Edgar Rice Burroughs

The Girl from Hollywood Edgar Rice Burroughs

THE two horses picked their way carefully downward over the loose shale of thesteep hillside. The big bay stallion in the lead sidled mincingly, tossing his headnervously, and flecking the flannel shirt of his rider with foam. Behind the man onthe stallion a girl rode a clean-limbed bay of lighter color, whose method ofdescent, while less showy, was safer, for he came more slowly, and in the very badplaces he braced his four feet forward and slid down, sometimes almost sittingupon the ground. At the base of the hill there was a narrow level strip; then an eight-foot wash, with steep banks, barred the way to the opposite side of the cañon, which rosegently to the hills beyond. At the foot of the descent the man reined in and waiteduntil the girl was safely down; then he wheeled his mount and trotted toward thewash. Twenty feet from it he gave the animal its head and a word. The horse brokeinto a gallop, took off at the edge of the wash, and cleared it so effortlessly asalmost to give the impression of flying.