JESSICA TRENT:
Her Life on a Ranch
BY
EVELYN RAYMOND
Author of
“Jessica Trent’s Inheritance,” “Jessica, the Heiress”
Whitman Publishing Co.
RACINE, WISCONSIN
Copyright, 1902, by Street & Smith
Jessica Trent
Printed in the
United States of America
By
Western Printing & Lithographing Co.
Racine, Wis.
“Hello, there! What in the name of reason is this?”
The horseman’s excited cry was echoed by a startledneigh from his beast, which wheeled about so suddenlythat he nearly precipitated both himself and rider intothe gulch below.
“Oh! I’m sorry––Hold on, Zu! Go! Do, please.Quick! It’s so narrow just beyond and I can’t––”
The stranger obeyed, perforce, for his spirited animalhaving now headed up the slope, continued on hiscourse at breakneck speed, pursued at equal pace bythe unknown creature that had terrified him.
The race would not have been so even had the trailbeen wider, for King Zulu could easily have beaten hiscontestant, but, as it was, the fleeing bay bruised hismaster’s leg against the canyon wall, now and then,while bits of the bird’s plumage were torn on the sameprojecting rocks. There was no point of passage tillmore than a mile higher on the mountain, and Jessknew this if Mr. Hale did not. He knew nothing savethat he was clinging and riding for his life, and thatthis “Western horseback tour” which his doctor hadprescribed for him, seemed now more likely to provehis death than his cure.
But when a laugh rang out, close to his shoulder, heturned his head and glanced angrily backward.
8“Oh, I beg your pardon, but–it’s so funny! I’veoften wanted to try King Zu against a strange horseand now I have. Only, if we were up there on themesa, he’d show you!”
“Does this trail never end, nor turn?”
The laughter on the girl’s face changed to anxiety.
“Not ill, exactly; only I’m not experienced at thisbusiness and it shakes me.”
“You ride too hard and stiff. That’s why. Letyourself go–just be part of your horse. He’s a beauty,isn’t he? Even the boys couldn’t stand that gait.”
“And you. Who taught you to ride an ostrich?Where did you get it? It’s almost the first one I eversaw and quite the first that Prince did. I was nearlyas scared as he, meeting such a creature on a lonelymountain trail.”
“I never learned–it just happened. Zulu is ‘patriarch’of the flock. The only imported bird left alive.We just grew up together, he and I. Didn’t we,King?”
Speech was now easier, for the speed of both animalshad slackened, that of Prince to a comfortable trot.While the sidewise lurching motion of the ostrich wasenjoyable enough to Jessica, it turned Mr. Hale’s headdizzy, watching. Or it may have been the blinding sunshine,beating against the canyon wall and deflectedupon the riders in waves of heat.
“Whew! This is scorching. How far, yet?”
Jessica saw that what she minded not at all wasturning the stranger sick, and answered swiftly:
“You wouldn’t be able to get further than ‘fivetimes’ before we reach the turn. There’ll be a gloriousbreeze then. There always is.”
9“What do you mean by ‘five times’?