"They are utterly unlike any I had ever conceived. They look very cruel at first sight, but I can see that in the end it is better and easier for the horse to be beaten outright, than to be subdued by a series of attempts each one of which must terrify him. It will be a long time before I shall be able to ride like these gauchos."
"You are right there, lad, for one cannot pick up, even at your young age, a thing with which these fine fellows may be said to grow up. They are born riders, and they have need to be, for a bucking wild horse is no easy beast to sit on. Now we will return to the cattle and watch the branding. These are all things that I want you to learn to do or to be able to criticize, for in a little while you will be the agent in charge during my absence."
Two months later Dudley had become quite an old hand on the rancho, and was by no means a gringo any longer. Indeed, thanks to his encounter with Giono, he had come to the gauchos employed by Mr. Blunt with a strong and telling introduction, an introduction which appealed to these wild men of the pampas far better than wealth would have done. They admired a man who could shoot and who had courage. They liked to see a youngster conquer difficulties, and they had watched Dudley as he gained no mean mastership over horses. Then they had seen him under fire, and had noted with what indifference he treated his wound.
"He is a gringo who meets with our approval, and whom we can obey," said Pietro one night as the gauchos were collected round the fire. "He has no airs and graces. He is glad to meet each one of us, to shake hands, and to chat. He is different from some of the stuck-up fools who come our way on occasion."
Thanks to the friendship of the gauchos, and to his own energy, our hero very soon became of the greatest value to his employer, till at length he was appointed his overseer, and had complete management of the rancho.
"It gives you a good deal of responsibility, which is a thing which every lad ought to be able to take, and it also lets the men see that I have confidence in you," said Mr. Blunt. "That encourages them to look to you as a leader and master, and I'm glad indeed to find such a friendly feeling amongst you all."
One day Dudley had ridden to the far western boundary of the rancho, and hearing the news from one of the gauchos that horses had been seen far out on the pampas, he pressed on till he came to the hill from the summit of which he and his employer had once before seen a herd. None were in sight, though he imagined he saw some dark specks in the distance, which might be horses.
"We are in want of some," he said to himself, "and so I think I had better go ahead. If those are horses I shall know within two hours, and then could be back with the gauchos in the morning."
He shook his reins and trotted on for some miles, when, judging that he was now near enough to the objects he had seen in the distance, he made for a slight rise and clambered to the summit. He had hardly reached it when he was startled by a loud report, by a puff of smoke a few yards to his right, and at the same instant by a curious movement in his hat. It jerked back suddenly, spun round, and then settled on his head again in the most extraordinary and disconcerting manner. There was a shout, and then from right and left a chorus of frantic yells. Figures sprang up from the hollows and the long grass, while twenty horsemen galloped from behind a small clump of trees.
"Indians! A hundred of them perhaps!" was Dudley's startled exclamation. "I shall have to run for my life."