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Show y ':'..;'.;'' h M Alt Y OMAHA Ills lurk of speed kept lilm from being be-ing there. One d:iy, nflcr a lu-nvy blizzard, lie wus not allowed to roturn to the SiuUlh) Puck, llo was to bo weaned. The fury of the wind was dying nwny nnd only occasionally sent up a cono of whirling snow. Ken McLaughlin, Mc-Laughlin, warmly dressed In a blue slil suit and cap, stood In Iho stable corral, holding Flicka's halter, llo had been summoned home for one of his winter week-ends, to witness the weaning of Goblin. The corral was mid-log deep In snow, churned to slush by the milling mill-ing of tho brood mares. For two days they had been In nnd out the stable doors, In and out the corral cor-ral gates, free to leave when Uiey wished, free to stay and fill themselves them-selves with hay nnd oats. Ken's face, pule from the winter confinement nnd the cold, was full of peaceful love as he looked Into Flickn's eyes nnd stroked her forelock. fore-lock. His thin, sensitive lips were slightly parted. Flicka's golden coat had darkened with the cold. Running his hand down her neck under her thick blond mane, Ken felt the hair deep ai fur. Her chest was broad and strong. Her wide nostrils flared as she breathed. And her legs Oh, why couldn't Goblin have had those long slim legs of a runner? Flicka was with foal again. Standing there with her young master, she was paying no attention atten-tion to him. She was looking over his Tlu; si'HiiV Tin s Kill: Kllt-k.i' roll, tone oi'ii)in-. Is bovn on the i)oom U.ir r.iiuii, tiUli In Iho Uoi'Mi's. lis r.f:ir-oKI r.f:ir-oKI ow nt-r. Kt'n Mi l :ulshlin. Is Martlet! to see that It Is while, ami so a tluowhaek to tin- Alhlno, nllit stallion that Is KraiKlslie of KtU'Ka. Ken's mother names the white foal Tliiiiulerlieail. tint It Is commonly knonn as Cohlln. At ft dinner parly Ken reveals that the sire ot Thnn-nYrliead Thnn-nYrliead Is not ltanner. the Coe.se ltar stallion, but Appalaehian. the hlaek rae-lnc rae-lnc sliui owned by Charles Sargent on the nellihorlns ranch. Ken suddenly reali.-es that he has stoten the service. Sarsent latmhs and offers to Rive Ken papers for his colt. Ken answers that he can only expect "half" papers. cn.rn:n vn Wind and wind nnd wind knocking you down when you tried to walk or stand against it. Making Mak-ing a noise that was first like a whine, and then a howl that hit a high note and stayed there piercing you. getting into your head and making you crary And the snow. Pays, weeks of being shut in by deep snow that sometimes drifted : over windows and doors so that even to get out and see the sun you had to make a tunnel Oh, nil of it j hard! Hard! Suddenly Nell was in a state of frenzy and despair. They hadn't t wanted it to be like this. The j horses were to have made money enough so that she and Rob could ', have had plenty of help a furnace J in the house a vacation to a ! warmer climate every winter when j the boys were at school and there I was little to do on the ranch except I try to keep warm and alive. Money, money, money it all I came back to that! Her mind dashed vously, Into this secret corner of her heart, she saw the deepest truth and accepted It. She was as ready as Kob to take all the chances, share all the dangers, endure tho privations. priva-tions. She too had been born "facing "fac-ing tho wind." There slolo Into her tho hint of ecstasy. She pressed her face on her knees. The very Icrribleness of the winters the very fear nnd dread seduced her nnd tilled her veins with strong wine. And the beauty the fierce, dreadful beauty of winter! The summers Oh, the summers! Tho unbelievable deep blue of the mountain skies the huge sculptured clouds, the green grass the young animals, wild and free with startled eyes, the swift running, run-ning, heels kicking, the perfume, smell of mint and sage and pine and grass and clover and snow, clean from a sweep of hundreds of miles of emptiness And the loneliness lone-liness Ah, not loneliness, but serene, deep, tranquil solitude just herself and Rob and the boys-All boys-All her fevered thought became still. She crouched quietly there, full of a mysterious happiness. As Goblin developed there were changes in his appearance and behavior. be-havior. Certain habits left him, certain cer-tain coltish accomplishments were acquired. The "scrabble" was gone, and In its place came the long springing trot characteristic of young colts, this owing, perhaps, to an inch or two of added length on each leg. He learned the art of wrestling. His usual antagonist was Pepper, a tall black colt. On an expanse of level ground where the wind had head toward