The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains by Owen Wister (beach read book txt) 📗

“I guess she'll not be in a hurry to travel except when she's wanted to,” continued Balaam. He sat down, and sullenly poured himself some coffee. “We'll be in luck if we make any Sunk Creek this night.”

He went on with his breakfast, thinking aloud for the benefit of his companion, who made no comments, preferring silence to the discomfort of talking with a man whose vindictive humor was so thoroughly uppermost. He did not even listen very attentively, but continued his preparations for departure, washing the dishes, rolling the blankets, and moving about in his usual way of easy and visible good nature.

“Six o'clock, already,” said Balaam, saddling the horses. “And we'll not get started for ten minutes more.” Then he came to Pedro. “So you haven't quit fooling yet, haven't you?” he exclaimed, for the pony shrank as he lifted the bridle. “Take that for your sore mouth!” and he rammed the bit in, at which Pedro flung back and reared.

“Well, I never saw Pedro act that way yet,” said the Virginian.

“Ah, rubbish!” said Balaam. “They're all the same. Not a bastard one but's laying for his chance to do for you. Some'll buck you off, and some'll roll with you, and some'll fight you with their fore feet. They may play good for a year, but the Western pony's man's enemy, and when he judges he's got his chance, he's going to do his best. And if you come out alive it won't be his fault.” Balaam paused for a while, packing. “You've got to keep them afraid of you,” he said next; “that's what you've got to do if you don't want trouble. That Pedro horse there has been fed, hand-fed, and fooled with like a damn pet, and what's that policy done? Why, he goes ugly when he thinks it's time, and decides he'll not drive any horses into camp this morning. He knows better now.”

“Mr. Balaam,” said the Virginian, “I'll buy that hawss off yu' right now.”

Balaam shook his head. “You'll not do that right now or any other time,” said he. “I happen to want him.”

The Virginian could do no more. He had heard cow-punchers say to refractory ponies, “You keep still, or I'll Balaam you!” and he now understood the aptness of the expression.

Meanwhile Balaam began to lead Pedro to the creek for a last drink before starting across the torrid drought. The horse held back on the rein a little, and Balaam turned and cut the whip across his forehead. A delay of forcing and backing followed, while the Virginian, already in the saddle, waited. The minutes passed, and no immediate prospect, apparently, of getting nearer Sunk Creek.

“He ain' goin' to follow you while you're beatin' his haid,” the Southerner at length remarked.

“Do you think you can teach me anything about horses?” retorted Balaam.

“Well, it don't look like I could,” said the Virginian, lazily.

“Then don't try it, so long as it's not your horse, my friend.”

Again the Southerner levelled his eye on Balaam. “All right,” he said, in the same gentle voice. “And don't you call me your friend. You've made that mistake twiced.”

The road was shadeless, as it had been from the start, and they could not travel fast. During the first few hours all coolness was driven out of the glassy morning, and another day of illimitable sun invested the world with its blaze. The pale Bow Leg Range was coming nearer, but its hard hot slants and rifts suggested no sort of freshness, and even the pines that spread for wide miles along near the summit counted for nothing in the distance and the glare, but seemed mere patches of dull dry discoloration. No talk was exchanged between the two travellers, for the cow-puncher had nothing to say and Balaam was sulky, so they moved along in silent endurance of each other's company and the tedium of the journey.

But the slow succession of rise and fall in the plain changed and shortened. The earth's surface became lumpy, rising into mounds and knotted systems of steep small hills cut apart by staring gashes of sand, where water poured in the spring from the melting snow. After a time they ascended through the foot-hills till the plain below was for a while concealed, but came again into view in its entirety, distant and a thing of the past, while some magpies sailed down to meet them from the new country they were entering. They passed up through a small transparent forest of dead trees standing stark and white, and a little higher came on a line of narrow moisture that crossed the way and formed a stale pool among some willow thickets. They turned aside to water their horses, and found near the pool a circular spot of ashes and some poles lying, and beside these a cage-like edifice of willow wands built in the ground.

“Indian camp,” observed the Virginian.

There were the tracks of five or six horses on the farther side of the pool, and they did not come into the trail, but led off among the rocks on some system of their own.

“They're about a week old,” said Balaam. “It's part of that outfit that's been hunting.”

“They've gone on to visit their friends,” added the cow-puncher.

“Yes, on the Southern Reservation. How far do you call Sunk Creek now?”

“Well,” said the Virginian, calculating, “it's mighty nigh fo'ty miles from Muddy Crossin', an' I reckon we've come eighteen.”

“Just about. It's noon.” Balaam snapped his watch shut. “We'll rest here till 12:30.”

When it was time to go, the Virginian looked musingly at the mountains. “We'll need to travel right smart to get through the canyon to-night,” he said.

“Tell you what,” said Balaam; “we'll rope the Judge's horses together and drive 'em in front of us. That'll make speed.”

“Mightn't they get away on us?” objected the Virginian. “They're pow'ful wild.”

“They can't get away from me, I guess,” said Balaam, and the arrangement was adopted. “We're the first this season over this piece of the trail,” he observed presently.

His companion had noticed the ground already, and assented. There were no tracks anywhere to be seen over which winter had not come and gone since they had been made. Presently the trail wound into a sultry gulch that hemmed in the heat and seemed to draw down the sun's rays more vertically. The sorrel horse chose this place to make a try for liberty. He suddenly whirled from the trail, dragging with him his less inventive fellow. Leaving the Virginian with the old mare, Balaam headed them off, for Pedro was quick, and they came jumping down the bank together, but swiftly crossed up on the other side, getting much higher before they could be reached. It was no place for this sort of game, as the sides of the ravine were ploughed with steep channels, broken with jutting knobs of rock, and impeded by short twisted pines that swung out from their roots horizontally over the pitch of the hill. The Virginian helped, but used his horse with more judgment, keeping as much on the level as possible, and endeavoring to anticipate the next turn of the runaways before they made it, while Balaam attempted to follow them close, wheeling short