The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1921-12-23

10 the ground. aud within half a min
ute he was of. this time heading Int
a dim trail that led away diagonally
down the mountain, not In the direc
don of Atrop'a. bur rather on the 9th
er leg of a triangle. n side of which
might be the desert edge. n the trail
we had followed from the Atropia
road. and the third the route we were
low taking TO the eastward.
1t must have been within an hour
or Sc of midnight when we left the
mountain forests behind and got into
the region of barren foothills. Here
the collie seemed much surer of his
ground, and we had our work cut out
for us In the effort to keep up with
him. In the starlight | made out the
line Of telegraph poles as we ran, and
pretty 500 our dog leader swung off
to the right and we found ourselves
t~rotting on a line parallel to the rail-
road track and only a little way from
it.
Pretty Don the dog disappeared ;
and then we heard him barking at a
little distance to the left of the paral-
lei tracks. When we went to see what
he had found, the mystery suddenly
took another tack and veered off into
a new channel. In a small grassy hol-
low between two of the hills we came
upon the dog and the calico pony. The
bride reins had slipped over the bron-
cos head, and Barney had them be-
tween his teeth and was backing and
Juggling and apparently trying TO pull
the pony along.
"Well. I'll be ding-jiggered! said
Daddy; but l couldn't unload quite
that easily. For me the riderless pony
meant an accident of some sort.
"Heavensr" l gasced; edo you sup
pose she's been thrown, and-maybe
c%rippled?"
"Who-Jeanie? Why, bless your
heart, .Stannie, son, she can ride 'em
Wild And that calico wouldn't buck
a baby off. No, boy; don't you go to
frettin' about nothin' like that. When
she got out o. that saddle, 1t was cause
she was good and ready and wanted
to-"
"When she got off to take the train,
she tried to make Barney lead the pony
home," l suggested. "Would she be
likely to do that?"
Daddy Hiram slapped his leg.
you've hit it exactly, sOn Don't
know why l didn't think o that at first.
Tfs- ~, ,1I t~;nI- fhaf c1A farr~hf tha |
collie when he was a liz pup. And
Barney, he tried, and when he couldn't
make the pinto leave off grain, he
come for us. Sure that was the
way of it. What say If we go back to
the edge O. the timber and camp down?
l reckon there amt nothin' to be
gained by hittin' the trail afore we've
had a 1T rest-up spell, is there?'
l had no objection to offer, you may
be sure; and after we had found a
camping spot. and had picketed the
pony with the light rope that Jeanne
carried tied to the cantle of her
we made a good fire to serve
in lieu Of the blankets that we didn't
nave and stretched ourselves out 10
sleep the sleep of the tagged and leg
weary.
The next thing | knew-and it SEEM
I'd to be just about a minute after l
mad closed my eyes-Daddy was shak-
ng me awake.
Thine to be moggin' along, If we
aim to get home for breakfast, sonny"
ne announced. At the break of day we
we're coming into the Cinnabar-AtrO-
lia road at precisely the point at
we left it the evening before.
The sun was just beginning to gild
he upper heights of Old Cinnebar
when we trailed over the broad plateau
,ench below the mine and headed for
he slope that led up to the dump head.
Is we topped this last hill there was
n amazing surprise awaiting us-a
urprise and a shock. On the level
pot which served as a dooryard for
he Twombly cabin stood n horse, sad
and bridled, It's dropped ears and
angling head showing that 1t had been :
idden far and hard. And on the cabin 1
oor-step, sitting at ease and calmly
a half-burned cigar, was 5
'ullerton! I