The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1909-02-03

REMARKABLY QuIct. A6dIASL ZIG AoASo
near the long bar gate the post ambu-
lance was drawn up, and on top of it.
in camp chairs, under red and white
parasols, sat the colonel and his wife
and the post adjutant and Mrs. Ur-
quart, the suffers wife-and black
eyed girl, under a big leghorn hat.
She looked down with studious tran
quillity along the rows of ugly races
turned toward her, or watched the
dozen steers that we're grazing laz1iy
in the center of the corral.
Presently the mumbling along the
fence grew louder, and as the bar gate
was slowly showed open and six bucks
rode in bareback at lope, it swelled
into lusty shouting. Two of the riders,
in tight, beaded buckskins and flannel
shirts, wore red calico on their heads
and toed in. Another, the brawniest
of the batch, had three speckled feath-
ers in his hair and sat his pony as II
he were posing for a photograph.
That was Black Wing.
According to custom, the riders
swung to the right and cantered down
around the corral and back to the
gate, waking up the herd and saluting
the party on the ambulance with wav-
ing of hands, amidst prolonged howl
ing from the threats along the fence.
Then there was a lull, which fell to
dead silence while Black Wing raised
his broad bowie as high as he could
reach, uttered piercing coyote cry,
and charged into the herd He bore
down on the beast with the longest
horns and dealt it swoopiag, savage
crunching blow behind the shoulder
with all his might, then drew back a
little, brandished his dripping knife,
and sprang in again.
The show had now begun A mighty
hurrah went up from the crowd along
the fence as all the riders closed in
for the fight and slaughter; and while
they punched and slashed on left and
right, and spattered themselves with
hot blood, the applause broke into
frantic screeching, and the 5000 spec
tators jumped up and down and waved
their hands.
Two steers dropped to their knees
and toppled over. The crazy herd
seemed to understand, and made a
furious dash for the lower end of the
corral, came together, Rugged the
fence, and stampeded in sheer terror,
with the ponies on run at their clat-
tering heels in cloud of dust. The
herd was rounding past the gate, well
punched, when suddenly there went
up along the fence yell that split the
air. One OF the bucks with red calico
on his head had been pitched from his
pony. Sandman had warned Mix that
his ticklish pony might throw him;
and when he saw the boy lying at the
lower end of the corral in heap, mo-
tionless, with the frenzied herd aimed
straight at him, he grew little pale
under his grease paint. AS he swung
away from the bucks and kicked his
pony into dead run, the crowd quit
screeching, and with jaws set watched
him race to beat the plunging herd.
At Is yards he passed it. Six lengths
farther he threw himself full length
half off his ponys back, swooped out
| and down, snatched handful of slack
in the back of MiX's shirt and took up
the race again, Juggling 155 pounds of
limp, helplessness. 1t was a magnifi-
| cent showing of skill and nerve, and
the crowd said so at once with an out
! burst of shrieking that increased to
panic when it realized that both bucks
were white men. Sandham's shirt was
ripped to his waist, and Mix's blonde
| head was bare, to say nothing of the
plaster of sand and grass on his face
| where the paint wasn't rubbed off.
| The willing little beast that bore them
was badly frightened, and Sandman
after Mix had been dropped in a lump
near the ambulance.
The boy was unconscious. He was
hard-looking case, lying there fiat on
his back, with clenched fists. The
colonel felt him all over, swearing vic.
lently, and said that his left leg was
broken below the knee. They turned
the seats over in the ambulance and
laid him out on the rubber mattress,
with the suffers shawl for a pillow.
When he came to his senses, Miss Cor
liss was bending over him and wiping
his face.
1t was not long before everybody
knew the story and accounted Sand
ham hero. In the messroom of D
company, he was voted fit for brevet
captaincy, and Miss Corliss was unani-
mously recommended for the Red
Cross.
After 20 days the post surgeon gave
Mix permission to be carried out on
the hospital veranda. During the long,
balmy June evenings, when the big
moon shimmered down across the pa
rade ground, Sandman used to sit be-
side him in the shadow, and they
would listen to the banjo ditties that
] hoated up the hill from the barracks
of the Ninth.
One evening Mix was dwelling at
length on the excellencies of the girl
and wound up so:
| ,tn l.