Bred of the Desert: A Horse and a Romance

by Charles M. Horton

  CHAPTER II

  FELIPE CELEBRATES

  It was well along in the morning when Felipe pulled up next day beforehis little adobe house in the mountain settlement. The journey from themesa 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 ofexhaustion, though only with the pauses did he attempt rest.

  But it was all over now. They were safely before the house, with thecolt lying a little apart from his mother--regarding her with curiousintentness--and with Felipe bustling about the team and now and againbursting out in song of questionable melody and rhythm. Felipe waspreparing the horses for the corral at the rear of the house, and soonhe 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' menow!" And he started around a corner of the adobe.

  The colt hastily rose to his feet. But not at the command of the man. Nosuch command was necessary, for whither went his mother there went he.Close to her side, he moved with her into the inclosure, crowdingfrantically over the bars, skinning his knees in the effort, coming to awide-eyed stand just inside the entrance, and there surveying withnervous apprehension the corral's occupants--a burro, two pigs, a flockof chickens. But he held close to his mother's side.

  Felipe did not linger in the corral. Throwing off their bridles, hetossed the usual scant supply of alfalfa to the horses, and filled theirtub from a near-by well. Then, after putting up the bars, he set outwith determined stride across the settlement. His direction was thegeneral store, and his quest was the loan of a horse, since his team nowwas broken, and would be broken for a number of days to come.

  The store was owned and conducted by one Pedro Garcia. Pedro Garcia wasthe mountain Shylock. He loaned money at enormous rates of interest, andhe rented out horses at prohibitive rates per day. Also, being what hewas, Pedro had gained his pounds of flesh--was alarmingly fat, withshort legs of giant circumference. Usually these legs were clothed intight-fitting overalls, and his small feet incased in boots ofhigh-grade leather wonderfully roweled. Yet many years had passed sincePedro had been seen in a saddle. Evidently he held to the rowels in fondmemory of his days of slender youth and coltish gambolings. Pedro wasseated in his customary place upon an empty keg on the porch, andFelipe, ignoring his grunted greeting, plunged at once into the purposeof his call.

  He had come to borrow a horse, Felipe explained. One of his own wasunfit for work, yet the cutting and drawing must go on. While the marewas recuperating, he carefully pointed out, he himself could continue toearn money to meet some of his pressing debts. Any kind of horse woulddo, he declared, so long as it had four legs and was able to carry onthe work. The horse need not have a mouth, even, he added, jocosely, forreasons nobody need explain. After which he sat down on the porch andawaited the august decision.

  Pedro remained silent a long time, the while he moistened his lips withfitful tongue, and gazed across the tiny settlement reflectively. Atlength he drew a deep breath, mixed of disgust and regret, and proceededto make slow reply.

  It was true, he began, that he had horses to rent. And it was furthertrue, he went on, deliberately, that he kept them for just this purpose.But--and his pause was fraught with deep significance--it was no lesstrue that Felipe Montoya bore a bad reputation as a driver ofhorses--was known, indeed, to kill horses through overwork andunderfeed--and that, therefore, to lend him a horse was like kissing thehorse 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 wasprepared to pay the customary small rate per day, and to _pay inadvance--cash--_

  Here Pedro paused and popped accusing eyes at Felipe, in one strongdramatic moment before continuing. But he did not continue. Felipe wasthe check. For Felipe had leaped to his feet, and now stood brandishingan ugly fist underneath the proprietor's nose. Further--and infinitelyworse--Felipe was saying something.

  "Pedro Garcia," he began, shrilly, "I must got a horse! And I have coomfor a horse! And I have thee money to pay for a horse! And if I killthot horse," he went on, still brandishing his fist--"if thot horse he'sdropping dead in thee harness--I pay you for thot horse! I haf drivehorses--"

  "_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 sevenhorses, and all seven of thees horses is dyin', Pedro Garcia, when I hafbuy them, and I haf buy all seven horses from you, Pedro Garcia, thiefand 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 toyou before! And I haf coom to you now! I must got a horse quick! And Ibringin' thot horse back joost thee same as I'm gettin' thot horse--ingood condition--better--because everybody is knowin.' I feed a horsebetter than you feed a horse--and I'm _cleanin'_ the horse once ina 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 dangerouslydistended. "You give me a horse--you hear? I want a horse--a horse! Idon' coom here for thee talk!"

