look so nice
+and babyish!" But she knew that she could not keep him, and after a time
+she stood up again and sighed, and fell to stroking him thoughtfully.
+"I'll have you to-day, anyway," she declared, finally, with promise of
+enjoyment in her voice, as one who meant to make the most of it. Then
+she got back into the phaeton.
+
+The Judge started up the horse again. They continued through the town,
+and when on its northwestern outskirts turned to the right along a trail
+that paralleled the river. The trail ran north and south, and on either
+side of it, sometimes shielding a secluded ranch, always forming an
+agreeable oasis in the flat brown of the country, rose an occasional
+clump of cottonwoods. The ranch-houses were infrequent, however; all of
+them were plentifully supplied with water by giant windmills which
+clacked and creaked above the trees in the high-noon breeze. To the
+left, across the river, back from the long, slow rise of sand from the
+water's edge, rose five blunt heights like craters long extinct; while
+above these, arching across the heavens in spotless sheen, curved the
+turquoise dome of a southwestern midday sky, flooding the dust and dunes
+below in throbbing heat-rays. It was God's own section of earth, and not
+the least beautiful of its vistas, looming now steadily ahead on their
+right, was the place belonging to Judge Richards. House and outhouses
+white, and just now aglint in the white light of the sun, the whole
+ranch presented the appearance of diamonds nestling in a bed of
+emerald-green velvet. Turning off at this ranch, the Judge tossed the
+reins to a waiting Mexican.
+
+Helen was out of the phaeton like a flash. Carefully guiding the colt
+around the house and across a _patio_, she turned him loose into a
+spacious corral. Then she fell to watching him, and she continued to
+watch him until a voice from the house, that of an aged Mexican woman
+who presided over the kitchen, warned her that dinner was waiting.
+Reluctantly hugging the colt--hugging him almost savagely in her sudden
+affection for him--she then turned to leave, but not without a word of
+explanation.
+
+"I must leave you now, honey!" she said, much as a child would take
+leave of her doll. "But I sha'n't be away from you long, and when I come
+back I'll see what I can do about feeding you!"
+
+The colt stood for a time, peering between the corral boards after her.
+Then he set out upon a round of investigation. He moved slowly along the
+inside of the fence, seeming to approve its whitewashed cleanliness,
+until, turning in a corner, he stood before the stable door. Here he
+paused a moment, gazing into the semi-gloom, then sprang up the one
+step. Inside, he stood another moment, sweeping eyes down past the
+stalls, and finally set out and made his way to the far end. In the
+stall next the last stood a brown saddle-horse, and in the last stall
+the matronly horse he had followed out from town. But he showed no
+interest in these, bestowing upon each merely a passing glance. Then,
+discovering that the flies bothered him here more than in the corral, he
+walked back to the door and out into the sunlight again. In the corral
+he took up his motionless stand in the corner nearest the house.
+
+He did not stand thus for long. He soon revealed grave uneasiness. It
+was due to a familiar gnawing inside. He knew the relief for this, and
+promptly set out in search of his mother. He hurried back along the
+fence, gained the door of the stable, and stepped into the stable, this
+time upon urgent business. He trotted down past the stalls to the family
+horse, and without hesitation stepped in alongside of her. Directly
+there was a shrill nicker, a lightning flash of heels, and the colt lay
+sprawling on the stable floor.
+
+Never was there a colt more astonished than this one. Dazed, trembling,
+he regained his feet and looked at the mare, looked hard. Then casting
+solicitous eyes in the direction of the saddle-horse, he stepped in
+alongside. But here he met with even more painful objections. The horse
+reached around and bit him sharply in the neck. It hurt, hurt awfully,
+but he persisted, only to receive another sharp bite, this time more
+savage. Sounding a baby whimper of despair, he ran back to the door and
+out into the motherless corral.
+
+He made for the corner nearest the house. But he did not stand still. He
+cocked his ears, pawed the ground, turned again and again, swallowed
+frequently. And presently he set out once more in search of his mother;
+though this time he wisely kept out of the stable. He held close to the
+fence, following it around and around, pausing now and again with eyes
+strained between the boards. But he could not find his mother. Finally,
+resorting to the one effort left to him that might bring result, he
+flung up his little head and sounded a piteous call--not once, but many
+times.
+
+"Aunty," declared the girl, rushing into the genial presence of the
+Mexican cook, "what shall I do about that colt? He must be hungry!"
+
+The old woman nodded and smiled knowingly. Then she stepped into the
+pantry. She filled a long-necked bottle with milk and sugar and a dash
+of lime-water, and, placing the bottle in the girl's hands, shoved her
+gently out the door and into the _patio_.
+
+Racing across to the corral, Helen reached the colt with much-needed
+aid. He closed upon the bottle with an eagerness that seemed to tell he
+had known no other method of feeding. Also, he clung to it till the last
+drop was gone, which caused Helen to wonder when last the colt had fed.
+Then, as if by way of reward for this kindly attention, he tossed his
+head suddenly, striking the bottle out of her hands. This was play; and
+Helen, girlishly delighted, sprang toward him. He leaped away, however,
+and, coming to a stand at a safe distance, wriggled his ears at her
+mischievously. She sprang toward him again; but again he darted away.
+Whereupon she raced after him, pursuing him around the inclosure, the
+colt frisking before her, kicking up his heels and nickering shrilly,
+until, through breathlessness, she was forced to stop. Then the colt
+stopped, and after a time, having regarded her steadfastly, invitingly,
+he seemed to understand, for he quietly approached her. As he came close
+she stooped before him.
+
+"Honey dear," she began, eyes on a level with his own, "they have
+telephoned the city officials, and your case will be advertised
+to-morrow in the papers. But I do wish that I could keep you." She
+peered into his slow-blinking eyes thoughtfully. "Brownie--my
+saddle-horse--is all stable-ridden, and I need a good saddler. And some
+day you would be grown, and I could--could take lots of comfort with
+you." She was silent. "Anyway," she concluded, rising and stroking him
+absently, "we'll see. Though I hope--and I know it isn't a bit
+right--that nothing comes of the advertisement; or, if something does
+come of it, that your rightful owner will prove willing to sell you
+after a time." With this she picked up the bottle and left him.
+
+And nothing did come of the advertisement. Felipe did not read the
+papers, and his knowledge of city affairs was such that he did not set
+up intelligent quest for the colt.
+
+So the colt remained in the Richards' corral. Regularly two and three
+times a day the girl came to feed him, and regularly as his reward each
+time he bunted the bottle out of her hand afterward. Also, between meals
+she spent much time in his society, and on these occasions relieved the
+tedium of his diet with loaf sugar, and, after a while, quartered
+apples. For these sweets he soon developed a passion, and he would watch
+her comings with a feverish anxiety that always brought a smile to her
+ready lips. And thus began, and thus went on, their friendship, a
+friendship that with the passing months ripened into strongest
+attachment, but which presently was to be interrupted for a long time.
+
+Hint of this came to him gradually. From spending long periods with him
+every day his mistress, after each feeding now, took to hurrying away
+from him. Sometimes, so great was her haste to get back to the house,
+she actually ran out of the corral. It worried him, and he would follow
+her to the gate, and there stand with nose between the boards and eyes
+turned after her, whimpering softly. And finally, with his bottle
+displaced by more solid food, and the visits of his mistress becoming
+less frequent, he awoke to certain mysterious arrivals and departures in
+a buggy of a sharp-eyed woman all in black, and he came to feel, by
+reason of his super-animal instinct, that something of a very grave
+nature was about to happen to him. Then one morning late in August he
+experienced that which made his fears positive convictions, though
+precisely what it was he did not immediately know.
+
+His mistress stepped into the corral with her usual briskness, and,
+walking deliberately past him, turned up an empty box in a far corner
+and sat down upon it, and called to him. From the instant of her
+entrance he had held himself back, but when she called him he rushed
+eagerly to her side. She placed her arms around his neck, drew his head
+down into her lap, and proceeded to unfold a story--later, tearful.
+
+"It's all settled," she began, with a restful sigh. "We have discussed
+it for weeks, and I've had a dreadful time of it, and aunty--my Mexican
+aunty, you know--and my other aunty, my regular aunty--I have no
+mother--and everybody--got so excited I didn't really know them for my
+own, and daddy flared up a little, and--and--" She paused and sighed
+again. "But finally they let me have my own way about it--though daddy
+called it 'infant tommyrot'--and so here it is!" She tilted up his head
+and looked into his eyes. "You, sir," she then went on--"you, sir, from
+this day and date--I reckon that is how daddy would say it--you, sir,
+from this day and date shall be known as Pat. Your name, sir, is
+Pat--P-a-t--Pat! I don't know whether you like it or not, of course! But
+I do know that I like it, and under the circumstances I reckon that's
+all that is necessary." Then came the tears. "But that isn't all, Pat
+dear," she went on, tenderly. "I have something else to tell you, though
+it hurts dreadfully for me to do it. But--but I'm going away to school.
+I'm going East, to be gone a long time. I want to go, though," she
+added, gazing soberly into his eyes; "yet I am afraid to leave you alone
+with Miguel. Miguel doesn't like to have you around, and I know it, and
+I am afraid he will be cruel to you. But--but I've got to go now. The
+dressmaker has been coming for over a month; and--and I'm not even
+coming home for vacation. I am to visit relatives, or something, in New
+York--or somewhere--and the whole thing is arranged. But I--I don't seem
+to want--to--to go away now!" Which was where the tears fell. "If
+things--things could only be--be put off! But I--I know they can't!" She
+was silent, silent a long time, gazing off toward the distant mountains
+through tear-bedimmed eyes. "But when I do come back," she concluded,
+finally, brightening, "you will have grown to a great size, Pat dear,
+and then we can go up on the mesa and ride and ride. Can't we?" And she
+hugged him convulsively. "It will be glorious. Won't it?"
+
+He didn't exactly say. His interest was elsewhere, and, resisting her
+hugging, he began to nuzzle her hands for sweets. Whereupon she burst
+into laughter and forcibly hugged him again.
+
+"I forgot," she declared, regretfully. "You shall have them,
+though--right away!" Then she arose and left him--left him a very much
+mystified colt. But when she returned with what he sought he looked his
+delight, and closed over the sweets with an eagerness that forced her
+into sober reflection. "Pat," she said, after a time, "I don't think you
+care one single bit for me! All you care about, I'll bet, is what I
+bring you to eat!" Then she began to stroke him. "Just the same," she
+concluded, after a while, tenderly, "you're the dearest colt that ever
+lived!" She dallied with him a moment longer, then abruptly left him,
+running back to the house.
+
+The days which followed, however, were full of delight for him. Now that
+the mysterious activity in the house was over with, his mistress began
+to visit him again with more than frequent regularity. And with each
+visit she would remain with him a long time, caressing him, talking to
+him, as had been her wont in the earlier days of their friendship. But
+as against those earlier days he had changed. Possibly this was due to
+her absence. Instead of frisking about the inclosure now, as he had used
+to frisk--whirling madly from her in play--he would remain very still
+during her visits, standing motionless under her caresses and love-talk.
+Also, when she took herself off each time, instead of hurrying
+frantically after her to the gate, he would walk slowly, even sedately,
+into his corner, the one nearest the house, and there watch her soberly
+till she disappeared indoors. Then--further evidence of the change that
+had come upon him--he would lie down in the warm sunlight and there
+fight flies, although before he had been given to worrying the family
+horse or irritating the brown saddler--all with nervous playfulness.
+
+And he was dozing in his corner that morning when his mistress came
+fluttering to him to say good-by. He slowly rose to his feet and blinked
+curiously at her.
+
+"Pat dear," she exclaimed, breathlessly, "I'm going now!" She flung her
+arms around his neck, held him tightly to her a moment, then stepped
+back. "You--you must be good while--while I'm gone!" And dashing away a
+persistent tear, she then hurriedly left him, speeding across the
+_patio_ and stepping into the waiting phaeton.
+
+He watched the vehicle roll out into the trail. And though he did not
+understand, though the seriousness of it all was denied him, he
+nevertheless remained close to the fence a long time; long after the
+phaeton had passed from view, long after the sound of the mare's
+paddling feet had died away, he stood there, ears cocked, eyes wide,
+tail motionless, in an attitude of receptivity, spiritual absorption, as
+one flicked with unwelcome premonitions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+LONELINESS
+
+
+Pat's mistress was gone. He realized it from his continued disappointed
+watching for her at the fence; he realized it from the utter absence out
+of life of the sweets he had learned to love so well; and he realized it
+most of all from the change which rapidly came over the Mexican hostler.
+Though he did not know it, Miguel had been instructed, and in no
+mistakable language, to take good care of him, and, among other things,
+to keep him healthily supplied with sweets. But Miguel was not
+interested in colts, much less in anything that meant additional labor
+for him, and so Pat was made to suffer. Yet in this, as in all the other
+things, lay a wonderful good. He was made to know that he was not wholly
+a pampered thing--was made to feel the other side of life, the side of
+bitterness and disappointment, the side at times of actual want. And
+this continued denial of wants, of needs, occasionally, hardened him, as
+his earlier experiences had hardened him, toughened him for the
+struggles to come, brought to him that which is good for all
+youth--realization that life is not a mere span of days with sweets and
+comforts for the asking, but a time of struggle, a battle for supremacy,
+and it is only through the battle that one grows fit and ever more fit
+for the good of the All.
+
+Not the least of his trials was great loneliness. One day was so very
+like another. Regularly each morning, after seeking out his favorite
+corner in the corral, he would see the sun step from the mountain-tops,
+ascend through a cool morning, pour down scorching midday rays, descend
+through a tense afternoon, and drop from view in the chill of evening.
+Always he would watch this thing, sometimes standing, other times
+reclining, but ever conscious of the dread monotony of it all. Nothing
+happened, nobody came to caress him, no one paid him the least
+attention. A forlorn colt, a lonely colt, doubly so for lack of a
+mother, he spent long days in moody contemplation of an existence that
+irked.
+
+One day, however, came something of interest into the monotony of his
+life. Evidently tiring of attending each horse in turn in the stalls,
+Miguel built a general box for feed in one corner of the inclosure, and
+then, by dint of loud swearing and the free use of a pitchfork,
+instructed the colt to feed from it with the others. Not that Pat
+required instruction as to the feeding itself--he was too much alive to
+need driving in that respect. But he did show nervous timidity at
+feeding with the other horses, and so Miguel cheerfully went to the
+urging with fork and tongue. But only the one time. Soon the colt took
+to burying his nose in the box along with the others, and would wriggle
+his tail with a vigor that seemed to tell of his gratitude at being
+accepted as part of the great establishment and its devices. And then
+another thing. With this change in his method of feeding, he soon came
+to reveal steadily increasing courage and independence. Oftentimes he
+would be the first to reach the box, and, what was more to the point,
+would hold his position against the other horses--hold it against rough
+shouldering from the family horse, savage nipping from the saddler, even
+vigorous cursing and flaying from the swarthy hostler.
+
+With the approach of winter he revealed his courage and temerity
+further. Of his own volition one night he abruptly changed his
+sleeping-quarters. Since the memorable occasion when the mare had kicked
+him out of her stall he had sought out a stall by himself with the
+coming of night, and there spent the hours in fear-broken sleep. But
+this night, and every night thereafter, saw him boldly approaching the
+mare and crowding in beside her in her stall, where, in the contact with
+her warm body and in her silent presence, he found much that was
+soothing and comfortable. Which, too, marked the beginning of a new
+friendship, one that steadily ripened with the passing winter and, by
+the time spring again descended into the valley, was an attachment close
+almost as that between mother and offspring. When in his playful
+moments, rare indeed now for one of his age, he would inadvertently
+plunge into her, or stumble over a water-pail, she would nicker grave
+disapproval, or else chide him more generously by licking his neck and
+withers a long time in genuine affection.
+
+Thus the colt changed in both spirit and physique. And the more he
+changed, and the larger he grew, the greater source of trouble he became
+to the Mexican. Before, he had feared the man. Now he felt only a kind
+of hatred, and this lent courage to make of himself a frequent source of
+annoyance.
+
+With the return of warm weather he resumed his old place in his favorite
+corner. He did this through both habit and a desire to warm himself in
+the sun's rays. And it was all innocent enough--this thing. Yet,
+innocent though it was, more than once, in passing, the Mexican struck
+him with whatever happened to be in his hands. At such times, whimpering
+with pain, he would dart to an opposite corner, there to stand in
+trembling fear, until, his courage returning, and his hatred for the man
+upholding him, he would return and defiantly resume his day-dreaming in
+the corner. This happened for perhaps a dozen times before he openly
+rebelled. And when he did rebel--when the Mexican struck him sharply
+across the nose--he whipped around his head like lightning and, still
+only half awake, sank his teeth savagely into the man's shoulder.
+Followed a string of oaths and sudden appearance of a club, which might
+have proved serious but for the Judge's timely call for the horse and
+phaeton. Whereupon the Mexican slunk off into the stable. But as he went
+Pat saw the gleam in his black eyes, and knew that some day punishment
+most dire and cruel would descend upon him.
+
+He passed through his second summer, that period of trial and sickness
+for many infants, in perfect health. In perfect health also he passed
+through the autumn and on into his second winter. Growing ever stronger
+with the passing seasons, he came to reveal still further his wonderful
+vitality, and to reveal it in many ways. Often he would take the
+initiative against the Mexican, kicking at him without due cause,
+refusing always to get out of his way, once nipping him sharply as he
+hurried past under pressing orders from the house. Also, having grown to
+a size equal to the brown saddler, he began to reveal his antipathy for
+this animal. Not only would he shoulder him away from the feed-box, but
+he would kick and snap at him, and once he tipped over the water-pail
+for no other reason, seemingly, than to deprive the saddler of water.
+The result of all this was that, with the passing seasons, both the
+Mexican and the saddler showed increasing respect for him, and the
+former went to every precaution to avoid a serious encounter.
+
+But it was bound to come in spite of all his efforts to avoid it.
+Fighting spring flies in the stable one morning, Pat was aroused by a
+familiar sound in the corral. It was the sound which usually accompanied
+feeding, and, whirling, he plunged eagerly toward the door. As he did so
+the Mexican, about to enter the stable, appeared on the threshold. Pat
+saw him too late. He crashed headlong into the Mexican and sent him
+reeling out into the inclosure. From that moment it was to the death.
+
+The Mexican painfully gained his feet and, swearing a mighty vengeance,
+caught up a heavy shovel. Pat saw what was coming and, dashing out into
+the corral, sought protection behind the feed-box. But the infuriated
+man hunted him out, dealing upon his quivering back blow after blow,
+until, stung beyond all caution, Pat sprang for the object of his
+suffering. But the man leaped aside, delivering as he did so another
+vicious blow, this time across Pat's nose--most tender of places. Dazed,
+trembling, raging with the spirit of battle, he surveyed the man a
+moment, and then, with an unnatural outcry, half nicker, half roar, he
+hurtled himself upon his enemy, striking him down. But he did not stop
+here. When the man attempted to rise he struck him down again, and a
+third time. Then, seeing the man lying motionless, he uttered another
+outcry, different from the other, a whimpering, baby outcry, and,
+whirling away from the scene, hurried across the corral and into the
+stable, where he sought out the family horse and, still whimpering
+babyishly, stood very close beside her, seeking her sympathy and
+encouragement.
+
+This closed the feud for all time. Miguel was not seriously hurt. But he
+had learned something, even as Pat had learned something, and thereafter
+there existed tacit understanding between them.
+
+The seasons passed, and the third year came, and with it the beginning
+of the end of Pat's loneliness. One morning late in June he was aroused
+by the voice of the Mexican, who, with brushes and currycomb in hand,
+had come to clean him. Pat was in need of just this cleaning. Though
+wallowing but little, leaving that form of exercise to the older horses,
+he nevertheless was gritty with sand from swirling spring winds. So he
+stood very still under the hostler's vigorous attention. But Miguel's
+ambition did not stop here. He turned to the other horses and curried
+and brushed them also, working till the perspiration streamed from him.
+But this was not the end. He set to work in the stable, and scraped and
+cleaned to the last corner, and rubbed and scoured to the smallest
+harness buckle. It was all very unusual, and Pat, standing attentive
+throughout it all, revealed marked interest and something of surprise.
+Soon he was to know the reason.
+
+Along toward noon, as he was feeding at the box, he saw a very dignified
+young woman leave the house, cross the _patio_ in his direction,
+and come to a stop immediately outside the fence. Though the feed-box
+always held his interest above all other things, and though it was
+strongly attracting him now, he nevertheless could not resist the
+attention with which this young woman regarded him. He returned her gaze
+steadily, wondering who she was and what she meant to do. He soon found
+out, for presently she set out along the fence and came to a stop
+directly in front of him. She did more. She held out a hand and sounded
+a single word softly.
+
+"Pat!" she called.
+
+And now something took place inside the colt. With the word, far back in
+his brain, in the remotest of cells, there came an effort for freedom.
+It was a grim struggle, no doubt, for the thing must fight its way
+against almost all other thoughts and scenes and persons in his memory.
+But at length this vague memory gained momentum and dominance. And now
+he understood. The young woman outside the fence was his little mistress
+of early days! Lifting his head, he gave off a shrill and protracted
+nicker of greeting.
+
+Helen dropped her hand. "Bless you!" she cried, and sped along the
+fence, opened the gate, and ran inside. "You do know me, don't you?" she
+burst out, and, hurrying to his side, hugged him convulsively. "And I'm
+so glad, Pat!" she went on. "It--it has been a long three years!" She
+stepped back and looked him over admiringly. "And you have grown so!
+Dear, oh, dear! Three years!" Again she stepped close and hugged him. "I
+am so proud of you, Pat!"
+
+All this love-talk, this caressing and hugging, was as the lifting of a
+veil to Pat. Within him all that had lain dormant for three
+years--affection, desires, life itself--now pressed eagerly to the
+surface. And though his mistress did not look the same to him--though he
+found himself gazing down now instead of up to engage her eyes--yet, as
+if she had been gone but a day, he suddenly nuzzled her hand for loaf
+sugar and quartered apples. Then as suddenly he regretted this. For she
+had left him--was running across the corral. Frantically he rushed after
+her and, with a shrill cry of protest, saw her enter the house. But soon
+she appeared again, and when close, and he saw the familiar sweets in
+her hand, he nickered again, this time in sheer delight. And if he had
+doubted his good fortune before, now, with his mouth dripping luscious
+juices, he knew positively that he had come into his own again.
+
+Sometime during the feast Helen noticed a scar across his nose. "Why,
+Pat!" she exclaimed. "How ever did you get that?"
+
+But Pat did not say. Indeed, it is doubtful whether, in this happiest of
+moments, he would have descended to such commonplaces. But it was no
+commonplace to Helen, and she promptly sought out the Mexican. Yet
+Miguel declared that he knew nothing of the scar. He had been very
+watchful of the colt, he lied, cheerfully, and the scar was as much a
+mystery to him as it was to her. Whereupon Helen decided that Pat had
+brought it about through some prank, and, after returning to him and
+indulging in further caresses and love-talk, reluctantly took leave of
+him, returning to the house, there to begin unpacking her numerous
+trunks.
+
+Thus their friendship was renewed. Pat was older by three years, as the
+girl was older by three years. But each was much older than that in
+point of development. Where before had been baby affection in him and
+girl affection in her, now was a thing of greater worth and more lasting
+quality--affection of a grown horse and a grown woman. In the days which
+followed this was brought out in many ways. The colt did not once frisk
+and play about the inclosure, a trait she remembered best; yet she did
+not wish it. She preferred him as he was, finding in his mature conduct
+something that enhanced his beauty; and rare beauty it was, as she
+frequently noted in running proud eyes over his lines, and in noting it
+came more and more to feel not alone great pride for him, but a sure
+love as well--not the love woman gives to man, of course, but the love
+she can give, and does give, without stint, to all dumb animals.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE FIRST GREAT LESSON
+
+
+Helen spent much time in the society of the horse. Aside from attending
+to his wants, such as food and water, she more than once took comb and
+brush in hand and gave him a thorough cleaning. This invariably brought
+a grin to the ugly features of Miguel, and when the Judge was present,
+which was not often, a smile of delight mixed with derision to his ruddy
+features. But never would Helen permit them to discourage her. She would
+brush and curry Pat till his coat shone like new-mined coal, and then,
+after surveying the satiny sheen critically, she would comb out his long
+tail, sometimes braid his glossy mane, and, after that, scour his hoofs
+till they were as clean and fresh as the rest of him. In her pride for
+him she liked to do these things, and often regretted that he did not
+require her attention more than he did.
+
+One day, with characteristic suddenness, she decided to have him broken
+to saddle. Therefore, next morning, three horse-breakers--one
+professional and two assistants--armed with ropes and saddles, appeared
+in the corral. Pat was sunning himself in his corner, and at their
+entrance only cocked his ears and blinked his eyes lazily. Outside the
+inclosure Helen, together with a scattering of spectators, attracted by
+the word of this treat in town, stood quietly expectant. One of the
+assistants, a raw-boned individual with hairy wrists, drove Pat out of
+his corner, while the professional, a large man of quiet demeanor,
+turned to Miguel, who was standing in the stable door, and put a
+question to him. Miguel, out of his own experience, warned them against
+the horse. Whereupon the large man neatly roped Pat, settling the noose
+skilfully around the horse's neck.
+
+Instantly Pat was a quivering bundle of nerves. Bracing his legs, he
+drew back on the rope. But the man held to it grimly. The man did more.
+He suddenly raced across the inclosure, gave the rope a deft twist, and
+followed the twist with a vigorous jerk. Pat plunged heavily to the
+ground.
+
+He lay dazed, breathing laboriously, till the rope slackened. Then he
+started to rise. But he only gained his fore legs. The second assistant,
+a slender youth, resisted his efforts, forcing Pat's head back by
+sitting upon it. Pat twisted and writhed to throw him off. But the man
+stayed with him, and finally had him prone to earth again. Whereupon Pat
+experienced the chagrin of his first defeat. Yet he could see. Upon the
+retina of each eye danced a picture. It was that of his mistress,
+surrounded by open-mouthed spectators, outside the fence, gazing down
+upon him with seeming approval. This once, but only this once, he felt
+dislike for her.
+
+One of the men approached with a halter. Pat had seen these things in
+the stable, and he instinctively knew what they were for. But he would
+not accept this one. Embittered by his fall, chafing under the weight
+upon his head, he struggled so successfully that he finally dislodged
+the man. Then he sprang to his feet again, and, trembling in every part,
+glared savagely at his tormentors.
+
+"Better give him a twist," quietly suggested the professional.
+
+Pat heard the remark. But he did not understand, and so remained quiet.
+Presently he felt a light hand creeping up along his neck, pausing,
+patting him, creeping along farther, pausing and patting him again. It
+was not unpleasant, and under the soothing influence he came to believe
+that his tormentors had experienced a change of attitude. But he was
+mistaken. Suddenly his ear was gripped as in a vise. Also, it was
+twisted sharply, once, twice, and then held in a relentless grip. He
+stood still as death. Up and down his spine, from his ear to his tail,
+coursed shrieking pain, hacking him like the agony of a thousand
+twisting knives. Under the terror of it he stopped breathing--stopped
+till he must breathe or swoon. Then he did take air, in short, faint
+gasps, but each gasp at terrible cost. And standing thus, fearing to
+move, he accepted the halter. He could do naught else.
+
+The raw-boned assistant turned to Helen apologetically. "Lively hoss,
+Miss Richards," he declared. "Reckon we're in for a little exercise."
+And he grinned.
+
+Anxiously Helen mounted the fence, standing upon a lower board. "You
+won't hurt him, I hope--that is, needlessly! I don't want that, you
+know!" And she gazed at Pat with pitiful eyes.
+
+The other laughed. "No; 'tain't that," he hastened to reassure her.
+"He's lively--that's all."
+
+The professional looked Pat over speculatively, and again made a
+suggestion. "Better blindfold him, Larry," he said.
+
+Pat heard this as he had heard the other. And because he was coming to
+know this man's voice, and to interpret it correctly, despite the agony
+it cost him he went on his guard, spreading and bracing his legs as
+against shock. He did not receive shock, however. Merely a piece of soft
+flannel was tucked gently under his halter and drawn carefully over his
+eyes. Against the soft pressure of it he closed his eyes. As he did so
+the hand released his ear. Conscious of sweet relief from the dread pain
+now, he opened his eyes again, only to discover that he could not see!
+
+Here was new distress! He did not understand it. He knew that his eyes
+were open; knew that it was the time of sunshine; knew with grim
+certainty that he was awake. Yet he could not see! He flung up his head;
+tossed it across and back; flung it down again. Yet the unnatural
+darkness! He took to pawing the ground. He began to recall his
+surroundings before this strange darkness had descended upon him--the
+girl outside the fence, the spectators upon the fence, the tormentors
+inside the fence, the glorious sunlight, the distant shimmering
+mountains, the stable and outhouses and cottage. But all were gone from
+him now. Everything was black with the blackness of night! Again he
+tossed his head--and again and again. But still the darkness! He was
+afraid.
+
+Here came a change. Across his vision leaped sudden flashing lights,
+myriads of them, dancing strangely before him. Gripped in new fear, he
+watched them closely, saw them hurry, pause, hurry again, all in
+dazzling array. They kept it up. Breathlessly he saw them dart to and
+fro, speed near, whirl and twist, until out of sheer distress he closed
+his eyes for relief. But he got no relief. He saw the lights as before,
+saw them dancing and pirouetting before his eyes, and suddenly whisk
+away, as though satiated with their fiendishness. But they left him limp
+and faint and with a throbbing pain in his head. Again he stamped the
+earth and shook his head. But the darkness clung. He could not throw off
+the thing before his eyes. Yet he persisted. He tossed his head until
+dizziness seized him. Then he stopped all effort and relaxed. His head
+began to droop; he let it droop, low and lower, until he smelled the
+earth. This aroused him. His spirit of fight rose again. He jerked up
+his head, sounded a defiant outcry, stiffened his legs for action. This
+for a moment only, for he did not act--somehow felt it was not yet time.
+But he gave way to a grim restlessness. He took to rocking like a
+chained elephant--from right hind to left fore, from left hind to right
+fore legs--changing, always changing.
+
+"Well, old son," came a voice on his chaotic thoughts, "we've just found
+a bridle that'll suit. But it took us a mean long time to do it, didn't
+it?"
+
+Pat stopped swaying. He stopped suddenly, as one checked by a mighty
+force. And so he was. For he knew now that the time had come. Here was
+his tormentor! Here was one of them within reach! The time had come to
+strike, to strike this man, to crush him to earth, to kill the cause of
+his suffering--
+
+"Here, hoss," went on the voice, soothingly, the while Pat smelled a
+something of the stable underneath his nose. "Go to it! It's right
+harmless--now, ain't it?" Which it seemed to be from the smell.
+
+But Pat struck--reared with the speed of lightning and struck.
+
+The blow was unexpected. It sent the man spinning, whirling across the
+inclosure. He dropped into a corner like a log.
+
+There was a tense moment. Spectators sat dazed; horsemen stood rigid;
+the girl screamed. Then the large man ran to the prostrate form. He bent
+over, gazed briefly, straightened up with a reassuring smile. Presently
+the assistant arose and, rubbing his shoulder ruefully, caught up the
+fallen bridle. Soon the work of breaking was resumed as though nothing
+had happened.
+
+Pat was standing motionless. But he was keenly alert. He heard the man
+draw near, felt the hand creeping along his neck, but he had learned his
+lesson well. He reared and struck again--this time only empty air. Yet,
+as he returned to earth, almost before he touched ground, the hand was
+around his ear, another was around his other ear, he was feeling the
+dread twist again, twofold. Every twitch of muscle, every least gasp for
+air, sent excruciating pain throughout the ends of him. Fearing to move,
+yet clamoring for breath, he slowly opened his mouth.
+
+Which was what they wanted, evidently. He felt a cold something suddenly
+thrust between his teeth. It was hard as well as cold. He tasted it,
+rolled it over his tongue, and found it not painful. Then came something
+else. His head was being hurriedly fitted with a leathery contrivance.
+But neither was this painful, save only as it touched his twisted ears,
+and he therefore experienced no increasing alarm. Then, with this
+adjusted, he was introduced to something else--a something held close
+under his nose. He smelled this carefully; noted that it reeked with
+odors of the stable; smelled it again. Next he knew it was being placed
+gently upon his back. It was soft, and quite hairy, and though it
+irritated him a little, he accepted it without loss of composure. But
+when it was followed, as it was directly, by a heavier something, a
+something fitting his back snug and hard, he instantly determined to
+rebel, despite his twisted ears. But he could not withstand the
+increased pain, and he permitted the thing to be made secure with straps
+around his body. And now came a heavier something, a free and loose
+weight, something with spring and give to it, and which had flung up
+from the ground. And suddenly, flaying his pained senses, understanding
+flashed upon him. This was a man. There was a tormentor upon his back,
+gripping the thing in his mouth, holding him solidly to the ground. He--
+
+"Go!"
+
+It was a word of command. With the word Pat felt his ears released. As
+he thrilled with relief the cloth was jerked off his eyes. For a time
+the fierce daylight blinded him. Then the pupils of his eyes contracted
+and all objects stood out clearly again--the men in the corral, the
+spectators on the fence, his mistress outside the fence. Also he saw the
+sunlit stable, and Miguel in the doorway, and the house in the trees.
+All had come back to him, and he stood gazing about him blinkingly,
+trying to understand, conscious of straps binding his body and
+restraining his breathing.
+
+Then suddenly he understood--remembered--remembered that he had been
+abused, had been tortured as never before. And he awoke to the fact that
+he was still being tortured. There was this thing in his mouth. There
+was this contraption on his head. There was that thing on his back, and
+the weight upon the thing. Also, there was that binding of his belly,
+and the irritation due to the prickly something pressing his back and
+sides. All these facts stung him, and under the whip of them he awoke to
+a mighty urging within. It was his fighting spirit rekindling--the thing
+that was his birthright, the thing come down to him from his ancestors,
+the thing that told him to rebel against the unnatural. And heeding
+this, voice, heeding it because he knew no other, he decided to give
+decisive battle.
+
+In a frenzy of effort he suddenly reared. He pirouetted on hind legs;
+pawed the air with fore legs; lost his balance. Failing to recover
+himself, he went over backward. He struck the earth resoundingly, but he
+realized that the weight was gone, and he felt a faint glow of victory!
+
+"Wow!" yelled a spectator, excitedly.
+
+Pat heard this and hastily regained his feet. And because he was
+uncertain of his next move he remained motionless. This was a mistake,
+as he soon discovered. For he saw two men leap, grasp both his ears;
+felt the dread twist again. So he remained still, and he felt the man
+mount again. Then came rumbling in upon his tortured soul again the
+insistent voice telling him to rebel further, and to keep on rebelling
+until through sheer brute strength he had mastered these unnatural
+things. With the grip on his ears released he once more gave heed to
+this clamoring within.
+
+He leaped straight up into the air. Returning to earth with
+nerve-shattering shock, he whirled suddenly, pitched and bucked, tossed
+and twisted, all in mad effort. But the weight clung fast. He whirled
+again, and again leaped, leaped clear of the ground, returning to it
+this time on stiffened legs. But he could not shake off the weight. He
+flung across the corral, twisting, writhing, bucking; flung back
+again--heart thumping, lungs shrieking for air, muscles wrenching and
+straining; and again across, responding, and continuing to respond, to
+the ringing voice within, like the king of kings that he was. But he
+could not dislodge the weight.
+
+"Great!" yelled an excited spectator.
+
+"See that hoss sunfishin'!" burst out another.
+
+"An' corkscrewin'!" added a third.
+
+"Better 'n a outlaw!" amplified a fourth.
+
+And now the first again: "Stay with him, Alex! I got two dollars--Oh,
+hell!"--this disgustedly. "Come out o' that corner!" Then suddenly he
+turned, face red as fire, and apologized to Helen. "I beg your pardon,
+Miss Richards," he offered, meekly. But he turned back to the spectacle
+and promptly forgot all else in his returning excitement. "Shoot it to
+him, Alex!" he yelled. "Shoot it; shoot it! He's a helldinger, that
+hoss!" Frenziedly he then yawped, cowboy fashion:
+"Whe-e-e-o-o-o-yip-yip! Whe-e-e-o-o-o-yip-yip!"
+
+Yet Helen--poor Helen!--had not heard. Holding her breath in tense fear,
+eyes upon her pride fighting his fight of pride, half hopeful that he
+would win, yet fearful of that very thing, she watched the strife of man
+skill against brute strength, keyed up almost to snapping-point.
+
+But her horse did not win. Neither did he lose. She saw him take up, one
+after another, every trick known to those familiar with horses, and she
+marveled greatly at his unexpected knowledge of things vicious. Along
+one side of the inclosure, across the side adjacent to it, back along
+the side opposite to the second, then forward along the first
+again--thus round the corral--he writhed and twisted in mighty effort,
+bucking and pitching and whirling and flinging, the while the sun rose
+higher in the morning sky. Spectators clambered down from the fence,
+stood awhile to relieve cramped muscles, clambered on the fence again;
+but the horse fought on; coat necked with white slaver, glistening with
+streaming sweat in the sunlight, eyes wild, mouth grim, ears back, he
+fought on and on till it seemed that he must stop through sheer
+exhaustion. But still he fought, valiantly, holding to the battle until,
+with a raging, side-pitching twist, one never before seen, he lost his
+footing, plunged to the ground, tore up twenty feet of earth, crashed
+headlong into the fence, ripped out three boards clean as though struck
+by lightning--lay motionless in a crumpled heap.
+
+The man was thrown. He arose hastily. As he wiped away his perspiration
+and grime he saw blood on his handkerchief. He was bruised and bleeding,
+and wrenched inwardly, yet when Pat, returning to consciousness, hastily
+gained his feet, the man leaped for the horse, sounding a muffled curse.
+But he did not mount. And for good reason. For Pat was reeling like a
+drunken man--head drooping, fore parts swaying, eyes slowly closing. At
+the sight one of the spectators made a plea in Pat's behalf.
+
+"Whyn't you take him outside?" he demanded. "Into the open. This ain't
+no place to bust a horse like him! That horse needs air! Get him out
+into about three-quarters of these United States! Git ginerous! Git
+ginerous! I hate a stingy man!"
+
+Whereupon Helen at last found voice. "Wait!" she cried, evenly, and,
+turning, sped along the fence to the gate. Inside the corral she hurried
+to the horse and flung her arms around his neck. "Pat dear," she began,
+tenderly, "I am so sorry! But it's 'most over with now, if you'll only
+accept it! Can't you see, Pat? It is so very necessary to both of us!
+For then I myself can ride you! Please, Pat--please, for my sake!"
+Whereupon Pat, as if all else were forgotten--all the torture, all the
+struggle and shock--nickered softly and nuzzled her hands for sugar and
+apples. Suppressing a smile, and accepting this as a good omen, she
+stroked him a few times more and then stepped back. "Later, dear!" she
+promised and left him, suddenly mindful of spectators. But, though she
+felt the blood rush into her cheeks, she did not leave the inclosure.
+The horse-breaker stepped resolutely to Pat and, laying firm hands upon
+the bridle, waited a moment, eying Pat narrowly, then flung up into the
+saddle. Pat's sides heaved, his knees trembled, but he did not resist.
+Eyes trained upon his mistress, as if he would hold her to her promise,
+he set out peacefully, and of his own volition, across the inclosure.
+Further, even though he could not see his mistress now, he turned in
+response to the rein and started back across the inclosure. And he kept
+this up, holding to perfect calm, breaking into a trot when urged to it,
+falling back into a walk in response to the bridle, round and round and
+round until, with a grunt of satisfaction, the man dismounted close
+beside the girl and handed her the reins.
