Biographical fiction; Jones, Charles Jesse, 1844-1919 -- Fiction; Pioneers -- Fiction; Western stories
While Jones and Wallace strutted round the big corral, which was full
of vicious, dusty, shaggy horses and mustangs, I sat high on the fence.
I heard them talking about points and girth and stride, and a lot of
terms that I could not understand. Wallace selected a heavy sorrel, and
Jones a big bay; very like Jim's. I had observed, way over in the
corner of the corral, a bunch of cayuses, and among them a clean-limbed
black horse. Edging round on the fence I got a closer view, and then
cried out that I had found my horse. I jumped down and caught him, much
to my surprise, for the other horses were wild, and had kicked
viciously. The black was beautifully built, wide-chested and powerful,
but not heavy. His coat glistened like sheeny black satin, and he had a
white face and white feet and a long mane.
"I don't know about giving you Satan—that's his name," said the
cowboy. "The foreman rides him often. He's the fastest, the best
climber, and the best dispositioned horse on the range.
"But I guess I can let you have him," he continued, when he saw my
disappointed face.
"By George!" exclaimed Jones. "You've got it on us this time."
"Would you like to trade?" asked Wallace, as his sorrel tried to bite
him. "That black looks sort of fierce."
I led my prize out of the corral, up to the little cabin nearby, where
I tied him, and proceeded to get acquainted after a fashion of my own.
Though not versed in horse-lore, I knew that half the battle was to win
his confidence. I smoothed his silky coat, and patted him, and then
surreptitiously slipped a lump of sugar from my pocket. This sugar,
which I had purloined in Flagstaff, and carried all the way across the
desert, was somewhat disreputably soiled, and Satan sniffed at it
disdainfully. Evidently he had never smelled or tasted sugar. I pressed
it into his mouth. He munched it, and then looked me over with some
interest. I handed him another lump. He took it and rubbed his nose
against me. Satan was mine!
Frank and Jim came along early in the afternoon. What with packing,
changing saddles and shoeing the horses, we were all busy. Old Baldy
would not be shod, so we let him off till a more opportune time. By
four o'clock we were riding toward the slopes of Buckskin, now only a
few miles away, standing up higher and darker.
"What's that for?" inquired Wallace, pointing to a long, rusty,
wire-wrapped, double-barreled blunderbuss of a shotgun, stuck in the
holster of Jones's saddle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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