by Max Brand
CHAPTER IV
SOMETHING YELLOW
The crowd laughed again at the excitement of Morgan, and Silent'smirth particularly was loud and long.
"An' if you're still bent on charity," he said at last, "maybe wecould find somethin' else to lay a bet on!"
"Anything you name!" said Morgan hotly.
"I suppose," said Silent, "that you're some rider, eh?"
"I c'n get by with most of 'em."
"Yeh--I suppose you never pulled leather in your life?"
"Not any hoss that another man could ride straight up."
"Is that so? Well, partner, you see that roan over there?"
"That tall horse?"
"You got him. You c'n win back that hundred if you stick on his backtwo minutes. D'you take it?"
Morgan hesitated a moment. The big roan was footing it nervously hereand there, sometimes throwing up his head suddenly after the manner ofa horse of bad temper. However, the loss of that hundred dollars andthe humiliation which accompanied it, weighed heavily on the saloonowner's mind.
"I'll take you," he said.
A high, thrilling whistle came faintly from the distance.
"That fellow on the black horse down the road," said Lee Haines, "Iguess he's the one that can hit the four dollars? Ha! ha! ha!"
"Sure," grinned Silent, "listen to his whistle! We'll see if we candrag another bet out of the bar-keep if the roan doesn't hurt him toobad. Look at him now!"
Morgan was having a bad time getting his foot in the stirrup, forthe roan reared and plunged. Finally two men held his head and thesaloon-keeper swung into the saddle. There was a little silence. Theroan, as if doubtful that he could really have this new burden on hisback, and still fearful of the rope which had been lately tetheringhim, went a few short, prancing steps, and then, feeling somethingakin to freedom, reared straight up, snorting. The crowd yelled withdelight, and the sound sent the roan back to all fours and racing downthe road. He stopped with braced feet, and Morgan lurched forwards onthe neck, yet he struck to his seat gamely. Whistling Dan was not ahundred yards away.
Morgan yelled and swung the quirt. The response of the roan wasanother race down the road at terrific speed, despite the pull ofMorgan on the reins. Just as the running horse reached Whistling Dan,he stopped as short as he had done before, but this time with an addedbuck and a sidewise lurch all combined, which gave the effect ofsnapping a whip--and poor Morgan was hurled from the saddle likea stone from a sling. The crowd waved their hats and yelled withdelight.
"Look out!" yelled Jim Silent. "Grab the reins!"
But though Morgan made a valiant effort the roan easily swerved pasthim and went racing down the road.
"My God," groaned Silent, "he's gone!"
"Saddles!" called someone. "We'll catch him!"
"Catch hell!" answered Silent bitterly. "There ain't a hoss on earththat can catch him--an' now that he ain't got the weight of a rider,he'll run away from the wind!"
"Anyway there goes Dan on Satan after him!"
"No use! The roan ain't carryin' a thing but the saddle."
"Satan never seen the day he could make the roan eat dust, anyway!"
"Look at 'em go, boys!"
"There ain't no use," said Jim Silent sadly, "he'll wind his black fornothin'--an' I've lost the best hoss on the ranges."
"I believe him," whispered one man to a neighbour, "because I've gotan idea that hoss is Red Peter himself!"
His companion stared at him agape.
"Red Pete!" he said. "Why, pal, that's the hoss that Silent--"
"Maybe it is an' maybe it ain't. But why should we ask too manyquestions?"
"Let the marshals tend to him. He ain't ever troubled this part of therange."
"Anyway, I'm goin' to remember his face. If it's really Jim Silent, Igot something that's worth tellin' to my kids when they grow up."
They both turned and looked at the tall man with an uncomfortable awe.The rest of the crowd swarmed into the road to watch the race.
The black stallion was handicapped many yards at the start before Dancould swing him around after the roan darted past with poor Morgan inludicrous pursuit. Moreover, the roan had the inestimable advantageof an empty saddle. Yet Satan leaned to his work with a stout heart.There was no rock and pitch to his gait, no jerk and labour to hisstrides. Those smooth shoulders were corded now with a thousand lineswhere the steel muscles whipped to and fro. His neck stretched outa little--his ears laid back along the neck--his whole body settledgradually and continually down as his stride lengthened. Whistling Danwas leaning forward so that his body would break less wind. He laughedlow and soft as the air whirred into his face, and now and then hespoke to his horse, no yell of encouragement, but a sound hardlylouder than a whisper. There was no longer a horse and rider--the twohad become one creature--a centaur--the body of a horse and the mindof a man.
