The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-02-19
A CALIFORNIA MUSTANG.

! telegrapned 10 the OceS nOISc OOCtOI IL
San Francisco:
Take the next train, come out to my
farm. and do what you can for my mus
tang"
The doctor went, found an old saddle
horse, long past usefulness, in fact
dying, and returned, wondering what
made the rancher so anxious about the
animal
Others wondered, too, until the story
was one day told TO a few friends who
were visiting at the old ranch house near
the foothills. There is perhaps nothing
in the affair which marks it as different
from many occurrences on the frontier,
where homes are far apart, and where
life itself may sometimes depend upon a
saddle horses speed and bottom. But,
told as the rancher told it at his own ia
BILE, it was story that long chung to the
memory.
cit was more than thirty years ago,
he said. 81 was IS years old, and had
! been away from home attending school.
/ When l came back to the ranch in Kern,
near the foothills, my mother came cry
/ ing to the door to meet me.
My little sister was very i'll. She
was only 6 years old, my pet and de-
/ light, and my mother was a widow. An
elder sister was in Tuolumne teaching
school; my brother, who managed the
ranch, had gone to Stanislaus to buy
sheep, and mother and baby were alone.
1t was eight miles to the nearest village
and stage station, from which place
had walked, reaching the house at dark.
l went in and found little Mary uncon-
scious; my mother could not tell what
was the matter. raE down to the past
ure and called my colt, Major, the best
horse l ever owned. He came at once,
and l saddled him and rode off at a
gallOp.
1T was early winter, and rain had
made the road heavy; cloudy all day. a
drizzle began before had been five min
utes in the saddle. ] had neither whip
nor spur. Now and then l spoke to
Major, and he knew there was work be-
fore him. Two miles we went without
a pause, the road dead level and so
slippery that / could feel Major slide
like log on a frosted sidewalk; but he
managed to keep to his feet and resume
his wild pace. He took the bit III his
teeth and ran, snorting with excitement;
for year he had not been ridden, and
his muscles were steel, his lungs like a
steam engine. let MIN walk for a few
moments, then let him have his head
again and again, until he swept into the
village in a tearing gallOp.
"'Not here was the answer, as ham
mered at the poctors door. Gone ten
miles into the foothills to the old Be-
mont place
That was east in a direct line. and
three miles south was another village
where perhaps doctor could be found.
If not it was but a few minutes lost,
for another road could be taken to Be
mont's.
again the wild pace under the clouded
sky and cold rain, thoughts of my lonely
mother and little sister urging me to yet
greater haste. The road was hard. with
thin coating of mud that spattered me
sharply in my face. lived over in mem
DRY every scene of ouS lives, every word
said to my sister, every act done in the
past-her arms about my neck in thanks
for some simple gift; long days behind
the plow, with her toddling feet in the
furrow; child asleep in the summer
grass, a bunch of wild peoples in her
chubby hand, the calico sunbonnet tossed
back from the curly head. Then l re-
membered that when Invent away moth
er wrote me that every day little Mary
asked: Won't brother Tom come home
tonight? l want to see brother Tom
well, | reached the village and found
that the doctor, who lived there. was
sick himself. Nothing to do but TO start
for Bemont'S. Again the gallop. no
longer on level roads. but through roll
ing hills and under a darkness that was
Egyptian. We were descending into a
hollow between high hills. The road
was narrow, dark. slippery, ana the soft
sound of falling rain drowned the noise
OF wheels. Through a break in the east
ern clouds the stars shone out above the
hill crest. Suddenly. instantly. without
a stroke of warning. there loomed up
before me. dreadful as De Quincey's
Vision of Sudden Death. a vast moving
pile, SIX mules, a Carson wagon ore laden
10 the brlm, a sleepy driver nodding on
ms seat-and tearing into that mass Of
wood. iron, stone and animal life was a
tired horse with a heartSick rider.
simultaneously the discovery came
upon Us all The driver awoke with a
loud, atfrighted cry, the snorung mules
sprang back in a wild group; I heard
wniffietrees and harness snap. and a sud
den fash OF lightning lighted up the dark
hollow between the hills 10 the very feet
Of the frightened animals OF myself
could do nothing. so narrow was the
space between, so brief the time LETT for
thought. But the instinct Of the horse
/ rode vas my salvation. On one side Of I
the road was a shallow ditch. on the
other steep wall OF rock Major gath
cred himself Up and made a leap side
ways. screaming as ne sprsng. and we
landed safely below. clearing by few
inches the tangled leaders and the great
wheel Of the ore wagon. Wild with ter
Tor sui. Major began 70 ran as he had
rot run before. He clirbed tne bank
again. and resumed his tearing pace
along the roadway, his long mare blown
over my face b. the wind Of his terrible
fight.
That night in the village TIE team .
ster told his cronies that 4 ferocious look (
ing Mexican kighwaymzn rad ridden
down upon him. frightened his mules /