As he carried her along, Stevie caught an upside-down glimpse of the girls’ own horses, who were still tied up down the street at the sheriff’s office. While Berry, Chocolate, Spot, and Arrow looked fairly uninterested in the drama unfolding before them, Stewball had his head up and seemed to be staring right at Stevie.
But Stevie barely had time to register the fact before she was distracted by Lisa’s dramatic escape. Lisa wriggled her way out of her captor’s grasp and dashed down the sidewalk, almost tripping over Carole’s limp form as she did so. She ran past the jail and made her escape into the sheriff’s office just beyond it, shrieking all the while.
At almost the same time, Christine was wrestling the gun away from the outlaw who had grabbed her. As she got it away from him and pointed it at his head, the crowd cheered excitedly. Christine really played it up, making the robber put his hands behind his head and jabbing the gun at his back as she prodded him toward the jail. The onlookers cheered again as the two of them disappeared through the jail entrance.
Stevie watched it all with relish as she continued to scream and struggle to get away. She was having the time of her life, and she could tell the others were, too. Her only concern was for Stewball, of whom she caught glimpses every so often. He was still watching the action, and now he was snorting and stomping, seeming uneasy and restless. Stevie wondered if the gunshots were spooking him. She was a little worried, but she forced herself to put the thought out of her mind. There was nothing she could do about it right now.
“This is great!” she whispered to Sam between screams.
“Quiet, you rock-candy-eatin’ varmint, you,” he replied. He lifted her down, set her on her feet, and grabbed her by the shoulder. Stevie could see Kate and Chuck nearby. They were almost to the part where Chuck and Sam mounted their horses and began their escape. “Okay, now, I’m tellin’ you that if you make one false move, you’re dead,” Sam growled to Stevie. “So if I was you, I’d let out one mighty powerful scream just about now.”
Obediently, Stevie opened her mouth and let out her most bloodcurdling shriek. Just then, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Stewball again. And this time he wasn’t just watching. He whinnied and reared, snapping the lead holding him to the hitching post. He reared again and then, apparently realizing he was free, he galloped straight toward her!
STEVIE WASN’T SURE what to do as Stewball galloped toward her. Apparently Sam wasn’t, either. “What’s that crazy horse doing?” he whispered as he grabbed Stevie around the waist with one arm and backed quickly away from Stewball. Stevie tried to shrug in reply, but she discovered that was a difficult thing to do while being carried with both arms pinned to her side.
Stewball stopped in front of them and reared again, neighing and squealing loudly while pawing the air with his front hooves. Stevie thought he looked very dramatic. And suddenly it occurred to her what he must be doing—Stewball was trying to rescue her!
Stevie glanced around quickly. Chuck was standing beside his own horse, his gun held loosely in one hand and his other arm encircling Kate’s throat. Both of them were watching Stewball, wide-eyed. Stevie glanced at Carole, who was still lying on the sidewalk. She thought she saw one of Carole’s eyes open to peek at what was going on. Nobody seemed to know how to respond as Stewball finished rearing and started pawing at the ground again, snorting threateningly.
Stevie quickly came to a decision. If Stewball was determined to become a part of this performance, she was going to let him! Of course she’d have to deviate from the script, but after all, wasn’t that what great acting was about—improvisation?
She wriggled out of Sam’s grip. The minute she was free, Stewball stopped snorting and stood perfectly still. Sam, meanwhile, had turned to run in the opposite direction. Stevie quickly tightened the girth on Stewball’s saddle, hitched up her skirt, and leaped aboard, thankful that she’d left her jeans on underneath the dress. Without any direction from her, Stewball took off after Sam. The crowd went wild.
Now Stevie couldn’t stop herself from grinning just a little. She had always known Stewball had a mind of his own, but she hadn’t realized just how smart he really was.
The audience continued to cheer and holler as Stewball chased Sam down the street. Sam searched desperately for someplace to hide, but every time he veered toward the sidewalk, Stewball was there before him, herding him as well as he would any recalcitrant calf. Stevie let out a whoop, and the crowd whooped back. “Go, Stewball,” Stevie whispered. “You’re stealing the show!”
