Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1929-07-04
By
Hal Borland

SAW her., now he followed her for
months. how he finally roped her, sad
died her, rode her. 1t was q simple,
unadorned tale, matter of fact almost To
barrenneSS.
But the Major and Bill and Ike lis
tened completely absorbed, and Jud. as
he talked, stared straight across the
ring with eyes that saw neither crowd
nor sky, but only a mist gray filly as
beautiful as a desert sunset running
wild and free i'll the Little Muddy Bad
lands, waiting fretfully for her absent
master, trotting like a dog to him when
he returned, an6 finally. through mist
ed eyes, thought he saw her lying
starved and beaten. gashed and bullet
torn, CLASSY eyed and lifelesS beneath
a fierce sun in whose face circled the
eternal buzzardS.
Jud finished his storv and after a
moment the Major asked, And what
do you think you'll do now?"
Its hard to say. Keep drifting, I
guess. This gas l got"
Yves, but there's a cure for that,
son.
yeah" Jud's tone was frankly
sneering. Go out i'll the hills some
where and sit i'll the sun a couple Of
years He laughed harshly. I'd
IdtlltI Ulc outAi6iil, ilOW.
But if YOU"
Listen, Major, I've thought it all
out q hundred times. If things was
like they ain't-if l had Dawn again, l
mean-I'd swing right back up onto
those old plains. And I'd grab me a
homestead III the most God forsaken
looking place there is-right in the
Little Muddy BadlandS. That's where
we two first got acquainted, and that's
where we'd settle down. We'd build us
a shanty and we'd get a COW and some
chickens, and we'd just set down and
kind Of vegetate. And the sun would
get in my skin and eat up the gas,
and we'd be happy as hell"
He heSitated a moment and the glow
faded from his eyes, leaving them hard
again. But it can't be done, Major.
1t can't be done. AS the boys says, l
loved and I lost and it's all over. I'm
just sorry the Heinies didn't tag II
of them whizbangs for me That's all"
The bugler down in the ring vas
sounding of again and the matadors
in their gaudy capes were acknowledge
ing the salvos from the stands. The
bandilleros took up their places, the
muletero cracked his whip and his
team OF blacks with jingllng harness
and tinkling bells trotted toward the
exit. Two picadors, one on a shambly,
moth eaten black horse. and the other
a gray that looked like a four legged
W~aShboard, made for opposite sides Of
the ring.
The bugler blew another blast, the
stands roared, the heavy gate at the
far end OF the arena opened. Down the
chute trotted q leggy red bull.
The bull fight was on.
A matador waved his crimson cape
in the bulls face, leaped lightly aside
from the charge. Another lunge, and
yet another, and the matador still
plagued the beast. Then a bandillero
danced forward, egged on the beast to
a charge, planted his hooked darts as
the bull plunged past.
The stands were cheering. 1t would
be q grand success, this fight. Such a
BULL And two others OF his kind An
afternoons sport fit for the Presidente
himself!
Again a matador waved his cape in
the bulls face, leaped clear, and a
urged his skeleton of a horse
down the side of the ring toward where
the four Americans sat and toward the
bull. Now first blood would be drawn,
horses blood.
Jud stared like a mailman. He
gasped audibly.
Red Ike heard, and Red Ike saw.
Jud went white as a cloud, his eyes
olazed, his fists clenched. Jud was
at the oncOming picador. The
that picador rode, mere skeleton
it was, once had been a misty
gray. 1t was a mare. And though
She was blindfolded, there was a ia
niliar toss OF her head, an air to her
gait.
The bull was in front Of them now,
not twenty yards away, and the gray
vas not fifty yards from him. For a
moment the bull poised, ready to
,harge the picador on the gray. Then
1 matador shook his cape in the bulls
ACE and the red beast plunged across
5he ring. There the other picador
waited on the lottery black. A matador
Urged him closer. The crowd shreiked,
the fatal charge. And the bull
;ped toward the gaudy man on the
old black horse.
Red Ike groaned and covered his
ace, and Bill blinked his one eye while
ne cursed. Jud, white faced, tense,
vavered and Ike felt his weight against
lis shoulder as Jud nearly tainted.
The black hadn't a chance. Blind
'olded, he waited like a sheep in the
slaughter chute. A swift impact, a thud,
! squeal, and the crowds frenzied
shouts drowned the other sounds. The
licador, as usual, was thrown clear and
dashed to safety. And the bull was
Unanswered back to the center of the
ing while the muletero came dashing
n, the jingling blacks trotted back out
iragging their black burden, and but
)ne horse remained in the %ring-the
title gray mare, SO thin, SO familiar.
The applause abated, and the mata-
lors urged the bull toward the little
yray. But in the stand behind the pic
ldor a new excitement was rising.
Iaudily dressed policemen tried vain
v to force their way through the crowd.
soldiers from the ringside tried equally
n vain to reach the spot.
In the tenth row a great, red bearded
man with a head bald as an egg was
following in English. In front OF him
stood a tall, thin mar white as a yucca
flower. And while he of the red beard
beloved and ragged the white faced one
to the ring, tried to worm from
the others grasp.
The bull was set for his charge, the
gray mare stood meekly with her
eyes.
With a sudden turn, a quick jerk, the
white faced man broke free, leaped,
scrambled over the heads Of the Mex
Icans in front, reached the ground.
And the bull charged.
A high, shrill whistle sounded. The
vrov beneath thp DjcadOr tossed her