— he who had praised boldly another when she was by!
' All right, Annie! ' Luck called to her through his megaphone. ' Go back now and wait for whistle. Ride along the edge when you come, from
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bushes to where you stand. I want silhouette, you coming. You sabe ? '
Annie-Many-Ponies raised her hand even with her breast, and swept it out and upward in the Indian sign-talk which meant 'yes.' Luck's eyes flashed appreciation of the gesture; he loved the sign-talk of the old plains tribes.
' Be careful, Annie,' he cried impulsively. ' I don't want you to be hurt.' He dropped the megaphone as she swung her horse back from the edge and disappeared. ' I'd cut the whole scene out if I didn't know what a rider she is,' he added to the others, more uneasy than he cared to own. ' But it would hurt her a heap more if I wouldn't let her ride where Jean rode. She's proud; awfully proud and sensitive.'
' I'm glad you're letting her do it,' Jean said sympathetically. ' She'd hate me if you hadn't. But I'm going to watch her with my eyes shut, just the same. It's an awfully mean place in spots.'
' She'll make it, all right,' Luck declared. But his tone was not so confident as his words, and he was manifestly reluctant to place the whistle to
WHERE WAGALEXA CONKA SAY
his lips. He fussed with his script, and he squinted into the viewfinder, and he made certain for the second time just where the side-lines came, and thrust half an inch deeper in the sandy soil the slender stakes which would tell Annie-Many-Ponies where she must guide the pinto when she came tearing down to foreground. But he could delay the signal only so long, unless he cut out the scene altogether.
' Get back, over on that side, Bill,' he commanded harshly. ' Leave her plenty of room to pass that side of the camera. All ready, Pete ? ' Then, as if he wanted to have it over with as soon as possible, he whistled once, waited while he might have counted twenty, perhaps, and sent shrilling through the sunshine the signal that would bring her.
They watched, holding their breaths in fearful expectancy. Then they saw her flash into view and come galloping down along the edge of the ridge where the hill fell away so steeply that it might be called a cliff. Indian fashion, she was whipping the pinto down both sides with the end of her reins. Her slim legs hung straight, her
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moccasined toes pointing downward. One corner of her red-and-green striped blanket flapped out behind her. Haste — the haste of the pursuer — showed in every movement, every line of her figure.
She came to the descent, and the pinto, having no desire for applause but a very great hankering for whole bones in his body, planted his forefeet and slid to a stop upon the brink. His snort came clearly down to those below who watched.
' He won't tackle it,' Pete Lowry predicted philosophically while he turned the camera crank steadily round and round and held himself ready to ' panoram ' the scene if the pinto bolted.
But the pinto, having Annie-Many-Ponies to reckon with, did not bolt. The braided rein-end of her squaw bridle lashed him stingingly; the moccasined heels dug without mercy into the tender part of his flanks. He came lunging down over the first rim of the bluff; then since he must, he gathered himself for the ordeal and came leaping down and down and down, gaining momentum with every jump. He could not have stopped then if he had tried — and Annie-Many-Ponies, 92
WHERE WAGALEXA CONKA SAY
still the incarnation of eager pursuit, would not let him try.
At the big flat rock of which Jean had warned her, the pinto would have swerved. But she yanked him into the straighter descent, down over the bank. He leaped, and he fell and slid twice his own length, his nose rooting the soil. Annie-Many-Ponies lurched, came hard against a boulder and somehow flung herself into place again on the horse. She lifted his head and called to him in short, harsh, Indian words. The pinto scrambled to his knees, got to his feet and felt again the sting of the rein-end in his flanks. Like a rabbit he came bounding down, down where the way was steepest and most treacherous. And at every jump the rein-end fell, first on one side and then along the other, as a skilled canoeman shifts the paddle to force his slight craft forward in a treacherous current.
Down the last slope he came thundering. On his back Annie-Many-Ponies lashed him steadily, straining her eyes in the direction which Jean had taken past the camera. She knew that they were watching her — she knew also that the camera
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crank in Pete Lowry's hands was turning, turning, recording every move of hers, every little changing expression. She swept down upon them so close that Pete grabbed the tripod with one hand, ready to lift it and dodge away from the coming collision. Still leaning, still lashing and straining every nerve in pursuit, she dashed past, pivoted the pinto upon his hind feet, darted back toward the staring group and jumped off while he was yet running.
Now that she had done it; now that she had proven that she also had nerve and much skill in riding, black loneliness settled upon her again. She came slowly back, and as she came she heard them praise the ride she had made. She heard them saying how frightened they had been when the pinto fell, and she heard Wagalexa Conka call to her that she had made a strong scene for him. She did not answer. She sat down upon a rock, a little apart from them, and looking as remote as the Sandias Mountains, miles away to the north, folded her blanket around her and spoke no word to anyone.
Soon Kamon mounted his horse to return to his 94
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camp. He came riding down to her — for hia trail lay that way — and as he rode he called to the others a good natured ' Hasta luego! '— which is the Mexican equivalent of ' See you later.' He did not seem to notice Annie- Many-Ponies at all as he rode past her. He was gazing off down the arroyo and riding with all his weight on one stirrup and the other foot swinging free, as is the nonchalant way of accustomed riders who would ease their muscles now and then. But as he passed the rock where she was sitting he murmured, ' Tonight by the rock I wait for you, querida mia.' Though she gave no sign that she had heard, the heart of Aimie-Many-Ponies gave a throb of
