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Show n llAtAv Vjff' frr?' '11 W.N.U. FEATURIS" .-SC-. ' -Sjs4Jy M0?f maw THE STORY ' THUS FAR: Thunder- ' head, commonly known as the Goblin, Is the only white horse ever foaled on the Goose Bar ranch In Wyomlne- Be resembles re-sembles his great erandslre, m wild stallion stal-lion known as the Albino. One day Goblin Gob-lin wanders Into a mountain valley and barely escapes death from his jrand-slre's jrand-slre's slashing hoofs. When his wounds heal, his 12-year-old owner, Ken Me-Langhlin, Me-Langhlin, beelns to tram him. Although difficult to handle, Goblin can run with astonishing speed and endurance. In a trial he covers a H mile In 47 seconds. Be escapes gelding by an accident. Charley Sargent, millionaire horse breeder, breed-er, Is enthusiastic about Goblin's possibilities. After a short silence, NeU said, "Neither do I. It just seems unlikely, un-likely, somehow, that he'll pan out." "Shall we take Skippy to the auction auc-tion with us?" yelled Howard, busily busi-ly brushing and grooming Sultan, the big blood-bay who, his father said, was worth a good five hundred hun-dred dollars to anyone that wanted a well-trained heavy hunter. "I should "say not!" yelled Rob from the other corral where he was giving Injun the work-out he had promised Nell the horse should have every day. "Do you want to dis- Nell stood near by, watcmng. n depressed her. She didn't mind the ancient brood mares and the scrubs,!, but Sultan I And the three sorrel mares! 'And the two blues! j "Skippy might help," said Nell, "and you could squeeze her in she's so small they wouldn't know' she. was there." "Ken, come here!" yelled his fa-, ther. . I - He put Ken on Skippy, placed her in advance of all the others and told the boy to ride her through the chute and up the ramp. As Ken did so, Rob and Howard forced the other horses after them. CHAPTER XV Rob conceded that Thunderhead had been promoted. Since the speed he had shown that afternoon, he would be guarded, cherished, watched over like the crown prince. Ken could hardly believe it. "Do you mean you'll keep him In this winter, dad? And and feed him oats and hay?" "With my own fair hands! What's more I'll ride him and continue his training whenever I have time. That's the least I can do if he's going to put wooden fences on the ranch and buy a furnace for us! What do you think, Nell?" He had seen her sitting there, silent and white, after the hard look he had given her. She looked up as he spoke to her. His face was genial and smiling. First the blow then the smile-But smile-But she didn't answer for a moment mo-ment and Ken was impatient. "Mother!" he exclaimed. grace me? What sort of horse-breeder would raise an animal like that?" There was the sound of galloping. Three beautiful sorrel mares, Taffy, A-Honey, and Russet came cantering canter-ing down the pasture toward the corral with Ken, mounted on Thunderhead, Thun-derhead, behind them. Howard hastened to open the gates, the mares trotted in, and Ken slid oft his horse. "That's all, dad," he yelled. "They're all here. Thirteen of 'em." "All right. Unsaddle your horse. You can wipe him off, but don't take all day. I want you to help Howard groom those others." The gate of the corral where Rob was exercising Injun was carefully opened. Nell entered and stood watching. She was dressed in a summer suit of light blue linen and a tan straw hat with a round brim that curved off her face. It was nearly the color of the tawny bang that gleamed on her forehead. With her hands thrust into the pockets of her jacket and her small feet in their sturdy flat shoes planted in Skippy led the procession triumphantly trium-phantly but laid her ears back when she found herself penned into a corner cor-ner of the truck with no room to kick and no oats. i "Just promise not to bring Skippy back, even if you have to give her away," called Nell as they closed the truck. She walked up onto the hill to see the last of them. Kim and Chaps sat down beside her and watched too. She thought she saw a hand waving just before the truck went around the curve. Then it was gone and she hurried indoors. The old brood mares sold immediately imme-diately