Show I 1 it t r c p Edna Ferber T by oo 00 irwin A U coper aber ay M V I 1 C I 1 WHAT WENT BEFORE tandy tancey cravat juit just returned from fron the newly opened indian tr ter where he h participated in the kun over the border relate his adventures to a 0 of the V enable family yancey to a crim erlin nal net I awyer editor of the wichita Wit hitts wakam and bisband of sabra cravat CHAPTER I 1 continued n yancey chaat caught the word between his teeth and pat spat it back bussies hussies Hus sies hehl heh I 1 the one behina me in the line was i a woman 0 of fory or looked it in a calico dress and a sunti sunbonnet onnet she had driven across the prairie all the vroy ray from the north of 0 arkansas in a wagon she was like the w who crossed croe seil the continent to call ornia in 19 49 A gaunt woman with a weather beaten face hair and unlovely ban bana la and boot boots with tt if e mud caked on thea them it a worn wont en like her who dhove ve made this coun try what it Is you cant can t read the history of the united state states my friends without learning the treat great story of those t thousands hou sands ot of unnamed women aomen women like this one I 1 le e described women la in mud caked boots and calico dreewes dres es and eun bonnets crossing the prairie and the desert and the mountains en during hardship and privation good boniti with a terrible and rigid goodness that cornea comes of wort work and self denial nothing thing picturesque or romantic about them then I 1 suppose though occasionally one of them lashes flashes belle starr the outlaw hose rose of the cimarron jeannette dalby who jumped from a moving santa t k e train to strike her claim but the others no bleir atory story a itei o 0 r really been told hut but its there just it tie e tame same and if its ever told straight you II 11 know its the sunbonnet nun bonnet onnet and not the chesom som brero that has settled this c couo oun try talking nonsense drawled felice enable yancey whirled on bis his high heele to face her bis his one fine eyes blazing youre you re one tie of item you came op UP from the south with your tim bui band to make a new borne home in this kansas I 1 am hotl not I 1 retorted felice ven able with enormous dignity and III thank you nut to my say any such thing sunbonnet indeed I 1 ive lye never arn a sunbonnet suu bonnet in my life on mamma I 1 lancey ancey didn dian I 1 mean be he scant courage to leave your home in the south and come up lie he thinking of yancey do get on with your story of the atun you git a is drink of water for a dollar dear meland mel and shared it fib the woman la in itte calico and the sunbonnet tiet he ile looked A it little sheepish well matter of act it turned out she aldu didn I 1 have a dollar to spare or rny anywhere where near it but even if she hid tt it m I 1 have done her any food the fellow selling it was a rat faced hombre with t ne tie eye and mexican pants the trigger finger of his right hand haind had been shot away in some fracas or other an he ladled out water with ith that hand and toted his gun in his left bunged up be he was plenty by the time I 1 got to him there was cne one cup of water left in the bucket he ile tipped it while bile I 1 hell be I 1 the dipper an ani I 1 it trickled out just an even dipperful tie last cup of water on the border the crowd wait log ing in line behind me gave a kind of sound between a groan and a the bound sound you hear a herd of cos anitila che gle out on the pre rie when hen their tongues are fancies out for water in the dry spell I 1 tipped up the dipper and had downed fl a big mouthful filthy tasting stull it va no too gyp wa we ter you could feel the alkali cake on your tongue nell 11 my head went birk as I 1 drank and I 1 ct got one look ut at that bomin face tier ebes ee were on me on my t tt it where the adams app apple le hid jint ghen that one Ms bl gulp after the clr arl t swallow all bloodshot the of her eyes and a look took lu in them like a dying man looks at a hell light her ter mouth nas A as open an I 1 11 I 1 er lips were all split with the heal beat and end the 1 d I is on an I 1 the sun und and dry and filiky a ashry ash and then she alit fit elut ut her tier lips a R little and tried to swallow n nf thing anil unit coursin I 1 there anen I 1 any spit in her mouth I 1 couldn coulden I 1 down another mouthful lowed arc red as no I 1 ans I 1 id d have hove neen ter her terrible fice to the list d day ity of my life so I 1 rl righted eted it and held it 11 out to her and mid sali here alter al ter take the rest of it im through to lousin jouett goforth essayed his little J ike ile are you right sure she nas as forty yancey and weather beaten and that about shout her hair and boots an anil handor cravat standing behind his wi les ee chair lo 10 irked ked down at s her tier at the one white line that ina lied ked the parting of her thick black hair vh mth one forefinger he touched her cheek gently dead lure sure jouett I 1 left oui one thing th thorah ugh coelln jonett jone t mafle made a sound od nafy ah sh I 1 though so 0 o ller laerte teen lancey went on choul lit fully and discolored lie ike hose those ol 01 a woman ot of seventy and moat most of them tone gone at he tide side here yancey could not charging up and down don flirting his coat tails