+
+"Rides easy as a single-footer, Miss Richards," he declared. "Where can
+I wash up?"
+
+Which ended Pat's first great lesson at the hands of man. But though
+this lesson had its values, since he was destined to serve mankind, yet
+he had learned another thing that held more value to him as an animal
+than all the teachings within the grasp of men--he had learned the
+inevitable workings of cause and effect. His nose was scraped and his
+knees were scraped, and all these places burned intensely. And,
+intelligent horse that he was, he knew why he suffered these burns--knew
+that he had brought them about through his own sheer wilfulness. True,
+he was still girt with bands and straps, and in a way they were
+uncomfortable. But they did not pain him as the wounds pained him. Not
+that he reasoned all this out. He was but a dumb animal, and pure
+reasoning was blissfully apart from him. But he did know the difference
+between what had been desired of him and what he himself had brought on
+through sheer wilfulness. Thus he awakened, having learned this lesson
+with his headlong plunge into the fence, and having added to the lesson
+of the futility of rebellion the very clear desires of his mistress.
+Other and less intelligent horses would have continued to respond to the
+ancestral voice within till death. But Pat was more than such a horse.
+
+With the men gone, he revealed his intelligence further. Helen
+commissioned Miguel to fit him with her saddle and bridle, then hurried
+herself off to the house. Returning, clad in riding-habit and with hands
+full of sugar and quartered apples, she fed these delectables to him
+till his mouth dripped delightful juices. Then, while yet he munched the
+sweets, she mounted fearlessly. Sitting perfectly still for a time to
+accustom him to her weight, she then gave him the rein and word. Without
+hesitation he responded, stepping out across the inclosure,
+acknowledging her guiding rein in the corner, returning to the
+starting-place and, with the word, coming to a stop. It was all very
+beautiful, rightly understood, and, thrilled with her success, Helen sat
+still again, sat for a long time, gazing soberly down upon him. Then she
+bent forward.
+
+"Pat," she began, her voice breaking a little with emotion suddenly
+overwhelming her, "this begins our real friendship and understanding.
+Let us try to make it equal"--she straightened up, narrow eyes off
+toward the mountains--"equal to the best that lies within us both."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+A STRANGER
+
+
+As the weeks passed, each day bringing its period of companionship, this
+friendship and understanding between them became perfect in its
+simplicity. Pat learned to know her wishes almost without the reins, and
+he showed that he loved to carry her. Also, with these daily canters on
+the mesa he developed in bodily strength, and it was not long before he
+was in the pink of condition. Yet it was a perfection that was only
+natural for him. The quality of his blood was shown in his nostrils,
+which were wide and continuously atremble; in his eyes, which were
+bright and keenly alert; and in his ears, which were fine and vibrant.
+Stepping through town each morning under Helen's restraining hand, he
+would pick up his hoofs with a cleanliness and place them down with a
+grace that always commanded the attention of admiring eyes. But he
+seemed unconscious of his quality.
+
+Dressed in her usual dark riding-habit, Helen entered the corral one
+morning for her daily canter across the mesa. Already Pat was bridled
+and saddled. But as she stepped alongside to mount, Miguel appeared in
+the stable door with a brief tale of trouble and a warning. It seemed
+that he had experienced difficulty in preparing the horse, and between
+puffs at a cigarette he strongly advised Helen to be careful.
+
+"He's a-very fresh thees mornin'," he concluded, with an ominous shake
+of his head.
+
+Helen looked Pat over. He appeared in anything but a cantankerous mood.
+He was standing quietly, eyes blinking sleepily, ears wriggling lazily,
+in an attitude of superior indifference toward all the world. So,
+untroubled by the hostler's tale, she slipped her foot into the stirrup.
+Instantly the horse nickered queerly and stepped away.
+
+"Steady, Pat!" she gently admonished, and again attempted to mount. But,
+as before, he stepped away, this time more abruptly. He began to circle
+around her, prancing nervously, pausing to paw the ground, prancing
+again nervously. She held firm grip on his bridle, however, and sharply
+rebuked him. "Pat," she exclaimed, "this is a new trait!" And then,
+before he could resist again, she caught hold of the saddle-horn, leaped
+up, hardly touching the stirrup, and gathered the reins quickly to meet
+further rebellion.
+
+But with her in the saddle Pat was quite another horse. He snapped his
+ears at attention, wheeled to the gate, and cantered briskly out of the
+corral.
+
+It was a beautiful morning. The air nipped with a tang of frost, and she
+rode swiftly through town and up the hill to the mesa in keen
+exhilaration. Once on the mesa, Pat dashed off ecstatically in the
+direction of the mountains. The pace was thrilling. The rush of the
+crisp wind, together with the joy of swift motion, sent tingling blood
+into Helen's cheeks, while the horse, racing along at top speed, flung
+out his hoofs with a vigor that told of the riot of blood within him.
+Thus they continued, until in the shadow of the mountains--just now
+draped in their most delicate coloring, the pink that accompanies
+sunbeams streaming through fading haze--she pulled Pat down and gave
+herself over to the beauty of the scene. The horse, also appreciative,
+came to a ready stop and turned his eyes out over the desert in
+slow-blinking earnestness.
+
+"Pat!" suddenly cried Helen. She pulled his head gently around in the
+direction of the mountain trail. "Look off there!"
+
+Above the distant trail hung a thin cloud of dust, and under the cloud
+of dust, and rolling heavily toward town, creaked a lumber rigging,
+piled high with wood and drawn by a pair of plodding horses--plodding
+despite the bite and snarl of a whip swung with merciless regularity.
+The whip was in the hands of a brawny Mexican, who, seated confidently
+on the high load, appeared utterly indifferent to the trembling
+endeavors of his scrawny team. He was inhaling the smoke of a cigarette,
+and with every puff mechanically flaying the horses. The spectacle
+aroused deep sympathy in the girl.
+
+"Only consider, Pat!" she exclaimed, after a while. "Those poor,
+miserable horses--half-starved, cruelly beaten, yet of God's own
+making!" She was silent. "Suppose you had been born to that service,
+Pat--born to that oppression! You are one of the fortunate!" And she
+bent forward and stroked him. "One of the fortunate!" she repeated,
+thoughtfully.
+
+Indeed Pat was just that. But not in the way Helen meant. For such was
+the whim of Fate, and such is the limit of human understanding, she did
+not know, and never would know, save by the grace of that Fate, that Pat
+had been born in just that service, born to just that oppression; that
+only by the kindness of Fate he had been released from that service,
+that oppression, that he had been guided out of that environment and
+cast into a more kindly, bigger, and truer environment--her own!
+
+But Pat only blinked stolid indifference at the spectacle. He appeared
+to care nothing for the misery of other horses, nor to appreciate her
+tenderness when directed elsewhere than toward himself. After a time, as
+if to reveal this, he set out of his own volition toward a particularly
+inviting bit of flower, dainty yellow in the brown of the desert.
+Plucking this morsel, he fell to munching it in contentment, and
+continued to munch it till the last vestige disappeared. Then, again of
+his own volition, he broke into a canter. Helen smiled and pulled him
+down.
+
+"You're a strange horse, Pat," she declared, and fell to stroking him
+again. "And not the least strange thing about you is your history.
+Sometimes I wonder whether you are actually blooded. Certainly you look
+it, and at times assuredly you act it; yet if you are so valuable, why
+didn't somebody claim you that time? It is all very mysterious." And she
+relapsed into silence, gazing at him thoughtfully.
+
+Aroused by sudden faint gusts of wind, she glanced around and overhead.
+She saw unmistakable signs of an approaching storm, and swung Pat about
+toward home. As the horse broke into a canter the gusts became more
+fitful and sharper, while the sun, growing dim and hazy, cast
+ever-increasing shadow before her. Presently, as far as the eye could
+reach, she saw the landscape spring into active life. Dust-devils
+whirled about in quick eddies, stray sheets of paper leaped up,
+tumbleweed began steady forward movement, rabbit-like, scurrying before
+the winds, the advance occupied by largest growths, the rear brought up
+with smallest clumps, the order determined by the area each presented to
+the winds. It was all very impressive, but, knowing the uncertain
+character of the elements, and uncertain whether this foretold violent
+sand-storm or milder wind-storm, she was gripped with apprehension. She
+urged Pat to his utmost.
+
+And Pat responded, though he really needed but little urging. With each
+sudden gust he became increasingly afraid. Holding himself more and more
+alert to every least movement about him, he was steadily becoming keyed
+up to a dangerous pitch. Rollicking tumbleweed did not worry him any
+more than did the swirling dust-devils. These were things of the desert,
+each the complexion of the desert. But not so with scraps of paper.
+Their whiteness offered a startling contrast to the others, and,
+whisking about frantically, they increased his fears. Then suddenly a
+paper struck him, whipped madly across his eyes. It was unexpected, and
+for an instant blinded him. Gripping the bit in his teeth, he bolted.
+
+His sudden plunge almost unseated Helen. But, recovering, she braced
+herself grimly in the stirrups and pulled mightily on the reins. But she
+could not hold him. He increased his speed, if anything, and hurtled
+across the desert--head level, ears flat, legs far-reaching. She braced
+herself again, flinging back head and shoulders, thrusting her feet far
+forward, and continued to pull. But it counted for nothing. Yet she did
+not weaken, and under her vigorous striving, coupled with the jolting of
+the horse, her tam-o'-shanter flew off, and her hair loosened and fell,
+streaming out whippingly behind. And then suddenly, struck with terror
+herself, she cried out in terror.
+
+"Pat!" she burst out. "Pat! Pat!"
+
+But the horse seemed not to hear. Thundering madly forward, he appeared
+blind as well as fear-stricken, and Helen, suddenly seeing a barb-wire
+fence ahead, felt herself go faint, for she had never taken a fence, and
+she knew that Pat never had. She must get control of herself again. And
+this she did. Stiffening in the stirrups, she gripped a single rein in
+both hands and pulled with all her strength. But she could not swerve
+the horse. On he plunged for the obstruction, evidently not seeing it.
+She screamed again.
+
+"Pat! Pat! Pat!"
+
+But, as before, the horse did not heed. He dashed to the fence. He
+hesitated, but only for an instant. Throwing up his head, he rose and
+took the fence cleanly. Once on the other side, he resumed his frantic
+racing--pounding along in the mountain trail, his course clearly
+defined, hurtling madly straight toward town. With the fence safely
+cleared, and the way ahead free of vehicles, Helen regained much of her
+composure. Settling calmly to the rhythmic movement, she permitted the
+horse free rein. Once she reached back to gather up her hair, but the
+motion of the horse forbade this. So she fell to watching his splendid
+energy, finding herself quite calm and collected again, vaguely
+wondering how it would end. For the horse seemed tireless.
+
+Wise in his knowledge of first principles, and remembering the terrible
+slap across his eyes, Pat continued to rush forward. As he ran he kept
+eyes alert about him, fearing another blow. He knew that the thing was
+white, and he watched for a white something. Instead of a white
+something, however, there presently loomed up beside him a brown
+something, browner even than the desert, a something racing along beside
+him, moving with a speed equal to his own--even greater than his own!
+But he did not pause to analyze this. Instead, he forced himself to
+greater efforts, pounding the hardened trail with an energy that hurt
+his ankles, stretching neck and legs to their utmost limit of fiber--on
+and on in increased frenzy. But he could not best this object beside
+him. Yet that did not discourage him. He continued grimly forward, stung
+to desperation now by a double purpose, which was to outrun this thing
+on his right as well as get away from the other possible pursuing
+object. Yet the brown thing gained upon him--drew steadily nearer,
+steadily closer--he saw a hand shoot out. He felt a strong pull on his
+bridle, a tearing twist on the bit in his mouth, and found himself
+thrown out of his stride. But not even with this would he accept defeat.
+He reared in a nervous effort to shake off the hand. Finding this
+futile, he dropped back again, and at last came to a trembling, panting,
+nerve-racked pause.
+
+The thing was a horseman. He hurriedly dismounted, still retaining hold
+on Pat's bridle, and smiled up at Helen.
+
+"I--I tried to overtake you--to overtake you before you reached the
+fence," he began to explain, pausing between words for breath. "This
+horse of yours can--can claim--claim anything on record--for speed." And
+he looked Pat over admiringly.
+
+Helen did not speak at once. In the moment needed to regain her
+self-possession she could only regard him with mute gratitude. She saw
+that he was young and well-built, though lean of features, but with
+frank, healthy eyes. He was not at all bad-looking. Also she observed
+that he was neatly garbed in puttees and knickerbockers, and she quickly
+appraised him as the usual type of Easterner come into the valley to
+spend the winter. Then she suddenly remembered her hair. Woman-like, she
+hastily gathered it up into a knot at the back of her head before she
+answered this young man smiling up at her.
+
+"Pat never ran like that before," she explained, a bit nervously. "I was
+beginning to wonder what would happen at the railroad crossing. You
+checked him just in time. I--I really owe--"
+
+"Sure he won't charge again?" interrupted the young man, evidently
+wishing to avoid any expression of gratitude on her part.
+
+"I--I am quite certain," she replied, and then, after thanking him,
+slowly gathered up the reins. But she did not ride on, for the reason
+that the other, now absorbed in a cool survey of Pat's outlines,
+retained his hold on the bridle. Yet neither the survey nor the grip on
+the bridle displeased her.
+
+"A splendid horse," he declared, after a moment. "A beautiful animal!"
+Then, evidently suddenly mindful that he was detaining her, he stepped
+back.
+
+Helen again prepared to ride on.
+
+"Pat is a beautiful horse," she agreed, still a little nervous. "And
+like all beauty," she added, "he develops strange moods at times." Then,
+her sense of deep gratitude moving her, she asked, "Were you going
+toward town?"
+
+For reply he swung into the saddle. He wheeled close, and they set out.
+He appeared a little ill at ease, and Helen took the initiative.
+
+"From the East, I take it?" she inquired. "There are not a few
+Easterners down here. Some have taken up permanent residence."
+
+"Yes," he replied, "I'm from the East--New York."
+
+She liked his voice.
+
+"We are here for the winter--mother and myself. Mother isn't strong, and
+your delightful climate ought to improve her. I myself came along"--he
+turned twinkling eyes toward her--"as guide and comforter and--I
+fear--all-round nuisance." He was silent. "I like this country," he
+added, after a moment.
+
+Helen liked him for liking her country, for she had true Western pride
+for her birthplace. So she said the natural thing, though without
+display of pride. "Everybody likes it down here."
+
+He looked at her hesitatingly. "You're not from the outside, then?"
+
+"No," she rejoined. "I am a native."
+
+He showed restless curiosity now. "Tell me," he began, engagingly,
+"about this country. What, for instance, must one do, must one be,
+to--to be--well, to be accepted as a native!" He said this much as one
+feeling his way among a people new to him, as if, conscious of the
+informal nature of their meeting, he would ease that informality, yet
+did not know precisely how.
+
+Yet Helen found herself quite comfortable in his society now, and,
+permitting herself great freedom, she spoke almost with levity.
+
+"You have asked me a difficult question," she said. "Offhand I should
+say you must ride every morning, sleep some part of the early afternoon,
+and--oh, well, ride the next morning again, I reckon." And she smiled
+across at him. "Are you thinking of staying with us?"
+
+He nodded soberly. Then he went on. "What else must one do?" he asked.
+"Is that all?" His eyes were still twinkling.
+
+Helen herself was sober now. "No," she replied, "not quite. One must
+think a little, work a little, do a little good. We are very close
+together down here--very close to one another--and very, very far from
+the rest of the world. So we try to make each day register something of
+value, not alone for ourselves, but for our neighbors as well." She was
+silent. "We are a distinct race of people," she concluded, after a
+moment.
+
+He turned his head. "I like all that," he declared, simply. "Though I'm
+afraid I won't do--much as I dislike to admit it. You see, I've never
+learned to live much in the interest of others." He regarded her with
+steady eyes.
+
+Helen liked him for that, too. Evidently he had had too much breeding,
+and, from his remark, knew it. So she took it upon herself at least to
+offer him encouragement.
+
+"You will learn," she rejoined, smiling. "Everybody does."
+
+With this, Helen discreetly changed the subject. She entered upon less
+intimate matters, and soon, sweeping off into a rhapsody over the
+country--its attraction for Easterners, its grip on Westerners--she was
+chatting with a freedom typical of the country. For by now she was
+interested, and for some inexplicable reason she found herself drawn to
+the smiling stranger.
+
+Also, Pat was interested. But not in the things which appealed to his
+mistress. Pat was pondering the sullen nature of the horse beside him,
+and as they rode slowly toward town he stole frequent sidelong glances
+at his unfriendly companion. But all he could arrive at was that, while
+appearing peaceable enough, this horse was the most self-satisfied
+animal chance had ever thrown his way. After a time he ceased all
+friendly advances, such as pressing close beside him and now and again
+playfully nipping at him, and took up his own affairs, finding deep
+cause for satisfaction in the return of his breath after the long race,
+and in the passing of pain from his strained legs, to say nothing of the
+complete absence of flying papers around him.
+
+They crossed the railroad track and entered the town. Here the young man
+took a polite leave of Helen, and Pat, seeing the unfriendly horse
+canter away at a brisk gait, himself set out briskly, feeling somehow
+called upon to emulate the step of the other. And thus he continued
+through town to the river trail, which he followed at an even brisker
+stride, and thence to the ranch and the corral. Here his mistress took
+leave of him--abruptly, it seemed--and made her way straight into the
+house. Directly the Mexican came and removed his saddle and bridle. With
+these things off, he shook himself vigorously, and then took up his
+customary stand in the corner, and confidently awaited the reappearance
+of his mistress with sugar and apples--a reward she never had denied
+him.
+
+But he waited this time in vain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+FELIPE MAKES A DISCOVERY
+
+
+Pat waited in vain two whole days. Not once did she come to him, not
+once did he lay eyes upon her. He became nervous and irritable, and in
+this emptiness, equal to that which he had suffered during the three
+years she was away, he spent every waking moment in the corral, standing
+in his favorite corner, eyes strained toward the house, occasionally
+interrupting the silence with a pleading nicker. But his vigil gained
+him nothing, his watching remained unrewarded, his outcries went
+unanswered. Finally, with the close of each day he would enter the
+stable, but only to brood through half the night--wondering, wondering.
+But never did he give up hope. Nor had he given up hope now, this
+morning of the third day, when, standing in his corner as usual, he
+heard a door close in the house.
+
+As always, his heart leaped with expectation, and he gave off a
+protracted whinny. Also he pressed close to the fence. This time he was
+not disappointed. For coming slowly toward him, with her hands behind
+her back, was his mistress.
+
+"Pat," she began, standing close before him, "I have neglected you
+purposely. And I did it because I have lost confidence in you." She
+regarded him a long moment coldly, then was forced to smile. "I suppose
+I feel toward you much as I used to feel toward a doll of mine that had
+fallen and cracked its head. I want to shake you, yet I can't help but
+feel sorry for you, too." And again she was silent.
+
+Pat shifted his feet uneasily. He did not quite understand all this,
+though he knew, despite the smile of his mistress, that it was serious.
+Still, encouraged by the smile, he pressed close and asked for sweets,
+nuzzling her coat-sweater persistently. But she stepped away. Whereupon
+he reached his neck after her, and became almost savage in his coaxing.
+Finally he was relieved to see her burst into a peal of laughter.
+
+"Here!" she said, and held out both hands. "I don't care if your head is
+broken!"
+
+Glory be! Two red apples in one hand; a whole handful of loaf sugar in
+the other! If ever a horse smiled, he smiled then. Also, he promptly
+accepted some of the sugar, and, enjoying every delicious mouthful,
+reached for an apple. But she drew back. Evidently she was not yet
+finished with her reprimand.
+
+"Blissfully unconscious of your behavior that morning, aren't you?" she
+continued. "Not a bit ashamed; not one speck regretful!"
+
+Well--he wasn't. He was not a bit ashamed, not one speck regretful.
+Merely, he was sweet-hungry. And now that the sugar was gone, he wanted
+one of those apples mightily. Finally she gave him one, and then the
+other, feeding them to him rapidly, but not more rapidly than he wanted
+them. Then she spoke again.
+
+"Pat dear," she said, her voice undergoing change, "I'm troubled. I am
+foolish, I know. But I can't help it. I advised that very nice young man
+to ride every morning. And he may do it. But if he does, sooner or
+later, perhaps the very first morning, we shall meet up there on the
+mesa. I want that, of course; but for reasons best known to Easterners,
+I don't want it--not yet." She gazed off toward the mountains. "I
+reckon, Pat dear," she concluded, after a moment, turning her eyes back
+to him, "we'd better ride in the afternoons for a time. Yet the
+afternoons are so uncomfortably hot. Oh, dear! What shall I do?"
+
+But the horse did not answer her. All he did was stand very still, eyes
+blinking slowly, seemingly aware of the gravity of the situation, yet
+unable to help her. Indeed, that her serious demeanor had struck a note
+of sympathy within him he presently revealed by once more pressing very
+close to her--this in the face of the fact that she had no more sweets
+with her and he could see that she had no more. The movement forced her
+back, and evidently he perceived his mistake, for he quickly retraced
+one step. Then he fell to regarding her with curious intentness, his
+head twisting slowly in a vertical plane, much as a dog regards his
+master, until, evidently finding this plane of vision becoming awkward,
+he stopped. After which Helen playfully seized his ears and shook his
+head.
+
+"You're a perfect dear!" she exclaimed. "And I love you! But I'm afraid
+we--we can't ride mornings any more--not for a while, at any rate." With
+this she left him.
+
+He followed her to the gate, and with reluctance saw her enter the
+house. Then he rested his head upon the topmost board and, though he
+hardly expected it, waited for her return. Finally he abandoned his
+vigil, making his way slowly into the stable. He found both horses in
+their stalls, restlessly whisking their tails, offering nothing of
+friendliness or invitation. Also he awoke to the depressing atmosphere
+here, and after a time returned to the corral, where he took up a stand
+in his favorite corner and closed his eyes. Soon he was dreaming.
+
+Sound as from a great distance awoke him. He opened his eyes. Outside
+the fence, and regarding him gloatingly, were two swarthy Mexicans in
+conversation. This was what had awakened him.
+
+"Bet you' life!" one was saying, the taller man of the two. "Thot's my
+li'l' horse grown big lak a house--and a-fine! Franke, we gettin' thot
+_caballo_ quick. We--"
+
+A door had closed somewhere. The men heard it and crouched. But neither
+abandoned the ground. After some little time, hearing nothing further to
+alarm them, they set out along the fence to a rear door in the stable.
+It was not locked, and they lifted the latch and tiptoed inside. Up past
+the stalls they crept with cat-like stealth, gained the door leading
+into the corral, came to a pause, and gazed outside. The horse was still
+in his corner, his black coat glistening in the sunlight, and Felipe
+once more burst into comment, excited, but carefully subdued.
+
+"A-fine! A-fine!" he breathed, rapturously. "He's lookin' joost lak a
+circus horse! You know, Franke," he added, turning to the other, "I haf
+see thee pictures on thee fences--" He interrupted himself, for the man
+had disappeared. "Franke!" he called, whispering. "You coom here. You
+all thee time--" He checked himself and smiled at the other's
+forethought. For Franke was emerging from a stall, carrying a halter.
+"Good!" he murmured. "I am forgettin' thot, _compadre_!" Then once
+more he turned admiring eyes upon the horse. "Never--_never_--haf I
+see a horse lak thot! Mooch good luck is comin' now, Franke! Why not?"
+
+They stepped bravely forth into the corral. Yet their hour had been well
+timed. The house was still, quiet in its morning affairs, while the
+countryside around, wrapped in pulsating quiet, gave off not a sound.
+Cautiously approaching the horse, Franke slipped the halter into
+position, the while Felipe once more uttered his admiration. He was a
+little more direct and personal, however, this time.
+
+"Well, you black devil!" he began, doubling his fist under Pat's nose.
+"You haf run away from me thot time, eh? But you don' run away
+again--bet you' life! I got you now and I keep you thees time! I haf
+work for you--you black devil--mooch work! You coom along now!"
+
+They led the horse into the stable, down past the stalls, and out the
+back door. Then they set out toward the river trail, and, with many
+furtive glances toward the house, gained it without interruption.
+Felipe's lumber rigging and team of scrawny horses stood in the shade of
+a cottonwood, and Franke made the horse fast to the outhanging end of
+the reach. When he was secure both men seated themselves just back of
+the forward bolster, one behind the other, and Felipe sent his horses
+forward. Safely out of the danger zone, though Felipe entertained but
+little fear of the consequences of this act, believing that he could
+easily prove his ownership, he became more elated with his success and
+burst out into garrulous speech.
+
+"You know, Franke," he began, with a backward glance at the horse
+ambling along peacefully in the dust, "thot _caballo_ he's strong
+lak a ox. He's makin' a fine horse--a _fine_ horse--in thees wagon!
+He's--" He suddenly interrupted himself. "Franke," he offered,
+generously, "for thees help I'm takin' off five dolars on thot debt now.
+You know? You haf never pay me thot bet--thee big bet--thee one on thee
+wagon and thee horses. And you haf steal seex dolars, too! But I'm
+forgettin' thot, now, too. All right?"
+
+The other nodded grateful acceptance. Then, as if to show gratitude
+further, he very solicitously inquired into the matter, especially with
+reference to Felipe's discovery of the horse after all these years. They
+were clattering across the mesa now, having come to it by way of a long
+detour round the town, and before replying Felipe gave his team loose
+rein.
+
+"Well," he began, as the horses fell back into a plodding walk, "I haf
+know about thot couple weeks before. I haf see thees _caballo_ in
+town one mornin', and a girl she is ridin' heem, and everybody is
+lookin', and so I'm lookin'." He paused to roll a cigarette. "And then,"
+he continued, drawing a deep inhale of smoke, "I haf know quick lak
+thot"--he snapped his fingers sharply--"quick lak thot"--he snapped his
+fingers again--"there's my _potrillo_ grown big lak a house! And
+so--"
+
+"But how you knowin' thot's thee horse?" interrupted the other. "How you
+knowin' thot for sure?" Evidently Franke was beginning to entertain
+grave doubts concerning this visit to the corral.
+
+But Felipe only sneered. "How I know thot?" he asked, disdainfully. "I'm
+joost tellin' you! I know! Thot's enough! A horse is a horse! And I know
+thees horse! I know every horse! I got only to see a horse once--once
+only--and I'm never forgettin' thot horse! And I'm makin' no meestake
+now--bet you' life!" Nevertheless, flicked with doubt because of the
+gravity of the other, he turned his head and gazed back at the horse
+long and earnestly. Finally he turned around again. "I know thot horse!"
+he yelled. "And I'm tellin' you thees, Franke," he went on, suddenly
+belligerent toward the other. "If you don' t'ink I'm gettin' thee right
+_caballo_, I have you arrested for stealin' thot seex dolars thot
+time! Money is money, too. But a horse is a horse. I know thees horse.
+Thot's enough!" Yet he relapsed into a moody silence, puffing
+thoughtfully on his cigarette.
+
+Behind the outfit, Pat continued along docilely. In a way he was
+enjoying this strange journey across the mesa. It was all very new to
+him, this manner of crossing, this being tied to the rear of a wagon,
+and he found himself pleasantly mystified. Nor was that all. Not once
+had he felt called upon to rebel. In perfect contentment he followed the
+rigging, eyes upon the outhanging reach, for he was intent upon
+maintaining safe distance between this thing and himself. Once, when
+they were mounting up to the mesa, he had met with a sharp blow from
+this projection--due to sudden change of gait in the horses--and he only
+required the one lesson to be ever after careful. As for the men
+forward, he knew nothing of them, and never, to his knowledge, had seen
+them before. But in no way was he concerning himself about them. Nor,
+indeed, was he worrying over any part of this proceeding. For in his
+dumb animal way he was coming to know, as all dumb servants of man come
+to know, that life, after all, is service, a kind of self-effacing
+series of tasks in the interests of others, and that this ambling along
+behind the vehicle was but one of the many kinds.
+
+"And," suddenly broke out Felipe, who, having threshed the matter out to
+his satisfaction, now felt sure of his position once more, "I haf follow
+thees girl and thee horse. I haf see thee place where she's goin'--you
+know." And he winked foxily. "And then I haf coom to thees place, two,
+three times after thee horse. But always thee man is there. But thees
+mornin' I'm seein' thot _hombre_ in town, and so I haf go gettin'
+you to coom help me. But you haf steal seex dolars. I'm forgettin'
+thot--not! And if you say soomt'ing to soombody soomtime, I'm havin' you
+arrested, Franke, for a t'ief and a robber--same as I ought to arrest
+thot Pedro Garcia oop in the canyon."
+
+Franke maintained discreet silence. But not for long. Evidently he
+suddenly thought of a point in his own favor.
+
+"You' havin' good luck thees time, Felipe," he declared, tranquilly,
+"especially," he hastened to add, "when I'm t'inkin' of thee halter.
+Without thee halter, you know, you don' gettin' thees _caballo_."
+
+Felipe ignored this. "I haf need a horse," he went on, thoughtfully.
+"Thee mot'er of thees black fel'r--you know, thot's thee mot'er--she's
+gettin' old all time. She's soon dyin', thot _caballo_. Thees black
+horse he's makin' a fine one in thees wagon." Franke said nothing. Nor
+did Felipe speak again. And thus, in silence, they continued across the
+mesa and on up the canyon to the little adobe in the settlement. Arrived
+before the house, Franke quickly disappeared in the direction of his
+home, leaving Felipe to unhitch and unharness alone. But Felipe cared
+nothing for this. He was supremely happy--happy in the return of the
+long-lost colt, doubly happy in the possession of so fine a horse
+without outlay of money. Whistling blithely, he unhitched the team, led
+them back into the corral, returned to the wagon again. Here, still
+whistling, he untied the black and escorted him also into the inclosure.
+Then, after scratching his head a long moment in thought, he set out in
+the direction of the general store and a bottle of _vino_.
+
+As the man disappeared, Pat, standing uncertainly in the middle of the
+corral, followed him with a look in his eyes that hinted of vague
+memories that would not down. And well he might be flicked with vague
+memories. For he was at last returned to the brief cradle of his
+babyhood.
+
+Late that same afternoon, Helen, attired in riding-habit, left the house
+for her first afternoon canter. As she slowly crossed the _patio_,
+she noted the absence of Pat from his usual corner, but, assuming that
+he was inside the stable, called to him from the gate. But she received
+no answering whinny. Slightly worried, she entered the corral and
+stepped to the stable door, and again sounded his name. Again she
+received no answering whinny. She entered the stable, walked past the
+stalls, peered in at each with increasing alarm. Only the saddle-horse
+and the family horse met her troubled eyes. She stood for a moment
+dismayed, then once more she sounded the horse's name. But, as before,
+she received no answering whinny.
+
+Puzzled, perplexed, troubled with misgivings, yet refusing to believe
+the worst, she fell to analyzing the thing. She knew that since coming
+to the ranch Pat at no time had been outside the corral save in her
+charge. Also she recalled that only a short hour or two before she had
+given him sweets and had talked with him. Nor could the horse have
+strayed out of the inclosure, because she remembered that the gate was
+latched when she had reached it. All these facts flashed across her as
+she stood with grave eyes sweeping the stable. Finally she stepped back
+to the door and gazed out into the sunlight of the corral; but, as
+before, the inclosure was empty and silent, and now, somehow,
+forbidding. She called again--called to the horse, called to the
+Mexican. But again came only the echo of her voice, sounding hollow and
+solemn and plaintive through the stable.
+
+Suddenly her heart stopped beating. She remembered that the hostler had
+left for town on foot early in the morning. And now her fears broke
+bounds. The horse was gone! Some one had come in Miguel's absence. Her
+Pat had been stolen! He was gone for ever out of her life! Standing a
+moment, trembling with bitterness, she darted out of the stable, out of
+the corral, across the _patio_. She sped into the house and her
+father's study, caught up the receiver of the telephone.
+
+And then, after a long time, the connection. And her father's voice. And
+her frantic inquiry. And the Judge's smiling reply. And her recital of
+the facts--pleading, pitiful, almost whimpering. And now the Judge's
+serious rejoinder. And then her imperious request that he come home. And
+the Judge's regretful reply--could not on account of pressing matters.
+And then her tearful, choking outburst into the transmitter! And now
+suddenly the wires crossing and a strange voice demanding that she get
+off. And with it her utter collapse. She whirled away from the
+telephone, flung herself down upon a couch, and gave way to a wild
+outburst of tears.
+
+The thing _was_ pitiful. The horse had occupied a very big place in
+her life. And because that place now was empty, and because she saw no
+promise of its ever being filled, she sobbed wretchedly a long time.
+Then, rising quietly, she ascended the stairs to her room. Here she sank
+into a chair, one that overlooked the corral, and began an analysis of
+the case, taking the affair up from the very first day of Pat's coming
+into her life. She did not go further than that. Woman that she was,
+endowed with strongest intuitions and insight, she knew she had sounded
+the mystery of his disappearance, had sounded it as clearly as though
+she had been present.
+
+"Pat's rightful owners have found him and put in their claim!" She got
+up and began to pace the floor. "I know it," she declared with
+conviction. "I know it as well as I know I'm in this room. Pat--Pat has
+been--been taken and--and--" Tears choked back her words. Again she
+turned to her bed and gave way to a paroxysm of grief.
+
+Her tears lasted until sleep mercifully descended. And thus she lay,
+outstretched and disheveled, until the sun, slanting across the room,
+settled its mellow rays upon her. And even though the touch was light
+and gentle and somehow sympathetic, it awoke her. She rose and hurried
+to a window. Out in the corral all was quiet. She dropped into a chair
+and turned her eyes to the east--out over the mesa to the distant
+mountains. The mountains were draped in their evening purple, which
+seemed to her like mourning for her lost happiness--a happiness that
+might have been hers always with the horse.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE SECOND GREAT LESSON
+
+
+Next morning Pat, imprisoned in a tiny stable, tried to get out by
+thrusting his head against the door. But the door would not give. Alone
+in semi-darkness, therefore, he spent the day. Twice a Mexican youth
+came to feed and water him, but always the quantity was insufficient,
+and always the boy carefully locked the door after him. Because of this,
+together with the poor ventilation, Pat became irritable. He longed for
+the freedom of the big corral--its sunlight, the visits of his
+mistress--but these were steadfastly denied him. And so through another
+night and another day, until he became well-nigh distracted. He stamped
+the floor, fought flies, dozed, dreamed strange dreams, stamped the
+floor again. After three days of this, sounds outside told him of the
+return of man and horses. But not till the next morning, and then quite
+late, was he released from the odious confinement.
+
+Felipe bustled in, all eager for business. He drove his recent
+acquisition out into the corral and set to work harnessing one of the
+team--the mate of the aged mare. When she was bridled and standing in
+the trail in front of his empty wagon, he hurriedly returned to the new
+horse, placed a bridle upon his head, led him forth, and swung him close
+beside the other horse. He winced just a little at the incongruity of
+the team, though he did not let it delay him. He picked up the half of
+the harness and tossed it over the mare's back. Then he caught up the
+other half, and, preparing to toss it upon the black, began to
+straighten out deep and unexpected tangles.
+
+"Well, you black devil," he began, as he twisted and turned the
+much-bepatched harness, "you doin' soom work now! All you' life you
+havin' mooch good times! Eet is not for thee fun thot you live, you
+know?" he went on, academically, continuing to disentangle the harness.
+"Eet is for thee work thot you live! Work--thot's thee answer!" Then,
+having straightened the harness at last, with a grunt of satisfaction he
+tossed it lightly up.
+
+Instantly there was wild commotion. With a kick and a plunge the horse
+flung off the harness.
+
+Felipe stood dumfounded. It had never occurred to him that the horse was
+not broken to harness. Horses reared as this one evidently had been
+reared ought certainly to be educated to all kinds of service. Yet this
+horse evidently was not. He scratched his head in perplexity. To break a
+horse to harness was no child's play, as he well knew. To break a horse
+of this character to harness, as he well understood also, was a task
+that required exceptional patience and hardihood. What should he do?
+There was his constant press for money. The aged mare having almost
+dropped in the trail the evening before, was unfit for toil, and to
+break a horse to harness meant loss of time, and, as every one knows,
+loss of time meant loss of money. So what should he do? He was utterly
+at a loss.
+
+Striding to the doorstep, he sat down and regarded the horse with
+malevolent disgust. After a time, jerking off his hat savagely, he burst
+out into a thundering tirade.
+
+"You black devil! You haf give me more trouble than anyt'ing I haf ever
+own--chickens, burro, pigs, horses, money--money, even--money I haf owe
+thot robber Pedro! First you haf run away thot time! Then you haf mek me
+steal you out of thot place couple days before! And now"--he suddenly
+leaped to his feet--"now you haf mek me break you to thees wagon and
+harness!" He advanced to the startled horse and brandished his fist.
+"But I break you!" he snarled--"I break you like a horse never was broke
+before! And--and if I don' break you--if you don' do what I haf say--I
+break every bone inside!" With this he began feverishly to peel off his
+coat.
+
+And this is the lot of the dumb. Merely for not knowing what a man
+believed he should know, Pat was to be humiliated, was to be punished
+far beyond justice and decency. And because he was a horse abnormally
+highstrung and sensitive, this punishment was to be doubly cruel. To him
+a blow was more painful than to the average horse, even as a word of
+kindness sank deeper and remained longer to soften his memory. On his
+maternal side he was the offspring of native stock, but he was blooded
+to the last least end of him, and while from his mother he had inherited
+his softer traits, like his affection for those who showed affection for
+him, it was from his sire, unknown though he was, that he inherited an
+almost human spirit of rebellion when driven by lash or harsh word, and
+also the strength to exercise it. In the face of these qualities, then,
+he was to be broken to harness and a wagon by a man!
+
+Felipe lost little time in preparation. He set out through the
+settlement, his destination a distant and kindly neighbor. He moved at a
+stride so vigorous that the good townspeople, roused by the rare
+spectacle of a man in a hurry, interrupted their passive loafing beside
+well and in doorway, and turned wondering eyes after him. But if their
+eyes showed wonderment at his going, on his return they showed amazement
+and a kind of horror. For Felipe, acting for once in the capacity of
+work-horse, was straining along at the end of a huge wagon-tongue
+affixed to a crude and mastodonic axle which in turn supported two
+monolithic cart-wheels. It was a device by which he meant to break the
+horse to harness, and, perspiring freely, and swearing even more freely,
+he dragged it shrieking for grease through the settlement, really at
+work, but work which was not to be admired. Reaching the clearing in
+front of his house, he dropped the heavy tongue and whipped out a red
+handkerchief with a sigh of relief. Also, as he wiped away the
+perspiration on his forehead and neck and arms, he turned baleful eyes
+upon the innocent cause of his toil.
+
+"You black devil!" he growled, after a moment. "I feex you now--bet you'
+life! And you can keeck--and keeck and keeck! You don' worry thees cart
+mooch! You black devil!"
+
+Then he became active again. He strode back into the corral, sought out
+an old harness and a huge collar, and dragged them forward into the
+trail. Flinging them aside in the direction of the cart, he then turned
+to the mare, removed the work-harness from her, and led her into
+position before the warlike vehicle. Again perspiring freely, but losing
+no breath now in abusive talk, he quickly harnessed her up and then
+strode forward to the black. After eying him narrowly a moment, he
+seized his bridle and led him back alongside the mare, where he
+proceeded nervously to harness him.
+
+"We see now," he began, as he picked up the massive collar. "You can
+stond still--thot's right! And maybe you can take thees t'ing--we see!"
