Flaming Zeppelins Read Online Free PDF

tent, stood and bowed to Annie.
    A rider burst out of nowhere on a black horse, galloping toward Annie at full speed. He extended a hand. Annie grabbed, swung onto the back of the saddle, and away the horse thundered. Again the crowd cheered.
    Shortly thereafter came a horde of cowboys, doing tricks on horseback, roping and shooting at targets. Cattle were released. The cowboys roped, threw, and tied them.
    Stagecoaches thundered around the makeshift arena, pursued by Indians who leapt onto them from their horses. Mock fist and knife fights took place, cartridge blanks snapped and exploded.
    Scouts of the Prairie,
a play, was performed in the center of the arena with Hickok, Captain Jack and Cody. It was translated by the interpreter who called out the words in Japanese over a megaphone. His words were in turn passed throughout the crowd by other Japanese armed with megaphones.
    It was not an entirely successful moment. The play was bad to begin with. There was the language barrier. And every time Cody moved there was hesitation as Goober responded to orders tossed down the pipe. The interpreter sometimes mistook these words as part of the play, presented Cody’s commands, curse words and oaths to the perplexity of the crowd.
    The next act bought the crowd’s enthusiasm back. A small log cabin was fastened together quickly in the center of the arena. Thatch was tossed over the top to serve as a roof. A clothesline was hastily erected, a wash pot and scrub board were placed nearby. A woman and her children, a boy and a girl, appeared. The woman pretended to do her wash in the wash pot. She hung a couple of items on the line.
    Suddenly, out of nowhere came a horde of Indians. The mother and her children retreated inside the cabin. A window was opened. The mother poked a rifle out, shot at the Indians as they circled the cabin on their horses, hooting and hollering and firing off blanks.
    Then a torch was thrown on the cabin’s roof. The prepared straw and kerosene sprang to life. It looked as if the woman and her children would be burned alive. An Indian leapt off his horse, grabbed at the cabin door.
    The lock snapped free, the Indian rushed in. The woman and her children were pulled into the yard. The roof of the cabin blazed. An Indian in heavy war paint pulled a tomahawk from his belt, and just as he was about to cut down on the woman, there was a bugle blast.
    Twenty men in cavalry uniforms, Cody at their head, his steam man torso mounted on one of Frank Reade’s shiny steam horses, rode into view. The steam horse hissed clots of vapor, its metal hooves stamped the ground. The Indians released their captives, bounded onto their mounts and fled, the cavalry and Buffalo Bill Cody in hot pursuit.
    Saved, the women and children ran out of the arena. A steam-powered fire engine chugged up. The cabin’s roof was doused with water from a large hose. Men dismantled the cabin, and away it went, providing room for the next feature.
    Off-stage Cody was lifted from his horse with a crane. When the steam man was on the ground and the cowboys had unfastened the harness, Buntline appeared with a screwdriver, and removed Cody’s head from the torso.
    While he was doing this, Goober opened the door in the steam man’s ass and slid out backwards like a plump white turd. He got up with dirt sticking to his sweaty body, and without a word, wandered off to be hosed.
    Annie and Hickok were nearby, cleaning the weapons Annie had used in her act. A cowboy rode up. He said to Cody’s head, “You heard them yellow men got them a fella they’re cuttin’ up?”
    â€œWhat?” Cody asked.
    â€œA fella. They’re cuttin’ on him. And he ain’t no Chinese or Jap neither. I think he’s a white feller.”
    â€œSay he is,” Cody said. “Where did you hear that?”
    â€œThat boy, Tom Mix.”
    â€œThe elephant handler,” Cody said. “Well, it’s most likely