Part 11 (1/2)

”I got hit in the back o' the head with a golf ball once,” he flares back real angry; ”an' that showed me a lot o' brightness, too. I don't want no more brightness, an' I don't intend to ride to-day.”

I was especial pleased at the human traits he was displayin'. He hadn't acted so healthy an' natural since he'd been with us, an' I was encouraged to keep on with the treatment. ”You will have to ride with us, even if we have to tie you on,” I sez. ”We are now close to the Injun country, an' we're responsible for you. O' course the' ain't any danger from regular war parties; but Injun boys is just as full o'

devilment as white boys, an' they haven't as many safety valves.

They're all the time sneakin' off an' playin' at war, an' they play a purty stiff game, too, believe me. If a dozen o' these voting bucks, eighteen or twenty years old, was to stalk us, they'd try most earnest to lift our hair.”

”I'd as soon be killed one way as another,” he sez. ”I can't stand it to ride, an' that's all the' is to it.”

Here was a queer thing: the little cuss actually wasn't afeared of Injuns, which I had counted on as my big card. Nerves or no nerves, Horace Walpole Bradford wasn't no coward; 'cause we are all afeared o'

crazy folks, an' he thought Tank was crazy. If Tank had had two good eyes, chances are he wouldn't 'a' feared him; so I kicked Tank in the side an' woke him up.

CHAPTER TEN

INJUNS!

Well, we sure had a hard time gettin' Horace in the saddle that day.

He was some like a burro, small but strong minded. Finally he agreed to try it if we would put the saddle-blanket on top the saddle instead of underneath.

”The hoss don't need it as bad as I do,” sez he; ”'cause he's covered all over with hoss-hide an' has hair for paddin' besides; and furthermore, the saddle is lined with sheepskin underneath, while it's as hard as iron on top; and I'm just like a boil wherever I touch it.”

We told him that a hard saddle was lots the easiest as soon as a feller got used to it; but he broke in an' said he didn't expect to live that long, an' that we could take our choice of leavin' him, or puttin' the saddle-blanket on top. The's lots of folks with the notion that a soft saddle or a soft chair or a soft bed is the easiest; an'

it ain't much use to argue with 'em, though the truth is, that if a feller lived on goslin' down, he'd get stuck with a pin feather some day an' die o' loss of blood; while if he lived on jagged stones, he'd finally wear into 'em until he had a smooth, perfect fittin' mold for his body. Still, the truth is only the truth to them 'at can see it; so we put the blanket on top, an' perched Horace astride it.

He stood it two hours, an' then said it was stretchin' his legs so 'at he was afeared a sudden jerk would split him to the chin; an' then we put the saddle on right, an' he found it full as easy as it had been the day before. The best way, an' the easiest an' the quickest, to toughen up, is just to toughen up. The human body can stand almost anything in the way o' hards.h.i.+p. After it has sent up word, hour after hour, that it is bein' hurt, an' no attention gets paid to it, why, it sets to work to remedy things on its own hook. In order to ride comfortable, a lot of muscles have to loosen an' stretch. Most o' the pain in ridin' comes from ridin' with set muscles. A feller can't balance easy with set muscles, it's just one strainin' jerk after another, an' the trick o' ridin' is to move with the horse. Just as soon as ya get to goin' right along with the hoss, loose an' rubbery, you take the strain off o' both you an' him; but while you're b.u.mpin'

again' him, it's painful for both.

We rode about forty miles that day; and at the end of it Horace wasn't complainin' any worse 'n at the start. Well, he couldn't, as far as that goes; but his body had already begun to find the motion o' the hoss. Of course he hadn't learned to balance, an' he still rode rigid; but we had give him an easy-gaited old hammock, an' when we drew up to make camp, he sat on his hoss without holdin' to the horn, an' said he was beginnin' to like it. When Tank lifted him down, though, his legs wobbled under him like rubber an' he squashed down in a heap, groanin'. We let him sleep where he lit while we were gettin' supper; 'cause we was sure he would need it before mornin'. He wasn't nervous any longer; all he wanted was food, sleep, an' a lung full o' tobacco smoke. I felt rather proud o' my treatment.

Tank had to boot him about purty freely to waken him up enough to take his vittles; but he took a good lot of 'em, an' I was glad of it, 'cause this was the night the Injuns were goin' to attack us, an' he wasn't scheduled to have any more solid nourishment until we got back to the ranch house. After supper he went to his pipe like a young duck to a puddle o' water. He hadn't learned to handle his moisture while smokin' a pipe, an' when the pipe began to gargle, he muttered a little cuss-word under his breath. H. Walpole Bradford was comin' out wonderful.

The stiffenin' had all blew out o' the rim of his hat, givin' the sun full swing at him, an' his nose looked like a weakly tomato flung in a bed o' geraniums. He had wrinkled up his face around where his gla.s.ses fit, an' now with the sun gone down his skin had loosened up again, showin' the unburned wrinkles like painted marks. He sure did look tough! He was wearin' a gray suit with a belt around the middle an'

canvas leggins.

Along about nine o'clock he nodded over into the fire, right at the most excitin' part of an Injun tale which Tank was makin' up for his especial benefit. We fished him out an' shook him awake; but he came to as cross as a hornet, an' swore he was goin' to sleep right where he was with all his clothes on.

”You're a wise pigeon to sleep with your clothes on, to-night,” sez Tank; ”'cause this is the Injun country, an' ya can't tell what'll happen; but the best plan for us to do is to divide up an' keep watch durin' the night.”

”Keep watch!” yells Horace, glarin' at Tank. ”I wouldn't keep watch to-night if I was bound to a torture stake. You can keep watch if you want to-an' it wouldn't discommode you no more 'n if you was an owl.

Your dog-gone, doubly condemned nerves won't let you nor any one else sleep-but I'm goin' to get some rest if I die for it.”

”You're a nice one, you are!” sez Tank. ”This here expedition was got up just on account o' your nerves, an' now that we've come to the most important point of all, why, you flam out an' put all the risk on us.”

”You make me tired,” sez Horace, scowlin' at Tank as fierce as a cornered mouse. ”If you're so everlastin' feared o' the Injuns-what ya got this bloomin' fire for?”

”We don't intend to sleep near the fire, Mr. Bradford,” sez I, soothin'. ”We intend to roll up our beds like as if we was in 'em an'

then sneak off into the bushes an' sleep. We don't want any trouble if we can avoid it. If you'll notice, you'll see we haven't turned the hosses out to-night.”

”These here Injuns is livin' on a reservation,” sez he, ”an' I don't believe 'at they'd dare outrage us.”

I was indignant with the little cuss for not bein' afeared of Injuns.