for forty dollars apiece after it was ascertained that each one carried a foal. "Better that than the coyotes," muttered Rob. There was more bidding for the scrubs. They were ridden around and around the ring by the ring boys, while whips cracked and the raucous voice of the auctioneer rattled as fast as the tobacco sell- tes," she said. "By all means! Keep him in." i When Nell asked Rob, she made It very casual She was brushing her hair for the night. "By the way, Rob did you see Bellamy?" "Yes." "What about the sheep?" "It's O.K." "Thank Heaven! Will he be able to pay us the first half before Howard How-ard leaves?" "No, he can't do that. He has to wait until he sells his lambs." "What'll we do? We have to have that eight hundred by September tenth." Rob had his back to her, standing before his chiffonier. There was something very rigid about his body the legs braced apart a little, head back. "I'll take some horses down to the Denver auction this next week." Nell made no comment. She calculated cal-culated rapidly. Every summer he had half a dozen or so "scrubs" to sell at any price he could get-horses get-horses who were too small, or poorly deyeloped, or with some defect. Sometimes he sold them to Williams, Wil-liams, a horse buyer who went around to ranches with his own truck; or at one of the near-by auc-' auc-' tions. Wherever he sold them, he would be lucky to get fifty dollars apiece for them. There were also , J K Pi ii ers on me raaiu. The scrubs were auctioned off for an average of forty-five dollars each. Sultan was led in. "My Gosh! Look at that horse!", exclaimed the auctioneer. The hammer ham-mer crashed. "Who'll bid a hundred hun-dred for him? A hundred! A hundred! hun-dred! Who'll bid a hundred?" As he poured out his line, the ring boy made a leap for Sultan's back. Sultan reared and plunged away, tore loose from the rope, and went galloping around the ring. Three boys pursued him, cornered him, got his rope; he still fought them, the whips cracked, he lashed with his heels, and the auctioneer, not looking at him, was crying, "Who'll bid a hundred? Am I bid a hundred?" "Seventy-five," bid a heavy-set farmer. ' "Seventy-six!" bid the man in the bowler hat. The farmer bid "Eighty." The man in the bowler hat bid "Eighty-one." "Eighty-one." Sultan was sold to the farmer for ninety dollars. . - , The farmer was at Sultan's side as Ken slid off him. He was pleased with his buy. "That's what I call a, real horse. He'll do me as well as a Farmall would, and without gasoline too." He chuckled and ran his hand over the horse's withers. tne two Old orouu maica w i. Altogether, that would make, perhaps, per-haps, four hundred dollars. What else would he sell to make up the difference? There had been many arguments between herself and Rob on the subject sub-ject of providing for their current needs by sales of horses no matter mat-ter at what sacrifice. He always refused to do it "What? SeU a horse that's worth fifteen hundred dollars for fifty? Not if I was starving." starv-ing." "But Rob how many sales of that sort do you get?" "I've had some We've lived, haven't we?" "Yes four horses four years ago at seven hundred dollars a piece. Then, none the next year. Then one for two thousand I admit that was a good sale But you must have thirty or forty horses just waiting for one of those sales and they only come once In a blue moon When we need the money, you might as well sell half a dozen for anythingyou any-thingyou would still have enough fine horses for any sort of deal that came along." "I'd rather sell one for two thousand thou-sand than twenty horses at a hundred hun-dred dollars a head, or forty horses at fifty." "We have to have that eight hundred hun-dred by September the tenth." the loose soil, she had her little girl look. "You're taking Sultan?" she asked. "And Smoky and Blue." She noticed no-ticed them in the string that Howard How-ard and Ken were grooming. They were blue roans a pair of beauties, with sweeping tails and gentle eyes, just too small for Army or polo, but well broken and beautifully matched. Nell had always thought of them as belonging to two little girls, sisters, who would love them and saddle and groom