Show M 11 r LICK AV 4 ij 4 MARY ai THE STORY SO BO farl FAR ten yeta old 11 ken e n mclaughlin five an opportunity to c choose h 0 ose any yearling oh on his fin ily s W wy orning ranch picks the th filly of al a 1 loco 0 mare ris ills father atter a retired aral army 1 0 officer r li Is by kens keni choice an and d by mi his failure allure at school when flick a the oily filly li 18 badly hurt hart trying to jurn jump the corral ral fence n ken takes takei the mie opportunity to make friends with the wild little colt although Althou eb he be Is if now convinced that Is not loco like her mother C captain mclaughlin ln does not think tie will get well but ken who always wanted a colt of at hll his own is 1 sun eull hopeful hop elul ile he believes ho be can tame blicka who li Is to him something fine and beautiful now continue with the abe story CHAPTER at dinner ken ate nothing howard said ken eating his din ner he have to eat mother but nell answered leave him alone ken had understood wh what athis his tather father men meant n t when he said 1 I wont have a thing like eke that on m my y place to allow an animal to die a lingering death was something his lather father would not do blicka was to be shot he hear bear his father give the order to gus pick a time when ken around gus and ana take the winchester and put the filly out of her misery ja boss ken watched the gun rack in the dining room all the guns were standing in it no guns were allowed in the bunk house going through the dining room to the kitchen three times a day for meals kens eyes scanned the weapons to make sure they were all there that night they were not all there the winchester was missing when K ken en saw that he stopped walking he felt dizzy he kept staring at the gun rack telling himself that it surely was there he counted again be see clearly then he felt an arn arm I 1 a across his shoulders and heard his fathers voice 1 I know son some things are awful hard to take we just have to take em I 1 have to too ken got hold of his fathers hand and held on it helped steady him finally he looked up bob looked aown sown and smiled at him and gave him im a little shake and squeeze ken managed a smile too all right now all ali right dad they walked in to supper together ken even ate a little but tell lell looked thoughtfully at the ashen color of his face and at the little pulse that was beating in the tide side of his reck neck after supper ken carried flicks her oats but he had to coax her and she would hardly touch them she stood with her head hanging but when he stroked it and talked to her she pressed her faccinto face his chest and was content he could feel eel the burning heat of her body it seem possible that anything so thin could be alive presently ken saw gus come into the pasture carrying the winchester when he saw ken changed he his direction and sauntered along as it if he was out to shoot cottontails cotton tails ken ran to him when are you going to do it 11 gus ay was goin down soon now before it got dark gus dont do it tonight wait till morning just one more night gus vell veil in de morning den but it got to be done ken yer fadder gives de order 1 I know I 1 wont say anything more gus went back to the bunk house and ken returned to flicks at nine howard was sent by nell to call ken he stood at the corral gate shouting blicka was still standing in her nursery when the lull full moon rose at ten it was the hunters moon as yellow as the harvest moon Flick as wounds did not pain her but the suction of the down whirling spiral was an agony felt through every part of her now and then her young body found strength to fight against it she struggled she lifted her head she was thirsty the smell of the fresh running water drew her she waded into the stream and drank got her fill lifted her head turned it again to the he house the cool water rippled against her legs there was no sound from the house no feet running upon the path and suddenly the last of her little strength was gone lunging forward she felt ell half on the bank half in the water and lay there struggling convulsively at last she was still some minutes later from te ten n miles nil away on the towering black timbered shoulders of pole mountain there stole out the most desolate cry in the world the howl ot of the gray timber wolf it rode on the upper air without a tremor high and thin pointed as a needle through long minutes the note was sustained u talked mournful and remote through long moments it died w with ith a falling cadence of profound listlessness and even before it ceased it had become the very essence of I 1 the quiet of the night ken had seen the hunters moon rise over the eastern horizon before his b went upstairs and lying in bed wide swake awake and shaken by a steady fine quivering he could see it reflected in the opened casement window of his room he completely undressed but he had the sheet drawn up to his chin in case his mother or father came in to look at him he heard them talking together in th their air room as they undressed how long they took it II seemed to him hours before the whole house was quiet as quiet as the night was outside he waited still another hour till everyone was so deep asleep there would be no chance of their hearing then he stole out ot of bed and put on the rest of his clothes he carried his shoes in his hands bands and crept down the hall past the door of 0 his parents room taking a halt m minute anute for a step on the far end of the terrace he sat t down and put on his shoes his heart pounding and the blood almost suffocating him he kept whispering im coming blicka Flick aIm im coming his feet pattered down the path he ran as fast as he could it was so dark under the cottonwood trees he had to stand a moment me nt getting used to the darkness before h he e could be sure that folcka w was as not there there stood her feed box but the filly was gone unreasoning terror swept over him something had spirited her I 1 N 0 f v the water rippled over kens legs leg anil and over Flick as body awn away y he would never see her agair again gus had come down his father he ran wildly here and there at A last when there was no sign fi of her he began a systematic search all through the pasture he dared not call aloud but he whispered oh blicka where are you at last he found her down the creek lying in the water her head had been on the bank but as she lay there the current of the stream had sucked and pulled at her and she had had no strength to resist and little by little