"Butcher"s mare here still, Georgie?" said a huge fellow, with high boots of red-brown leather, and a sheepskin capote belted round him with a red sash.
"Yes, Master Seth, there she stands. You"ll be getting a bargain of her, one of these days."
"If I had her up at Austin next week for the fair, she "d bring a few hundred dollars."
"You "d never think of selling a beast like that at Austin, Seth?" said a bystander.
"Why not? Do you fancy I "ll bring her into the States, and see her claimed in every town of the Union? Why, man, she"s been stolen once a month, that mare has, since she was a two-year-old. I knew an old general up in the Maine frontier had her last year; and he rid her away from a "stump meeting" in Vermont, in change of his own mule,--blind,--and never know"d the differ till he was nigh home. I sold her twice, myself, in one week. Scott of Muckleburg stained her off fore-leg white, and sold her back, as a new one, to the fellow who returned her for lameness; and she can pretend lameness, she can."
A roar of very unbelieving laughter followed this sally, but Seth resumed,--
"Well, I"ll lay fifty dollars with any gentleman here that she comes out of the stable dead lame, or all sound, just as I bid her."
n.o.body seemed to fancy this wager; and Seth, satisfied with having established his veracity, went on,--
"You "ve but to touch the coronet of the off-foot with the point of your bowie,--a mere touch, not draw blood,--and see if she won"t come out limping on the toe, all as one as a dead breakdown in the coffin joint; rub her a bit then with your hand,--she "s all right again! It was Wrecksley of Ohio taught her the trick; he used to lame her that way, and buy her in, wherever he found her."
"Who"s won her this time?" cried another.
"I have, gentlemen," said I, slapping my boot with my cane, and affecting a very knowing air as I spoke. The company turned round and surveyed me some seconds in deep silence.
"You an"t a-goin" to ride her, young "un?" said one, half contemptuously.
"No, he an"t; the gent"s willin" to sell her," chimed in another.
"He"s goin" to ax me three hundred dollars," said a third, "an" I an"t a-goin" to gi" him no more than two hundred."
"You are all wrong, every man of you," said Seth. "He"s bringing her to England, a present for the Queen, for her own ridin"."
"And I beg to say, gentlemen, that none of you have hit upon the right track yet; nor do I think it necessary to correct you more fully. But as you appear to take an interest in my concerns, I may mention that I shall want a hack for my servant"s riding,--a short-legged, square-jointed thing, clever to go, and a good feeder, not much above fourteen hands in height, or four hundred dollars in price. If you chance upon this--"
"I know your mark."
"My roan, with the wall-eye. You don"t mind a walleye?"
"No, no! my black pony mare"s the thing the gent"s a lookin" for."
"I say it"s nothing like it," broke in Seth. "He"s a-wantin" a half-bred mustang, with a down-east cross,--a critter to go through fire and water; liftin" the fore-legs like a high-pressure piston, and with a jerk of the "stifle" like the recoil of a bra.s.s eight-pounder. An"t I near the mark?"
"Not very wide of it," said I, nodding encouragingly.
"She "s at Austin now. You an"t a-goin" there?"
"Yes," said I; "I hall be in Austin next week."
"Well, never you make a deal till you see my black pony," cried one.
"Nor the roan cob," shouted another.
"He "d better see "em "fore he sees Split-the-wind, then, or he "d not look at "em arter," said Seth. "You "ve only to ask for Seth Chiseller, and they "ll look me up."
"You an"t a-goin" to let us see Butcher"s mare afore we go?" said one to the ostler.
"I an"t, because I have n"t got the key. She"s a double-locked, and the cap "n never gives it to no one, but comes a-feedin" time himself, to give her corn."
After a few muttered remarks on this caution, the horse-dealers sauntered out of the yard, leaving me musing over what I had heard, and wondering if this excessive care of the landlord boded any suspicion regarding the winner of the prize.
"Jist draw that bolt across the gate, there, will ye," said the ostler, while he produced a huge key from his pocket. "I know "em well, them gents. A man must have fourteen eyes in his head, and have "em back and front too, that shows "em a horse beast! Darn me coa.r.s.e! if they can"t gi" "un a blood spavin in a squirt of tobacco! Let"s see your ticket, young master, and I "ll show you Charcoal,--. that"s her name."
