“Mine's Ewing,” the big cattleman replied. “This here's my wife, an' thet's my daughter, Claire. She's been teachin' the young uns, but they's a passel o' big uns, too big for her t' handle.”
He glanced at Brady. “An' some o' them's purty durned big, an' plenty ornery!”
“That's fine!” Brady said seriously. “There is nothing like the bright energy of youth.”
Stretch Magoon's long, melancholy face lifted. “Thet sure touches me,” he said solemnly, “thet bright energy of youth. I'm Stretch Magoon,” he added, “an' we'll do all we kin t' make yor stay onforgettable!”
Ma Ewing frowned at Magoon, and he averted his eyes and looked sadly down at his plate.
“Reckon yuh come a fur piece,” Ewing suggested, chewing on a broom straw. “From Boston, ain't yuh?”
“Near Boston,” Brady replied, smiling. “Is the school close by?”
“Down the road about ten mile,” Ewing replied, “jest beyond the old Shanahan place.”
Brady glanced up. “The Shanahan place? Is that a farm? I meanâ¦a ranch? Maybe I could live there, a little closer to my work?”
Ewing shook his leonine head and tugged at his yellow mustache. “Nobody lives there. Old Mike Shanahan was killed nigh on a year back. If none of his relatives come t' live on the place afore thet year is up, then it's open t' anybody who will claim it an' hold it.”
“It was a damn' fool idea!” Curly Ward said. He was a big, blond puncher, handsome in a strong, masculine way. “Old Mike should of knowed it was jest an invitation for Pete Ritter t' move in! With his gunfightin' cowhands an' the money he's ready t' spend, nobody around here can buck him. He's got more'n he needs now.”
“Wal,” Stretch said positively, “he's sure goin' t' have thet place! The will done said if'n any of his relatives showed up they'd have t' live on the place thirty days o' this year t' claim it!”
“It would appear,” Van Brady said, “that my staying there would be impractical. From what you say I doubt if Mr. Ritter would allow it.”
Ward grinned, faint humor in his eyes. “He sure wouldn't! Not even a
he
schoolma'am!” The contempt in his voice was undisguised.
Claire's face flushed with embarrassment for the teacher, and Brady looked up. “I take it you are unaccustomed to male teachers,” he said politely. “There are many in the East. I believe this would be a good country for some of them.”
He looked over at Ewing. “Have you a conveyance? A horse or something that would get me down to my school? I'd like to look it over.”
“Now ain't thet pecoolyar!” Magoon looked up, a warm smile illuminating his face. “I was jest thinkin' yuh'd be wantin' a hoss! We got a yaller boss out here I'm sure would be jest the thing for yuh!”
Claire sat bolt upright and she started to speak, but before she could utter her protest, Van Brady smiled. “Why, how nice, Mr. Magoon! Thank you very much!”
When Brady followed Magoon from the room Claire started to her feet. “Father!” she protested. “Are you going to let them put that boy on that buckskin devil?”
“Now, Claire, don't fret yourself!” Ewing said, grinning. “He won't do no such thing! Buck will toss him afore he gits settled in the saddle! The fall won't hurt him none. Let the boys git it out of their system. Besides,” he added glumly, “I ain't so sure I like no he schoolma'am m'self!”
Claire Ewing got to her feet and started for the door, the others trooping expectantly behind.
Magoon already had a saddle on the lazy-looking buckskin, and was cinching it tight, plenty tight, and talking to Brady. Curly Ward was standing nearby, lighting a smoke and grinning with anticipation. Web Fancher and the other hands gathered around, striving to look innocent.
“He's a right nice hoss,” Stretch said sorrowfully, “a gentle hoss. I reckon the boss might let yuh ride him all the time.”
“Better put on these spurs,” he added. “He's kind o' lazy an' won't really git goin' less yuh nudge him right sharp.”
Van Brady sat down and fumbled with the spurs until Stretch knelt beside him and helped put them on. Then Van got up. The yellow horse looked around, speculative curiosity on his face, a face almost as sad and woebegone as Magoon's.
Brady put a tentative foot in the stirrup, then swung his leg over the buckskin. Stretch Magoon stepped back warily, putting distance between himself and the horse. “Yuh'll have t' gouge him purty stiff,” he called. “He's sho nuff lazy!”