For a time the roan increased his advantage, but quickly Satan beganto hold him even, and then gain. First inch by inch; then at everystride the distance between them diminished. No easy task. The greatroan had muscle, heart, and that empty saddle; as well, perhaps, as athought of the free ranges which lay before him and liberty from theaccursed thraldom of the bit and reins and galling spurs. What helacked was that small whispering voice--that hand touching lightly nowand then on his neck--that thrill of generous sympathy which passesbetween horse and rider. He lost ground steadily and more and morerapidly. Now the outstretched black head was at his tail, now at hisflank, now at his girth, now at his shoulder, now they raced nose andnose. Whistling Dan shifted in the saddle. His left foot took theopposite stirrup. His right leg swung free.
The big roan swerved--the black in response to a word from his riderfollowed the motion--and then the miracle happened. A shadow plungedthrough the air; a weight thudded on the saddle of the roan; an ironhand jerked back the reins.
Red Pete hated men and feared them, but this new weight on his backwas different. It was not the pressure on the reins which urged him toslow up; he had the bit in his teeth and no human hand could pull downhis head; but into the blind love, blind terror, blind rage whichmakes up the consciousness of a horse entered a force which he hadnever known before. He realized suddenly that it was folly to attemptto throw off this clinging burden. He might as well try to jump out ofhis skin. His racing stride shortened to a halting gallop, this to asharp trot, and in a moment more he was turned and headed back forMorgan's place. The black, who had followed, turned at the same timelike a dog and followed with jouncing bridle reins. Black Bart, withlolling red tongue, ran under his head, looking up to the stallion nowand again with a comical air of proprietorship, as if he were showingthe way.
It was very strange to Red Pete. He pranced sideways a little andshook his head up and down in an effort to regain his former temper,but that iron hand kept his nose down, now, and that quiet voicesounded above him--no cursing, no raking of sharp spurs to torture histender flanks, no whir of the quirt, but a calm voice of authority andunderstanding. Red Pete broke into an easy canter and in this fashionthey came up to Morgan in the road. Red Pete snorted and started toshy, for he recognized the clumsy, bouncing weight which had insultedhis back not long before; but this quiet voiced master reassured him,and he came to a halt.
"That red devil has cost me a hundred bones and all the skin on myknees," groaned Morgan, "and I can hardly walk. Damn his eyes. Butsay, Dan"--and his eyes glowed with an admiration which made himmomentarily forget his pains--"that was some circus stunt you donedown the road there--that changin' of saddles on the run, I never seenthe equal of it!"
"If you got hurt in the fall," said Dan quietly, overlooking thelatter part of the speech, "why don't you climb onto Satan. He'll takeyou back."
Morgan laughed.
"Say, kid, I'd take a chance with Satan, but there ain't any hospitalfor fools handy."
"Go ahead. He won't stir a foot. Steady, Satan!"
"All right," said Morgan, "every step is sure like pullin'
teeth!"
He ventured closer to the black stallion, but was stopped short. BlackBart was suddenly changed to a green-eyed devil, his hair bristlingaround his shoulders, his teeth bared, and a snarl that came from theheart of a killer. Satan also greeted his proposed rider with earslaid flat back on his neck and a quivering anger.
"If I'm goin' to ride Satan," declared Morgan, "I got to shoot the dogfirst and then blindfold the hoss."
"No you don't," said Dan. "No one else has ever had a seat on Satan,but I got an idea he'll make an exception for a sort of temporarycripple. Steady, boy. Here you, Bart, come over here an' keep yourface shut!"
The dog, after a glance at his master, moved reluctantly away, keepinghis eyes upon Morgan. Satan backed away with a snort. He stopped atthe command of Dan, but when Morgan laid a hand on the bridle andspoke to him he trembled with fear and anger. The saloon-keeper turnedaway.
"Thankin' you jest the same, Dan," he said, "I think I c'n walk back.I'd as soon ride a tame tornado as that hoss."
He limped on down the road with Dan riding beside him. Black Bartslunk at his heels, sniffing.
"Dan, I'm goin' to ask you a favour--an' a big one; will you do it forme?"
"Sure," said Whistling Dan. "Anything I can."
"There's a skunk down there with a bad eye an' a gun that jumps outof its leather like it had a mind of its own. He picked me for fiftybucks by nailing a dollar I tossed up at twenty yards. Then he gets ahundred because I couldn't ride this hoss of his. Which he's made aplumb fool of me, Dan. Now I was tellin' him about you--maybe I wassort of exaggeratin'--an' I said you could have your back turned whenthe coins was tossed an' then pick off four dollars before they hitthe ground. I made it a bit high, Dan?"
His eyes were wistful.
"Nick four round boys before they hit the dust?" said Dan. "Maybe Icould, I don't know. I can't try it, anyway, Morgan, because I toldDad Cumberland I'd never pull a gun while there was a crowd aroun'."
