The enormity of this lack made Tod stare, for travel and horses were inseparably connected in his mind. He shuddered a little at the thought of the big man stalking across the burning and interminable sands of the desert or toiling through the mountains. It seemed to him that he could see the signs of that pain stamped in the face of Bull Hunter, and his heart leaped again in sympathy.
"So when I saw Diablo--" Bull paused. But Tod had understood. Suddenly the boy became excited.
"Suppose you was to learn to ride Diablo before Hal Dunbar come to try him out? Suppose that?"
"Could you teach me?" the giant asked in an almost awed whisper.
The child looked over his companion with a vague wonder. It would be a tremendous responsibility, this teaching of the giant, but what could be more spectacular than to have such a man as his pupil? But to share his unique empire over Diablo--that would be a great price to pay!
"No," he decided, "it wouldn"t do. Besides, suppose even I _could_ teach you how to ride Diablo--with a saddle, which I don"t think I could--what would happen when Hal Dunbar come up to these parts and found that the hoss he wanted was somebody else"s? He"d make an awful fuss--and he"s a fighting man, Bull."
He said this impressively, leaning a little toward the giant, and he was rewarded infinitely by seeing the right hand of the giant stir a little toward the holster at his thigh.
"I guess I"d have to take my chance with him," was all Bull answered in his mildest tone.
Tod was beginning to guess that there was a certain amount of mental strength under this quiet exterior. He had often noted that his father, who made by far the most noise, was more easily placated than his mother, in spite of her gentle silences. The strength of Bull Hunter had a strain of the same thing about it.
"You"d take a chance with Hal Dunbar?" he repeated wonderingly. He trembled a little, with a sort of nervous ecstasy at the thought of that coming encounter. "That"s more"n anybody else in these parts would do. Why, everybody"s heard about Hal Dunbar. Everybody"s scared of him. He can ride anything that"s big enough to carry him; he can fight like a wildcat with his hands; and he can shoot like"--his eye wandered toward a superlative--"like Pete Reeve, almost," he concluded with a tone of awe.
A spark of tenderness shone in the eye of Bull. "D"you know Pete Reeve?"
"No, and I don"t want to. Ma had a brother once, and he met up with Pete Reeve."
A tragedy was inferred in that oblique reference. Bull decided that this was a conversational topic on which he must remain silent, and yet he yearned to speak of the little withered catlike fellow with the wise brain who had done so much for him.
"When I"m big enough," mused the boy with a quiet savagery, "maybe I"ll meet up with Pete Reeve."
Bull switched the talk to a more comfortable topic. "But how"d you make a start with that man-eating Diablo?"
Tod studied, the question. "I got a way with hosses, you see," he began modestly.
He played two brown fingers in his mouth and sent out a shrilling whistle that was answered immediately by a whinny, and a little chestnut gelding, sun-faded to a sand color nearly, cantered into view around the corner of a shed and approached them. He came to a pause nearby, and having studied Bull Hunter with large, unafraid, curious eyes for a moment, began to nibble impertinently at the ragged hat brim of the child.
"Git away!" exclaimed Tod, and when the chestnut made no move to go, the brown fist flashed up at the reaching head. But the head was jerked away with a motion of catlike deftness.
"He"s a terrible bother, Crackajack is," said the boy angrily, and from the corner of his eye he stole a glance of unspeakable pride at the big man.
"He"s a beauty," exclaimed Bull Hunter. "A regular beauty!"
For Crackajack combined the toughness of a mustang and the lean, strong running lines of a thoroughbred in miniature. His legs were as delicately made as the legs of a deer; his head was a little model of impish intelligence and beauty.
"You and Crackajack are pals," said Bull. "I guess that"s what you are!"
"We get on tolerable well," admitted the boy, whose heart was full with this praise of his pet.
Bull continued on the agreeable topic. "And I"ll bet he"s fast, too.
He looks like speed to me!"
"Maybe you don"t know hosses, but you sure got hoss sense." Tod chuckled. "Most folks take Crackajack for a toy pony. He ain"t. I"ve seen him carry a full-grown man all day and keep up with the best of "em. He don"t mind the weight of me no more"n if I was a feather. He"s fast, he"s tough, and he knows more"n a hoss should know, you might say!"
