It was a merry party, and they had made a merry day of it, circling the bay from San Francisco around by San Jose and up to Oakland, having been thrice arrested for speeding, the third time, however, on the Haywards stretch, running away with their captor. Fearing that a telephone message to arrest them had been flashed ahead, they had turned into the back-road through the hills, and now, rushing in upon Oakland by a new route, were boisterously6 discussing what disposition7 they should make of the constable8.
"We'll come out at Blair Park in ten minutes," one of the men announced. "Look here, Swiftwater, there's a crossroads right ahead, with lots of gates, but it'll take us backcountry clear into Berkeley. Then we can come back into Oakland from the other side, sneak9 across on the ferry, and send the machine back around to-night with the chauffeur10."
But Swiftwater Bill failed to see why he should not go into Oakland by way of Blair Park, and so decided11.
The next moment, flying around a bend, the back-road they were not going to take appeared. Inside the gate leaning out from her saddle and just closing it, was a young woman on a chestnut12 sorrel. With his first glimpse, Daylight felt there was something strangely familiar about her. The next moment, straightening up in the saddle with a movement he could not fail to identify, she put the horse into a gallop13, riding away with her back toward them. It was Dede Mason—he remembered what Morrison had told him about her keeping a riding horse, and he was glad she had not seen him in this riotous14 company. Swiftwater Bill stood up, clinging with one hand to the back of the front seat and waving the other to attract her attention. His lips were pursed for the piercing whistle for which he was famous and which Daylight knew of old, when Daylight, with a hook of his leg and a yank on the shoulder, slammed the startled Bill down into his seat.
"You m-m-must know the lady," Swiftwater Bill spluttered.
"I sure do," Daylight answered, "so shut up."
"Well, I congratulate your good taste, Daylight. She's a peach, and she rides like one, too."
Intervening trees at that moment shut her from view, and Swiftwater Bill plunged15 into the problem of disposing of their constable, while Daylight, leaning back with closed eyes, was still seeing Dede Mason gallop off down the country road. Swiftwater Bill was right. She certainly could ride. And, sitting astride, her seat was perfect. Good for Dede! That was an added point, her having the courage to ride in the only natural and logical manner. Her head as screwed on right, that was one thing sure.
On Monday morning, coming in for dictation, he looked at her with new interest, though he gave no sign of it; and the stereotyped16 business passed off in the stereotyped way. But the following Sunday found him on a horse himself, across the bay and riding through the Piedmont hills. He made a long day of it, but no glimpse did he catch of Dede Mason, though he even took the back-road of many gates and rode on into Berkeley. Here, along the lines of multitudinous houses, up one street and down another, he wondered which of them might be occupied by her. Morrison had said long ago that she lived in Berkeley, and she had been headed that way in the late afternoon of the previous Sunday—evidently returning home.
It had been a fruitless day, so far as she was concerned; and yet not entirely17 fruitless, for he had enjoyed the open air and the horse under him to such purpose that, on Monday, his instructions were out to the dealers19 to look for the best chestnut sorrel that money could buy. At odd times during the week he examined numbers of chestnut sorrels, tried several, and was unsatisfied. It was not till Saturday that he came upon Bob. Daylight knew him for what he wanted the moment he laid eyes on him. A large horse for a riding animal, he was none too large for a big man like Daylight. In splendid condition, Bob's coat in the sunlight was a flame of fire, his arched neck a jeweled conflagration20.
"He's a sure winner," was Daylight's comment; but the dealer18 was not so sanguine21. He was selling the horse on commission, and its owner had insisted on Bob's true character being given. The dealer gave it.
