American fiction -- 20th century; Short stories, American
The stallion bolted for the open. Only the rock wall checked his
headlong flight. Then he wheeled and ran along the wall, bounding over
rocks and ditches, stretching out until, with magnificent stride, he
was running at his topmost speed. Along one wall and then the other he
dashed, round and round and across, until the moment came when panic
succeeded to fury, and then his tremendous energies were directed to
the displacement of his rider. Wildly he pitched. With head down, legs
stiff, feet together, he plunged over the sand, plowing up the dust,
and bounding straight up. But he could not unseat his inexorable rider.
Yaqui’s legs banded his belly and were as steel. Then the stallion, now
lashed into white lather of sweat and froth, lunged high to paw the air
and scream and plunge down to pitch again. His motions soon lost their
energy, though not their fury. Then he reached back with eyes of fire
and open mouth to bite. Yaqui’s huge fist met him, first on the right,
then, as he turned, on the left. Last he plunged to his knees and with
rumbling heave of anger he fell on his side, meaning to roll over his
rider. But the Yaqui’s leg on that side flashed high while his hands
twisted hard in the long mane. When the foiled horse rose again Yaqui
rose with him, again fixed tight on his back. Another dash and burst of
running, wild and blind this time and plainly losing speed, showed the
weakening of the stallion. And the time arrived when, spent and beaten,
he fell in the sand.
“Let Yaqui’s son learn to ride like his father,” said the chief to his
gleeful, worshiping son.
Then the chief again stalked forth, drawn irresistibly by something in
the hour.
“Let Yaqui’s son watch and remember to tell his son’s son,” he said.
He scattered his riders to block the few passages out of the valley and
he ordered his son and all the women of the tribe and their children
again to climb high on the rocks, there to watch. The Indian gods said
this day marked the rejuvenation of their tribe. Let his son, who would
be chief some day, and his people, see the great runner of the Yaquis.
Naked except for his moccasins, the giant chief broke into a slow trot
that was habitual with him when alone on a trail; and he crossed the
stream and the plots of sand, and headed out into the grassy valley
where deer grazed with the horses. Yaqui selected the one that appeared
largest and strongest of the herd and to it he called in a loud voice,
meant as well for the spirit of his forefathers and for his gods,
watching and listening from the heights: “Yaqui runs to kill!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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