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Show vv.N.o. FEATURES'- t jBE STORV TnUS FAR: A white colt h born on the Goose Dar ranch In Wyo-1d. Wyo-1d. nls color Indicates that he Is a arowback to the Albino, a wild stallion. Otherwise hi ancestors are all thoroueh ireds. Thunderhcad, or the Goblin as he li commonly known, grows from a stub- tni m formed foal to a sturdy year-1UJ. year-1UJ. 0nc day hc wanders southward Into the mountains. lie reaches a river d foUows it ever higher. Suddenly eJSle darts at him, ripping bis flesh. Goblin CEl'ts It off, but is badly frighted fright-ed runs home. A week later, how-ever, how-ever, he returns to the river, and finds I wlley, accessible by only one smalt jpeolng In high cliffs. Goblin's nose ttlls tja that horses live within the valley, t . CHAPTER X I ' Goblin stood motionless, his eyes canning the valley, his muzzle lifted lift-ed to suck in and savor and read all the messages It flung at him. He knew much about it already. This was the country that had called him and he had answered the call. Those borses over there," the big, loosely-flung loosely-flung herd, grazing quietly, were the borses he had been hunting. Mares! His nostrils quivered. He neighed loudly. The mares raised their heads, the foals faced around. What magnificent animals big, imooth, glossy the very smell of them was sweet and strong with health and power. The mares were blacks and bays and sorrels, and the colts were the same, except for a few piebalds. , Nickering, they lifted their heads ind trotted toward the newcomer. Goblin rushed happily to meet them. He was at home with mares. Most of his life had been spent with them. ! -They milled around him, thrilled ind excited by the advent of a itranger. He lost all thought of fear or .caution In the happiness of having arrived. He met and smelled ind talked to them one by one. The squeals and whinnies, the jumps ind snorts and playful kickings were ill delightful fun. Some of them tried to drive the Intruder out, but their bites and kicks were halfhearted. half-hearted. On the summit of a near-by hill stood a great white stallion. He was upwind from his mares, which was fortunate for the Goblin. As it was, the Albino noticed the commotion In his harem and lifted his head to observe it. This animal stood sixteen and a hall hands high. He was pure white. His body had power and strength rather than gracefulness. He was not smooth. He was gnarled like an old oak tree. His coat was marred by many scars. His great age showed in the hollows of his flanks and shoulders and face. Behind the dark glare of his eye, a blazing fire turned and on this Came was projected pro-jected an irresistible will-power, and i personality that was like the core of a hurricane. He looked over his kingdom. He had stood there for years, looking over his kingdom. And if horses think wondering who would take over when his end came. He had no heir. How could he have? lie permitted no colt older than a year to remain in the band of mares, nor any stallion older than a two-year-old to be in the valley. Here and there, in the deep grass, were the polished bones of those who had challenged him. And if any attempted attempt-ed to return after he had driven them forth they did not try a second sec-ond time. When Goblin caught the unmistakable unmistak-able strong scent of the stallion he trotted out from the herd to find Wra. He saw him up there on a hill Just where Banner would have heen-and with a joyful nicker, Parted toward him. ! The Albino came down to meet I him. 1 Goblin, a creature of Are and magnetism mag-netism himself, felt the oncoming rtallion in terms of voltage, and it s almost too much to be borne. Goblin came to a stop. It occurred i 10 him that he was going in the Nng direction. But he held his round. He watched. He had never seen or ! elt anything like that before. The j on was so contained, his power j a no gathered and held within him "" he was aU curves. His great ek was so arched that his chin i drawn In and under, the crest wiJ i Cad was hish and runded "J long ears cocked like spear-JJJt. spear-JJJt. His face was terrifying ferocious expression! Those "er7 eyes! And his huge, heavily-nwclcd heavily-nwclcd legs curving high, flung for-' Jd so that the great body floated ugh the air then the massive striking and bounding up from JJ s earth with sledge-hammer blows "l made the hills tremble and d lue thunder in the valley! " i Goblin still held his ground, do 100 slowed his Pace, came ihn, .rTStopped- Thr noses were "out two feet apart. inHr Bs long as a minute they faced eyed each other. brtn Were the Eame- Trunk and nch of the same tree. And from i confusing Identity-each seeing-ttZ seeing-ttZ . 