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One could not blame her for glaring jealously while Jean tightened the cinch and remounted, tying her rope to the saddle horn, all ready to pull; with her muscles tensed for the coming struggle with the sand, and perhaps with her horse as well, and with every line of her figure showing how absolutely at home she was in the saddle, and how sure of herself.
Ten days earlier the Estuary had looked like a cinch and Nugent Cassis, who had a reputation for sanity, had been buying it by the yard. Here was stock at nineteen shillings being offered at fivepence, and no rush to take it up even at that price. Everyone knew that Hipps was the moving spirit in the Estuary. His holdings were enormous.
I reckon I cud cinch sum sort o' critter. Yer want me along?" "Perhaps not, Tim. Your disappearance might cause suspicion, and send them after us. My plan is to get away as quietly as possible, and let them believe everything is all right. I want a day or two in which to work, before Rale or Kirby discover we have not gone to Bear Creek.
When, at last, he had mended his cinch and rode Comet out towards the east and the mountains upon the flank of the Poison Hole, he had made up his mind what he was going to do. "It's a gamble," he told himself coolly. "But I guess I've got to gamble now. And I'm going to play it heavy."
But there was nothing superfluous about it. "What do you think of it, Al?" asked one of the company. Todd looked it over, the broad hair girths fore and aft, the big cinch rings and strong stirrup straps. The stirrups were missing. His eye sought the hooks and pegs over the workbench. "Do them things go on it?" he asked, pointing an accusing finger.
His eyes half closed, dreamily. The smoke from his cigarette curled upward in a thin spiral in the still air of the altitudes. His horse, with reins dangling and saddle cinch loosened, cropped the grass which carpeted the meadow. Finally the man arose, tightened the cinch in an absent manner, mounted, and rode back to the trail to continue on his way.
"Hell!" he said, keeping up his acting. "You talk like a woman. Haven't I wasted time enough already without sending someone out here to-morrow morning? What makes you think you're worth it?" He turned his back upon her, hung the stirrup of the saddle on the horn, and began to loosen the cinch. Like the woman that she was, she enjoyed his roughness, his impudence, and candor.
"How is Blackie behaving at present, Mr. Lang?" questioned Grace, stepping over towards the guide, who was readjusting the cinch- girth on the little animal. "Quiet as a kitten after finding a nest of young mice. Better put your revolver in the saddle holster where it will be handy. That's where I carry mine. The lieutenant is stowing his now.
Cow camps change in two months. Some's gone." Raidler nerved himself. "That chap I sent along McGuire did he " "Say," interrupted Pete, rising with a chunk of corn bread in each hand, "that was a dirty shame, sending that poor, sick kid to a cow camp. A doctor that couldn't tell he was graveyard meat ought to be skinned with a cinch buckle.
"Hey, Barr; come out an' gimme a hand in the corral. Busted my cinch all to pieces half a mile out an' how the devil it ever busted like that is " the door slammed shut and softened his monologue. "Would you listen to that!" snorted Barr in an injured tone. "Didn't I go an' tell him near a month ago that his cussed cinch wouldn't hold no better'n a piece of wet paper?"
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