WIN and generally gere rally ru alas the fine flavor of 0 bis his victory over the venable mind the venable mind or the prospect of escaping it hail had been one of the reasons for or bis his dash into the lid ild melee of the itan in the first place now be tood stood surveying these handsome futile faces and a treat great impatience shook book him add and a flame of rage hot shot through him and a tongue of malice flicked him with these to goad him and the knowledge of how he nail had failed he plunged allin into his story to the end 1 I had planned to try and get a place on the santa to e train that was tan ling iteal up 47 ready read to run into the latiol fi alloi but you coulden t get on there wasn gasn I 1 u pm for a flea they were hangi banging 9 on the cowcatcher cow cowa catcher teher and n g all over the engine and sitting 0 on n top of the cars it was keyed down d O 0 a to make DO no more peed speed than a hw horse orse li it turned out they didat even do that they went twenty mile miles in ninety minutes I 1 decided id get got endurance anyway if it not speed A and ill d that a what counted in the end there we stood by the thoo sands all night morning and we began to line up at the border as near as they d let is i go militia all oil long along to keep us as bacic back they had bad burned the prairie ahead for or miles into the nation so as to keep the grass down and make abe way clear er to smoke out the soo ners too who had sneaked in to and ere bid ing 1 in the scrub oaks in the draws wherever they could most of the killing as due to them they bad had crawled li J and staked the alanl and stood leady ready to shoot those of ri who came edme in fair and square fu u the 1 I 1 knew the piece I 1 wanted A little creek ran through the land and the prairie rolled rotted a little there too nothing but blackjacks for miles around it but on that section because of the water I 1 suppose there were elms and mon 3 and cottonwoods and even a grove grave of pecans I 1 had noticed t lazy la zy a lime time riding the range dim tiding riding the range I 1 all the Ne enables made a quick mental note of that it waa was th thus by stray bit bits and snatches that they man aged to piece together something of I 1 lancey ancey cravats cravat a past pat ten 0 clock and the crowd was nervous and restless thousand thousands from all parts of the country had waited ten years for this day whan the land hungry would be fed the y were ille like people starving I 1 ve teen the he same took exactly on the faces of men who were ravenous for food bell ell eleven clock nd they were crowding and cursing and for places near the line they shouted and sang and yelled and argued and the sound they roade made gasn wasn I 1 human at all but like tho thousands of wild animals penned up the sun blazed doun doan it wai was cruel the dust hung over every thing in a thick cloud blinding you and choking you the blick cull east of the burned prairie was over everything ei ue ile were like a horde t if if bends alth ath our red eyes and our out cracked lips and our blackened face faces eleven thirty it was a lit picture c ht out of hell the roat roa t grew louder people ought for an inch of gain on the border just 4 it wis was like water going over a broken dim dam next to me was a girl who noted about eighteen she turned out to be twenty fire and a beauty shi sho was wa coq gooon on a coal bisck black thorough bred ahall aha aid said cousin jouett do 00 forth lie ile was the kind of rean man who bo says aha aba on the other sid aid was an oil ol 01 fellow with a long gray bearda plainsman he was wasa si six shooter la in his belt one wooden let if and a of took pall out of that ey ear ry or two lie ile was as mounted on an indian pony like mine As we waited we fell to talking the three of ns Us though you jou t bear hear much la in that op up roar the girl ctrl said she bad had trained her thoroughbred for the race lie 11 wai was from kentucky and so 0 o was she he she was as bound to get her bun huto dred add and sixty acres ilie she aid said she bad had to have it she dido dida t say bay why lad and I 1 ask her ve a were aj J too keyed up anyway to make tense sense oh oft I 1 forgot she had on a get ip that took the attention ot of anyone that saw ber her een eien in that crazy mob the better to cut the and the she had shortened nail and wore a short skirt black tights and a skuli skullcap cup here there was quite a e bombard ment of sound as silver spoons anil and knives and fork forks were viere dropped ippel dr from shocked and nerveless temi feral nine enable fingers it turned out that the three of 0 11 us there in if tie e front una line were hea led down the old freighter freighters trail toi towards tards the creek land 1 I aid abil III be the first in the atun to reach I 1 little title bear bearl that was the name of the crick on the section the birl pulled her cap down tight over her ears follow me tie she laughed ill show yoa you the war or then the old fellow with the en leg and the whiskers yelle stile I 1 out III tell era along the little rear bear you re both a comin I 1 there we were tile the girl girt on my m left the old plainsman on my right I 1 leven forty five alone along the border were the soldiers their guns in one hand their watches in the