them themselves. them-selves. "And Taffy, and A-Honey and Russet," Rus-set," said Rob, turning Injun and riding him down along the fence again. Nell's question was answered. Rob was going to do the thing he had always vowed he would never do throw away some of his best stuff to meet an urgent need of the moment. Injun turned and came back. Rob's face was hard as nails. Nell hated to look at it. She could see the real suffering underneath. ! "I'd have saved Sultan for the army sale he'd have been certain - i nnA i(TVitv-AvA Hni. "Are you going to use him to plough?" '' V;';: The farmer looked at, him in as-' tonishment. "I sure am. What do you s'pose I'm payin' ninety dollars for?" -. "He's 'a hunter," exclaimed Ken desperately. "A heavy hunter." "Hunter," repeated the farmer. "Hunt what?" "Foxes." "Foxes! You mean coyotes? I hunt plenty of coyotes but I hunt them with a Ford and a couple of greyhounds. I won't need a plug for that What do you call him?" "Sultan." The ring boy led the horse away and the farmer followed. Ken stood, looking after them miserably. "That's a good horse, Sonny." Ken looked up. The tall man with the bowler hat stood beside him. He had a red face and a sharp nose. "Any more where he came from?" he asked. "Yes," said Ken sullenly. "A lot more." "Whose horses are they?" "My father's. Captain McLaughlin." McLaugh-lin." Ken walked back to Howard. When the auction was over the man in the bowler hat had bought Smoky, Blue, Taffy, A-Honey and Rnsset for Drices ranging from six- Such remancs as mese were unanswerable. un-answerable. But he wasn't talking like that now. Nell glanced at him. Did he mean that he would take some of his fine stuff down to the Denver auction and let it go cheap? As he turned she saw his face, weary and harassed. He went into the small adjoining bedroom where he kept his boots and clothes. They talked back and forth through the open door while she washed her face in oil and carefully dried it. "Wasn't It exciting about Thunderhead?" Thun-derhead?" she asked. "Yep." "You didn't see the best of it," she said. "I wish you had." She could hear him polishing his shoes before he put them away. "Oh. he can run!" he said. "He's fast, if he ever gts the kinks ironed out of him Don't wait for me I'm going to smoke a pipe before I turn In." "You don't seem to take much itock in him, Rob." 'No. I don't." lor a iiiuiuicu anu lars except for that scar on his chest. Damn the barbed wire!" . As it Injun felt the passion and violence of his master he began to crouch and lunge. Rob turned him sharply away from Nell and forced him to resume his measured pacing up and down the corral fence. When he reached Nell again he paused and said more calmly, "You don't often see such horses as these in this country." "I know you don't," said Nell sadly. sad-ly. "There won't be anything at the auction to touch them!" "I don't doubt it." "Mother!" yelled Howard from the other corral, "Don't you think we ought to take Skippy to the auction auc-tion and sell her?" "Sell her!" scoffed Rob, "sell Skippy! The boy must be out of his mind!" NeU laughed. "Someone might buy her. A child could ride her." The thirteen horses were ready for loading, crowded into the small corral which opened into th chute. It was always a difficult business. ty-flve to ninety-five dollars. Rob stood with his boys out in the road, while the jam of cars, trailers and trucks edged out of the parking places and started on their way home. The man in the bowler hat was with him. Rob said, "This is Mr. Gilroy. My two boys, Mr. Gilroy, Howard and Ken." The boys shook hands. "I want you to go home in the bus with Gus " he stuck his hand in his pocket, brought out some bills, and gave them to Howard. You'll get home by nine o'clock. Buy some sandwiches and eat them on the bus you can get them where you Uke the bus. Over there " He pointed, giving Howard precise Instructions. "Mr. Gilroy and I are going to have dinner together. I'll bring the truck. Tell your mother not to wait up, I'll be late." At dinner Rob asked, "Would you tell me what you bought all my horses for? Are they for your own use?" "No. I bought them for resale." "Where will you sell them?" (TO BE CONTINUED) |