Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1911-11-09

WneTeHltl 10 prevent LnaC uSnlnlnB
Whi.l. He must stop the animal be-
fore It got around. The reins would
not do this. Neither would the spurs.
Remained the quirt. But how to ac-
complish it.? Bob always whirled to
the right. Very well He would
double the quirt in his hand, and, the
instant of the Whirl, that double quirt
would rap Bob on the nose. The horse
didn't live, after it once learned the
lesson, that would whirl in the face
of the doubled quirt.
: More keenly than ever, during that
week in the Office, did Daylight realize
that he had no social, nor even human
contacts with Dede. The situation was
such that he could not ask her the
simple question whether or not she
was going riding next Sunday. Thus
he found another card in the hand
the mad god had dealt him. How i'm
portant that card was to become he
did not dream, yet he decided that 1t
was a pretty good card.
Sunday came, and Bob. out in the
Piedmont hills, behaved like an angel.
His. goodness at times was Of the
spirited, prancing ORDER, but other.
wise he was lamb. But no Dede did
Daylight encounter. He vainly circled
about among the hill roads. and In
the afternoon took the steep grade
over the divide OF the second range
and dropped into Maraga Valley. Just
after passing the foot of the descent,
he heard the hoof beats Of cantering
horse. 1t was from ahead and coming
toward him. What II 1t were Dede?
He turned Bob around and started to
return at a walk. The canter came
nearer, but he faced straight ahead
until he heard the horse behind check
to walk Then he glanced over his
shoulder. 1t was Dede. The recogni-
ton was quick, and, with her, accom-.
panied by surprise. What more
natural thing than that, partly turn.
ing his horse, he should wait till she
caught up with him; and that, when
abreast, they should continue abreast
on up the grade? He could have
sighed with relief. The thing
was accomplished, and SO easily.
Greetings had been exchanged; here
they were side by side and going In
the same direction with miles and
miles ahead Of them.
He noted that her eye was first for
the horse and next for him.
"Oh, what a beauty" she had cried
at sight of Bob. From the shining
light in her eyes, and the face filled
with delight, he would scarcely have
believed that 1t belonged to the young
woman he had known in the Office,
the young woman with the controlled,
subdued Office face.
II didn't know you rode" was one
of her first remarks. 81 imagined
you were welded to get-there-quick
machines"
Thus, and to his great relief, they
launched on topic Of mutual inter
est. He told her about Bob's tricks,
and of the whirl and his scheme to
overcome it; and she agreed that
horses had to he handled with a GER
tain rational severity, no matter how
much one loved them. There was
Nab. which she had had for eight
years, and which she had had to break
Of stall-kicking. The process had been
painful for Nab, but it had cured her.
you've ridden lot Daylight
said.
u really can't remember the first
time was on a horse" she told him.
II was born on a ranch, you know. and
they couldn't keep me away from the
horses"
And thereat she told him more OF
her ranch life in the days before her
father died. And Daylight was hugely
pleased with himself They were get.
ting acquainted. The conversation
had not Jagged in the full half hour
they had been together. When she
talked. he listened and followed her,
and yet all the while he was follow.
ing his own thoughts and impressions
as we'll. 1t was a neryy thing
for her to do. this riding astride,
and he didn't know, after all.
whether he liked 1t or not. His
ideas of women were prone to be
old-fashioned; they were the ones he
had imbibed in the early day, frontier
life Of his youth, when no woman was
seen on anything but side-saddie.
He had grown up to the tacit fiction
that women on horseback were not BIZ
peds. 1t came to him with shock,
this sight of her so manlike IN her
saddle. But he had to confess that the
sight looked good to him Just the
SAME.