“By then that horse herd will be fifty miles away and in someone else’s territory!”īoth sceptical and amused, Adam gave a slow shake of the head. What we’ll do is go back and get supplies and fresh horses, and then come after them again.” “But we can’t let them get away from us now!” Joe was insistent, his voice a tiny bit shrill.Īdam knew how he felt, but someone had to keep their feet firmly down on the ground and their heads out of the clouds as the eldest, he naturally got elected. “Another day on this trail and that ol’ mare ‘ll have us right where she wants us – stuck out in the dry country with no water and our horses dying under us.” Another day an’ we’ll have chased them down!”Īdam laughed grimly. Joe’s face, still not fully matured into the hard, flat planes that would define the handsome young man he was about to become, creased into an unbecoming scowl of concern. Altogether, it wasn’t a pleasant or a comfortable place to be. The harsh, dry heat pulled the sweat right out of man’s skin, split swollen lips and made the sinuses bleed. The air itself was dry, almost painful to breathe. They distorted perspective and made it hard to discern the details of a savage and unforgiving, if starkly beautiful, landscape. Heat-devils shimmered and danced on patches of crystalline sand. The temperature had soared since the early hours of the morning and the heat was boiling back off the ground. The sun, a blinding, bright golden orb, had climbed right to the top of the sky. There was no indication at all of where they might find water. Small, sparse patches of thorny, grey green scrub clung to the hillside in the spots where the roots could find shade. It was carved by the wind from the pale coloured rock, filled with heat and sunlight and dust and brown coloured-earth. The abode of lizards, scorpions and snakes it was a deep, jagged slash in the earth. The path they were on twisted down into a canyon a mile wide and just under half that deep. He had barely enough to last him the day and none at all for the horse. He shook the canteen, estimating the amount of water remaining inside, and pulled a sour face. “I know it.” Adam swallowed one more mouthful of water and pushed the stopper firmly back into place. We need those horses if we’re goin’ to make that quota of army remounts.” This is the biggest bunch of bang-tails we’ve found this year. Joe was his usual anxious and impatient self. He poured a little more water into the palm of his hand and used it to cool his face and his neck. Then he took a proper drink, sufficient of the life-giving fluid to do his lean-hipped, broad-shouldered body some good but not quite enough to make his belly rebel. “There’s a wily old mare out in front of this bunch, and she’s leading us straight out into the badlands.” Lifting the canteen down from his saddle, he took a small mouthful of the warm, stale-tasting water, swilled it around in his mouth a time or two and spat out the resulting mixture of mud and saliva onto the ground. His stride was long, slow and easy with just the hint of a hitch that showed that his once-injured hip was starting to stiffen. “I’m not so sure, Joe.” Adam replaced his hat and walked back to his waiting horse. They gotta be just up in front of us, an’ they’ve gotta slow down soon.”
![the thrill of the chase: a rocky riverbed the thrill of the chase: a rocky riverbed](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/dyinglight/images/5/56/DulseQuest.png)
“We’ve been right on their tails for four days now, Adam, and pushin’ ‘em hard. Joseph Cartwright shifted himself in the saddle, easing the weight on the bones of his butt, and allowed his eyes to follow the same line as Adam’s. “They’re still about three hours ahead of us and travelling at about the same speed.” Squinting against the dazzling sunlight, he turned to look up at his younger brother where he sat high on the back of his favourite pinto pony.
THE THRILL OF THE CHASE: A ROCKY RIVERBED PATCH
His sweat made a dark damp patch on the cloth. Unless he missed his guess – and he was rarely wrong – as many as two dozen wild mustangs had passed this way, keeping a slow and steady pace, not very long ago.Ī well-built and powerful man in dusty black clothes, Adam took off his hat and wiped his sleeve over his face. Straightening slowly, Adam followed the signs with his eyes until they disappeared into the middle distance. To the experienced eye of a veteran horse hunter they were as easy to read as the pages of an open book. They were faint and confused but quite unmistakable. Squatting on his haunches in the exact centre of the trail, Adam Cartwright studied the marks in the dust. Summary: When Joe and Adam go wild horse hunting, they find more than they bargained for.