“Lightning was a sorrel with a white star on her forehead and white feet. She was long-legged, fast as the wind, and with plenty of endurance. There wasn’t a horse anywhere around that could make her go her limit, and when it came time for the round-up, she could do the work of any other three horses.”
“Sounds kinda like a wonder horse,” said Chuck as he tossed another handful of wood on the flames.
“She was a wonder horse in every sense of the word,” went on Slim. “Lightning was a queer mixture. Her mother just a plain cayuse on the Flying Arrow. We never knew just exactly what kind of a horse her father was, but my Dad swears that it must have been Nige, leader of the band of wild horses over on the Sunfield spur of the Cajons. Nige’s never been broken, and only a few people have ever been able to get a rope around him. He’s a beauty--coal black and all fire and temper.”
Chuck nodded.
Even over on the Circle Four they had heard about Nige and his small band of wild horses which roamed the eastern slope of the Cajons.
“I’ve heard there was Kentucky blood in Nige,” said the Circle Four cowboy.
“That’s what my Dad always said,” went on Slim. “Anyway one of our cayuses, just a plain little sorrel with a splash of white on her face and legs, was the mother of Lightning. She was a colt in a thousand, you could see that at a glance.”
Slim paused and looked up at the moon again for comfort. The ache was still in his heart, but talking to Chuck, telling him about Lightning, was easing a little of the piercing pain.
“I was just coming along to the age when I was going to need a good horse,” went on Slim, “and Dad picked out Lightning and turned her over to me. We seemed to get along first-rate right from the start, seemed to understand just what the other wanted to do. Why, I remember one time in spring round-up when Lightning went into a prairie dog’s hole and threw me. I busted one leg and sprained the other so bad I couldn’t stand. There I was sprawled flat on the range, five miles from the chuck wagon and a thunderin’ big storm whooping down out of the mountains.
“Lightning took one good look at me and set out for the chuck wagon at a full gallop. It wasn’t an hour later when she brought Dad and the boys back with her. They got there just before the rain and believe me, I was glad to see them.”