oth er those last minutes see med years long and funny they d quiet ed till there a bonind listen ing the last minute was an eter anity fly twelve 0 clock there w nt est ap up a roar that drowned dro ened the crack of the soldiers musketry as they fired in the air as the signal of no noon n and the start of the run too you could see the puffs of coke evoke from their guns but you couldn coulden t hear bear a sound the thousands surged over the line it was like water going over a broken daro dam e swept across the prairie in a cloud clou 4 of black and led fed dust that covered our faces and bands hands in a minute so 0 o thet that we looked like black demons from hell bell the old man on lila his pony kept in one rut the cirl girt on ber her thoroughbred in the other and I 1 on my on the ral ed place la in the mw mide e P that first half halt mile was alist a nei net and neck race the old fellow was yelling and war way ing one arm and hanging on somei ow he lie vi as beating his pony with the flask on his flanks banks then he began to drop behind next thine thing I 1 heard a terrible scream and a treat great sh shouting outi ng b bhend hind me I 1 threw a quick elance glance over my shoulder the old pony had bad tumbled and fallen ilia ills bottle smashed into bits his six shooter flew in another direction and he lay sprawling full length in the rut of the trail trall tie next dext instant he was hidden in a welter of pounding poun dinc hoofs and flying dirt and cinders and wacon A dramatic pause th faces around the table were balloons pulled by a single string they swung this way and that with yancey cravats pace as he strode the room his I 1 rince al at bert coat billowing this way the faces turned toward the sideboard that ay they turned toward the windows yant y held the little moment of allence like a jewel in the circlet of faces sabra cravat a voice high and sharp with suspense cut the stillness still neu ft hat happened T abat happened to the old maar man yancey a pliant hands flew up til III a gesture of inevitability oh he was trum trampled pled to death la in the mad mob that charged over hini him crazy daiy they collan i stop for a one legged old whiskers with a cuart quart flask out of the well bred murmur ot of horror that now arose about the unable enable board there emerged the voice of lelice enable sharp edged with disapproval and the girl the girl with the black unable to eay may it southern the girl and 1 I anny anny I 1 never did learn her name ii were ere la in the lead lie because cause we bad tuck stuck to the old train the girl wai was clat lit b hind me that sl ibfred bred ehe she rode wag was built for or speed not dis tane tan A race horse blooded I 1 co id d bear him blowing lie ile wai was trained to hort short bursts my bly indian pony aai as just ettina his second wind v ind as her horse blackened slackened into a 8 trot vi lie had come nearly sixteen miles I 1 was a well in the lead by that time with sith the cirl girl following we e had left the other others behind hun dred toine going this way hundreds chrt scattering for or miles over the prairie then I 1 aw saw that the prairie ahead was afire the tall toll grass was blazing only the narrow ta t a down which we viere ere gallo galloping phil was va open on either ide side of it a all of flame some skunk of a sooner sn ealing in ahead of the hun hed set et the blaze to keep keel the oft saving the lani joni tor for himself the dry grais grass burned like ilke oiled paler I 1 turned around the tirl girl was wa there her racer breaking brea kinz and going a nn n his bend lolling DOW glow I 1 saw her motion with her hand she was coming I 1 whipped off my hat and clappe clapped it over lil lefoot c eye eyes pae gave hl him rn th the e capure appu m crouched doa do n low ond taht tl ht hut shot ray MY own eyes and flown down the trail we went into the f arnice hot ilot I 1 it wai was h ht I 1 I 1 could I mall ell the singed hair on the blinks of the h austan mustang my SIY onn ovin hair wn was ins I 1 could fet feel the flames lirk lick ins ing my 1 legs and back ainther hundred yard yards and neither the horse nor I 1 could have come uzi it but we broke out into the open choking and blinded and halt gut af foca located ted I 1 looked down the lane of flame the eld girl hung on her bone horses e neck her ter skullcap wai was pulled down over her eyes sue tie wai was comina through game I 1 knear that my m land the piece that I 1 bad come through hell bell for was not more than a mile ahead I 1 knew that hinging around here uld probably pru bably get me a hot shot the head bend for the that franl d that tire must be lurking larking som somewhere me whre where in its the high eras grass realy to kill any body bat tried to liy claim to bl his land I 1 began to conler too if it bat that girl abat headed for the ome name section that I 1 wax was bound for I 1 made op UP my mind that woman or DO woman thi thil was wa a and de deak tk the ciata uy poor little pony was wu coLt cot bing and beez ins in and trembling lne her ter rarer racer must hav bave been ready read to drop I 1 wheeled end on I 1 kept thinking bow how when I 1 came come to little benr bear creek creel rd bathe my little mustangs mua tane no and face ace and bli his poor door heaving bearl ni |