Chapter II: Part 2

At night an old lobo wolf halted his bachelor pack on a high rim above the ancient city. The wind lashed and tore at the gray bodies as though trying to tear them from the rocky cliff. The old lobo bared his fangs and lifted his muzzle. He sounded a savage paean of howls and high, dismal calls and his sons joined in the chorus. Their howls rang down the wind curling along the face of the cliff to where the wild horses stood. The mares jerked up their heads, and the big chestnut snorted savagely. But the howls of the pack had none of the savage cry of the kill. The gray ones were defying the storm, daring it to sweep them from their lofty crag. They were answering an age-old urge to challenge the elements, to dare them to do their worst. After a while the old lobo led his sons in a wild chase down the ridge. They leaped along, riding the fierce wind, snapping and snarling eagerly.

For two days the wild band remained under the rim; then the blizzard broke and the sun struggled through the gray clouds to shine feebly into the canyon. The mares moved out and began pawing among the tumbled rocks, digging for grass. They scooped the new snow and swallowed it to wet their throats. Above them, against the turquoise sky, a pair of buzzards wheeled and circled, their round, hard eyes peering down hungrily, watching the horses, eager to see if any showed signs of weakness. The undertakers of the air would follow the band daily, hoping the cold and the scant feed would bring death to some of the band.

The chestnut stallion met the rigors of winter with the same disdain he held for hunters. The colts were watched more closely because the snow and the cold had driven the natural food of the cougar and the wolves to cover. Many of the little dwellers were curled up in deep, warm burrows sleeping. Most of the birds had flown south. But the big killers did not sleep. Winter was a time when hunger and famine stalked their world, when they ran for days with lean, gaunt bellies driving them on. The hunger which cramped their stomachs made them savage and daring, it sharpened their cunning, and made their raids more deadly.

One evening a hungry colt strayed from the band, seeking a spot where the snow was not so deep. His mother was busy pawing through a drift where she had located a clump of bushes with tender twigs in abundance. The colt wandered up to a stand of juniper which stood sprawled against the snow. He dug down experimentally, found no curly buffalo grass and moved on, farther up the slope, closer to the green trees.

He was pawing into a drift when he heard a savage snarling. He jerked up his head and snorted, his round eyes staring with fright. Out of the juniper woods leaped four gray wolves. Their broad chests rose above the snow, spraying it aside in fine spurts. Their red tongues rolled between their bared fangs. The pack was lean and gaunt, but they did not sound the cry of the kill, they ran silently, emitting low snarls.

The colt whirled and floundered toward the mares. The chestnut stallion was the first to see the wolves. With a squeal of rage he charged toward them. The colt plunged along but he had wandered far from the band. Behind him the killers rapidly closed in. Their white fangs slashed the muscles and tendons of his straining legs, hamstringing him. He went down plunging and kicking, and the gray killers leaped upon him ripping and tearing.

At the sound of the chestnut’s shrill warning the mares jerked up their heads and charged to the rescue of the struggling colt. Lady Ebony leaped ahead close beside the big stallion. For a moment the wolves stood their ground, then they faded back, snarling and howling, to circle around the band. The mares milled and stamped around the colt while his mother nosed him and whinnied eagerly. He kicked a little, then lay still.

In the sky above the buzzards shortened their circles and dropped. Their long wait had been rewarded. The mares kept a close guard around the carcass of the colt for a long time. The wolves sat on the snow and stared out of flaming yellow eyes, waiting with slaver-flecked jaws, sure they would feast in due time. They looked up at the buzzards now sweeping low above the snow and growled defiantly.

The frantic mother kept nosing her colt, trying to get him to his feet so that she could lead him away from the blood smell and the wolf taint. The chestnut charged the wolves many times. They leaped away before his lashing hoofs, darting behind him, jumping at his legs and heels. And the buzzards settled down on the snow to wait.

The mares guarded the dead colt for over an hour, then they moved away leaving the mother alone. She remained standing over the twisted carcass, whinnying nervously. Then the killers leaped in and circled around her, darting toward her, two behind and two in front. She lashed at them, pivoted, kicked wildly, her pounding hoofs striking nothing. The chestnut stallion came to her rescue and drove the wolves away, then he drove her down the slope to where the band was feeding. She went slowly, halting to stand with her head up and nicker softly. The wolves leaped on the carcass and began devouring it while the buzzards walked over the snow, halting with their necks stretched out, their hard eyes glittering. They must wait for their share, which would be the gnawed bones.

And so the battle against the snow and the cold went on through the long winter. Another colt was lost to the gray killers, and an old mare went lame. She dropped behind in spite of the savage nipping and crowding of the big stallion. That night she bedded down alone in a little canyon and a gaunt cougar came upon her in the gray dawn. Her end came swiftly, without a struggle.

Then spring came with rushing torrents, slush in the arroyos, and slick, yellow mud on the hillsides. Streams boiled out of the dry canyons thick with raw clay and sand. This was the season when nature carved deeply into the face of the desert. Only the sand washes and the dunes on the flats resisted the water. The sand ate it up and packed hard so that it did not cling and drag when the band galloped over it.

