I've tried heaps of mounts, seeing that we always have
hundreds on the ranch; but I never threw a leg over one I fancied like
my Buckskin. Why, there are times, Bob, when the game little fellow
seems next door to human to me. We understand each other right well.
He knows what I'm saying now; listen to him whinny, soft-like, at me."
Possibly Bob, knowing considerable about horses himself, may have had a
strong suspicion that the animal understood the touch of his young
master's hand much more readily than he did spoken words; but this was
a subject which he never debated with Frank. The latter had a habit of
talking confidentially with his horse, and seemed satisfied to believe
the animal understood.
Slowly they made their way along. Now and then Frank would dismount to
examine the rocks and scanty earth that formed the trail over which
they were passing.
"Always plenty of signs to tell that horses have been going along here
off'n on, both ways--stacks of 'em," he announced, when perhaps an hour
had elapsed since they left the scene of the encounter with the grizzly.
The ravine, or gully, which he called a _barranca_, had gradually
changed its character. It was now more in the nature of a canyon;
though there were still places where the walls, instead of towering
high above their heads, sloped gradually upwards.
"Smart horses could easy climb out of here up that rise," remarked
Frank, thoughtfully eyeing one of these places.
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