“And it made me mad. Made me plumb mad
to see them bother Diablo when he wasn’t doing
no harm, when they wasn’t gaining anything by
it, either.”
“I used to go out when nobody was around and
stand by the bars with a bit of hay and grain heads
in my hand. First off he’d prance around
even at me, but pretty soon he seen that I wasn’t
big enough to do him no harm, and then he’d
just stand still and snort and look at me. Along
about the third time he took notice of the grain heads
and come and smelled them, and the next day he ate
’em.
“Well, I kept at it that way. Pretty soon
I went inside the corral. Diablo just come up
sort of excited and trembling and didn’t know
whether to bash my head in with his forehoofs or let
me go. Then he seen the grain heads and ate them
while he was making up his mind what to do about me.
And he winded up by just having a little talk with
me. He was terribly dirty and dusty, and he was
shedding. Nobody dared to brush him, and so I
took a soft-haired brush and started to work on his
neck. He liked it, and so I dressed him down and
left him pretty near shining. And every day after
that I went and had a talk with him and brushed him.
Then I rode Crackajack up to the bars and let Diablo
see me on him, with no bridle or saddle. Pretty
soon I found out that it was the saddle and the bridle
and the spurs that scared Diablo to death. He
didn’t mind anything else so very much.
So one day I climbed up the fence and slid onto Diablo’s
back, and he just turned his head and snorted at me.
Just then Pa seen me and let out a terrible yell,
and Diablo pitched me right off over his head and over
the fence. But I got right up and came back to
him. He seen that he could get me off whenever
he wanted to and he seen that I didn’t do him
no harm when I got on.
“After that everything was easy. I never
bothered him none with a saddle or a bridle.
And there you are. D’you think you can do
the same?”
“But the saddle and the bridle?” said
Bull. “What about them?”
“That’s up to you to figure out a way
of getting him used to ’em. I’ll
go introduce you now, if I can.”
Bull rose, and the boy led the way.
“If he takes to you pretty kind,” said
the boy, “you may have a chance. But if
he begins acting up, it won’t be no use.”
Diablo greeted them with a throwing up of his formidable
head. He took his place in the very middle of
his corral, but when Bull Hunter and his small guide
reached the bars, the black stallion seemed to go
suddenly mad. He flung himself into the air and
came down bucking. Back and forth across the
corral he threw himself in the wildest swirl of pitching
that Bull Hunter had ever seen or ever dreamed of.
“He’s an educated bucker, you see?”
said the boy in admiration. “They ain’t
any trick that he don’t know. Look!”