He changed his voice, and a brief command made Crackajack give up his teasing and retreat. Bull watched the exquisite little creature go, with a smile of pleasure. He did not know it, but that smile unlocked the last door to Tod"s heart.
"He was pretty near as wild as Diablo when I first got him," said the boy. "And mean--say, he"d been kicked around all his life. But I fatted him up in the barn, and he got so"s he"d follow me around. And now he runs loose like a dog and comes when I whistle. He knows more things than you could shake a stick at, Crackajack does." "I"ll bet he does," said Bull with shining eyes.
"Say," said the boy suddenly, "I"m going to tell you about the way I worked with Diablo."
"I"ll take that mighty kind," said Bull gratefully. "D"you think I"d have a chance with him even if you showed me how?"
"You got to have a way with hosses," admitted the boy, and he examined Bull again. "But I think you"ll get on with hossflesh pretty well.
When Diablo first come, he used to go plumb crazy when anybody come near his corral. He still does if a growed man comes there. Well, they used to go out and stand and watch him and laugh at him prancing around and kicking up a fuss at the sight of "em.
"And it made me mad. Made me plumb mad to see them bother Diablo when he wasn"t doing no harm, when they wasn"t gaining anything by it, either."
"I used to go out when n.o.body was around and stand by the bars with a bit of hay and grain heads in my hand. First off he"d prance around even at me, but pretty soon he seen that I wasn"t big enough to do him no harm, and then he"d just stand still and snort and look at me.
Along about the third time he took notice of the grain heads and come and smelled them, and the next day he ate "em.
"Well, I kept at it that way. Pretty soon I went inside the corral.
Diablo just come up sort of excited and trembling and didn"t know whether to bash my head in with his forehoofs or let me go. Then he seen the grain heads and ate them while he was making up his mind what to do about me. And he winded up by just having a little talk with me.
He was terribly dirty and dusty, and he was shedding. n.o.body dared to brush him, and so I took a soft-haired brush and started to work on his neck. He liked it, and so I dressed him down and left him pretty near shining. And every day after that I went and had a talk with him and brushed him. Then I rode Crackajack up to the bars and let Diablo see me on him, with no bridle or saddle. Pretty soon I found out that it was the saddle and the bridle and the spurs that scared Diablo to death. He didn"t mind anything else so very much. So one day I climbed up the fence and slid onto Diablo"s back, and he just turned his head and snorted at me. Just then Pa seen me and let out a terrible yell, and Diablo pitched me right off over his head and over the fence. But I got right up and came back to him. He seen that he could get me off whenever he wanted to and he seen that I didn"t do him no harm when I got on.
"After that everything was easy. I never bothered him none with a saddle or a bridle. And there you are. D"you think you can do the same?"
"But the saddle and the bridle?" said Bull. "What about them?"
"That"s up to you to figure out a way of getting him used to "em. I"ll go introduce you now, if I can."
Bull rose, and the boy led the way.
"If he takes to you pretty kind," said the boy, "you may have a chance. But if he begins acting up, it won"t be no use."
CHAPTER 16
Diablo greeted them with a throwing up of his formidable head. He took his place in the very middle of his corral, but when Bull Hunter and his small guide reached the bars, the black stallion seemed to go suddenly mad. He flung himself into the air and came down bucking.
Back and forth across the corral he threw himself in the wildest swirl of pitching that Bull Hunter had ever seen or ever dreamed of.
"He"s an educated bucker, you see?" said the boy in admiration. "They ain"t any trick that he don"t know. Look!"
Diablo had begun to sunfish in the most approved method, and swirled from this to some fence rowing as swift as the jagged course of lightning. At every jump Bull could see an imaginary rider snapped from the back of the black giant. A cloud of dust was sent swishing up, and in the midst of this fog, Diablo came to a pause as sudden as the beginning of his strange struggle against an imaginary foeman; but it seemed to Bull Hunter that the ground beneath his feet was still quivering from the impacts of that mighty body.
"That"s just his way of telling you what he"ll do when you try to saddle him," chuckled the boy.
As he spoke he slipped through the bars of the corral.
"Look out!" exclaimed Bull in horror, for the stallion had rushed at the small intruder with gaping mouth. Bull reached for his gun--Diablo was already on the child, but at the last minute he swerved, and flashed around Tod in a circle.