Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1946-01-18
O'HARA

come back to bother you any more.
Or to kill Banner. :"
His father! 1t was a warm and
happy thing to remember how his
father had looked at him and spoken
to him and squeezed his shoulder
even at that moment of disturbance
getting ready to take his mother to
the hospital. And the friendly words,
If you think you can do it, son, I'll
leave it to you. I don't want to
shoot your horse or geld him." And
his mother had slipped her arm
around his neck and kissed him and
said, keep your fingers crossed,
darling, we want a little flicka, don't
we? And Ken-thanks to you and
Touch And Go, I'm going away with
out the slightest worry about ex-
penses-and I shall send out from
the hospital and order a new negli-
gee! Velvet! With feathers!"
Thunderhead came out from I'M
der the rampant at a gallop and
rushed back to his mares. Ken
leaped to his feet. What would he
do now? What did he think about
tne plocKed passage!
Thunderhead was heading away
from this end of the valley as if that
gunpowder were behind him. He
began to round up his mares.
Ken watched it for the last time
-. the weaving in and out, the snak-
ing head, the plunges of the mares
as they felt the stallion's teeth in
their launches.
The daylight was fading. Ken had
to strain his eyes to see how every
mare and colt was gathered up and
swept into that rushing charge Of
pounding bodies and sweeping hair
and flying limbs.
Wild exultation filled the boy. He
had done it, after all! He had given
back the mares to his horse! And
this roundup! And thousand 9TH
ers like it-and the valley and the
snow-peaks and the river
That other life he had tried to
give Thunderhead-the life of a race
horse - how desperately he had
prayed for it! He felt almost be-
wildered. For all his prayers had
been denied and all his efforts frus-
trated. and yet this-this-wae the
answer. - :.
The boys head lifted and his eyes
flashed from crest to crest.
All the world was beginning to
glow with the sunset. Three cream
colored antelopes were drinking at
the edge of the river. The river
was emerald green and turquoise
blue and rose pink and there was a
big golden star in it. Yellow light
swept eastward from the sunset in
long, level shafts. A half moon, ~
ing on its back, began to glow like
a lamp.
All this for Thunderhead!
Thunderhead floated past the band
of mares that now, in the gathering
darkness, seemed like a swift-mov-
ing blot of shadow, and took the
lead.
Ken strained his eyes to see the
last of that rushing white form. Here
it was, now, the parting. He put up
his hand and brushed warm tears
from his cheeks, surprised to find
llleIll tilele, ueCduSe, III Splte OF Il0
loneliness and the sense of bitter
loss, it was as if the beauty of the
valley and the gloriousness of Thun-
derhead's freedom we're inside him
too.
And now they were gone.
In the deep breath that Ken drew,
there was the wilderness and the emp
| tiress of the world.
It was time, and more than time,
for Ken to go. Flicka was waiting.
Once again it was just himself and
Flicka, as it had been before Thun-
derhead, before Touch And Go. He
ran down the trail. packed up,
mounted, and was off.
(THE END)