Bad Grrlz' Guide to Reality: The Complete Novels Wild Angel and Adventures in Time and Space with Max Merriwell (24 page)

Cassidy missed the other members of the troupe. Lulu, the young woman in the painting on the side of the wagon had been lured away after the show performed in San Francisco. A wealthy miner had wooed her and won her, marrying her three days after they met. In the mining town of Hell’s Half Acre, Charlie, the World’s Tallest Man, had tried his hand at gold panning, found a nugget as big as his thumb, and immediately staked a claim. He had tried to talk Cassidy into staying and staking a claim, but Cassidy had decided to stick with the Professor. He didn’t feel right abandoning him.

Gyro Serunca was an old family friend. Cassidy’s father had traveled with him, many years ago. Professor Serunca had stopped to visit the Orton family on his way to Siam and had, quite casually, asked Cassidy if he wanted to come along and be part of a California tour. “You could meet me in San Francisco a year and a half from now,” the Professor said. “After I arrange for an elephant.”

During his travels in the States, the professor said, he had heard a phrase used by those setting forth for California. “I am going to see the elephant,” they would say. According to legend, a farmer on his way to town with a wagon of vegetables had encountered a circus parade. Startled by the elephant, his horses had bolted, overturning his wagon and ruining his vegetables. The farmer had reacted with equanimity. “I don’t care,” he said. “I have seen the elephant.”

An exotic adventure with a high price—that was seeing the elephant. “I think it is only appropriate to bring an elephant to California,” he told Cassidy. “It seems only fair that those who have gone to see the elephant can truly see the elephant.”

When Cassidy told his father of the Professor’s plan and asked for advice, Cassidy’s father had been unequivocal. “If you have a chance to travel with Gyro, take it,” he said. “He is one of the greats. It won’t be easy, but it’ll be the adventure of a lifetime.”

With his father’s blessing, Cassidy had left the family show and traveled to California for the adventure of a lifetime. At present, the adventure looked rather bleak. The show was at a low ebb. But Cassidy knew that the Professor would revitalize it somehow. He was as confident in that as the Professor was in the trail.

It was late afternoon when the Professor called to Cassidy and said in a tone of great puzzlement, “We seem to have lost the trail.”

They had followed the stream into a wide valley. The dry brown grass showed no sign that people had passed that way.

“Yes, I’d say we have,” he agreed. He did not bother to remind the Professor that he had suggested this some hours earlier.

“Well, perhaps it would be best to camp here.” The Professor gazed around him, considering the valley. “It’s a beautiful spot, after all. We’ll find the way in the morning.”

And so Professor Gyro Serunca’s Wagon of Wonders and Traveling Circus made camp on the edge of the meadow where the horses could graze, not far from the creek where Ruby could bathe.

Sarah sat in a cottonwood tree across the meadow from where the Professor was working with the poodles. She had watched as the scent, but they looked nothing like the mangy curs that lived at the Indian village.

As the dogs left the wagon, the Professor had crouched in the grass and greeted each dog individually, scratching this one’s ears, rubbing that one’s belly, wrestling just a bit with another one. Cassidy hobbled two of the horses, then put them out to graze. He tended to the third horse, a white mare, currying the dust from her coat and talking to her as he did so. The elephant grazed with the horses.

Sarah watched, sorting out the hierarchy in this strange pack. The Professor was clearly the alpha male. All of the dogs deferred to him. So did Cassidy and, as near as she could tell, Ruby. At a guess, she figured that Ruby was the alpha female—she deferred to no one other than the Professor. Among the dogs, the smallest white poodle appeared to be the ranking female.

In the few hours of daylight that remained, the Professor worked with his poodles, who had been misbehaving lately. In the act’s finale, the dogs were supposed to form a pyramid, with the three standard poodles as the base, the two miniature poodles in the second tier, and Snowflake at the top. Lately, Pepper, the black standard poodle, had taken to wandering out of place when the pyramid was almost complete. At the last performance, Pepper had decided to lie down without warning and the pyramid had collapsed into a heap of squabbling dogs.

The ensuing dogfight had delighted the miners at French Corral. Betting had been fierce. When Snowflake, with a feistiness that belied her size, chased all the larger dogs out of the ring, a short fellow who had bet heavily on the small dog won the pot. Though the audience had been more than satisfied with the performance, the Professor had not been happy. He was determined to put the dogs through their paces until Pepper behaved.

