Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.fadedpage.com [Illustration] BRED OF THE DESERT A HORSE AND A ROMANCE BY MARCUS HORTON [Illustration] NEW YORK GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS Published by Arrangement with Harper & Brothers COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY HARPER & BROTHERS PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA PUBLISHED APRIL, 1915 TO A. D. B. S. H. WHO TAUGHT CONSIDERATION FOR THE DUMB THIS WORK IS LOVINGLY INSCRIBED CONTENTS Chapter Page I. A COLT IS BORN 1 II. FELIPE CELEBRATES 15 III. A SURPRISE 27 IV. A NEW HOME 35 V. LONELINESS 47 VI. THE FIRST GREAT LESSON 57 VII. A STRANGER 72 VIII. FELIPE MAKES A DISCOVERY 85 IX. THE SECOND GREAT LESSON 98 X. THE STRANGER AGAIN 112 XI. LOVE REJECTED 126 XII. ADVENTURE 145 XIII. IN THE WASTE PLACES 156 XIV. A PICTURE 172 XV. CHANGE OF MASTERS 175 XVI. PAT TURNS THIEF 186 XVII. A RUNNING FIGHT 199 XVIII. AN ENEMY 210 XIX. ANOTHER CHANGE OF MASTERS 228 XX. FIDELITY 240 XXI. LIFE AND DEATH 256 XXII. QUIESCENCE 280 XXIII. THE REUNION 285 BRED OF THE DESERT CHAPTER I A COLT IS BORN It was high noon in the desert, but there was no dazzling sunlight. Over the earth hung a twilight, a yellow-pink softness that flushed across the sky like the approach of a shadow, covering everything yet concealing nothing, creeping steadily onward, yet seemingly still, until, pressing low over the earth, it took on changing color, from pink to gray, from gray to black--gloom that precedes tropical showers. Then the wind came--a breeze rising as it were from the hot earth--forcing the Spanish dagger to dipping acknowledgment, sending dust-devils swirling across the slow curves of the desert--and then the storm burst in all its might. For this was a storm--a sand-storm of the Southwest.