Tex dropped the saddle he was dragging across the yard. He faced Major Howard, his lean face expressionless. The major was out of sorts that morning and when he was in such a mood he was short-spoken. In his irritation he did not notice that Tex was not in a jovial frame of mind either.  
“The boys tell me there’s a band of thirty wild horses down on the aspen range. I want you to take a crew up there and clean them out.” He added as an after-thought, “Use rifles and make sure none of them get away.”
 
Tex scowled. He was dead set against shooting any sort of horse, even a scrub.
 
“Why not round ’em up and sell ’em?” he asked.
 
The major grunted disgustedly. He could never understand the quirks in the nature of his range boss. Tex knew the wild horses were worthless on the market. They would be tough and mean to handle, half of them never could be broken, and they would not bring ten dollars a head. To the major this was a simple matter of business. Tex did not object to raising fine cattle for slaughtering, therefore he should not object to killing a few head of worthless horses. The major spoke impatiently.
 
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“You know it would cost more to corral and handle that bunch than we could get out of them,” he snapped. “Kill them all. While I had more open range than I could use I wasn’t so particular, but I’ve just bought two big herds of whitefaces. It will take every foot of grass I own to run them.” The major noticed that Tex was not convinced. He added more quietly, “This is business, big business.”
 
“I reckon so,” Tex answered as he reached down and caught the horn of his saddle.
 
The major was ruffled by Tex’s reply.
 
“If you don’t want to handle this job I’ll get another man to take charge of it.”
 
“I’ll handle it,” Tex said grimly. Then he added almost to himself, “I thought that chestnut stud was the smartest hoss on the range. Never figured he’d trail his herd down into cow country where the boys ride regular.”
 
“Well, he has and I want that scrub stuff killed,” the major answered.
 
Tex dragged his saddle into the corral and whistled to his bay gelding. The bay trotted to meet him and Tex let his mouth relax into a grin as he patted the big fellow’s neck.
 
“I reckon we’ll have to do the dirty work,” he said softly.
 
Tex picked four men to go with him, men who could handle saddle carbines expertly. He did not want any careless shooting. The kills would have to be clean. When he explained the major’s orders to the men they growled but none of them refused to go. They all shared Tex’s dislike for the job, but they would carry out the boss’s orders.
 
The execution crew rode away from the ranch with thirty-thirty rifles slapping under their stirrup flaps. The boys who had reported to the major had given the location122 of the herd. Tex did not expect to find the band where the boys had seen them, but by riding to that meadow they could pick up the trail. Thirty horses would leave plenty of tracks.
 
Tex speculated gloomily on the foolish turn the habits of the wild band had taken. The big stallion at their head must have lost his cunning or else he had met with disaster and a younger leader had taken his place.
 
Silently the men rode through the timber and up the long ridges leading out of the lower valley. They entered the aspen belt and took a trail which ran along the top of a rocky ridge. From that ridge they crossed over to another and finally followed a red-granite cliff wall which led them into a narrow meadow. Towering rims of granite formed a half circle around the meadow with scattered spruce close to the wall on the lower side where the meadow broke off into the lower country. The entrance to the narrow valley was grown over by a stand of young aspen trees. Tex hoped to pick up the trail of the herd in this meadow and follow it from there. He halted his men in the dense cover and scowled across the meadow.
 
At the upper end fed the band of wild horses he sought. They had not moved their feed ground since the boys had first located them. Tex was disgusted with them; they were acting like brood mares in a farm pasture.
 
“The chestnut stud isn’t running that bunch,” he said gruffly.
 
The men nodded agreement and Shorty Spears, horse-breaker for the ranch, spoke up.
 
“Must be an old mare at the head of that herd. This is just the spot an old biddie would pick, grass knee-high, water close in.”
 
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Tex nodded. He was studying the band carefully. Finally he gave his orders.
 
“Two of you take the upper side along the wall. Keep in the brush cover until you work your way down close to them. Make clean jobs, no gut shooting or broken legs. Shorty, you and Cal take the lower side along the rim. They won’t break down over that wall. I’ll wait here in the outlet and pick off any that break past you boys. They have to come out this way. Now get going.”
 
The men divided forces and rode away. They were eager to get a bad job done. It would be no sport for them, shooting down a band of mares and colts. The horses were trapped and would be helpless before the repeating rifles. Tex watched them go. He noted grimly that even the wind was against the wild horses. They had no sentinel posted and Tex could spot no stallion among them. The execution should be quick and complete.
 
