Honoré Willsie

“ Pink still was grinning, but his eyes were hard.
“That gray stallion is worth all the rest of the herd put together,” insisted Hugh. “He belongs to Red Wolf.”
“The hell he does! Red Wolf picked him up on range. Let’s see him prove his right to him.”
Hugh rose from his half-finished meal. “Look here, Pink,” he said, his low voice full of anger, “I’ve stood a good deal from you and yours, and right here is where we break. Old Red Wolf has been a friend of mine ever since I can remember. I’ve eaten and slept and worked with him, and he’s a man, every inch of him. ”

“ Two Indians and a white rider were roping steers in the railroad corral. They worked in a cloud of yellow dust through which their brilliant neckerchiefs could be seen like little darting flames. A huge pack outfit passed Hugh on the south edge of the town; covered wagon bouncing and jangling, pack horses shaking unwilling heads, mules braying—an oil prospector’s outfit returning after a summer’s work.
Hugh worked slowly along toward the bridge which lay a mile beyond the edge of Fort Sioux. ”

“ Fossil jerked his great blue body fretfully and Hugh, catching sight of a mighty spiral of dust rising on the trail from the White Wolves, spurred the horse toward it. The trail led to the Clifton Pass and on into the wild-horse country. Some one must be bringing down a herd. Hugh had a sudden yearning for the old days when he had ridden range on his summer vacations for Bookie, and he set the big roan to the gallop.
Suddenly it seemed to him, as the indescribable odor of plains smote his face, that nothing, nothing was worth his exile in The Lariat ”

“ Then he turned on one of his high heels and moved very hastily out of The Lariat. Hugh looked at Mrs. Ellis, without seeing her, and walked slowly back to Red Wolf’s cot, where he wet the old chief’s bandages. Mrs. Ellis waited until he returned to his chair opposite hers, then, with a sudden flush of tears to her keen eyes at what she read in the twisted smile on Hugh’s lips, she rose to go.
“I’ll not ask you for an answer tonight,” she said. “Life—O life hangs so inscrutably and so fearfully on the unimportant things! ”

“ A stallion gone amuck is almost as dangerous and quite as vicious as a mad elephant. Hugh hesitated for a moment. Eagle Wing, over by the watering ford, was helping his father to his feet. The old Indian apparently was terribly injured. Hugh backed Fossil slowly along the bridge until he was far enough from the huge battle on the bridgehead to avoid the lunging and terrible hoofs. He swung his rope carefully, caught the rearing gray around the two forelegs and as the great brute fell he turned Fossil and ran him to within a few yards of the stalled jitney. ”

“ I know what goes to making that kind of a man. You are not at all the man with a single-track mind you think you are. Mr. Stewart, if you were given the chance to fight for the Children’s Code, would you fight?”
Hugh refilled his pipe, carefully. “I was thinking about that Code this afternoon while I was gathering in Red Wolf’s horses. Curious, isn’t it? It’s building for the future, while I am digging up the past. Yet, I’m hanged if I don’t think it takes the same kind of pipe-dreaming minds to believe in either of them.”
Mrs. Ellis considered this carefully and at length. ”

“ Ellis and her friends. “What did you do with the gray stallion, Pink? I couldn’t find him in the railroad corral.”
Pink grinned. “O I put him where he’d be safe! He’s too good for an Indian. Guess I’ll keep him to square old Red Wolf’s board bill.”
“Your wife has already circumvented that by arranging to have him put in The Lariat tonight,” returned Hugh, grimly. “Don’t try any of your funny work about the gray, Pink. I won’t stand for it.” ”

“ Anybody else hurt?” asked Fred feebly.
“Old Red Wolf is pretty badly cut up and there’s a hellish mess among the horses by the ford. I’ll go back there and put the brutes out of their misery. Can you get him over to the Doc without me, Marten? Then I’ll stay here and ride herd. Mrs. Morgan was still stalled on the bridge when I left. Look out for the stallion I’ve got roped there.”
Fred looked up at Hugh reproachfully. “I told you that woman would ruin me,” he said. “I tell you, I’m through with her now. I’m going back to fossil digging.” ”

“ He was only experiencing once more in this contact with the Children’s Code Committee that old and universally contemptuous attitude of the American toward the man whose work did not show an obvious and practical contact with life. ”