CHAPTER XXXI--FRANK MERRIWELL'S RIDE
Frank Merriwell was a natural horseman, and he had often taken pleasurein breaking some obstinate and vicious animal. At the same time he knewwell enough that a bucking broncho is about as much like an ordinaryunbroken horse as dynamite is like baking powder.
But he had encountered vicious horses in the West. He remembered how, onthe ranch of Miles Morgan, in Kansas, he had successfully ridden aman-killing stallion, to the unutterable astonishment of everybody aboutthe place.
From choice Frank would not have attempted to ride a bucker, but he wasaroused by the sneering words of Indian Charlie and the manner in whichthe coward had sought to make him the butt of ridicule.
"I'll ride the beast if I live!" Frank mentally vowed.
It was useless to try to dissuade him, as the cowboys soon found out.
When Inza learned what he meant to do, she came out and cautioned him,but she had the utmost confidence in his ability.
Sadie Rodney, however, did not think Frank could ride the broncho.
"Don't try it, Mr. Merriwell!" she entreated. "You will be killed!"
"I hardly think so," smiled Frank, quietly.
Four cowboys came leading Firebrand from the corral. The animal was avicious-looking creature, with an ugly cast in his eyes, and even as itwas brought forth, it made a desperate attempt to beat down one of themen with its forward hoofs, rearing into the air and striking withamazing quickness.
The cowboy dodged and escaped, but the broncho suddenly stopped, and nourging could induce it to stir another step.
Indian Charlie's metallic laugh rang out.
"The tenderfoot will do a fine job with that creature!" he cried. "Inever collared a hundred easier in all my life. Why, he won't be able tostay on Firebrand's back a second, if he ever gets there."
It was not possible to strap a saddle to the back of such a creaturewithout a fight, and it took six cowboys at least twenty minutes tosucceed in doing this.
Frank stood and watched this work, seeming not at all disturbed by thestruggle that was going on.
"The tenderfoot has confidence in himself," said one of the cowboys.
At last everything was ready for Frank to make the attempt to rideFirebrand. He flung aside his jacket, pulled his cap hard down on hishead, and advanced toward the animal.
"You'll have to make a jump fer ther saddle ef you ever expectto----Wa-al, dern me!"
Pecos Pete interrupted himself with the exclamation, for Frank wasmounted on the broncho before he could finish speaking.
"Let go!"
Merriwell's voice rang out clear and strong, and the cowboys broke awayin all directions, one of them barely escaping being struck by thewhistling heels of the animal.
Then, as if every muscle in him was of spring steel and he was run by afurnace, the broncho let himself loose. It was marvelous how he coulddouble himself up, shoot into the air, bounce, bound, rear and kick withsuch rapidity. It really was impossible to follow all his movements withthe eye. He squealed with fury. For thirty feet he shot ahead, and thenhe stopped as if turned to stone.
It did not seem possible that any living man could remain on thebroncho's back, and Frank was snapped about as if some of the movementswould break him in two or jerk his head off; but he retained his seat inthe saddle as if he had been fastened there and nothing could free himfrom it.
Firebrand stood on his forward feet and then stood on his hind feet. Hejumped into the air and humped his back five or six times in rapidsuccession. He jumped sideways, forward, backward, in all directions,but Frank refused to be dislodged.
A murmur of admiration came from the cowboys.
"Dern my eyes!" grunted Pecos Pete, his mouth wide open.
"He'll be thrown in a minute," declared Indian Charlie. "He can't staymuch longer."
"He will be killed!" cried Sadie Rodney, clinging to Inza's arm.
"He will not be harmed," said Inza, but her face was very pale and herhands were clasped.
Firebrand reared into the air, and, with a scream of fury, threw himselfon his back.
In some way Frank succeeded in dropping upon his feet, and he was in thesaddle again when the broncho arose.
That brought a shout of applause from the cowboys.
"He done it as well as I could!" cried Pecos Pete.
"That's whatever!" fluttered Hank Kildare. "Derned ef I don't believehe's goin' ter ride ther critter! Kin it be he is a tenderfoot?"
"Ef so, he's seen bronchos before."
"You bet!"
Indian Charlie was astonished as well as disgusted.
"Why that trick should have finished him!" he muttered. "He should havebeen killed by the fall!"
Barney Mulloy was near enough to catch the words.
"G'wan wid yez!" he cried. "Loightning can't kill thot b'y!"
The broncho was not satisfied by any means. If possible, it continuedits wild gyrations with renewed fury. It darted hither and thither, and,finally, made straight for the nearest corral in a blind manner.
"Look out! look out!" shouted several cowboys.
It seemed the furious animal meant to run straight into the corralfence, but it wheeled sideways and tried to rub Frank off. In thisattempt it was not successful, and, with a scream that was wilder thanany yet uttered, it again threw itself backward.
Then it was that Frank demonstrated that his escape on the previousoccasion had been no accident, for he alighted on his feet with quite asmuch skill as before, and was in the saddle again when Firebrand got up.
Bill Rodney waved his hat with one hand and the stake money with theother, uttering a genuine cowboy yell of delight.
"Why, he's a wonder--a howlin' wonder!" the admiring rancher shouted."Look out, Pecos Pete, for hyer's a chap what's mighty nigh your equal."
"That's right," nodded the broncho buster, generously; "but how ithappens is a sight more than I know!"
Miss Abigail, who had come from the house with the two girls, nodded herhead, her hard face softening.
"He is a wonderful young man," she said. "I do hope he will not beinjured, and I hope you'll be lucky enough to marry him, Inza. If youdon't--well, I'll marry him myself, and he's the first male critter Iever saw that I'd have!"
"I didn't think he could do it," confessed the rancher's daughter, hereyes glowing with admiration as she watched Frank struggling with thebroncho. "There are old cowboys who would not dare attempt to ride thatbeast."
"Frank never fails in anything he attempts," declared Inza, proudly.
Indian Charlie ground his teeth.
"Who'd dreamed the tenderfoot knew anything about riding such acreature?" he hissed, under his breath. "It is a miracle!"
Still he hoped some accident would happen to Frank.
But no accident occurred, and after five minutes of struggling Merrysprang from the back of the broncho, the creature being taken in chargeby several cowboys at once.
"I claim the stake money, Mr. Rodney," said Hodge.
"You can't have it!" came in a flash from the lips of the foreman of theLone Star.
"Can't?" asked Bart, in astonishment, as Charlie pushed forward. "How isthat? I do not understand, sir."
"You have not won it."
"Haven't? I think you are mistaken. Didn't you see----"
"I saw the fellow get on Firebrand's back and stay there a short time,but that was all."
"That was enough."
"He did not break the broncho."
"I didn't bet that he would. I bet he would ride any horse on the ranch,and he has done it. The money is mine."
"Pecos Pete would have broken the animal. Merriwell must do that beforethe money is yours."
"Not much," smiled Frank, who came up in time to overhear the man'swords. "I heard the terms of the wager, and Hodge wins. He bet I couldride the horse, and I will leave it to anybody present if I did not doso. I did not agree to break the creature, and I did not try. That'sall."
"You didn't ride long
enough."
"No time was stipulated. I will leave it to the men here if I did notride long enough to prove that I could ride the animal."
"Yes! yes! yes!" was the shout that went up.
"And I shall pay the money to Mr. Hodge," said Bill Rodney. "He won itall right, or Mr. Merriwell won it fer him."
He gave the money to Bart, and the cowboys cheered.
With an angry exclamation, Indian Charlie turned and walked away.
Frank Merriwell's Athletes; Or, The Boys Who Won Page 31