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

unhooked the gate, swung
it open, and rode him out the gate.
    New scenery began to appear to Mortgage Lifter. No
pole fence appeared before his eyes after a few steps. His ears began
to work. He raised his head and looked at a cloud. He turned his head
and looked at a bird. He caught sight of Kane in the panorama out of
the corner of his eye. He swung his head around and caught sight of
Kane out of the other eye. He hit a fast, scared trot. Every time he
got another look at Kane the trot got faster. He had never carried
Kane at a fast trot before so that scared him more and he threw his
head up, took a fix on a cloud, and had a runaway. Kane took hold of
one rein and the dun looked at his cloud and not at where he was
going. He ran through a cholla cactus field and Kane gave him slack so he would look down and see
where he was going. He ran into a deep sandy wash and almost fell
when Kane's weight bore down on him at the bottom of the wash. He
looked at the ground finally when he stumbled in the wash and Kane
turned him up the wash and ran him in the sand. The end of the wash
was a solid wall and into it Mortgage Lifter plowed. He bounced off
and Kane circled him in the sand. Mortgage Lifter had his head down
now. The head got lower as Kane circled him. The first convulsive
symptoms of a bucking horse began to appear and Kane hauled back on
one rein. The head came all the way around but the body kept
convulsing straight ahead into the wall of the wash. Kane had to give
him his head so he wouldn't fall and down the head went between the
front legs and Mortgage Lifter started bucking. The big tall colt
knew how to buck. Kane could see out of the wash every time the colt
fired. He could never tell where the colt was going to land because
the colt was so limber he came down in unrelated pieces. Finally Kane
saw a whole lot of landscape above the bank of the wash and he lost
hold of the death grip he had on the saddlehorn and when he reached
for it again he grabbed a handful of sand, then a mouthful, and then
it seemed like the whole sandy bed of the wash was making a starry
story inside his head. Mortgage Lifter had lifted Kane's butt.
    Kane got up and ran to the mouth of the wash so the
colt couldn't get away and stood there and watched him buck in the
end of the wash. The colt's jumps got boggy in the sand and finally
he stopped and Kane caught him. Kane sat and smoked a cigarette while
he and Mortgage Lifter cooled and thought the deal over. Then Kane
got on him and rode him in the wash until he was tired. Mortgage
Lifter carried Kane back to camp like a good saddle horse and didn't
buck anymore on the way. The black-and-white paint responded well to
the hackamore rein in the crowding pen. He had a lot of action. He
was graceful and nimble on long slender legs. He was shortnecked,
clean-hided, lean, and hard. The only part of the colt Kane didn't
like was the small eye encircled by white. The look out of the dark
blue pupils was one way and that way didn't seem to include Kane.
They showed Escape Intended. Kane opened the gate and rode him
outside.
    The colt immediately hit a fast trot. Kane headed him
up a road that ended at the highway. He wanted to keep the colt out
of the cholla fields. The colt wanted to cover the country. He was
easy to handle, so Kane let him go. Three seconds later the paint was
at a dead run down the road. Kane circled him and stopped him several
times but the colt's circles got wider each time. He was not
responding so well to the hackamore now and Kane was putting all his
weight on the rein to circle him. The paint was warming up and his
jaw was getting numb from the pulling. He was no longer coming here
to Kane but was more and more getting gone. The road passed through a
long narrow lane solid on both sides with mesquite, ironwood, and palo verde trees, all
hardwood, and all spiny. Kane let the colt run. There was not enough
country free of brush to turn him in now.
    Suddenly Kane saw a big truck