Bankruptcy -- Fiction; Gold mines and mining -- Alaska -- Fiction; Oakland (Calif.) -- Fiction; Western stories; Women pioneers -- Fiction
Another Sunday man and horse and dog roved the Piedmont hills. And
again Daylight and Dede rode together. But this time her surprise at
meeting him was tinctured with suspicion; or rather, her surprise was
of another order. The previous Sunday had been quite accidental, but
his appearing a second time among her favorite haunts hinted of more
than the fortuitous. Daylight was made to feel that she suspected him,
and he, remembering that he had seen a big rock quarry near Blair Park,
stated offhand that he was thinking of buying it. His one-time
investment in a brickyard had put the idea into his head--an idea that
he decided was a good one, for it enabled him to suggest that she ride
along with him to inspect the quarry.
So several hours he spent in her company, in which she was much the
same girl as before, natural, unaffected, lighthearted, smiling and
laughing, a good fellow, talking horses with unflagging enthusiasm,
making friends with the crusty-tempered Wolf, and expressing the desire
to ride Bob, whom she declared she was more in love with than ever. At
this last Daylight demurred. Bob was full of dangerous tricks, and he
wouldn't trust any one on him except his worst enemy.
"You think, because I'm a girl, that I don't know anything about
horses," she flashed back. "But I've been thrown off and bucked off
enough not to be over-confident. And I'm not a fool. I wouldn't get on
a bucking horse. I've learned better. And I'm not afraid of any other
kind. And you say yourself that Bob doesn't buck."
"But you've never seen him cutting up didoes," Daylight said.
"But you must remember I've seen a few others, and I've been on several
of them myself. I brought Mab here to electric cars, locomotives, and
automobiles. She was a raw range colt when she came to me. Broken to
saddle that was all. Besides, I won't hurt your horse."
Against his better judgment, Daylight gave in, and, on an unfrequented
stretch of road, changed saddles and bridles.
"Remember, he's greased lightning," he warned, as he helped her to
mount.
She nodded, while Bob pricked up his ears to the knowledge that he had
a strange rider on his back. The fun came quickly enough--too quickly
for Dede, who found herself against Bob's neck as he pivoted around and
bolted the other way. Daylight followed on her horse and watched. He
saw her check the animal quickly to a standstill, and immediately, with
rein across neck and a decisive prod of the left spur, whirl him back
the way he had come and almost as swiftly.
"Get ready to give him the quirt on the nose," Daylight called.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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