With the speed of a miracle the desert bloomed. The sage flats flared white with the blossoms of the primrose and the mariposa lily. Countless other stunted plants put forth flowers, eager to create and ripen seed before the heat and drought of summer came. And the grass shot out of the ground, rich and sweet. The band cropped and moved on, ever searching for taller grass.

The mares were lean and gaunt, their ribs pushing ridges up under their shedding coats. The chestnut stallion was lean, too, but in a hard-muscled way. Lady Ebony had lost much of her fire and love for frolic. The sun was warm and the air soft but she needed rest. She looked away toward the white slopes of the Crazy Kill Range. Spring would not reach the high mesa for another month, but she was restless. She would have headed away into the foothills but the big stallion kept close watch over his band.

One day a horseman rode out on a rim. He sat on his bony horse and looked down on the wild band feeding on a bench. For a long time he sat there looking intently before he rode away. Yellow Man smiled as he galloped toward his hogan. There were many good colts in the band and one black mare. The black mare was a horse such as he had never seen before, the sort of mount he had always dreamed about. He would tell the other men about the band, but the black mare was to be his because he had been the first to see her.

He rode to his hogan and picketed his pony. Walking to the glowing fire which flickered inside the door he stooped and held out his hands. Four men sat along one wall while a half dozen brown-faced women sat on the other side. On the men’s side of the hogan lay riding things, bridles and blankets, a saddle. On the women’s side were the cooking pots and the blankets. Yellow Man sat down. For a long time he said nothing. His black eyes were on the fire.

Finally Yellow Man lifted his eyes to the face of an old man beside him.

“I have seen many good horses,” he said.

The old man grunted softly while the others bent forward.

“There is a black mare who will have a colt this spring,” Yellow Man said.

They all nodded. The black mare was to belong to Yellow Man, that was understood. Now they waited for him to go on.

“Tomorrow we will run the band. There will be horses for all. The big one who leads may have to be shot. I will take the rifle. The big one is strong and will fight.” Yellow Man’s eyes returned to the fire.

The others nodded and began eagerly planning the drive. Through the long winter they had kept busy with sings and chants, meeting with other families in religious dances and ceremonies. This would be the first hunt of the season.

* * * * *

To the north, behind the high gray walls of the state prison Sam knew when spring came. Through a high, barred window he could see a square of sunlight on the stone wall. Across the upper corner of the square drooped the branches of a cottonwood tree. Sam watched the buds swell and burst into pale-green leaves.

The warden and the guards shook their heads when they walked past his cell. Eight years. The old fellow would be lucky to finish two of them. He refused to work outside, he hated even to exercise in the closed-in yard. He wanted to be left alone, to sit and stare out the little window. But Sam did not share their belief that he would never leave the gray walls. He was sure he would return to the high mesa. He wasn’t going to die cooped up in a gloomy cell; when he died it would be out in the open with his boots on, under a mountain sky.

He did not brood over his trial. His attorney had been irritated to the point of anger when Sam refused to tell where he had been and what he was doing during the three weeks of absence from his cabin. That was his business; he’d need his cache when he got out. Nobody was going to find out about it. His stubbornness had convinced the jury of his guilt. Sam had paid the attorney well though the judge had offered to let the state pay the fee. He didn’t think much about those things, he just sat and stared at the cottonwood branch.

Tex, Major Howard’s foreman, had talked to him. Tex understood better than any of the others, but Sam wasn’t trusting anybody. He had learned from years of battling for gold that the yellow metal was poison to friendship and trust. Tex was a right fine feller, but there was no call to push him too far.

5. Wild Horse Drive

The snow had vanished and the desert was dry and thirsty again. Dust spurted up around the hoofs of the wild horses as they loped down a long ridge. The east was beginning to show a pale flush of red and day came quickly to the barren country, lighting the tall spires and castle rocks and the sharp points of the pinnacles, making the monument valley below appear alive.

The chestnut stallion swung along behind the mares. At their head ran an old roan. She was trailwise and wary. Her nose was leading her unerringly to a big water hole at the base of a cliff. The others pounded along behind her with the colts frisking beside their mothers. The chestnut halted every little while to whirl and sniff the morning air. He held his head high and his protruding eyes rolled as he stared back over the broken country they had left behind.

The roan trotted off the ridge and down through a jumble of rocks to the base of a cliff. The horses nickered softly as they smelled water. The roan’s muzzle was a scant foot from the yellow surface of the pool when wild yells shattered the morning calm. The band whirled and stood with heads up, staring toward a rocky slope. Above them the big chestnut screamed a warning and an order to charge away.

Down the slope toward the water hole galloped four riders. Their naked bodies gleamed copper-red in the new sunlight as they bent low over the necks of their lean ponies. With squeals of fright the band whirled and charged down the canyon. A cloud of yellow dust billowed at their heels. The chestnut stallion crashed down on their flanks with bared teeth and pounding hoofs. When a mare lagged he drove her squealing into the band. The mad charge carried the wild horses away from the four pursuing Navajos, but the trailers did not give up the chase.