+
+The collar was much too large for workaday use, but it was not too large
+for this purpose. Its very size gave it freedom to pass over the head
+without the usual twisting and turning. Nor did the horse rebel when it
+was so placed--a fact which gave Felipe much relief, since he now
+believed that he would not have the trouble he had anticipated. Also,
+with the collar in position, he was but a moment in adjusting the hames,
+making fast the bottom strap, and hooking the tugs securely. With
+everything in readiness he then caught up the reins and the whip, and
+stepped away to begin the real work of breaking.
+
+"_Haya!_" he cried, and touched up the off-horse. She started
+forward, as always with this command from her master. But she did not go
+far.
+
+Pat was the cause of the delay. Understanding neither the contraption at
+his heels, nor the word of command from the man, he held himself
+motionless and pleasantly uninterested, gazing slowly about at the
+landscape. Nor did he offer to move when the man cut him viciously with
+the whip. The lash pitted his tender flesh and hurt mightily; but even
+though he now understood what was required of him, he only became
+stubborn--bracing his legs and flattening his ears, forcefully resisting
+the counter efforts of the mare beside him.
+
+And this was his nature. Long before he had demonstrated that he would
+not be governed by a whip. That day in the Richardses' corral, when he
+was broken to saddle, cruelty alone would never have conquered him.
+Cruelty there had been, and much of it; but with the cruelty there had
+been other things--evidence of affection at the right moment, both in
+his mistress and in the men about him, and these, coupled with quick
+understanding, had made the breaking a success. And had there been
+evidence of kindness now, somewhere revealed early by this man, Pat
+might have drawn the cart as the straining mate at his side was
+attempting to draw it. But there was no evidence of kindness, and as a
+result he remained stubborn and wilful, standing braced and trembling,
+true in every particular to the spirit of his forebears.
+
+Nor was Felipe less true to the spirit within himself. Infuriated,
+uncompromising, believing this to be merely the cussedness natural with
+the native horses, he abandoned all hope of instant success and gave way
+to brutality. Dropping the reins and reversing the whip in his hands, he
+began to beat the horse unmercifully, bringing the heavy butt down again
+and again, each mighty thwack echoing down the canyon. The result was
+inevitable. The horse began to kick--straight back at first, then,
+finding his hoofs striking the cart, he swung sideways to the tongue and
+kicked straight out. This last was sudden, and narrowly missed Felipe,
+who leaped to one side. Then, unable to reach the horse with the butt,
+he reversed the whip again and resumed his first torture, that of
+pitting the legs of the horse with the lash.
+
+"Keeck!" he snarled, continuing to swing the whip. "Keeck! Keeck! I can
+keeck, too!" He swung his arm till it ached, when he stopped.
+
+Whereupon the horse settled down. But his eyes were ablaze and he was
+trembling all over. Also, while undoubtedly suffering added distress
+from the taut and binding traces, he continued to stand at right angles
+to the mare--head high, nostrils quivering, mouth adrip with white
+slaver--until the spirit of rebellion appeared to grip him afresh. With
+a convulsive heave he moved again, making another quarter turn, which
+brought him clear of the tongue and facing the vehicle. Then he set up a
+nervous little prancing, whisking his tail savagely, now and again
+lifting his heels as if to strike. That was all. He gained no ground
+forward, nor did it appear as if he would ever move forward.
+
+"You--you--" began Felipe, then subsided, evidently too wrathful for
+words. And he remained silent, gazing wearily toward the settlement, as
+though about to call assistance.
+
+The stillness was heavy and portentous. Both horses were motionless.
+Felipe continued silent. Off toward the settlement all was still.
+Overhead, the early-morning sky pressed low, spotless and shimmering,
+brooding. Around and about, the flies seemed to stop buzzing. Everywhere
+lurked the quiet. The earth appeared bowed in humiliation, hushed in
+prayer as for the unfortunate one, while up and down the trail, basking
+in world-old light, lay dust of centuries, smug and contented in its
+quiescence. All nature was still, gripped in tense quiet.
+
+The crack of a whip broke it. Felipe, suddenly bestirring himself, had
+sprung forward and dealt the horse a blow with the butt. Across the
+nose, it had sounded hollow and distant; and the horse, whipping up his
+head in surprised pain, now turned upon the man a look at once sorrowful
+and terrible, a look which spelled death and destruction. Nor did he
+only look. With a strange outcry, shrill and piercing, awaking the
+canyon in unnatural echoes, he whirled in his harness and reared, reared
+despite his harness, and struck out with venomous force. It was quick as
+a lightning flash, but, quick as it was, Felipe avoided it. And it was
+fortunate that he did. Terror-stricken and dropping the whip, he sped to
+the rear, to a point behind the cart, and there turned amazed eyes at
+the pirouetting horse.
+
+What manner of horse was this, he asked himself. Could it be that this
+horse, black as night, was truly of the lower regions? Certainly he
+looked it, balancing there on his hind legs, with his reddened eyes and
+inflamed nostrils! And--But what was this? From the corral had come a
+shrill nicker, the voice of the aged mare. But that was not it! With the
+outcry, seemingly an answer to the black's maddened outcry, the black
+dropped to all-fours again, turning quick ears and eyes in the direction
+of the sound! What manner of horse was this, anyway? Never before had he
+seen such a horse! He felt himself go limp.
+
+There is a call in nature that sounds for life against death. It is a
+call put forth in innumerable different tongues around the world, and it
+sounds somewhere every second of the day and darkness--through jungles,
+across swamps, down mountains, over plains, out of valleys. It is a cry
+of warning, a cry to disarm foes. It is an outcry of good as against
+evil--the squawk of a hen to her chicks, the bleat of a sheep to her
+lambs, the grunt of a sow to her sucklings, the bellow of a cow to her
+calf, the purr of a cat to her kittens, the whine of a dog to her
+puppies, the drum of a partridge to her young. A cry from the heart to
+the heart, an appeal of flesh to its own flesh, it is the world-old
+mother-call.
+
+And the horse heard this call. He probably did not recognize in it a
+call of the mother-heart, any more than it was possible for the aged
+mare to recognize in his outcry the voice of her own flesh. What he did
+hear, no doubt, was the voice of a friend, one who understood and
+pitied, and would help if it could help. At any rate, he stood very
+still, seemingly grateful for the evidence of a champion, seemingly
+anxious that it sound again. But it did not sound again. Yet he made no
+further effort to give battle. He held to his attitude of intent
+listening, ears cocked forward and eyes straining and tail at rest,
+until Felipe, stung into action by an idea wrought out of all this,
+hastened out from behind the cart and away in the direction of the
+corral. At sight of him the horse became restless again, squaring
+himself once more to the mare, stamping his feet and champing his bit
+nervously. He seemed to lose all recollection of the outcry, all the
+peace it had engendered within him. Of such are the kingdom of the dumb.
+
+Possessed by his idea, an idea so brilliant that he himself marveled,
+Felipe was not long in putting it to test. He hurriedly bridled the aged
+mare and led her out into the trail. He placed her alongside the
+black--for reasons which, had the _compadre_ Franke been present,
+Felipe might have suggested with a crafty wink--then hastily began to
+unhitch the team-mate. And it was just here that he proved his
+foresight. In the work of unhitching the mate, he should have
+encountered, and had expected, trouble from the black. But he did not.
+The mare sounded another friendly nicker when arranged beside him, and
+the black, pricking up his ears sharply, turned to her and proceeded to
+establish his friendship by licking her. So Felipe did not meet with
+difficulty from that direction; nor did he have trouble in the direction
+of the team-mate herself. She seemed glad to be relieved from her
+unsuccessful task, and Felipe, glad to relieve her in the light of his
+brilliant idea, led her off to one side quickly, then returned and swung
+the old mare into her place. He hitched her up, picked up the reins and
+whip, and set about with his test.
+
+"We see now," he began, his voice quiet and encouraging. "Maybe you work
+wit' thee old woman! We see!" And he gave a low command.
+
+With the command Pat started forward, urged to it by the aged
+mare--pulling more than his share of the load. Perhaps it was due to her
+presence; perhaps to the note of kindness in Felipe's voice. At any
+rate, he moved, and he moved forward, and he moved with a steady pull.
+Yet he did not proceed far. Though he did not stop through rebellion. It
+was simply to renew his attentions to the old mare. He began to caress
+her as if he really recognized in this rack of an animal his own lost
+mother. But recognition, of course, was impossible. Long before, the
+only source of recognition, appeal made through digestive organs, had
+disappeared. Nevertheless, he lavished upon her unwonted affection until
+Felipe gently but firmly urged him forward again. Then again he
+proceeded, pulling all of the load this time, bringing about a slack in
+the traces of the mare and a consequent bumping of her hind legs against
+the cart which seemed to awaken some of her dying spirit.
+
+Up and down the trail they moved, the mare sedately, the horse actively,
+prancing gaily, appearing to take gleeful pleasure in his task, until
+Felipe, kindled with elation and pride, decided to drive on into the
+settlement and there become the object of covetous eyes. Therefore he
+urged the team forward to a point in front of the general store, where
+in lordly composure sat Pedro, occupying his customary seat on an empty
+keg on the porch. At sight of him Felipe's joy leaped to the heavens,
+and he pulled up the team, ostensibly to adjust a forward buckle, but in
+reality to afford Pedro an uninterrupted view of the beautiful black.
+Moving forward to the head of the horses, he watched out of the tail of
+his eye Pedro's lazy survey of the team.
+
+"Where you got thot horse?" inquired Pedro, after a long moment, as he
+slowly removed a cigarette from between his lips. "I mean," he added,
+"where you haf _steal_ thot _caballo_?"
+
+Felipe winced. But he did not immediately retort. He carried out his
+bluff, unbuckling and buckling one of the straps, then mildly
+straightened up and faced the man.
+
+"Pedro," he began, tensely, "you haf know--José, Juan, Manuel,
+Francisco, Carlotta--all haf know--thot eet is only one t'ief in all
+thees place! And thot man--thot t'ief--is Pedro Garcia!"
+
+Pedro grunted. "Where you haf steal thot horse?" he repeated, without
+show of anger. "You can give me thot horse," he continued, placidly.
+"You haf owe me mooch money. I take thot horse for payment--everyt'ing.
+You give thot _caballo_ to me."
+
+Felipe turned to the team. "I give you one keeck in thee belly!" he
+roared. Then he touched up the horses and started back toward the house.
+Gone was all elation, all pride, all gleeful consciousness of
+possession.
+
+Gaining the clearing, he decided to try out the other horse with the
+black. He realized that the aged mare was unfit, even though in the last
+hour she had appeared greatly to improve, and he must accordingly match
+up a team. So he unhitched her and swung the mate into place. He met
+with disagreeable surprise, however. The black would not pull with this
+horse. Instead, he held himself quietly at rest, gazing about sleepily
+over the landscape, a trick of his, as Felipe had learned, when quietly
+rebelling. Felipe looked at him a moment, but did not try to force him
+with tongue or lash. For he was coming to understand this horse, and,
+concluding that sooner or later, under proper treatment, he would
+probably accept duty with any mate, determined to abandon work for the
+day. Whereupon he unhitched the horses and led them all back into the
+corral. Then he put up the bars and set out in the direction of the
+settlement.
+
+Which ended Pat's second great lesson at the hand of man. He was sore
+and somewhat stiff from the struggle, but he did not fret long over his
+condition, for he soon awoke to the presence of that beside him in the
+corral which caused him to forget himself completely. It was the
+worn-out structure of skin and bones who had befriended him in his hour
+of trial. He gazed at her a moment, then approached and fell to
+caressing her, showing in this attention his power to forget
+self--aches, sores, troubles--in his affection and gratitude toward all
+things warranting affection and gratitude.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE STRANGER AGAIN
+
+
+Meantime, Helen was becoming desperate over her loss. Unwilling to
+accept the theory of her household, which was that Pat had been stolen
+by a band of organized thieves and ere this was well out of the
+neighborhood and probably the county, she had held firmly to her
+original idea, _viz._, that the horse was in the possession of his
+rightful owners, and so could not be far out of the community.
+Therefore, the morning following his disappearance, having with sober
+reflection lightened within her the seriousness of it all, she had set
+out in confident search for him, mounted on her brown saddler. But
+though she had combed the town and the trails around the town, quietly
+interviewing all such teamsters and horsemen as might by any chance know
+something about it, yet in answer to her persistent inquiries all she
+had received was a blank shake of the head or an earnest expression of
+willingness to assist her. So, because she had continued her search for
+three days without success, inquiring and peering into every nook and
+corner of the community, she finally had come to regard her quest as
+hopeless, and to become more than ever an image of despair.
+
+The evening of the fourth day there was a dance. It was one of the
+regular monthly affairs, and because Helen was a member of the committee
+she felt it her duty to attend. One of the young men, accompanied by his
+mother and sister, drove out for her, but she left the house with
+reluctance and a marked predisposition not to enjoy herself. But she
+forgot this when she presently beheld the young man from the East whom
+she had encountered on the mesa. He was standing close beside a rather
+frail little woman, undoubtedly his mother, who with the matrons of the
+town was seated near a fireplace watching the dancers. He was
+introduced. Later they sat out one of his numbers alone together in a
+corner behind some potted palms. In the course of their conversation
+Helen informed him of the disappearance of her horse, and asked him, as
+she asked everybody she met now, if he knew anything or had heard
+anything concerning the loss. The young man knew nothing of the great
+disappearance, however, though he did offer it as his belief that a
+horse of Pat's obvious value could not long remain in obscurity. This
+was encouraging, and Helen felt herself become hopeful again. But when
+he offered his services in the search, as he did presently, she felt not
+only hopeful again, but somehow quite certain now that it would all be
+cleared up. For there was that in this young gentleman which caused
+confidence. What she told him, however, was that she was grateful for
+his offer, and should be greatly pleased to have him with her.
+
+And thus it was that, on the morning of the fifth day, Helen Richards
+and Stephen Wainwright--the young man's name--together with two of
+Helen's close friends, were riding slowly across the mesa, alert for any
+combination in harness which might reveal the lost Pat. Helen and
+Stephen were well in the lead, and Helen had broken the silence by
+addressing Stephen as a native, recalling their first meeting. Whereupon
+the young man, smiling quietly, had wanted to know why; but after she
+had explained that it was because he had enlisted himself in the search
+for a horse, adding that in doing so he had conformed with one of the
+unwritten laws of the country, he still confessed himself in the dark.
+This had been but a moment before, and she now settled herself to
+explain more fully.
+
+"A horse is, or was, our most valued property," she began. "I reckon the
+past tense is better--though we'll never quite live down our interest in
+horses." She smiled across at him. "Long ago," she went on, "in the days
+of our Judge Lynch, you know, a stolen horse meant a hanged man--or two
+or three--as not infrequently happened. But all that is history now. Yet
+the feeling remains. And whenever one of our horses disappears--it is
+rare now--we all take it more or less as a personal loss. In your
+willingness to help find Pat, therefore, you declare yourself one of
+us--and are gladly admitted."
+
+He rode along in silence. "Why was the feeling so intense in the old
+days?" he inquired, after a time.
+
+"It was due to physical conditions," she replied--"the geography of the
+country. Water-holes were few and very far apart, and to get from one to
+another often entailed a journey impossible to a man without a horse. To
+steal his horse, therefore, was to deprive him of his sole means of
+getting to water--practically to deprive him of his life. If he didn't
+die of thirst, which frequently he did, at best it was a very grave
+offense. It isn't considered so now--not so much so, at any rate--unless
+in the desert wastes to the west of us. Yet the feeling still lurks
+within us, and a stolen horse is a matter that concerns the whole
+community."
+
+He nodded thoughtfully, but remained silent. Suddenly Helen drew rein.
+Before her was a horned toad, peculiarly a part of the desert, blinking
+up at them wickedly. He drew rein and followed her eyes.
+
+"A horned toad, isn't it?"
+
+Helen shook her head. "Are you interested in such things?" she inquired.
+
+"In a way--yes," he affirmed, doubtfully. "Though I can't see good
+reason for their existence." His eyes twinkled. "Can you?"
+
+Helen was thoughtful a moment. "Well, no," she admitted, finally. "Yet
+there must be a good reason. Reptiles must live for some good purpose.
+All things do--don't you think?" Then, before he could make a rejoinder,
+she went on: "I sometimes feel that these creatures were originally
+placed here to encourage other and higher forms of life to come and
+locate in the desert--were placed here, in other words, to prove that
+life is possible in all this desolation."
+
+He glanced at her. "Certainly it has worked out that way, at any rate,"
+he ventured. "Good old Genesis!" He smiled.
+
+"It seems to have," she agreed, thoughtfully. "Because you and I are
+here. But it goes a long way back--to Genesis--yes. Following the
+initial placing, other and higher organisms, finding in their migratory
+travels this evidence of life, accepted the encouragement to remain, and
+did remain, feeding upon the life found here in the shape of toads and
+lizards--to carry the theory forward a step--even as the toads and
+lizards--to carry it back again--fed upon the insects which they in
+their turn found here. Then along came other forms of life, higher in
+the cosmic setting, and these, finding encouragement in the presence of
+the earlier arrivals, fed upon them and remained. And so on up, to the
+forerunners of our present-day animals--coyotes and prairie-dogs. And
+after these, primitive man--to find encouragement in the coyotes and
+prairie-dogs--and to feed upon them and remain. Then after primitive
+man, the second type--the brown man; and after the brown man, the red
+man; and after the red man, the white man--all with an eye to
+sustenance, and finding it, and remaining."
+
+Stephen's eyes swept around the desert absently. He knew--this young
+man--that he was in the presence of a personality. For he could not help
+but draw comparisons between the young woman beside him and the young
+women of his acquaintance in the East. While he had found Eastern girls
+vivacious, and attractive with a kind of surface charm, never had he
+known one to take so quiet and unassuming an outlook upon so broad a
+theme. It was the desert, he told himself. Here beside him was a type
+unknown to him, and one so different from any he had as yet met with, he
+felt himself ill at ease in her presence--a thing new to him, too--and
+which in itself gave him cause to marvel. Yes, it was the desert. It
+_must_ be the desert! In this slender girl beside him he saw a
+person of insight and originality, a girl assuredly not more than twenty
+years of age, attractive, and thoroughly feminine. How ever did they do
+it?
+
+He harked back in his thoughts to her theory. And he dwelt not so much
+upon the theory itself as upon her manner of advancing it. Running back
+over these things, recalling the music of her voice, together with her
+spoken musings, he came to understand why, with that first encounter, he
+had found himself almost instantly curious concerning desert folk. Not
+that he had known why at the time, or had given that phase of it
+consideration. He did remember that he had been strongly impressed by
+the way she had managed her bolting horse. But aside from that, there
+had been something in her personality, an indefinable calm and sureness,
+a grip upon herself, that he had felt the very first moment. Undoubtedly
+all this had flicked him into a novel curiosity. He pulled himself
+together with an effort.
+
+"I like your theory," he answered, smiling. "And it must be true,
+because I am told horned toads are fast disappearing. Evidently they
+have served their purpose. But tell me," he concluded, "what is becoming
+of them? Where are they going?"
+
+She laughed. "I can't tell you that. Perhaps they just vanish into the
+fourth--or maybe the fifth--dimension!"
+
+And this was the other side of her, a side he had come to learn while
+with her at the dance, and which made her lovable as well as admirable.
+But she was speaking again, and again was serious.
+
+"I have yet another theory," she said--"one as to why these creatures
+are here, you know." She smiled across at him. "It is all my very own,
+too! It is that in their presence among us--among mankind--they
+unwittingly develop us through thought. Thinking exercises the brain, we
+are told, and exercising the brain makes for world-advancement--we are
+told." Then, suddenly, "I hope you don't think me silly--Mr. Native?"
+
+But he remained sober. "Tell me," he asked, after a time, "what it is
+about this country--I mean other than friendships, of course--that gets
+under a fellow's soul and lifts it--to the end that he wants to remain
+here? I know there is something, though I can't for the life of me place
+it. What is it, anyway?"
+
+She turned upon him sharply. "Do you really feel that way?" she asked,
+evidently pleased.
+
+"I feel that way. But why do I feel that way? What is it? You know what
+I mean. There is something--there must be!"
+
+"I know what you mean--yes," she replied, thoughtfully. "Yet I doubt if
+I myself, even after all these years, can define it. What you 'feel'
+must be our atmosphere--its rarity, its power to exhilarate. Though that
+really doesn't explain it. I reckon it's the same thing--only much more
+healthful, more soulful--that one feels in large cities after nightfall.
+I mean, the glare of your incandescent lights. I honestly believe that
+that glare, more than any other single thing, holds throngs of people to
+an existence not only unnatural, but laden with a something that crushes
+as well." She was silent.
+
+Again Stephen felt the strange pull on his interest, but he said
+nothing. After a time she went on.
+
+"City-dwellers," she explained, "don't begin their day till the approach
+of dark. It's true of both levels of society, too--lower as well as
+upper. And I believe the reason for this lies, as I have said, in the
+atmosphere--their man-made atmosphere--just as the secret of your
+feeling the way you do lies in our atmosphere--God-made. Were this
+atmosphere suddenly to disappear, both out of your cities and out of my
+deserts, both your world and my own would lose all of their charm."
+
+Stephen bestirred himself. "What psychology do you find in that?" he
+asked, dwelling upon the fact that she knew his East so well.
+
+"Merely the effect of softening things--for the soul as well as the
+eye--through the eye, indeed, to the soul. Our atmosphere here does
+that--softens the houses, and the trees, and the cattle, and the
+mountains, and the distant reaches. It softens our nights, too. Perhaps
+you have noticed it? How everything appears shrouded in a kind of hazy,
+mellow, translucent something that somehow reacts upon you? I have. And
+I believe that is the secret of one's wanting to remain in the country,
+once he has exposed himself to it. It is a kind of spell--a hypnosis.
+When out of it one wants to get back into it.
+
+"I know I felt it when I was East, attending school," she went on,
+quietly. "Living always in this atmosphere, I somehow had forgotten its
+charm--as one will forget all subtle beauty unless frequently and
+forcibly reminded of it. But in the East I missed it, and found myself
+restless and anxious to get back into it. Indeed, I felt that I must get
+back or die! So one day, when your Eastern spirit of sudden change was
+upon me, I packed and came home. It was a year short of my degree, too.
+But I could not remain away another day--simply had to get back--and
+back I came. My degree--my sheepskin"--she was smiling--"couldn't hold
+me!"
+
+"Then you've spent some time in the East?" he asked, tentatively.
+
+"Yes," she replied, "that much--three years. And I didn't like it."
+
+"Why?" he asked, a little surprised.
+
+She regarded him curiously. He saw a look of mild annoyance in her eyes,
+one that seemed to tell of her inability to understand so needless a
+question.
+
+"I just didn't," she rejoined, after a moment. "I discovered that you
+Easterners value things which are diametrically opposite to the things
+we value, and that you value not at all those things which we value most
+of all."
+
+He had to laugh. "What are they?" he wanted to know.
+
+For an instant she showed shyness. "Oh, I can't say," she declared,
+finally. "Some day I may tell you."
+
+Stephen realized that it must be serious. He was hesitating whether to
+press her further, when he saw her tighten her reins, put spurs to her
+horse, and go flashing off in the direction of the mountain trail. As
+she dashed off he heard her call out:
+
+"Pat!" she cried. "Pat! It's Pat!" Then she glanced to the rear. "Adele!
+Sam! It's Pat! Come, quick!"
+
+Stephen spurred on with the others. He galloped after this hard-riding
+girl--so intensely alive--a girl past his understanding. Over dunes and
+across flats he charged, followed closely by the others, urging his
+horse to his utmost. But, try as he might, he could not overtake her or
+even lessen the distance between them, so furious was her race for her
+lost horse. Finally he burst out upon the trail and drew rein beside
+her, standing with the others in the path of an oncoming wood-wagon,
+anxiously awaiting its slow approach.
+
+It was a curious outfit. One of the team, an aged and decrepit horse,
+was laboring along with head drooping and hoofs scuffling the trail,
+while beside it, with head erect and nostrils aquiver and hoofs lifting
+eagerly, stepped the glorious Pat! Both horses were draped in a
+disreputable harness, crudely patched with makeshift string and wire,
+and both were covered with a fine coating of dust. Atop all this, high
+and mighty upon an enormous load of wood, sat a Mexican, complacently
+smoking a cigarette and contentedly swinging his heels, evidently elated
+with this prospect of parading his horse before a group of Americans.
+But as he drew close a look of uneasiness crept over him, and he pulled
+up his team and shrugged his shoulders, as a preliminary, no doubt, to
+disappearance behind the Mexican shield of "No sabe!"
+
+Helen swung close to him. There was a choice between a contest and
+diplomatic concession. She decided to offer to purchase the horse at
+once, believing this to be the easiest way out of the trouble.
+
+"_Seņor_," she began in Spanish, "_deseo comprar_ _aquel
+caballo negro. Puedo pagar cualquire cantidad razonable por el. Se
+perdio y nosotros lo cuidamos, y he aprendido a quererlo mucho. Si usted
+quiere venderlo me haria un gran favor. Siento mucho que me lo hayan
+quitado._"
+
+The Mexican looked relieved. He slowly removed his hat with true
+Castilian courtesy.
+
+"_Seņorita_," he replied, "_lo venderia con gusto pero pienso que
+me paga lo que quiero por el_."
+
+Which delighted Helen. "_Pagare lo que sea._"
+
+The Mexican hesitated a moment. "_ŋPagara cuarenta pesos?_" he
+asked, finally. "_Yo tambien quiero al caballo mucho_," he added.
+"_Pero por cuarenta pesos pienso--pienso que lo olvido._" And he
+grinned.
+
+Helen turned to the others. For Stephen's benefit she explained what had
+been said, and the men promptly offered to make up the required forty
+dollars. Helen turned to the Mexican, accepted his price, and requested
+him to release Pat from the harness. Whereat the Mexican smiled broadly;
+shrugged his shoulders suddenly; forgot his rôle of "No sabe."
+
+"How," he burst out--"how I'm gettin' thees wagon to town? I'm pullin'
+eet myself?"
+
+The others laughed. Then Helen, deciding upon another arrangement,
+instructed him to drive forward. She could see her father in town, she
+explained to the others, and there also, after the exchange of money,
+the Mexican could purchase another horse. Which closed the matter. The
+Mexican started the team forward, while the others fell in alongside,
+ranging themselves on either side. Thus they journeyed into town--a
+strange cavalcade--Pat prancing, the mare drooping, the Mexican visibly
+pleased, the others gratified by their unexpected success. In town they
+turned into a side street, and there Helen left them, going off in the
+direction of her father's office. When she returned, the Judge was with
+her. He read the Mexican a brief but stern lecture on the law pertaining
+to the recovery of lost property, and closed the deal. Whereupon the
+wood-hauler unharnessed Pat, bestowed him smilingly upon Helen, and took
+himself off, evidently in quest of another horse, for he headed straight
+as a plumb-line for the city pound.
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+Pat was home again. He knew it from many things--the white fence, the
+clean stable, the Mexican hostler with broom in hand. And though he was
+at home where he wanted to be, yet he found himself filled with vague
+uneasiness. After a time he sought to relieve it. He made his way into
+the stable, but he found no relief there. He returned to the corral, and
+began slowly to circle inside the fence, but neither did this relieve
+him. Finally he took up his old stand in the sunlit corner, where he
+fell to listening with ears and eyes attentive to least sounds. But even
+this did not relieve him.
+
+Nor would anything ever relieve him. Never would he find absolute solace
+from his inner disquiet. For what he sought and could not find, what he
+listened for and could not hear, was another of those sounds which had
+relieved the tedium of his brief stay in the mountains, the friendly
+nicker of the aged mare, gone to toil out her life in the racking
+treadmill between town and mountain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+LOVE REJECTED
+
+
+Pat had just been clipped. And never was there a horse nearer
+perfection! Shorn of all hair, his splendid physique, now in fullest
+maturity, stood out clean-cut and fascinating.
+
+In weight he might have tipped the scales at ten hundred pounds. In
+color his skin, which now showed clearly, was a shade darker than that
+of the elephant, but it showed the richness of velvet. His body through
+the trunk was round and symmetrical; his haunches were wide without
+projection of the hip-bones; and his limbs, the stifle and lower thigh,
+were long and strong and fully developed. Added to these, he was high in
+the withers, the line of back and neck curving perfectly; his shoulders
+were deep and oblique; and his long, thick fore arm, knotty with bulging
+sinews, told of powerful muscles. And finally, his knees across the pan
+were wide, the cannon-bone below thin and short, the pasterns long and
+sloping, and the hoofs round and dark and neatly set on. While over
+all--over the small, bony head, beautiful neck and shoulders--over the
+entire body, clear down to the hoofs--ran a network of veins like those
+on the back of a leaf, only more irregular--veins which stood out as
+though the skin were but thin parchment through which the blood might
+burst. A rare horse, rare in any country, doubly rare in this land of
+the small Spanish product, was the rating given to Pat by men trained to
+judge value at sight. And so widespread did this appraisal become, along
+trail, beside camp-fire, in bunk-house, that it was known throughout the
+length and breadth of the Territory, and beyond the Territory, that
+Judge Richards was the owner of a horse the like of which never had been
+seen south of the Pecos.
+
+For several days after the clipping, Helen did not choose to ride. So
+Pat was permitted the doubtful pleasure of loafing about in the
+inclosure. Then one morning, when the winter day was unusually warm, he
+awoke to a great clatter of hoofs outside the corral. Directly he saw a
+party of young people, men and girls under the chaperonage of a comely
+matron, dismounting in high spirits. As the party swung down he saw his
+mistress appear from the house, attired in her riding-habit, and,
+understanding the object of all this, since these parties had become
+frequent in the past two months, he pressed close to the fence, anxious
+to be off. The Mexican bridled and saddled him; his mistress and the
+others mounted; soon all clattered out upon the river-trail.
+
+The day was beautiful, and Helen, riding, as usual, beside Stephen, both
+in the rear, enjoyed the morning keenly. Overhead, out of a shimmering
+azure sky, the sun beamed mildly down, penetrating the chill of the
+morning, yet leaving enough tang to bring a bloom to their cheeks. On
+their left the river, high with melted snows from the north, moved in
+slow eddies near the shore, quicker eddies away from the shore, steady
+and swift flow in the middle--a changing, fascinating panorama. There
+fell a long silence before she turned to the young man beside her.
+
+"Well, Mr. Native," she began, smiling, "I hope you don't mean to bury
+yourself this morning! For more than a month you have had very little to
+say to me. I don't like it, because I can't understand it, and so I
+won't have it!" Then she became serious. "Whatever is the matter,
+Stephen?"
+
+Pat, walking slowly beside the unfriendly horse, was attentive. He heard
+his mistress's voice, and somehow knew she was troubled. Then directly
+he had positive proof of this, for she suddenly began to stroke his neck
+and shoulders. Always she did this when thoughtful, but though he
+strained his ears for further sounds of her voice, he did not hear her.
+What he did hear presently was the voice of the young man, and having
+learned long before to discriminate between different shades of the
+human voice, he knew from its low and tense quality that the topic was a
+vital one. He listened sharply, heedful of any least change of
+intonation that might be interpreted as a climax. But instead he was
+relieved presently to hear the voice of his mistress again, breaking in
+upon the low, constrained tones of the young man.
+
+Pat held his ears steadily back. He noted that her voice was well under
+control, and she appeared to be answering the young man. Also, it was
+quite evident that she was not accepting his argument, whatever it was.
+Yet her voice took on many delicate changes. Sometimes he heard a note
+of pleading; again, mild exasperation; and once a falling inflection
+which hinted at sadness. So it continued, his mistress talking as he had
+never heard her talk before, until the group ahead drew rein and
+wheeled, indicating their intention of returning. Then once more the
+voice of his mistress changed suddenly and became light, even gay,
+leaving Pat, as he himself was turned around, a very much mystified
+horse.
+
+Yet this gaiety did not last. When they were well on their way back
+toward the ranch, with the sun higher and brighter in the heavens, and
+the trail correspondingly whiter and more dazzling to the eye, he found
+himself listening to grave tones again--the voice of the young man. He
+talked steadily now, his flow of words always tense, though occasionally
+interrupted by the other with a quiet rejoinder. Then suddenly he ceased
+altogether, and Pat, acutely conscious of the silence which descended
+upon them, was relieved when it was broken by sounds of laughter ahead.
+Still the pair above him did not speak. Each appeared to be adrift on a
+sea of thought the like of which he had never known. And it continued,
+this ominous silence, and became heavier, until he saw the ranch loom up
+ahead. Then he felt his mistress urge him into a canter that she might
+join the others for the parting. But when the party broke up, as it did
+with much good feeling, and he found himself turned loose to one side,
+with his mistress and the young man walking into the shade of a
+cottonwood, he found himself forced, since he now was out of range of
+their voices, to forego any further listening, keenly against his
+desires. So he gave it all up as a bad job.
+
+"Stephen," began Helen, seating herself upon a hummock of earth, "I am
+sorry--sorry beyond words--that it has turned out this way! I must admit
+that I like you--like you very much! But--but I am afraid it is not the
+sort of liking you ask."
+
+He was seated beside her, reclining upon one elbow, absently thrusting
+the tip of his riding-whip into a tuft of grass. And now again, as
+before that morning, he told her of his very great love for her, his
+deep voice vibrant with emotion, grimly acknowledging himself as
+unworthy of her, yet asking with rare simplicity that she take him
+anyway, take him in spite of his unworthiness, declaring it as his
+belief she would find him in time worthy--that he would try to make
+himself worthy--_would_ make himself worthy--would overcome those
+faults which evidently--though she had not as yet told him what they
+were--made him impossible in her eyes. Then suddenly he asked her to
+tell him precisely what these faults were. He knew that he had many and
+could only blame himself for them. But which of them did she find
+chiefly objectionable? He was pitiable in his pleading.
+
+But Helen shook her head. "I--I can't tell you, Stephen," she declared,
+her voice breaking. "It--it is too much to ask of--of any girl."
+
+He rose, turning toward the distant mountains, bright and smiling in
+their noonday splendor. As his eyes dwelt upon them in brooding silence,
+Helen gained her feet. And, aware of her great part in this
+wretchedness, she took his hand very gently in her own. Subtly conscious
+of the touch, realizing the tumult in his soul, she found herself
+suddenly alive to a feeling within her deeper than mere pity and
+sympathy. It was the anguish preceding tears. Quickly withdrawing her
+hand, she turned and fled to the house. Inside, she slowly approached a
+window. He was leading Pat into the corral; and, watching him unsaddle
+and unbridle her horse, her treasure, she awoke to something else within
+her, a strange swelling of her heart, different from anything she had
+ever known. It was like ownership; it was a something as of maternal
+pride, a something new to her which she could not fathom. She turned
+away. When she looked out again, her eyes dry and burning, he was riding
+slowly along the trail toward town.
+
+It was the beginning of the end. Winter passed, with horses abandoned
+for the delights, swift-following, of dinner and dance and house party.
+These affairs made deep inroads upon Helen's time, and so Pat was left
+pretty much to his own reflections.
+
+Yet he managed to fill the days to his satisfaction. Standing in the
+stable, he loved to watch the snow-capped mountains, and the tiny white
+clouds scudding around them, and the mellow radiance of golden sunlight
+streaming over them. Also, gazing out of the little square window, he
+spent long periods in viewing the hard brown of the nearer mesaland--the
+dips and dunes and thread-like arroyos, with an occasional horseman
+crawling between. Or else, when he found himself yearning for his
+mistress, he would turn eyes upon the house, and with lazy speculation
+regard its sun-flecked windows, tightly shut doors, and smoking
+chimneys, in the hope that she might step forth. Then came more mild
+weather when he would spend long hours outside the stable, in his corner
+in the corral, there to renew his silent vigil over nature and the house
+from this vantage. Thus he filled his days, and found them not so long
+as formerly in his babyhood, when each hour was fraught with so many
+little things that demanded his closest interest and attention.
+
+Nights found him early at rest. But not all nights. Nights there were
+when the house would be lighted from cellar to garret, when spectral
+forms would move in and out of doors, and when shadows would flicker
+across drawn shades. Such nights were always his nights, for he would
+hear sounds of merriment, and voices lifted in song, and above the
+voices, tinkling toward him on the crisp air, the music of a piano. Such
+nights were his nights, for he knew that his mistress was happy, and he
+would force open the stable door, step out under the cold stars, and
+take up his stand in his corner, there to rest his head upon the topmost
+board and turn steady eyes upon the scene of merriment until the last
+guest had departed.
+
+Always on these nights, with wintry chills coursing down his legs or
+rollicking along his spine, he found himself wanting to be a part of
+this gaiety, wanting to enter the house, where he instinctively knew it
+was warm and comfortable, where he might nuzzle the whole gathering for
+sugar and apples. But this he could not do. He could only turn longing
+eyes upon the cottage and stand there until, all too soon, sounds of
+doors opening and closing, together with voices in cheery farewell, told
+him that the party was at an end. Then he would see mysterious forms
+flitting across to the trail, and lights in the house whisking out one
+by one, until the cottage gradually became engulfed in darkness. Then,
+but not till then, would he turn away from his corner, walk back slowly
+into the stable, and, because of the open door, which he could open but
+never close, suffer intensely from the cold throughout the long night.
+
+One such occasion, when the round moon hung poised in the blue-black
+dome of heaven, and he was standing as usual in his corner, with eyes
+upon the brilliantly lighted house, he became suddenly aware of two
+people descending the rear porch and making slowly toward him. At first
+he did not recognize his own mistress and the young man who had been her
+almost constant companion since that memorable fright on the mesa eight
+months before. But as they drew closer, and he came to know the slender
+form in white, he sounded a soft whinny of greeting and pressed eagerly
+close to the fence. The pair came near, very near; but neither of them
+paid the least attention to him--a fact which troubled him deeply. And
+directly his mistress spoke, but, as she was addressing herself to the
+young man, this troubled him even more. But he could listen, and listen
+he did.
+
+"Stephen," she was saying, "you _must_ accept my answer as final.
+For you must know, Stephen," she went on, quietly, "that I have not
+changed toward you. My answer to-night, and my answer to-morrow night,
+and my answer for ever, in so far as I can see, will be what it was last
+autumn. I am more than sorry that this is so. But it is so,
+nevertheless." She was firm, though Pat, knowing her well, knew that it
+required all the force of her trembling soul to give firmness to her
+words.
+
+Stephen felt something of this as he stood beside her in grim meekness.
+With his hungry eyes upon her, he felt the despair of one sunk to utter
+depths, of a man mentally and physically broken. For he loved this girl.
+And it was this love, God-given, that made him persist. In the spell of
+this love he realized that he was but a weak agent, uttering demands
+given him to utter, and unable, through a force as mighty as Nature
+herself, to do otherwise. Yet though he was utterly torn apart, he was
+able, despite this mighty demand within him, to understand her
+viewpoint. He had understood it from the first. But the craving within
+would not let him accept it.
+
+"I suppose," he rejoined, "that the one decent course for me would be to
+drop all this. But somehow I can't. I love you that way, Helen! Don't
+you understand? I cannot let go! I seem to be forced repeatedly to
+make--make a boor of myself!" There was a moment's silence. "Yet I have
+resisted it," he went on. "I have fought it--fought it with all the
+power I have! But I--I somehow--cannot let go!"
+
+Helen said nothing. She herself was coming to realize fully the depths
+of this man's passion. She knew--knew as few women have known--that here
+was a man who wanted her; but she knew also, and she was sorry to know
+it, that she could not conscientiously give herself to him. She
+regretted it not alone for his sake, but for her own as well. She liked
+him, liked him better than any other man she had ever known. But she
+knew that she could not marry him, and believed in her heart that her
+reasons for refusing him were just reasons. But she remained silent,
+true to her decision.