her head had s slipped lipped down until when ken got there only the muzzle was resting on the bank and the body and legs were swinging in the stream ken slid into the water sitting on the bank and he hauled at her head but she was heavy and the current dragged like a weight and he began to sob because he had no S strength to draw her out then he found a leverage tor for his bis heels against some rocks in the bed of the stream and he braced himself against them and pulled with all his might and her head came up onto his knees and he held it cradled in his arms he was glad that she had died of her own accord in the cool water under the moon instead of being shot by gus then putting his face close to hers and looking searching ly into her eyes he saw that r she he was alive and looking back at him and then he burst out crying and hugged her and said oh my lit tle tie blicka my little flicks the long night passed the moon slid slowly across the heavens the water te rippled over kens legs and over fa buchas 1 akas body and gradually the beat and the fever went out 0 ut of her and the cool running water washed and washed her wounds the night took a heavy toll from ken but tor for floka there was resurgence sur gence at the moment when ken drew her into his arms and cried her name the spring of the down whirling spiral was broken blicka was released and not once again did she feel it the life currents in her body turned and in weak and wavering waring ve ring fashion flowed upward A power went into her from crom ken all his youth and strength and magnetism given her freely and abundantly on the stream of his love from his ardent eyes to hers but tor for ken there was wai first the tha creeping numbness of those parts where the head and the neck of the filly pressed then the deep chill from the cold water running over hla his legs his thighs almost up to his bis waist the mountain stream was fed from the snowy range in the north west and the water was far colder than the shallow sun dappled surface looked kens legs were shrivelled shrivel led and cramped with the cold and long before the night was over his teeth were chattering and his body shaking with chills it matter nothing mattered but that he should hold blicka and hold the life in her at dawn when there should have hav e been light lagh there was first a gray gloom and then persistent twi twilight light the wind had failed and the clouds had their way at last forced up bromall fro from mall all points of the compass by pressure in the lower areas behind them laramie and cheyenne both a thousand feet down and the valleys behind the mountains that were to the he north and south often mccaugh in ln studied the sky especially the rims of sherman hill and said its trying its best to storm but the clouds cant get over the mountains mountain now they had got over there room for them all faey they ob soured the zenith and then d doubled ou bled up one layer below the other but ken knew nothing of the weather only flicks the heat of 0 her body that burned his arms toward morning he knew that the heat had gone and it was not death when he spoke to her her eyes still looked back into his he was full of thankfulness the alarm clock broke the early morning silence of the bunk house and jangled for sixty seconds before it stopped tim and gus were sitting naked on the edge of their bunks yawning and rubbing their heads gus reached tor for his clothes and began to draw them on remember ing as he did so that something un pleasant was ahead of him it was a moment or two before it came to him the shooting of blicka when he remembered he dropped both hands on his knees and sat in silence nothing tor for it it must be done the filly might have been left eft to die of her own accord but that hat was contrary to custom on the goose bar ranch gus finished dressing made the ire fire and laid the table tor for breakfast thinking that when he had everything ery thing ready except frying the eggs and bacon and making the coffee hed go down to the calf P pasture as with the winchester it take a minute he had the he gun with him there in the bunk house louse it stood in the corner still loaded hed bp be back before tim lad had finished milking the cows and have plenty of time to make breakfast gus walked down to the ranch house louse stood the gun against the house outside and went into the kitchen to ta make up the fire gus shaking down of the ashes every morning was the rising bell for the family when the kindling had caught and the flames were licking up around the blocks of coal gus closed the back draft and went out he took the gun and walked slowly across the green to the gate of the calf pasture A few minutes walk brought him to falicka FlIck as s nursery and showed him that blicka was not there he walked down stream and soon found ken sitting in the water Flick as ss heracria head in his arms one look at the boys face was enough gus crossed the creek laid down his gun and seizing the filly fally by the head dragged her out onto the grassy bank as doctors drag infants into the world by the head never safely by any other part ken could not move gus lifted him in his arms and again crossed the creek kens head dropped back over the swedes shoulder turning to the filly for one last look goodby good by flicks blicka it was only a whisper rob was standing at his window fastening his belt when he saw I 1 the ae foreman passing carrying carrein g ken he thought blicka died I 1 hear the winchester kens found her dead fainted he ran downstairs and 0 out u t too took k the boy from G gus us arms and then no noticed the unbelievably shrunken drawn features and the violent chills this was more than a taint faint gus told him how he had found ken and rob bob carried him in and up to bed rob and nell put ken to bed between hot blankets and tried to set get some brandy between his lips gus returned to the pasture to get the gun flicks was lying as he had bad left her but at his approach held up her head the man knelt down on the grass by her and felt of 0 her head her neck looked into her eyes heilveil ivell Veil vell veil blicka liddle gurl guri 11 he was astonished to feel that her body seemed to have lost its great heat the fever had gone lie he looked at the two wounds the cuts were clean and au all the hard swelling had gone and he could set see by her face that she was brighter as one can see by the expression in a childs child s face even though it is ii still pinched and wan that life is corn com ing back TO BE CONTINUED |