"Not what you'd call a real vicious horse, but a dangerous one. Full of vinegar and all-round cussedness, but without malice22. Just as soon kill you as not, but in a playful sort of way, you understand, without meaning to at all. Personally, I wouldn't think of riding him. But he's a stayer. Look at them lungs. And look at them legs. Not a blemish23. He's never been hurt or worked. Nobody ever succeeded in taking it out of him. Mountain horse, too, trail-broke and all that, being raised in rough country. Sure-footed as a goat, so long as he don't get it into his head to cut up. Don't shy. Ain't really afraid, but makes believe. Don't buck24, but rears. Got to ride him with a martingale. Has a bad trick of whirling around without cause It's his idea of a joke on his rider. It's all just how he feels One day he'll ride along peaceable and pleasant for twenty miles. Next day, before you get started, he's well-nigh unmanageable. Knows automobiles26 so he can lay down alongside of one and sleep or eat hay out of it. He'll let nineteen go by without batting an eye, and mebbe the twentieth, just because he's feeling frisky27, he'll cut up over like a range cayuse. Generally speaking, too lively for a gentleman, and too unexpected. Present owner nicknamed him Judas Iscariot, and refuses to sell without the buyer knowing all about him first. There, that's about all I know, except look at that mane and tail. Ever see anything like it? Hair as fine as a baby's."
The dealer was right. Daylight examined the mane and found it finer than any horse's hair he had ever seen. Also, its color was unusual in that it was almost auburn. While he ran his fingers through it, Bob turned his head and playfully nuzzled Daylight's shoulder.
"Saddle him up, and I'll try him," he told the dealer. "I wonder if he's used to spurs. No English saddle, mind. Give me a good Mexican and a curb28 bit—not too severe, seeing as he likes to rear."
Daylight superintended the preparations, adjusting the curb strap29 and the stirrup length, and doing the cinching. He shook his head at the martingale, but yielded to the dealer's advice and allowed it to go on. And Bob, beyond spirited restlessness and a few playful attempts, gave no trouble. Nor in the hour's ride that followed, save for some permissible30 curveting and prancing31, did he misbehave. Daylight was delighted; the purchase was immediately made; and Bob, with riding gear and personal equipment, was despatched across the bay forthwith to take up his quarters in the stables of the Oakland Riding Academy.
The next day being Sunday, Daylight was away early, crossing on the ferry and taking with him Wolf, the leader of his sled team, the one dog which he had selected to bring with him when he left Alaska. Quest as he would through the Piedmont hills and along the many-gated back-road to Berkeley, Daylight saw nothing of Dede Mason and her chestnut sorrel. But he had little time for disappointment, for his own chestnut sorrel kept him busy. Bob proved a handful of impishness and contrariety, and he tried out his rider as much as his rider tried him out. All of Daylight's horse knowledge and horse sense was called into play, while Bob, in turn, worked every trick in his lexicon32. Discovering that his martingale had more slack in it than usual, he proceeded to give an exhibition of rearing and hind33-leg walking. After ten hopeless minutes of it, Daylight slipped off and tightened34 the martingale, whereupon Bob gave an exhibition of angelic goodness.
He fooled Daylight completely. At the end of half an hour of goodness, Daylight, lured35 into confidence, was riding along at a walk and rolling a cigarette, with slack knees and relaxed seat, the reins37 lying on the animal's neck. Bob whirled abruptly39 and with lightning swiftness, pivoting40 on his hind legs, his fore25 legs just lifted clear of the ground. Daylight found himself with his right foot out of the stirrup and his arms around the animal's neck; and Bob took advantage of the situation to bolt down the road. With a hope that he should not encounter Dede Mason at that moment, Daylight regained41 his seat and checked in the horse.
Arrived back at the same spot, Bob whirled again. This time Daylight kept his seat, but, beyond a futile42 rein36 across the neck, did nothing to prevent the evolution. He noted43 that Bob whirled to the right, and resolved to keep him straightened out by a spur on the left. But so abrupt38 and swift was the whirl that warning and accomplishment44 were practically simultaneous.
"Well, Bob," he addressed the animal, at the same time wiping the sweat from his own eyes, "I'm free to confess that you're sure the blamedest all-fired quickest creature I ever saw. I guess the way to fix you is to keep the spur just a-touching—ah! you brute45!"
For, the moment the spur touched him, his left hind leg had reached forward in a kick that struck the stirrup a smart blow. Several times, out of curiosity, Daylight attempted the spur, and each time Bob's hoof46 landed the stirrup. Then Daylight, following the horse's example of the unexpected, suddenly drove both spurs into him and reached him underneath47 with the quirt.
