Oh, You Tex! | Page 9

full of mystery to Ridley.
A little man with a goatee, hawk-nosed and hawk-eyed, came down the
street with jingling spurs to meet them. At sight of Ramona his eyes
lighted. From his well-shaped gray head he swept in a bow a jaunty,

broad-brimmed white hat.
The young girl smiled, because there were still a million unspent smiles
in her warm and friendly heart.
"Good-morning, Captain Ellison," she called.
"Don't know you a-tall, ma'am." He shook his head with decision.
"Never met up with you before."
"Good gracious, Captain, and you've fed me candy ever since I was a
sticky little kid."
He burlesqued a business of recognizing her with much astonishment.
"You ain't little 'Mona Wadley. No! Why, you are a young lady all
dressed up in go-to-meet-him clothes. I reckon my little side-partner
has gone forever."
"No, she hasn't, Uncle Jim," the girl cried. "And I want you to know I
still like candy."
He laughed with delight and slapped his thigh with his broad-brimmed
ranger hat. "By dog, you get it, 'Mona, sure as I'm a foot high."
Chuckling, he passed down the street.
"Captain Jim Ellison of the Rangers," explained Ramona to her
companion. "He isn't really my uncle, but I've known him always. He's
a good old thing and we're great friends."
Her soft, smiling eyes met those of Arthur. He thought that it was no
merit in Ellison to be fond of her. How could he help it?
"He's in luck," was all the boy said.
A little flag of color fluttered in her cheek. She liked his compliments,
but they embarrassed her a little.
"Did you fix it all up with Dad?" she asked, by way of changing the

subject.
"Yes. I'm to go to Fort Winston to get the money for the beeves, and if
I fall down on the job I'll never get another from him."
"I believe you're afraid of Dad," she teased.
"Don't you believe it--know it. I sure enough am," he admitted
promptly.
"Why? I can twist him round my little finger," she boasted.
"Yes, but I'm not his only daughter and the prettiest thing in West
Texas."
She laughed shyly. "Are you sure you're taking in enough territory?"
"I'll say south of Mason and Dixon's line, if you like."
"Really, he likes you. I can tell when Dad is for any one."
A sound had for some minutes been disturbing the calm peace of the
morning. It was the bawling of thirsty cattle. The young people turned a
corner into the main street of the town. Down it was moving toward
them a cloud of yellow dust stirred up by a bunch of Texas longhorns.
The call of the cattle for drink was insistent. Above it rose an
occasional sharp "Yip yip!" of a cowboy.
Ramona stopped, aghast. The cattle blocked the road, their moving
backs like the waves of a sea. The dust would irreparably soil the clean
frock fresh from the hands of her black mammy. She made as if to turn,
and knew with a flash of horror that it was too late.
Perhaps it was the gleam of scarlet in her sash that caught the eye of the
bull leading the van. It gave a bellow of rage, lowered its head, and
dashed at her.
Ramona gave a horror-stricken little cry of fear and stood motionless.
She could not run. The fascination of terror held her paralyzed. Her

heart died away in her while the great brute thundered toward her.
Out of the dust-cloud came a horse and rider in the wake of the bull.
Frozen in her tracks, Ramona saw with dilated eyes all that followed.
The galloping horse gained, was at the heels of the maddened animal,
drew up side by side. It seemed to the girl that in another moment she
must be trampled underfoot. Nothing but a miracle from God's blue
could save her.
For what registered as time without end to the girl's fear-numbed brain,
horse and bull raced knee to knee. Then the miracle came. The rider
leaned far out from the saddle, loosened his feet from the stirrups, and
launched himself at the crazed half-ton of charging fury.
His hands gripped the horns of the bull. He was dragged from the
saddle into the dust, but his weight deflected the course of the animal.
With every ounce of strength given by his rough life in the open the
cowboy hung on, dragging the head of the bull down with him toward
the ground. Man and beast came to a slithering halt together in a great
cloud of dust not ten feet from Ramona.
Even now terror held her a prisoner. The brute would free itself and
stamp the man to death. A haze gathered before her eyes. She swayed,