+
+When Stephen spoke again it was not to plead with her; he seemed at last
+to have accepted her refusal for all time. But he asked her reason for
+absolutely refusing him--not that it mattered much now, since he faced
+the inevitable, but thought the knowledge might in future guide and
+strengthen him. He talked rapidly, hinting at beliefs and idolatries,
+comparing West with East, and East with West, while he stood motionless,
+one hand upon the fence--earnest, sincere, strong in his request. When
+he had uttered his last sad word, Helen found herself, as she searched
+his drawn profile pityingly, no more able to deny him an answer than at
+the time of their first chance meeting she could have controlled the
+fate which had brought it about.
+
+"Stephen," she burst out, "I will tell you--though I don't want to tell
+you--remember! And if in the telling," she hurried on, "I prove rather
+too candid--please stop me! You will, won't you?"
+
+He nodded listlessly.
+
+"To begin with," she began, quietly, dreading her task, "we as a people
+are selfish. We are isolated here--are far from the center of
+things--but only certain things. We are quite our own center in certain
+other ways. But we are selfish as regards advancement, and being selfish
+in this way--being what we are and where we are--we live solely for that
+advancement--for the privilege of doing what we will, and of knowing! It
+is the first law of the country down here--of my people! We have aims
+and aspirations and courage all peculiar to ourselves. And when we meet
+your type, as I met you, we come--(Now, stop me when I get too
+severe!)--we come to know our own values a little better--to respect
+ourselves, perhaps--though perhaps, too, I shouldn't say it--a little
+more. Not that you lack virtues, you Easterners, but they differ from
+ours--and probably only in kind. And exactly what your type is you
+yourself have made plain to me during our many little trips together in
+the saddle. And--and now I fear I must become even more personal," she
+broke off. "And I am very sorry that I must. Though I know you will
+forgive me. You will, won't you?" And she looked up at him wistfully.
+"You thought it might benefit you to know. This is only my opinion.
+Others may not see it this way. But I am giving it for what it is, and I
+am giving it only because you asked it and have asked it repeatedly."
+
+He roused himself. "Go on," he said, with evident forced lightness. "I
+see your viewpoint perfectly."
+
+"Well," she resumed, hurriedly, "you lack ambition--a real ambition. You
+have ridden horses, played tennis, idled about clubs. You were a coddled
+and petted child, a pampered and spoiled youth. You attended a dozen
+schools, and, to use your own language, were 'canned' out of all of
+them. Which about sums up your activities. You have idled your time
+away, and you give every promise of continuing. I regret that I must say
+that, but I regret more deeply that it is true. You have many admirable
+qualities. You have the greatest of all qualities--power for sincere
+love. But in the qualities which make one acceptable down here--Wait!
+I'll change that. In the qualities which would make one acceptable to me
+you are lacking to a very considerable degree. And it is just there that
+you fill me with the greatest doubt--doubt so grave, indeed, that I
+cannot--and I use the verb advisedly--cannot permit myself to like you
+in the way you want me to like you."
+
+Again he bestirred himself. "What is that, please? What is that
+quality?"
+
+"I have tried to tell you," she rejoined, patiently. "It is a really
+worth-while ambition. You lack the desire to do something, the desire to
+be something--a desire that ought to have been yours, should have been
+yours, years ago--the thing part and parcel of our blood down here. It
+may take shape in any one of a hundred different things--business
+ventures; personal prospectings; pursuit of art, science; raising
+cattle--anything, Stephen! But something, something which will develop a
+real value, both to yourself and to your fellow-man. We have it. We have
+inherited it. We got it from our grandfathers--our great-grandfathers,
+in a few cases--men who wanted to know--to learn--to learn by doing. It
+is a powerful force. It must be a powerful force, it must have been
+strong within them, for it dragged them out of the comforts of
+civilization and led them into the desert. But they found what they
+sought; and in finding what they sought they found themselves also. And
+what they found--"
+
+"Was something which, having drawn them forward to the frontier, filled
+them with dislike for those who remained behind?"
+
+"If you wish to put it that way--yes." Her answer was straight and
+clean-cut.
+
+"But what of those who remained behind?" asked Stephen, alert now.
+"Surely the quality was there! It must be there yet! Those of the
+old-timers who remained behind must have stayed simply because of
+circumstances. Good men often curb the adventurous spirit out of sheer
+conscientious regard for others who--"
+
+"It is you, Stephen!" interrupted Helen, quietly. "It is you, yourself.
+All Easterners are not like you, I well know. Yet you and your type are
+found in all parts of the East."
+
+Stephen stood for a long moment, his eyes fixed on the mystic skyline.
+Then he turned to her as if about to speak. But there was only the
+silent message of his longing eyes. Finally he turned away and, as if
+unconsciously, fell to stroking the horse.
+
+He had nothing to say, and he knew it. The girl was right, and he knew
+that. She had pointed out to him only what others at different times had
+mildly tried to make him see. He was a rich young man, or would be after
+a death or two in his family. But that in itself was no excuse for his
+inertia. Many had told him that. But he had never taken it seriously. It
+had remained for the little woman beside him to make him fully realize
+it. She alone had driven it home so that it hurt. Yet between this girl
+and the others who had taken him mildly to task there was the difference
+between day and darkness. For he loved this girl, and if she would not
+marry him for reasons which he knew he could remedy, then it was up to
+him to accept her criticism, which was perhaps a challenge, and go forth
+and do something and be something, and reveal his love to her through
+that effort. What it would be he did not know. He did know he must get
+out of the town--get out of the Territory, if needs be--but he must go
+somewhere in this country of worthy aspiration and live as he knew she
+would have him live, do something, be something, something that for its
+very worth to her as well as to all mankind would awaken her ready
+response. Such a move he realized, as he stood beside her, would be as
+decent in him as she in her criticism had been eloquently truthful. The
+vigor, the relentless certainty, with which she had pointed out his
+weakness--no one before had had the courage to deal with him like this.
+And reviewing it all, and then casting grimly forward into his future,
+he suddenly awoke, as he gently stroked this mettled horse, to a strange
+likeness between the spirit of horse and mistress. He turned to Helen.
+
+"You are very much alike," he declared--"you and your horse." Then he
+paused as if in thought. "The spirit of the desert," he went on,
+absently, "shows itself through all the phases of its life."
+
+Helen brightened "I am glad you think that of us, Stephen," she
+answered, as if relieved by this unexpected turn. "Pat is truly of the
+desert. He was born and bred in this land of _amole_ and cactus."
+
+"And you?" he asked.
+
+"I also," she replied, gravely. "I too was born and bred in this land of
+_amole_ and cactus." Suddenly she turned her head. "I am afraid
+they are looking for us."
+
+They returned to the house. Helen's guests were preparing to depart.
+There was much high humor, and when the last but one was gone, and this
+one, Stephen, standing on the porch with hat in hand, Helen found that
+for the moment she had forgotten her distress. At sight of him, however,
+it all returned to her, and she faced him with earnest solicitude.
+
+"Tell me, Stephen," she burst out, "that you forgive me my unkind words,
+and that you will try to forget them. But whether you succeed in that or
+not, Stephen," she hastily added, her voice breaking, "tell me that you
+will continue to be friendly. We want you, all of us--I want you! I have
+enjoyed our rides together so much! They have meant much to me, and I
+hope they have been enjoyable to you. So let us go on, on this accepted
+basis, and be friends. Tell me you will, Stephen!"
+
+He was silent a long time. Then he told her of his hastily made plans.
+He was going away from town, of course. He could not remain, under the
+circumstances. Yet where he was going he didn't know. He would go
+farther West, probably--go somewhere and try to make good--try to do
+something worth while, to be something worth while. Saying which, he
+then thanked her fervently for everything--for her society, for her
+frank criticism, for having awakened him to an understanding of himself.
+
+Helen stood speechless. She had not anticipated this, that he would go
+away, that he would leave her. A deep-surging bitterness gripped her,
+and for a moment she almost relented. But only for a moment. The spell
+passed, and she looked at him with frank, level eyes.
+
+"I am sorry to hear that, Stephen," she declared, quietly. "We want you
+with us--all of us. But--but tell me," she concluded, finding the words
+coming with difficulty--"tell me that you feel no--no antagonism toward
+me, Stephen, because I can't--can't love you as you want me to love you,
+and that you understand that--that in deciding as I have I--I only
+wanted to be true--true to both of us!"
+
+For answer he seized both her hands in his. He gazed straight down into
+her eyes. "I love you, Helen," he murmured, and then slowly released her
+fingers.
+
+He left her so quietly that she hardly knew that he was gone. A step on
+the trail aroused her, and, lifting her eyes, she saw him striding away
+with shoulders back and head erect, as if awakened to a new manhood. And
+watching him go, as she felt, for the last time, she could no more
+control a sob than he at the moment could turn back. For a while she
+followed him with wistful eyes, then, finding sudden need for
+consolation, she hurried off the porch and across to the corral. Pat was
+there to receive her, and she flung her arms around his neck and gave
+way to sudden tears.
+
+"Pat," she sobbed, "I--perhaps I do love him! Perhaps I have done wrong!
+I--I--" She interrupted herself. "What shall I do, Pat?" she burst out,
+bitterly. "Oh, what shall I do?"
+
+Pat could not advise her. But he remained very still, supporting her
+weight with dumb patience, until she turned away, going slowly back into
+the house. Then he pressed close into his corner and sounded a shrill,
+protracted nicker.
+
+That was all.
+
+He saw the door close. He waited, pursuing his old habit, for all the
+lights to go out. And directly they began to disappear, one by one,
+first in the lower half of the house, then in the upper half, until all
+save one were extinguished. This one, as he knew from long experience,
+was in the room of his mistress. But though he waited and watched till
+the moon slanted behind the western hills, and the stars to the east
+dimmed and faded, and the gray of dawn stole across the sky above the
+mountains--though he waited and watched till his legs ached from long
+standing, and his eyes smarted from their steady vigil, and the Mexican
+appeared yawning from the depths of the stable, and from over toward
+town rose sounds of worldly activity--yet the light in her room burned
+on. Then the Mexican drove him into the stable. But not even now did he
+abandon his vigil. He entered his box-stall, with its tiny square
+window, and fixed his troubled gaze again upon the house. The sky was
+bright with coming day. From somewhere arose the crow of a rooster. Out
+on the river trail a team plodded slowly to market.
+
+But the light in the room was still burning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+ADVENTURE
+
+
+It was late afternoon when Helen came down from her room. She had
+regained her calm. The Judge had gone about his affairs, her aunt was
+deep in her siesta, the Mexican woman was bustling about in the kitchen.
+Refusing this kindly soul's offer of food, she walked listlessly into
+the library and sank into a huge chair. Spring was well advanced, yet
+there was an open fire. Elbows upon the arms of her chair, hands clasped
+under her chin, she turned unseeing eyes upon the flickering flames.
+Motionless, barely breathing, she was a picture of hopeless grief.
+
+Yet her thoughts were active. One after another the swift-moving events
+of the night before came to her--a night of delightful happenings and
+torturing surprises. She recalled that the crowd had been unusually gay,
+but that Stephen had been unusually quiet and absorbed. She remembered
+the games, and the story-telling, and the toasting of marshmallows in
+the grate. But over against these simple pleasures there had been
+Stephen, entering into the gaiety only because he must, now forcing a
+smile, now drawing back within himself, until a chorus of laughter would
+again force him to smile. Yet she had understood, and she had excused
+him. She had thought him resigned and content to be merely one of the
+crowd. And then had come that opportunity which evidently he had sought.
+It had come as a surprise. But with it had come also a sudden desire to
+be alone with him, and to impress upon him her convictions. So they had
+gone out into the moonlight, to the corral fence, and to Pat, where she
+had endeavored to make everything clear. And then their return, and the
+departure of her guests, and his lingering on the porch, and his
+decision to go away, to leave her for ever. He hadn't put it in just
+that way! But that was what he was doing--that was what he had done. He
+had gone from her for ever.
+
+The thought hurt. It hurt because she knew what part she had taken in
+it. She knew that she herself had sent him away. And when he had left
+her she knew, as she knew now, that in her heart she did not want it.
+For she liked him--liked his society. She liked his care-free manner,
+his whimsical outlook upon her country, his many natural talents--his
+playing, and the naïveté of his singing, while he often admitted that
+his voice hurt him, and so must hurt others. No, she had not wanted him
+to go away. And somehow it had never occurred to her that he would go
+for ever. But he was gone, and she could not resign herself. Yet there
+was no calling him back. She had made a decision, had forced him to
+understand certain things. So she must accept it. But it hurt. It was
+slowly dawning upon her that she would never forget him.
+
+Then another thought came to her. Since he was going, and since she had
+sent him away, it occurred to her that she ought to help him. It seemed
+to be her duty. Yet she could not determine how. He was going forth to
+prove himself. He would go where men only could go, and she was but a
+woman. And she wanted him to prove himself--she knew that--knew it more
+with every moment that passed. She believed he had it in him. Yet she
+might help in some way. She wanted to be of some use to him in his
+undertaking. What could she do?
+
+Suddenly, as she sat there, seemingly powerless, there came a shrill
+nicker whipping across from the corral--the voice of Pat.
+
+Like a flash she had it! Stephen would go into the cattle country--she
+believed that. And in the cattle country he would need a horse, a good
+horse, such a horse as Pat. She would present the horse to Stephen! She
+would send Pat with him because she herself could not go with him. This
+she could do. Thus she would help Stephen to find himself, as her
+ancestors had found themselves. She would help him to become what she
+wanted him to become--a man--a _man_! Yes, she would give Pat to
+Stephen. She would send the horse as she had sent the man--forth into
+the world of deeds--deeds denied her sex.
+
+She rose hurriedly and ascended to her room. At her desk she drew paper
+and pen toward her.
+
+    My dear Stephen [she began her letter],--I am sending Pat to you
+    through Miguel. I wanted to help you in some way. I cannot help
+    you myself directly, but in Pat I feel you will have a valuable
+    aid. Take him--take him with my dearest and best wishes for your
+    success. Pat may actually show you the way--may actually point
+    the way out to you. Who knows? He understands who you are, I
+    know, and I am sure he knows what you have been, and what you
+    still are, to me.
+
+                                                           Helen.
+
+For a moment she sat deep in thought. Then suddenly awaking to the
+lateness of the hour, she arose and, going to the corral, called to the
+hostler. Miguel appeared, and she handed him the note, giving him
+careful instructions the while in regard to the horse. The Mexican
+smiled and entered the stable in quest of saddle and bridle, the while
+she turned to Pat in his corner and explained what she was about to do.
+
+"Pat dear," she began, nestling her cheek against his head, "you are
+going away. You are going with Stephen. Do you remember Stephen?"
+Emotion began to grip her. "You have served me well, Pat, and
+faithfully. I hope you will prove as true to your new master. I--I
+wanted to help him. But I--I couldn't--couldn't--" She could not go on.
+Gazing up into his eyes she seemed to see him waver--knew that it was
+because of her blinding tears--and abruptly left him and returned to the
+house.
+
+In her room she stood weeping at the window overlooking the corral. She
+saw the Mexican bridle and saddle her pride, saw him carefully tuck away
+her note, and saw him mount Pat with a great show of importance, as
+though elated with his commission. Then she saw him ride Pat out of the
+corral, across into the river trail, and turn toward town. Seeing her
+horse go from her, perhaps for all time, she turned from the window and
+flung herself across her bed, where she gave way to her grief. Her Pat
+was gone! Her Pat--heart of her life--was gone!
+
+Miguel was indeed pleased with his commission. Never before had he been
+astride this so-wonderful horse. As he rode along, testing the ease of
+Pat's gait, noting with what readiness he responded to the reins, he
+fell to wishing that it were not so near dusk, since then he might
+become the object of envious eyes in town. But he could not control the
+hour of day, even though he could control the horse's movements. So he
+cantered along until he reached the town proper, when he slowed Pat into
+a walk. Lights were being switched on along the avenue, and in their
+glare he enjoyed to the full whatever admiring glances were turned his
+way from the sidewalks. But as he neared the hotel where Stephen was
+stopping he urged Pat into a canter first, then into a gallop, pulling
+up before the side entrance with a quick reining that brought both the
+horse and himself to a stop with a magnificent flourish. It was good--as
+he admitted to himself. Then he slipped to earth. And now his
+magnificence left him, for he never before had entered this so-beautiful
+hostelry. Girting in his belt, however, he strode up the steps, faltered
+on the threshold, and was directed to the clerk. This magnate handed the
+letter to a bell-boy.
+
+Stephen was seated in his room when he read Helen's note. When he raised
+his eyes he stared unseeingly at the light across the street, deep in
+thought.
+
+He knew what this had cost Helen. Riding with her almost every day for
+months, he could not but understand the depth of her attachment for the
+horse. Pat for years had been the one big factor in her life. And now
+she was giving Pat to him, to help him prove himself. It was a great
+thing to do, so great that he must accept it, and already, at this proof
+of her interest, he somehow felt assured of success. Also he saw a way
+open. He would go down into the cattle country, make a connection with
+some cattle interests, and, with Pat as guide and friend and capable
+servant, work out his destiny. Exactly what that would be he did not
+know. But he did know that he was going after it.
+
+He turned to the boy still standing in the doorway. "Tell the man that
+I'll be down directly," he said. Then he made his way into his mother's
+suite of rooms.
+
+The frail little woman showed surprise at his decision. But she said
+nothing. She nodded quiet acquiescence and went on with her instructions
+to her maid, who was laying clothing away in preparation for the return
+East in the morning. Evidently she knew her boy. Whereupon Stephen,
+after explaining further, though no more fully than before, left her,
+descending to the office.
+
+Miguel was standing awkwardly near the doorway, and with Stephen's
+appearance touched his hat and led the way outside. Pat was facing three
+boys, the center of their interest, but when Stephen approached him, and
+talked to him, he turned and responded with a soft whinny, seeming to
+understand. Miguel remained at a respectful distance, awaiting orders.
+Then telling him to wait for a note to be taken to Miss Richards,
+Stephen re-entered the hotel.
+
+The boys swirled off in play. Miguel stood alone with the horse. There
+were but few persons on the streets, since it was early evening and
+people were at supper. Miguel's wandering eyes at length rested upon the
+swing-doors of a saloon opposite--rested there a long time. Finally,
+unable longer to resist their spell, he glanced at Pat's bridle, noted
+that the reins were securely tied, and then yielded to the attention of
+the saloon. In a moment the swing-doors closed upon him.
+
+They had barely ceased swinging when out of a doorway just down the
+street stole the figure of a man. He was young, smooth of face, garbed
+in blue shirt and overalls, with eyes well concealed under a black
+sombrero low-drawn. He moved out of the shadow cautiously, with many
+furtive glances about him. Then he swiftly crossed the street, hurried
+along the sidewalk to Pat, and reached the horse's head and bridle.
+Untying the reins from the post, he leaped into the saddle. Then he
+swung Pat around, put light spurs to him, and urged him rapidly across
+the avenue. Beyond the avenue toward the north lay Stygian darkness. In
+these black depths he disappeared.
+
+At this moment the clerk in the hotel was aroused by the unusual
+spectacle of one of his guests--young Wainwright--leaping down the
+stairs. He looked up with a surprised question. But Stephen ran past
+him, across the office, without heed. He gained the door, rushed down
+the steps, and shouted. The boys ceased playing, a passer-by came to a
+stop, out of the saloon opposite stepped Miguel. Miguel hastened across,
+drawing his hand over his mouth as he ran. Stephen opened upon him
+breathlessly.
+
+"He's gone!" he burst out. "I saw it from my window. A young man in blue
+shirt and overalls. The horse has been stolen!"
+
+Miguel threw up both hands in despair. "_Valgame Dios!_" he cried.
+"I am lose my job!" He looked about him blankly.
+
+Sick at heart, not knowing what to do, Stephen himself bolted back into
+the hotel. He entered the telephone booth and rang up the Judge's
+office. It was late, but he took a chance. The Judge answered the call.
+His voice was weary with the strain of a long day.
+
+"Who in thunder wants me at this hour?" he drawled, not unpleasantly.
+"Can't you let a man--"
+
+Stephen interrupted with an apology. Then he told the Judge of the loss.
+The Judge's voice changed instantly.
+
+"Fine business!" he snapped. "But I reckon I know who to look for.
+There's only one man--one gang--in the Territory that would do that in
+that way. It's a job for the range police." Then his voice softened.
+"Don't worry, Stephen!" he added. "You just sit tight. I'll take it up
+with the authorities."
+
+Stephen left the booth and entered the writing-room. Here he added a sad
+postscript to his note to Helen. Then he went outside, despatched Miguel
+with the letter, returned to his room and sat down, disconsolate and
+angry.
+
+To have Pat sent to him with this noble generosity, and then to lose
+him! Surely fate was more than unkind. The horse, given into his
+keeping, had been wrested from him at once. Yes, he was all that Helen
+had intimated that he was--a man incapable of trust, a man such as she
+could never permit herself--and he recalled her words now with rankling
+bitterness--to care for in the way he wanted her to care for him.
+Knowing that Pat was gone from him, and gone in such ignoble fashion, he
+knew that he never could face the horse's mistress again. This was
+bitterest of all! For a time he gave way to despair.
+
+Presently he awoke to a sense of stern responsibility. The horse had
+been delivered. Miguel had safely delivered him. It was all up to him
+then, Stephen, and to nobody else. He alone was responsible, and it was
+his duty to get Pat back. Out of his self-doubting this realization came
+with a sense of comfort. His course now lay clearly before him. He would
+get the horse back! He _must_ get him back! There was nothing else
+left for him. For if he ever expected to return to Helen, and this was
+his life's hope, he must return to her with the horse. He could return
+to her in no other way.
+
+He saw the difficulties. This was a large country, and he knew but very
+little of its activities. He recalled what the Judge had intimated--that
+the character of the thieves was such as to offer no encouragement of
+successful pursuit to any but men schooled to the country and the habits
+of the thieves. Yet against this and in his favor was the widespread
+reputation of Pat, and that certainly ought to be of some help in his
+pursuit. But, difficult or easy--take a month or a year--take five
+years--he would get Pat and return him to his mistress! The Judge had
+spoken of range police. Why couldn't he enlist with these men, enlist in
+any capacity, and accompany them till such time as he should learn the
+country well enough to venture out alone if necessary in his quest? At
+any rate, he would have a talk with the Judge--would see him early in
+the morning. He arose to his feet. The thing was settled in his mind.
+Also for the first time in his life his view had an object. He would go
+forth into life, get that which it withheld from him, bring it back and
+place it before the woman of his choice.
+
+And now, so great is the power, so prompt the reward, of energy rightly
+applied, he found himself whistling as he began to toss wearing-apparel
+into a traveling-bag.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+IN THE WASTE PLACES
+
+
+Pat well knew that this new experience was a strange thing. The trip
+with the hostler, the unusual hour of day, the appearance of his
+mistress's friend, the stranger out of the night, the hurried departure
+from the hotel, all told him that. But whether it was right or wrong, he
+did not know. His mistress had quite sanctioned his leaving the corral,
+and so all things developing out of that must have her sanction
+also--thus worked his instincts. So not once had he rebelled. Nor was he
+rebelling now. And yet--and this was his emotional conflict--within him
+was a vague feeling that he should rebel, should kick, buck, toss, and
+pitch, and throw off this stranger. It grew upon him, this feeling,
+until, in a section of town unfamiliar to him, he decided to give way to
+it, to take a chance, anyway, of unseating this man and dashing back
+into that part of town familiar to him. But he did not. Suddenly a
+soothing voice restrained, the voice of his rider, which swept away for
+a time all thought of rebellion.
+
+"So you're Pat!" the man said, and, though his voice was gentle, and
+perhaps kindly, as Pat judged the human voice, he yet somehow did not
+like the owner of it. "Well, they hain't lied to me, anyway," went on
+the voice. "You're one nice piece of horseflesh!"
+
+That was all. But somehow it dispelled all discontent within Pat.
+Thereafter he thought only of his task, which was that of holding to a
+devious course through winding alleys and streets well under rein, until
+he found himself on the river trail and heading south through a section
+not unfamiliar to him. Then his interest only quickened.
+
+As he went on, it came to him that he rather liked this traveling
+through the gloom of night. It was a new experience for him, and the
+trail, familiar to him, yet somehow not familiar, offered much of
+interest. Ranch-houses, clumps of trees, soft-rustling fields of
+alfalfa, looming up before or beside him, taxed his powers of
+recognition as the stars in the heavens, becoming ever more overcast,
+withdrew, and with them the moon, leaving the earth and its objects
+finally mere tragic outlines. These objects, rising silently before him,
+gave him many fitful starts, and seemed to forbid this night-incursion.
+But he held to the trail, for the most part in perfect contentment,
+enjoying his unwonted call to duty, but wondering whither it was leading
+him.
+
+This contentment did not last. It broke as he found himself rounding a
+bend which he recognized as leading to the river bridge. The change came
+not through the flicking of his conscience like his former feeling, but
+through sudden awakening to physical discomfort. For a time he did not
+know what it was--though he had questioned the new grip on the reins,
+the rider's seat, his weight. There it was. The man's weight. Miguel had
+been heavy, of course, but Miguel's seat had been short-lived. This man
+must weigh fully as much as Miguel, and twice as much as his mistress,
+and he had been on his back now a long time. There came another
+something. As Pat grew aware of the weight it seemed to become heavier,
+so he decided to seek relief of some sort. He dropped back into a walk,
+grimly taking his comfort into his own control. And, half expecting that
+the man would force him into a canter again, he continued at a walk. But
+neither by word nor movement did the man show that he noticed the
+change. So Pat settled to his task again, once more enjoying quiet
+satisfaction.
+
+But neither did this last. He soon found another cause for
+dissatisfaction. He found it because, unconsciously, he was looking for
+it. He found it this time in the tight grip on his reins, which was
+setting up a sore chafing in the corners of his mouth. His mistress had
+never held him so tightly. The result of it, together with his other
+discomfort, was that he became sullen and antagonistic, and, descending
+the slight grade to the bridge, he determined to resist. And resist he
+did. He came to a sudden stop, threw down his head, pitched and bucked
+frantically. His efforts carried him all over the trail, and once
+dangerously near the edge and the turbulent waters below. But he found
+himself unable to throw off the weight.
+
+"Guess maybe--I made--a slight--mistake!" exploded the rider, clamping
+his knees against Pat. "But go--go to it--old trader!"
+
+Pat accepted the challenge. For this he knew it was. He leaped and
+twisted; returned to earth with a jolt; pitched and tossed and bucked.
+And he kept it up, fighting grimly, till he discovered its futility,
+when he stopped. A moment he stood, breathing heavily, then he set out
+across the bridge, whisking his tail and wriggling his ears, all in
+spirited acceptance of reluctant defeat.
+
+He did not attempt further rebellion. Slow-kindling respect stirred
+within him for this man upon his back--the respect but not love which
+one entertains toward the mighty, and he gained the end of the bridge
+and turned south along the trail, partly reconciled. Yet he had not
+rebelled in vain. The grip on his bit no longer annoyed him, and though
+the weight still remained heavy, somehow it seemed more endurable now
+through some cause which he could not determine--probably his increased
+respect for it. So he trotted along, amiably disposed toward all the
+world, pleasantly anticipatory of the immediate future, ears and eyes
+alert and straining toward all things. On his left the river gurgled
+softly in the desert stillness--a stillness sharply broken. From afar
+off came a strange call, the long-drawn howl of a coyote. It was not
+alone. Instantly from a point dead ahead rose another, grooving into the
+echo of the first in a staccato yelp. Then the first opened up with a
+choking whine that lifted steadily into an ecstatic mating-call, and Pat
+saw a black something, blacker even than the night, leap against the
+far, faint skyline, dangle seemingly a trembling moment, then flash from
+view across the desert.
+
+Which was but one of the many incidents that served to hold his interest
+and increase his alertness as he fox-trotted along the road. Nor was one
+of them without its informing value. For this was his first night
+journey, and what he saw now would remain with him vividly, helping him
+to become as successful on night trails as he was now by day.
+
+Something else came to him out of the darkness. It was off to his
+distant right and well back from the river. It was a tiny gleam of
+light, shining out of the density of the desert. He watched it with
+studied interest. It glowed like a cat's eye, and, fascinated, quietly
+speculative, he kept his eyes upon it until, as he turned a bend in the
+trail, he saw another light flash into view close beside the first, and
+equal to it in brilliancy. Suddenly, watching these lights, his interest
+leaped higher. This was his destination. He instinctively knew it. And
+presently he was certain of it, for his master, urging him to the right,
+now sent him along a narrow path that led straight toward the lights.
+
+Within a very few moments Pat found himself before a hulk of an adobe.
+It was a long, rambling structure, somehow forbidding, and he blinked as
+he stared with faint apprehension at the lamplight streaming out of two
+windows. Directly the man dismounted and, making the reins fast to a
+post, walked toward the house. For a moment Pat saw his tall figure
+silhouetted in the doorway, to the accompaniment of a quiet chorus of
+greetings from within, then he saw the door close upon him, and
+immediately afterward a hand appear at the windows and draw down the
+shades. And now he felt a great loneliness creep over him, slowly at
+first, then somehow faster as he heard voices within sink from a
+cheerful note of greeting to a low rumble of discord.
+
+He began to take heed of objects close around him. He discovered, now
+that all light was shut off, that he was not alone. To his left stood
+two horses, with heads drooping, legs slightly spread, reins dangling,
+quiet and patient in their mute waiting. Promptly with the discovery he
+took a step in their direction, intent upon establishing friendship. But
+he found himself checked with a jerk. For an instant he did not
+understand this. Then he remembered that his reins were tied, and
+because his mistress never had deemed this necessary he came to feel a
+kind of irritation, though he made no attempt to force his freedom. Yet,
+keeping his eyes upon the other horses, he saw that they themselves were
+free to come and go, that their reins were dangling on the ground. And
+now he realized that he was under suspicion. He knew what that was from
+long association with the Mexican hostler, and, smarting under it, he
+determined to show his new master, and that before many hours had
+elapsed, he as well as these others was capable of trust.
+
+The door flung open and three men filed out. A fourth remained standing
+on the threshold, holding up a smoking lamp. Other than the tread of
+heels no sound accompanied their appearance, no comment, no laughter, no
+farewells. This made a deep impression upon him, and with further
+misgivings he watched the men descend the few loose steps and make for
+the horses, his own master, the tallest of the men, coming slowly toward
+him. A moment of gathering reins, then all mounted, and one, a squat,
+powerfully built man, evidently the leader, turned in a southwesterly
+direction, riding off in the engulfing darkness, heading away from the
+river. Seeing this, Pat stepped out after him, pressing close upon the
+heels of his horse, conscious that the third horse, ridden by a little
+man, was crowding him for second position. But he held stubbornly to his
+place, and in this place set out along an unmarked trail. He covered
+mile after mile at a fox-trot, mile after mile in absolute silence,
+until faint rays of dawn, streaking the sky above a ridge to the east,
+surprised him into realization of the quick passage of night and his own
+prolonged duty therein. It was all very strange.
+
+Daylight followed swiftly. From a dull lead color the sky immediately
+above the ridge, which stretched away interminably north and south, gave
+way to a pink indescribably rich and delicate. Steadily this pink crept
+over the heavens, rolling up like the gradual unfolding of a giant
+canvas, dragging along in its wake hues verging toward golden yellow,
+until the whole eastern sky, aflame with the light of approaching day,
+was a conflagration of pinks and yellows in all their manifold mixtures,
+promising, but not yet realizing, a warmth which would dispel the spring
+chill left by the long night. Then, with the whole east blazing with
+molten gold, there came the feeling of actual warmth, and with it the
+full radiance of day--bringing out in minute detail rock and arroyo and
+verdant growth, and an expanse of desert unbroken by the least vestige
+of animal life. At this absence of all that which would suggest the
+presence of life--adobes, corrals, windmills--Pat awoke again to vague
+uneasiness and fell to pondering his future under these men, whom he now
+instinctively knew pursued ways outside the bounds of the civilization
+of his past.
+
+A voice behind, presumably that of the little man, interrupted the
+protracted silence. It was high-pitched.
+
+"How's that hoss a-holdin', Jim?"
+
+Pat felt a slight twitch on the reins. Evidently the man had been in
+deep thought, out of which the voice had startled him. Directly he made
+answer.
+
+"I got quality here, Glover--I guess. Can't never tell, though. He's a
+good horse, but he mayn't pan out good for me."
+
+There was further silence.
+
+"Johnson," went on the high-pitched voice again, after a time, "did ye
+git what Zeke said about the country down there?"
+
+But the leader seemed not to hear. Straight as an arrow, bulking large
+upon a little gray mare, he moved not the fraction of an inch with the
+question. Whereupon the little man, after muttering something further
+about Zeke, relapsed into silence.
+
+Suddenly Pat stumbled and fell to his knees. He quickly regained his
+feet, however, and resumed the steady forward grind. And grind it now
+was becoming. His legs burned with a strange distress, his eyes ached
+from loss of sleep. Throughout his body was a weariness new to him. He
+was not accustomed to this ceaseless fox-trotting. He could not recall
+the time when, even on their longest excursion, his mistress had forced
+him like this. She had always considered him to the extent of granting
+him many blissful periods of rest. He found himself wanting some such
+consideration now. He felt that he would like to drop into a walk or to
+burst into a canter, knowing the relief to be found in any change of
+gait. But this was denied him. Yet, since the other horses gave no sign
+of weariness, each appearing possessed of endurance greater than his
+own, he refrained, through a pride greater even than his distress, from
+making of his own accord any change in his gait.
+
+Toward noon, as he was brooding over another distress, one caused by
+gnawing hunger, he felt his master draw down. Also, the others came to a
+stop. With the men dismounted, he swept eyes over the scene. But he saw
+nothing that appeared to warrant pause. The place was dead and desolate,
+barren of all that which had invariably met his gaze when pausing with
+his mistress. But when one of the men began to build a fire, while the
+others flung off light saddle-bags from the little gray and the
+sorrel--an exceptionally rangy horse--he came in a way to understand.
+Further, with the fire crackling pleasantly and his bridle and saddle
+removed, he understood fully the cause of this halt. It was time to
+feed; and, raging with hunger, he forgot all other distress in the
+thought that now he would have a generous quantity of food, which he
+believed was due him, since he had more than earned it in his prolonged
+service through the night. Indeed, so certain was he of reward, he
+prepared himself for sugar and quartered apples, and, with mouth
+dripping saliva, stood very still, eyes following every move of his new
+master.
+
+But he was doomed to bitter disappointment. Instead of sugar and
+quartered apples, his master tied a rope around his neck and, with a
+friendly slap, left him to his own devices. Wondering at this, he gazed
+about him--saw that the other horses were grazing. Disappointed,
+fretful, stung into action by hunger pangs, he set out in their
+direction, curious to learn what it was they were feeding upon so
+eagerly. But, as had happened the night before, he found himself checked
+with a jerk. He did not like it, for it made him conscious again of his
+master's suspicions. So he turned a sour gaze upon his unrestricted
+companions until, forced to it by inner yearnings amounting to acuteness
+now, he himself lowered his head and fell to grazing.
+
+But he found it all too insufficient. His stomach urgently demanded
+grain and alfalfa. And he yearned for a little bran-mash. But there were
+none of these. He saw not even a tiny morsel of flower to appease his
+inner grumblings, and finally, lifting his head in a kind of disgust, he
+ceased to graze altogether. As he did so, the men made ready to resume
+the journey, replacing bridles and saddles and saddle-bags. Pat found
+himself hopeful again, believing that with the end of this prolonged
+service, which in view of the distance already traversed must be soon,
+he would have those things for which his body and soul cried out. And
+thus he set forth, occupying his former place in the order of advance,
+moving, as before, at a fox-trot and amid silence from the men. He was
+still hopeful of better things to come. But it was all a drear
+experience.
+
+The grind began to tell upon him. As he trotted along, thirst-stricken,
+miserably nourished, weary from loss of sleep and this ceaseless toil,
+he sought frankly for cause to rebel, as he had done in the first hour
+of this strange call to new duty. And he found it. He found it not only
+in the man's weight, and the infrequent contact of spurs, and the tight
+grip on the reins, all as on that first occasion, but he found it as
+well in other things--in the dust thrown up by the little gray ahead, in
+the sun's rays slanting into his eyes from the west, in the scorching,
+blistering heat of this same ruthless orb beating down upon his back.
+Suddenly, cost him what it would, he dropped out of the fox-trot into a
+walk, prepared to fight for this change of stride to the last breath.
+
+He did not hold to it, however, even though his master, curiously
+enough, permitted him the change. Pride asserted itself, and after a
+time, of his own volition, finding the gap between himself and the
+others much too wide to please him, he broke into a canter and quickly
+closed the gap, crowding back into his place between the other two
+horses. That was all of rebellion, though the mood still remained.
+Bitter, disappointed, nervous, and irritable, he continued forward,
+wanting things--wanting food and water, wanting sounds of voices,
+wanting a respite from this unnerving grind. But he made no effort to
+get them or to show that he wanted them. And he knew why he maintained
+this attitude of meek acceptance. He was too weak to enforce his
+demands. He knew that it required energy to buck and pitch, and he knew
+that he lacked this energy. So he continued along in sullen resignation
+until, accepting the hint of his instincts, he closed his eyes. This
+brought relief, and after a time, his movements becoming ever more
+mechanical, he found himself adrift upon a peaceful sea of semi-coma,
+oblivious to all trouble--hunger pangs, thirst, weariness. When he
+returned to full consciousness, somewhat refreshed and fit for farther
+distances, he found the sun well down the western sky, the cool of
+evening wrapping him about in delightful zephyrs, and he was still
+keeping his place between the two horses.
+
+Dusk found him in a small oasis. His master slipped to earth, and with
+relief Pat gazed about him. He saw a clump of trees, and in their
+depths, glinting out at him between the trunks, a shimmering pool of
+water. Also, near these trees, on the edge of the grove, he saw a shack
+made up of rough logs. But he was interested only in the pool, and, when
+his master removed his saddle, eagerly and with a soft nicker he stepped
+toward it. But the man jerked him back. So he waited, realizing that he
+had been hasty, till his bridle was removed, when again he stepped
+toward the pool. But again he was jerked back, this time by a firm grip
+on his forelock. So again he waited while the man placed the
+disagreeable rope around his neck. With this secure, he found himself
+led into the grove, where he soon was quenching his raging thirst, and
+where, after drinking, he felt more kindly not only toward the man, but
+toward the whole world. When he was conducted back into the open, and
+the end of the rope made fast to a stake, he lifted his voice in a
+shrill nicker proclaiming his satisfaction. Then he stood very still,
+watching the man enter the shack, utterly absorbed in getting that
+long-delayed reward of sugar and quartered apples.
+
+But again he waited in vain. The man did not reappear; indeed, none of
+the men reappeared. So after a time, swallowing his disappointment, he
+turned his eyes upon the other horses. As at noon, they were grazing
+industriously, and he knew what was in store for him. He regarded them a
+long moment, trying to bring himself to graze also, but finding that his
+knowledge of better things would not permit him. Yet there was one
+pleasant surprise. The little gray, sounding a soft whinny, made her way
+slowly toward him. This was unexpected friendliness, for the horse had
+seemed hostile earlier, and he promptly showed his pleasure by licking
+her neck with lavish attention. And though he found her coat gritty with
+dust, he continued this generous attention till she lowered her head and
+resumed her grazing. This reminded him of his own fierce hunger, and he
+promptly lowered his own head, following her example with a kind of
+gratitude, and fell to grazing with her, finding in her interest the one
+ray of light in all the darkness of his distress and continued
+disappointment. And thus he fed, keeping with her to the limits of his
+tether, until, soon after the candlelight had whisked out in the shack,
+she lay down in the yielding sand with a restful sigh. Pat understood
+this, but he regarded it with uncertainty, knowing that he himself with
+the coming of night always had protection in a stable. Then, deciding
+that it was right and fitting, especially as the sorrel also sank into
+the sand, he himself bent his knees and lay down to rest in the warmth
+of the desert.
