the Light Of Western Stars (1992) (15 page)

"Yes
.
"

"Well, I will not change his name
.
But, Al, how shall I ever climb up on him?He's taller than I am
.
What a giant of a horse!Oh, look at him-he's nosing my hand
.
I really believe he understood what I said
.
Al, did you ever see such a splendid head and such beautiful eyes?They are so large and dark and soft-and human
.
Oh, I am a fickle woman, for I am forgetting White Stockings
.
"

"I'll gamble he'll make you forget any other horse," said Alfred
.
"You'll have to get on him from the porch
.
"

As Madeline was not dressed for the saddle, she did not attempt to mount
.

"Come, Majesty-how strange that sounds!-we must get acquainted
.
You have now a new owner, a very severe young woman who will demand loyalty from you and obedience, and some day, after a decent period, she will expect love
.
"

Madeline led the horse to and fro, and was delighted with his gentleness
.
She discovered that he did not need to be led
.
He came at her call, followed her like a pet dog, rubbed his black muzzle against her
.
Sometimes, at the turns in their walk, he lifted his head and with ears forward looked up the trail by which he had come, and beyond the foothills
.
He was looking over the range
.
Some one was calling to him, perhaps, from beyond the mountains
.
Madeline liked him the better for that memory, and pitied the wayward cowboy who had parted with his only possession for very love of it
.

That afternoon when Alfred lifted Madeline to the back of the big roan she felt high in the air
.

"We'll have a run out to the mesa," said her brother, as he mounted
.
"Keep a tight rein on him and ease up when you want him to go faster
.
But don't yell in his ear unless you want Florence and me to see you disappear on the horizon
.
"

He trotted out of the yard, down by the corrals, to come out on the edge of a gray, open flat that stretched several miles to the slope of a mesa
.
Florence led, and Madeline saw that she rode like a cowboy
.
Alfred drew on to her side, leaving Madeline in the rear
.
Then the leading horses broke into a gallop
.
They wanted to run, and Madeline felt with a thrill that she would hardly be able to keep Majesty from running, even if she wanted to
.
He sawed on the tight bridle as the others drew away and broke from pace to gallop
.
Then Florence put her horse into a run
.
Alfred turned and called to Madeline to come along
.

"This will never do
.
They are running away from us," said Madeline, and she eased up her hold on the bridle
.
Something happened beneath her just then; she did not know at first exactly what
.
As much as she had been on horseback she had never ridden at a running gait
.
In New York it was not decorous or safe
.
So when Majesty lowered and stretched and changed the stiff, jolting gallop for a wonderful, smooth, gliding run it required Madeline some moments to realize what was happening
.
It did not take long for her to see the distance diminishing between her and her companions
.
Still they had gotten a goodly start and were far advanced
.
She felt the steady, even rush of the wind
.
It amazed her to find how easily, comfortably she kept to the saddle
.
The experience was new
.
The one fault she had heretofore found with riding was the violent shaking-up
.
In this instance she experienced nothing of that kind, no strain, no necessity to hold on with a desperate awareness of work
.
She had never felt the wind in her face, the whip of a horse's mane, the buoyant, level spring of a tanning gait
.
It thrilled her, exhilarated her, fired her blood
.
Suddenly she found herself alive, throbbing; and, inspired by she knew not what, she loosened the bridle and, leaning far forward, she cried, "Oh, you splendid fellow, run!"

She heard from under her a sudden quick clattering roar of hoofs, and she swayed back with the wonderfully swift increase in Majesty's speed
.
The wind stung her face, howled in her ears, tore at her hair
.
The gray plain swept by on each side, and in front seemed to be waving toward her
.
In her blurred sight Florence and Alfred appeared to be coming back
.
But she saw presently, upon nearer view, that Majesty was overhauling the other horses, was going to pass them
.
Indeed, he did pass them, shooting by so as almost to make them appear standing still
.
And be ran on, not breaking his gait till he reached the steep side of the mesa, where he slowed down and stopped
.

"Glorious!" exclaimed Madeline
.
She was all in a blaze, and every muscle and nerve of her body tingled and quivered
.
Her hands, as she endeavored to put up the loosened strands of hair, trembled and failed of their accustomed dexterity
.
Then she faced about and waited for her companions
.

Alfred reached her first, laughing, delighted, yet also a little anxious
.

"Holy smoke!But can't he run?Did he bolt on you?"

"No, I called in his ear," replied Madeline
.

"So that was it
.
That's the woman of you, and forbidden fruit
.
Flo said she'd do it the minute she was on him
.
Majesty, you can ride
.
See if Flo doesn't say so
.
"

The Western girl came up then with her pleasure bright in her face
.

"It was just great to see you
.
How your hair burned in the wind! Al, she sure can ride
.
Oh, I'm so glad!I was a little afraid
.
And that horse!Isn't he grand?Can't he run?"