Back of the dust cloud Yellow Man rode beside his three sons. Their faces were expressionless; only their black eyes showed the eager excitement that filled them. They did not try to make their gaunt ponies overtake the thundering band but were content to keep a steady pace. The trail left by the wild horses was broad and easy to follow.

Lady Ebony ran ahead of the band, keeping well out in front without effort. She was not badly frightened and the wild panic of the other horses had not gripped her. But she raced along just the same, enjoying the surging flight which gave full play to her powerful muscles. The big chestnut charged in and turned the band up the ridge. As they swept over the top of the rocky hill they saw the Indians galloping along the canyon bed below.

Yellow Man shifted his seat on the bare back of his pinto. His black eyes were following the flight of the black mare, and there was a fierce eagerness in them. The chestnut leader was doing just what he wanted him to do. The big fellow was swinging his band into a wide circle, a curve which would carry them back into the country they had just left.

The band thundered down off the ridge and headed up a sand wash. The drag of the sand and the uphill going slowed them but they kept pounding along, the stallion saw to that. He stayed behind and used his teeth savagely on the rumps of the laggards.

Yellow Man and his sons galloped up the ridge and dropped into the sand wash. A thin smile parted the lips of the tall hunter as he noticed how fagged his horse was. They were chasing no ordinary wild scrub ponies. The chestnut stallion had trained his band well and kept them in fine condition. They had run the legs right out from under the Navajo ponies. He urged his pinto up the sand wash as fast as the little beast could travel.

The chestnut saw the riders coming and noticed that they were working their way to the side as though aiming to come up alongside. He suspected a trick though he was disdainful of the slow-running ponies coming up from below. He changed his course a little to the north. Now the pursuers would have to travel much farther than his band to overtake them. The Navajo riders swung north too, and kept following close to the dust cloud.

The chase thus took a circular course with the chestnut keeping the mares moving as fast as the colts could follow. But now the horses’ sides were heaving, sweat was streaking their flanks and caking in lather-matted ridges above the hair. The big stallion snorted triumphantly as they topped a ridge. They had run away from their pursuers. The Indians were plodding along far behind. He allowed the mares to slow their pace to a lope while he galloped to right and then to left, looking down into washes and canyons for a hiding place.

Suddenly the mares heard yells from their right. They saw five red-bronze riders charging down on them from a cover of junipers. Mounted on fresh horses, these braves came swiftly from their ambush. The chestnut stallion rushed on his band and sent them racing down into a canyon. The retreat led over a ledge and down a rocky hill. The slope was steep and covered with loose stones, but the sure-footed horses took the broken ground at a mad rush. One of the mares slipped and went down, rolling over and over, until she was stopped by a big boulder. She struggled to her feet and staggered around the hill. Her colt bounded after her nickering wildly.

The charge of the hunters carried them close on the heels of the flying band. When the mare went down, two of the hunters swerved and followed her. The chestnut let her go and gave his attention to speeding the rest of the band. In a few seconds the speed of the wild horses carried them ahead of the Navajos’ lean ponies. But the three hunters following the mares kept yelling and galloping.

The two hunters who had swerved to follow the crippled mare and her colt soon overtook them. They paid no attention to the mare but charged down on the colt. One of them swung a rope. The loop sailed out and dropped over the straining neck of the little fellow. The colt fought and kicked, but the Navajo boy knew how to handle a fighter. He kept his rope tight, almost to the choking point, and let the little horse wear himself out. In a short time he had mastered the colt and was heading toward camp with him. His companion galloped away to overtake the band.

The chestnut stallion could not understand the attack of the Navajos. They did not start shooting when they got in close and they did not try to rope any of the mares. They just kept riding on the heels of his fast-tiring band, yelling and waving their arms. They were not like the wolf or the cougar, they did not strike when they got close, but they never left the heels of the herd. The big stallion shifted his course and again they began moving in a wide circle.

This time the chestnut widened the circle, cutting back into the steep hill country, turning up crooked washes, crossing ridges, and doubling back occasionally. The Navajos stayed on the trail, keeping as close to the band as they could, cutting across when they sighted the mares doubling on their course. And now they were hanging close on the heels of the wild ones. Twice the chestnut stallion whirled and faced the hunters as though about to challenge them to a fight. The braves slid their hands down to where their guns hung about their naked waists. They did not wish to kill the big stallion unless he charged their ponies, nor did they care to try taming him. They wanted the black mare and the colts.

The chestnut did not charge his tormentors. Fear of man and man’s far-killing gun sent him back to biting and shoving the mares into faster flight. He could not use the tactics which always succeeded against the wolf or the bear.

Topping another ridge, he headed his band into a deep canyon. He knew they were almost winded from running uphill. The steep slope would help them to recover. One of the Navajos shouted:

“He is doubling back! Head him!”