Just then she noticed the actors playing the sheriff and his posse. They were positioned at the end of the street ready to make their entrance, looking very confused and a little annoyed. Stevie glanced up and saw the man who played the sheriff’s deputy peering down from his rooftop perch across the street. She felt guilty about upstaging them right before their exciting entrance, but only for a second. She was having too much fun to worry about it for any longer than that.
Sam had reached the horses in front of the bank. He approached Spot and tried to mount him, not realizing his girth had been loosened. The big Western saddle slipped sideways under Sam’s weight and dumped him back on the ground. Spot looked around as if wondering what was going on. The crowd roared with laughter, but Stevie noticed that Sam didn’t look very amused. She decided he was probably just a good actor.
“Get ’im, Stewball!” she shouted, ripping off her bonnet and waving it above her head as if it were a cowboy hat. Stewball leaped forward obediently, and Sam looked around for another escape.
He headed for the stand of trees just beyond the hitching post. There weren’t many trees in Two Mile Creek, since it was a desert town—just a few scattered here and there for shade. “He’s lucky that isn’t a cactus,” Stevie remarked to Stewball as Sam shinnied up the trunk and perched on one of the lower branches.
Stewball replied by rushing up to the tree and rearing, as if trying to follow Sam up there. Stevie suspected that he looked pretty threatening to the crowd—and she could tell by the look on Sam’s face that Stewball definitely looked threatening to him!
Luckily Stevie was a skilled enough rider to stay in the saddle while her horse reared. “Okay, Stewball,” she said firmly, trying to calm the excited horse with her legs and her voice. “I think you made your point. We’ll let the sheriff take it from here.”
But Stewball paid no attention to her. He continued to rear.
“Get that beast under control, will you?” Sam hissed. Stevie thought he sounded more frightened than he should be.
“Don’t worry, he won’t hurt you,” she called up to Sam. “He’s just overexcited.” She knew she was breaking character, but she decided that at this point it was necessary. She was sure that Stewball would calm down as soon as Sam did, but Sam didn’t look as though he were about to calm down anytime soon.
Sam was shaking his head. “That horse is a demon. A real demon,” he said. “Get him away!”
“He won’t hurt you, really,” Stevie repeated. “He just wants to be friends. I’m sure if you just climb down slowly …”
“No way!” Sam cried. “I’m not coming anywhere near that crazy horse! He’ll kill me!”
From the murmurings from the crowd, Stevie could tell they agreed with Sam. She wondered desperately what she should do. Suddenly the perfect solution came to her. “Hey, Sam,” she called up to him. “Do you still have that rock candy in your pocket?”
For a moment Sam looked confused. Then a look of understanding dawned on his face. He reached into his pocket, pulled out the candy, and leaned down to offer it to Stewball.
The horse sniffed, then carefully reached up and took the candy right out of Sam’s hand. Munching contentedly, he backed away from the tree and stood still. Sam climbed down from the tree and cautiously stepped toward Stewball. Stewball strolled forward and began nosing Sam’s pockets, begging for more candy. Stevie dismounted and gave him some of hers.
The crowd had been laugh
ing hysterically throughout the last part of Stewball’s performance, loving every minute of it. Now they burst into wild applause. Stewball turned to see what all the noise was and bobbed his head as if taking a bow. That made everyone clap even harder.
Finally Sam returned to the bank and the show continued. Stevie took Stewball back to his place with the other horses and watched from there as the performers picked up the show at the spot where Stewball had interrupted it. But somehow even the deputy’s fall from the roof and the gun battle with the posse seemed like a letdown after Stevie and Stewball’s performance. The crowd applauded politely when it was all over, but it was nothing like the response Stevie and Stewball had gotten.
“Didn’t I tell you, Stewball?” Stevie whispered, rubbing the horse’s nose affectionately. “You really stole the show!”