88 in a distorted mirror- flamed terror and fury. deiP ?cl"resPecting stallion would even,:ta,ttack a mere VUng. or dmin?,! Lhlm seriouslv enough to i h(?MVvy Punishment. But boot 7 a e Mbmo raIsed hls rignt ttrokf ' 'av one terrible pawing iruntin accomPanied by a short lot Jg ,crech of unearthly fury. o doing, he both acknowl- ; edged and attempted to destroy his heir. The stroke was delivered with lightning speed. From his great height, if the blow had come down on Goblin's head, as was Intended, It would have killed him instantly. But Goblin was endowed with the same speed, and reflexes that acted quicker than thought. He swerved. The great hoof glanced down his neck,, ripping the flesh at the shoulder, shoul-der, and sent him rolling. To complete the attack, the stallion stal-lion dropped nose to earth, turned and lashed with hind feet to catch the body of the colt as he fell from the blow and finish him off. But the Goblin rolled too far and too fast, landed on his feet, and whirled to face his antagonist. The stallion plunged toward him head stretched out like a lethal missile, mis-sile, the twisted mouth open and reaching to bite the great teeth, like slabs of yellow stone bared and in the wild and terrible face, two eyes blazing like Gre-opals. The Goblin whirled and streaked toward the band of mares. They were bunched, watching, fascinated. They opened their ranks and let him in. They scattered at the Impact of the Albino's head-on rush. Goblin dodged. He felt the rake of the Albino's Al-bino's teeth down his haunch a chunk bitten out he squealed and doubled behind another mare. The Albino's charge knocked her off her feet and Goblin went down under her. He felt a burning pain in his The stroke was delivered with lightning speed. ear and tore it loose. He was up again, shouldering into a group of mares and foals. When he came out the other side, the Albino had lost him for the moment. It was his chance. He fled toward the keyhole in the rampart. Albino in thundering thunder-ing pursuit. Entering the passageway, passage-way, the Goblin followed the zigzag path which led through it, and here his smaller size gave him an advantage. ad-vantage. Emerging on the other side, the Albino was some distance behind, but still coming fast. It was a long chase. Goblin's youth and his quickness at dodging and doubling and the cover given to him by the rocks and clumps of trees saved him. Six miles-down the river, he was alone at last, as the afternoon light began be-gan to fade. He was limping from the painful wound in his shoulder. He carried his head on one side, favoring fa-voring the torn ear, now and then giving it a little shake to shake the pain away, scattering drops of blood. He ached all over. To move, now that he had stopped running, was an agony. He stood under a tree, twisted and quivering. He ate nothing all night. The memory of all that had happened hap-pened was graven in him. He faced the rampart, cocked his one good ear, turned his head until he caught the wind, and stood straining, listening, listen-ing, smelling, bringing to hi3 consciousnessalmost con-sciousnessalmost as strongly as if he could see him the terrible monster mon-ster that had terrified and bested him. He had the impulse to neigh and challenge him but not the strength nor the courage. Never mind there would be another day. Wait. He had wounds to heaL Goblin grazed until he had filled his belly and renewed his strength, then took the way home. Fortitude was demanded of Ken next day when Flicka went unexpectedly unex-pectedly into labor and Rob said she was going to have a bad time and they would need the vet. Driving over to the telegraph station sta-tion with his mother, Ken's face was white and furious. "God made the world, didn't He?" he asked suddenly. sud-denly. "Well, I don't think much of the way He made it. I could have done it better. I can think up awful aw-ful nice worlds." Nell glanced down at him. What could she say? Goblin now Flicka It was a pretty big dost? of trouble for him. "Why do all the horrible things have to happen?" he asked passionately. passion-ately. She must answer him. "We can't understand entirely. Ken" "Why not?" "You can't understand something that's so much bigger than you are. Not wholly understand. You can't even wholly understand your father or me only one side of us. And even less, your Heavenly Father, the Father of all of us. It