The Indians sent their ponies charging recklessly down the dangerous slope, leaping over boulders and water-gutted ditches. But the band would not be headed. Going downhill had eased them and given them new life. They plunged along with sides heaving and nostrils flaring. Lady Ebony led them, keeping her pace down to their speed.

One of the hunters headed his pony up out of the canyon. He halted on a jutting rock and sat looking down over the desert. His black eyes watched the fine spirals of yellow dust rising from the canyon and he nodded his head. The scattered groups of hunters would be able to locate the new direction the band had taken.

The sharp eyes of three hunters hiding in a juniper grove on the rim of the canyon saw the spirals of dust rising from the dry watercourse above. They slipped across and waited.

The chestnut began to breathe easier. Once again the band had outdistanced their pursuers and no raiders could be seen. But he was nervous and determined to keep the mares moving until they were deep in the rough, canyon-slotted country to the south. The weary horses slowed their pace to a trot. They were suffering for water and their hard muscles were crying for rest. They were used to sudden, wild charges when they would race at top speed for a while, but they were not used to a steady grind, hour after hour.

Several of the mares began weaving away from the herd, sniffing for water, looking for a spot where they could halt and rest. Suddenly the yells they had come to dread broke the silence and echoed along the canyon walls. Three riders came charging toward them from below. The chestnut screamed a warning. For a moment he hesitated. There was an enemy pack behind them, and now one faced them. With a snort and a toss of his head he sent the band up the far slope out of the canyon. The hunters raced whooping and yelling after the mares.

Escape from the canyon did not bring freedom from the worrying red riders. The desert seemed full of them. After every run, when the big stallion thought he had slipped away from his pursuers, a new and fresh band would charge from cover on the jaded mares. In desperation the big horse headed down a deep canyon. The mares could not travel uphill any more. They could not move fast but the hunters did not seem anxious to close in and strike. They kept on the heels of the wild ones. Now there were a dozen of them and they kept up a savage yelling as they stayed close to the band.

Up ahead Lady Ebony began to tire. She was not driven by frantic fear and she was eager to stop and rest. At first she had enjoyed the flight, but now she was thirsty and her sides were heaving. She galloped ahead, leaving the band behind. As she raced along she saw a side canyon. Its floor was solid rock, worn smooth by wind and water. She slipped into the narrow opening and halted behind a shoulder of rock. She lowered her head and stood blowing hard. She had left no tracks on the rocky floor.

The wild horses galloped past the mouth of the side canyon. A great cloud of dust rolled up after them. Lady Ebony heard the Navajos go whooping past. She stood listening until the pounding of hoofs and the yelling died away. Shaking her head, she trotted up the narrow canyon. She craved water and she wanted to be alone, to lie down and rest. She headed north because to the north lay the tall-grass meadows with clear streams bubbling across them. She moved along steadily, keeping to the bottom of the canyon where she was hidden from sight of any black-eyed hunter who might be sitting on a rim high above.

A black rain cloud billowed up above the rims to the north. It rolled down across the desert on the wings of a driving wind which raised clouds of dust and sand. At dusk it swept over the canyon where Lady Ebony was marching along steadily north. It drenched her and gave her needed drinking water, then it moved on down to where the chestnut was making his last stand.

In the canyon the big stallion had settled down to the grim job of lashing his mares into movement. They were not able to go fast but he kept them pounding along, just ahead of the yelling hunters. Their gaunt bellies were drawn and their dry nostrils flared red inside their dust-caked rims. The Navajos were shouting to one another, their spirits high. They were sure of their catch now and eager to close in as soon as the mares quit.

Then the dusk of evening came and with it the downpour of rain. Nowhere in the world outside the tropics can so much water fall in so short a time as in the desert. The storm was bad luck for the hunters, but it spelled escape for the wild horses. It blotted out everything, bringing sudden, inky night. Its rushing, swirling waters wiped out the tracks of the horses. The chestnut stallion played wise. He took a side canyon, forcing his charges out on a rocky ridge. From that canyon they crossed another ridge and turned north. The big stallion was headed out of the desert.

The hunters spread out and worked up and down the canyon but the darkness and rain defeated them. They finally gave up and turned their ponies toward their camp.

All that night Lady Ebony kept moving. The storm passed and the moon came out with stars beyond it, stars that hung low over the barren country, brilliant with red and blue lights winking outside white centers.

A pair of gray wolves flashed past like shadows. They leaped along, side by side, shoulder to shoulder. One was a big, broad-chested fellow with a wide muzzle and frost-cropped ears. The other was a slim gray one with slender legs and body. They paid no attention to Lady Ebony. They were not hunting, they were running, answering the call of spring, heading for a trysting place on a barren ridge.

Lady Ebony heard them holding their spring concert on a high knoll. They howled and snarled and yelped. There was much yearning, much that sounded like deep laughter in their song, and there was tenderness in the notes of the slim gray one. In their mating time they had lost the savagery of winter. There was no specter of famine in the springtime, no blasting blizzards, no deep snow. There was food and there was an urge to find a snug den.

