They watched, holding their breaths in fearful expectancy. Then they saw
her flash into view and come galloping down along the edge of the ridge
where the hill fell away so steeply that it might be called a cliff.
Indian fashion, she was whipping the pinto down both sides with the end
of her reins. Her slim legs hung straight, her moccasined toes pointing
downward. One corner of her red-and-green striped blanket flapped out
behind her. Haste--the haste of the pursuer--showed in every movement,
every line of her figure.
She came to the descent, and the pinto, having no desire for applause
but a very great hankering for whole bones in his body, planted his
forefeet and slid to a stop upon the brink. His snort came clearly down
to those below who watched.
“He won't tackle it,” Pete Lowry predicted philosophically while he
turned the camera crank steadily round and round and held himself ready
to “panoram” the scene if the pinto bolted.
But the pinto, having Annie-Many-Ponies to reckon with, did not bolt.
The braided rein-end of her squaw bridle lashed him stingingly; the
moccasined heels dug without mercy into the tender part of his flanks.
He came lunging down over the first rim of the bluff; then since he
must, he gathered himself for the ordeal and came leaping down and down
and down, gaining momentum with every jump. He could not have stopped
then if he had tried--and Annie-Many-Ponies, still the incarnation of
eager pursuit, would not let him try.
At the big flat rock of which Jean had warned her, the pinto would have
swerved. But she yanked him into the straighter descent, down over the
bank. He leaped, and he fell and slid twice his own length, his nose
rooting the soil. Annie-Many-Ponies lurched, came hard against a boulder
and somehow flung herself into place again on the horse. She lifted
his head and called to him in short, harsh, Indian words. The pinto
scrambled to his knees, got to his feet and felt again the sting of the
rein-end in his flanks. Like a rabbit he came bounding down, down
where the way was steepest and most treacherous. And at every jump the
rein-end fell, first on one side and then along the other, as a skilled
canoeman shifts the paddle to force his slight craft forward in a
treacherous current.
Down the last slope he came thundering. On his back Annie-Many-Ponies
lashed him steadily, straining her eyes in the direction which Jean had
taken past the camera. She knew that they were watching her--she knew
also that the camera crank in Pete Lowry's hands was turning, turning,
recording every move of hers, every little changing expression. She
swept down upon them so close that Pete grabbed the tripod with one
hand, ready to lift it and dodge away from the coming collision. Still
leaning, still lashing and straining every nerve in pursuit, she dashed
past, pivoted the pinto upon his hind feet, darted back toward the
staring group and jumped off while he was yet running.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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