Van Brady touched the yellow horse with the spurs, then at no movement, he jerked his heels out and jammed both spurs into the buckskin's flanks.
The buckskin exploded like a ton of dynamite. With one catlike leap, he sprang forward and dug in his forefeet. The he schoolma'am shot forward, but somehow barely missed losing his seat, then the yellow horse swapped ends three times so fast he was merely a blur of movement, and then he began to buck like a fiend out of hell.
Brady lost a stirrup, and swung clear around until he was facing the buckskin's rear, clawing madly for the saddle horn. But when the horse swapped ends again, he miraculously flopped back into the saddle. Three times the buckskin sunfished madly, and then went across the ranch yard swapping ends and buck jumping until every bone in Brady's body was wracked. Yet somehow the he schoolma'am held on.
Then the equine cyclone went completely berserk. He leaped wildly toward the morning clouds, then charged for the corral fence, but just as he swung broadside to it the schoolma'am lost a stirrup! His hard hat was gone, his coat tails, flying in the wind, but he was still aboard.
As suddenly as it had begun, the yellow horse stopped bucking and trotted toward the ranch house, Brady pulled him to a halt, and the buckskin stood, trembling in every limb.
Stretch Magoon's face was a blank study, and Curly Ward was staring, half angry.
Van Brady smiled and wiped the perspiration from his brow with a white handkerchief. “He
is
spirited, isn't he?” he said innocently. Then he glanced at Stretch Magoon. “Would you hand me my hat? I'm afraid he bucked it off!”
Walking as if in a trance, his solemn eyes even more owllike than before, Magoon went over and picked up the hard hat. Almost subconsciously, he brushed off the dust, then handed it to Brady.
The he schoolma'am smiled. “You've been very kind,” he said. “I don't know what I'd have done if I got one of those really excitable horses you cowmen ride!” He looked at Ewing. “Which way do I go to the school?”
“That road right ahead,” Ewing said. “Foller past them cottonwoods an' cross the crick when you come t' the willows. That's where you'll see the old Shanahan place. The schoolhouse is a might further on.”
Curly Ward stared after him. “Did you see that?” he demanded. “Talk about a fool for luck! That pilgrim was almost off four, five times, an' then bucked right back into the saddle! If I hadn't seen it I wouldn't believe it! He was all over that hoss like a cork in a mill stream! How he stuck with him is more'n I can guess!”
Claire's eyes were narrow as she stared after the teacher. The light in them was faintly curious. “I'm not so sure!” she said softly. “I'm not so sure!”
Van Brady rode straight, sitting stiffly erect in the saddle until he was over the crest of the hill. Then he glanced around, safely out of sight of the ranch house, and out of hearing he exploded into laughter. He roared and laughed and finally settled into chuckling. “That Magoon!” he said to the yellow horse. “I won't forget that long horse face of his if I live to be a hundred! He stood there with his mouth open like the end of a tunnel!”
He patted the yellow horse on the shoulder. “You sure can buck, you yellow hunk of misery!” he said, grinning. “I was afraid I was overplaying my hand!”
“ âYou'll have t' gouge him pretty stiff,' Magoon says,” Van repeated, chuckling. “Why, that long-faced baboon probably never saw the day he could ride this sinful old coyote bait!”
The old Shanahan place was a cluster of buildings gathered in a hollow of the hills not far from Willow Creek. Van Brady glanced at them curiously, but did not stop. When he had skirted the hill he rode down the slight grade to the log school, built on a pleasant little flat not far from the creek.
For an hour he scouted around, getting the lay of the land. Twice, back in the willow grove, he dismounted and dug in the soil. Each time he carefully covered the spot with sod and then with dry grass.
Not over two miles away Web Fancher was sitting among the junipers on the hillside, talking to burly Neil Pratt, foreman for Pete Ritter. “He ain't nobody,” Web said, disgustedly, “jest a he schoolma'am from back Boston way. He's the on'y stranger that's been around.
“Hell!” he exploded. “Why don't Pete move in an' take over the place instead o' all this pussyfootin' around? Ever'body 'lows he kin do it!”
Pratt shrugged. “He's pretty shrewd. Knows what he's doin' most always. If'n anybody makes a pass at movin' in over here, you get word t' me right fast!”