Midnight fed beside the pinto filly. They had just finished a race around the meadow and were standing in a clump of young spruce and balsam looking down over the lower valleys. The rim at their feet broke off steeply. It was matted with brush; ragged rocks jutted up through the green leaves. The black stallion was nervous and uneasy, though he did not know why. He had a feeling of confinement, similar to that he had felt while he was a prisoner on the meadow below the high mesa. He tossed his head and pawed, snorting impatiently. He was making ready to drive the band out of the closed meadow.
 
With a sharp nicker he whirled and laid his ears back. The pinto edged away from him. With mane flaring and tail flowing around her heels she kicked high into the air and dashed away toward the mares. Midnight charged after her, sending his warning call ringing across the meadow. The mares jerked up their heads and stared at124 him, then looked around uneasily to see what had startled him. When they saw nothing they fell to feeding again. They had no intention of leaving this horse heaven until they were driven out, and their experience with Midnight did not make them leap into action the way a command from the chestnut would have acted on them. This meadow was a safe retreat from cougars and wolves. No killer could slip up on them with the steep rim on one side and the high walls on the other.
 
Reaching the first mare, Midnight rushed at her, and when she did not leap away he fastened his bare teeth on her rump. The mare squealed in pain and surprise. Humping her back and bucking up and down she fled before his lashing attack. Midnight rushed at another and sent her staggering as his powerful chest smashed into her. It had taken him days to get worked up to this nervous and panicky pitch, but he was roused now and meant to drive the band out of the meadow.
 
He was swinging around the band, slashing at the mares with his teeth or crashing into them to get them to hurry when the silence of the valley was shattered by two crashing reports from near the base of the cliff. An old mare near Midnight staggered, turned halfway around, then sank to the grass without making a sound. Another mare plunged into the air and slid on her side until she came to rest in a grassy hollow, her legs beating the air in jerky spasms. The two shots did more to snap life and action into the band than Midnight had been able to accomplish. The mares charged wildly toward the aspen grove which marked the outlet to the trap. Mothers crowded colts along as fast as the little ones could run. The spitting and crashing of rifles echoed along the canyon wall and mares plunged into the grass mortally wounded at every leap the band took. A cloud of dust rolled up behind the charging band and in that cloud of125 dust Midnight ripped and lashed as he drove the wild ones on.
 
The pinto filly had rushed to her mother when the first two shots rang out. Together they were leading the flight. Suddenly the mother swerved and staggered, plunged down into the grass. The pinto planted her feet and halted. Her sudden checking of speed saved her from a bullet which had been aimed to break her neck. The lead burned across her forehead raising a red welt. The little mare whirled and plunged back into the mass of plunging horses. She found Midnight savagely working to force the pace, and crowded close to him.
 
The charging rush of the mares was checked and they swerved in bewildered fashion as a new burst of flame and death leaped at them from a scrub-oak clump on the edge of the rim well down toward the aspen grove. Mares collapsed and colts leaped and ran about wildly. Midnight had only one thought, to drive the mares out through the aspen grove and into the open country. This was his first meeting with the deadly guns of man and, like all wild things, the death which struck from far off filled him with terror. But he did not desert the mares. A great rage possessed him and almost crowded out the terror. Screaming and biting he worried the flanks of the rapidly thinning band.
 
Death held the little meadow in its bloody grip. The grass was marked by twisted bodies. But Midnight knew there was one avenue of escape. When the mares hesitated before the guns of Shorty and Cal he attacked their flanks with fury and drove them on. This was not just the way Tex had planned it. He had figured that the fire from the oaks would make the band circle back around the meadow, giving his men at the lower end a second chance to kill. He had been sure the band would mill around and around the mesa until all were shot126 down. Now he sat in his saddle waiting grimly. It looked as though he would have to turn them.
 
Midnight had driven the mares into full gallop again. Many went down as they swept close to the oak clump where the two men were hidden, but they charged straight past. Suddenly the vicious crack of a rifle broke from the edge of the aspens. Tex had opened fire, his carbine working with speed and murderous accuracy. In the hail of lead mares went down, bucking and twisting. The attack was too much for the remnant of the band. They dodged and tried to double back. Midnight reared and plunged at them, screaming madly. The bewildered and panic-stricken animals turned toward the rim and the black stallion sent them plunging toward it. When they would have halted at the dizzy drop, with its matted and ragged rocks, he lashed them on over the edge. They tumbled downward, plunging, rolling, sliding, and twisting. One mare went down with a broken leg, another struck a jagged pinnacle of rock and rolled over. Behind them Midnight and the pinto took the leap as they came to it.
 