Alfred led the way up the steep, zigzag trail to the top of the mesa
.
Madeline saw a beautiful flat surface of short grass, level as a floor
.
She uttered a little cry of wonder and enthusiasm
.

"Al, what a place for golf!This would be the finest links in the world
.
"

Well, I've thought of that myself," he replied
.
"The only trouble would be-could anybody stop looking at the scenery long enough to hit a ball?Majesty, look!"

And then it seemed that Madeline was confronted by a spectacle too sublime and terrible for her gaze
.
The immensity of this red-ridged, deep-gulfed world descending incalculable distances refused to be grasped, and awed her,shocked her
.

"Once, Majesty, when I first came out West, I was down and out- determined to end it all," said Alfred
.
"And happened to climb up here looking for a lonely place to die
.
When I saw that I changed my mind
.
"

Madeline was silent
.
She remained so during the ride around the rim of the mesa and down the steep trail
.
This time Alfred and Florence failed to tempt her into a race
.
She had been awe-struck; she had been exalted she had been confounded; and she recovered slowly without divining exactly what had come to her
.

She reached the ranch-house far behind her companions, and at supper-time was unusually thoughtful
.
Later, when they assembled on the porch to watch the sunset, Stillwell's humorous complainings inspired the inception of an idea which flashed up in her mind swift as lightning
.
And then by listening sympathetically she encouraged him to recite the troubles of a poor cattleman
.
They were many and long and interesting, and rather numbing to the life of her inspired idea
.

Mr
.
Stillwell, could ranching here on a large scale, with up-to-date methods, be made-well, not profitable, exactly, but to pay-to run without loss?" she asked, determined to kill her new-born idea at birth or else give it breath and hope of life
.

"Wal, I reckon it could," he replied, with a short laugh
.
"It'd sure be a money-maker
.
Why, with all my bad luck an' poor equipment I've lived pretty well an' paid my debts an' haven't really lost any money except the original outlay
.
I reckon thet's sunk fer good
.
"

"Would you sell-if some one would pay your price?"

"Miss Majesty, I'd jump at the chance
.
Yet somehow I'd hate to leave hyar
.
I'd jest be fool enough to go sink the money in another ranch
.
"

"Would Don Carlos and these other Mexicans sell?"

"They sure would
.
The Don has been after me fer years, wantin' to sell thet old rancho of his; an' these herders in the valley with their stray cattle, they'd fall daid at sight of a little money
.
"

"Please tell me, Mr
.
Stillwell, exactly what you would do here if you had unlimited means?" went on Madeline
.

"Good Lud!" ejaculated the rancher, and started so he dropped his pipe
.
Then with his clumsy huge fingers he refilled it, relighted it, took a few long pulls, puffed great clouds of smoke, and, squaring round, hands on his knees, he looked at Madeline with piercing intentness
.
His hard face began to relax and soften and wrinkle into a smile
.

"Wal, Miss Majesty, it jest makes my old heart warm up to think of sich a thing
.
I dreamed a lot when I first come hyar
.
What would I do if I hed unlimited money?Listen
.
I'd buy out Don Carlos an' the Greasers
.
I'd give a job to every good cowman in this country
.
I'd make them prosper as I prospered myself
.
I'd buy all the good horses on the ranges
.
I'd fence twenty thousand acres of the best grazin'
.
I'd drill fer water in the valley
.
I'd pipe water down from the mountains
.
I'd dam up that draw out there
.
A mile-long dam from hill to hill would give me a big lake, an' hevin' an eye fer beauty, I'd plant cottonwoods around it
.
I'd fill that lake full of fish
.
I'd put in the biggest field of alfalfa in the South-west
.
I'd plant fruit-trees an' garden
.
I'd tear down them old corrals an' barns an' bunk-houses to build new ones
.
I'd make this old rancho some comfortable an' fine
.
I'd put in grass an' flowers all around an' bring young pine-trees down from the mountains
.
An' when all thet was done I'd sit in my chair an' smoke an' watch the cattle stringin' in fer water an' stragglin' back into the valley
.
An' I see the cowboys ridin' easy an' heah them singin' in their bunks
.
An' thet red sun out there wouldn't set on a happier man in the world than Bill Stillwell, last of the old cattlemen
.
"

Madeline thanked the rancher, and then rather abruptly retired to her room, where she felt no restraint to hide the force of that wonderful idea, now full-grown and tenacious and alluring
.

Upon the next day, late in the afternoon, she asked Alfred if it would be safe for her to ride out to the mesa
.

"I'll go with you," he said, gaily
.

"Dear fellow, I want to go alone," she replied
.

"Ah!" Alfred exclaimed, suddenly serious
.
He gave her just a quick glance, then turned away
.
"Go ahead
.
I think it's safe
.
I'll make it safe by sitting here with my glass and keeping an eye on you
.
Be careful coming down the trail
.
Let the horse pick his way
.
That's all
.
"