+
+But his lesson in the open was not yet fully learned. Next morning, with
+the other horses astir, and with the men moving in and out of the shack,
+he saw his master coming toward him. Reaching him, the man untied the
+rope from the stake, led him to the pool of water, and permitted him to
+drink. Then he returned him to the open, and there removed the rope from
+him entirely. But despite this he found that he was not free from
+suspicion. For now the man tied a short rope around his fore ankles, and
+strode back into the shack, leaving him, as before, to his own devices.
+
+Half expecting the man to return with sugar and apples, Pat watched him
+take himself off with mild anticipation. But as the man did not return
+he bethought him after a time of his sterner hunger, and took prompt
+step in the direction of a tuft of grass. Instantly he felt a sharp
+twitch at his ankles and fell headlong. For a moment he lay dazed,
+utterly at a loss to understand, thrashing about frantically in futile
+effort to regain his feet. Then he became calm again, and brought
+craftiness instead of brute force to bear upon the trouble. He regained
+his feet. Then he studied the cause of the disaster, and finally stepped
+out again, cautiously now, having learned his lesson. So he did not
+stumble. But he did feel the check around his ankles again. Steadying
+himself, he saw clearly the cause of his previous discomfiture, but he
+did not accept it as defeat. Casting his eyes toward the other horses,
+he awoke to the fact that they, as well as himself, were hobbled.
+Watching them, studying them, he finally saw one rear, strike out with
+his front legs, and draw his hind legs up to meet the advance. So that
+was it! He now knew what he himself must do. Feeling out his hobbles
+carefully, gathering quick courage the while, he himself at length
+reared, struck out with fore legs, followed up with hind legs, and found
+himself directly over the tuft of grass. This was pleasant, and he
+promptly began to nibble it, finding it no less toothsome--perhaps more
+toothsome--for the effort. And when he had finished this he gazed about
+for others, and, seeing others, moved upon each in turn as he had moved
+upon the first, rearing and striking, following it with hind legs,
+rearing and striking again, following again with hind legs, all
+successfully. And so he learned his second great lesson in the open.
+
+Thus he began his life in the desert. Fraught as it was with much
+discomfort, both spiritual and physical, he yet found much of interest
+in it all, and he was destined to find in it, as time went on, much more
+of even greater interest. And in the days which followed, and the weeks
+and months following these, because he showed that he was willing and
+anxious to learn, to attune himself to the life, he aroused in all who
+came in contact with him, men as well as horses, an esteem and affection
+which made life smoother and more pleasant for him than it might
+otherwise have been.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+A PICTURE
+
+
+A hundred miles west from the shack, stretching away from it in an
+almost unbroken expanse, was a desert within the desert. _Amole_
+and sagebrush and cactus vied with each other to relieve the dead, flat,
+monotonous brown. Without movement anywhere, save for the heat-waves
+ascending, this expanse presented an unutterably drear and lonesome
+aspect. It terminated, or partly terminated--swerving off into the south
+beyond--in a long sand-dune running northeast and southwest. This mighty
+roll lay brooding, as did the world-old expanse fringing it, in the
+silence of late morning. Overhead a turquoise sky, low, spotless,
+likewise brooding, dipped down gracefully to the horizon around--a
+horizon like an immense girdle, a girdle which, as one journeyed along,
+seemed to accompany him, rapidly if he moved rapidly, slowly if he moved
+slowly--an immense circle of which he was the center. The sun was
+glaring, and revealed here and there out of the drifts a bleached
+skeleton, mutely proclaiming the sun as overlord, while over all, around
+and about and within this throbbing furnace, there seemed to lurk a
+voice, a voice of but a softly lisped word--solitude.
+
+Suddenly, like a mere dot against the skyline, there appeared over the
+giant dune to the north a single horseman. A moment he seemed to pause
+on the crest, then began the long descent, slowly, with almost
+imperceptible movement. He was not more than under way when another dot
+appeared against the skyline, a second horseman, close behind the first,
+who, like the first, after seeming to pause a moment on the crest,
+dipped into the long slope with almost imperceptible movement. A third
+dot appeared, two dots close beside each other, and these, like the
+others, dipping into the descent with almost imperceptible movement, for
+all the world like flies reluctantly entering a giant saucer. And then
+appeared another, the fifth, and then no more. The last also seemed to
+pause a brief moment on the crest, and also dipped with almost
+imperceptible movement into the long descent.
+
+They struck the floor of the furnace. Details began to emerge. One was a
+fat man, another was a gaunt man, a third was a little man--all smooth
+of face. Then there was a man with a scrubby beard. And there was
+another smooth-faced man, riding a little apart from the others, a
+little more alert, perhaps, his garments not their garments, his horse a
+little rounder of outline, a little more graceful of movement. They
+might have been in conversation, these riders out of the solitude. But
+all were heavily armed. And all rode slowly, leisurely, taking their own
+good time, as if this in itself was duty, with orders uncertain, or with
+no orders at all. They rode on across the desert within the desert,
+presenting three-quarter profile, then, with an hour passing, full
+profile, then, with another hour passing, quarter profile, and now, with
+yet another hour passing, five agreeable backs--broad, most of them, all
+topped with sombreros, and all motionless save for the movement of their
+mounts. On and on they rode into the south, underneath a blistering sun
+at full zenith. They became mere dots again upon the pulsating horizon,
+mere specks, and disappeared in the shimmering haze.
+
+Solitude, the voice of solitude, the death-stillness, throbbing silence,
+reigned once more. Not an animal, not an insect, not a tree, struck the
+eye. The arid and level floor was again clean of movement. The sun
+glared, revealing here and there out of the drifts a bleached skeleton,
+in this speechless thing mutely proclaiming its own sway. Beneath the
+sun the horizon, an immense girdle, swept round in unbroken line,
+pulsating. The turquoise sky hung low, spotless and shimmering,
+brooding, dipping smoothly down to the horizon and to the long sand-dune
+running to northeast and southwest. Skirting this dune, reaching to it
+out of the east, then swerving off to the south beyond, lay the almost
+unbroken expanse, the desert within the desert, its dead, flat,
+monotonous brown relieved here and there with alternating sagebrush and
+cactus and _amole_, stretching back a distance of a hundred miles
+to the shack.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+CHANGE OF MASTERS
+
+
+The interior of the shack was comparatively bare. On the floor, which
+was of adobe, and therefore hard and smooth as cement, were five
+three-legged stools and a table, all crude and evidently shaped out of
+saplings from the grove. There was but a single window, high up, tiny
+and square, containing neither glass nor frame, which looked out upon
+the south. Built against the walls were some shelves, upon which lay a
+scant supply of tinware, and in the opposite wall was a tier of bunks,
+just now littered with soiled blankets. Evidently this place had
+sheltered these men frequently, for each moved about it with easy
+familiarity, and obviously it was a retreat, a rendezvous, a
+hiding-place against the range police.
+
+A game of cards was about to be started. The three men were seated round
+the table, and before two of them--the younger man, Jim, and the
+heavy-set man, the leader, Johnson--was an even distribution of chips.
+The third man, Glover, was smoking a short-stemmed pipe, evidently
+having been cut out of the play.
+
+"Jim," said Johnson, showing his perfect teeth with an unpleasant grin,
+"we'll hop right to this! I think my little proposition here is fair and
+square. Thirty dollars in money against that black horse out there. I
+told you where you could get a good horse, and you got one sure enough!
+And he's yours! But I've taken a kind of shine to him myself, and why
+ain't this a good way to push it over? My little gray and thirty dollars
+in money. What's the matter with it?"
+
+The other did not appear greatly pleased, nevertheless. Thoughtfully he
+riffled the cards a long moment. Then he looked up into Johnson's black
+eyes steadily.
+
+"Poker?" he asked, quietly.
+
+"Draw poker," replied the leader, giving his black mustache a satisfied
+twist. He jerked his head in the direction of the chips. "Win all, take
+all," he added.
+
+Jim lowered his eyes again. He was not more than a boy, this outlaw, and
+he had formed a strong attachment for the black horse. And because he
+had come to understand Pat and to appreciate him, he hated to think of
+the horse's serving under this bloodless man opposite. Pat's life under
+this man would be a life of misery. It was so with all of Johnson's
+horses. Either they died early, or else, as in the case of the little
+gray, their spirits sank under his cruelty to an ebb so low that nothing
+short of another horse, and one obviously capable of rendering
+successful protection, roused them to an interest in their own welfare.
+This was why the little gray, he recalled, had approached the black the
+first night after reaching the shack. Evidently she had recognized in
+him an able protector, should he care to protect her, against the
+brutality of her master. And so to play a game of cards, or anything
+else, with a view to losing possession--
+
+"I don't hear you saying!" cut in the cold voice of the other upon his
+thoughts. "Ain't the stakes right?"
+
+Jim looked up. "I guess so," he said. "I'm tryin' to figure--percentages
+and the like."
+
+Again he relapsed into thought. He feared this man as he feared a snake.
+For Johnson had a grip on him in many ways, and in ways unpleasant to
+recall. So he knew that to refuse meant a volley of invectives that
+would end in his losing the horse anyway, losing him by force, and a
+later treatment of the animal, through sheer spite, the brutality of
+which he did not like to contemplate. So he did not reply; he did not
+dare to say yes or no. Either way, the horse was gone. For Johnson was
+clever with the cards, fiendishly clever, and when playing recognized no
+law save crookedness.
+
+"Jim," burst out Johnson, controlling himself evidently with effort, "I
+want to ask you something. I want you to tell me something. I want you
+to tell me who it was grubstaked you that winter you needed grubstaking
+mighty bad. I want you to tell me who it was got you out of that scrape
+over in Lincoln County two years ago. I want you to tell me who it was
+took care of you last winter--under mighty trying circumstances,
+too--and put you in the way of easy money this spring! But you needn't
+tell me," he suddenly concluded, picking up the cards savagely. "I know
+who it was without your telling me, and you know who it was without my
+telling you. And now what's the returns? When I give you a chance to
+come back a little--in a dead-square, open game of cards--you crawl into
+your shell and act like I'd asked you to step on the gallows."
+
+Jim permitted himself a quiet smile. "I don't think I'm playing the hog,
+exactly," he rejoined, evenly. "I guess maybe I'm thinking of the horse
+as much as anything. And not so much of him, either, maybe, as of you,
+the way you handle horses if they don't dance a two-step when you want a
+two-step. In about a week, Johnson," he continued, mildly, "you'd have
+that horse jabbed full of holes with them Mexican rowels of yours! He
+wouldn't stand for that kind of affection, or I'm no judge of
+horseflesh. He ain't used to it; he ain't that kind of a horse--your
+kind! You ought to see that yourself. You don't want no spirited horse
+like him, because either you'd kill him or he'd kill you. _I_ can
+see it, if you can't!"
+
+"We'll now cut for deal," interposed Johnson, grimly.
+
+"Take myself," went on the other, half smiling "why I like the idea of
+keeping him. I used to kill cats and rob nests and stone dogs when I was
+a kid; but later I learned different. I didn't kill cats and rob nests
+after that; dogs I got to petting whenever I'd meet one. I got
+acquainted with animals that way. Made the acquaintance from both
+angles--seeing how they acted under torture, then learning how they
+acted under kindness. I know animals, Johnson," he added, quietly. "And
+an animal to me is an animal and something more. A horse, for instance.
+I see more in a horse than just an easy way of getting around. But that
+ain't you. You're like a man I once knowed that kept a dog just because
+the dog was a good hunter. If I couldn't see more in a dog than just
+what he's fit for, I'd quit the sport."
+
+"Now we'll cut for deal."
+
+Jim had been rocking back and forth easily on two legs of his stool. He
+now dropped forward squarely on the floor and nodded assent.
+
+"Cut for deal," he said, quietly. "You!"
+
+The game began. Glover, who evidently found interest in discussions, but
+none whatever in a game of cards, tilted back against the wall and began
+to talk, now that the argument was over.
+
+"Zeke tells me," he began in a nasal voice, tamping the tobacco into the
+bowl of his pipe reflectively, "as how they's a bunch o' Injun renegades
+movin' south'ards off the reservation on a hell-toot. I meant to speak
+of it afore, but forgot, as usual. Jim's talk here o' animals lovin'
+each other that away reminds me." He lifted gray eyes to Johnson.
+"Didn't Zeke say nothin' to you about that, neither?" he asked,
+evidently mindful of some other grave oversight on the part of "Zeke."
+
+Johnson did not reply until after three or four rounds of the cards.
+"Zeke told you a lot of things that hour you sat with him alone," he
+rejoined, with broad sarcasm. "Zeke must like you!"
+
+"Mebbe," agreed Glover, accepting the remark with all seriousness. "He
+says as how Fort Wingate is out, and I remarks that sich a move about
+terminates the performance. He agrees with me--says fust squint them
+renegades gits at regular troops they'll hunt gopher-holes as places o'
+ginerous salvation."
+
+The others remained silent. The game was going decidedly against Jim. It
+had gone against him from the first--as he had known it would. Yet he
+continued to play, watchful of his opponent, keen to note any
+irregularities. Yet he had discovered nothing that might be interpreted
+as cheating. Still he was losing, and still, despite all beliefs to the
+contrary, he entertained hope, hope that he might win. If he did win, he
+told himself, Johnson was enough of a white man to accept the defeat and
+leave the horse where he was. Yet his chips were steadily dwindling; the
+cards persistently refused to come his way; only once thus far had he
+held a winning hand. But he played on, becoming ever more discouraged,
+until, suddenly awaking to an unexpectedly good hand, he opened the pot.
+The raises followed back and forth swiftly, but he lost again. And now
+Johnson, as he mechanically drew the chips toward him, broke the
+silence.
+
+"Zeke got you all worked up, didn't he?" he declared, turning his eyes
+upon Glover. "As for renegades," he went on, beginning to deal the cards
+again, "I've knowed 'em--hull droves of 'em--to stampede on the whistle
+of a rattler." Evidently he was returning to good humor.
+
+Glover took his pipe from his mouth. "Renegades gits stirred up every
+jest so often," he observed. "I s'pose it's because of the way they feel
+about things. Being run offen the reservations thataway ain't nowise
+pleasant, to begin with, and then havin' to hang around the aidges for
+what grub their folks sees fit for to sneak out to 'em ought to make it
+jest that much more monotonous--kind of. Reckon I'd break out
+myself--like a man that eats pancakes a lot--under sich circumstances.
+Zeke says this band--the latest gang to git sore--is a-headin' dead
+south. Talks like we might run agin trouble down there. More'n one
+brand, too--the police and the reg'lars all bein' out thataway. They're
+all out--Zeke says."
+
+The others were absorbed in play, and so made no retort. Whereat Glover,
+with a reflective light in his eyes, continued:
+
+"I've seen something myself," he went on, evidently mindful of Johnson's
+observation. "I've seen better men than Injuns stampede on less than
+rattlesnakes--and cover a heap more ground in a lot less shorter time.
+What I'm talkin' about is skunks," he explained, to nobody in
+particular--"hydrophoby skunks--their bite. Why," he continued, warming
+to his subject and seemingly ignorant of its myths, "I once seen a man
+ride into San Mercial with his face that white it wouldn't 'a' showed a
+chalk mark! And he was holdin' up his thumb like it was pizen--which it
+was! And he was cuttin' for old Doc Struthers that fast his cayuse was
+sparkin' out of his ears. Bit by a hydrophoby skunk--yes, sirree. Got to
+the Doc's just in time, too! But he allus was lucky--the Doc! Money jest
+rolled into that party all the time. But some folks don't jest quite
+make it--horses gives out, or something. And if they ain't got the sand
+to shoot the finger off--"
+
+A sudden shadow across the window checked him. He quietly reached for
+his gun. Also, Johnson lifted quick eyes to the window. And now Jim
+turned his head. Directly Glover rose to his feet; Johnson got up off
+his stool; Jim flung to the door. A moment they stood tense. Then Jim
+moved cautiously to the window. He gazed outside. As he did so his
+features relaxed. Presently he returned to the table.
+
+"That horse," he explained, eyes twinkling.
+
+The others returned to their places. All were visibly relieved. But
+Glover did not go on with his yarn. Lighting his pipe again, he fell to
+smoking in thoughtful silence.
+
+Jim picked up his cards. He saw four kings. But he felt no elation.
+Before him was a mere dribble of chips, and he knew that he could not
+hold out much longer. Johnson was coldly surveying his own cards, and
+after a studied moment opened the pot. Jim thrust forward half his small
+stack, followed by Johnson with a raise, whereupon Jim placed all he had
+upon the board. That closed the game. The other spread out his cards
+generously, and Jim, glancing listlessly at four aces, rose from the
+table. Turning to the window, he saw Pat still lingering near the shack.
+He gazed at him a long moment in silence.
+
+"He's yours," he said, finally, facing Johnson. "Reckon I'll go outside
+for a little air."
+
+Outside, he made straight for Pat, removed the hobbles, led him into the
+grove. As the horse quenched his thirst, Jim sat down with his back
+against a tree and removed his hat.
+
+"Sorry, old-timer," he began, quietly, "but it can't be helped. We--" He
+interrupted himself; shoved Pat away a step. "That's better," he went
+on, smiling. Then, as Pat looked puzzled, "On my foot--yes," he
+explained. "All of your own, too, of course!" he added. "But one of
+mine, too!" He was silent. "As I was remarking," he continued, after a
+moment, "we've got to beat him some other way. You're a likely horse."
+
+He lowered his eyes thoughtfully. He did know of a way to beat Johnson.
+That way was to mount Pat, ride hard for the open, and race it out
+against the little gray mounted by Johnson. But already he could see the
+vindictive and cursing Johnson in pursuit, discharging guns before him.
+So the idea was hopeless, for he knew that Johnson even now was alert
+for some such move. But even if it were feasible, he realized that he
+never could rid himself of the man. Others had tried, as he well
+recalled--tried to break away from him for all time, with a result in no
+way to Johnson's credit. Two had never been seen again, which pointed
+grimly to the fact that Johnson lived up to his favorite maxim, which
+was that dead men tell no tales. Another was the case of that poor
+luckless devil who, through some mysterious workings of the law, having
+broken with Johnson, had been arrested and convicted of a crime long
+forgotten. But Jim knew, as others closely associated with Johnson knew,
+that it was Johnson who indirectly had sent the unfortunate one to the
+penitentiary. So it required courage, a kind of unreasoning desperation,
+to quit the man and the life he led.
+
+Suddenly Jim took a new hold upon himself. What, he began to ask
+himself, was getting into him? Why was he suddenly thinking of quitting
+Johnson? What would he do if he did quit him? To his kind all decent
+channels were closed for any but the exceptional man. But that wasn't
+it! Why was he arguing with himself along these lines? What was getting
+into him? He felt as if some good and powerful influence was come into
+his life! He had felt like this in Denver when a Salvation Army lassie
+had approached him. But this wasn't Denver! Nor was there a woman! What
+was it, anyway? He could not decide.
+
+He arose and laid his hand upon Pat's forelock.
+
+"It's a regular case," he said, leading the horse out of the grove, "for
+something to turn up. It generally does, anyway," he concluded. "Don't
+it, Old Gravity?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+PAT TURNS THIEF
+
+
+A week passed before Pat knew of his change in masters. But that was not
+strange. Busily engaged in keeping himself alive on scant herbage, he
+took but little interest in anything else. Besides, his young friend
+continued to make much of him, talking in soothing tones and gently
+stroking his sides, and the little gray, holding herself faithfully
+near, also maintained quiet evidence of friendliness. So he had no
+reason to suspect change. But one morning, with camp broken, and
+saddle-bags flung out, and the window sealed over, and the door shut and
+barred, and the other horses bridled and saddled, there came to him in
+the person of the large man himself--a person he had instinctively
+disliked--the first sign of the change in his fortune.
+
+The man approached, bridle on arm, to remove his hobbles. He remained
+motionless under this, and prepared also to accept the bridle quietly.
+But in bridling him the man was rough to an extent he had never before
+known--forcing an oddly shaped bit against his tongue, and twisting and
+turning his sensitive ears as if these delicate organs were so much
+refractory leather or metal. Then came the saddle, and with it further
+torture. The forward belt was made snug, which he was accustomed to and
+expected; but when the rear girdle was cinched so tight that he found
+difficulty in breathing, he became nervous and wanted to protest. It was
+all very unusual, this rough handling, and he did not understand it. The
+effect of the tight cinch was peculiar, too. With the knot tied firmly,
+he felt girded as for some great undertaking, his whole nervous system
+seemed to center in his stomach, and all his wonted freedom and buoyancy
+seemed compressed and smothered. With all this, and the man in the
+saddle and spurring viciously, he realized grimly the change in masters.
+
+They set out at a fox-trot, continuing their southwesterly direction. It
+was an unmarked course from the beginning, leading them steadily down
+into the Mogollon range, and, as before, Johnson was occupying the lead,
+with Jim next behind, and Glover bringing up the rear. And, as on the
+first leg of the journey, all rode in silence.
+
+So Pat was in the lead, and while he found his new master half as heavy
+again as the other, he also found compensation for the increased weight
+in the position which he occupied. Not that he was proud to be in the
+lead; nothing from the beginning of this adventure had caused a thrill
+of either joy or pride. But he did find in his new place freedom from
+dust cast up by the heels of his companions, and he trotted along in
+contentment, to all outward appearances. But it was only an appearance
+of content. Within were mixed emotions. While he felt pleasure at being
+active again, while he was resigned in a way to his hunger pangs, and he
+was glad that his friends, the little gray and the young man, were still
+with him, yet against all this was a sense of revolt at the unnecessary
+tightness of the cinch, the hard hand on the reins, and the frequent
+touch of spur and heel and stirrup against his sides. Finally the
+feeling which began at that initial torture in bridling swelled with the
+consequent annoyances into approaching revolt. He became ugly and
+morose.
+
+This soon revealed itself. He was crossing a wide arroyo. Without
+counting costs, grimly blind to the result, he burst out of the fox-trot
+into a canter. He held to this a thrilling moment, and then, finding
+himself keyed to greater exertions, abandoned the canter and broke into
+a sharp run. It was all done quickly, the changes of stride lapping
+almost within his own length, and his heart leaped and pounded with
+delight, for the change somehow relieved him.
+
+But it was a mistake. Quickly as it was done, he found himself almost as
+quickly jerked up, swung viciously around, and his sides raked with
+ruthless spurs. He gasped a moment under the smarting fire of the spurs,
+then, as in the old days, reared in a towering rage. And this was a
+mistake. Too late he found the man's weight overbalancing him. He
+struggled to recover himself, plunged over backward, and down, striking
+the earth heavily. Hurriedly he regained his feet, but not so the man,
+not till the others sprang to his assistance. Then he realized what he
+had done, realized it fully as he caught the venomous gleam in the man's
+eyes and heard the storm of abuse volleying from his lips. Then, looking
+at the man, and listening to his raging outburst, he conjured up out of
+the dim past memories of the Mexican hostler and of that single
+encounter in the white corral. And now his fear for the man left him.
+
+"I'll kill him! I'll shoot the horse!" roared Johnson, his face yellow
+underneath the tan. He reached toward his side-arms.
+
+But he did not shoot. With his face white and drawn Jim strode to Pat's
+head, while Glover, quick to understand, played the solicitous
+attendant, assisting the limping Johnson into the saddle. And that
+closed the incident. Presently all were riding along again, with
+Johnson, wincing under internal distress, holding his reins more loosely
+than before.
+
+But it was not without its good. As on that other occasion in the
+corral, Pat had learned something. He had measured a man, and he knew,
+and knew that the man knew, that he had come off victor. But it gave him
+no secret gratification. He continued to trot along, holding steadily to
+the gait, subtly aware of the slackened rein and of the wrenched and
+loosened girdle, until, with the coming of noon, the blessed relief from
+the weight of the man, the ill-fitting saddle, and the over-tight girth,
+came also an agreeable surprise. He was turned out to graze without
+hobble or tether, and for this consideration he felt faint glimmerings
+of respect for his new master. Making free at first with the other
+horses, he set off to enjoy to the full his new-found liberty.
+
+But as he pursued ever farther the elusive vegetation in the joy of
+freedom, he presently awoke to his great distance from camp, and,
+indeed, from the other horses. Conscious of a sudden gripping loneliness
+and a certain apprehension, he began to retrace his way. As he did so,
+out of the silence came a nasty whirring sound, and suddenly he felt a
+rope settle over his head. Surprise, then anger, displaced his
+loneliness and apprehension; he jerked back to escape the rope. But it
+held fast. He braced his legs and began to pull steadily. But the harder
+he pulled the worse the rope choked him. Finally he ceased all effort
+and turned his eyes along the rope. At the far end stood the little
+mare, legs braced in the sand, and astride her, stolid and grim, and
+with eyes narrowed, the figure of the large man. At sight of him Pat
+began to pull again, more through ugliness now than desire to escape,
+until he found that he was dragging the little gray out of her stiffened
+hold. Then he slackened off. Also, as she wheeled back toward camp, he
+set out amiably after her. In camp he found his young friend scattering
+and deadening the coals of the camp-fire, and the little man making up
+the saddle-bags. This told him that the journey was to be resumed, and
+he stood quiet and peaceful as he was being bridled and saddled, and
+afterward he trotted along under the guidance of his master without show
+of anger or rebellion. Indeed, though the sun was hot, and the unmarked
+trail tedious, and the weight on his back heavier than ever, he felt
+less fretful and more contented than at any time since leaving the
+little ranch beside the river--possibly because of the thrill of his
+double encounter.
+
+Ahead and on either hand the desert soon began to break and lift. As
+they went on the dunes grew to be hills and heights, growing, looming,
+closing in upon them. Now and again a clump of trees or a shoulder of
+rock or a stretch of foliage stepped out in relief against the brown of
+the landscape, revealing more than once ideal grazing-land. Also, as
+they penetrated deeper into this broken country, the sky overhead showed
+change. From a spotless blue it revealed tiny splotches of gray-white
+cloud scudding before upper currents. With the passing hours these
+clouds became heavy, sullen, and threatening, until the sun, dipping
+into the west, sinking in a kind of hazy moisture, left the heavens
+completely overcast, cold and bleak and forbidding--a dense mass of
+cloud-banks down to the tip of ridge and range. And now came dusk, short
+and chill, and with it the slow ascent of a long grade, leading them up
+to a ridge, low and ragged, trailing away interminably to north and
+south in the gloom. Complete darkness found them deep among high hills.
+
+The men drew rein beside a little stream. They watered the horses, and
+then, throwing off saddle-bags and gathering brush, they built a tiny
+fire. Glover appeared nervous and worried, and when the meal was ended
+turned to mount and be off again. But Johnson called him back. Johnson
+was seated on the ground, close beside Jim, and Glover sat down with
+them. Thus they waited, silent, reflective, watching, while about them
+pressed the close night, seeming by its touch to impart to them
+something of its solemnity. Off at one side the horses, bridled and
+saddled, waited also--watching and waiting, motionless, and over them
+all brooded a stillness that was mighty and portentous. Thus they waited
+for two hours, wrapped in profound silence, and then Johnson, after
+scanning the sky, rose and made for the horses. The others quickly
+followed him. Their trail led into a narrow defile. Up this winding way
+they rode, with Johnson in the lead, up and ever up, until they burst
+through a clump of brush at the top. There they drew rein and again
+waited, silent, reflective, watching. Presently Glover, with eyes turned
+eastward, uttered a grunt which meant relief.
+
+The clouds in the eastern sky were breaking. Through the heavy banks
+came a faint glimmering of moonlight. At first but a hair-line, it
+widened out, reaching up and across the sky, developing steadily into
+the semblance of a frozen flash of heat lightning, until all the eastern
+heavens showed a shimmering expanse, broken here and there by black
+clouds sullenly holding their own, which flooded the underscudding
+desert in beautiful mottled gray-green coloring. Wider and wider the
+light spread, up and away on either hand, moving stealthily across the
+sky, until the sheen of it broke over the ridge itself, and then swept
+beyond to the west, laying bare a broad expanse of mesa dotted with
+gray-green specks that told of the presence of hundreds of cattle. And
+now the sullen clouds took to weaving, swaying under the pressure of
+upper-air currents, the specks below beginning to lift and fall with the
+motion of the clouds like bits of wreckage undulate on the sea. The
+air-drifts descended, came closer, fanning the cheeks of the men,
+rustling through the leaves which crowned the ridge, and breaking the
+heavy silence. The air-currents flicked the desert with their freight of
+swift-moving shadows, causing strange movement among the bits of
+wreckage--the cattle. It was a glorious march, lighting up the western
+expanse beneath and revealing a flat country, unbroken by dune or cleft
+as far as the eye could penetrate. So the light moved on, crowding
+before it sullen shadows which presently disappeared.
+
+Johnson broke the stillness. "We'd better move along down," he said, and
+shook Pat's reins.
+
+The horses began the long descent. As compared with the upward climb
+they made slow progress. Forced to feel their way, they moved always in
+halts and starts, over saplings, around bulging rocks, along narrow
+ledges, and at length gained the mesa, where the men drew rein. Johnson,
+sweeping his eyes coolly over the field of his campaign, began to give
+orders.
+
+"Jim," he snapped, "cut in over there--that arroyo--and crowd 'em around
+to the south. Don't go too deep." Then, as Jim caught up his reins,
+"Glover, swing off this side--close in. We'll keep close in down to the
+line. Hop along!"
+
+Pat remained standing. He turned his eyes after the little gray and her
+rider. He saw the pair swing up over a rise of ground at a gallop, dip
+from view into a hollow, and appear again on the level beyond. Across
+this they rode, speeding to the opposite slopes, then slackening as they
+ascended, making quietly among the nervous cattle, horses and riders
+moving with the easy certainty that told of much experience. Then he saw
+the head and shoulders of the young man above the surging herd, crowding
+a part of it slowly in his direction, to the right, to the left, forward
+and around, always making steadily toward him. It was interesting, and
+he continued to watch the cool steadiness of the man and the easy
+control of the horse, until he caught sight of the other, riding the
+opposite flank, but also crowding steadily toward him. He fell to
+watching this man, who, not so tall as Jim among the herd, but as
+quietly active, was also pressing to right and left and forward and
+around among the cattle, relentlessly cutting them out. Soon there was a
+general forward movement, the young man riding on the far side, the
+little man closing up the rear, and this brought the whole herd, some
+bellowing loudly, others in sullen silence, still others contentedly
+munching, directly opposite. Then he felt the prick of spurs, and,
+throwing himself eagerly at the task, he galloped around behind the
+advancing cattle, falling into the position now abandoned by the little
+man, who cantered around and forward upon the left flank. It was
+exciting, and for a moment he thrilled. Then came the only interruption.
+
+A big steer, breaking suddenly out of the herd, tore madly to the rear.
+Pat, nearest the escaping beef, was spurred in pursuit. It was
+unexpected, the spurring, and it was savage, and, jolted out of soothing
+reflection, he flattened his ears and balked. The man spurred him again
+and again and again, finally raking his sides mercilessly. Whereupon Pat
+balked in earnest, bucking and pitching viciously. At this the man swung
+his quirt, cutting Pat repeatedly over head and ears. Yet Pat continued
+to plunge, holding grimly to his lesson, which was to teach this man the
+futility of this treatment. He did not throw the man off, but neither
+did he go ahead. Finally the man ceased his brutality, and evidently
+coming to understand, headed Pat after the moving herd without spur or
+quirt. Then Pat, though still rankling under the cruelty, sprang eagerly
+forward, desirous of showing his willingness to serve when rightly used.
+
+That was all. The night passed quietly, the men, alert to their tasks,
+each separated from the other, riding stolidly into golden dawn. But not
+till late, with the sun half-way to its zenith, and then only because of
+safe distance from possible detection, did they draw rein. Saddle-bags
+were thrown off, though bridle and saddle were left on in case of
+emergency, and the horses were turned out on short tethers. The men
+risked a fire, since they were in the shadow of a ridge, and when the
+coffee-pot was steaming seated themselves on the ground, in a close
+circle. For the first time since midnight one spoke. It was Johnson.
+
+"We'll hold west of Lordsburg," he declared, sweeping his eyes
+gloatingly over the herd. "Francisco Espor and his gang over the line'll
+weep when they see that bunch--for joy!"
+
+Jim leaned back upon one elbow. "What was that rumpus last night," he
+inquired, "right after we started?" Then he showed his thoughts. "I
+mean, the horse."
+
+Johnson swung his head around. For a moment he appeared not to
+understand. Then suddenly his eyes lost their good-humored twinkle and
+grew hard.
+
+"Lost one," he answered, abruptly. "The horse stalled." He narrowed his
+eyes as he stared vindictively at Pat. "I must take a day off, after we
+get over the line," he snapped, "and break that animal to saddle,
+bridle, spur, quirt, and rope. He 'ain't never been broke, that horse,
+and he's naturally mean!"
+
+Jim sat up. "Not with me," he declared, quietly, "when we got
+acquainted. You ain't taking him right, that's all."
+
+Johnson eyed him surlily. "You're a wonderful piece!" he snapped; and
+then, by glint of eye and jerk of head showed that he dismissed the
+subject.
+
+But Jim seemed to feel otherwise. "Maybe I am," he retorted, turning
+absent eyes in the direction of the horse. "But I ain't all. I happen to
+know of another wonderful piece. I'm only a one-territory piece."
+
+Johnson grinned. "Go on," he urged, politely.
+
+"There's no 'go on' to it," rejoined Jim, revealing equal politeness.
+"I'm only thinking of a piece I happen to know that runs about a man
+that's wanted more or less in seven states and two territories. Running
+double, he's hard to get."
+
+Johnson reached over coolly and struck him nastily across the mouth.
+Then as coolly he sat back, while Jim slowly rose to his feet. His eyes
+were blazing.
+
+"Thanks," he said, tensely. "I've heard a lot about your killings," he
+went on, breathless with anger. "I guess maybe that's the way--"
+
+"Hush!" broke in Glover, excitedly, his eyes upon the ridge to the east.
+
+The others turned. Moving slowly along the crest, disappearing,
+reappearing, disappearing again, was the figure of a man. They gazed a
+long moment, when the figure dropped from view again. They continued to
+gaze, silent, rigid, watchful, peering narrowly against the morning
+sunlight. Presently the figure reappeared, lower against the gray
+background, moving slowly as before, evidently crouching. Lower it came,
+quarter down the slope, half-way, then again disappeared. Johnson broke
+the tense silence.
+
+"Sheepherder!" he snapped, and turned savage eyes back upon Jim.
+
+But Glover leaped to his feet. "If that's a sheepherder," he cried,
+making for the horses at a run, "then I'm a sheep!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+A RUNNING FIGHT
+
+
+A rifle-shot forced instant action. Jim whirled away from the camp-fire
+and saddle-bags and sprang toward the horses, while Johnson, leaping up
+with the agile twist of an athlete, gained his feet running. Jim headed
+grimly for Pat, but Johnson reached him a breath in advance. Snatching
+up the reins and mounting, he dug Pat viciously with his huge rowels. At
+that Pat balked. The man swore and cursed and spurred again; but the
+horse remained obdurate. Seeing this, Johnson stopped spurring.
+Thereupon Pat flung forward, dragging his tether clear of its stake, and
+crowded close beside the gray. Jim was mounted on the gray, bending low
+in the saddle, racing in frantic pursuit of Glover. Mounted on the
+sorrel, Glover was well in the lead, speeding straight into the west,
+riding at right angles to the ridge, galloping hard for the open desert.
+The echo of the shot reverberated again faintly, and around them closed
+a tense silence.
+
+Others were making for the open. Out of the underbrush, riding easily,
+burst a handful of rangers. Stephen was one of them. As they swept into
+the clear country, well-armed, well-mounted, the look on their strong,
+bronzed faces told of their purpose, which was to get the thieves alive,
+if possible. Down the long slope they galloped, hats low against the
+sunlight, elbows winging slightly, heads and backs slanting to the
+winds, speeding like a group of centaurs. Other than Stephen, there were
+four of these range police. Men of insight, of experience, keen in the
+ways of the lawless, knowing best of all the type ahead, they rode
+without strain, without urging, knowing that this was a long race, a
+matter of endurance, a test, not for themselves so much as for the
+horses, those of the pursued as well as their own. Loosely scattered,
+they rode, eyes not upon the thieves, but upon the horses carrying the
+thieves, as if hopeful for another break like that shown at the start by
+the magnificent black.
+
+Thus rode the rangers. Not so Stephen. Stephen knew no such laws. All he
+knew was that after long weeks of futile riding, here at last was
+Helen's Pat galloping madly away from him. Lashing and spurring his own
+bay mare, resolute and determined, he gradually began to pull away from
+the others.
+
+Ahead, Johnson began slowly to gather in his trailing tether-rope.
+Almost without visible effort he wound it around his saddle-horn.
+Whereupon Jim, evidently aroused to like danger of tripping, set to work
+at the loop around the little gray's neck. The knot was tight, and his
+position cramped, but he persisted, and, with it loose, tossed the rope
+away. Glover already was free from his trailing rope, having taken the
+time at the outset hurriedly to cast it off. And he was still in the
+lead, the sorrel carrying him without seeming effort, and moving
+steadily away from the others, each long stride gaining half as much
+ground again as the swinging gait of Pat or the quick and nervous
+reaching of the little gray. But all were moving at top speed, racing
+desperately across the desert, leaping sand-dunes, dipping into hollows,
+mounting eagerly over larger dunes, on and on like the wind, sending up
+with each fling of hoof swirling clouds of dust and gravel. It was a
+grim effort.
+
+Such a time comes to but few men. And such a crisis tests the mettle of
+men and shows the differences. Gripped in a primal emotion, fear for
+life, weak men show strength, and strong men weakness. Harmless men
+murder, murderous men weep, blasphemous men pray, praying men curse. Yet
+under such a stress strong men often reveal greater strength, rising to
+physical and spiritual heights of reserve that mock a following fate,
+even as praying men often pray harder and more fervently than ever they
+prayed in times of calm. Individual in peace, mankind is individual in
+war. It is the way of man.
+
+And thus it was with these three hurtling forward in the shadow of doom.
+Glover, ever weak, ever apprehensive, yet always considerate of others,
+now revealed unexpected strength and appeared considerate only of
+himself. Crouching in his saddle, apparently mindful of but a single
+thing--escape--he lashed his horse brutally, swinging his quirt
+rhythmically, now and again darting cold eyes backward. Johnson, given
+by nature to bravado and bluster, was even more defiant in this supreme
+moment. He rode with a plug of tobacco in hand, biting off huge pieces
+frequently, more frequently squirting brown juices between lips white as
+the telltale ring around his mouth--a ring as expressive as the hollows
+beneath his glittering eyes. And Jim, ever worried, ever conscious of
+himself, sat in his saddle easily, now that he was about to reap the
+harvest of his ill-sown seeds, riding with eyes on the horse
+alongside--Pat--studying with coolly critical gaze the animal's
+smoothness of gait, wonderful carriage of head, unusual and beautiful
+lifting of forelegs. Thus, in this valley of the shadow, each was his
+true self and something more, or less, as the chaotic spirit within
+viewed the immediate future or scanned the distant past.
+
+Another shot from the posse--a screaming bullet high overhead--a command
+to stop! But they did not stop. Instead, Johnson, rising in his
+stirrups, unholstered a huge revolver and fired point-blank at the
+rangers. It was the wrong thing to do, and instantly Jim drew away from
+the leader. This left a clear gap between, and exposed the speeding
+Glover ahead to fire from the rear. And suddenly it came, a volley of
+rifle-shots, and Glover, stiffening suddenly, was seen to clutch at his
+saddle-horn. Also, he turned his head and shoulders as if to cry out.