THE GIRLS WERE not asked to repeat their performance at the late show. In fact, they were politely but firmly asked not to repeat it.
“Well, I for one thought you and Stewball were great,” Kate told Stevie as the girls walked toward the high school to turn in their costumes.
“Stewball was pretty great, wasn’t he?” Stevie said. “I always suspected he was the smartest horse I’d ever met, and now I know it for a fact. What other horse would have come galloping to my rescue that way?” She shook her head, chuckling at the memory. “I don’t care if he did upset the show a little. He only had my best interests at heart. Besides, I thought his performance was pretty entertaining—scripted or not!”
“Me too,” Carole said. “I can’t understand why Chuck was so annoyed.”
“I can’t either,” Christine agreed. “That’s the best audience response that show has ever gotten. I would think he’d want to sign you and Stewball on permanently.”
“Oh, well,” Stevie said philosophically. “At least it means I won’t have to wear this ridiculous dress any longer.”
“True. And it also means we can start planning our wilderness camp-out right away,” Christine pointed out.
They did just that as they reached the high school and changed back into their normal clothes. As they started back toward the main street to pick up the horses, they were deep in a discussion about whether to bring hamburgers or hot dogs to cook over their campfire. Stevie was enthusiastically supporting the idea of bringing both hamburgers and hot dogs when she heard a young voice shriek, “There she is! It’s the funny cowboy lady!”
The girls turned to see a group of tourists approaching, led by a little girl about five years old. She rushed over to Stevie and stopped, gazing up at her with adoring eyes.
“Looks like you made yourself a fan, Stevie,” Christine commented with a chuckle.
“I loved your show,” the little girl told Stevie breathlessly. “Your horse was so funny.”
“It sounds like Stewball’s the one with the fan,” Stevie told Christine. Then she bent down to look the little girl in the eye. “I’m glad you liked it. I’ll tell Stewball—that’s my horse’s name—that you said so, too.”
Just then the little girl’s family reached them. “Sorry, I hope Susie isn’t bothering you,” said a young man who appeared to be Susie’s father.
“She just went crazy for the show this afternoon,” added the woman at his side. “When she recognized you, well, I guess she just had to meet you.”
Stevie waved away the apologies with a grin. “It’s no bother at all,” she assured the young couple. “I just wish my horse was here to meet his fan.”
“Where did you get your horse?” Susie asked. “I wish I had a horse. I want a smart, funny one just like yours, with spots and everything.”
“Well, Stewball isn’t really my horse,” Stevie explained. “He belongs to my friend Kate’s parents. But they let me ride him whenever I visit, and I love him just as much as if he were really mine. I actually live in Virginia.”
“I live in California,” Susie said solemnly. “But I wish I lived here, so I could watch the cowboy show every day.”
Stevie chatted with her new friend for a few more minutes, until the little girl was dragged away by her parents. As The Saddle Club continued on their way, Stevie’s friends began to tease her a little about her new celebrity status, but they had hardly begun before another group of tourists stopped them to congratulate Stevie on her act.
After that it seemed that Stevie could hardly take two steps before being accosted by more of her adoring fans. Carole noticed that by the third or fourth time, Stevie had stopped explaining that Stewball wasn’t really her horse. In fact, Stevie started inventing some pretty tall tales about him—including one in which she and Stewball had met when he had rescued her from a pack of coyotes in the desert. Carole and the others just rolled their eyes at that one and kept quiet.
“He really is the most wonderful horse in the world,” she told the group of college students who had stopped to talk to her. “I’d be happy if I never rode another horse in my life besides my Stewball.”
Carole raised her eyebrows—was she imagining things, or did Stevie sound as if she had really meant that?
“Hey, you guys,” Stevie said as they reached the main street. “Can we stop in the candy store again for a second?”
“Is your sweet tooth acting up again?” Carole teased. “All that rock candy you ate today wasn’t enough?”
“Actually,” Stevie replied, “I want to get a little bit more as a special treat for Stewball. After all, he does deserve star treatment after the way he rescued me today, don’t you think?”
