Frances of the Ranges Part 38

CHAPTER XXVII

A DINNER DANCE IN PROSPECT

The girl from Boston did not come over to see Pratt that very next day; but soon she, as well as the remainder of the young people who had been the guests of Mr. Bill Edwards and his hospitable wife, were stopping at the Bar-T daily and inquiring for Pratt; and as soon as he could be helped downstairs and out upon the veranda, he held a general reception all day long.

In the afternoon when the Edwards crowd was over, the old _hacienda_ took on a liveliness of aspect that it had never known before. The veranda was gay with bright frocks and the air resounded with laughter.

The boys gathered around Pratt and plans for future hunts and other junkets were made--for the young bank clerk was rapidly recovering. The girls meanwhile made much of the old Captain--all but Sue Latrop. But she did not count for as much as she had at the beginning of her visit at the Edwards ranch. The other young folk had begun to find her out.

The punchers who were off duty were attracted to this gay party on the porch, as naturally as flies gravitate to mola.s.ses. The Amarillo girls--and, of course, Mrs. Bill Edwards--saw nothing out of the way in Captain Rugley's hands lounging up to the _hacienda_ to talk. Most of them were young fellows of neighboring families, and quite as well known as were the visitors themselves. Sue Latrop's amazement at this familiarity only made the other girls laugh.

Unless she would be left alone on the veranda with Pratt (which she considered very bad form) she was obliged one afternoon to go down to the corral with the crowd to see a bunch of ponies fresh from the range.

Some of the half-wild ponies rolled their eyes, snorted, and galloped to the far side of the corral the instant the visitors appeared.

"Get your reserved seats, gals!" cried Fred Purchase, preparing to open the gate. "Roost all along the rail up there and watch the fun. I bet Fatty Obendorf falls off and breaks a suspender-b.u.t.ton--fust throw out of the box!"

"Oh my! you don't mean for us to climb up _there_?" gasped Sue, as one or two of her friends tucked up their skirts and started to mount the fence.

"Sure. Reserved seats at the top," laughed Mrs. Edwards, likewise mounting the barrier.

"Why! I am afraid I could never do it," murmured the Boston girl.

"You'll miss a lot of fun, then," declared one of the Amarillo girls, callously. They were all getting a little tired of Sue Latrop and her pose.

Finding herself the only one on the ground, Sue scrambled up very clumsily and just in time to see Fatty rope the first pony out of the bunch that was now racing around and around the corral.

This was a black and white rascal with a high head and rolling eye, that looked as though he had never been bridled in his life. But it was only that he had been some months on the range, and freedom had gone to his head.

Fatty lay back on the lariat and dug his high heels into the sod. When the pony felt the noose he leaped into it, it tightened around his neck, and the creature came to the ground, kicking and squealing.

"By hicketty!" yelled Purchase. "Ain't lil' old Fatty good for suthin'?

Yuh could suah use him tuh tie a steamboat tuh--what!"

For all the fun the other punchers made of Fatty Obendorf, he had his selection out of the herd blindfolded, bridled, and saddled, before any other pony was noosed.

"Good for you, Fatty!" cried Frances, who was perched on the corral fence with the other girls. "And that's a good horse, too; only you want to 'ware heels. I remember that he's a kicker."

"Oh! Fatty don't keer if his fust name's Kickapoo," jeered Fred.

The black and white pony gave Obendorf all the work he wanted for some minutes, however, and afforded the spectators much excitement. He wasn't a bucking bronco, but he showed plainly his dislike for human management. Spur and bit and quirt, however, was a combination that the pony was quickly forced to give in to.

Fred himself straddled a speckled, ugly-looking animal, and put it through its paces in short order. It was a spectacular exhibition; but some of the other punchers laughed uproariously.

"What's the matter with you fellers, anyway?" demanded Fred, complainingly. "Ain't you a-gwine to accord me no praise? Don't I look as purty on hawseback as that fat chunk does?" he added, referring to Obendorf.

"You know very well," called Frances, from the seat of judgment, "that I drove that speckled pony to my little jumpcart two years ago. That's Chippy--and he's almost as big a bluff, Fred, as you are! He looks savage enough to eat you up, and is really as tame as tame can be."

"Hi, Teddie! she's got yuh throwed, tied, an' branded, all right!"

shouted one of the other punchers.

The girls on the fence welcomed each feat of horsemans.h.i.+p with great applause. Some of the ponies "acted up," as Tom Gallup called it, "to the queen's taste."

"Whatever that may mean, Tom," Mrs. Edwards said, dryly. "Why don't you try your 'prentice hand on that buckskin? He's dodged the lariat a dozen times."

"Why, that Bucky is a regular rocking-horse, I bet," declared Tom, who, for a city boy, was a pretty good rider.

"Get down and ride him, Tommy," urged Sue. "Can't you ride as well as these country boys?"

"I never said I could," retorted Tom, doubtfully. "You girls are guying the punchers, too. Why don't one o' you get down and show 'em what you can do?"

"Frances can beat all you boys riding, Tommy," Mrs. Edwards cried.

"Bet she couldn't even get aboard of that Bucky," young Gallup instantly responded.

"You're not going to take a dare like that, are you, Frances?" demanded Mrs. Edwards.

Sue became disdainful the moment Frances came into the argument. She had nothing further to say.

"I believe the boys are all holding back on that little buckskin," said Frances, laughing.

"Step right this way, Ma'am, step right this way," urged Fred Purchase, bowing low and offering his lariat. "Here's my rope and I'll lend ye anything else ye may need if ye wanter try that Bucky. He's some bronco, believe me!"

Frances got down off the fence.

"Oh! don't you try it, Frances!" cried one nervous girl. "That pony looks wicked!"

"Let her break her neck, if she wants to make a fool of herself!"

snapped Sue, _sotto voce_.

n.o.body heard her. All were watching too closely the range girl approach the buckskin pony. She had accepted Fred's lariat and the coil of it began to whirl about her head.

"There it goes!" cried Tom Gallup.

The buckskin started on a long, swinging lope; but it could not get out from under the coil of the lariat. The noose fell and the plunging pony went head and forefeet into it. Frances leaped with both feet upon the rope, just as it snapped taut. Bucky went on his head, kicking all four feet in the air.

"Got him! got him!" shrieked the excited Tom, and the girls cheered likewise.

And then the lariat snapped in two!

Muddied and scratched, the buckskin scrambled to his feet, his eyes blazing, nostrils distended, and as wild a horse as ever came off the range.

"Look out, Miss Frances!" yelled Mack Hinkman, who had just come upon the scene. "That thar buckskin hawse is a bad actor."

"Oh! the dear girl! Whatever did possess me to urge her on?" cried Mrs.