Page:A La California.djvu/187

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
ROUGH RIDING.
151

and pitch like a ship in a cross sea with a head wind. But the Doctor is game when his blood is up, and it was at the boiling point just then. Holding the rein and grasping the pommel of the saddle at the same time with one hand, he swung his heavy Henry rifle with the other, bringing it down at every swing with vindictive energy upon the head of the accursed brute, whack! whack! whack! and thus he continued to encourage him all the way to San Rafael, a distance of some three miles. As the wrath of the Doctor rose, so did his pantaloons, the bottoms of which were soon riding in triumph above the tops of his boots, and essaying, with every prospect of success, a flight above his knees. The Doctor hung to the saddle and the rifle, and allowed minor matters to take their course. Mousey seemed to rather enjoy the situation, and kept close upon Whitey's heels, while Juanita, thinking it was a race for grand cash, went in to win or die. My foot coming in contact with Lloyd's horse was knocked out of the stirrup, and in attempting to replace it, I dropped the rein, which the gun in my hand prevented me from regaining, and I was at sea rudderless and drifting helpless before the storm. A gang of Chinese laborers were cutting a ditch alongside the turnpike, and seeing us coming, they ran up the side of the road, swinging their broad-brimmed bamboo hats, and making the air ring with shouts, beside which the note of the peacock on the wall in springtime is as the melody of the spheres. Two stage coaches filled with passengers had left the embarcadero ahead of us, bound for