+But he uttered not a sound. Evidently the jostling of his sorrel
+forbade. He turned his head to the front again, and, slumping low in his
+saddle, began frantic use of spur and quirt. But the sorrel had lost his
+stride, and before he could regain it Jim and Johnson had dashed
+alongside. Jim swung close and looked at Glover. Glover returned the
+gaze, and again appeared about to speak. But now the sorrel flung
+forward into his stride, and the movement seemed to decide Glover
+against all utterance.
+
+But Jim understood. He held close to Glover, but turned his eyes after
+Johnson. Instantly he scowled and his mouth drew grimly down. For
+Johnson was swinging off at a tangent, riding out of the set direction,
+rapidly pulling away from them. For one sullen moment Jim regarded him;
+then turned his head to the rear. One of the rangers, a young man
+mounted on a graceful bay--with the rangers, yet apparently not one of
+them--was riding well forward out of the group. Understanding Johnson's
+move now, comprehending his utter selfishness in thus swinging away from
+them, Jim gazed pityingly at Glover. But Glover did not notice him. He
+himself was following the swift-riding Johnson with blazing eyes, and
+suddenly he exploded in vindictive anger.
+
+"Put a hole in him!" he cried, hoarsely. "Shoot him! Shoot him, Jim!
+I--I can't!"
+
+But neither could Jim. It was not his nature. Yet there was one thing he
+could do. And this he did. He took fresh hold on the reins, and, grim
+and deliberate and vengeful, swung about after Johnson. Further, in
+swinging his horse about he purposely crowded the sorrel over also. This
+brought both in direct pursuit of Johnson, and soon they overtook him.
+But not because of their greater speed.
+
+Suffering from an unwonted raking of spurs, Pat had taken to sudden
+rebellion--balking at first, then beginning to buck, flinging about in
+all directions except the way desired by the fugitive on his back.
+Riding close and noting this, Jim felt glad beyond all decency. He even
+chuckled with satisfaction, conscious almost of a desire to dismount and
+hug the black. Then his feeling changed. He regretted his glee, became
+fearful for the man, and called sharply to the horse. And now Pat came
+to a stand. This for a moment only. Then of his own accord he sprang
+forward again, speeding as eagerly now as but a moment before he had
+rebelled, and soon he was galloping alongside the gray. Eminently
+pleased with the whole performance, Jim again chuckled in delight and
+burst forward at top speed.
+
+Nor was this rebellion lost on Stephen. Riding well forward of the
+others, when he saw Pat offering resistance he whipped and spurred his
+mount in the hope that Pat would hold out. But Pat did not hold out,
+though Stephen knew that he would have, had he but understood. Also,
+there was his handicap--handicap of the others also. Neither he nor they
+dared to fire lest they should shoot the black. Occasionally the thieves
+spread apart, thus giving a chance for a shot with safe regard for Pat.
+But these openings were infrequent. All they could do was ride in the
+hope that the thieves might be seized with panic at last and give
+themselves up.
+
+But no such thought came to the fugitives. Johnson, after his galling
+experience with Pat, looked more grimly determined than ever to get
+away. Presently he struck back again. He drew a revolver, rose in his
+stirrups, and fired twice to the rear. It was not without result. Up
+from the rangers swept a chorus of yells, and Jim, turning his head, saw
+the foremost pursuer, the young man who was evidently not a ranger,
+circle headlong over his tumbling horse. He turned to the front again,
+and, understanding what would follow, whipped and spurred furiously.
+Suddenly the answer came. The desert awoke in a fusillade of shots, and
+Jim saw Glover, who once more was in the lead, drift out of his saddle,
+slip down much as a child descends from its high-chair, and fall to
+earth in a crumpled heap. He swerved and dashed alongside. For an
+instant he drew rein and studied the still face. Then he lifted his
+eyes, gazing off absently toward the distant skyline, the mellow haze in
+the hills, the shimmering of heat-waves above the dunes, the glistening
+reflections of light off myriads of tiny sand cubes. Glover--poor
+Glover--had paid the price, and had paid it in silence.
+
+He wheeled his horse and sped after Johnson. He overtook him swinging up
+over a slight elevation. Dead ahead, not more than two miles distant, he
+saw a long grove of trees. It gave him hope. Here was a chance for
+effective resistance. Here both he and Johnson could dismount, drive the
+horses into shelter, seek shelter themselves, and open fire upon the
+posse. His spirits kindled. He would shoot to kill, as he knew Johnson
+would shoot to kill, and then, with the rangers helplessly disabled, he
+would mount Pat, mount the black this time, and if Johnson became ugly
+he would shoot him. Then he would ride to the east, ride out of this
+life, and with the horse take up a decent existence somewhere,
+abandoning crime forever. He would--
+
+More shots from the rear interrupted him. Evidently the rangers,
+mounting over the rise themselves, had also caught sight of the grove.
+Evidently, too, they were taking no chances against such a stand as he
+was contemplating. At any rate, the firing became rapid and continuous,
+and it was deadly, for suddenly he saw Johnson wilt in the saddle, drop
+his revolver, drop the reins, and clutch at his left arm. Also he heard
+a cry--heard it sharp and clear above the pounding of the gray's hoofs
+and the creak and crunch of his own saddle-leather.
+
+"I'm hit! I'm hit, boy! They--they've got me!" Pat himself heard the
+outcry and felt the loosened rein. It puzzled him. He did not know
+whether to keep going or to slacken down. But he kept on going--going
+hard. Yet he would have welcomed a halt. He was weak and faint. He could
+not remember the time, save that memorable day on the mesa, when he had
+run so hard and so continuously. Yet ahead lay trees, and instinctively
+he accepted them as his destination. In that grove perhaps was water, an
+opportunity for rest, and abundance of food. So he continued forward,
+grimly conscious of his burning ankles, his pounding and fluttering
+heart and heaving and clamoring lungs--plunging forward under the weak
+urging of his heavy master, responding now through force of
+habit--feeling that because he was in motion he must continue in motion.
+It was a numb, mechanical effort, involuntary and apart from him, as
+much apart from his control as was the beating of his heart.
+
+Another volley came from the rear, and with it another violent change in
+his master. The man cried out and loosened his feet in the stirrups. Yet
+Pat continued to gallop until he felt the weight slowly leaving him,
+felt it go altogether, felt it dangling from one stirrup. Then he came
+to a stop. As he did so the little gray dashed past--his friend. And now
+great loneliness gripped him. He started forward. But the weight in his
+stirrup checked him. He came to a stop again. Then he wanted to nicker
+in protest, but he found that he could not. He was too weak to utter
+sound. So he stood there, his eyes upon the little gray and her rider,
+watching them hurtling toward the grove. Then the thudding of hoofs came
+to his ears from the rear, and, slowly turning, he saw a group of
+horsemen riding wearily--one hatless; another with flaying quirt; a
+third with smoking carbine; a fourth, a large man, smooth and red of
+face, riding heavily--all galloping toward him.
+
+But they did not hold his interest. His heart and soul lay with the
+little gray mare, and, turning to the front again, he saw mare and rider
+swinging out of sight around the end of the grove. Confidently he
+watched for their appearance beyond. Presently he saw them sweep into
+view again--moving at a gallop, swinging across a wide plain that held
+them clear to his straining eyes--saw them grow faint and fainter, small
+and ever smaller--become a hazy speck on the horizon--finally disappear
+from view in the engulfing dunes and vales of the surrounding desert.
+And now, weakened as he was, he sounded a forlorn, protracted nicker of
+protest.
+
+The rangers pulled up, breathless. They dismounted stiffly, released the
+weight from Pat's stirrup, and carried it off a little ways. He watched
+them a moment, noting their ease of movement and business-like air, and
+then turned his gaze to the horses. All were strange to him, and he
+looked them over frankly, resting his eyes finally upon a chunky white.
+Instinctively he knew that this horse was mean, and he hated mean horses
+as he hated mean men. Observing that this one showed his teeth freely at
+him, the while holding his small ears almost constantly flat, he
+measured him for difficulties in the future, if the association were to
+continue. Then he turned his eyes back to the men.
+
+As he did so, out of the silence rode a single horseman. He was mounted
+upon the sorrel, and Pat wondered at this. But as the man drew near and
+Pat saw a blood-smeared, ghastly face, he wondered still more. For there
+was something familiar about this lone rider, and he took a step toward
+him. Presently he saw him gain the outer edge of the circle, and then a
+strange thing happened. He saw the young man begin to weave in his
+saddle, saw two of the others suddenly leap for him--saw them reach him
+just in time to save him from tumbling limply to the ground. Then he
+noted another queer thing. He saw the young man's left arm dangle oddly
+from the shoulder; saw the young man himself grasp it, wincing with
+excruciating pain, and saw him turn wide eyes suddenly toward him. Then
+he heard the man speak.
+
+"Look--look him over!" he cried, and his voice was a curious mixture of
+distress and restrained excitement. "I--I don't want him--him to go
+back--to go back--hurt--hurt in--in--"
+
+And now Pat saw the strangest thing of all. He saw the young man slowly
+close his eyes and sink back into the arms of the others as one dead. He
+saw the others exchange troubled glances and lay the insensible form
+down tenderly on the sand. It was all very unusual, something new in his
+life; and, not knowing what else to do, yet somehow feeling that he
+should do something, be it never so little, he lowered his head and
+sounded a trembling nicker into the silence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+AN ENEMY
+
+
+There was water in the grove, and the men made camp at the edge of the
+trees. "The Doc," which was what the rangers early had affectionately
+nicknamed Stephen, was suffering a compound fracture of the left arm,
+together with numerous bruises and scratches about the head and face. He
+had had a nasty fall. His horse had stumbled and almost instantly died
+as the result of the big cattle-rustler's shots. The men set and
+splinted Stephen's arm as best they could, and they bandaged his head
+with rare skill; but it was deemed advisable for him to remain quiet for
+a time.
+
+So Stephen lay listlessly smiling at the bantering of the men, too sick
+at heart really to take interest in any living thing. His arm pained
+him, and his head ached, while throughout his body he was sore and stiff
+and well-nigh incapable of moving. But not once following the first
+complete collapse did he let go of himself, although when the men set
+his arm it seemed that he must. Somehow he was contented that everything
+was as it was. True, he was hurt. But also he had found Pat, had
+recovered the horse for Helen, and the horse now was within sound of his
+voice, did he but care to lift it. His physical hurts would get well,
+his spiritual hurts never without the recovery of the horse. And now he
+had the horse.
+
+One morning it became apparent that their food-supplies would soon need
+replenishing. So it was decided to break camp for the nearest town, a
+Mexican settlement some eighty miles to the southwest. Stephen had been
+walking about somewhat cheerfully for three or four days, and his
+condition was such that he could ride forward slowly without danger to
+his arm. So they broke camp, utilizing the sorrel as a pack-horse--there
+now were two extra saddles and bridles--and set out, Stephen, of course,
+mounted upon Pat.
+
+Once more Pat found himself following an unmarked and desolate trail.
+Moving always at a walk now instead of the conventional fox-trot, he
+found his service, save for this and one other thing, identical with
+that under his previous masters. The single other difference was that
+instead of irritating silence, these men unwittingly soothed him with
+their talk and swift exchange of jokes. Thus the hours passed, until
+noon came, when, with his bridle and saddle removed, and pungent odors
+of savory cooking tickling his nostrils, he received the privilege of
+grazing over the whole desert unhobbled and untethered. But this,
+liberal as it seemed, brought him nothing of the nourishment his soul
+craved. After an hour or two of lazy wandering, while the men passed the
+time at cards, he was sent forward again along the ever-mysterious
+trail. And thus he moved, through the long hot afternoon, the cool and
+lingering twilight, on to a night camp where once more he was turned
+loose with the other horses to glean as best he might life-giving
+sustenance from the scant herbage. But it was drearily monotonous.
+
+Throughout it all, however, there was one who kept his interest alive.
+It was the white horse. In the camp holding himself aloof, as if
+superciliously refraining from close contact, on the trail this horse
+took to revealing his antagonism. He would stand a short way from him
+while they grazed, lay back his ears and whisk his tail, and, whenever
+the chance came, he would snap viciously at the other horses. Pat
+understood the meaning of all this, and held himself ready to resist
+attack, yet he simply looked at the horse with a kind of amused
+speculation. Nor at any time did he feel grave apprehension. That he did
+not take the horse seriously lay in the fact that after drawing near in
+this fashion and bristling nastily the white horse would quickly draw
+away again, steadily and craftily, and then fall to worrying one of the
+other horses, usually one of smaller size that quite obviously feared
+him.
+
+There came the time when the white did not confine his threatenings to
+the grazing-periods. He became aggressive on the march. Though less free
+to give battle here, which was possibly his reason, he would frequently
+jockey close, and either flash his head around with teeth snapping, or
+else, as if to make Pat feel inferiority, would plunge forward to a
+point immediately in front, and in this position fling back choking dust
+or gravel. At such times the round-faced man, the white's master, would
+drag him away mightily, or, if he was not quick enough, then the sorrel,
+drowsing along behind on a lead-rope, would unconsciously offer
+resistance. But it was all very disagreeable, and Pat, while finding
+that it broke up the monotony of the journey, yet at length found
+himself also becoming irritated.
+
+He finally gave way to it. It was his nature to brood over annoyances
+and sometimes to heap grains of injustice into mountains of woes. He
+fell to thinking of his general lot, his misfortunes, the lack of proper
+food, the occasional lack of water, until he became sullen and peevish.
+The change showed in sudden starts at unusual sounds which brought sharp
+protests from his young master, and then he began to refuse to eat. This
+was grave, and he knew it. But he could not or would not help it; he
+never knew quite which it was. But he did not eat. Instead of moving
+about with the other horses, nose to ground, mouthing the bunch-grass,
+he would mope by himself well away from the other horses, standing with
+head hanging and ears inert, all in motionless silence. As the
+water-holes became farther apart, and the grazing worse yet, he did this
+more and more, until the white horse, evidently seeing his lack of
+spirit, became a source of downright aggravation, frequently taking
+lightning nips at him. At such times Pat would lift his head and hold
+himself erect and vigilant during the grazing-period, but he brooded,
+none the less, and as persistently refused to eat.
+
+This was not lost upon Stephen or the rangers, neither his refusing to
+eat nor the white's antagonism. They spent hours discussing both. Having
+found in Pat none of the regular symptoms of disease, yet aware that
+something grave was the matter, the rangers fell to discussing Pat's
+condition with much earnestness, frequently interrupting their arguments
+on the one subject to declare that the white horse, provided Pat held
+out and healed up against his complaint, would get a fight such as was
+never before witnessed in the desert. That they were evenly matched both
+as to build and strength was recognized; that Pat was possessed of a
+reserve that told of finer courage all agreed. Yet in this last lurked
+opportunities for argument; and argue they did, sometimes long into the
+night, the little man known as the Professor and the rangy individual
+with the scrubby beard showing the greatest vehemence. Yet despite all
+their arguments, to which Stephen invariably listened in smiling
+silence, none as yet had offered good reason for the villainous attitude
+of the white toward the peaceful Pat.
+
+"_I_ know!" suddenly declared the man with the scrubby beard one
+evening, after the tin dishes had been cleared away. "It's jealousy!" He
+narrowed his eyes out through the darkness in the direction of the
+horses. "Who ever 'u'd believe old Tom out there 'u'd show jealousy? I
+see it, though, the first day. You recollect we made a heap of the
+black, kind of petting him up some, and Tom, bein', as he sure is, an
+intelligent hoss, I reckon he figured it out that he'd played the game
+and been faithful all along, and then to see himself set back that way
+by a complete stranger, it jest nachelly made him sore. Same as it would
+you or me, mebbe, if we was informed polite and all that from
+headquarters that they was a new man comin' to jine us that was the pure
+quill whichever way you looked at him. Old Tom is bein' et up with
+jealousy, I'm regretful to say."
+
+"Animiles feels things a heap more'n humans does," put in the little man
+known as the Professor. "But they're more reserved in showin' 'em out.
+Yit when they do show 'em out, they're a lot less polite about it than
+humans."
+
+"Nachelly," snapped the lean man, glaring savagely across the fire at
+the other. "But that ain't tellin' us what ails the black," he went on,
+dropping the subject of the white and taking up with the symptoms of the
+black, evidently through perverseness. "He's solemn and dumpish," he
+declared, thoughtfully, "like he might have distemper. But he 'ain't got
+distemper. And his teeth ain't sharp, yet he don't eat at all. And I
+can't see anything the matter with his insides."
+
+"Did you look?" inquired the Professor, innocently, but with a quick
+wink at Stephen.
+
+"Yes, I--" began the lean man, only to check himself with an angry
+snort. Then he shifted the topic again, reverting to the case of old
+Tom. "That white hoss'll about push that matter to a finish," he
+declared. "See if what I say don't pan out! Tom he'll just about obey
+that law o' nature which animals has knowed from long before the ark,
+but which us humans is just gettin' a hold on. He'll remove the
+cause--old Tom will--or get himself removed. He ain't nobody's fool--nor
+never was!" And he rested his eyes significantly upon the Professor.
+
+The Professor was busy, however. He had pulled a deck of cards from his
+hip pocket, and now was riffling them with pointed interest. Directly he
+began to deal them around, carefully overlooking the lean man as he did
+so. But the latter, dropping over upon one elbow, permitted the game to
+proceed without offering objection to the oversight, a peculiar one,
+since he was in the full glare of the fire.
+
+That argument was closed.
+
+But next morning Pat received unexpected attention. His young master
+approached him, looped a rope around his neck, and gave the end to the
+large man, who mounted the white. Then the lean man bridled and saddled
+the sorrel for the young man, who evidently was unable conveniently to
+do these things with his one hand. After this he loaded Pat with the
+extra saddles and bridles, and thus they set out. It was a not
+unfavorable change, and Pat, while harboring mixed emotions, since he
+now was trailing along behind the white, yet found himself in a lighter
+mood. Feeling little jealousy of the white, however, he soon forgot the
+changed relations, finding in his own position a new viewpoint upon the
+cavalcade which was interesting. For now he could survey the whole
+squad, five horses of varied size and action, and this, as he studied
+the individual gait of each, was not without its pleasure. Also, being,
+as he was, free from the weight of a man, he felt an airy lightness that
+was positively refreshing. And finally, since he was out of reach of the
+nagging white, this blessing alone made him grateful. So he followed
+along, working yet not working, with a feeling of complete composure
+such as had not been his for many a day.
+
+Still his composure did not last. The novelty wore off toward noon, and
+he found himself morose and introspective again. Sounding the depths of
+his grievances, he at length took to thinking of the white corral beside
+the river. Not in many a day had he thought of the ranch. But he was
+recalling it now, not through affection, not because it was home to him,
+but because, brooding over his many discomforts in the open, he was
+suddenly remembering that his life had not always been this--that he
+knew actual comfort, knew what it was to have his wants gratified. And
+recalling these facts, he naturally recalled that which had made them
+possible--the little ranch in the valley. So he let his thoughts linger
+there. Faint and elusive at first, those other days became finally quite
+vivid, days of expectancy and gratification, days of sugar and quartered
+apples, days of affection and love-talk from his pretty little mistress.
+And how he missed them all! How he missed them--even the Mexican hostler
+and the brown saddler and the old matronly horse--his mother by
+adoption! But they were gone from him now, gone for all time out of his
+life. Yet though he believed them gone, he continued to brood on them,
+to live each day over again in his thoughts, till the men ahead
+dismounted suddenly. Then he was glad to turn his attention to other
+matters, things close around him. One of these was the coming of the
+lean man with a pair of familiar objects in his hands--this after the
+noonday meal.
+
+"Well, my bucky," he began, turning critical eyes over Pat, "I been
+studyin' your case a heap, and I've come to think I'm old Doctor Sow
+himself. Your young man here is knocked out of all possible good," he
+went on, as Stephen smilingly approached, "and so it occurred to me,
+sir, as how you ain't sick no more'n I be. What ails you is you're an
+aristocrat--something that's been knocked around unusual--what with them
+rustlers and with us that's worse than rustlers--and got yourself all
+mussed up and unfit! All you need is a cleanin'--that's what ails you!
+You're just nice furniture--a piece o' Sheraton, mebbe--that's all over
+sweepings, and I'm the he-maid that's going to dust you off. Hold still,
+now."
+
+So Pat, after taking a step toward Stephen, who now was stroking him
+tenderly, held very still, not only under the soothing caress, but under
+the operation--for such was the cleaning--since he was gritty beyond
+belief. Also, after the operation he felt immeasurably better, and
+better still when Stephen led him to a tiny stream and he had relieved
+his thirst. But that was not all of joy. Turned loose with the other
+horses, he fell to grazing eagerly, actually finding it good, and once
+lifting a long and shrill nicker in gratitude for this change in his
+condition. Nor did his delight stop here. With camp broken, and his
+young master, instead of returning him to the lead-rope, bridling and
+saddling him awkwardly with one hand, he set out along the trail at a
+gait so brisk that it brought a startled exclamation from the young man,
+who promptly pulled him down. But though he was forced to keep a slow
+gait, yet frequently during the afternoon, conscious of his fresh coat
+and the sense of buoyancy it gave him, he flung up his head and nickered
+loud and joyfully. Also, with night once more descending, and the stars
+twinkling in the blue-black heavens, and the sheen of a rising moon
+flooding the desert, he moved about among the other horses with a vigor
+that was almost insolence, seizing tufts of grass wherever he saw them,
+heedless of others' rights.
+
+Around the fire sat or sprawled the men. Two of them were industriously
+mending, one a shirt, the other a bridle. The Professor and the man with
+the scrubby beard were complacently smoking, while Stephen, glad to
+stretch out after the day's ride with an arm that constantly distressed
+him, was reclining upon a blanket, staring into the flames and conjuring
+up in their leaping tongues numerous soothing pictures. As he sat there
+the man with the beard suddenly addressed him.
+
+"Doc," he drawled, removing his pipe from between whiskers that glinted
+in the light of the fire, "now that you've got him, what are you
+thinking of doing with that horse?"
+
+"I'll take him back," replied Stephen, pleasantly.
+
+The other was silent. "Shore!" he rejoined, after a moment. "But take
+him back where?"
+
+"Where he belongs."
+
+There was further silence. "Excuse me!" finally exclaimed the other. "I
+was thinking as mebbe you'd take him whence he came."
+
+Stephen sat erect and looked at the other. He was smoking again
+complacently.
+
+"Whence come you?" asked Stephen, after a time.
+
+The other slowly removed his pipe. Then he told him. Then Stephen spoke.
+And then the man rose stiffly, crossed solemnly to him and shook hands
+with him cordially.
+
+"I knowed you was white the fust day I see you," he declared. Then he
+waved a vague hand over the others. "They've all--all of 'em--traveled
+that way. I was raised--"
+
+A sudden shrill scream out in the darkness interrupted him. It was a
+horse. The cry stirred the entire camp. The Professor arose, sauntered
+out, whistling, whirled, and called back sharply. The others ran toward
+him; the large man struck a match. The white horse was limping on three
+legs. They bent over and examined the fourth. The match went out. All
+straightened up. As they did so Pat sounded a shrill nicker.
+
+"Busted!" exclaimed the large man, quietly. "Well, I'm a goat! That
+black horse has kicked old Tom clear over the divide. I--I'm clean done!
+Quick as lightning, too! No preambles; no circumlocutions; no nothing.
+Just put it to him. Good Lord!" Then he regretfully drew a revolver. "I
+reckon you boys better stand back."
+
+A shot broke the quiet, and the desert shivered and was still again. The
+white horse sank to the ground. Stephen walked to Pat, struck a match,
+and looked him over critically. Pat was torn and bleeding in two places
+along the neck, but otherwise he needed no attention. Stephen patted him
+thoughtfully, gratefully, fighting the horror of what might have been
+had this splendid horse weakened in the crisis. No wonder the little
+girl in the valley worshiped him.
+
+But he said nothing. After a time he returned to the fire and sat down
+among a very sober group of men. Presently the man with the scrubby
+beard broke the quiet. His voice sounded hollow and distressed.
+
+"I knowed it," he declared. "Though I thought old Tom 'u'd done better."
+He began to roll a cigarette. "Pore old Tom! He's killed; he's
+dead--dead and gone." With the cigarette made, he snatched a brand from
+the fire and lighted it. He fell to smoking in thoughtful silence, in
+his eyes a look of unutterable sadness.
+
+The Professor bestirred himself. "Tell me," he asked, lifting his gaze
+to the heavens reflectively--"tell me, does any of you believe that
+horses--any animiles--has souls?"
+
+The lean man glanced at him. His eyes now had the look of one anxious to
+express his views, but cautiously refused to be baited. Finally he made
+answer.
+
+"If you're askin' my opinion," he said, "I'll tell you that I know they
+have." He was silent. "I know that animals has the same thing we've
+got," he continued--"that thing we call the soul--but they've got it in
+smaller proportions, so to speak. It's easy as falling off a bucking
+bronc. Take old Tom out there. Take that Lady horse that got killed two
+years ago by rustlers--take any horse, any dumb animal--and I'll show
+you in fifteen different ways that they've got souls."
+
+"How?"
+
+The lean man glared. "Now 'how'!" he snapped. "You give me a mortal
+pang. Why don't you never use your eyes once like other and more decent
+folks? Get the habit. You'll see there ain't any difference between
+animals and humans, only speech, and they've got that!"
+
+The large man smiled. "Let's have it, Bob," he invited. "Where'll we
+look for it first?"
+
+The lean man showed an impatience born of contempt. "Well," he began,
+tossing away his cigarette, "in desires, first, then in their power to
+appreciate, and, finally, in their sense of the worth of things. They
+have that, and don't you think they hain't. But they've got the others,
+too. Animals like to eat and drink and play, don't they? You know that!
+And they understand when you're good to 'em and when you're cussed mean.
+You know that. And they know death when they see it, take it from me,
+because they're as sensitive to loss of motion, or breathing, or animal
+heat, as us humans--more so. They feel pain, for instance, more'n we do,
+because, lackin' one of the five--or six, if you like--senses, their
+other senses is keyed up higher'n our'n."
+
+The Professor looked belligerent. "Get particular!" he demanded.
+
+"I won't get particular," snapped the other. "S'pose you wrastle it out
+for yourself--same as us humans." Evidently he was still bitter against
+this man. "That Lady horse o' mine," he went on, his eyes twinkling,
+addressing himself to the others, "she had it all sized about right. She
+used to say to me, when I'd come close to her in the morning: 'Well, old
+sock,' she'd say, throwin' her old ears forward, 'how are you this
+mornin'?--You know,' she'd declare, 'I kind o' like you because you
+understand me.' Then she'd about wipe her nose on me and go on. 'Wonder
+why it is that so many of you don't! It's easy enough, our language,'
+she'd p'int out, 'but most o' you two-legged critters don't seem to get
+us. It's right funny! You appear to get 'most everything else--houses,
+and land, and playin'-cards, and sich. But you don't never seem to get
+us--that is, most o' you! Why, 'tain't nothin' but sign language,
+neither--same as Injuns talkin' to whites. But I reckon you're idiots,
+most o' you, and blind, you hairless animals, wearin' stuff stole offen
+sheep, and your ugly white faces mostly smooth. You got the idee we
+don't know nothin'--pity us, I s'pose, because we can't understand you.
+Lawzee! We understand you, all right. It's you 'at don't understand us.
+And that's the hull trouble. You think we're just a lump o' common dirt,
+with a little tincture o' movement added, just enough so as we can run
+and drag your loads around for you. Wisht you could 'a' heard me and old
+Tom last night, after you'd all turned in, talkin' on the subject o'
+keepin' well and strong and serene o' mind. Sign language? Some. But
+what of it, old whiskers? Don't every deef-and-dumb party get along with
+few sounds and plenty of signs? You humans give me mortal distress!'
+
+"And so on," concluded this lover of animals. "Thus Lady horse used to
+talk to me every mornin', tryin' to make me see things some little
+clearer. And that's all animals--if you happen to know the 'try me' on
+their little old middle chamber work." He fell silent.
+
+The others said nothing. Each sat smoking reflectively, gazing into the
+dying flames, until one arose and prepared to turn in. Stephen was the
+last except the Professor and the man with the scrubby beard. And
+finally the Professor gained his feet and, with a glance at the last
+figure remaining at the fire, took off his boots and rolled up in his
+blanket. For a long moment he stared curiously at the other bowed in
+thought.
+
+"Ain't you goin' to turn in?" he finally inquired. "You ain't et up by
+nothin', be you?"
+
+The lean man slowly lifted his head. "I was thinkin'," he said, half to
+himself, "of a--a kind of horse's prayer I once see in a harness-shop in
+Albuquerque."
+
+The other twisted himself under his blanket. "How did it go?" he asked,
+encouragingly. "Let's all have it!"
+
+The lean man arose. "'To thee, my master,' it started off," he began,
+moving slowly toward his blanket. Suddenly he paused. "I--I don't just
+seem to remember it all," he said, and sat down and pulled off one of
+his boots. He held it in his hands absently.
+
+The Professor urged him on. "Let her come," he said, his face now hidden
+in the folds of his covering. "Shoot it--let's hear."
+
+"'To thee, my master, I offer my prayer,'" presently continued the
+other, turning reflective eyes toward the flickering coals. "'Feed me,
+water me, care for me, and, when the--the day's work is done, provide me
+with shelter and a clean, dry bed, and, when you can, a stall wide
+enough for me to lie down in in comfort. Always be kind to me. Talk to
+me--your voice often means as much to me as the reins. Pet me sometimes,
+that I may serve you the more gladly and know that my services are
+appreciated, and that I may learn to love you. Do not jerk the reins,
+and do not whip me when going up-hill. And when I don't understand you,
+what you want, do not strike or beat or kick me, but give me a chance to
+understand you. And if I continue to fail to understand, see if
+something is not wrong with my harness or feet.'"
+
+The Professor's blanket stirred. "Go on!" he yelled. "Sounds all right.
+Go ahead! Is that all?"
+
+"I disremember the rest," replied the other. "Let's see!" He was silent.
+"No," he finally blurted out, "I can't get it. It says something about
+overloading, and a-hitching where water don't drop on him, and--Oh yes!
+'I can't tell you when I'm thirsty,' it goes on, 'so give me cool, clean
+water often. Never put a frosty bit in my mouth; first warm it by
+holdin' it a moment in your hands. And, remember, I try to carry you and
+your burdens without a murmur, and I wait patiently for you long hours
+of the day and night. Without power to choose my shoes or path, I
+sometimes stumble and fall, but I stand always in readiness at any
+moment to lose my life in your service. And this is important, and,
+finally, O my master! when my useful strength is gone do not turn me out
+to starve, or sell me to some cruel owner to be slowly tortured and
+starved to death; but do thou, my master, take my life in the kindest
+way, and your God will reward you here and hereafter. You will not
+consider me irreverent, I know, if I ask all this in the name of Him Who
+was born in a stable.'"
+
+The Professor's blanket stirred again. "Go on," he demanded in muffled
+tones. "Is that all?"
+
+The lean man slipped off his second boot. "No," he replied, quietly,
+"that ain't all."
+
+"Well, go ahead. It's good. That horse must 'a' been a city horse; but
+go on!"
+
+"Only one more word, anyway," was the rejoinder. He was still holding
+his boot.
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"Why"--the voice was solemn--"it's 'Amen.'"
+
+"Aw, shucks!" came from the depths of the blanket.
+
+The lean man turned his head. "Say, you!" he rasped, belligerently.
+
+"What?"
+
+For answer the boot sailed across the camp.
+
+The Professor popped his head out of the blanket, drew it back suddenly,
+popped it out again, all strongly suggestive of a turtle.
+
+There was a hoarse laugh, then silence, but none of those men forgot the
+Prayer of the Horse.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+ANOTHER CHANGE OF MASTERS
+
+
+The next morning Pat had a change from the tedium of the desert. With
+the others he struck into a narrow canyon that led out to a beaten trail
+upon a rolling mesa. The trail wound diagonally across the mesa from the
+south and lost itself in snake-like twistings among hills to the north.
+Guided to the right into this trail, Pat found himself, a little before
+noon, in a tiny Mexican settlement. It was a squat hamlet, nestling
+comfortably among the hills, made up of a few adobes, a lone well, and a
+general store. The store was at the far end, and toward this his young
+master directed him.
+
+As they rode on Pat noticed a queer commotion. Here and there a door
+closed violently, only to open again cautiously as they drew opposite,
+revealing sometimes two, sometimes three, sometimes five pairs of black
+eyes, all ranged timidly one pair over another in the opening. Dogs
+skulked before their approach, snarling in strange savagery, while whole
+flocks of chickens, ruffling in dusty hollows, took frantically to wing
+at their coming, fleeing before them in unwonted disorder. And finally,
+as they moved past the well, a half-grown boy, only partly dressed,
+hurtled out of the side door of one house, raced across a yard to the
+front door of another house, and slammed the door shut behind him in a
+panic.
+
+It was all very strange, and it made a deep impression upon him. Also it
+evidently impressed the men, for as they drew rein in front of the
+store, with its dust-dry shelves and haunting silence, all asked quick
+questions of the proprietor, a little wizened, gimlet-eyed Mexican who
+was leaning in the doorway. After glancing over their accoutrements with
+a nod of understanding, he answered, explaining the reason for the
+agitation.
+
+It was all the result of a raid. Three days before a band of marauders
+had swept down from the north, ransacked pigstys and chicken-coops and
+corrals, and galloped off madly to the south. Yes, they had plundered
+the store also. Indian renegades--yes. He could not say from what
+reservation. Yes, they were armed, and in warpaint, and riding good
+horses--all of them. No, he could not say--about thirty in the band,
+perhaps. He--What? Yes, he had alfalfa and, if they wished, other
+things--beans and rice and canned goods. No, the renegades had not
+wholly cleaned out the store. Yes, he had matches. No, they had not--
+What? _Vino?_ To be sure he had _Vino_! He would get--how many
+bottles?--right away! It was in the cellar, where he kept it cool, and
+reasonably safe from all marauders--including himself. With this slight
+witticism he disappeared into the store.
+
+The men dismounted. They sat down upon the porch, and one of them, the
+large man, removed his hat, produced a blue bandana, and fell to mopping
+his red face. The day was warm, and the settlement, lying low under
+surrounding peaks, received none of the outside breezes. Also, it was
+inert now, wrapped in the quiet of a frightened people. There was no
+movement anywhere save that of ruffling hens in the dust of the trail,
+and the nearer switching of horses' tails. Once this stillness was
+broken. Among the houses somewhere rose feminine lamentations, wailing
+sobs, the outburst cutting the quiet with a sharpness that caused the
+men to turn grave eyes in its direction. And now the keeper of the store
+reappeared, bearing three bottles of wine in his arms, and numerous
+supplies, which the men accepted and paid for. Then all led their horses
+back to the well, which was in a little clearing, and there prepared to
+make camp, throwing off saddle-bags and accoutrements and building a
+fire while they planned a real meal.
+
+Pat was enjoying all this. The settlement had a faintly familiar look,
+and he half expected to see a swarthy Mexican, whip in hand, approach
+him with abusive tongue. Also, after weeks of far horizons and unending
+sweeps of desert, he found in this nearness of detail pleasurable
+relief. It was good to see something upright again without straining
+across miles of desolation, even as it was good to see adobes once more,
+with windows and doors, and smoke curling up out of chimneys. He felt a
+deep sense of security, of coziness, which he had been fast losing on
+the broad reaches, together with his sight for short distances. For his
+eyes had become affected since leaving the white corral beside the
+river, although with this he was aware of a peculiar gain. His sense of
+hearing now was most acute, and he could hear the least faint
+sounds--sounds which, before his taking to the open, he could not have
+heard. So he was enjoying it all, feeling real comfort, a kind of
+fitness, as if he belonged here and would better remain here for ever.
+Then, with a generous supply of alfalfa tossed to him, as to the other
+horses, he became convinced that he should remain in this little
+settlement for all time.
+
+Along in the afternoon the storekeeper, accompanied by a native woman,
+who was tear-stained and weeping, crossed the settlement. At the moment
+the men, lounging about on blankets, were discussing ways and means for
+Stephen. He need not continue with them now, they informed him, unless
+he wanted to. Arrangements could be made here to get him to a railroad
+in some kind of vehicle, leading Pat behind. But it was up to him. They
+weren't hurrying him away, by any means, yet it sure was up to him to
+get proper treatment for his arm, which showed slow signs of recovery.
+
+Stephen was considering this when the two Mexicans approached. The
+proprietor of the store started to explain, when the little woman draped
+in a black mantilla interrupted him with further sobbing and a pointing
+finger--pointing back across the settlement.
+
+"_Caballeros_," she began, "you coom please wit' me, I--I haf show
+you soomt'ing." Then again she burst into weeping.
+
+Startled, Stephen arose, and the others gained their feet. They set out
+across the settlement. They struck between some adobe houses, crossed
+some back yards, dodged under clothes-lines, and found themselves in a
+tiny graveyard. The woman brought them to a stop before a fresh mound of
+earth. Here she knelt in another outburst of tears, while the
+gimlet-eyed storekeeper explained.
+
+It was a little boy twelve years old. The marauders had stolen his pig.
+He had bitterly denounced them, and one--evidently the leader--had shot
+him. It was too bad! But it was not all. In one of the houses, the large
+house they had passed in coming here, lay an old man, seventy-eight
+years of age, dying from a rifle-shot. Yes, the renegade Indians had
+shot him also. What had he done? He had defended his chickens against
+theft. It was too bad! It was all too bad! Could not there something be
+done? To live in peace, to live in strict accord with all known laws,
+such was the aim and such had been the conduct of these people. And then
+to have a band of cutthroats, murderers, thieves, descend upon their
+peace and quiet in this fashion! It was all too bad!
+
+The rangers turned away from the scene. All save the woman set out
+across the settlement, returning to the camp in silence. Seated once
+more, they fell to discussing this situation. And discussing the
+tragedy, they reverted to Stephen and his own troubles, light in
+comparison. They themselves, they acknowledged, had their work all cut
+out for them. It was what they got their money for. But there was hardly
+any use, they pointed out, in Stephen's accompanying them on this
+mission. Yet he could go if he wanted to. What did he say?
+
+And Stephen, gazing off thoughtfully toward the tiny mound of fresh
+earth, and seeing the little woman prostrated with grief upon the grave,
+knew that Helen, herself bitter with loss, and no doubt needing Pat as
+much almost as this woman needed her own lost one, would have him do
+what he wanted to do. And what he wanted to do, felt as if he must do,
+was to accompany these men, go with them, disabled though he was, and
+help as best he could to bring down retribution upon the renegades. And
+he made known his wishes to the others, finally, expressing them with a
+note of determination.
+
+As they bridled and saddled, leaving all equipment not actually
+required, the proprietor of the store, his small eyes eager, stood close
+and frequently repeated his opinion that murder in even more gruesome
+form had been committed to the north. Then they set out, following the
+direction taken by the Indians, riding briskly, keyed up to energy
+through hope of encounter, although Stephen suffered not a little from
+the jolting of his arm. Dropping down from the hills, they swung out
+upon the mesa, and thence made into the south along a winding trail.
+Ordinarily they would have lingered to accept the strained hospitality
+of the settlement. But this was duty, duty large and grave, and,
+conscious of it all, they pressed forward in silence. The renegades'
+tracks stood out clearly, and the rangers noted that some of the horses
+were shod, others only half shod, while the greater number were without
+shoes at all. This told of the marauders' nondescript collection of
+mounts, and also acquainted them with the fact that many of the animals
+had been stolen. On through the afternoon they rode, making but little
+gain, since the tracks became no fresher. When darkness fell, though
+still in the open without protection of any kind save that offered by a
+slight rise of ground, they dismounted and prepared to make camp.
