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Updated: June 3, 2025
"Boss," said the little negro earnestly, "I don' wish nobody no hard luck, but if somebody got to fall, I hope one of them Irish jocks will fall in front an' git jumped on by ten hawsses!" "Don't make any mistake about it, Curry is wise. He may look like a Methodist preacher gone to seed, but the old scoundrel knows what's going on. He ain't a fool, take it from me!"
"Well, I'm here," growled West, interlarding a few oaths as a necessary corollary of his speech. "What's it all about, McRae? What do you know about the smashing of our barrels?" "I'll settle any reasonable damage," the hunter said. Bully West frowned. He spread his legs deliberately, folded his arms, and spat tobacco juice upon a clean hide drying in the sun. "Hold yore hawsses a minute.
"'What you goin' to bet on? I says. "'Ma own hawss, of co'se, suh, he says. 'It is ma custom to back only ma own hawsses or those of ma friends. "I don't say nothin'. I'm wise by this time, he plays the game to suit hisself, but it sure makes me sick. I hate as bad to see the ole man lose his dough as if it's mine. "I goes over 'n' sets down on the track fence.
It's the only one that will satisfy my friends." "That's true," said Sanders. "Steve Russell is bringin' hawsses," said Bob. "We'll ride out to the Bend to-night and be ready for business there at the first streak of light. Must be some trail left by the hold-ups." Crawford shook his head. "Probably not. Applegate had a posse out there right away. You know Applegate.
"The hawsses are for them." Balaam grunted with displeasure, and thought of the sixty or seventy days since he had told the Judge he would return the horses at once. He looked across at Shorty seated in the shade, and through his uneasy thoughts his instinct irrelevantly noted what a good pony the youth rode. It was the same animal he had seen once or twice before. But something must be done.
"I'd bet a stack of blues he picked these hawsses on purpose probably thought it would be a great joke on Sanders an' his crew." "Well, I don't like it. They've got us where they want us now." Billie did not like it either. To kill a man on the frontier then in fair fight was a misdemeanor. To steal a horse was a capital offense.
Ol 'Lisha jus' tip his to 'em otheh hawsses an' say: ''Scuse me, gen'elmen an' ladies, but I got mos' uhgent business down yondeh 'bout quahteh of a mile; 'em judges waitin' faw me. 'At's what he say, boss. Nothin' to it a-a-atall." "Give him plenty of room, Mose." "Sutny will. Won't git me nothin' stickin' on 'at rail.
The Virginian pulled them back rather sharply. "Want to go back to Balaam's?" he inquired of them. "I thought you had more sense." I asked, "Who was Balaam?" "A maltreater of hawsses," replied the cowpuncher. "His ranch is on Butte Creek oveh yondeh." And he pointed to where the diverging road melted into space. "The Judge bought Buck and Muggins from him in the spring." "So he maltreats horses?"
"How've they kept him single?" "He's been in love with my Aunt Alathea for a good many years, but she won't marry him until he keeps his promise to avoid the race-tracks." "What makes your aunt hate hawsses?" "Oh, she loves good horses, but the Colonel always bets, and, as I have said, it keeps him poor. It's the gambling that she hates, and not the horses.
When he happened to meet you on the way, he would be plumb tickled, for that cinched things proper for him. You would be a witness nobody could get away from." "And what about their hawsses? Did they bring the bronchs in the car, too?" drawled Keller, an amused flicker in his eyes. The others, who had been swimming into their deductions so confidently, were brought up abruptly.
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