“Things have broken loose quicker than we thought”
THE HILL OF ADVENTURE
CHAPTER I
GRAY CLOUD MOUNTAIN
It was with feelings of doubt that were notvery far from dismay that Beatrice Deemswatched her new acquaintance, Dan O’Leary,saddle her recently acquired horse. She hadridden before, of course, in the tan-bark ringof the riding-school or on shady bridle-pathsin the park, always on well-broken steedswhose beauty and grooming were equaled onlyby their good manners. But now, as she stoodin her short khaki riding-skirt and her highboots, waiting outside the great dilapidatedshed that, in this little Montana town, didduty as a livery-stable, she was beginning towonder whether she really knew anythingabout horses at all. Certainly she had neverthought of riding anything like this plungingcreature who stood straight up on his hindlegs one moment, then dropped to his forefeetand stood on them in turn, with the easeof a circus performer.
She had spent only two days in Ely, thelittle town planted beside Broken Bow Creek,in the foot-hills of the Rocky Mountains. Atfirst she had thought that the village, with itsscattered box-like houses and dusty, shadelessstreet, was disappointingly unlike the West ofthe pictures-books and the movies. The anticsof her new horse, however, were disturbinglylike what she had witnessed in Wild Westshows.
“’Name’s Buck,” volunteered the man whowas struggling with the saddle, and added,though in a tone that seemed to indicate theexplanation as quite unnecessary, “It’s on accountof his color, you know.”
“Oh!” returned Beatrice, a little blankly.For the life of her, she could think of nothingelse to say. She had yet to learn that allWestern ponies of that golden buckskin shadeof coat bear the same name. At the momentshe was tempted to believe that the title hadsom