"You ain't never had a real licking before," he muttered as Bob, thus rudely jerked out of the circle of his own impish mental processes, shot ahead.
Half a dozen times spurs and quirt bit into him, and then Daylight settled down to enjoy the mad magnificent gallop. No longer punished, at the end of a half mile Bob eased down into a fast canter. Wolf, toiling48 in the rear, was catching49 up, and everything was going nicely.
"I'll give you a few pointers on this whirling game, my boy," Daylight was saying to him, when Bob whirled.
He did it on a gallop, breaking the gallop off short by fore legs stiffly planted. Daylight fetched up against his steed's neck with clasped arms, and at the same instant, with fore feet clear of the ground, Bob whirled around. Only an excellent rider could have escaped being unhorsed, and as it was, Daylight was nastily near to it. By the time he recovered his seat, Bob was in full career, bolting the way he had come, and making Wolf side-jump to the bushes.
"All right, darn you!" Daylight grunted50, driving in spurs and quirt again and again. "Back-track you want to go, and back-track you sure will go till you're dead sick of it."
When, after a time, Bob attempted to ease down the mad pace, spurs and quirt went into him again with undiminished vim51 and put him to renewed effort. And when, at last, Daylight decided that the horse had had enough, he turned him around abruptly and put him into a gentle canter on the forward track. After a time he reined52 him in to a stop to see if he were breathing painfully.
Standing53 for a minute, Bob turned his head and nuzzled his rider's stirrup in a roguish, impatient way, as much as to intimate that it was time they were going on.
"Well, I'll be plumb54 gosh darned!" was Daylight's comment. "No ill-will, no grudge55, no nothing-and after that lambasting! You're sure a hummer, Bob."
Once again Daylight was lulled56 into fancied security. For an hour Bob was all that could be desired of a spirited mount, when, and as usual without warning, he took to whirling and bolting. Daylight put a stop to this with spurs and quirt, running him several punishing miles in the direction of his bolt. But when he turned him around and started forward, Bob proceeded to feign57 fright at trees, cows, bushes, Wolf, his own shadow—in short, at every ridiculously conceivable object. At such times, Wolf lay down in the shade and looked on, while Daylight wrestled58 it out.
So the day passed. Among other things, Bob developed a trick of making believe to whirl and not whirling. This was as exasperating59 as the real thing, for each time Daylight was fooled into tightening60 his leg grip and into a general muscular tensing of all his body. And then, after a few make-believe attempts, Bob actually did whirl and caught Daylight napping again and landed him in the old position with clasped arms around the neck.
And to the end of the day, Bob continued to be up to one trick or another; after passing a dozen automobiles on the way into Oakland, suddenly electing to go mad with fright at a most ordinary little runabout. And just before he arrived back at the stable he capped the day with a combined whirling and rearing that broke the martingale and enabled him to gain a perpendicular61 position on his hind legs. At this juncture62 a rotten stirrup leather parted, and Daylight was all but unhorsed.
But he had taken a liking63 to the animal, and repented64 not of his bargain. He realized that Bob was not vicious nor mean, the trouble being that he was bursting with high spirits and was endowed with more than the average horse's intelligence. It was the spirits and the intelligence, combined with inordinate65 roguishness, that made him what he was. What was required to control him was a strong hand, with tempered sternness and yet with the requisite66 touch of brutal67 dominance.
"It's you or me, Bob," Daylight told him more than once that day.
And to the stableman, that night:—
"My, but ain't he a looker! Ever see anything like him? Best piece of horseflesh I ever straddled, and I've seen a few in my time."
And to Bob, who had turned his head and was up to his playful nuzzling:—
"Good-by, you little bit of all right. See you again next Sunday A.M., and just you bring along your whole basket of tricks, you old son-of-a-gun."