would be as if a small circle, like a nut, could get outside a big circle, like an orange." Ken was silent, composing an Important Im-portant prayer. "Please God, make me have fortitude. And don't let me lose my grip. But ii you could manage man-age it to have the Goblin come back, and Flicka get through this foaling all' right, that would be just keen. For Jesus Christ's sake, Amen." There was a flash of radiance on his face as he looked up at his mother. Arrived at the railroad station, Nell entered the telegraph office, and Ken stood listening to the mysterious mys-terious dots and dashes which asked the telegraph agent at Laramie if he would be so kind as to do Captain McLaughlin of the Goose Bar ranch a favor, and telephone the veterinarian, veterina-rian, Dr. Hicks, and find out If he could start to the ranch immediately immediate-ly to deliver a foal? Within five minutes the message Came back that Dr. Hicks would come. On the Goose Bar ranch the weather was hot really hot for only two or three weeks in midsummer. midsum-mer. On this day the thermometer stood at a hundred and one with a burning, dry heat which lay on the land In shimmering waves, reminder remind-er that it was not far removed from the desert. Inside the barn. In spite of wide open doors and windows, everyone was soaked with perspiration and Dr. Hicks had constantly to turn aside and shake the water from his forehead. Rob and the boys were naked from the waist up. Flicka, exhausted by hours of unavailing un-availing labor, lay on her side. It was a dry birth. For a long time before the veterinarian's arrival one of the foal's forelegs had been protruding. pro-truding. "Which means," said Dr. Hicks when he arrived, "that the other leg is curled back and makes birth impossible. im-possible. The foal is In the wrong position, po-sition, It will have to be straightened straight-ened out." He asked for a gunny sack, cut holes in the corners for his arms and one In the middle for his head, removed shirt and undershirt, under-shirt, donned the gunny sack, greased his arm and went to work. Ken watched him, vowing to himself him-self that never again should Flicka be allowed to have another foal. The doctor puffed as, holding the tiny yellow foreleg, he slowly forced it back into the mare. Ken saw it vanish with a strange sensation. Could the foal still be alive after being handled like that? At length the doctor's hand and wrist disappeared disap-peared too, and Ken, watching his heavy brown face with its humorous humor-ous expression, as if at any moment he was going to crack a joke, tried to read on it just what was going on inside there. Lucky, thought he, that Doc was so big and husky. To be able to straighten out a foal inside of its mother took strength! While Doc worked he talked in short grunts. "This mare'll never foal again that infection she had when she was a yearling injured her scar tissue it's a wonder she's as good as she is. All right for saddle ah, there, I've got it now " "Got what?" breathed Ken, "The other hoof. Both of them. This isn't going to be so bad, after all." Nell was kneeling at Flicka's head, sponging her face and mouth with cold water. Now and then the mare gave a spasmodic heave. Presently Doc was pulling on something. Flicka groaned and labored la-bored mightily. Ken groaned and strained too, but Howard watched every move the doctor made, keenly interested. Two tiny hoofs and a muzzle appeared and the doctor got to his feet and mopped the sweat from his face. "She may be able to manage the rest herself now I've got it in the right position," he said. But Flicka couldn't. Most of her strength was gone and it seemed that something still impeded the delivery. de-livery. McLaughlin looked at his watch. "It's been going on three hours now." He and Doc talked together In low voices. It frightened Ken to hear them so casual and fatalistic. Ken touched the protruding hoofs. They were not hard yet and were covered with rubber-like pads. He tried to pull on them and was dumbfounded dumb-founded to find that it was like trying try-ing to pull a bough from a tree. McLaughlin sent Gus for ropos. They tied a rope to the foal's legs and Doc and his assistant put all their weight on it. The foal moved a little, the head was nearly out. Then it .stuck,- and when they continued to' pull the only result was that Flicka's whole body slid across the floor. They tied her forelegs to a post and pulled again. Flicka's body stretched out straight and taught, ropes at each end of her, but the foal did not budge. (TO BE CONTINUED) |