The Winslow mail., 1899-02-18
II Race Emots Border ToEk

| Then there is trouble.
1t was the first week in July. In the
| broiling hot sun of q northwest sum-
mer there had come across the Battle
river the Blackfeet, the Sarcees, the
| Piegans, and their cousins from Mon
tana, with the swiftest horses of the
south, to try conclusions on the race
track with their hereditary enemies,
the great Cree nation, as they had done
in other days in bloody foray and fierce
ly fought battle before the white man
came. And the white man was there,
racing, betting and haggling over con-
ditions in the Lingua Franco he had
picked up fromthe half breed. And the
half breed found, perhaps, on that race
track the only place where his dual ma
ture gave him an advantage over both.
For four or five days there had been
racing from daylight to- dark, handi-
caps, private races, tribe races, races
according to the programme, races of
all kinds and at all times. Anyone
| wanting race could be accommodated,
and many wanted. The fever of the
race possessed white, red and mixed.
1t was saturnalia of sport.
All night long, in the hundreds of
tepees throughout the bluffs which sur
rounded the beautifully level plain that
did duty as the course, the games of
skill and chance, from the legerdemain
of the Cree stick game to draw poker,
went on to the accompaniment of the
tom-toms.
Lying in a shack, half mile away,
on the outskirts of the settlement, the
American could tell by the time of the
monotonous Indian drums whether the
stakes were high or the play was fast
and furious. The.Englishman dropped
in after midnight. He had bought him.
self out of the mounted police few
weeks before; said barracks were dull,
that the Canadian Pacific railway had
knocked all charm out of western life,
the American and made him get up
~ HD u
He wanted to talk to him When the
Englishman talked, which seldom,
he was worth listening to, and the
American got up. Before the English
man had finished, he had dressed him
self.
And then they went out and stole
horse.
The fact that the horse was the prop
erty of the major commanding troop
of the Northwest mounted police added
piquancy to the theft. The American,
who was lawyer and had legal con-
science, called it borrowing" The
Englishman said he didn't care rap
what 1T was called, the majors horse
was the only thing in the district on
four legs that could beat Grey VOLTS
Pinto mare, and they had to have him.
Grey VOLTS Pinto was known far be-
yound the Blackfeet, and the American
suggested that even the majors troop
horse hadn't speed enough, grain-fed
though he was, and he hinted some
thing about doping the mare under the
circumstances. The Englishman
loved a horse. and as they strobe along
in the moonlight toward the gate of
the palisaded police fort, he said that
doping horse was worse than murder,
that he wouldn't be party to 1t, and
that the girl wouldn't do it for so
y
up with the Pinto, and he believed loved
| the pony.
Then the Englishman went and lied
| to the sergeant of the guard, and hint
ed Iaysteriously about an Indian rising
and his secret mission, as an old police
man, from the major to carry dis
patches to a fort so miles away. And
hn nj fo1f Ao+ No.
taken into the confidence of his chief
| and was duly impressed with the idea
of an Indian rising; the said hope be-
ing the something that keeps the red
coated riders of the plains alive; and
he told the gate and stable sentries not
to say anything about the absence of
the majors horse or the ma jor would
be mad.
The Englishman and the American
then took the majors horse away and
painted out beautiful white star in
| his forehead and the three white stock
| ings and the brand mark. The Amer
| leans artistic temperament was
| aroused, and he wanted to paint O.
white star Oh his breast and throw in
few fiourishes on the hind quarters,
but the Englishman said he only want
ed him disguised enough to pass once
| through a crowd, and then if the ma
| jor found out he didn't care-an ex-
ceedingly small am punt. The major
wouldn't miss him until after the race,
as there was no parade i'll the morniI G,
and the sergeant was impressed with
the Embarrassing idea.
1t was late in the afternoon when the
race between Grey VOLTS Pinto and
the Englishman's unknown was called.
Every other event had been dwarf ed
into insignifcance; for wasn't the
swiftest pony Of the south at last
matched? And there was n strange
story being whispered around regard
ing the stakes. The Erglishman, so it
was said, had wagered ten gallons of
contraband whisky against Grey VOLTS
daughter, the beauty of the Blood Re-
serve, that he would beat the Pinto on
a horse he refused to name. 1t was
novel bet. even in that western land
where everything went. Indians might
buy their wives, and oftentimes
wagered them when their stock OF
ponies ran out, but daughter was mt
tie bit different; and in the face of a
prohibitory liquor law to bet ten gal
Ions of whisky with half-rebellious
, Indian, altogether shocked the moral
sense of the Saskatchewan. But the
i. Saskatchewan wanted to see the Pinto