Something of the feelings expressed by the gray wolves filled Lady Ebony. Just before dawn she halted and began feeding. She fed on through the morning. She saw no other horses and heard no savage yells. At midday she lay down and rested until late afternoon.

When she moved on she headed north, toward the snowy ramparts of the Crazy Kill Range, and she went at a long, ground-devouring lope. That night she halted at a spring in the lower foothills. Berrybushes and willow grew around the spring and there was tall grass. Lady Ebony pulled the juicy grass contentedly. She was glad to be away from the teeth and smashing hoofs of the chestnut stallion. She did not miss the herd at all.

The spring was so much of a change after the parched desert that she bedded down close beside it and rested until morning. With the gray dawn she was up and feeding on the lush grass. For several hours she fed, then she drank deeply and faced northward. Again she set her pace at a fast lope.

6. Midnight

Lady Ebony held her course until late afternoon. She was high in the red foothills when she halted. A little stream bubbled over red rocks, willow grew along the banks, and the grass was green. On each side of the water red rocks rose high against the sky. Along the base of the cliffs lay great slabs and piles of stone, broken loose from the walls by wind and rain, piled in confusion over the floor of the wild gorge. Lady Ebony moved among the tumbled rocks. A bobcat bounded from a thicket of rose brier where he had been hunting cottontails. Lady Ebony snorted and shook her head.

She kept moving slowly along the stream until she came to a grove of cottonwoods. Close beside the grove grew a dense thicket of tangled brush. Lady Ebony dropped her head and began pulling the tender gamma grass. She did not look up at the Crazy Kill Range again. After she had eaten her fill she drank at the stream and lay down.

Sunset flamed across the sky and died into cool shadows. The red bluffs changed from deep purple to slate gray. By almost unnoticeable degrees the moon brightened and flooded the valley and the cliffs changed color to match the white light. Now they were silvery with bands and squares of black shadows across them. And the stars hung, big and white, close to the ragged tops of the rims.

In this garden of red rocks close beside the little stream a colt was born. The morning sun beating down on the floor of the gorge shone on a wobbly little horse crowding close to Lady Ebony’s side.

The black colt jerked his curly tail and butted his head against his mother’s side as he got his first breakfast. His legs were long and heavy-boned. They were wobbly legs but they showed promise of great strength. His head was finely molded like his mother’s, and his sleek coat was all black, except for a white star in his forehead. That white star and the heavy-boned frame were his inheritance from his father, the chestnut stallion.

Lady Ebony was proud and excited over her handsome jet-black colt--so black that he could well be called Midnight. She kept turning her head, nosing his silky rump, and nickering softly. She was suddenly aware of many things she had scarcely noticed before. She heard a rustling in the thicket and sniffed the warm air nervously. A faint odor of cat came to her and she snorted angrily. A few minutes later a big bobcat stepped out of the thicket and stood looking at her. Lady Ebony shook her head and stamped her feet. The bobcat opened his mouth wide, exposing rows of white teeth and a red tongue. He closed his mouth and his yellow eyes stared at the mare and her colt. Then he humped his sleek back and trotted through the sunshine across the meadow to where his mate was waiting for him.

In one of the big cottonwoods a flicker hammered away at the trunk of the tree. Even this steady rat-a-tat bothered Lady Ebony. And when the flicker’s mate sailed down from the sky and alighted on an anthill she snorted again. The flicker up in the tree deserted his morning task and came down to join his wife in an ant hunt. They danced and cavorted on the anthill, picking up the busy little workers as they swarmed out to repel the invasion.

A yellowbelly whistler came down out of the rocks and set to feeding, sliding along the ground, sitting up to stare intently across the meadow, chuckling to himself as he munched the roots he dug up. He was joined by a pair of cottontail rabbits who stayed close to cover as they fed.

Midnight finished his breakfast and began walking around on his wobbly legs, investigating everything he came to with an inquisitive, pink nose. Lady Ebony followed him nickering nervously. The little fellow halted beside a clump of rattleweed. His ears pricked forward and he listened. From the deep shade under the green leaves came a warning rattle. The buzzing sound was repeated as Midnight’s nose drew closer. Lady Ebony sprang forward and stamped upon the patch of weeds as she shouldered her son away from the danger spot. The colt had met his first enemy, a big rattler.

Lady Ebony showed by her actions that she considered Midnight an important little horse. She followed his wobbling course down the stream, then back again. After that he tried to run but his legs doubled under him and his body failed to do what he wanted of it. Finally he trotted out into the warm sun and lay down. In a few minutes he was sound asleep.

Lady Ebony stood over him for a long time with her head down. Finally she set to cropping grass near where he slept. She knew that she must be constantly alert, ready to repel attack from killers that had never bothered her before. The morning serenade of a pair of coyotes above the rock garden made her nervous. Their mad chorus of yelping laughter and high, mournful notes caused her to move close to Midnight and stand there with head erect. The song dogs of the dawn finished their chorus and raced away across the meadow above.