  Pedro rose hastily from the keg. Also, he grunted quick consent. Then hestepped inside the store, followed by Felipe, who made several neededpurchases, and, since he had his enemy cowed, and was troubled withthirst created by the protracted harangue, to say nothing of the stronginclination within him to celebrate the coming of the colt, he made apurchase that was not needed--a bottle of _vino_, cool and dry fromPedro's cellar. With these tucked securely under his arm, he then calmlyinformed Pedro of the true state of his finances, and left the store,returning across the settlement, which lay wrapped in pulsating noondayquiet. In the shade of his adobe he sat upon the ground, with his backcomfortably against the wall. Directly the quiet was broken by twodistinct sounds--the pop of a cork out of the neck of a bottle, and thegurgle of liquid into the mouth of a man.

  Thus Felipe set out upon a protracted debauch. In this debauch he didnothing worth while. He used neither the borrowed horse nor his ownsound one. Each day saw him redder of eye and more swollen of lip; eachday saw him increasingly heedless of his debts; each day saw him moreneglectful of his duties toward his animals. The one bottle became twobottles, the two bottles became three, each secured only afterthreatened assault upon the body of Pedro, each adding its store to thealready deep conviviality and reckless freedom from all cares nowFelipe's. He forgot everything--forgot the stolen money, forgot thecolt, forgot the needs of the mare--all in exhilarated pursuit ofphantoms.

  Yet the colt did not suffer. Becoming ever more confident of himself asthe days passed, he soon revealed pronounced curiosity and an aptitudefor play. He would stare at strutting roosters, gaze after straddlinghens, blink quizzically at the burro, frown upon the grunting pigs, allas if cataloguing these specimens, listing them in his thoughts, someday to make good use of the knowledge. But most of all he showedinterest in and playfulness toward his mother and her doings. He wouldfollow her about untiringly, pausing whenever she paused, starting offagain whenever she started off--seemingly bent upon acquiring the howand why of her every movement.

  But it was his playfulness finally that brought him first needlesssuffering. The mare was standing with her nose in the feed-box. She hadstood thus many times during the past week; but usually, before, the boxhad 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 inthis thing, and so went there to attempt, as many times before, to reachhis nose into the mysterious box. Finding that he could not, he began,as never before, to frisk about the mare, tossing up his little heelsand throwing down his head with all t
he reckless abandon of a seasoned"outlaw." He could do these things because he was a rare colt, strongerthan ever colt before was at his age, and for a time the mare sufferedhis antics with a look of pleased toleration. But as he kept it up, andas she was getting her first real sustenance since the day of hiscoming, she at length became fretful and sounded a low warning. But thisthe colt did not heed. Instead he wheeled suddenly and plunged directlytoward her, bunting her sharply. Nor did the single bunt satisfy him.Again and again he attacked her, plunging in and darting away each timewith remarkable celerity, until, her patience evidently exhausted, shewhisked her head around and nipped him sharply. Screaming with pain andfright, 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 thecolt, and there fell to licking him, seeming to tell him of her lastingforgiveness. Under this lavish caressing the colt, as if to reveal hisown forgiveness for the dreadful hurt, bestowed similar attention uponher--in this attention, though he did not know it, softening flesh thathad experienced no such consideration in years. Thus they stood, side byside, mother and son, long into the day, laying the foundation of a lovethat never dies--that strengthens, in fact, with the years, though allelse fail--love between mother and her offspring.

  Other things, things of minor consequence, added their mite to his earlydevelopment. One morning, while the mare was asleep, the colt, alert andstanding, was startled by the sudden movement of a large rooster. Therooster had left the ground with loud flapping of wings, and now stoodperched upon the corral fence, like a grim and mighty conqueror,ruffling his neck feathers and twisting his head in pre-eminentsatisfaction. But the colt did not understand this. Transfixed, heturned frightened eyes upon the cause of the unearthly commotion. Thensuddenly, with another loud flapping of wings, the rooster uttered adefiant crow, a challenge that echoed far through the canyon. Whereatthe colt, eyes wide with terror, whirled to his mother, whimperingbabyishly. But with the mare standing beside him and caressing himreassuringly, all his nervousness left him, and he again turned his eyesupon the rooster and watched him till the cock, unable to stir combatamong his neighbors, left the fence with another loud flapping of wings,and returned to earth, physically and spiritually, there to set up hiscustomary feigned quest for worms for the ladies. But the point wasthis--with this last flapping of wings the colt remained in a state ofperfect calm.

