The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-10-11

-Four deuces-and they burn holes in
the dark whenever / shut my eyes.
And all day / see four pairs of devils
dancing in the sunlight till my head
sWimsi"
Frenchy dropped his head upon his
chest n breathed deep, uneven
breaths for a space.
THE Kid had only a pair of face
cards. he continued: "a dinky little
pair of face-cards. And for a second
the man in me came to the surface and
l threw the four hand down and
stamped on it and said l wouldn't
leave him. And what did the Kid do?
Began with all the backyard adjec-
tives of the language and ended with
coward n threw the bunch in my
teeth. You're the first man that ever
called me a gutter, F~renchy,' he said.
i played my hand, didn't 1? What
would you do to a man who'd ask you
to take your money back when you'd
lost? If I'd won, do you think ! would
not leave your carcass here to stew,
you cussed fool?'
And then something in the back of
my head woke up and howled: You
won-its yours-a chance for life-fair
play-he'd go if you Iost-he'd gor
and the flaming night Whirled round,
and the bitter words stung me and my
heart Observation-Disclosures.
Il found n Kid horse saddled and
bridled. | cut the lariat and leaped
astride. | jabbed the spike spurs into
the frightened brute till he roared with
pain. L a forgotten everything. 1
was a Fear without a body flying
through a darkness that coughed smoke
and spit light. And then at last things
quit Whirling and I felt the steady lift,
lifr lift of tho aNAl I-,,t - --,&I
all the devils down a Misunderstanding
stretch for the river.
II turned about in the saddle. Half
the sky had turned into an open fur
mace! Above me a great stormy ocean
of blood rolled on into the twilight of
the east! Blood,-a seething, billowy
sea of red blood. with great red. pur-
ring, cat-torgues tapping it greediIy.
Gaudy giant flOwers-purple, yellow,
red, green-bloomed for a homer in
A strange garden of dreams. and
nodded in the wind and fell and
bloomed again and fell The internal
beauty of the thing fascinated me for
a moment Then / heard the rumbline
the unceasing thunder, 1t was loud
er than before. | thought of the ten
thousand sharp roofs gaining. gaining.
with whips of fire flashing them in the
read. And then | thought of the Kid
back there.
My heart sickened. The hot WING
that scorched my face accused me: the
choking air accused me. I could see
him lying on his face even then with
the mad hoofs beating him into a pulp:
l could see the writhing of bis body as
the heat increased: / could smell he
stencil of his sizzling flesh,
i reeled in the saddle. yet the mad
wish to live dashed my hands to the
pommel. But this was only for a mo-
ment. The canes worm that ever
wriggled in a dunghil holds fast to his
life. l forgot the Kid again: ! remem-
bered only myself n that ! must ride
to win ] pulled the horse down and
held him steady. Never did throw a
leg across a better horse Thar the Kids
honest, rangy, clean-limbed and deep
IN the chest My heart leaped with ioy
when | heard his long. ever breathing.
| had a great delirious love for the big
heated brute as 1 felt his long, even
reach, the ~tireless rhythmic stride that
throws the miles behind. The drifting
red sea of smoke above cast the wild
glare down upon the prairie and made
the footing sure. | threw my guns
away: | stripped off my coat and gave
1t TO the wind. ] knew what an extra
pound might mean.
An elk forged slowly past, his wide
antlers tipped with light. An antelope
sprans up and bounded away into the
twilight ahead. A coyote Ieaped from.
A shoestring clump; he covered and
whined like a whipped dog with his tail
between his legs, then raced away
down the wind. Snorting shadows be
gan to move to right and left i'm the
further gloom and disappear in the
smoke drift. ! was now a part of the
ragged edge Of the flOtsam tossed up
by the approaching lip of the flood. I
gave my horse another inch of rein and
held him steady. The thunder in the
rear grew louder: l could near dimly
the wild confusion of animal cries.
Years and years of flight with the
breath of an oven to breathe. Years
and years of raising and falling, rails
ing and falling, and my throat was
tight with the driving smoke. The
good brute began TO wheeze and cough.
l felt the tremor of his wearying mus
cles, the slight unsteadiness of the
knees l prayed for the riVer-prayed
like A kid at his mothers knee. I
begged the brute to keep his legs: l
cursed him when he tOttered; I called
him baby names and cursed him in a
breath.
And after years the day began-a
sneaking shadow of a day. shamed out
ny LIN - AiiiS NBSNtil I'd W tndt met
il on the run. A storm>of sound was
all about me. Neck and neck l raced
with a buffalo bull that led the herd:
his swollen tongue hung from his
foaming mouth; his breath rumbled In
his throat. Wheeling steers toiled up
about me. Deer and elk raced side by
side, slowly forging into the van. Gray
wolves bounded past, whining and
yelping. And my good brute beat away
bravely at the few remaining miles. I
felt the dry rasp of his lungs and the
breaking of his big strong heart. He
stumbled gave him the spur to the
heel; he gave 10 sign of pain. He was
dying on his feet.
And the cheap-dirty days crept in
through the smoke-and I thought of
the Kid. and lost heart and cared no
more about the race. But by and by
| saw the river ahead and we plunged
ina bowling. painting flood of beasts,
struggling for the further shore.
THE sky and the river whirled about
/ felt my horse totter up a sand
bank and fall. Then the day went out
and I forgot.
"Oh. Cod 7 wish I'd never Weakened
up! Why didn't the buffalo and the
steers beat me into the sand? Why