A great bald eagle wheeled above the tops of the red cliffs, his round, glassy eyes staring down on the meadow, his wings beating the air with powerful strokes. He saw the mare and her colt and his powerful beak clicked several times. His pinions stiffened and were held as rigid as the wings of a pursuit plane as he banked sharply and spiraled downward. He saw the black colt get to his feet and wander away from his mother. With a piercing scream he shortened his circles. His cry was answered from the deep blue above and a second eagle came plummeting down on folded wings, her body roaring through the thin air as she dived. She flattened her terrific plunge just above the red rock garden and circled with her mate.

Lady Ebony jerked up her head and trotted to her son. She tried to stand over him but he did not wish to be bothered at the moment. He had discovered his own shadow and was making a great show of challenging the flat, black thing following him on the ground. He tossed his head and laid back his ears, his furry rump bumping up and down a little as he threatened to kick at his mother.

The eagles soared and dived over the mare and her colt. The kings of the air were savage killers without fear of any ground dweller. They had struck down fawns and lambs and they knew they could smash the wobbly colt if his mother left an opening. Midnight became more irritated at his mother’s close guard. He tried to lash out at her with his hind feet. Lady Ebony let him trot away from her. He halted and snorted at his shadow.

The king of the air saw his opening and dived. His wings were folded tight against his sides and he dropped like a bolt of lightning. Close behind him came his mate. The attack was so swift that Lady Ebony could not reach the side of her son in time to shield him. The diving eagle spread his wings a few feet above the back of the colt. His heavy breastbone struck Midnight a smashing blow while his long talons raked deep into the tender back of the little horse. Midnight went down so quickly the she-eagle missed him entirely. The blow which had felled him was the same smashing stroke with which the eagle broke limbs from trees when building a nest. It was his stroke of death, but he had not gauged it as well as he had intended. The breastbone struck Midnight across the hips and not in the middle of the back where it would have broken him down.

With frantic snorts and eager whinnying Lady Ebony nosed her son as he staggered to his feet. He crowded close against her, willing now to be guarded. The eagles rose straight up into the blue for five hundred feet before they leveled off. They circled and looked down, their screams ringing along the cliffs. Midnight stayed close to his mother. His rump was smarting and he felt the need of her strength. After a time the eagles widened their circles and flew away.

Midnight had learned another lesson. When Lady Ebony sounded a warning call he rushed to her side instead of humping his back and dancing up and down. He wanted no more raking talons in his skin. He was beginning to know the price of life in the wild. He was coming to know that the strong live while the weak and the foolish die soon.

But the little horse’s fright passed quickly. He was a true child of the wilderness and fear was a passing shadow. With the circling killers gone from the sky he forgot them and sought dinner. He was much stronger now, his legs had stiffened and he was able to bounce up and down. The blood of his father gave him something Lady Ebony did not have, a vitality and a savageness all babies of the wild must have to survive. Had he been born with the band he would have been able to follow them. He made a short circle among the rocks, then came back to his mother’s side where he thrust his head under her flank and began drinking lustily. Lady Ebony was proud of him, but she was worried too, because there were so many enemies in this wild country. She was a horse trained to depend upon man, his fences and his protecting rifle. Vaguely she knew she should be in a shed during this important time. Midnight shared none of her worries; he was typically a wild horse.

That evening the big bobcat serenaded them from the blue-black depths of the cottonwood grove. No man or beast who has ever heard the terrifying yowling of the cat-of-the-mountain when he is struck by a lonely mood has remained calm and unfrightened. Even the cougar and the wolf move off when he starts serenading. The big cat began his plaint with long “me-ows” till after a few minutes his cry was a series of “row-row-rows,” ending in terrific screeches. The weird screaming echoed along the rock walls of the gorge. It finally tapered off into long-drawn wails filled with hopeless despair as though the big fellow was condemned to a terrible fate and knew his time was near.

Lady Ebony rushed to the side of Midnight and began frantically herding him up the canyon. She did not have to urge the little horse. He struck out wildly, running as fast as he could, looking back in terror, expecting to see a monster leap on him from the woods.

A pair of coyotes trotting up the canyon halted and stood for a moment staring through the moonlight. They whirled and raced back, casting glances over their shoulders as they ran.

After a time the big pussy with the bobtail walked out of the grove and seated himself on a rock. Whatever had been troubling him seemed to have been chased away by his vocal efforts. He yawned and stretched his lithe body leisurely, then looked around with a satisfied smirk. He had the canyon to himself and seemed highly pleased.

He was a male weighing perhaps twenty-five pounds. His ears had black tufts at the ends, his lips were white with whiskers springing from black spots. In this he favored the lynx cat. But his eye rings were white and his reddish-brown body was marked with cloudings suggesting spots while his feet were small like those of a house cat. His tail was not more than seven inches long, a stubby bobbed-off tail, but it jerked nervously as he sat smiling over his kingdom of rock piles and tall grass. He was not hungry and the hunting mood did not fill him. He had feasted well on wood rat and rabbit earlier that evening. He had simply wished to clear all neighbors from his presence. Now that he had done it he sat and smirked on the top of his big rock.