the Green, her ears strained forward. Now and then her whole body shook in an anguished whinny. It was in that direction that they had led her, a few minutes before, be-fore, with Goblin following. They had brought her back without him. Ken patted her face and talked to her. "Don't you care, Flicka pretty soon you won't mind so much you'll have a new baby and It's better for you not to be nursing him you've been getting thin. I can feel your ribs under your fur coat." Ken was torn between the desire to stay with his mare and comfort her, and go down to the Goblin. He stayed with the mare. Banner had wandered out toward the county road gate. Evidently he had had enough of domesticity. He began to call his mares and round them up. The afternoon light was failing and the full moon, that had been nothing but a transparent globule of mist, was turning to bright silver. When the last of the band had followed Banner out. Ken led his mare into the stable, filled her feed box with oats and left, closing the door behind him. Then he exploded into a swift run, tore down the gorge, across the Green, the color flaring into his face, his blue eyes darkening with excitement Now the Goblin! Now his race horse! Now at last As he opened the gate into the colt corral his father held up a hand and Ken moved quietly. The last Sfteen minutes had been full oi shocks for the Goblin. lift 1 j this way and that, doubling on itself, 1 trying to find a way out. Horses. Nothing but horses. The I Goblin suddenly she seized that im- ! possible dream of Ken's was it so Impossible? Think of the ancestry Df that colt! It was Rob who had first admitted he wanted one horse of the Albino's line who should be tractable "and I'll have a race horse!" It was she herself who had planned and suggested breeding Flicka so they might get a colt with both her sweetness of disposition disposi-tion and her speed, j But the Goblin had neither. Nell tightened her hands Into a harder fist. That inner fury which comes ' over high-spirited people when they are too often defeated filled her. She couldn't and wouldn't take it. Some- . I thing had to succeed. Goblin his jy' shorty thick legs could grow long ' and swift. His bumpy shape, his big head, his bad balance, could some- i how smooth out into magnificent proportions. His mean temper, that ugly readiness to bite and kick and stand at bay in enmity to all, could change to the intelligent docility of Flicka. And speed! Flicka's very same speed. Rocket's speed. The Albino's Al-bino's speed speed SPEED! Suddenly Nell was riding a racing rac-ing dream, running away to victory. Goblin! No, not Goblin any more, but THUNDERHEAD! The racing stallion of the Goose Bar ranch! The big white brute leading the field on every track in the country! coun-try! What colors would their jockey wear? Cherry red and white. Who would be the champion he would displace? Seabiscuit, of course and would himself become then, not only great racer but great sire of racers, begetting hundreds of winners win-ners after him, every stud fee bringing bring-ing thousands of dollars. Goblin must never be gelded The bubble of her dream burst. Suddenly she was exhausted. She had lived through the winter; half a dozen blizzards; the winning of scores of races by Goblin; an altercation alter-cation with Rob as to the gelding of him; had made thousands of dollars dol-lars and spent them. She was sick of it alL Besides none of it was true. In the excitement of meeting hli old friends and investigating this "new place, Goblin had not at first realized that he had been separated from his mother. Then he heard her anguished neighing. That whirled him around and started him toward her. The five foot fence stopped him. The gate was closed. He raced around the enclosure seeking an exit A confusion of feeling feel-ing stirred him. There were the coltj crowding around him, Pepper, the tall black, rearing and begging for a game. A strange intriguing smell came from the long center trough; he wanted to investigate that. But he was still angry. He didn't know what to do. At sight of Goblin, Ken'i heart began to pound. What a changel Goblin stopped running around and looked at Ken. blown off most of the snow, they galoped gal-oped in opposite directions, circling in figure eights. When they passed each other at the center point they would pause, rear and strike at each other. Here began the beautiful beauti-ful play, bending to one side or the other, Intertwining heads, then sliding slid-ing down, almost kneeling to bite at the foreleg, rising high on hind legs again to exchange a flurry of boxing blows, their manes and tails the black and the