e were no stars, and
the moon had not come up yet. So we must trust to the horses to keep the
trail. By looking close we could barely see it, in spots. Of course, the
darkness was not a deep black darkness. Except in a storm, the night of
the open always is thinnish, so you can see after your eyes are used to
it.

I had the lead. Up on the mesa we struck into a trot. A lope is easier
to ride, but the trot is the natural gait of a horse, and he can keep up
a trot longer than he can a lope. Horses prefer trotting to galloping.

Trot, trot, trot, we went.

"How you coming?" I asked, to encourage Van.

"All right," he grunted. "These stirrups are too long, though. I can't
get any purchase."

"Doesn't your instep touch, when you stand up in them?"

"If I straighten out my legs. I'm riding on my toes. That's the way I
was taught. I like to have my knees crooked so I can grip with them.
Don't you, yours?"

"Just to change off to, as a rest. But cowboys and other people who ride
all day stick their feet through the stirrup to the heel, and ride on
their instep. A crooked leg gives a fellow a cramp in the knee, after a
while. Out here we ride straight up and down, so we are almost standing
in the stirrups all the time. That's the cowboy way, and it's about the
cavalry way, too. Those men know."

"How do you grip, then?"

"With the thigh. Try it. But when you're trotting you'd better stand in
the stirrups and you can lean forward on the horn, for a rest."

Van grunted. He was experimenting.

"Should think it would make your back ache," he said.

"What?"

"To ride with such long stirrups."

"Uh uh," I answered. "Not when you sit up and balance in the saddle and
hold your spine straight. It always makes my back ache to hunch over. We
Elk Scouts try to ride with heel and shoulders in line. We can ride all
day."

"Humph!" grunted Van. "Let's lope."

"All right."

So we did lope, a little way. Then we walked another little way, and
then I pushed into the same old trot. That was hard on Van, but it was
what would cover the ground and get us through quickest to the doctor.
So we must keep at it.

Sometimes I stood in the stirrups and leaned on the horn; sometimes I
sat square and "took it."

We crossed the mesa, and first thing we knew, we were tilting down into a
gulch. The horses picked their way slowly; we let them. We didn't want
any tumbles or sprained legs. The bottom of the gulch held willows and
aspens