Pony: Parts Seven–Nine

Since she was there with her mother, however, he could not engage her in polite conversation or make artful inquiries.

Pa was in his early thirties by then, and had lived a life of work and privation and little love, so his feelings surprised him, for he had believed himself impervious to the call of his heart.

Pa was in his early thirties by then, and had lived a life of work and privation and little love, so his feelings surprised him, for he had believed himself impervious to the call of his heart.

He was let in by the butler and told to wait in a room decorated with full-length portraits in ornate gold frames.

As I’ve mentioned, Pa has a prodigious memory, and can but glance at a page and recall its contents in detail.

Pa said he’d felt keenly aware of his worker’s clothes just then, so gray and drab against the colorful furniture.

I only mean, I don’t put much stock in any philosophy that gives credence to notions of an afterlife, or spirits, or things of that nature. I am the kind of man who only believes in what I can see and touch and smell.

She seemed wistful. “Not at all. Who’s to say what is folly? All I know is that I’ve been reading a great deal about it, and I do believe there’s something to it all. All things are but altered, nothing dies; And here and there the unbody’d spirit flies, as Dryden has said.”

They were married three months later. It was quite a scandal for Mama’s family. Her father set his deerhounds on Pa the first time they attempted to come back to visit her parents after their quiet nuptials.

He then came closer and asked me something, which I couldn’t hear at all, so he pantomimed his question by walking two fingers on the palm of his hand and raising his shoulders.

There was a large open space at the bottom of the promontory, forking the creek, enclosed by an overhang that sparkled with tiny flecks of iron ore.

The underpass was an almost ethereal little meadow, covered in short blue grasses and yellow reeds, in the middle of which six horses were peacefully cropping.

I had mistaken his baby-faced good nature as a sign that he was too docile for the task at hand.

Just the six horses, bridled but untethered, their saddles in a heap on the ground.

“Why do I still get the feeling you’re trying to bamboozle us?” the deputy snarled at me.

All that could be heard was the sound of the Falls, which was now like a noise inside our minds, and the nickering of the horses, and the slapping water of the cataracts left and right of us.

All that could be heard was the sound of the Falls, which was now like a noise inside our minds, and the nickering of the horses, and the slapping water of the cataracts left and right of us.

“Look, Mr. Sheriff, sir,” he entreated, staring up at the sheriff with puppy dog eyes now.

“But we see the error of our ways now!” Eben avowed quickly, his eyes darting back and forth between the two lawmen. “We are very, very repentant, sirs. And right now, really, all we were doing was hunting rabbits for those bad men. That’s all. We don’t want to be mixed up with any of this anymore. Please, let us go. We won’t tell Mr. Ollerenshaw you’re here. We’ll just get on our way to California.”

Sheriff Chalfont and Deputy Beautyman trussed the brothers together, feet to hands, as they lay unconscious, and lashed them to a tree with leather reins.

He had also concocted another ruse, just as simple, that involved stuffing their own clothes with leaves and dirt and topping them with their hats.

And now more than ever, I was realizing how my being here really did have a touch of providence to it.

“We’ll do everything we can,” asserted Sheriff Chalfont with great earnestness.

“If we climb up that little bluff over there, we’ll be able to see them,” Mittenwool said, pointing somewhere.

“And you’ve got to concentrate, Silas!” he admonished.

Their heads were down and they were feigning easy discourse with each other, laughing amiably, trying to look like the Morton brothers.

Two burly men were sitting by the entrance, smoking, their legs hanging off the sides.

They took little notice of the lawmen as they approached, even when Deputy Beautyman (who was a brazen man, for sure!) had the audacity to wave to them.

They took little notice of the lawmen as they approached, even when Deputy Beautyman (who was a brazen man, for sure!) had the audacity to wave to them.

So let’s end this strife! You put your weapons down. I’ll put my weapon down.

We’ll all come to an equitable business arrangement!

That is when Ollerenshaw pushed Pa, mouth gagged, feet and hands in manacles, to the front of the cave, where we could all see him.

Swerving his body around, he rammed his elbow deep into Ollerenshaw’s ribs, then, as Ollerenshaw doubled over, swung at him again, bringing his manacled fists down like a cudgel onto the top of his head.

Pony’s hooves were like hundred-pound mallets bludgeoning him.

“Silas, move back, give him room,” said Sheriff Chalfont, using his jacket to stanch the bleeding.

I don’t know why some souls linger and some don’t. Mama’s did not linger. Pa’s did not, either. It rose from his body and hovered briefly, unencumbered by weight.

“I’ll testify against Ollerenshaw, by the way. I know all the details of his operation. I’ll cooperate fully in exchange for some leniency. You make sure to tell the judge that.”

That’s where we used solvents to wipe the banknotes clean of any ink.

“I just want you to know, I didn’t think it would get this ugly!” Rufe Jones blathered on.

“People need to know when to shut up,” replied the deputy, going back to bandaging his ear, which was still bleeding profusely.