Tex lowered his rifle. His eyes were on the black stallion and there was an excited gleam in them. He had never seen such a magnificent beast or such a feat of reckless daring. But all these feelings were over-shadowed by something else. He was looking at the long legs, the powerful chest, and the slender body of the stallion. He was sure he knew the sire and the dam who had brought him into the world. Here was the son of the chestnut stallion and Lady Ebony! He wet his lips and then grinned eagerly. He did not give the escape of a small part of the herd any thought. His mind was making plans, leaping ahead to what he would tell Major Howard. He was remembering the voice of Sam saying that127 Lady Ebony would come back to the high country. He was roused by Shorty’s amused voice.
 
“What’s eatin’ you? You look like you was seein’ angels or somethin’. Me, I’m plumb sick to my stummick.” Shorty moved over to where he could see the trail the band had made in escaping. He bent forward and stared at it. “You don’t mean to say some of ’em went over the side here?”
 
Tex nodded, reloaded his carbine, and made ready to end the misery of the mare who had broken her leg.
 
“How many got away?” Shorty asked. He had a sudden suspicion that Tex had not taken full advantage of his chance to clean out the band. Certainly the slope where the wild ones had plunged down to safety was open and within easy range of the spot where Tex was planted.
 
“Ten head and a stud,” Tex said and spoke as though to himself.
 
“Must have been a fire-eater of a stud to force them mares down over a cliff like that,” Shorty said with a quick grin.
 
“He’s a fire-eater,” Tex agreed softly.
 
The other boys had ridden up and were looking at the trail. Cal spoke in his slow drawl.
 
“I passed up one shot an’ you can report it to the major if you want. I had a broadside at a black stud but jest couldn’t find my sights for watchin’ him tear into those mares.”
 
“That stud learned something here today that he won’t forget,” Tex said grimly.
 
“I’ll bet a month’s pay we don’t ever catch that bunch in a place like this again,” Shorty said.
 
The others grinned. They knew the stallion would be wiser and more wary now that he had met the guns of men. They were not sorry he had got away. Any horse128 that would lead a crazy charge down the face of a brush-matted cliff deserved a break and was no scrub. One of the others said:
 
“I caught a glimpse of him through the dust. He’d make any of the major’s blooded stuff look like a broom tail if they were stood up side by side. Can’t figure where such a hoss could have come from, must be a freak.”
 
Tex grinned but said nothing. He knew where the big black came from. As he moved away he remarked:
 
“I reckon he might have some good blood in him.”
 
A plan was forming in the mind of the range boss and he was eager to work it out. He wanted to be alone so that he could get it all ready. He turned to his men.
 
“You boys ride on down to the ranch and report to the boss. Tell him I’m staying on the trail of the ones that got away. I’ll be in late tonight.”
 
Shorty grinned. “Figure you might be lucky enough to dab a rope on that black?” he asked.
 
“I’d trade every horse in my string but the bay for him,” Tex admitted.
 
Shorty laughed. He had missed the real significance of the remark. He thought Tex wanted the black as a saddler. Tex was a nut when it came to saddle stock. He remarked in an amused voice:
 
“It’ll be a case of sneaking and trailing from now on, and when you do dab a rope on him you’d best have some help handy. That baby bites and kicks like a cougar.”
 
Tex nodded full agreement as he rode away from the men. He took the regular trail off the mesa and rode around to the foot of the cliff. He had no desire to send the bay down over the trail the black had made for the mares. At the bottom of the cliff he picked up the trail and followed it. He did not have to dismount to tell the tracks of the stallion and those of the mares. The tracks129 of the leader were clean and deep, with perfect alignment. The trail led up the mountain in an almost straight line and the horses did not halt until they reached the barrens high under the rims of the Crazy Kill peaks.
 
As he rode along Tex planned his course of action. He would ambush the black and drop a rope on him. Taking him now would be possible, Tex figured, because the black was still a colt and could be handled if properly worked. If he stayed in the wild another year he might develop into a horse that could never be broken. He was just learning the tricks of leadership; that was shown by the trap the mares had walked into. Tex grinned eagerly as he planned. He was sure he could convince the major, once he looked at the midnight black, that his theory about Lady Ebony was correct.
 
He was also sure that, once convinced that Sam had not stolen the mare, the major would get the old man out of the pen quickly. Major Howard was an influential man and a determined one when he set out to do anything. He was a shrewd judge of blooded horses, and that would help.
 
Tex was eager to capture the black at once. He had a feeling that if Sam was ever to come back to his high mesa he would have to be set free that summer. He had talked to the warden and to the doctor at the prison and both agreed with him. It was Tex’s way never t............