"Is Pedro going to ride the outcast?" Dick asked of Yeager, in surprise.
Yeager grinned.
"He's going to try. The boy's slap-up rider, but he ain't got it in him
to break Teddy--no, nor any man in New Mexico ain't."
Dick looked the horse over carefully, as it stood there while the boy
tightened the girths--feet wide apart, small head low, and red eyes
gleaming wickedly. Deep-chested, with mighty shoulders, barrel-bodied
like an Indian pony, Teddy showed power in every line of him. It was
easy to guess him for the unbroken outlaw he was.
There was a swift scatter backward of the onlookers as Pedro swung to
the saddle. Before his right foot was in the stirrup, the bronco bucked.
The young Mexican, light and graceful, settled to the saddle with a
delighted laugh, and drove the spurs home. The animal humped like a
camel, head and tail down, went into the air and back to earth, with
four feet set like pile-drivers. It was a shock to drive a man's spine
together like a concertina; but Pedro took it limply, giving to the jar
of the impact as the pony came down again and again.
Teddy tasted the quirt along his quarters, and the pain made him
frantic. He went screaming straight into the air, hung there a long
instant, and fell over backward. The lad was out of the saddle in time
and no more, and back in his seat before the outlaw had scrambled to his
feet.
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