Morgan sighed; he hesitated, and then: "But you promised you'd do me afavour, Dan?"
The rider started.
"I forgot about that--I didn't think----"
"It's only to do a shootin' trick," said Morgan eagerly. "It ain'tpullin' a gun on any one. Why, lad, if you'll tell me you got a ghostof a chance, I'll bet every cent in my cash drawer on you agin thatskunk! You've give me your word, Dan."
Whistling Dan shrugged his shoulders.
"I've given you my word," he said, "an' I'll do it. But I guess DadCumberland'll be mighty sore on me."
A laugh rose from the crowd at Morgan's place, which they were nearingrapidly. It was like a mocking comment on Dan's speech. As they camecloser they could see money changing hands in all directions.
"What'd you do to my hoss?" asked Jim Silent, walking out to meetthem.
"He hypnotized him," said Hal Purvis, and his lips twisted over yellowteeth into a grin of satisfaction.
"Git out of the saddle damn quick," growled Silent. "It ain't nacheralhe'd let you ride him like he was a plough-hoss. An' if you've triedany fancy stunts, I'll----"
"Take it easy," said Purvis as Dan slipped from the saddle withoutshowing the slightest anger. "Take it easy. You're a bum loser. WhenI seen the black settle down to his work," he explained to Dan withanother grin, "I knowed he'd nail him in the end an' I staked twentyon you agin my friend here! That was sure a slick change of hosses youmade."
There were other losers. Money chinked on all sides to anaccompaniment of laughter and curses. Jim Silent was examining theroan with a scowl, while Bill Kilduff and Hal Purvis approached Satanto look over his points. Purvis reached out towards the bridle when amurderous snarl at his feet made him jump back with a shout. He stoodwith his gun poised, facing Black Bart.
"Who's got any money to bet this damn wolf lives more'n five seconds?"he said savagely.
"I have," said Dan.
"Who in hell are you? What d'you mean by trailing this man-killeraround?"
He turned to Dan with his gun still poised.
"Bart ain't a killer," said Dan, and the gentleness of his voice wasoil on troubled waters, "but he gets peeved when a stranger comes nighto the hoss."
"All right this time," said Purvis, slowly restoring his gun to itsholster, "but if this wolf of yours looks cross-eyed at me agin he'llhit the long trail that ain't got any end, savvy?"
"Sure," said Dan, and his soft brown eyes smiled placatingly.
Purvis kept his right hand close to the butt of his gun and his eyesglinted as if he expected an answer somewhat stronger than words.At this mild acquiesence he turned away, sneering. Silent, havingdiscovered that he could find no fault with Dan's treatment of hishorse, now approached with an ominously thin-lipped smile. Lee Hainesread his face and came to his side with a whisper: "Better cut out therough stuff, Jim. This chap hasn't hurt anything but your cash, andhe's already taken water from Purvis. I guess there's no call for youto make any play."
"Shut your face, Haines," responded Silent, in the same tone. "He'smade a fool of me by showin' up my hoss, an' by God I'm goin' to givehim a man-handlin' he'll never forgit."
He whirled on Morgan.
"How about it, bar-keep, is this the dead shot you was spillin' somany words about?"
Dan, as if he could not understand the broad insult, merely smiled athim with marvellous good nature.
"Keep away from him, stranger," warned Morgan. "Jest because he rodeyour hoss you ain't got a cause to hunt trouble with him. He's beentaught not to fight."
Silent, still looking Dan over with insolent eyes, replied: "He suresticks to his daddy's lessons. Nice an' quiet an' house broke, ain'the? In my part of the country they dress this kind of a man in gal'sclothes so's nobody'll ever get sore at him an' spoil his pretty face.Better go home to your ma. This ain't any place for you. They's menaroun' here."
There was another one of those grimly expectant hushes and then ageneral guffaw; Dan showed no inclination to take offence. He merelystared at brawny Jim Silent with a sort of childlike wonder.
"All right," he said meekly, "if I ain't wanted around here I figgerthere ain't any cause why I should stay. You don't figger to be peevedat me, do you?"
The laughter changed to a veritable yell of delight. Even Silentsmiled with careless contempt.
"No, kid," he answered, "if I was peeved at you, you'd learn itwithout askin' questions."
He turned slowly away.
"Maybe I got jaundice, boys," he said to the crowd, "but it seems tome I see something kind of yellow around here!"
The delightful subtlety of this remark roused another side-shakingburst of merriment. Dan shook his head as if the mystery were beyondhis comprehension, and looked to Morgan for an explanation. Thesaloon-keeper approached him, struggling with a grin.
"It's all right, Dan," he said. "Don't let 'em rile you."
"You ain't got any cause to fear that," said Silent, "because it can'tbe done."