  Thus he learned, and thus he continued to learn, in nervous fear onemoment, in perfect calm the next. And though his hours of life were fewindeed, he nevertheless revealed an intelligence far above the averageof his kind. He learned to avoid the mare's whisking tail, to shun orremove molesting flies, to keep away from the mare when she was at thefeed-box. All of which told of his uncommon strain, as did the rapiditywith which he gained strength, which last told of his tremendousvitality, and which some day would serve him well against trouble.

  Yet in it all lurked the great mystery, and Felipe, blustering tooccasional natives outside the fence during his week of debauch, whilepointing out with pride the colt's very evident blooded lineage, yetcould tell nothing of that descent. All he could point out was that themare was chestnut-brown, and when not in harness was kept close withinthe confines of the corral, while here was a colt of a dark-fawn colorwhich would develop with maturity into coal-black. And there was not asingle black horse in the mountains for miles and miles around. Nor wasthe colt a "throw-back," because--

  "Oh, well," he would conclude, casting bleared eyes in the direction ofthe 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, heardsuspicious sounds in the corral outside. He sprang up and, clad only ina fiery-red undershirt, hurried to a window. Cautiously letting down thebars, with a rope already tied around the colt's neck, was the mountainShylock, Pedro Garcia, intent upon leading off the innocent new-comer.Pedro no doubt had perceived an opportunity either to force Felipe tomeet some of his debts, or else hold the colt as a very acceptablechattel. Also, he evidently had calculated upon early dawn as the timebest suited to do this thing, in view of Felipe's long debauch uponunpaid-for wine. At any rate, there he was, craftily letting down thebars. Raging with indignation and a natural venom which he felt towardthe storekeeper, Felipe flung up the window.

  "_Buenos dias, senor!_" he greeted, cheerfully, with effortcontrolling his anger. "Thee early worm he's takin' thee_potrillo_! How cooms thot, _senor_?" he asked, enjoying theother's sudden discomfiture. "You takin' thot li'l' horse for theewalk--thee exercise?" And then, without waiting for a reply, had therebeen one forthcoming, which there was not, he slammed down the window,leaped to the door, flung it open--all levity now gone from him. "PedroGarcia!" he raged. "You thief and robber! I'm killin' you thees timesure!" And, regardless of his scant attire, and stringing out a volleyof oaths, he sprang out of the doorway after his intended victim.

  But Pedro Garcia, though fat, was surprisingly quick on his feet. Hedropped the rope and burst into a run, heading frantically past thehouse toward the trail. And, though Felipe leaped after him, still cladonly in fiery-red undershirt, the storekeeper gained the trail and setout at top speed across the settlement. Felipe pursued. Hair aflaunt,shirt-tail whipping in the breeze, bare feet paddling in the dust of thetrail, naked legs crossing each other like giant scissors in frenziedeffort, he hurtled forward exactly one leap behind his intended victim.He strained to close up the gap, but he could not overtake the equallyspeedy Pedro, whose short legs fairly buzzed in the terror of theirowner. Thus they ran, mounting the slight rise before the general store,then descending into the heart of the settlement, with Pedro whippingalong frantically, and Felipe still one whole leap behind, until aderisive shout, a feminine exclamation of shrieking glee, awoke Felipeto the spectacle he was making of himself before the eyes of thecommunity. He stopped; growled disappointed rage; darted back along thetrail. Once in the privacy of his house, he hurriedly donned his clothesand gave himself over to deliberations. The result of thesedeliberations 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 freshinterest.

  "Thot li'l' _caballo_," he began, "he's bringin' me mooch goodluck. Thot _potrillo_ he's wort' seven--he'swort'--_si_--eight dolars--thot _potrillo_. I t'ink I haf sellheem, too--queek--in town! But first I must go cuttin' thee wood!" Withthis he let down the bars and entered the inclosure. Then his thoughtstook 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 singledout the mate to the mare. As he harnessed up this horse, the colt,standing close by, revealed marked interest. Also, as Felipe led thehorse out of the corral the colt followed till shut off by the bars,which Felipe hurriedly put up. But they did not discourage him. Heremained very close to them, peering out between the while Felipehitched the team to his empty lumber rigging. Then came the crack of awhip, loud creaking of greaseless wheels, the voice of Felipe in lustydemand, 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 trailcompletely subsided, did the colt turn away from the bars and seek hismother, and then with a look in his soft-blinking eyes that told ofconcentrated pondering on these mysteries of life.