Jim Kane - J P S Brown Read Online Free PDF Page A

kicked, and bit at Kane. The bay fought Kane to
get away but only because he was afraid, not to do the man injury.
The dun was caught, haltered, and tied before he had time to decide
he didn't like it. Kane turned the other four colts out. He would get
them back after he had ridden the rough off the four he had caught.
Kane and the Keyses walked up to Kane's camp at lunchtime. The camp
was a board shack. Inside the shack Kane had a shelf for his bed, a
chair, and a kerosene lamp. His kitchen was a lean-to off this shack
with a wood stove, a table, chairs, and a chuckbox cupboard.
    " We figured you wouldn't have time to get
groceries last night so we brought some. We'll be here every day
anyway so we'll buy the groceries," Bob Keys said. Jimmy brought
two armloads of groceries from their stationwagon. Kane built a fire
in the stove and fried steaks and potatoes and warmed canned com for
their lunch. Alter lunch they sat and smoked a while.
    " The three off-colored colts you caught are
probably the toughest ones in the bunch, don't you think?" Bob
Keys asked Kane.
    " That's what I figure. I'll take them while I'm
still fresh and rarin' to go," Kane said. "The paint and
the buckskin are meat eaters. What do you call them?"
    " We'll let you name them," Bob Keys said.
    " The bay already has a name," Jimmy Keys
said. "Dad was in his cups one night and I always hit him up for
something when I catch him in his cups. I caught him just right that
night and asked him for the bay. Bill Pyle, the trader, was there.
Dad felt generous so he gave the colt to me. Bill told me not to
believe Dad. He said Dad was just making whiskey talk. The next day
when Dad was sober he didn't back down. Since then the horse has been
called Whiskey Talk."
    " He's a nice-looking colt."
    "Well, he's Jimmy's," Bob Keys said.
    " His soul may be Jimmy's but his rear end is
mine now," Kane said.
    Kane went out the next morning and looked at the
colts. They had been through a rough night fighting their halters.
When Kane stepped into the corral all four colts fell back against
the ties but they immediately lunged forward to ease the pain on
their necks. During the night they had learned there was no give to
the ties. They had learned that flesh and blood could not stand a
fight with the unfeeling uniformity of four well-set railroad ties.
    Kane walked up to the dun. The colt had taken all the
slack he could out of the halter rope without taking on too much pain
and was standing with his head high, his lip nibbling on the halter
that stretched out under his muzzle. He fixed one worried eye on Kane
and the closer Kane approached, the more he leaned back against the
tie. Kane stopped near him and watched him strain against the halter
until his eyes closed and his legs started to buckle and he did a
little dance to keep his feet. Finally he shook his head violently
and squealed. The combination of tie and halter held fast, no pain
there. The colt sat down on the root of his tail and sulled. The
combination took no note of his lack of cooperation. After he cooled
for a while Kane walked up to him, screamed at him, and wrung his
tail for him. The dun lurched to his feet and gave himself slack.
Kane lectured him in a low voice until his legs stopped trembling.
    " Now you see, big dun," Kane said. '"You've
got to stand up close and stop fighting it. People have plans for
you. These plans do not include your escaping from people anymore.
People have a combination fixed that does not in any way include your
plans for yourself. People want to like you so that you can be useful
to them. If you do what you want to do people won't like you. You
aren't going to grow up to be like me. You are going to be the
Mortgage Lifter."
    Kane was carrying a small pan of grain. He took the
dun's rope off the tie. None of the colts knew what grain was yet,
but since they hadn't swallowed anything but spit since yesterday
morning Kane didn't have any trouble teaching the dun that grain was
good