“It’s not your fault that I’m not!” the youth snapped. “Why didn’t you warn me the horse was vicious?”
“Silvertail isn’t vicious,” Connie replied. “But we did try to tell you that he has to be properly handled.”
“It was your own fault, Cecil,” said Helena with a shrug. “Why don’t you learn to ride?”
Connie dismounted, offering to let the youth take her place while she walked.
“I’d not ride that horse again for a hundred dollars!” Cecil snapped. “And it’s fortunate for you that I wasn’t injured.”
As Connie expected, the young man made a distorted report of the incident to his father that evening. Mr. Grimes did not take the affair very seriously.
However, the conversation was overheard by the two teachers. Inclined to be nervous, they immediately jumped to the conclusion that all of the horses at Rainbow Ranch were unsafe. It required the combined efforts of Connie, Alkali, Lefty and Jim Barrows to convince them otherwise.
Even then they were decidedly uneasy over the proposed trip to Lover’s Leap and the cliff dwellings.
“Are you quite certain this beast isn’t an outlaw?” Miss Parker asked Lefty timidly as he led up her pony the next morning.
“Ma’am, this hoss was raised on milk,” the cowboy assured her. “She’s so lazy she won’t even swish flies.”