+
+Throughout the afternoon Pat had felt something of the grim nature of
+this business. This not only because of the severe crowding which he had
+endured--though that had told him much--but because of the unwonted
+silence upon the men. So he had held himself keenly to the stride,
+rather liking its vigor after long days of walking, finding himself
+especially fit to meet it after his recent change of food. And although
+the sun had been swelteringly hot, yet the desert had been swept with
+counteracting breezes, and, with night finally descending, he had felt
+more than ever his fine mettle, and now, even though his master was
+painfully dismounting, he felt fit to run his legs off at the least
+suggestion.
+
+This fitness remained with him. When his young master turned him loose
+at the end of a generous tether, he stepped eagerly away from the
+firelight and out into the light of a rising moon, not to graze, for he
+felt no desire to graze, having eaten his fill and more at noon, but to
+give vent to his high spirits in unusual rolling in the sands. This he
+quickly proceeded to do, kicking and thrashing about, and holding to it
+long after the men about the fire had ceased to come and go in preparing
+their meal, long after they had seated themselves in the cheerful glow,
+smoking and talking as was their habit.
+
+The Professor noticed it. He looked at the man with the beard pointedly.
+"That Pat hoss he's workin' up another job o' cleanin' for you," he
+observed. "Seemed in an awful hurry, too," he added, then dropped his
+eyes innocently.
+
+The other was punching new holes in his belt with an unwieldy
+jack-knife. He suddenly gave off twisting the point of the knife against
+the leather and lifted it menacingly in the direction of his tormentor.
+
+"Look-a-here, Professor," he retorted, "I ain't feelin' any too pert
+right now, and I'll take a hop out o' you if you don't shet up!"
+
+The Professor looked grieved. "What's the matter of you?" he inquired.
+
+"Never you mind!" The knife went back to the leather again. "Let that
+horse roll if he wants to! It ain't any skin off your hands!"
+
+Which was the key-note of all assembled save the Professor. All except
+him appeared tense and nervous and in no way inclined to joke. For a
+time after the lean man's rebuke they engaged in casual talk, then one
+after another they drew off their boots and rolled up in their blankets.
+All but Stephen. His arm was throbbing with unusual pain. It was still
+in splints, and still bandaged in a sling around his neck, and since it
+always hurt him to change positions, he remained seated beside the fire,
+wrapped in sober thought. Outside, in the green-white light of the moon,
+he heard the horses one by one sink to rest. Around him the desert,
+gripped in death-stillness, pressed close, while overhead the
+star-sprinkled dome of heaven, unclouded, arched in all its wonted
+glittering majesty. A long time he sat there, keenly alive to these
+things, yet thinking strange thoughts, thoughts of his loneliness, and
+what might have been, and where he might have been, had he never met the
+girl. These were new thoughts, and he presently arose to rid himself of
+them and turned in, and soon was in a doze.
+
+Some time later, he did not know how much later, he was aroused by a
+sound as of distant thunder. But as he lifted his head the sound
+disappeared. Yet when he dropped his head back again he heard it. He
+pressed his left ear close to earth. The sound grew louder and seemed to
+come nearer. Again he lifted his head. As before, he could hear nothing
+save the snoring of the large man and the dream-twitching of the
+Professor. He gazed about him. The camp was still. He peered outside in
+the moonlight. The horses were all down--at rest. At length he dropped
+back once more, closed his eyes sleepily, and soon dozed a second time.
+
+But again he was aroused. He whipped up his head. The sound was
+thundering in his ears. He heard trampling hoofs--many
+hoofs--immediately outside. He leaped to his feet. He saw
+horsemen--Indians--the renegades--crowding past, riding frantically to
+the north. He called sharply to the others, who were already waking and
+leaping to their feet. He turned to the horses. They were all there,
+standing now, alert and tense. Wheeling, he stared after the Indians.
+They were speeding away like the wind, close huddled, fleeing in a
+panic. He watched them, dazed, saw them ascend a rise, become a
+vacillating speck in the moonlight, and drop from view in a hollow
+beyond the rise. He turned to the men. All stood in mute helplessness,
+only half comprehending. He opened his mouth to speak, but as he did so
+there came a sudden interruption.
+
+It was a bugle-call, rollicking across the desert, crashing into the
+death-like hush which had settled upon the camp. He turned his eyes
+toward the sound--to the south. Over a giant sand-dune, riding grouped,
+with one or two in the lead, swept a company of cavalrymen. Down the
+slope they galloped, moonlight playing freely upon them, bringing out
+every detail--the glint of arms, the movement of hat-brims, the lift and
+fall of elbows--pounding straight for the camp. Another blast of the
+bugle, crisp and metallic, and they swerved; they drew near, nearer
+still, came close on the right, and swept past in a whirlwind of sounds,
+thundering hoofs, cursing men, slamming carbines, creaking saddles,
+snorting horses. So they swept on into the north, pushing, crowding,
+jostling, throwing back flying gravel, odors of sweat, swirling
+dust-clouds. They mounted rapidly over the rise, and became, as the
+pursued, vacillating specks, and then disappeared in the hollow beyond.
+
+Stephen recovered himself. He swept his eyes again over the horses. He
+saw a change among them. Three were calm, but not the other two. Both of
+them were weaving faintly, and, even as he sprang to them, one sank
+slowly to the ground. Wondering, dazed, gripped in apprehension, he bent
+over it. The horse was a stranger, and it was gasping its last breath.
+Dismayed, he turned to the other. This horse also was a strange horse,
+and it was white with foam and panting, also run to death. Astonished,
+cold with apprehension, he looked for Pat. But neither Pat nor the
+sorrel was to be seen. Then the truth overwhelmed him. The renegades,
+seeing fresh horses here, had made a swift change. Pat was gone!
+
+For one tense moment he stood spellbound. Then he sprang into action. He
+dressed as best he could, called to the others to bridle and saddle a
+horse, and leaped into the saddle. His whole body rebelled at the
+movement. But he set his jaw grimly, and, clutching at his bandaged arm,
+yet keeping his grip on the reins, he spurred frantically after the
+cavalry. As he dashed away he shouted back his purpose.
+
+But the men, standing with wide eyes turned after him, heard only the
+end:
+
+"I'll get him in spite of hell!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+FIDELITY
+
+
+Meantime Pat was running at top speed across the desert. Yet he was
+trying to understand this strange call to duty. Roused from fitful
+slumber by trampling hoofs, he had felt an excited hand jerking him to
+his feet, and after that a slender rope looped round his lower jaw. Then
+he had been urged, with a wriggling form on his bare back, frantic heels
+drumming his sides, and a strange voice impelling him onward past a
+surging crowd of horsemen, still only half awake, out into the open.
+When he was well in the fore, he had found himself crowded to his
+utmost--over sand-dune, into arroyo, across the level--around him
+thundering hoofs, panting horses, silent men, all speeding forward in
+the glorious moonlight. It was a strange awakening, yet he had not
+entertained thoughts of rebellion, despite the fact that he had not
+liked the flaying rope, the soft digging heels, the absence of bridle
+and saddle. It was strange; it was not right. None of it had checked up
+with any item of his experience. Yet, oddly enough, he had not rebelled.
+
+Nor was he harboring thoughts of rebellion now. Racing onward, smarting
+with each swing of the lash, he found himself somehow interested solely
+in holding his own with the other horses. Suddenly, alert to their
+movements, he saw a cleft open in their surging ranks, made by the fall
+of an exhausted horse. Yet the others did not stop. They galloped on,
+unheeding, though he himself was jerked up. Then followed a swift
+exchange of words, and then the unhorsed man mounted behind Pat's new
+master. Carrying a double load now, Pat nevertheless dashed ahead at his
+former speed, stumbling with his first steps, but soon regaining his
+stride and overtaking the others. And though it cost him straining
+effort, he felt rewarded for his pains when one of the men uttered a
+grunt which he interpreted as approval. But it was all very strange.
+
+A canyon loomed up on his left. He had hardly seen the black opening
+when he was swung toward it. He plunged forward with the other horses,
+and was the first to enter the canyon's yawning mouth. Between its high
+walls, however, he found himself troubled by black shadows. Many of them
+reached across his path like projections of rock, and more than once he
+faltered in his stride. But after passing through two or three in safety
+he came at length to understand them and so returned to his wonted
+self-possession.
+
+But he was laboring heavily now. His heart was jumping and pounding, his
+breath coming in gasps, but he held to the trail, moving ever deeper
+into the hills, until he burst into a basin out of which to the right
+led a narrow canyon. Then he slowed down and, turning into the canyon,
+which wound and twisted due north and south in the bright moonlight, he
+continued at a slower pace. But his heart no longer was in the task. The
+weight on his back seemed heavier; there was a painful swelling of his
+ankles. He knew the reason for this pain. It had come from unwonted
+contact with hard surfaces and frequent stepping on loose stones in this
+strange haste with a strange people in the hills. Yet he kept on,
+growing steadily more weary, yet with pride ever to the fore, until a
+faint light began to streak the overhead sky, stealing cautiously down
+the ragged walls of the canyon. Then he found himself pulled into a
+walk.
+
+He was facing a narrow defile that wound up among the overhanging crags.
+Glad of the privilege of resting, for a walk was a rest with him now, he
+set forward into the uninviting pass. Up and up he clambered, crowding
+narrowly past boulders, rounding on slender ledges, up and ever up. As
+he ascended he saw gray-white vales below, felt the stimulus of a rarer
+air, and at last found his heart fluttering unpleasantly in the higher
+altitude. Yet he held grimly to his task, and, when broad daylight was
+streaming full upon him, he found himself on a wide shelf of rock, a
+ledge falling sheer on one side to unseen depths, towering on the other
+to awe-inspiring heights. Here he came to a halt. And then, so tired was
+he, so faint with exhaustion, so racked of body and spirit, that he sank
+upon the cool rock even before the men could clear themselves from him,
+and lay there on his side, his eyes closed, his lungs greedily sucking
+air.
+
+The glare of full daylight aroused him. Regaining his feet, he stared
+about him. He saw many strange-looking men, and near them many dirty and
+bedraggled horses. He turned his eyes outward from the ledge. He saw
+around him bristling peaks, and below them, far below, a trailing
+canyon, winding in and out among hills toward the rising sun, and
+terminating in a giant V, beyond which, a connecting thread between its
+sloping sides, lay an expanse of rolling mesa. It was far from him,
+however--very, very far--and he grew dizzy at the view, finding himself
+more and more unnerved by the height. At length he turned away and swept
+his eyes again over the horses, where he was glad to find the rangy
+sorrel. Then he turned back to the men, some of whom were standing,
+others squatting, but all in moody silence.
+
+As he looked he grew aware that a pair of dark eyes were fixed upon him.
+He stared back, noting the man's long hair and painted features and the
+familiar glow of admiration in his eyes. Believing him to be his new
+master, he continued to regard him soberly until the man, with a grunt
+and a grimace, rose and approached him. Pat stood very still under a
+rigid examination. The man rubbed his ankles, turned up his hoofs,
+looked at his teeth; and at the conclusion of all this Pat felt that he
+had met with approval. Also, he realized that he rather approved of the
+man. Then came a volley of sounds he did not understand, and he found
+himself touched with grave apprehension. But not for long. The man led
+him across the ledge to a tiny stream trickling down the rocks, walking
+with a quiet dignity he long since had learned to connect with
+kindliness. This and the fact that he led him to water determined his
+attitude.
+
+Toward noon, as he was brooding over hunger pangs, he was startled by
+excited gutturals among the men. Gazing, he saw one of the men standing
+on the edge of the shelf, pointing out through the long canyon. With the
+others, Pat turned his eyes that way. Between the distant V dotting the
+mesa beyond rode a body of horsemen. They were not more than specks to
+his eyes, proceeding slowly, so slowly, in fact, that while he could see
+they were moving he yet could not see them move as they crawled across
+the span between the canyon's mouth. Interested, gripped in the
+contagion of the excitement round him, he kept his eyes upon the distant
+specks until the sun had changed to another angle. But even after this
+lapse of time, so distant were the horsemen, so wide the canyon's mouth,
+they had traveled only half-way across the span. Yet he continued to
+watch, wondering at the nervousness around him, conscious of steadily
+increasing heat upon him, until the last of the slow-moving specks,
+absorbed one by one by the canyon's wall, disappeared from view. Then he
+turned his eyes elsewhere.
+
+The men also turned away, but continued their excited talk. But even
+they after a time relapsed into silence. What it was all about Pat did
+not know. He knew it was something very serious, and suddenly fear came
+to him. He saw some of the men lie down as if to sleep, and he feared
+that they intended to remain here for ever, in this place absolutely
+destitute of herbage. But after a time, made sluggish by the attitude of
+the men, he himself attempted to drowse. But the heat pulsating up off
+the rocks discouraged him, and he soon abandoned the attempt, standing
+motionless in the hot sun.
+
+A change came over him. He took to brooding over his many
+discomforts--hunger pangs, loss of sleep, bothersome flies, the pain of
+his swollen ankles. As the day advanced his ankles swelled more, and
+grew worse, the flies became more troublesome, and his inner gnawings
+more pronounced. So the time went on and he brooded through the still
+watches of the afternoon, through the soft stirrings of evening, on into
+night again. With the coming of night light breezes rose from the spaces
+below to spur his fevered body into something of its wonted vigor. And
+the night brought also preparations among the men to journey on. This he
+welcomed, even more than the cooling zephyrs.
+
+There was some delay. His master entered upon a dispute with the
+horseless man. The voices became excited and rose to vehement heights.
+But presently they subsided when Pat himself, anxious to be active,
+sounded a note of protest. Yet the argument proved to his benefit.
+Instead of mounting him behind his master, the odd man swung up behind
+another man on the sorrel. Then he was permitted to move forward, and as
+he approached the narrow defile he sounded another nicker, now of
+gratification.
+
+The pass dropped almost sheer in places. As he descended, more than once
+he was compelled to slide on stiffened legs. In this at first he felt
+ecstatic danger thrills. But only at first. Soon he wearied of it, and
+he was glad when he struck the bottom, where, after being guided out of
+shadow and into broad moonlight, he found himself moving to the west in
+a deep canyon. With the other horses he burst into a canter, and
+continued at a canter hour after hour, following the winding and
+twisting canyon until daylight, with its shadows creeping away before
+him, revealed to his tired eyes a stretch of mesa ahead, dotted with
+inviting clumps of bunch-grass. Then of his own volition he came to a
+stop and fell to grazing. Soon all the horses were standing with mouths
+to earth, feeding eagerly.
+
+The men, sitting for a time in quiet conversation, finally dismounted,
+laughing now and then, and casting amused glances toward the black
+horse.
+
+Soon they mounted again to take the trail. Instead of riding with the
+other on the sorrel, the odd man swung up on Pat's back behind his
+master. But as Pat no longer suffered from hunger, he complacently
+accepted the return of the double load. Then all moved forward. Pat
+jogged out of the canyon, turning to the right on the desert, and moved
+rapidly north in the shadow of the hills. He held to his stride, and
+toward noon, rounding a giant ridge projecting into the desert from the
+hills, he saw ahead on his right, perhaps two miles distant across a
+basin, the mouth of another canyon. Evidently his master saw it also,
+and obviously it contained danger, for he jerked Pat down to a walk.
+Almost instantly he knew that the danger was real, for the man, sounding
+a sharp command to the others, brought him to a full stop. Then followed
+an excited discussion, and, when it ended, Pat, gripped in vague
+uneasiness, found himself urged forward at top speed. Yet in a dim way
+he knew what was wanted of him. He flung himself into a long stride and
+dashed across the wide basin, across the mouth of the canyon, into the
+shadow of the hills again. Breathless, he slackened his pace with thirty
+excited horses around him, mad swirling clouds of dust all about, and
+before him the oppressive stillness of the desert. They were safely past
+the danger zone.
+
+He pressed on at a slow canter. Ahead the mesa revealed numerous
+sand-dunes, large and small, rising into the monotonous skyline.
+Plunging among them, he mounted some easily, others he skirted as
+easily, and once, to avoid an unusually large one, he dropped down into
+the bed of an arroyo, traveled along its dry course, and then clambered
+up on the desert. But it was wearying work, and, becoming ever more
+aware of his double load, he began to chafe with dissatisfaction. Yet he
+held to his gait, hopeful of better things--he was always hopeful of
+better things now--until he reached another dune, larger than any as yet
+encountered, when once more he broke out of his stride to circle its
+bottom. As he did so, of his own volition he checked himself. Dead ahead
+he saw horses scattered about, and beyond the horses, rising limply in
+the noon haze, a thin column of smoke. Also, he felt both his riders
+stiffen. Then on the midday hush rose the crack of firearms from the
+direction of the camp.
+
+His master lifted a shrill voice. He felt a mighty pull at his head. He
+swung around like a flash. Then came the flaying of a rope and frantic
+urging of heels. He plunged among the surging horses, dancing and
+whirling excitedly, and out into the open beyond. He set his teeth
+grimly, and raced headlong to the south, galloping furiously, tearing
+blindly over the desert. He headed straight for the distant basin,
+straight for the mouth of the canyon, hurtling forward, struggling
+mightily under his double load. He did not know it, but he was speeding
+into a tragic crisis.
+
+The others overtook him. They were carrying but single loads. But they
+did not pass him. He saw to that. He burst forward into even greater
+speed, clung to it grimly, forged into a position well in the lead. And
+he held this place--around him frenzied horses, frantic riders; behind
+him, to the distant rear, shot after shot echoing over the desert;
+before him the baking sands, shimmering heat-waves, sullen and silent.
+He raced on, swinging up over dunes, dropping into hollows, speeding
+across flats, mounting over dunes again, on and on toward the basin and
+the mouth of the canyon--and protection.
+
+But again disaster.
+
+Suddenly, out of the canyon poured the cheerful notes of a bugle. On the
+vibrant wings of the echoes, streaming into the basin from the canyon,
+swept a body of flying horsemen. Instantly he checked himself. Then his
+master sounded a shrill outcry, swung his head around violently, and
+lashed him forward again. He hurtled headlong, dashing toward the
+distant ridge, the peninsula jutting out into the desert. Grimly he
+flung out along this new course. But he kept his eyes to the left. He
+saw the horsemen there also swerve, saw them spread out like a fan, and
+felt his interest kindle joyously. For this was a race! It was a race
+for that ridge! And he must win! He must do this thing, for
+instinctively he knew that beyond it lay safety. There he could flee to
+some haven, while cut off from it, cut off by these steady-riding men on
+his left, he must submit to wretched defeat. So he strained himself
+harder and burst into fresh speed, finding himself surprised that he
+could. In the thrill of it he forgot his double load, forgot the
+close-pressing horses, forgot irritating dust. On he galloped, racing
+forward with machine-like evenness--on his left the paralleling
+horsemen, to his rear yelling and shooting, on his right his own men and
+horses, and for them he felt he must do big things.
+
+Suddenly the shooting in his rear ceased. Evidently these men had
+received some warning from the riders on his left. Then he awoke to
+another truth. The horsemen on his left were gaining. It troubled him,
+and he cast measuring eyes to the front. He saw that he was pursuing a
+shorter line to the ridge; he believed he still could reach it first. So
+again he strained on, whipping his legs into movement till they seemed
+about to snap. But the effort hurt him and he discovered that he was
+becoming woefully tired. Also, the double weight worried him. It had not
+become lighter with the miles, nor had he grown stronger. Yet he
+galloped on with thundering hoofs, the tranquil desert before him, the
+thud of carbines against leather to the left, behind him ominous
+silence. But he kept his eyes steadily to the left, and presently he
+awoke to something else there, something that roused him suddenly and in
+some way whipped his conscience. For now he saw a white figure amid the
+khaki, racing along with them--a part of them and yet no part of them--a
+familiar figure wearing a familiar bandage. This for a brief moment
+only. Then he took to measuring distances again; saw that the cavalrymen
+were holding to the course steadily, racing furiously as he himself was
+racing for the ridge. Would he win?
+
+A shrill outcry from his master, and he found himself checked with a
+jerk. It was unexpected, sudden, and he reared. The movement shook off
+the second man. Dropping back upon all-fours, Pat awoke to the relief
+the loss of this load gave him. Grimly determining to hold to this
+relief, he dashed ahead, following the guidance of his master in yet
+another direction, hurtled away before the second man could mount again.
+
+He found that he was speeding in a direction almost opposite from the
+ridge. He did not understand this. But his regret was not long lived.
+Casting his eyes to his left in vague expectancy of seeing the familiar
+spot of white again, he saw only his own men and horses, and beyond them
+the smiling desert. Puzzled, he gazed to the right. Here he saw the
+cavalrymen, and though puzzled more, he yet kept on with all his power.
+As he ran he suddenly awoke to the presence of a new body of horsemen on
+his distant left, a smaller band than the cavalrymen, men without
+uniforms, most of them hatless, all yelling. He remembered this yell,
+and now he understood. He was speeding toward the mouth of the canyon;
+had been turned completely around. And thus it was, he knew, that the
+horsemen once on his left were now on his right, and the madly yelling
+group at his rear was now on his left. He awoke to another realization.
+This was a race again, a race with three new entrants now--all three
+making toward the canyon. Would he win?
+
+He fell to studying the flanking groups. On his right, riding easily,
+bent to the winds, their heavy horses swinging rhythmically, their
+accoutrements rattling, galloped the cavalry--steady, sure of
+themselves, well in hand. On his left, riding furiously, without
+formation, dashed the smaller group of riders--their horses wrangling
+among themselves, one or two frequently bucking, all flinging forward in
+excited disorder. This disorder, this evident nervousness, he feared. He
+knew somehow that the first real trouble would come from this source. He
+knew men to that extent. And suddenly his fears were realized. With the
+three converging lines of direction drawing closer, and the mouth of the
+canyon but a short distance away, out of this group on his left came a
+nasty rifle-fire, followed by a mighty chorus of yells. There was a
+result at once. Close beside him a horse stumbled; the man astride the
+horse was thrown headlong; from the cavalrymen on his right came a
+single shrill, piercing outcry--a cry to desist! But he did not
+understand this. Nor did he heed it. Galloping forward, eyes upon the
+ever-nearing canyon, he at length became grimly conscious of approaching
+defeat--of the firm and ruthless closing in upon him from either side of
+the two bands. And now, and not till now, realizing as he did that the
+thing was beyond him, that he could not reach the canyon first--now, and
+not till now, though soul and body were wrecked by exhaustion, Pat
+abated his speed.
+
+Instantly pandemonium broke loose. He heard the firing on his left
+increasing. He felt his master make ready to return it. He saw others
+around him, twisting vengefully into position, open with repeating
+rifles. Then the cavalrymen, evidently forced into it by the others,
+swung to the fray with their carbines, which began to boom on his right.
+The whole basin echoed and re-echoed sharp reports. Across his eyes
+burst intermittent flames. His ears rang with shots and yells. The
+shooting became heavier. Bullets sang close about him--seemed
+centered--as if the enemy would cut down his master at once and disrupt
+the others through his loss. The bullets sang closer still. And now
+immediately about him men and horses dropped, upsetting other riders,
+tumbling over sound horses--all in a seething chaos. He became dazed.
+His eyes were blinded with the flashes, and his ears ached with the
+crash and tumult. He grew faint. A dizziness seized him. But on he
+labored, his head aching, his eyes growing dimmer, his limbs numb and
+rebellious, his heart thumping in sullen rebellion, his ears bursting
+with the uproar.
+
+Another change swept over him. Mist leaped before his eyes. The roaring
+in his ears subsided. His legs flew off--he had no legs! The mist became
+a film. Yet he could see--see faintly. He saw a mad jumble of flying men
+and horses--a riotous mixture of color, arms, and firearms whirling and
+interlaced, a grim, struggling mass in death-grips. It swept
+close--crashed over him, struck him full. He felt the impact--then
+another. The ground rose and struck him. And now there fell upon him a
+great and wonderful peace--and a blank--then a voice, a familiar voice,
+and he drifted into unconsciousness.
+
+He was wakened by a fiery liquid in his throat. He slowly opened his
+eyes. He saw men and horses, many of them, standing or reclining in
+small groups. He saw them between the legs of a group immediately around
+him--men gazing down at him pitifully. As he lay thus dazed he heard the
+familiar voice again. It was sounding his name. He struggled to his
+feet. Steadying himself against his dizziness, he looked curiously at
+the young man standing before him. And suddenly he recognized him. This
+was his young master with the white around his arm and neck--the young
+man who had ridden him into the Mexican settlement, and who had been so
+good to him there, giving him generous quantities of alfalfa. He--But
+the voice was sounding again.
+
+"You poor dumb brute!" said Stephen, quietly; and Pat liked the petting
+he received. "You've just come through hell! But--but if they get you
+again--anywhere, friend of mine--they'll wade through hell themselves to
+do it." He was silent. "Pat, old boy," he concluded, finally, "you're
+going back home! I--I'm through!"
+
+A strange thing took place in Pat. Hearing this voice now, and seeing
+the owner of it, though he had seen him and heard his voice many times
+just before this last heartbreaking task under a strange master, he
+suddenly found himself thinking of the little ranch beside the river,
+and of his loving mistress, and also the cold and cruel Mexican hostler.
+And, thinking of them, he found himself thinking also of another, one
+who had accompanied him and his mistress on many delightful trips in the
+valley and up on the mesa in the shadow of the mountains. And now,
+thinking of this person, he somehow recognized this young man before him
+fully, and wondered why this had not come to him before. For this was
+the same young man--curiously pale, curiously drawn and haggard--but yet
+the same man. Understanding, understanding everything, he nickered
+softly and pressed close, mindful of yet another thing--something that
+had helped to make his life on the little ranch so pleasant and
+unforgettable. What he was mindful of, and what he now sought, was sugar
+and quartered apples.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+LIFE AND DEATH
+
+
+The third group in the affray consisted of cowboys. Weary and
+bedraggled, yet joyous at the suppression of the uprising, they set out
+for home about noon. Stephen, mounted upon Pat, accompanied them. They
+headed into the northwest, riding slowly, talking over the affair, while
+Stephen explained in part his interest in the black horse. Night found
+them near a water-hole, and here they went into camp, Stephen weak and
+distressed, his whole body aching, his arm and shoulder throbbing in
+agonizing pain. The men proved attentive and considerate; but he lay
+down exhausted and courted sleep, hardly hearing what they said. Sleep
+came to him only fitfully, and he was glad when break of day brought a
+change. They rode on through the second day, usually in sober silence,
+on into another dusk and another night of torture. A third day and a
+third dusk followed, but there was no camp this time. Continuing
+forward, just before dawn, with the moon brilliant in the heavens, they
+reached a cluster of buildings. One of them was a dwelling with a fence
+around it as a protection against cattle and horses, and to the rear of
+this all dismounted. Stephen led Pat into a spacious stable, and, with
+the assistance of the others, unsaddled and unbridled him, watered and
+fed him generously, then left him for the night.
+
+Instantly Pat began to inquire into his condition and surroundings. He
+was stiff and sore and a little nervous from the events of the past few
+days, and he found the stable, spacious though it was, depressing after
+his protracted life in the open. Yet there were many offsetting
+comforts. He had received a generous supply of grain and all the water
+he could drink. Then there was another comfort, though he awoke to this
+only after sinking to rest. His stall was thickly bedded with straw,
+which was comfort indeed, and though he had become accustomed to the
+pricking of the desert sand, he nestled into the straw with a sigh of
+satisfaction. To his right and left other horses stirred restlessly, and
+from outside came an occasional nicker, presumably from some unroofed
+inclosure. All these sounds kept him awake for a time, and it was
+approaching day before he felt himself sinking off into easy slumber.
+
+He was awakened by the coming of a stranger into his stall. It was broad
+daylight, and he hastily gained his feet, mystified for an instant that
+he should be sleeping in broad day, and not a little troubled by his
+strange surroundings. The new-comer was a fat youth with a round and
+smiling face, who, as he raked down the bedding, talked in a pleasing
+drawl.
+
+"Pat," he began, shoving him over gently, "you're shore some cayuse.
+Wouldn't mind ownin' a piece o' you myself. But I was goin' for to say
+there's trouble come onto you. That mighty likable pardner o' yours is
+gone in complete--sick to death. We've telephoned for the doc, but he's
+off somewheres, and we've got to wait till he gits back. But it's shore
+too bad--all of it. Steve he's got a nasty arm and shoulder, and he's
+all gone generally. Mighty distressin' I call it."
+
+With this he slapped Pat heartily and left him.
+
+When he had gone Pat felt a depression creeping over him. It became
+heavier as the hours passed. He knew that his young friend was somewhere
+about, and could not understand why he failed to come to him himself,
+instead of sending this stranger. Then, with the hours lengthening into
+a day, and the days dragging into a week, with only the smiling stranger
+coming to him regularly, and petting and stroking and talking to him, he
+came to feel that something of grave and serious nature was going on
+outside. So he longed to get out of the stable, out into sunlight and
+away from this restraint, and to see for himself what it was that was
+holding his master from him.
+
+Then late one afternoon he heard a step approaching. It was his master's
+step, yet it was very different. It was slow and dragging, and while the
+voice was the same, yet there was a note of hollowness as he spoke that
+did not belong there, a note as if it required great effort to speak at
+all. But in spite of this he recognized his young master, and sounded a
+welcoming nicker, anxious to be off. For somehow he believed that now he
+would be taken out into the sunlight. Nor was he disappointed. After a
+moment's petting the young man led him outdoors, and there began to
+bridle and saddle him, slowly, with many pauses for breath, all as if it
+hurt him, as indeed it must, since he still wore the white bandages.
+Then there appeared a group of interested young men, suddenly, as though
+they had just discovered the proposed departure.
+
+"See here, Steve," one of them exploded, "this ain't treating us a bit
+nice. You're a mighty sick man. I ain't saying that to worry you,
+neither; but I can't see the idee of your hopping out of bed to do this
+thing. You stick around till the doc comes again, anyway. Now, don't be
+a fool, Steve."
+
+Stephen continued slowly with his saddling. "It's decent of you
+fellows," he said, quietly. "And I don't want you to think me
+ungrateful. It's just a feeling I've got. I want to get this horse back
+where he belongs."
+
+Another of the group took up the attempt at persuasion. "But you're
+sick, man!" he exclaimed, beginning to stroke Pat absently. "You won't
+never make the depot! You owe it to everybody you've ever knowed to get
+right back into bed and stay there!"
+
+But Stephen only shook his head. Yet he knew that what the boys said was
+true. He was sick, and he knew it. He realized that he ought to be in
+bed. And he wanted to be in bed. But already he had suffered too much,
+lying inert, not because of his arm and the fever upon him, though these
+were almost unbearable, but because of the haunting fear, come to him
+ever more insistently with each passing day, that since Pat had escaped
+from him twice thus far, he was destined to escape from him a third
+time. Sometimes this fear took shape in visions of a blazing fire in the
+stable, in which Pat was burned to a crisp; again it took form in some
+malady peculiar to horses which would prove equally disastrous. At last,
+unable to withstand these pictures longer, he had crept out of bed,
+dressed as best he could, and stolen out of the house, bent upon getting
+Pat to the railroad, and there shipping him east to Helen at whatever
+cost to himself. So here he was, about to ride off.
+
+"You're--you're mighty decent," he repeated, hollowly, by way of
+farewell. "But I've got to go. And don't worry about my making the
+station," he added, reassuringly. "I have the directions, and I'll get
+there in time to make that ten-thirty eastbound to-night." He clambered
+painfully up into the saddle.
+
+A third member of the group, the round-faced and smiling cowpuncher,
+opened up with his pleasing drawl. "Why'n't you stay over till mornin',
+then?" he demanded. "The ranch wagon goes up early, and you could ride
+the seat just like a well man."
+
+But Stephen remained obdurate, and, repeating his thanks and farewells,
+he urged Pat forward at a walk because he himself could not stand the
+racking of a more rapid gait. The men sent after him expressions of
+regret mingled with friendly denunciations, but he rode steadily on,
+closing his ears grimly against their pleas, and soon he was moving
+slowly across the Arizona desert. His direction was northwest, and his
+destination, though new to him, a little town on the Santa Fé.
+
+As he rode forward through the quiet of the afternoon he found his
+thoughts a curious conflict. At times he would think of the girl, and of
+his love for her, and of the long, still hours spent in the ranch-house
+brooding, especially the nights, when, gazing out at the stars, he had
+wondered whether she knew, or, knowing, whether, after all, she really
+cared. They had been lonely nights, fever-tossed and restless, nights
+sometimes curiously made up of pictures--pictures of a runaway horse and
+of a girl mounted upon the horse, and of long walks and rides and talks
+with her afterward, and of the last night in her company, outside a
+corral and underneath a smiling moon, the girl in white, her eyes
+burning with a strange glow, himself telling his love for her, and
+hearing in return only that she did not and could not return that love.
+
+These were his thoughts at times as he rode forward through the desert
+solitude. Then he would awaken to his physical torture, and in this he
+would completely forget his spiritual distress, would ask why he had
+flung himself into this mocking silence and plunged into all this misery
+and pain. He knew why--knew it was because of the girl. But would it
+have been better to accept her dismissal and, returning to the East, let
+her pass out of his memory? In his heart he knew that he could not.
+
+There followed the thought of his responsibility for Pat, and of what
+was left for him to do. He recalled the theft, and his weeks of futile
+riding to recover the horse, and the thrill accompanying risk of life
+when he finally recovered him. And after that the second theft, and
+another and more dreadful ride when he raced through the night after the
+cavalry--the torture of it, the agony of his arm, the shooting, and the
+grappling hand to hand, and Pat sinking with exhaustion, and the thrill
+again, his own, at having the horse once more in his possession. It was
+_worth_ it--all of it--and he was _glad_--glad to have had an
+object for once in his life. And he still had that object, for was he
+not riding the horse on a journey which would end in placing Pat in the
+hands of the adorable girl who owned him?
+
+Thus he rode through the afternoon and on into an early dusk. Suddenly
+awaking to the Stygian darkness around him, he gave over thinking of the
+past and future and turned uneasy thoughts upon the present. Above him
+was a black, impenetrable dome, seemingly within touch of his hand;
+around and about him pressed a dense wall that gave no hint of his
+whereabouts. Yet he believed that he was pursuing the right direction;
+and, forgetting that Pat, no more than himself, knew the route, he gave
+the horse loose rein. Thus for an hour, two hours, three, he rode slowly
+forward, when like a flash it came to him that he was hopelessly lost.
+He reined in the horse sharply.
+
+For a time he sat trying to place himself. Failing in this, he raised
+his eyes, hoping for a break in the skies. But there was no glimmer of
+light, and after a while, not knowing what else to do, he sent Pat
+forward again. But his uneasiness would not down, and presently he drew
+rein again, dismounted, and fell to listening. There was not a breath of
+air. He took a step forward, his uneasiness becoming fear, and again
+stood motionless, listening, gripped by the oppressive stillness of the
+desert. It crept upon him, this death-quiet, seemed to close about him
+suffocatingly. Suddenly he started. Out of the dense blackness had come
+a voice, weak and plaintive. He turned tense with excitement and
+listened keenly.
+
+"Hello, there! This--over this way!"
+
+He could see nothing; but he moved in the direction of the voice. After
+a few strides he was stopped by a consciousness of something before him,
+and there was a constrained groan.
+
+"Careful, man--I'm hurt. Unhorsed this morning. Been crawling all day
+for shade. Strike a match, will you? God! but it's a night!"
+
+Stephen struck a light. As it flared up he saw prone in the sand a young
+man, his face drawn with pain, his eyes dark and hunted. The match went
+out. He struck another. The man was pitifully bruised and broken. A leg
+of his trousers had been torn away, and the limb lay exposed, strangely
+twisted. His track, made in crawling through the sand, stood out
+clearly, trailing away beyond the circling glow of light. A moment of
+flickering, and the second match went out.
+
+"Which way were you headed, friend?" Stephen asked, pityingly. His heart
+went out to the stricken stranger. He wanted to ask another question,
+too, but he hesitated. But finally he asked it. "Who are you, old man?"
+
+For a moment the fellow did not reply. The silence was oppressive.
+Stephen regretted his question. Then suddenly the man answered him,
+weakly, bitterly, as one utterly remorseful.
+
+"I'm Jim," he blurted out. "Horse-thief, cattle-rustler."
+
+Stephen bit his lip. More than ever he regretted that he had asked.
+Well, something had to be done, and done quickly. Could he but feel sure
+of his direction, he might place this unfortunate upon Pat and walk with
+him to the railroad town, where proper medical and surgical attendance
+could be obtained. But this he was unable to do, since he fully realized
+he was astray.
+
+"Brother," he suddenly explained, "I was headed, myself, toward the
+railroad. A little before dark I lost my way. Do you happen to know--"
+
+"Sit down," interrupted the other, faintly. "I've been--been lost--a
+week."
+
+Stephen sat down thoughtfully. All hope of serving the man for the
+present was gone. He must wait till daybreak at least. Then somebody or
+something might appear to show him the way out. He thought of the ranch
+wagon, and of Buddy's offer, and it occurred to him that unless he was
+too far off the regular course he might attract Buddy. It was a chance,
+anyway.
+
+"I've been 'most dead, too, for a week," suddenly began the other. "I
+'ain't eat regularly, for one thing--'most a month of that, I reckon.
+Been times, too, when I couldn't--couldn't find water. I didn't know the
+country over here. Had to change--change horses a couple times, too.
+Because--" He checked himself. "I made a mistake--the last horse. He
+give me all--all that was comin'--"
+
+A nicker from Pat interrupted him. Stephen felt him cringe. Directly he
+felt something else. It was a cold hand groping to find his own. The
+whole thing was queer, uncanny, and he was glad when the man went on.
+
+"Did--did you hear that?" breathed the fellow, a note of suppressed
+terror in his voice. "Did you hear it, friend? Tell me!" His voice was
+shrill now.
+
+Stephen reassured him, explaining that it was his horse. But a long time
+the man held fast, fingers gripping his hand, as if he did not believe,
+and was listening to make sure. At length he relaxed, and Stephen, still
+seated close beside him, heard him sink back into the sand.
+
+"I was getting away from--from--Oh, well, it don't--don't make any
+difference." The fellow was silent. "I needed a--a horse," he continued,
+finally. "My own--the third since--since--my own had played out. I was
+near a ranch, and--and it was night, and I--I seen a corral with a horse
+standing in it--a gray. It was moonlight. I--I got the gate open, and
+I--I roped him, and--" He interrupted himself, was upon one elbow again.
+"It was a stallion--a cross-bred, maybe--and--and say, friend, he rode
+me to death! I got on him before I knowed what he was. Bareback. He shot
+out of that corral like he was crazy. But I--I managed to hold--hold to
+him and--if he'd only bucked me off! But he didn't. He just raced for
+it--tore across the country like a cyclone. He rode me to death, a
+hundred miles, I bet, without a stop. And I held on--couldn't let
+go--was afraid to let go." He was silent. "Are you--you dead sure,
+friend, that was your horse?"
+
+Stephen again reassured him, realizing the fear upon the man and now
+understanding it. But he said nothing.
+
+"And then somewhere off here he throwed me," went on the man. "But
+he--he was a raving maniac. He turned on me before I could get up, and
+bit and kicked and trampled me till I didn't know nothing--was asleep,
+or something. When I came to--woke up--he was still hanging around. He's
+around here yet! I heard him all day--yesterday! He's off there to the
+east somewheres. He's--he's looking for me. I kept still whenever I'd
+see him or hear him, and then when he'd move off out of sight, or
+quit--quit his nickering, I'd crawl along some more. I'm--I'm done,
+stranger," he concluded, weakly, dropping over upon his back. "I'm done,
+and I know it. And it was that horse that--that--" He was silent.
