"He"ll be hunting leather about the fourth buck!"
"If he ain"t trying to make of himse"f one of them there Darius Green machines!" suggested another.
"Got any last words, Steve? Dead Easy most generally eats "em alive,"
d.i.c.k derided.
"Sho! Cayn"t you see he"s so plumb scared he cayn"t talk?"
Fraser grinned and continued to eat. When he had finished he got his lariat from the saddle, swung to Siegfried"s pony, and rode un.o.btrusively forward to the remuda. The horses were circling round and round, so that it was several minutes before he found a chance. When he did, the rope snaked forward and dropped over the head of the strawberry roan. The horse stood trembling, making not the least resistance, even while the ranger saddled and cinched.
But before the man settled to the saddle, the outlaw was off on its furious resistance. It went forward and up into the air with a plunging leap. The rider swung his hat and gave a joyous whoop. Next instant there was a scatter of laughing men as the horse came toward them in a series of short, stiff-legged bucks which would have jarred its rider like a pile driver falling on his head had he not let himself grow limp to meet the shock.
All the tricks of its kind this unbroken five-year-old knew. Weaving, pitching, sunfishing, it fought superbly, the while Steve rode with the consummate ease of a master. His sinuous form swayed instinctively to every changing motion of his mount. Even when it flung itself back in blind fury, he dropped lightly from the saddle and into it again as the animal struggled to its feet.
The cook waved a frying pan in frantic glee. "Hurra-ay! You"re the goods, all right, all right."
"You bet. Watch Steve fan him. And he ain"t pulled leather yet. Not once."
An unseen spectator was taking it in from the brow of a little hill crowned with a group of firs. She had reached this point just as the Texan had swung to the saddle, and she watched the battle between horse and man intently. If any had been there to see, he might have observed a strange fire smouldering in her eyes. For the first time there was filtering through her a vague suspicion of this man who claimed to have heart trouble, and had deliberately subjected himself to the terrific strain of such a test. She had seen broncho busters get off bleeding at mouth and nose and ears after a hard fight, and she had never seen a contest more superbly fought than this one. But full of courage as the horse was, it had met its master and began to know it.
The ranger"s quirt was going up and down, stinging Dead Easy to more violent exertions, if possible. But the outlaw had shot its bolt. The plunges grew less vicious, the bucks more feeble. It still pitched, because of the unbroken gameness that defied defeat, but so mechanically that the motions could be forecasted.
Then Steve began to soothe the brute. Somehow the wild creatute became aware that this man who was his master was also disposed to be friendly.
Presently it gave up the battle, quivering in every limb. Fraser slipped from the saddle, and putting his arm across its neck began to gentle the outlaw. The animal had always looked the incarnation of wickedness. The red eyes in its ill-shaped head were enough to give one bad dreams.
A quarter of an hour before, it had bit savagely at him. Now it stood breathing deep, and trembling while its master let his hand pa.s.s gently over the nose and neck with soft words that slowly won the pony back from the terror into which it had worked itself.
"You did well, Mr. Fraser from Texas," Jed complimented him, with a smile that thinly hid his malice. "But it won"t do to have you going back to Texas with the word that Wyoming is shy of riders. I ain"t any great shakes, but I reckon I"ll have to take a whirl at Rocking Horse."
He had decided to ride for two reasons. One was that he had glimpsed the girl among the firs; the other was to dissipate the admiration his rival had created among the men.
Briscoe lounged toward the remuda, rope in hand. It was his cue to get himself up picturesquely in all the paraphernalia of the cowboy.
Black-haired and white-toothed, lithe as a wolf, and endowed with a grace almost feline, it was easy to understand how this man appealed to the imagination of the reckless young fellows of this primeval valley.
Everything he did was done well. Furthermore, he looked and acted the part of leader which he a.s.sumed.
Rocking Horse was in a different mood from its brother. It was hard to rope, and when Jed"s raw-hide had fallen over its head it was necessary to reenforce the lariat with two others. Finally the pony had to be flung down before a saddle could be put on. When Siegfried, who had been kneeling on its head, stepped back, the outlaw staggered to its feet, already badly shaken, to find an incubus clamped to the saddle.
No matter how it pitched, the human clothespin stuck to his seat, and apparently with as little concern as if he had been in a rowboat gently moved to and fro by the waves. Jed rode like a centaur, every motion attuned to those of the animal as much as if he were a part of it. No matter how it pounded or tossed, he stuck securely to the hurricane deck of the broncho.
Once only he was in danger, and that because Rocking Horse flung furiously against the wheel of a wagon and ground the rider"s leg till he grew dizzy with the pain. For an instant he caught at the saddle horn to steady himself as the roan bucked into the open again.
"He"s pulling leather!" some one shouted.
"Shut up, you goat!" advised the Texan good-naturedly. "Can"t you see his laig got jammed till he"s groggy? Wonder is, he didn"t take the dust! They don"t raise better riders than he is."
"By hockey! He"s all in. Look out! Jed"s falling," France cried, running forward.
It looked so for a moment, then Jed swam back to clear consciousness again, and waved them back. He began to use his quirt without mercy.
"Might know he"d game it out," remarked Yorky.
He did. It was a long fight, and the horse was flecked with b.l.o.o.d.y foam before its spirit and strength failed. But the man in the saddle kept his seat till the victory was won.
Steve was on the spot to join heartily the murmur of applause, for he was too good a sportsman to grudge admiration even to his enemy.
"You"re the one best bet in riders, Mr. Briscoe. It"s a pleasure to watch you," he said frankly.
Jed"s narrowed eyes drifted to him. "Oh, h.e.l.l!" he drawled with insolent contempt, and turned on his heel.
From the clump of firs a young woman was descending, and Jed went to meet her.
"You rode splendidly," she told him with vivid eyes. "Were you hurt when you were jammed again the wagon? I mean, does it still hurt?" For she noticed that he walked with a limp.
"I reckon I can stand the grief without an amputation. Arlie, I got something to tell you."
She looked at him in her direct fashion and waited.
"It"s about your new friend." He drew from a pocket some leaves torn out of a magazine. His finger indicated a picture. "Ever see that gentleman before?"
The girl looked at it coolly. "It seems to be Mr. Fraser taken in his uniform; Lieutenant Fraser, I should say."
The cattleman"s face fell. "You know, then, who he is, and what he"s doing here."
Without evasion, her gaze met his. "I understood him to say he was an officer in the Texas Rangers. You know why he is here."
"You"re right, I do. But do you?"
"Well, what is it you mean? Out with it, Jed," she demanded impatiently.
"He is here to get a man wanted in Texas, a man hiding in this valley right now."
"I don"t believe it," she returned quickly. "And if he is, that"s not your business or mine. It"s his duty, isn"t it?"
"I ain"t discussing that. You know the law of the valley, Arlie."
"I don"t accept that as binding, Jed. Lots of people here don"t. Because Lost Valley used to be a nest of miscreants, it needn"t always be. I don"t see what right we"ve got to set ourselves above the law."
"This valley has always stood by hunted men when they reached it. That"s our custom, and I mean to stick to it."
"Very well. I hold you to that," she answered quickly. "This man Fraser is a hunted man. He"s hunted because of what he did for me and dad. I claim the protection of the valley for him."
"He can have it--if he"s what he says he is. But why ain"t he been square with us? Why didn"t he tell who he was?"
"He told me."
"That ain"t enough, Arlie. If he did, you kept it quiet. We all had a right to know."
"If you had asked him, he would have told you."
"I ain"t so sure he would. Anyhow, I don"t like it. I believe he is here to get the man I told you of. Mebbe that ain"t all."