But the big cat did not reckon with one hunter who was not impressed by his terrible song. A big, snowy owl came beating along the canyon wall. His dim shadow floated across the grass toward the rock where the cat was sitting. The owl had not feasted that evening. Fate had been unkind. Every rabbit pasture he had swept over had already been raided by coyotes or cats. The old owl was never choice about his prey. His way was to strike at any living thing that came under his powerful beak and talons. He saw the shadow on the rock move. The animal sitting there was not bigger than many he had killed before. With a scream he dived.

His smashing body struck the surprised cat on the neck and back. Long talons sank deep into the stringy muscles while powerful wings battered the sleek sides, knocking him off his perch and rolling him over. Instantly the sleepy fellow was changed to a hissing, spitting demon. He twisted his body and with claws and teeth lashed back at the ripping beak and beating wings of the owl. The owl drove his fangs deeper and tore at his snarling victim with his hooked beak.

The bobcat’s fangs found the neck of the owl and sank into it with crunching swiftness. Blood spattered and fur and feathers filled the air. The battlers clung to their death holds and exerted all their strength. The bobcat’s raking hind feet ripped feathers out of his assailant and found the stringy flesh beneath them; his fangs sank deeper. Over and over they rolled, the owl flapping and clicking his beak savagely, the cat hissing and snarling and yowling.

Both fighters weakened quickly because their wounds were deep and driven into vital parts. They tumbled into a hollow between two big rocks. There they struggled feebly for a time. Finally they lay still, the crumpled and tangled body of the owl under that of the cat, his big, round eyes staring savagely up at the stars. The bobcat lay with fangs driven into the neck of his antagonist, his yellow eyes closed to slits, his sleek coat marred by tufts of torn hair.

A little wind stirred down the canyon. It passed over the hollow where the dead animals lay, it seemed to spread the news that two deadly hunters had passed out of the red rock garden. The bunnies crept out to the edge of their thicket homes and the wood mice and rats ventured into the tall grass. After the way of the wild they started feeding peacefully.

Lady Ebony and Midnight halted in the middle of a meadow a mile above the spot where the battle had taken place. Midnight, true to his wild instinct, had already forgotten the fear that had sent him charging out of the garden below. He saw a doe and a fawn feeding at the edge of the meadow and started over to make friends with them. Lady Ebony did not forget so quickly. She was nervous and excited all that night and tried to keep her son from walking up to the doe.

Midnight approached the mule deer and her fawn. He nickered softly and humped his back, doing a little dance to show off before them. The doe snorted and shook her head. She was not afraid of a colt but she would take no chances with her baby. She turned about and led the little one back into the brush.

Lady Ebony stayed in the upper meadow. She wanted to give her son time to get his legs under him before moving on. By the third day the colt was able to race around the meadow. He noticed the brightly colored flowers, and made a great show of fear when a rabbit hopped away before one of his charges. He was inquisitive and shoved his pink muzzle close to everything that interested him. That day he met one of the wilderness dwellers who lived in a burrow under a dead stump. Midnight was dancing about pretending to be frightened by a pair of rockchips who sat on a stone scolding and chattering because he had disturbed them. The stranger walked out of a brier thicket and marched down a deer trail.

He was sleek and black except for broad stripes of white running down his back. His tail was a handsome plume of drooping hair, his snout was pointed, and his little eyes stared out on the world like black buttons sewed on his face. This stranger showed little interest in his surroundings. His dull mind held but one thought. Hunting for mice and bugs had been poor in the thicket near his burrow; he was crossing the meadow to another thicket. He had no fear of other animals. He claimed the right of way on every trail and not even a grizzly bear would have contested that right.

Midnight stared at the striped brother, then shook his head and stamped his feet. He expected the big skunk to scamper for cover, then he would chase him. When the striped one paid no attention to him Midnight advanced a little closer. Perhaps this dull-sighted fellow was a little deaf. He danced and stamped his feet some more as he extended his nose toward the skunk. The skunk marched on, ignoring the little horse. Midnight stamped close to the striped fellow; the skunk’s plume lifted with a jerk as dirt and rocks showered over him from the colt’s hoofs. Any other wild creature would have fled from that danger signal. To Midnight this seemed a friendly gesture. He whinnied eagerly and thrust his nose closer to the striped one. The plume jerked twice as the skunk halted in the trail.

Lady Ebony saw the skunk. She whinnied a loud warning. Midnight jerked up his head and looked around. He expected to see an enemy descending from the air or rushing out of the woods. His action saved him considerable pain and surprise. A greenish flare of musk shot by, close under his nose. Reeking fumes rolled around him. Midnight whirled and galloped hastily toward his mother. He dashed past her and thrust his muzzle into the cool water of the stream. Then he ran back to her side and stood staring at the striped brother, who was marching at an unhurried pace down the deer trail. The skunk’s aim had been low but he had taught Midnight another lesson. The striped one was master of all trails and not to be annoyed or disturbed.