"Here it is," said I, "signed by the agent at Galveston, all right and regular."
"The cap"n must see to that. I only want to know that ye have the number. Yes, that "s it; now stand a bit on one side. Ye "ll see her when she comes out."
He entered the stable as he spoke, and soon re-appeared, leading a tall mare, fully sixteen hands high, and black as jet; a single white star on her forehead, and a dash of white across the tail, being the only marks on her. She was bursting with condition, and both in symmetry and action a splendid creature.
[Ill.u.s.tration: 324]
"An"t she a streak of lightnin", and no mistake?" said he, gazing on her with rapture. "An"t she glibber to move nor a wag of a comet"s tail, when he "s taking a lark round the moon? There"s hocks! there"s pasterns! Show me a gal with ankles like "em, and look at her, here!
An"t she a-made for sittin" on?"
I entered into all his raptures. She was faultless in every point,--save, perhaps, that in looking at you she would throw her eye backwards, and show a little bit too much of the white. I remarked this to the ostler.
"The only fault she has," said he, shaking his head; "she mistrusts a body always, and so she"s eternally a lookin" back, and a gatherin" up her quarters, and a holdin" of her tail tight in; but for that, she"s a downright regular beauty, and for stride and bottom there ain"t her equal nowhere."
"Her late master was unlucky, I"ve heard," said I, insinuatingly.
"He was so far unlucky that he could n"t sit his beast over a torrent and a down leap. He would hold her in, and she won"t bear it at a spring, and so she flung him before she took the leap; and when _she_ lit, "t other side, with her head high and her hind legs under her, _he_ was a sittin" with his "n under his arm, and his neck bruck,--that was the way o" it. See now, master, if ever ye do want a great streak out of her, leave the head free a bit, press her wi" your calves, and give a right down reg"lar halloo,--ha! like a Mexican chap; then she"ll do it!"
The ostler found me a willing listener, either when dwelling on the animal"s perfections, or suggesting hints for her future management; and when at last both these themes were tolerably exhausted, he proceeded to show me the horse-gear of saddle, and bridle, and halter, and holsters, all handsomely finished in Mexican taste, and studded with bra.s.s nails in various gay devices. At last he produced the rifle,--a regular Kentucky one, of Colt"s making,--and what he considered a still greater prize, a bell-mouthed thing half horse-pistol, half blunderbuss, which he called "a almighty fine "Harper"s Ferry tool," that would throw thirty bullets through an oak panel two inches thick."
It was evident that he looked upon the whole equipment as worthy of the most exalted possession, and he gazed on me as one whose lot was indeed to be envied.
"Seth and the others leave this to-morrow a"ternoon," said he; "but if ye be a-goin" to Austin, where the "Spedeshin" puts up, take my advice, and get away before "em. You "ve a fine road,--no trouble to find the way; your beast will carry you forty, fifty, if you want it, sixty, miles between sunrise and "down;" and you "ll be snug over the journey before they reach Killian"s Mill, the half-way. An" if ye want to know why I say so, it"s just because that"s too good a beast to tempt a tramper wi", and them"s all trampers!"
I gave the ostler a dollar for all his information and civility, and re-entered the inn to have my supper. The cap"n had already returned home, and after verifying my ticket, took my receipt for the mare, which I gave in all form, writing my name, "Con Cregan," as though it were to a check for a thousand pounds.
I supped comfortably, and then walked out to the stable to see Charcoal.
"Get her corn; you"ll see if she don"t, eat it in less than winkin","
said the ostler; "and if she wor my beast, she"d never taste another feed till she had her nose in the manger at Croft"s Gulley."
"And where is Croft"s Gulley?"
"It"s the bottoms after you pa.s.s the larch wood; the road dips a bit, and is heavy there, and it"s a good baitin" place, just eighteen miles from here."
"On the road to Austin?"
He nodded. "Ye see," he said, "the moon"s a risin"; there"s no one out this time. Ye know what I said afore."