Trailin'!. Max Brand

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Trailin'! - Max Brand

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style="font-size:15px;">      XVI.——BLUFF

      XVII.—BUTCH RETURNS

      XVIII.—FOOLISH HABITS

      XIX.——THE CANDLE

      XX.——JOAN

      XXI.——THE SWIMMING OF THE SAVERACK

      XXII.—DREW SMILES

      XXIII.—THE COMEDY SETTING

      XXIV.—"SAM'L HALL"

      XXV.——HAIR LIKE THE SUNSHINE

      XXVI.—"THE CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON"

      XXVII.—THE STAGE

      XXVIII.-SALLY BREAKS A MIRROR

      XXIX.—THE SHOW

      XXX.——THE LAMP

      XXXI.—NASH STARTS THE FINISH

      XXXII.—TO "APPREHEND" A MAN

      XXXIII.-NOTHING NEW

      XXXIV.—CRITICISM

      XXXV.—ABANDON

      XXXVI.—JERRY WOOD

      XXXVII.-"TODO ES PERDO"

      XXXVIII.-BACON

      XXXIX.—LEGAL MURDER

      XL.——PARTNERS

      XLI.——SALLY WEEPS

      The characters, places, incidents and situations in this book are imaginary and have no relation to any person, place or actual happening.

       Table of Contents

      "LA-A-A-DIES AN' GEN'L'MUN"

      All through the exhibition the two sat unmoved; yet on the whole it was the best Wild West show that ever stirred sawdust in Madison Square Garden and it brought thunders of applause from the crowded house. Even if the performance could not stir these two, at least the throng of spectators should have drawn them, for all New York was there, from the richest to the poorest; neither the combined audiences of a seven-day race, a prize-fight, or a community singing festival would make such a cosmopolitan assembly.

      All Manhattan came to look at the men who had lived and fought and conquered under the limitless skies of the Far West, free men, wild men—one of their shrill whoops banished distance and brought the mountain desert into the very heart of the unromantic East. Nevertheless from all these thrills these two men remained immune.

      To be sure the smaller tilted his head back when the horses first swept in, and the larger leaned to watch when Diaz, the wizard with the lariat, commenced to whirl his rope; but in both cases their interest held no longer than if they had been old vaudevillians watching a series of familiar acts dressed up with new names.

      The smaller, brown as if a thousand fierce suns and winds had tanned and withered him, looked up at last to his burly companion with a faint smile.

      "They're bringing on the cream now, Drew, but I'm going to spoil the dessert."

      The other was a great, grey man whom age apparently had not weakened but rather settled and hardened into an ironlike durability; the winds of time or misfortune would have to break that stanch oak before it would bend.

      He said: "We've half an hour before our train leaves. Can you play your hand in that time?"

      "Easy. Look at 'em now—the greatest gang of liars that never threw a diamond hitch! Ride? I've got a ten-year kid home that would laugh at 'em all. But I'll show 'em up. Want to know my little stunt?"

      "I'll wait and enjoy the surprise."

      The wild riders who provoked the scorn of the smaller man were now gathering in the central space; a formidable crew, long of hair and brilliant as to bandannas, while the announcer thundered through his megaphone:

      "La-a-a-dies and gen'l'mun! You see before you the greatest band of subduers and breakers of wild horses that ever rode the cattle ranges. Death defying, reckless, and laughing at peril, they have never failed; they have never pulled leather. I present 'Happy' Morgan!"

      Happy Morgan, yelling like one possessed of ten shrill-tongued demons, burst on the gallop away from the others, and spurring his horse cruelly, forced the animal to race, bucking and plunging, half way around the arena and back to the group. This, then, was a type of the dare-devil horse breaker of the Wild West? The cheers travelled in waves around and around the house and rocked back and forth like water pitched from side to side in a monstrous bowl.

      When the noise abated somewhat, "And this, la-a-a-dies and gen'l'mun, is the peerless, cowpuncher, 'Bud Reeves.'"

      Bud at once imitated the example of Happy Morgan, and one after another the five remaining riders followed suit. In the meantime a number of prancing, kicking, savage-eyed horses were brought into the arena and to these the master of ceremonies now turned his attention.

      "From the wildest regions of the range we have brought mustangs that never have borne the weight of man. They fight for pleasure; they buck by instinct. If you doubt it, step down and try 'em. One hundred dollars to the man who sticks on the back of one of 'em—but we won't pay the hospital bill!"

      He lowered his megaphone to enjoy the laughter, and the small man took this opportunity to say: "Never borne the weight of a man! That chap in the dress-suit, he tells one lie for pleasure and ten more from instinct. Yep, he has his hosses beat. Never borne the weight of man! Why, Drew, I can see the saddle-marks clear from here; I got a mind to slip down there and pick up the easiest hundred bones that ever rolled my way."

      He rose to make good his threat, but Drew cut in with: "Don't be a damn fool, Werther. You aren't part of this show."

      "Well, I will be soon. Watch me! There goes Ananias on his second wind."

      The announcer was bellowing: "These man-killing mustangs will be ridden, broken, beaten into submission in fair fight by the greatest set of horse-breakers that ever wore spurs. They can ride anything that walks on four feet and wears a skin; they can—"

      Werther sprang to his feet, made a funnel of his hand, and shouted:

       "Yi-i-i-ip!"

      If he had set off a great quantity of red fire he could not more effectively have drawn all eyes upon him. The weird, shrill yell cut the ringmaster short, and a pleased murmur ran through the crowd. Of course, this must be part of the show, but it was a pleasing variation.

      "Partner," continued Werther, brushing away the big hand of Drew which would have pulled him down into his seat; "I've seen you bluff for two nights hand running. There ain't no man can bluff all the world

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