The musky smell hung so rank and strong over the meadow that Lady Ebony led her son to the lower end of the field where the breeze carried the smell away from them.

Lady Ebony did not move on up the canyon to the long slopes dropping away from the higher benches of the Crazy Kill Range. There would still be chill nights and deep snowdrifts in the spruce near the peaks. She wandered slowly up the little stream, halting for days at a time in lush meadows where the grass was green and tender. Midnight grew rapidly; his legs became strong and steady. Lady Ebony watched over him constantly, never letting him stray far from her side. When he raced around a meadow she followed him, running at his side, urging him to greater speed.

She remembered the things she had learned on the high mesa. When she made long stops she chose rock-bordered meadows where the yellowbelly whistlers lived. The yellowbellies always had sentries posted in the daytime. At night when the whistlers were deep in their burrows she lay down close beside her son.

An afternoon came when she had need for her vigilance. From a high perch on a red rim a lank cougar sighted the mare and her colt. He was lying on a narrow shelf where the warm sun beat down on his sleek hide as he drowsed. Through slitted eyes he watched Lady Ebony and Midnight feeding below his lofty perch. There was no flesh he prized more highly than young colt. He twitched the black tip of his tail and unsheathed his sharp claws, but he did not move. Slow, sure, and patient methods were those of the yellow killer. Once he had waited on a ledge for four days in order to make a kill, a scrawny colt from a wild band. The colt in the meadow below would be easier prey because there was cover close to the tall grass.

The king cat lay watching until late afternoon. He yawned many times and his red tongue arched between his long fangs as he opened his mouth. As long shadows began to creep out from the canyon walls he yawned again, a stretching yawn, then got slowly to his feet. He tested the wind and looked up and down the wall. Lank, sag-backed, with high shoulders and high, projecting hipbones, he was a killer to be feared even by a grown horse.

The cougar slid down among the big rocks piled at the base of the walls. He moved on great padded feet without sound. Halting beside a rock almost the same color as his tawny robe he stood for a long time staring through the evening light on the pair below. Midnight was having his supper. He was feeding hungrily, butting his mother’s side, twitching his tail. The cougar stood, silent and unmoving, except for the tip of his tail which snapped back and forth nervously. His nine feet of stringy muscle and furry tail blended with the great rock beside him.

He appeared not to be giving much attention to the scene below him. Really he was surveying the ground he had selected as a hunting spot and was missing no detail. He could creep out on the windward side of the mare where a clump of buckbrush grew. From there he would have two mighty leaps to make. He would wait until the colt had moved away from his mother’s side. Perhaps the youngster would wander close to the buckbrush. His black whiskers jerked and his yellow eyes flamed through slitted lids. Softly, silently he skirted the piled-up rocks and slid into the timber to windward of the feeding horses. Like a tawny shadow he passed from one bit of cover to the next, his lank belly close to the ground. He often halted his unhurried descent to stand staring down on his victim.

On reaching the last of the cover he flattened his belly to the ground and crept forward through the tall grass. He kept moving, slowly, noiselessly, until he lay behind the clump of buckbrush. There he lifted his head and stared out through the green leaves.

Midnight had finished his supper and was nosing about a few yards from his mother. Lady Ebony had dropped her head and was pulling grass. She turned slowly toward the open meadow, her back toward the killer. She had no thought of danger at the moment. The big cat listened intently. He wanted to be sure the yellowbelly whistlers had all gone in for the night. His head rested on his forepaws. There was no sound except that made by the horses, but he waited, rigid.

The dusk deepened and the big cat stirred. He raised his head and peered out across the grass. And now his eyes were wide open, yellow pools of savage eagerness contrasting with his relaxed body. Midnight was strutting about, sniffing and snorting, humping his back and shaking his head. Lady Ebony was moving steadily away from the clump of buckbrush. The cat’s belly dropped to the grass, his hind legs drew up under him, his head flattened between his massive forepaws. His yellow eyes had located the exact spot where his first leap would land him, a bare spot where the grass was dead. From there he would hurtle upon the unwary colt. He meant to strike the little horse down with a broken neck so that no matter how well the mare might give battle the colt would lie waiting for him when she moved away.

For a moment the great body of the king killer was tense and still, then he leaped, his body arching upward, his great claws reaching out before him. He landed noiselessly on the patch of dead grass and poised there a split second while he drew his legs under him; then he leaped again, rising high, hurling his body toward the colt.

An odd quirk of energy made Midnight jerk up his head. He began bucking and bouncing. That sudden impulse saved him from the smashing blow the cougar intended to land. The yellow killer landed where Midnight had been standing. His scream of blood lust rang out, but his long fangs and ripping claws missed their target. Midnight squealed in terror as he saw the yellow killer clawing and lashing beside him. He plunged toward his mother, and Lady Ebony leaped to his rescue.