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Looking straight off upon the prairie, the mustang gave a faint whinney, as if he scented danger from a point directly opposite to where the figure of the boy was stealing upon him. For a minute the two held these stationary positions; and then, as the lad moved a few inches again, the keen ears of the mustang told him the truth.
It seemed that no living thing could escape from that relentless rider. Then right behind Vic a horse snorted and grunted as it leaped a fallen log, perhaps and he watched in alarm to see if the stallion would answer that sound with start or whinney.
Several untrimmed poles upheld a roof of brush, which was partly fallen in. This house was a Papago Indian habitation, and a month before had been occupied by a family that had been murdered or driven off by a roving band of outlaws. A rude corral showed dimly in the edge of firelight, and from a black mass within came the snort and stamp and whinney of horses.
When he proclaimed that "besides cotton goods, 100,000 pianos were turned out yearly and 8,500 derby hats every day," his audience, set off by Whinney, burst into uproarious applause. The climax was reached when he lowered his voice dramatically and said, "And keep always in mind, O Baahaabaa and friends, that the New England Fur Company uses daily 35,000 rabbit pelts! Gentlemen, I thank you."
"Tell me where you're going. Tell me when you're coming back. Dan, for pity!" Loud as a trumpet, a horse neighed from the corral. Dan had stood with an uncertain face, but now he smiled. "D'you hear? I got to go!" "I heard Satan whinney. But what does that mean? How does that make you go?" "Somewhere," he murmured, "something's happening. I felt it on the wind when I was comin' up the pass."
"Very un-sanitary," said Whinney, "a blackbird ... in the spring ... very un-sanitary." We laughed feebly. Suddenly, as they do in the tropics, an extraordinary thing happened. A simoon, a monsoon and a typhoon met, head on, at the exact corner of the equator and the 180th meridian. We hadn't noticed one of them, they had given us no warning or signal of any kind.
The tone had that marvelous silver clang of the woodland thrush with yet a deeper, human poignancy, a note of passionate longing and endearment, shy but assertive, wild, but oh! so alluring. We chinned ourselves expectantly on the edge of our floor and waited, panting. "A serenade," whispered Swank, and Whinney shush-ed him savagely.
But I may ketch the hoss and take him back." He went up on top of the hill, and saw the horse standing under a tree, apparently pondering over what had happened, and wondering whether he should run farther or remain where he was. The horse gave him a glad whinney of recognition, as if congratulating him on escaping from the crash of matter.
Nevertheless I shall describe it, or rather I shall quote Whinney who at this moment reached his highest point. We were then about three thousand feet above sea-level. I wish I could give his address as it was delivered, in Filbertese, but I fear that my readers would skip, a form of literary exercise which I detest.
An extremely interesting feature of the picture is the presence in the nest of lapa or signal-feather. By close observation, Mr. Whinney, the scientist of the expedition, discovered that whenever the mother-bird left the nest in search of food she always decorated her home with one of her wing feathers which served as a signal to her mate that she would return shortly, which she invariably did.
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