A week later, Pthav sent for me and very gruffly
told me that the teivos had issued the permit for
me to use the land adjoining that allotted to my
father. As before, his woman stopped me as I was leaving.
“It was easier than I thought,” she told me, “for Or-tis
has angered the teivos by attempting to usurp all its powers
and knowing that he hates you they were glad to grant
your petition over his objection.”
During the next two or three months I was busy building
our home and getting my place in order. I had decided
to raise horses and obtained permission from the teivos to
do so—again over Or-tis’ objections. Of course the government
controlled the entire horse traffic; but there were
a few skilled horsemen permitted to raise them, though at
any time their herds could be commandeered by the authorities.
I knew that it might not be a very profitable
business; but I loved horses and wanted to have just a few—a
stallion and two or three mares. These I could use in
tilling my fields and in the heavier work of hauling, and
at the same time I would keep a few goats, pigs and chickens
to insure us a living.
Father gave me half his goats and a few chickens, and
from Jim I bought two young sows and a boar. Later I
traded a few goats to the teivos for two old mares that they
thought were no longer worth keeping and that same day
I was told of a stallion—a young outlaw—that Hoffmeyer
had. The beast was five years old and so vicious that none
dared approach him and they were on the point of destroying
him.
I went to Hoffmeyer and asked if I could buy the animal—I
offered him a goat for it, which he was glad to accept
and then I took a strong rope and went to get my property.
I found a beautiful bay with the temper of a hellhound.
When I attempted to enter the pen he rushed at me with
ears back and jaws distended; but I knew that I must conquer
him now or never and so I met him with only a rope
in my hand, nor did I wait for him. Instead, I ran to meet
him and when he was in reach I struck him once across
the face with the rope, at which he wheeled and let both
hind feet fly out at me. Then I cast the noose that was
at one end of the rope and caught him about the neck and
for half an hour we had a battle of it.
I never struck him unless he tried to bite or strike me and
finally I must have convinced him that I was master, for
he let me come close enough to stroke his glossy neck,
though he snorted loudly all the while that I did so. When
I had quieted him a bit I managed to get a half hitch around
his lower jaw and after that I had no difficulty in leading
him from the pen. Once in the open I took the coils of my
rope in my left hand and before the creature knew what I
was about, had vaulted to his back.
He fought fair, I’ll say that for him, for he stood on his
feet; but for fifteen minutes he brought into play every
artifice known to horse-kind for unseating a rider. Only
my skill and my great strength kept me on his back and
at that even the Kalkars who were looking on had to applaud
my horsemanship.
After that it was easy. I treated him with kindness, something
he had never known before, and as he was an unusually
intelligent animal, he soon learned that I was not
only his master but his friend, and from being an outlaw
he became one of the kindest and most tractable animals
I have ever seen, so much so in fact, that Juana used to
ride him bareback.
I love all horses and always have; but I think I never
loved any animal as I did Red Lightning, as we named him.
The authorities left us pretty well alone for some time
because they were quarreling among themselves. Jim said
there was an ancient saying about honest men getting a little
peace when thieves fell out and it certainly fitted our
case perfectly; but the peace didn’t last forever and when
it broke the bolt that fell was the worst calamity that had
ever come to us.
One evening Father was arrested for trading at night
and taken away by the Kash Guard. They got him as he
was returning to the house from the goat pens and would
not even permit him to bid good-bye to Mother. Juana
and I were eating supper in our own house about three
hundred yards away and never knew anything about it until
Mother came running over to tell us. She said that it was
all done so quickly that they had Father and were gone
before she could run from the house to where they arrested
him. They had a spare horse and hustled him onto it—then
they galloped away toward the lake front. It seems
strange that neither Juana nor I heard the hoof beats of the
horses; but we did not.
I went immediately to Pthav and demanded to know why
Father had been arrested; but he professed ignorance of
the whole affair. I had ridden to his place on Red Lightning
and from there I started to the Kash Guard barracks
where the military prison is. It is contrary to law to approach
the barracks after sunset without permission, so I
left Red Lightning in the shadow of some ruins a hundred
yards away and started on foot toward that part of the post
where I knew the prison to be located. The latter consists
of a high stockade around the inside of which are rude
shelters upon the roofs of which armed guards patrol. The
center of the rectangle is an open court where the prisoners
exercise, cook their food, and wash their clothing—if they
care to. There are seldom more than fifty confined here at
a time as it is only a detention camp where they hold those
who are awaiting trial and those who have been sentenced
to the mines. The latter are usually taken away when there
are from twenty-five to forty of them.
After I reached the stockade I was at a loss to communicate
with my father, since any noise I might make would
doubtless attract the attention of the guard; but finally,
through a crack between two boards, I attracted the attention
of a prisoner. The man came close to the stockade
and I whispered to him that I wished to speak with Julian
8th. By luck I had happened upon a decent fellow, and it
was not long before he had brought Father and I was talking
with him, in low whispers.
He told me that he had been arrested for trading by
night and that he was to be tried on the morrow. I asked
him if he would like to escape—that I would find the
means if he wished me to, but he said that he was innocent
of the charge as he had not been off our farm at night for
months and that doubtless it was a case of mistaken identity
and that he would be freed in the morning.
I had my doubts; but he would not listen to escape as
he argued that it would prove his guilt and then they would
have him for sure.
“Where may I go,” he asked, “if I escape? I might
hide in the woods; but what a life! I could never return
to your mother, and so sure am I that they can prove nothing
against me that I would rather stand trial than face the
future as an outlaw.”
I think now that he refused my offer of assistance not
because he expected to be released but rather that he feared
that evil might befall me were I to connive at his escape.
At any rate I did nothing, since he would not let me, and
went home again with a heavy heart and dismal forebodings.
Trials before the teivos were public, or at least were supposed
to be, though they made it so uncomfortable for
spectators that few, if any, had the temerity to attend; but
under Jarth’s new rule the proceedings of the military courts
were secret and Father was tried before such a court.
