St. Tammany farmer., 1921-12-24


Daddy Hiram scowled down at him.
IF that dog could only be like old
! Gran'paw Balaam's donkey for min
: ute 'or So" he mused. HE saw her
! go in there and saw her come out !;
+, likewise and the same, he must We
=, seen what she did after she come out.
Looks as if he wanted to talk and tell
us, don't he?"
Barney was certainly giving a good
imitation of that, or some other anx-
1ety. He was frisking about and bark
ing. leaping up now and then to snap
at an imaginary fly in the air. Daddy
caught him by his lower jaw and held
! him immovable. "Go find her, Bar
ney! !" he commanded; "good dog-go
find her!'' .5..
The instant he was released the cot
lie acted as If he understood perfectly
what was wanted of him. Springins
aside, he began to circle again, nose
to the ground, and within half min
ute he was off, this time heading into
dim trail that led away diagonuuy
tion Of Atropia, but rather on the 9th
er leg Of a triangle one side of which
might be the desert edge. one the trai
we had followed from the Alropis,
road, and the third the route we were
now taking to the eastward.
It must have been within an hour
or so 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 I made out the
line Of telegraph poles as we ran, and
pretty soon our dog leader swung off
to the right and we found ourselves
! trotting on line parallel to the rail-
road track and only a little way from
It,
Pretty soon 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
new channel. In 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-
co.'s head, and Barney had them be-
tween his teeth and was backing and
tugging and apparently trying to pull
the pony along.
"Well, I'll be ding-jiggered! said
Daddy; but couldn't unload quite
that easily. For me the riderless pony
meant an accident of some sort.
"Heavens!" 1 gasped; 'do you sup
pose she's been thrown, and-maybe
crippled?"
"Who-Jeanie? Why, bless your
heart, Stannie, son, she can ride 'em
wild! And that calico wouldn't buck
baby off. No, boy; don't you go to
frettin' about nothin' like that When
she got out O that saddle, it 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," I suggested. "Would she be
likely to do that?"
Daddy Hiram slapped his leg.
you've hit it exactly, son! Don't
know why didn't think O. that at first
It's an old trick that she taught the
collie when he was liI 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 60 back to
the edge O the timber and camp down?
I reckon there amt nothin' to be
gained by hittin' the trail afore we've
had a li'l' rest-up spell, is there?'
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
always carried tied to the cantle of her
saddle, we made good fire to serve
in lieu of the blankets that we didn't
have and stretched ourselves out to
sleep the sleep Of the tagged and leg
weary.
The next thing knew-and it SEEM
ed to be just about minute after
had closed my eyes-Daddy was shak-
ing me awake.
'Time to be moggin' along, if we
aim to get home for breakfast, sonny"
he announced. At the break of day we
were coming into the Cinnabar-Atro- |
pia road at precisely the point at
which we left it the evening before.
The sun was just beginning to gild
the upper heights Of Old Cinnebar
when we trailed over the broad plateau
bench below the mine and headed for
the slope that led up to the dump head.
AS we topped this last hill there was
an amazing surprise awaiting us-a
surprise and a shock. On the level
spot which served as dooryard for
the Twombly cabin stood horse, sad
died and bridled, it's dropped ears and
hanging head showing that it had been
ridden far and hard. And on the cabin
doorstep, sitting at ease and calmly
chewing half-burned cigar, was
Bullerton!
CHAPTER XIII.
A Battle and Siege.
It was Daddy Hiram who made the