white lifted and stiffened by burning vigor until they flared like open fans. Suddenly Sudden-ly the young stallions would plunge past each other and, as if in a prearranged pre-arranged dance routine, rush away She forced herself. She studied I the room. That was real. There was moonlight flooding through the window. win-dow. Look at it. That hump was Rob sleeping beside her. This was the ranch. It was going to be winter-just winter-just like all the other winters just like all the storms and dangers they were poor and going to be poorer nothing had ever suc-ceeded suc-ceeded and it was quite possible, even likely, that nothing ever would. I She had read something clever about that one day, telling you that if you wanted to know what the future would be look at the past and merely extend it! ; Laying the whip to herself in this fashion, she began to come to life, and again her anger rose. There wasn't a day or a moment that you were really safe here. The elements ele-ments could kill you as easily as a fly-swatter kills a fly. And at any season of the year, a bad storm, or flood, or drought, or plague of grasshoppers, or an epidemic, or a s fire, or merely the wrong sort of I weather at the wrong time could I I sweep away all the work of a year l and all hope with it That, she il I thought sarcastically, is probably t the fascination of it for men like g Rob. Adventurers. It's such a big - i gamble, with all the odds against jyou. It's the most exciting, dramatic '" ;i i life in the world, c- J Feeling the life stirring in her li, :again. even though It was the liveli- ui. mess of anger, she tried to penetrate e' 'the tiuth still more deeply. Was her iiiidigiiaiion true? Did she actually T, . jliule her re.ililies? ! jj 1 l ' ' d'lwn. almost mischie- ! ' i ; I i In the figure eights again, their hoofs thundering on the ground. Goblin also became an accomplished accom-plished bucker. On icy mornings when the sun blazed down and the air was a fierce intoxication, all the colts broke away from their dams and banded together for play. They raced up and over the brow of a gentle rise and came down the other side bucking. A few playful bucks sufficed for most of the colts, but not for the Goblin. His bounds became higher, his legs stiffer, the twist of his solid powerful little body more acute. It seemed to go to his head. At last he would be alone there, when the game was all over, bucking solo in a mad, intemperate intem-perate ecstasy. When, in December, the spring colts were weaned and kept at the ranch for handling and graining, Goblin was left on the range. No more wrestling or boxing now, for he had no playmate, and when he tried it with Banner, rearing before be-fore him and putting up his fists, the big stud went on grazing, oblivious oblivi-ous of his existence. Goblin played alone. He raced on the curving hills, thundered in figure fig-ure eights, reared and shadow-boxed, shadow-boxed, put down his head and bucked sunflshed jack-knifed cork-screwed He knew them all. Three times more before his six months of nursing were completed, Banner swept the whole band down to the ranch, for not a month passed without a blizzard. Goblin came to know the way so well that he tried to shoulder to the front, and only Ihe colt had grown all over, so that he was still shaped like a mature ma-ture horse most odd-looking. But there was no mistaking the power in him. Measuring him quickly against the others Ken saw that he was as big as the biggest and oldest old-est of them. In six months he had caught up. Impelled by insatiable curiosity, Goblin approached the boy cautiously, cautious-ly, obliged to satisfy himself as to this small human being, not much taller than himself, and why memory rang a bell at sight of him. His muzzle strained forward. His body held back. He got one sniff and at the same time Ken's hand moved to pat his nose. The colt'i ears flew back he whirled and lashed with his heels. Ken ducked. "Pretty close!" laughed Rob. "You've got to be fast with that fellow!" "Gosh! How he's grown," marveled mar-veled Ken. "Bigger than any of the others, isn't he, dad?" "He's a husky." Goblin was tearing around the fence. It made wild fury in him that there was no way out. In the other corral, when they came down from the range in a storm, the gates were always left open. They were there of their own free will. Even when they crowded Into the barn there was a different feeling. He began to buck. This wasn't bucking in fun. This was protest, this was pure fight. He went through his repertoire. The ether colts got out of the way and Rob and Gus r-treated r-treated to the fence. (TO BE CONTINUED) |