Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; San Francisco (Calif.) -- Fiction
Dynamo, seeing the end of his picnic at hand, galloped awkwardly a few
rods, the branch trailing from his mouth. Then, with the ponderous but
sudden shift of bull psychology, indignation rose in his bosom. He
stopped himself so short that his fore-hoofs plowed two long furrows
in the soft earth; whirled, lifted his muzzle, and bellowed. One
fore-hoof tore up the dirt and showered it over his back. He dropped
to his knees and rubbed the ground with his neck in sheer abandonment
to the joy of his own abandoned wickedness. He rose up in the hollow
which he had dug, lowered his horns, and glowered at the youth, who
advanced with a kind of awkward bull-strength of his own.
"Chase yourself!" cried Bertram Chester, flicking the halter. For a
second, Dynamo's eyelids fluttered; then, unaccountably, his bull
pride rose up in him. He stopped midway of a bellow; his head went
down, his tail rose up--and he charged. The girl across the fence
gave a little scream. The youth, stepping aside with a quickness
marvelous considering the size of his frame, avoided the charge. As
Dynamo tore past him, he struck out--a mighty lash--with the halter.
The bull tore on until he smashed into a prune tree. The green fruit
flew like water splashing from a stone; and Dynamo checked his course,
turned again, began to paw and challenge as the preliminary to another
charge.
"Oh, let him go--please!" cried Eleanor. Whether he heard her or not
made little difference to the youth. Taking advantage of Dynamo's
slight hesitation, he sprang in close, caught him by the horn and the
tender, black nose; and back and forth, across the ruins of the prune
tree, which went flat at the first rally, they fought and tugged and
tossed. Through the agonized half-bellows of Dynamo, Eleanor caught a
slighter sound. Her champion was swearing! Raised a little above her
fears by the vicarious joy of fight, she took no offence at this; it
seemed part of the picture.
No one can account for the emotional processes of a bull. Just as
suddenly as it rose, Dynamo's courage evaporated. Once more was he
brother to the driven ox. He ceased to plant his fore feet; his bellow
became a moan; he gave backward; in one mighty toss, he threw off his
conqueror, turned, and galloped down the orchard with his tail curved
like a pretzel across his back. Behind him followed the youth, lashing
him with the halter as long as he could keep it up, pelting him with
rocks and clods as the retreat gained. So, in a cloud of dust, they
vanished into the Santa Clara road.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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