+
+Stephen did not speak. He could not speak after this fearsome tale. Its
+pictures haunted him. He could see this poor fellow racing across the
+desert, clinging for life to that which meant death. His own condition
+had been brought about through a horse, a horse and wild rides at a time
+when he should have been, as this unfortunate undoubtedly should have
+been, in bed under medical care. For a moment he thought he would tell
+him a tale of misery equal to his own, in the hope that he might turn
+him from thoughts of his own misfortunes. But before he could speak the
+other broke in upon his thoughts with a shrill outcry. He had raised
+himself upon one elbow again, and now was pointing toward the eastern
+sky.
+
+"Look!" he cried. "Look off there!"
+
+Stephen turned his eyes in the direction of the pointing finger. He saw
+a faint light breaking through the black dome of the sky. As he watched
+it, it trickled out steadily, like slow-spreading water, filtering
+slowly through dense banks of clouds, folding them back like the shutter
+of a giant camera, until the whole eastern sky was a field of gray
+clouds with frosty edges, between which, coming majestically forward
+through the green-white billow, appeared finally a moon, big and round
+and brilliant, casting over the earth a flood of wonderland light,
+streaming down upon the dunes and flats in mystic sheen, bringing out
+the desert in soft outline. Near by, the light brought out the form of
+Pat, standing a short distance off with drooping head, motionless in all
+the splendor of his perfect outline. Stephen turned back to the man. He
+found him staring hard at the horse. He did not understand this until
+the fellow burst out excitedly, his eyes still fixed on Pat.
+
+"Whose horse is that?" he demanded. "Tell me. Do you own that black
+horse?"
+
+Stephen slowly shook his head. He thought the question but another
+expression of the stranger's nervous apprehension due to his experience.
+Yet he explained.
+
+"He belongs back in New Mexico," he said, quietly--"the Rio Grande
+Valley. He was stolen last spring. Been ridden pretty hard since, I
+guess. I happen to know where he belongs, though, and I was taking him
+to a shipping-point when I lost my way. That's the horse you heard
+nicker a while ago," he added, soothingly.
+
+The man sank flat again.
+
+"I stole him," he blurted out. "I--I hope you'll get him back where he
+belongs. His--his name is Pat. He's--he's the best horse I ever rode."
+He relapsed, into silence, motionless, as one dead.
+
+Stephen himself remained motionless. He looked at the man curiously. He
+believed that he ought to feel bitter toward him, since he saw in him
+the cause of all his own misery. But somehow he found that he could feel
+nothing but pity. In this man with eyes closed and gasping lips Stephen
+saw only a brother-mortal in distress, as he himself was in distress,
+and he forgave him for anything he had done.
+
+He looked at Pat, understanding the temptation, and then turned his eyes
+pityingly toward the man--the stranger, dozing, murmuring strangely in
+his sleep. Seeing him at rest, and realizing the long hours before
+daybreak, Stephen finally dropped over upon one elbow, and prepared to
+pass the night as best he could. He was suffering torture from his arm
+and shoulder, and burning with the fever shown in his hot skin and
+parched lips.
+
+The night passed restlessly. He saw the first rays of dawn break over
+the range and creep farther and farther down the valley, throwing a pale
+pink over the landscape and sending gaunt shadows slinking off into the
+light. A whinny from Pat aroused him. He arose painfully, gazed at the
+man at his feet, and then turned his eyes toward the distant horizon. A
+second whinny disturbed him and he shifted his gaze. Far above two great
+buzzards, circling round and round, faded into the morning haze. From a
+neighboring sand-dune a jack-rabbit appeared, paused a quivering moment,
+then scurried from view. The morning light grew brighter. A third
+whinny, and Pat now slowly started toward him. But again he fastened his
+eyes upon the distant horizon, hoping for a sight of the ranch wagon.
+But no wagon appeared. At length he turned to the horse. Pat stood
+soberly regarding the man, his ears forward, head drooping, tail
+motionless, as if recognizing in this mute object an erstwhile master.
+And suddenly lifting his head, he sounded a soft nicker, tremulously.
+Then again he fell to regarding the still form with strange interest.
+
+The form was still, still for all eternity. For the man was dead.
+
+Stephen sat down. He was shaking with fever and weakness. He placed a
+handkerchief over the face in repose, almost relieved that peace had
+come to this troubled soul. Then he thought of possible action. He
+realized that he was utterly lost. He had Pat, and for this he was
+thankful, since he knew that he could at least mount the horse and leave
+him to find a way out. But the horse alone must do it. He himself was
+bewildered, for the desert in broad day, as much as in the long night,
+revealed nothing. On every hand it lay barren, destitute of movement,
+wrapped in silence, seeming to mock his predicament. Yet he could not
+bring himself to mount at once. He sat motionless, suffering acutely,
+knowing that the least exertion would increase his pain--a machine run
+down--not caring to move.
+
+Suddenly, off to the east appeared a horse--a gray. It cantered
+majestically to the top of a dune, and stood there--head erect, nostrils
+quivering, ears alert, cresting the hillock like a statue. Stephen
+shivered. For instinctively he knew this to be the gray stallion, the
+cross-bred, that had trampled the form beside him. His first impulse was
+to mount Pat and spur him in a race for life; his second impulse was to
+crouch in hiding in the hope of escaping the keen scrutiny of that
+merciless demon. He chose the race. Springing to his feet, he leaped for
+Pat, and he grasped the saddle-horn. In his haste he slipped, lost his
+stirrup, and fell back headlong. The shock made him faint, and for a
+time he was unconscious. Shrill neighing aroused him, and, hastily
+gaining his feet, he saw Pat running lightly, well-contained, to meet
+the swiftly advancing gray stallion. Then events moved with a terrible
+unreality.
+
+The gray screamed defiantly and leaped toward Pat faster and faster. Pat
+braced his legs to meet the assault. But no assault came. With rare
+craft the gray suddenly checked himself, coming to a full stop two
+lengths away. Here, with ears flat and lashing tail, he glared at Pat,
+who, equally tense, returned defiance. Thus they stood in the desert,
+quiet, measuring each other, while Stephen, crouched, watching them,
+remembering the lifeless form beside him, prayed that Pat would prove
+equal to the mighty stallion. He had no gun. Pat alone could save him.
+If Pat were conquered nothing remained but death for both. For with Pat
+dead--and surely this masterful foe would stop at nothing short of
+death--Stephen realized that he himself, in his present condition, would
+never see civilization again. He could not walk the distance even if he
+knew the way, nor could he hope to mount the victorious stallion, should
+Pat be defeated, because only one man had done that, and that man lay
+dead beside him. The thought of being alone in the desert with the dead
+struck chill to his heart. He recalled his first ride with Helen, and
+her tales of men and horses in the early days, and what it meant to a
+man to have his horse stolen from him. It was all clear to him now, and
+he clenched his sound hand till the nails cut the flesh. Unless Pat
+fought a successful fight he was doomed to die of thirst, even if the
+stallion did not attack him. As he looked at Pat, his only hope in this
+dread situation, he prayed harder and more fervently than before that
+his champion would win.
+
+Pat thrilled with the sense of coming battle, but he did not fear this
+horse. He remembered that once he had struck down a rival, and before
+that he had twice given successful battle to men--to a finish with the
+Mexican hostler, another time when he had brought his enemy to respect
+and consider him. Therefore he had no reason to fear this horse, even
+though he saw in the gray's splendid figure an enemy to be carefully
+considered. But not for an instant did Pat relax. For this was a crafty
+foe, as shown by his sudden halt, which Pat knew was the prelude to a
+swift attack. So he watched with keen alertness the flattened ears, the
+lashing tail--his own muscles held rigid, waiting.
+
+The gray began a cautious approach. He put forward his legs one after
+another slowly, the while he held his eyes turned away, as if he were
+wholly absorbed in the vastness of the desert reaches. This was but a
+mere feint, as Pat understood it, and yet he waited, curious to know the
+outcome, still holding himself rigidly on guard. Closer came the gray,
+closer still, until he was almost beside him. Pat heard the whistle of
+his breath and saw the wild light in his eyes, and for an instant feared
+him. Yet there was no attack. The gray calmly gained a point immediately
+alongside and stopped, head to Pat's rump, separated from him by not
+more than half his length. Yet he did not attack; but Pat did not relax.
+And again they stood, end to end now and side by side, until Pat, coming
+finally to think, against his better judgment, that this was, after all,
+only a friendly advance, became less watchful. Then the blow fell. With
+a shrill scream that chilled Pat's heart the gray leaped sideways with a
+peculiar broadside lunge intended to hurl him off his feet. It was a
+form of attack new to Pat, and therefore never known to his ancestors,
+and before he could brace himself to meet it he found himself rolling
+over and over frantically in the sand.
+
+He sprang up, screaming with rage, while the gray was trampling him with
+fiendish hoofs. He steadied himself, resisted the onslaught, took the
+offensive himself. He lunged with bared teeth, sank them into yielding
+flesh, and wheeled away quickly. But not fast enough. The gray slashed
+his rump. He turned back, tore the gray's shoulder, wheeled sharply,
+attacked with lightning heels, and darted away again. But again the gray
+sprang upon him, ripped his rump a second time, and sprang off like a
+fiend. Raging, vindictive, Pat hurtled after him, and snapped again and
+again, drawing hot blood pungent of taste and smell, and then he leaped
+aside. But not far enough. The gray dashed into him, enveloped him in a
+whirlwind of clashing teeth and flashing heels, and wheeled away in a
+wide circle, screaming to the heavens, leaving Pat, with a dozen
+stinging wounds, dazed and exhausted.
+
+But Pat was quick to recover himself. Also, he took council. Never had
+he fought like this. His battle with the white horse had been
+brief--brief because of sudden releasing of weeks of venom stored within
+him by the white's continuous nagging, brief because of the white's
+inability to spring from each attack in season to protect himself. But
+no such sluggishness hampered this enemy, and he grimly realized that
+this was a struggle to the death. But he felt no fear. He respected the
+other's craft and wit and strength. Yet he knew that he himself had
+strength, while he realized that strength alone would not conquer. Craft
+and wit must serve with strength. Having strength, he himself must adopt
+the other qualities, must adapt himself to the occasion, exercise wit
+and craft, wait for openings, feint and withdraw, feint and attack,
+until, wearying this enemy, and puzzling him, there would come the
+chance to strike a death-blow. He knew what the death-blow was--knew it
+from his encounter with the white. He must inflict it first, lest the
+gray anticipate him, for the gray undoubtedly knew, also, from his
+experience and from his ancestors, what the death-blow was.
+
+After a moment of gasping breath and gradually clearing eyes he felt
+self-control and assurance return. Since his enemy appeared to be
+waiting, he himself continued to wait. He waited three minutes, five
+minutes, ten, until the nervous tension would permit him to wait no
+longer. Remembering his plans, and emulating the first approach of the
+gray, he started slowly toward him, putting forward one foot after
+another quietly, his eyes upon the distant horizon. He even outdid the
+gray in his craft. As he drew near, he suddenly took on the manner of
+one seeking friendliness, nickering once softly, as if he had had enough
+of this and would ask reconciliation. But his ruse failed. The gray was
+wise with the wisdom of the world-free. Plunging suddenly upon him, he
+snapped for his ears, but missed. His teeth flashed at Pat's neck,
+lodged, and ripped the flesh. He whirled, lashed out with his heels,
+missed, and sped away. Pat wheeled again and again, almost overthrown,
+and staggered away.
+
+Again he took council with himself. He was not beaten, he knew that. But
+neither was the enemy beaten. He knew that also. And he knew he must
+bide his time. Twice he had closed with the enemy, and twice he had come
+away the worse. Nothing was to be gained by this method. He must bide
+his time, wait for an encounter, dodge it if the moment proved
+unpropitious, but refrain from close attack. He must wait for his
+chance.
+
+As he stood there, alert to every least thing, he suddenly awoke to
+tease breathing close behind him. For one flaming moment he was puzzled.
+Then he remembered that he had been watching the gray out of the corner
+of his eye. He had seemed to be off guard, and the other had stolen
+cautiously around behind him, evidently to take advantage of this
+chance. He swallowed hard. The enemy was stealing upon him. He wanted to
+wheel, believed he ought to wheel if he would save himself, but he did
+not. Instead, he brought craft into play. He listened patiently,
+intensely alert, and bided his time. The breathing came closer, closer
+still, and stopped. He heard the enemy swallow. He conquered his longing
+to turn, and remained still as death. The gray drew no closer. He seemed
+to be waiting, also biding his time. And now it became a test, a matter
+of nervous endurance, each waiting for the other. Around them pressed
+the desert solitude. There was no sound anywhere. The sun beat down upon
+the earth remorselessly. And still Pat waited, but not for long. There
+was a soft tread behind him, and he knew that he had won in the contest
+of endurance. With the footfalls he heard spasmodic breathing. And yet
+he waited. But he was ready to strike--to deal the death-blow. Closer
+came the restrained breathing, was close behind him. Then he struck with
+all his strength.
+
+And his lightning heels found their mark. He heard the crack of bone and
+a long, terrible scream. He wheeled and saw the gray limping away.
+Gripped in sudden overwhelming fury, sounding a cry no less shrill than
+that of the gray, he leaped upon the enemy, bore him to earth, and,
+knowing no mercy, he trampled and slashed the furiously resisting foe
+into a bleeding mass. Then he dashed off, believing that it was all
+over. He turned toward Stephen and flung up his head to sound a cry of
+joy. But he did not sound it, for, taken off his guard, he suddenly
+found himself bowled over by the frenzied impact of the gray.
+
+And Stephen, tense with suspense, felt hope sink within him. For the
+gray stallion, even with fore leg broken, was smothering the prostrate
+Pat in a raging attack. He saw Pat struggle time and again to gain his
+feet. At last, only after desperate effort, he saw him rise. He saw him
+spring upon the crippled gray and tear his back and neck and withers
+until his face and chest were covered with blood. And then--and at sight
+of this he went limp in joy and relief--he saw Pat wheel against the
+gray and lash out mightily, and he saw the gray drop upon breast and
+upper fore legs--hopelessly out of the struggle. For Pat had broken the
+second fore leg, and this fiend of the desert was down for all time.
+
+And now Pat did a strange thing. As if it suddenly came to him that he
+had done a forbidden thing--for, after all, he was a product of advanced
+civilization--he flung up his head a second time and sounded a babyish
+whimper. Then he trotted straight to Stephen, there to nestle, as one
+seeking sympathy, under his master's enfolding arms. And Stephen,
+understanding, caressed and hugged and talked to him in a fervor of
+gratitude, until, awaking to the distress of the stallion, he staggered
+to his feet, intent upon a search for a revolver in the clothing of the
+still form. He found one, unexpectedly, in concealing folds, and with it
+shot the gray. Then he dragged himself to Pat, clambered dizzily into
+the saddle, gave the horse loose rein.
+
+Pat set out at a walk. He was bleeding in many places, and he was sore
+and burning in many others. But he did not permit these things to divert
+him from his task. He went on steadily, going he knew not whither, until
+he felt his master become inert in the saddle. This troubled him, and,
+without knowing precisely why he did it, he freshened his gait and
+continued at a fox-trot well into the morning, until his alert eyes
+suddenly caught sight of a thin column of dust flung up by galloping
+horses and swiftly revolving wheels. Then he came to a halt, and, still
+not understanding his motives, he pointed his head toward the distant
+vehicle and sounded a shrill nicker.
+
+The effort brought disaster. He felt his young master slip out of the
+saddle, saw him totter and sink in a heap on the sand. And now he
+understood fully. Throwing up his head again, he awoke the desert with
+an outcry that racked his whole body. But he did not stop. Again and
+again he flung his call across the silence, hurling it in mighty
+staccato in the direction of the ranch wagon until he saw the man
+suddenly draw rein, remain still for a time, then start up the horses
+again, this time in his direction. And now, and not till now, he ceased
+his nickering, and, in the great weariness and fatigue upon him, let his
+head droop, with eyes closed, until his nose almost touched the ground.
+
+And although he did not know it, in the past four hours this dumb animal
+had in every way lived up to the faith and trust reposed in him by the
+little woman in the distant valley.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+QUIESCENCE
+
+
+After long jogging behind the ranch wagon Pat found himself back in a
+stable. He found himself attended once more by the round-faced and
+smiling young man who had looked after him before. This friend put salve
+upon his wounds, and after that, for days and days, provided him with
+food and water, sometimes talking to him hopefully, sometimes talking
+with quiet distress in his voice, sometimes attending to his wants
+without talking at all. It was all a dread monotony. The days became
+shorter; the nights became longer; a chill crept into the stable. All
+day long he stamped away the hours in restless discontent, longing for a
+change of some sort, longing for a sight of his young master, wanting to
+get out into the open, there to race his legs off in thrilling action.
+
+Once this wish was granted. The weather was quite cold, and his
+round-faced friend came to him that morning showing every sign of haste.
+Hurriedly he bridled and saddled Pat, rushed him out of the stable,
+flung up across his back, and put spur to him with such vigor that he
+was forced into a gait the like of which he had not taken since his
+breathless speeding to the accompaniment of shots. Out across the desert
+he raced, breasting a cold wind, on and on till he found himself in a
+small railroad town. Here he was pulled up before a little cottage, and
+saw his friend mount the front steps and pull a tiny knob in the frame
+of the door. A moment of waiting and he saw a portly man appear, heard
+sharp conversation, saw his friend run down the steps. Then again he
+felt the prick of spurs, and found himself once more cantering across
+the desert. But not toward home. Late in the afternoon, wearied and
+suffering hunger pangs, he found himself in another small town and
+before another tiny cottage, with his friend pulling at a knob as
+before, and entering into crisp conversation with the person who
+answered, a lean man this time, who nodded his head and withdrew. After
+this he once more breasted the cold winds, worse now because of the
+night, and continued to breast them until he found himself back in the
+stable.
+
+Thus he had his wish. But it was really more than he had wanted, and
+thereafter he was content to remain in peace and rest in the stable. But
+he was not always confined to the stable now. His friend began to permit
+him privileges, and one of these was the spending of long hours outdoors
+in a private corral. Here, basking in the sunlight, which was not free
+from winter chill, he would spend whole days dreaming and
+wondering--wondering for the most part about his master, the master he
+liked, and finding himself ever more distressed because of his continued
+absence. Sometimes, in the corral, he would see men walk slowly in and
+out of the ranch-house, or come to a halt outside his fence and stand
+for long minutes gazing at him, a look in their eyes, he thought, though
+he was not quite sure, of pity mingled with sorrow. But though these men
+came to him frequently, yet they rarely ever spoke to him; even as his
+round-faced friend, though still regularly attentive, rarely ever spoke
+to him now. It was all mysterious. He knew that something of a very
+grave nature was in the air, but what it was and why his real master
+never came to him as did the other men, he did not know, though
+sometimes he would be obsessed with troubled thoughts that all was not
+well with the young man.
+
+Then one day, with spring descending upon the desert, he saw something
+that quickened his interest in life. He saw a door open in the house,
+saw a very thin young man appear on the threshold, saw him slowly
+descend the steps and walk toward him. It was his master. Yet was it? He
+pressed close to the fence, gazed at the man long and earnestly. Then he
+knew. It was indeed the same young man. He was much thinner now than
+when last he had come to him, and he seemed to lack his old-time energy,
+but nevertheless it was he. In a moment he knew it for certain, for the
+man held out a long, thin, white hand and called his name.
+
+This was the beginning of the end. Thereafter two and three times a day
+the young man came to him, sometimes in the corral, sometimes in the
+stable, but always with each successive visit, it seemed to Pat,
+revealing increasing buoyancy and strength. And finally there came a
+day, bright and warm, when his master came to him, as it proved, to
+remain with him. The young man was dressed for riding, and he was
+surrounded by all the men Pat had ever seen about the place, and not a
+few whose faces were new to him. They led him out of the stable into the
+open, a dozen hands bridled and saddled him, then all crowded close in
+joyful conversation.
+
+"Well, sir," began the round-faced young man, slapping Pat resoundingly
+upon the rump, "you're off again! And believe me I'm one that's right
+sorry to see you go. I don't care nothin' about this pardner o'
+yours--he don't count nohow, anyway. He's been sick 'most to death,
+shore, but he's all right now as far as _that_ goes. His arm is all
+healed up, and he's fit in every other way--_some_ ways--yet he's
+takin' himself off from as nice people as ever dragged saddles through a
+bunk-house at midnight. But that ain't it. He's takin' old black hoss
+away with him, and it don't jest set. I shore do hate to see you go."
+
+Which seemed to express the opinions of the others. And somehow, even
+when his master was in the saddle and everything pointing to a final
+departure, Pat found himself hating to go. But duty was duty, and after
+his master had gathered up the reins and all had cordially shaken hands
+he broke into a canter, and, followed by a chorus of mighty yells,
+headed into the interminable desert, within him the feeling of one upon
+the threshold of new life, or of old and delightful life returned.
+Before he realized either the lapse of time or the distance traveled, he
+found himself cantering into the little railroad town he had visited so
+hurriedly in the winter. And there followed another experience new to
+Pat--a journey by train back to his home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE REUNION
+
+
+Stephen awoke quite late in the morning after his arrival in Pat's home
+town. Standing before a window in his room at the hotel, he saw a young
+woman cantering across the railroad tracks in the direction of the mesa.
+It was Helen, and, at sight of her, for a brief and awful moment he
+wavered in his decision. Then he remembered his suffering, and the
+determination made while convalescing, and, hastening his toilet, he
+hurried through breakfast and made his way to the livery-stable where
+Pat had spent the night. Pat nickered joyful greeting, as if
+understanding what was to come. Bridling and saddling him, Stephen
+mounted and rode into the street at a canter. He turned into the avenue,
+crossed the railroad tracks, and mounted the long, slow rise to the mesa
+at a walk. He moved slowly because he wanted time to think, to pull
+himself together, to the end that he might hold himself firmly to his
+decision in this last talk. And yet--and this was the conflict he
+suffered--he could hardly restrain himself, hold himself back, from
+urging Pat to his utmost.
+
+He reached the first flat in the long rise. Absorbed in troubled
+reflections, he was barely conscious of the nods from two men he passed
+whom he knew--Hodgins, kindly old soul, book in hand; Maguire, truest of
+Celts, a twenty-inch slide-rule under his arm. Nodding in friendly
+recognition, both men gazed at the horse, seeming to understand, and
+glad to know that he was back. Mounting the second rise, he saw another
+whom he knew. A quarter of a mile to his left, on the tiny porch of a
+lone adobe, sat Skeet under a hat, feet elevated to the porch railing,
+head turned in a listening attitude, as though heeding a call, or many
+calls, from the direction of a brick-and-stone structure to the
+southwest. Everywhere familiar objects, scenes, stray people, caught his
+eye as he rode slowly out upon the mesa, trying to get his thoughts away
+from the immediate future, from Helen, his successful return of the
+horse, and that other thing, his determination to leave this spacious
+land for ever.
+
+Suddenly he saw her. She was standing beside her brown saddler, her hand
+upon the bridle, gazing thoughtfully toward the mountains, now in their
+morning splendor. He rode Pat to a point perhaps twenty feet behind her,
+and then quietly let go of the reins and dropped to earth. For a moment
+he stood, his heart a well of bitterness; then, taking Pat's rein, he
+stepped toward her, quietly and slowly, intent upon making her surprise
+complete, because of her great love for the horse. She continued
+motionless, her hand upon the bridle, facing the mountains, and he came
+close before she turned.
+
+He stopped. She stood perfectly still, eyes upon him, upon the horse, a
+slow pallor creeping into her face. Presently, as one in a spell, she
+let fall the reins, slowly, mechanically, and stepped toward him, a step
+ever quickening, her face drawn, in her eyes a strange, unchanging glow,
+until, when almost upon him, she held out both arms in trembling welcome
+and uttered a pitiful outcry.
+
+"Stephen! Pat!" she sobbed. "Why--why didn't you--" She checked herself,
+came close, reached one arm around Pat, the other around Stephen, and
+went on. "I am--am glad you--you have come back--back to me." Her white
+face quivered. "Both of you. I--I have suffered."
+
+And Stephen, swept away by the tide of his great love, and forgetting
+his determination, forgetting everything, bent his head and kissed her.
+She did not shrink, and he kissed her again. Then he began to talk, to
+tell her of her wonderful horse. Slowly at first, hesitating, then, as
+the spirit of the drama gripped him, rapidly, sometimes incoherently, he
+told of his adventures with the horse, and of Pat's unwavering loyalty
+throughout, and of that last dread situation when both their lives
+depended upon Pat's winning in a death-grapple with a wild horse. And
+then, as the gates of speech were opened, he showed her his own part,
+telling her that as Pat had been true to her trust, so he himself had
+tried to be true to her faith and trust, and was still trying and
+hoping, against his convictions, that she understood, that she would
+consider his love for her and would take him, because he loved her
+wholly and he needed her love to live. His tense words broke at last,
+and then he saw her looking up at him through tear-dimmed eyes and
+smiling, and in the smile he saw the opening of a life new and
+wonderful.
+
+After a little she turned to Pat. She fell to stroking him in thoughtful
+silence. Then she turned back.
+
+"I had heard much of what you have been through," she began, slowly, her
+voice soft and vibrant with deep sympathy, in her eyes that same steady
+glow. "The rangers reported to headquarters, and headquarters reported
+to Daddy. They told of the running fight, Stephen, and how--how you were
+hurt. And they told of the renegades, and their descent upon your camp,
+and of Pat's disappearance. And they told of the way you mounted another
+horse, hurt and sick though you were, and rode off in pursuit. But from
+there they knew nothing more. But they had spoken of the cavalry, and I
+wrote to Fort Wingate, inquiring, and they told me what they knew--that
+you had joined them and ridden with them through that dreadful fight,
+though they had tried to keep you out of it on account of your
+condition, and that afterward you had gone off with some cowboys--they
+didn't know to what ranch. So I looked up every brand in that section,
+Stephen," she went on, her voice beginning to break. "And I wrote to
+every place that might by any possible chance know something. But nobody
+knew. And--and--there I--I was stopped. You had been swallowed up in
+that desert, and I--I knew you must be ill--and I realized that I--I had
+sent you into it all." She sobbed and leaned her head against him. "I
+couldn't do anything, Stephen. I was helpless. All I have been able to
+do at any time, Stephen, was to--to sit at a window and wait--wait to
+hear from you--wait for your return--and hope, hope day in and day out
+that--that you were safe. I--I have--have suffered, Stephen," she
+concluded, sobbing wretchedly now. "I have suffered--suffered so much!"
+
+He drew her close in his arms, united at last in complete understanding.
+The brown saddler, left free, wandered away indifferently; but Pat
+remained beside them, and presently they felt the tender touch of his
+beautiful head, as if in comprehension and blessing. Their hands went
+out to him, and Pat nickered softly at the love in their caress. Then
+Stephen gently raised Helen's sweet, tear-stained face to his, and in
+her eyes he read the certainty of the great happiness of years to come,
+while Pat, raising his head proudly to the desert, stood above them as
+if in solemn protection.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+ZANE GREY'S NOVELS
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list
+
+THE LIGHT OF WESTERN STARS
+
+Colored frontispiece by W. Herbert Dunton.
+
+Most of the action of this story takes place near the turbulent
+Mexican border of the present day. A New York society girl buys a
+ranch which becomes the center of frontier warfare. Her loyal cowboys
+defend her property from bandits, and her superintendent rescues her
+when she is captured by them. A surprising climax brings the story to
+a delightful close.
+
+DESERT GOLD
+
+Illustrated by Douglas Duer.
+
+Another fascinating story of the Mexican border. Two men, lost in the
+desert, discover gold when, overcome by weakness, they can go no
+farther. The rest of the story describes the recent uprising along the
+border, and ends with the finding of the gold which the two
+prospectors had willed to the girl who is the story's heroine.
+
+RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE
+
+Illustrated by Douglas Duer.
+
+A picturesque romance of Utah of some forty years ago when Mormon
+authority ruled. In the persecution of Jane Withersteen, a rich ranch
+owner, we are permitted to see the methods employed by the invisible
+hand of the Mormon Church to break her will.
+
+THE LAST OF THE PLAINSMEN
+
+Illustrated with photograph reproductions.
+
+This is the record of a trip which the author took with Buffalo Jones,
+known as the preserver of the American bison, across the Arizona
+desert and of a hunt in "that wonderful country of yellow crags, deep
+canons and giant pines." It is a fascinating story.
+
+THE HERITAGE OF THE DESERT
+
+Jacket in color. Frontispiece.
+
+This big human drama is played in the Painted Desert. A lovely girl,
+who has been reared among Mormons, learns to love a young New
+Englander. The Mormon religion, however, demands that the girl shall
+become the second wife of one of the Mormons--
+
+Well, that's the problem of this sensational, big selling story.
+
+BETTY ZANE
+
+Illustrated by Louis F. Grant.
+
+This story tells of the bravery and heroism of Betty, the beautiful
+young sister of old Colonel Zane, one of the bravest pioneers. Life
+along the frontier, attacks by Indians, Betty's heroic defense of the
+beleaguered garrison at Wheeling, the burning of the Fort, and Betty's
+final race for life make up this never-to-be-forgotten story.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+NOVELS OF FRONTIER LIFE BY WILLIAM MacLEOD RAINE
+
+HANDSOMELY BOUND IN CLOTH. ILLUSTRATED.
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset and Dunlap's list
+
+MAVERICKS.
+
+A tale of the western frontier, where the "rustler," whose
+depredations are so keenly resented by the early settlers of the
+range, abounds. One of the sweetest love stories ever told.
+
+A TEXAS RANGER.
+
+How a member of the most dauntless border police force carried law
+into the mesquite, saved the life of an innocent man after a series of
+thrilling adventures, followed a fugitive to Wyoming, and then passed
+through deadly peril to ultimate happiness.
+
+WYOMING.
+
+In this vivid story of the outdoor West the author has captured the
+breezy charm of "cattleland," and brings out the turbid life of the
+frontier with all its engaging dash and vigor.
+
+RIDGWAY OF MONTANA.
+
+The scene is laid in the mining centers of Montana, where politics and
+mining industries are the religion of the country. The political
+contest, the love scene, and the fine character drawing give this
+story great strength and charm.
+
+BUCKY O'CONNOR,
+
+Every chapter teems with wholesome, stirring adventures, replete with
+the dashing spirit of the border, told with dramatic dash and
+absorbing fascination of style and plot.
+
+CROOKED TRAILS AND STRAIGHT.
+
+A story of Arizona; of swift-riding men and daring outlaws; of a
+bitter feud between cattle-men and sheep-herders. The heroine is a
+most unusual woman and her love story reaches a culmination that is
+fittingly characteristic of the great free West.
+
+BRAND BLOTTERS.
+
+A story of the Cattle Range. This story brings out the turbid life of
+the frontier, with all its engaging dash and vigor, with a charming
+love interest running through its 320 pages.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+JACK LONDON'S NOVELS
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list.
+
+JOHN BARLEYCORN. Illustrated by H. T. Dunn.
+
+This remarkable book is a record of the author's own amazing
+experiences. This big, brawny world rover, who has been acquainted
+with alcohol from boyhood, comes out boldly against John Barleycorn.
+It is a string of exciting adventures, yet it forcefully conveys an
+unforgettable idea and makes a typical Jack London book.
+
+THE VALLEY OF THE MOON. Frontispiece by George Harper.
+
+The story opens in the city slums where Billy Roberts, teamster and
+ex-prize fighter, and Saxon Brown, laundry worker, meet and love and
+marry. They tramp from one end of California to the other, and in the
+Valley of the Moon find the farm paradise that is to be their
+salvation.
+
+BURNING DAYLIGHT. Four illustrations.
+
+The story of an adventurer who went to Alaska and laid the foundations
+of his fortune before the gold hunters arrived. Bringing his fortunes
+to the States he is cheated out of it by a crowd of money kings, and
+recovers it only at the muzzle of his gun. He then starts out as a
+merciless exploiter on his own account. Finally he takes to drinking
+and becomes a picture of degeneration. About this time he falls in
+love with his stenographer and wins her heart but not her hand and
+then--but read the story!
+
+A SON OF THE SUN. Illustrated by A. O. Fischer and C. W. Ashley.
+
+David Grief was once a light-haired, blue-eyed youth who came from
+England to the South Seas in search of adventure. Tanned like a native
+and as lithe as a tiger, he became a real son of the sun. The life
+appealed to him and he remained and became very wealthy.
+
+THE CALL OF THE WILD. Illustrations by Philip R. Goodwin and
+Charles Livingston Bull. Decorations by Charles E. Hooper.
+
+A book of dog adventures as exciting as any man's exploits could be.
+Here is excitement to stir the blood and here is picturesque color to
+transport the reader to primitive scenes.
+
+THE SEA WOLF. Illustrated by W. J. Aylward.
+
+Told by a man whom Fate suddenly swings from his fastidious life into
+the power of the brutal captain of a sealing schooner. A novel of
+adventure warmed by a beautiful love episode that every reader will
+hail with delight.
+
+WHITE FANG. Illustrated by Charles Livingston Bull.
+
+"White Fang" is part dog, part wolf and all brute, living in the
+frozen north; he gradually comes under the spell of man's
+companionship, and surrenders all at the last in a fight with a bull
+dog. Thereafter he is man's loving slave.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+STORIES OF RARE CHARM BY GENE STRATTON-PORTER
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset and Dunlap's list
+
+LADDIE.
+
+Illustrated by Herman Pfeifer.
+
+This is a bright, cheery tale with the scenes laid in Indiana. The
+story is told by Little Sister, the youngest member of a large family,
+but it is concerned not so much with childish doings as with the love
+affairs of older members of the family. Chief among them is that of
+Laddie, the older brother whom Little Sister adores, and the Princess,
+an English girl who has come to live in the neighborhood and about
+whose family there hangs a mystery. There is a wedding midway in the
+book and a double wedding at the close.
+
+THE HARVESTER.
+
+Illustrated by W. L. Jacobs.
+
+"The Harvester," David Langston, is a man of the woods and fields, who
+draws his living from the prodigal hand of Mother Nature herself. If
+the book had nothing in it but the splendid figure of this man it
+would be notable. But when the Girl comes to his "Medicine Woods," and
+the Harvester's whole being realizes that this is the highest point of
+life which has come to him--there begins a romance of the rarest
+idyllic quality.
+
+FRECKLES.
+
+Decorations by E. Stetson Crawford.
+
+Freckles is a nameless waif when the tale opens, but the way in which
+he takes hold of life; the nature friendships he forms in the great
+Limberlost Swamp; the manner in which everyone who meets him succumbs
+to the charm of his engaging personality; and his love-story with "The
+Angel" are full of real sentiment.
+
+A GIRL OF THE LIMBERLOST.
+
+Illustrated by Wladyslaw T. Brenda.
+
+The story of a girl of the Michigan woods; a buoyant, lovable type of
+the self-reliant American. Her philosophy is one of love and kindness
+towards all things; her hope is never dimmed. And by the sheer beauty
+of her soul, and the purity of her vision, she wins from barren and
+unpromising surroundings those rewards of high courage.
+
+AT THE FOOT OF THE RAINBOW.
+
+Illustrations in colors by Oliver Kemp.
+
+The scene of this charming love story is laid in Central Indiana. The
+story is one of devoted friendship, and tender self-sacrificing love.
+The novel is brimful of the most beautiful word painting of nature,
+and its pathos and tender sentiment will endear it to all.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+JOHN FOX, JR'S.
+
+STORIES OF THE KENTUCKY MOUNTAINS
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset and Dunlap's list
+
+THE TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE.
+
+Illustrated by F. C. Yohn.
+
+The "lonesome pine" from which the story takes its name was a tall
+tree that stood in solitary splendor on a mountain top. The fame of
+the pine lured a young engineer through Kentucky to catch the trail,
+and when he finally climbed to its shelter he found not only the pine
+but the foot-prints of a girl. And the girl proved to be lovely,
+piquant, and the trail of these girlish foot-prints led the young
+engineer a madder chase than "the trail of the lonesome pine."
+
+THE LITTLE SHEPHERD OF KINGDOM COME
+
+Illustrated by F. C. Yohn.
+
+This is a story of Kentucky, in a settlement known as "Kingdom Come."
+It is a life rude, semi-barbarous; but natural and honest, from which
+often springs the flower of civilization.
+
+"Chad," the "little shepherd," did not know who he was nor whence he
+came--he had just wandered from door to door since early childhood,
+seeking shelter with kindly mountaineers who gladly fathered and
+mothered this waif about whom there was such a mystery--a charming
+waif, by the way, who could play the banjo better than anyone else in
+the mountains.
+
+A KNIGHT OF THE CUMBERLAND.
+
+Illustrated by F. C. Yohn.
+
+The scenes are laid along the waters of the Cumberland, the lair of
+moonshiner and feudsman. The knight is a moonshiner's son, and the
+heroine a beautiful girl perversely christened "The Blight." Two
+impetuous young Southerners fall under the spell of "The Blight's"
+charms and she learns what a large part jealousy and pistols have in
+the love making of the mountaineers.
+
+Included in this volume is "Hell fer-Sartain" and other stories,
+some of Mr. Fox's most entertaining Cumberland valley narratives.
+
+Ask for complete free list of G. & D. Popular Copyrighted Fiction
+
+Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, New York
+
+
+
+
+B. M. Bower's Novels
+
+THRILLING WESTERN ROMANCES
+
+Large 12 mos. Handsomely bound in cloth. Illustrated
+
+CHIP, OF THE FLYING U
+
+A breezy wholesome tale, wherein the love affairs of Chip and
+Della Whitman are charmingly and humorously told. Chip's
+jealousy of Dr. Cecil Grantham, who turns out to be a big blue
+eyed young woman is very amusing. A clever, realistic story of
+the American Cowpuncher.
+
+THE HAPPY FAMILY
+
+A lively and amusing story, dealing with the adventures of
+eighteen jovial, big hearted Montana cowboys. Foremost amongst
+them, we find Ananias Green, known as Andy, whose imaginative
+powers cause many lively and exciting adventures.
+
+HER PRAIRIE KNIGHT
+
+A realistic story of the plains, describing a gay party of Easterners
+who exchange a cottage at Newport for the rough homeliness
+of a Montana ranch-house. The merry-hearted cowboys, the
+fascinating Beatrice, and the effusive Sir Redmond, become living,
+breathing personalities.
+
+THE RANGE DWELLERS
+
+Here are everyday, genuine cowboys, just as they really exist.
+Spirited action, a range feud between two families, and a Romeo
+and Juliet courtship make this a bright, jolly, entertaining story,
+without a dull page.
+
+THE LURE OF DIM TRAILS
+
+A vivid portrayal of the experience of an Eastern author,
+among the cowboys of the West, in search of "local color" for a
+new novel. "Bud" Thurston learns many a lesson while following
+"the lure of the dim trails" but the hardest, and probably the most
+welcome, is that of love.
+
+THE LONESOME TRAIL
+
+"Weary" Davidson leaves the ranch for Portland, where conventional
+city life palls on him. A little branch of sage brush,
+pungent with the atmosphere of the prairie, and the recollection of
+a pair of large brown eyes soon compel his return. A wholesome
+love story.
+
+THE LONG SHADOW
+
+A vigorous Western story, sparkling with the free, outdoor,
+life of a mountain ranch. Its scenes shift rapidly and its actors play
+the game of life fearlessly and like men. It is a fine love story from
+start to finish.
+
+Ask for a complete free list of G. & D. Popular Copyrighted Fiction.
+
+Grosset & Dunlap, 526 West 26th St., New York
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Bred of the Desert, by Marcus Horton
+
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