Cowboys -- Fiction; Ranch life -- Fiction; Texas -- Fiction; Western stories
A whirlwind program of racing, roping, bull-dogging--this event is that
in which a rider springs from a running horse, grasps by the horns a
wild steer running at his side, twists the animal's head up and backward
and so throws it down and then holds the creature on the
ground--rough-riding and other Rodeo sports followed immediately after
the parade.
Pedro and Charley Saunders were the only Quarter Circle KT cowboys
participating in the events of the first day of the Rodeo. The Mexican
did a fancy roping stunt in front of the grandstand and finished his
exhibition directly before the Clagstone "Six" in which Carolyn June,
Ophelia, Old Heck and Skinny were sitting. At the conclusion of his
performance Pedro bowed to the little audience in the car and swept his
sombrero before him with all the courtly grace of a great matador.
Carolyn June generously applauded the dark-skinned rider from the
Cimarron and waved a daintily gloved hand in acknowledgment of his skill
with the rope. Skinny gritted his teeth while a pang of jealousy shot
through his heart.
Charley took part in the bull-dogging event. He drew a black steer,
rangey built, heavy and wicked. When he lunged from his horse on to the
horns of the brute it dragged him for a hundred feet before he could
check its mad flight. At last he slowly forced its nose in the air and
with a quick wrench of the head to one side threw its feet from under
it. Man and beast went down in a heap--the neck of the steer across the
cowboy's body. A groan went up from the crowd in the grandstand and
Carolyn June's cheeks paled with horror--it looked as if one horn of the
creature had pierced Charley's breast. But it had missed by the fraction
of an inch. Straightening himself up to a sitting posture the cowboy
bent forward and sunk his teeth in the upper lip of the prostrate animal
and threw up both hands as a signal to the judges that the brute was
"bulldogged." But the fight had been too hard for him to win first
place. Buck Wade, a lanky cow-puncher from Montana, in three seconds
less time, had thrown a brindle Anchor-O steer and taken first money.
* * * * *
Before the sun dipped into the Costejo peaks the Ramblin' Kid left the
Rodeo and returned alone to the Quarter Circle KT. He told Parker and
the cowboys, all of whom intended to remain in Eagle Butte every night
during the Rodeo, that he would be back in town the next afternoon and
bring with him the Gold Dust maverick. Word had been passed among the
Quarter Circle KT crowd to keep Dorsey and his bunch in the dark as long
as possible regarding the fact that the filly, Ophelia, was the famous
outlaw mare of the lower Cimarron.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account