Meanwhile, Cassidy mounted the white mare and rode at an easy gallop around the perimeter of the meadow. They circled the meadow once, then twice. On the third circuit, Cassidy began to practice his trick riding, striking a series of poses on the mare’s back. He started astraddle, then hung off to one side, like an Indian avoiding cavalry fire. He returned to his initial position, then pulled his legs up and stood easily upright, steady as you please. He leaned down and placed his hands on the horse’s back, kicked up his legs, and stood on his hands, as relaxed as if he were on the solid ground.

From her perch, Sarah watched him ride. She was aware, as she watched, that he had another observer. When she climbed the tree, she had caught the scent of a mountain lion, sleeping in a tangle of bushes at the edge of the meadow. Sarah’s keen eyes caught a flicker of movement—the twitching of a tawny tail—and she realized the lion was awake. He was watching the horse and rider with great interest.

The mare completed another circuit of the meadow. Cassidy was shifting from a handstand to a headstand when the mare passed the big cat’s hiding place. At that moment, the lion leapt out, intending to pull the horse down. The mare shied, dancing to one side as the cat bounded after her. The lion’s claws raked the mare’s hindquarters, but failed to get a purchase.

Jerked to one side, Cassidy lost his balance, falling as the horse moved beneath him. A trained acrobat, Cassidy tried to get his legs beneath him, but there was too little time for that. He landed awkwardly, catching his full weight on one leg, which twisted beneath him.

Looking down on the scene, Sarah shook her head, scornful of the big cat’s hunting technique. The lion had attacked too soon. If the hunter had waited, he would have been just behind the horse, taking the prey by surprise.

The mountain lion yowled in frustration as the mare raced across the meadow faster than the cat could follow. Behind the lion, Cassidy was struggling to his feet. When he put weight on his left foot, he collapsed again. Sarah watched with keen interest to see how the man would deal with the lion.

The lion turned to face Cassidy just as he struggled to his feet again, putting as little weight as possible on his twisted ankle. His uncle, Thaddeus Orton, had been a lion tamer. As a lad, Cassidy had assisted his uncle with the big cats. “Never show them you’re afraid,” Thaddeus had told his nephew. “That’s the key.”

Keeping that advice in mind, Cassidy glared at the mountain lion. He had no weapons: His pistol and his buck knife were in the wagon. He struggled to his feet, facing the lion empty-handed.

The lion watched the man through slitted eyes his tail twitching in the meadow grass. Cassidy watched, helpless, as the lion gathered his hindquarters beneath him, preparing to spring on his prey.

At that moment, Sarah tossed her lariat from the cottonwood tree. Its loop settled neatly over the head of the crouching lion. As the cat pulled forward against the lariat, Sarah looped the rope over the branch where she had been sitting and put her full weight on the rope, pulling the big cat backward as she lowered herself to the ground.

The big cat stood with his hind legs on the ground, his forepaws dangling in midair, held up by the noose. He was choking, fighting for air. Sarah tied the free end of the lariat to a sturdy bush and went to where Cassidy stood unsteadily in the grass.

“Hallo,” Sarah said.

Cassidy stared. Sarah had grown from a wild child to become a savage woman of striking beauty. At sixteen years of age, she was slim and graceful and completely unconscious of her own beauty. Her canvas trousers, cut off at the knees, left her slim, muscular legs bare. She wore a red-cotton shirt, stolen from a wagon train, but she had not bothered to button it, the day being warm. As she moved, Cassidy caught tantalizing glimpses of her breasts. Her curly red hair was tied back with a strip of leather.

Sarah stared back. On his last visit, Max had spent some time attempting to teach her manners, telling her that she’d need them when she decided to leave the wilderness. She decided to apply one of Max’s lessons now. “How do you do?” She held out her hand.

Cassidy stared at Sarah and the grimy hand the woman had extended in his direction. “I’ve been better,” he murmured in astonishment. He took her hand, less to shake it than to assure himself that she was real. Holding her hand, he asked, “Who are you? Where the hell did you come from?”