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1
tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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2
wrung
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| 绞( wring的过去式和过去分词 )； 握紧（尤指别人的手）； 把（湿衣服）拧干； 绞掉（水） | |
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3
gravel
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| n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石 | |
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4
champagne
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| n.香槟酒；微黄色 | |
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5
pique
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| v.伤害…的自尊心，使生气 n.不满，生气 | |
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6
boisterously
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| adv.喧闹地，吵闹地 | |
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7
disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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8
constable
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| n.(英国)警察，警官 | |
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9
sneak
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| vt.潜行(隐藏,填石缝)；偷偷摸摸做；n.潜行；adj.暗中进行 | |
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10
chauffeur
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| n.(受雇于私人或公司的)司机；v.为…开车 | |
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11
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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12
chestnut
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| n.栗树，栗子 | |
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13
gallop
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| v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔；飞速发展 | |
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14
riotous
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| adj.骚乱的；狂欢的 | |
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15
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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16
stereotyped
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| adj.(指形象、思想、人物等)模式化的 | |
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17
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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18
dealer
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| n.商人，贩子 | |
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dealers
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| n.商人( dealer的名词复数 )；贩毒者；毒品贩子；发牌者 | |
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20
conflagration
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| n.建筑物或森林大火 | |
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21
sanguine
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| adj.充满希望的，乐观的，血红色的 | |
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22
malice
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| n.恶意，怨恨，蓄意；[律]预谋 | |
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23
blemish
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| v.损害；玷污；瑕疵，缺点 | |
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24
buck
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| n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃 | |
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25
fore
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| adv.在前面；adj.先前的；在前部的；n.前部 | |
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automobiles
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| n.汽车( automobile的名词复数 ) | |
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27
frisky
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| adj.活泼的，欢闹的；n.活泼，闹着玩；adv.活泼地，闹着玩地 | |
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28
curb
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| n.场外证券市场，场外交易；vt.制止，抑制 | |
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29
strap
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| n.皮带，带子；v.用带扣住，束牢；用绷带包扎 | |
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30
permissible
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| adj.可允许的，许可的 | |
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31
prancing
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| v.（马）腾跃( prance的现在分词 ) | |
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32
lexicon
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| n.字典，专门词汇 | |
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33
hind
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| adj.后面的，后部的 | |
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34
tightened
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| 收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）变紧； （使）绷紧； 加紧 | |
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35
lured
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| 吸引，引诱（lure的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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36
rein
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| n.疆绳，统治，支配；vt.以僵绳控制，统治 | |
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37
reins
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| 感情，激情； 缰( rein的名词复数 )； 控制手段； 掌管； （成人带着幼儿走路以防其走失时用的）保护带 | |
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38
abrupt
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| adj.突然的，意外的；唐突的，鲁莽的 | |
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39
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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40
pivoting
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| n.绕轴旋转，绕公共法线旋转v.（似）在枢轴上转动( pivot的现在分词 )；把…放在枢轴上；以…为核心，围绕（主旨）展开 | |
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41
regained
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| 复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地 | |
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42
futile
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| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
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43
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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44
accomplishment
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| n.完成，成就，（pl.）造诣，技能 | |
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45
brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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46
hoof
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| n.(马，牛等的)蹄 | |
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47
underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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48
toiling
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| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的现在分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
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49
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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50
grunted
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
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51
vim
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| n.精力，活力 | |
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52
reined
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| 勒缰绳使（马）停步( rein的过去式和过去分词 )； 驾驭； 严格控制； 加强管理 | |
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53
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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54
plumb
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| adv.精确地，完全地；v.了解意义，测水深 | |
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55
grudge
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| n.不满，怨恨，妒嫉；vt.勉强给，不情愿做 | |
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56
lulled
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| vt.使镇静，使安静（lull的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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57
feign
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| vt.假装，佯作 | |
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58
wrestled
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| v.（与某人）搏斗( wrestle的过去式和过去分词 )；扭成一团；扭打；（与…）摔跤 | |
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59
exasperating
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| adj. 激怒的 动词exasperate的现在分词形式 | |
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60
tightening
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| 上紧，固定，紧密 | |
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61
perpendicular
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| adj.垂直的，直立的；n.垂直线，垂直的位置 | |
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62
juncture
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| n.时刻，关键时刻，紧要关头 | |
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63
liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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64
repented
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| 对（自己的所为）感到懊悔或忏悔( repent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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65
inordinate
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| adj.无节制的；过度的 | |
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66
requisite
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| adj.需要的，必不可少的；n.必需品 | |
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67
brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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