"Did I tell you I wanted a 'gentle horse'?" Carolyn June asked with a bit of impatience.
"No, but I figured that was the kind you'd need on account of being raised back east—"
"Well, I am going to see the Gold Dust maverick," Carolyn June said with emphasis, "and if she suits me I'll—I'll ride her!"
"I'll go with you," Skinny offered as Carolyn June stepped from the kitchen door and started toward the circular corral.
"Never mind!" she spoke shortly, "—you can go catch 'Old Blue' and"—with scorn in her voice—"if he's able to walk, maybe it will be safe for me to ride him to the end of the lane and back—Ugh! 'Old Blue!' The very name sounds as if he was dead!"
"Old Blue's a good horse," Skinny protested, "—we work him on the hay derrick—"
But Carolyn June was gone, walking rapidly across the open ground in the direction of the corral in which the Ramblin' Kid had turned Captain Jack and the Gold Dust filly.
"Jumpin' eats!" Bert exclaimed as the cowboys started toward the stable, "didn't the young one show her teeth sudden?"
"Skinny's going to have his hands full if he don't look out," Charley Saunders remarked sagely. "Still that kind ain't as dangerous as the ones that act plumb gentle like the widow has acted so far."
"Any female is treacherous," Chuck observed grimly. "They're just like cinch-binders—you can't tell when they're going to rare up and fall over backwards!"