“You know, Stevie, now that you mention it, maybe the rock candy was the reason for the ‘rescue’ all along,” Kate said. “He’s got almost as much of a sweet tooth as you do. It’s possible he was just after the sugar in your pocket this afternoon. You saw how he acted with Sam.”
Stevie shook her head firmly. “No way. It’s like I said before—Stewball saw that I was in danger and he wanted to help me. He probably just realized that Sam was my friend when he smelled the rock candy he had in his pocket, and that’s why he calmed down.”
Carole thought that sounded a little far-fetched, but she decided to keep quiet about it. After all, she wasn’t entirely convinced that Kate’s theory was right, either—it really had looked as though Stewball had had more than rock candy on his mind when he went after Sam.
“Well, whatever he was thinking, I think we can all agree that Stewball is quite a horse,” Carole commented.
Stevie nodded her head vigorously. “That’s for sure,” she said. “He’s my hero!” With that she opened the candy-store door and marched in to buy Stewball’s reward.
“I CAN’T WAIT,” Carole told her friends eagerly. “I’ve been dreaming for days about going on another one of those wonderful desert rides.” It was the next morning and the girls were eating breakfast. As soon as they were finished, they planned to saddle up their horses for a nice long trail ride.
“Me, too,” Lisa said. She nudged Stevie. “I bet you can’t wait to ride your hero Stewball again either, huh?”
“Mm-hmm,” Stevie murmured distractedly, stirring her oatmeal.
“Hey, Stevie, have you heard a word we’ve said?” Carole asked. Stevie had been quiet all morning. “Earth to Stevie!”
“I hear you,” Stevie said. “I just have something on my mind, that’s all. Don’t worry, it’s not a bad something,” she hastened to add. “In fact, it’s a downright wonderful something.”
“Would you care to share that something with us?” Lisa asked dryly.
“Not just yet,” Stevie replied mysteriously. “I want to wait until the time is right.” She grinned and started humming a little tune.
Carole raised her eyebrows at Lisa and Kate. They shrugged, as mystified by Stevie’s odd behavior as Carole was. Still, they all knew how difficult it was to pry a secret out of Stevie before she was ready to share it. Besides, they had plenty of other things to think about at the moment.
“Anyway, I can’t wait to start our ride,” Carole
said, with one more curious glance at Stevie. “And the weather couldn’t be more perfect.”
Lisa nodded. “It’s too bad Christine couldn’t come.”
“I know,” Kate said. Christine and her parents were going to visit some relatives that day. Kate smiled. “But the important thing is she’ll be here for the big camp-out tomorrow.” The others couldn’t argue with that!
WHEN THEY REACHED the barn half an hour later, John Brightstar was there to help them saddle up, as usual. “Want some help with that saddle, Lisa? It’s heavy,” he said, seeing her coming out of the tack room with Chocolate’s bridle slung over one shoulder and her saddle in her arms.
Even though a Western saddle was larger and heavier than the Eastern ones she was used to, Lisa was perfectly capable of carrying Chocolate’s saddle herself. But she knew that if she let John help her, it would give her an opportunity to talk with him some more, so she let him take the saddle from her. As she followed him out of the barn toward the corral, she thought she saw Stevie, Carole, and Kate exchange an amused glance. Her friends would probably tease her about this later on.
Lisa watched while John set the saddle on the fence and then went to bring Chocolate out of the small herd in the corral. The obedient mare gave him no trouble, and soon John and Lisa were busy saddling her up together. A moment later Carole, Kate, and Stevie joined them in the corral and began saddling up their own horses.
While Lisa and John worked on Chocolate, they talked. Lisa asked him what he had to do to get ready for the auction.
“I’m glad you asked,” John replied quickly. “I was going to ask you if you’d be interested in seeing some of the preparations firsthand.”
“Sure,” Lisa said. “Like what?”
John leaned over to tighten Chocolate’s girth. Then he straightened up and looked at Lisa over the mare’s back. “I thought I’d teach you a little about cutting,” he said.
Horse Tale Page 4