Sarah regarded Cassidy steadily. The man was not following the script, as Max had explained it to Sarah. He was supposed to shake Sarah’s hand, and say, “Very well, thank you. How do you do?” Sarah shrugged, deciding to save Max’s lesson in etiquette for someone who responded appropriately. “I am Sarah. I came from that tree.” She pointed at the cottonwood. Glancing back, she noticed the mountain lion had slumped, dangling unconscious in the noose. Leaving Cassidy, she went to the rope and untied it, lowering the big cat to the ground. She slipped the noose off the animal’s neck. The lion shuddered as she did so, and took a gasping breath.

“What are you doing?” Cassidy shouted from behind her. “That beast will wake up and kill us all.”

Sarah shook her head and walked back to Cassidy, coiling the lariat as she did so. “He is a big coward,” she said. “He will run away as soon as he wakes up. He will not come back.”

Sarah saw no point in killing an animal that she didn’t plan to eat—and she knew from experience that mountain-lion meat was stringy and gamy. She had killed a rabbit earlier that afternoon and wasn’t hungry.

The lion staggered to his feet. As Sarah predicted, the big cat slunk toward the trees. He glanced back over his shoulder, then quickened his pace, loping away.

Cassidy heard dogs barking and looked toward camp. It had taken the Professor a few minutes to gather his forces, but now he was hurrying to the rescue, mounted on Ruby. The poodles ran ahead of the elephant, barking in three different pitches: low from the standard poodles, medium from the miniature poodles, and high-pitched yapping from Snowflake.

“Here comes the Professor,” Cassidy said. “A little too late, but heroic for all of that.” He glanced at the wild woman who had saved him and realized that she might not stick around for this questionable welcoming committee. He reached out and took hold of her hand. “I’m sure the Professor will want to meet you,” he said.

Though she could have easily freed herself from Cassidy’s grip, Sarah waited. These people and their animals intrigued her. She had never seen a pack of humans and animals traveling together like this. Perhaps they knew something about Max.

The poodles reached them first. The dog raced around and around Cassidy and Sarah, barking and sniffing the places where the lion had been.

Such strange creatures, Sarah thought. They smelled like dogs, but their hair was cut in outlandish patterns. Sarah took her hand from Cassidy’s and knelt in the grass to greet them, meeting each approaching dog with a stare that demanded respect. The dogs recognized her look and circled her, maintaining a respectful distance.

Sarah stood up as the elephant approached. Ruby knelt in the grass so that the Professor could climb down. The Professor spoke to Cassidy, but Sarah was staring up at the elephant.

Nothing in the enormous beast’s posture indicated that she was a threat. However strange this animal looked and smelled, she seemed relaxed, friendly. The poodles showed no fear of her, romping around her feet in the dry grass.

Sarah took a step toward Ruby, looking the elephant in the eye. Ruby’s great gray trunk snaked toward the girl. A puff of grassscented, elephant breath ruffled her hair. Sarah reached up and patted the trunk that was sniffing her neck. It felt warm and leathery.

“Ruby likes you,” the Professor observed.

Sarah glanced at him. He smiled as he met her eyes, then he averted his gaze. Sarah returned his smile. Most humans stared, a threatening expression among the wolves. But the Professor clearly understood the proper way to behave. He was smiling; his hands were open; his stance was relaxed.

He met her eyes again. “Thank you very much for your assistance,” he said.

Sarah nodded. Max had, as part of his lesson in etiquette, instructed her on how to deal with thanks. “You are welcome,” she said formally. “Think nothing of it.”

The Professor nodded, still smiling. His eyes narrowed a bit as he sized her up.

Cassidy spoke up then. “Professor, this is Sarah. Sarah, this is Professor Gyro Serunca.”

The Professor tipped his derby hat. “Very pleased to make your acquaintance, Sarah.”

Sarah smiled, happy that this man was using phrases for which Max had prepared her. “Likewise, I’m sure.”

The Professor studied her for a moment. “Perhaps you would agree to accompany us back to our camp,” he suggested. “I would love to talk with you further.”

While the poodles romped around them in the grass, Ruby carried Cassidy back to camp with her trunk wrapped around the man’s waist, just as she had carried Lulu in past performances.

As they walked, the Professor asked questions of Cassidy. “What happened? I looked up and Lightning was running from a lion and you were on the ground.”

Cassidy described what had happened and how Sarah had saved him from the lion. “You were really quite magnificent,” Cassidy told Sarah. He was trying very hard not to stare at her legs. Such lovely legs. But their owner seemed rather fierce, and he did not want to give offense.