Part 29 (1/2)

”Humph! he'll walk back,” snorted Gus. ”I tried thet pack animal.

He's h.e.l.l fer breakfast.”

”Gus, if I was goin' to walk I'd leave my saddle heah in camp,” drawled Blinky.

”Blink, I'll let you ride in behind me,” added Pan.

As a matter of fact, Pan was not having much luck propitiating the horse he had selected. Every time Pan would reach under for the cinch the horse would kick at him and throw off the saddle.

”Hey, Blink, come here,” called Pan impatiently. ”Hold this nice kind horse. What'd you call him?”

”Dunny,” replied Blink. ”An' he's a right sh.o.r.e enough good hoss....

I'll hold him.”

Blinky grasped the cars of the horse but that did not work, so Pan roped his front feet. Blinky held the beast while Pan put the saddle on, but when he gave the cinch a pull Dunny stood up with a wild shriek and fell over backwards. He would have struck square on the saddle if Blinky had not pulled him sideways. Fortunately for Pan the horse rolled over to the right.

”Pan, turn that thing loose an' catch a horse you can get on,” called his father.

”Don't worry, Dad. I'm ararin' to ride this bird.”

”Pard, Dunny will be nice after you buckle down thet saddle an' get forked on him good,” drawled Blinky, with his deceitful grin. ”He's sh.o.r.e a broomie-chasin' devil.”

Pan said: ”Blink, I'll fool you in a minute... Hold him down now.

Step on his nose.” Pulling the right stirrup out from under the horse Pan drew the cinch a couple of holes tighter, and then straddled him.

”Let him up, Blink.”

”All right, pard. Tell us where you want to be buried,” replied Blinky, loosing the la.s.so and jumping free.

With a blast of rage Dunny got up. But he cunningly got up with his back first, head down between his legs, and stiff as a poker. He scattered the horses and whooping men, bucked over the campfire and the beds; then with long high leaps, he tore for the open.

”High, wide an' handsome,” yelled Blinky, in a spasm of glee. ”Ride him, you Texas cowpunchin' galoot! You'll sh.o.r.e be the first one who ever forked him fer keeps.”

”Blink--if he--piles me--I'll lick you!” yelled back Pan.

”Lick nothin',” bawled Blinky, ”you'll need a doctor.”

But Pan stayed on that horse, which turned out to be the meanest and most violent bucker he had ever bestrode. Less powerful horses had thrown him. Eventually the plunging animal stopped, and Pan turned him back to camp.

”Wal, you son-of-a-gun!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Blinky, in genuine admiration.

”How'd you ever keep company with him?”

”Grin, you idiot,” panted Pan, good humoredly. ”Now men--we're ready to look the valley over. I'll take Dad with me. Blink, you and Gus turn the corner here and keep close under the slope all the way up the valley. Look out for places where the wild horses might climb out.

Charley, you and Mac New cross to the other side of the valley, if you can. Look the ground over along that western wall. And everybody keep eyes peeled for wild horses, so we can get a line on numbers.”

They rode out through the gateway into the valley, where they separated into pairs. Pan, with his father, headed south along the slope. He found distances somewhat greater than he had estimated from the bluff, and obstacles that he had not noted at all. But by traveling farther down he discovered a low ledge of rock, quite a wall in places, that zigzagged out from the slope for a goodly distance. It had breaks here and there which could easily be closed up with brush. This wall would serve very well for part of the fence, and from the end of it out to the wash there was comparatively level ground. Half a mile up the slope the cedars grew thickly, so that the material for the fence was easily accessible.

The wash proved to be a perpendicularly walled gorge fifty or more feet deep with a sandy dry floor. It wound somewhat west by north up the valley, and as far as he could see did not greatly differ in proportion from the point where the fence was to touch.

”Dad, there are likely to be side washes, or cuts up toward the head, where horses could get down,” said Pan. ”We'll fence right across here. So if we do chase any horses into the wash we'll stop them here.