Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.fadedpage.net JESSICA TRENT: Her Life on a Ranch BY EVELYN RAYMOND Author of "Jessica Trent's Inheritance," "Jessica, the Heiress" Whitman Publishing Co. RACINE, WISCONSIN Copyright, 1902, by Street & Smith Jessica Trent Printed in the United States of America By Western Printing & Lithographing Co. Racine, Wis. JESSICA TRENT CHAPTER I ON THE CANYON TRAIL. "Hello, there! What in the name of reason is this?" The horseman's excited cry was echoed by a startled neigh from his beast, which wheeled about so suddenly that he nearly precipitated both himself and rider into the gulch below. "Oh! I'm sorry----Hold on, Zu! Go! Do, please. Quick! It's so narrow just beyond and I can't----" The stranger obeyed, perforce, for his spirited animal having now headed up the slope, continued on his course at breakneck speed, pursued at equal pace by the unknown creature that had terrified him. The race would not have been so even had the trail been wider, for King Zulu could easily have beaten his contestant, but, as it was, the fleeing bay bruised his master's leg against the canyon wall, now and then, while bits of the bird's plumage were torn on the same projecting rocks. There was no point of passage till more than a mile higher on the mountain, and Jess knew this if Mr. Hale did not. He knew nothing save that he was clinging and riding for his life, and that this "Western horseback tour" which his doctor had prescribed for him, seemed now more likely to prove his death than his cure. But when a laugh rang out, close to his shoulder, he turned his head and glanced angrily backward. "Oh, I beg your pardon, but--it's so funny! I've often wanted to try King Zu against a strange horse and now I have. Only, if we were up there on the mesa, he'd show you!" "Does this trail never end, nor turn?" The laughter on the girl's face changed to anxiety. "Not ill, exactly; only I'm not experienced at this business and it shakes me." "You ride too hard and stiff. That's why. Let yourself go--just be part of your horse. He's a beauty, isn't he? Even the boys couldn't stand that gait." "And you. Who taught you to ride an ostrich? Where did you get it? It's almost the first one I ever saw and quite the first that Prince did. I was nearly as scared as he, meeting such a creature on a lonely mountain trail." "I never learned--it just happened. Zulu is 'patriarch' of the flock. The only imported bird left alive. We just grew up together, he and I. Didn't we, King?" Speech was now easier, for the speed of both animals had slackened, that of Prince to a comfortable trot. While the sidewise lurching motion of the ostrich was enjoyable enough to Jessica, it turned Mr. Hale's head dizzy, watching. Or it may have been the blinding sunshine, beating against the canyon wall and deflected upon the riders in waves of heat.