Bower, 1874-1940 - The heritage of the Sioux

smile, and rode off to join her father and Lite Avery. " He made that sound terribly sincere, didn't he ? " she commented. " It takes a Mexi-I can to lift flattery up among the fine arts." Then she thought no more about it.

Annie-Many-Ponies was sitting apart, on a rock where her gay blanket made a picturesque splotch of color against the gray barrenness of the hill behind her. She, too, heard what Eamon said, and she, too, thought that he had made the praise sound terribly sincere. He had not spoken to her at all after the first careless nod of recognition when he rode up. And although her reason had approved of his caution, her sore heart ached for a little kindness from him. She turned her eyes toward him now with a certain wistfulness; but though Ramon chanced to be looking toward her she got no answering light in his eyes, no careful little signal that his heart was yearning for her. He seemed remote, as indifferent to her as were any of the others dulled by accustomedness to her constant presence among them. A premonitory chill, as from some great sorrow yet before her in the future, shook the heart of Annie-Many-Ponies.

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" Me, I fine out how moch more yoh want me campa here for pictures," Ramon was saying now to Luck who was standing by Pete Lowry, scribbling something on his script. " My brother To-mas, he liking for us at ranch now, s'pose yoh finish poco tiempo."

Luck wrote another line before he gave any sign that he heard. Annie-Many-Ponies, watching from under her drooping lids, saw that Bill Holmes had edged closer to Ramon, while he made pretense of being much occupied with his own affairs.

" I don't need your camp at all after today." Luck shoved the script into his coat pocket and looked at his watch.

" This afternoon when the sun is just right I want to get one or two cut-back scenes and a dissolve out. After that you can break camp any time. But I want you, Ramon — you and Es-tancio Lopez and Luis Rojas. I'll need you for two or three days in town — want you to play the heavy in a bank-robbery and street fight. The makeup is the same as when you worked up there in the rocks the other day. You three fellows

come over and go in to the ranch tomorrow if you like. Then I'll have you when I want you. You'll get five dollars a day while you work." Having made himself sufficiently clear, he turned away to set and rehearse the next scene, and did not see the careful glance which passed between Eamon and Bill Holmes.

" Annie," Luck said abruptly, swinging toward her, " can you come down off that point where Jean Douglas came? You'll have to ride horseback, remember, and I don't want you to do it unless you're sure of yourself. How about it?"

For the first time since breakfast her somber eyes lightened with a gleam of interest. She did not look at Eamon — Ramon who had told her many times how much he loved her, and yet could praise Jean Douglas for her riding. Eamon had declared that he would not care to come riding down that point as Jean had come; very well, then she would show Eamon something.

"It isn't necessary, exactly," Luck explained further. " I can show you at the top, looking down at the way Jean came; and then I can pick you

THE HERITAGE OF THE SIOUX

up on an easier trail. But if you want to do it, it will save some cut-backs and put another little punch in here. Either way it's up to you."

The voice of Annie-Many-Ponies did not rise to a higher key when she spoke, but it had in it a clear incisiveness that carried her answer to Ramon and made him understand that she was speaking for his ears.

" I come down with big punch," she said.

" Where Jean came ? You're riding bareback, remember."

" No matter. I come down jus' same." And she added with a haughty tilt of her chin, " That's easy place for me."

Luck eyed her steadfastly, a smile of approval on his face. " All right. I know you've got plenty of nerve, Annie. You mount and ride up that draw till you get to the ridge. Come up to where you can see camp over the brow of the hill — sabe ? — and then wait till I whistle. One whistle, get ready to come down. Two whistles, you come. Ride past camera, just the way Jean did. You know you're following the white girl and trying to catch up with her. You're a friend and you

have a message for her, but she's scared and is running away — sabe ? You want to come down slow first and pick jour trail ? "

" No." Annie-Many-Ponies started toward the pinto pony which was her mount in this picture. " I come down hill. I make big punch for you. Pete turn camera."

" You've got more nerve than I have, Annie," Jean told her good-naturedly as she went by. " Pd hate to run a horse down there bareback."

" I go where Wagalexa Conka say." Prom the corner of her eye she saw the quick frown of jealousy upon the face of Eamon, and her pulse gave an extra beat of triumph.

With an easy spring she mounted the pinto pony, took the reins of her squaw bridle that was her only riding gear, folded her gay blanket snugly around her uncorseted body and touched the pinto with her moccasined heels. She was ready — ready to the least little tensed nerve that tingled with eagerness under the calm surface.

She rode slowly past Luck, got her few final instructions and a warning to be careful and to take no chances of an accident — which brought

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that inscrutable smile to her face; for Wagalexa Conka knew, and she knew also, that in the mere act of riding down that slope faster than a walk she was taking a chance of an accident. It was that risk that lightened her heart which had been so heavy all day. The greater the risk, the more eager was she to take it. She would show Ramon that she, too, could ride.

" Oh, do be careful, Annie! " Jean called anxiously when she was riding into the mouth of the draw. " Turn to the right, when you come to that big flat rock, and don't come down where I did. It's too steep. Really," she drawled to Rosemary and Lite, " my heart was in my mouth when I came straight down by that rock. It's a lot steeper than it looks from here."

" She won't go round it," Rosemary predicted pessimistically. " She's in one of her contrary moods today. She'll come down the worst way she can find just to scare the life out of us."

Up the steep draw that led to the top, Annie-Many-Ponies rode exultantly. She would show Ramon that she could ride wherever the white girl dared ride. She would shame Wagalexa Conka,

WHERE WAGALEXA CONKA SAY

too, for his injustice to her. She would put the big punch in that scene or — she would ride no more, unless it were upon a white cloud, drifting across the moon at night and looking down at this world and upon Ramon..

At the top of the ridge she rode out to the edge and made the peace-sign to Luck as a signal that she was ready to do his bidding. Incidentally, while she held her hand high over her head, her eyes swept keenly the bowlder-strewn bluff beneath her. A little to one side was a narrow backbone of smoother soil than the rest, and here were printed deep the marks of Jean's horse. Even there it was steep, and there was a bank, down there by the big flat rock which Jean had mentioned. Annie-Many-Ponies looked daringly to the left, where one would say the bluff was impassable. There she would come down, and no other place. She would show Ramon what she could do — he who had praised boldly another when she was by!

" All right, Annie! " Luck called to her through his megaphone. " Go back now and wait for whistle. Ride along the edge when you come, from

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bushes to where you stand. I want silhouette, you coming. You sabe ? "

Annie-Many-Ponies raised her hand even with her breast, and swept it out and upward in the Indian sign-talk which meant "yes." Luck's eyes flashed appreciation of the gesture; he loved the sign-talk of the old plains tribes.