the Drift Fence (1992) Read Online Free PDF Page A

he threw three successive riders. Yet how these lean, supple, round-limbed, small-hipped cowboys could ride!
    They stuck on like burrs. But it was dangerous sport. Many were thrown.
    One red-headed fellow had a horse fall back on him. Another rolled clear over with his horse and still came up in the saddle. At this the crowd roared. Molly saw another boy carried off the field, but she had not observed what had happened to him. When that whirling, dusty, snorting, and yelling mOlTe ended it was none too soon for Molly.
    "Bulldoggin' steers next," said Mr. See, consulting his programme.
    "Goodness! Do they chase them with bulldogs?" ejaculated Molly, in amaze.
    See laughed heartily. "Wal, thet's a good one."
    "Caleb, this is Molly's first rodeo," reproved his wife, though it was plain the girl's remark had tickled her.
    Molly was soon to learn more. A wicked wide-horned steer was let loose, and a cowboy, superbly mounted, came tearing down the field, to drive the steer furiously, catch up with it, and then to dive out of his saddle. He alighted on the neck of the steer, and swinging down by the horns he tumbled it head over heels, and rolled over with it. Molly screamed. But the cowboy came out of the dust unhurt and victorious, for there he sat on the head of the steer, holding it down.
    "There! What do you think of that for a cowboy?" exclaimed See, turning to Molly.
    "He's wonderful. But he's crazy. Who ever heard of such a thing?" returned Molly, feelingly.
    "Molly's right," agreed Mrs. See. "I think this bulldoggin' sport is brutal. Where's the sense in it?"
    "Ain't none. But shore takes a slick rider to do it," said her husband.
    "A cowboy once told me he didn't have an unbroken bone in his body. Now I can see why," commented Molly.
    Nevertheless, though this style of riding, and downing a steer like a bulldog, made Molly cold and sick, she could not help watching it through. She would certainly have something to tell Arch Dunn.
    Fortunately, none of the riders were seriously hurt during this most perilous test of horsemanship and hardihood. And the rest of the programme allowed Molly to recover.
    "Wal, lass, an' how'd you like it?" asked Mr. See.
    "I've had the most wonderful time in all my life," dreamily replied Molly.
    "With the best yet to come," added Mrs. See. "This is all very well for the men, but it's the dance where a girl shines."
    With that remark there came flashing back to Molly the strange thoughts and sensations roused by her last customer at the booth. Ought she not tell Mrs. See about this young man? Molly was inherently honest and she knew she should, but she was also in conflict with feelings new to her, and most confusing. She would wait. What would Mrs. See and Mrs. Price think of her if they knew she had promised dances to a stranger who had not even told her his name? That omission had not even occurred to Molly until now. All during the service at the booth she had been most careful of her tongue, and then the very last young man had made her forget herself and what was due her hostesses. Molly could not understand it. He had sort of carried her away. Still, he had not been bold like some of the cowboys, or flirtatious like others. At least she did not think so.
    But then she might have been wrong. The trouble was he had surprised her into liking him. No doubt of that! Who was he and what had troubled him and how had he been about licked, as he called it? Would it be possible for any young fellow to be so clever and so deceitful as to make up all that? Molly was startled. She had known boys to do queer tricks. But she loyally defended this one who had found her weak. He was as honest as he was nice.
    Here Molly got down to the point where he had become so undisguisedly interested in the fact that she did not have a best fellow. There had been a soft, almost mischievous light in his gray eyes. Could he have meant that he would like to be her best fellow? Molly burned within and without. The