In her room at the ranch, Claire was writing a letter to Spanish John Roderigo, a rodeo and circus hand who had once worked for the ranch. She ended the brief note with a concise paragraph.
What I want is the name, and description if possible, of the man who did the clown riding act with the Carson Shows two years ago. You will remember, you took me to that show when I was attending school.
“We'll just see, Mr. Schoolteacher Brady!” she said to herself. “I've a few ideas of my own!”
Sunday morning was the time Magoon rode in for the mail. He saddled his horse, then went up to the kitchen. When he returned, he swung into the saddle.
Instantly, the paint exploded into a squealing fury of bucking. Caught entirely by surprise, for the paint hadn't humped his back in weeks, Magoon hit the ground and rolled over in a cloud of dust while the paint went buck jumping away across the ranch yard.
Nearly everyone had been outside, and Stretch heaved his six feet five from the dust with a pained expression on his face. The eight or nine cowhands were roaring with laughter.
The schoolma'am shook his head sadly. He walked over and picked up Magoon's sombrero, dusted it carefully, and handed it to him. “He is spirited, isn't he?”
“Now what do you s'pose got into that mangy crow bait?” Magoon demanded. “He ain't bucked in a long timeâ¦hey?” He stopped, glaring at Curly. “You ain't been up t' no monkey business?”
“Me?” Curly was honestly startled. “Not a bit of it!”
Stretch limped after the paint and led it up to the corral once more. Then, feeling under the loosened saddle, he found the cockleburr. He glared at Curly Ward. “Why, you ornery, cow rastlin' horny toad, I got a notion t'â”
“Better get that mail,” Claire said. “You can settle it later.”
Still growling, Magoon started for town. Claire turned and looked at Van Brady. He wiped the grin from his face. “Ever hear of that little cowboy prank, Mr. Brady?” she asked sweetly. “Putting a burr under a man's saddle?”
“Is that what happened?” he asked innocently. “I thought his horse was just a little excited.”
When he turned away, she looked after him. Her father walked up and put his hand on her shoulder. “What's the matter, Claire? You look like you had somethin' on your mind. Ain't fallin' for that he schoolma'am are you?”
“No,” she said sharply, “I'm not! And between us, I'm not so sure he's a teacher!”
The next day she kept her ears tuned to what was happening in the other room of the two-room school. Not only was Van Brady teaching, but he had even the bigger boys interested. He was making the fight at Lexington and Concord so interesting that Claire overheard the boys discussing it when they rode toward home.
“You know,” he said to her as they started toward the ranch. “I am going to miss these rides, but I believe I could do some things around the school that need doing if I stayed right here at the school. Anyway, I always wanted to camp out a little.”
“You mean, you're going to move up here? Camp out?” she was incredulous.
“Yes, I am. Right over there in the willows by the stream. I think I'd like it.”
The following day he moved his gear into the willows and set up camp. Van Brady scratched his head thoughtfully. “This is going to be tough,” he told the buckskin. “How am I going to make that camp comfortable without letting them know I'm no greenhorn?”
Web Fancher rode over to the Circle R. “That new schoolteacher's done moved over t' the school,” he said. “Didn't know if it mattered none.”
“The school?” Pratt shook his head. “Just so's he don't take no fool notion t' move over to the Shanahan place.”
T
HE FIRST CLASS was in session the following morning when there was a clatter of horse's hooves outside and the door was suddenly flung open. Neil Pratt strode into the room, slapping his thigh with a quirt. “You!” he pointed with the quirt at Tom Mawson, the nester's son. “Ain't I told you t' stay off'n the Circle R? You come here! I'm goin' t' learn you a thing or two!”
He grabbed Tom's shoulder and jerked him from the seat. The next instant, a hand seized him by the belt, and he was jerked bodily from the floor and slammed back into the wall. Before he could realize what had happened, Van Brady was standing in front of him.
“Listen, you!” Brady snapped. “You keep your hands off these kids! And don't come barging into one of my classes when it's in session. Understand?”
Pratt heaved himself erect, his face suffused with rage. “Why, youâ¦!” His fist started, but almost as soon as it started, something smashed his lips back into his teeth and he hit the door, tumbling to the ground outside.