drink.

Waddles had instructed Evans to start the men back before the spree had
progressed to a point where they would refuse to leave Brill's and so
leave the Three Bar short-handed. At the end of two hours he looked at
his watch and snapped it shut.

"Turn out!" he shouted. "On your horses!"

"That goes for my men, too," the Halfmoon D foreman seconded.
"Outside!"

Morrow had not neglected to inform the men from the Halfmoon D that
Harris gentled his horses.

"Handle the little roan horse gentle," he advised as they moved toward
the door. "Better hobble your stirrups before you crawl him." Several
men turned and grinned. In riding contests women were allowed to
hobble their stirrups while the same precaution disqualified a man.

Most of the men were young, scarcely more than boys, full of rough play
and youthful pride of accomplishment along with a desire to make a
presumably careless display of it. A Halfmoon D youth mounted a blocky
bay and as he threw his leg across it he loosed a shrill yip and
reached forward to rake the horse's shoulder. The bay dropped his head
and performed. A half-dozen others followed his example and their
horses pitched off in as many directions. All eyes were turned on
Harris as he neared the big roan.

"Oh, I might as well act up a little," he said to Evans. "They seem to
be looking for it."

"He's a hard citizen, that roan," Evans remarked. "I'll wrangle for
you, Cal."

Harris stepped over to the horse.

"I wonder what old Blue can do," he said. He hooked the roan in the
shoulder as he mounted and the horse plunged his head between his knees
and rose in the air. The big roan bawled and expelled a long-drawn
"wa-a-augh" each time he struck the ground, then savagely shook his
whole frame as he rose again. The first four jumps Harris swung both
feet forward and hooked his shoulders and the next two bounds reached
back and raked his flanks, in accordance with the regulation rules
prescribed for contest riding.

"He's riding for the judges," a megaphone voice announced. "Boy,
you've rode your horse!"

Blue varied his leaps, draping himself in fantastic curves, lighting on
a slant with his side arched out, sunfishing and swapping ends, then
threw himself over and smashed down on his back. Harris slipped
sidewise and cleared himself.

"Fourteen long jumps," one man testified. "One hell of a long time on
an eel like that!"

As Blue regained his feet Harris s