Stand to Horse by Andre Norton

Author:Andre Norton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Sturgis grinned at Ritchie. “Luck’s turned!” he crowed. “First good break I’ve had in months! I’m going to go places now—I know it!” His face seemed hardly older than Ritchie’s as he stood there accepting his winnings and exchanging chaff with the disgruntled losers.

“How did you do?” he asked as they left.

Ritchie laughed. “Broke even. I didn’t bet.”

“You are a lamb in wolves’ clothing.” But there was no taunt in that, and Ritchie did not lose his grin.

“Guess it’s just my cautious New England blood coming out in me. I can’t enjoy—”

“Sinning?” queried Sturgis vastly amused. “Very well, now that I have drawn you into the depths and we have escaped, it’s your turn to call the amusement. Hey, where are we going?”

“Camel lines,” Ritchie returned. “Didn’t get a good look at them this morning. My horse wouldn’t get within ten feet of them. Say—they are big brutes, aren’t they?”

“Regular elephants,” agreed Sturgis, “especially that monster on the end. Wonder what it consumes for breakfast—about four fields of hay, I would judge—”

“They eat greasewood—some of them anyway.” Ritchie looked at the one Sturgis mentioned. The animal did seem larger than the rest and was of a dusty grayish color.

“Greasewood, cactus, anything, soljer,” a man in nondescript civilian clothing said. “This here’s Babu—he’s a mule—cross between a camel ’n a dromedary. Sure pays his way—can carry over two-thousand pounds if he has a mind to.”

The “mule” continued to chew its cud and gaze into the middle distance disdainfully aloof from the affairs of mere humans. A large bell hung around its neck, and the cumbersome pack saddle sat a short distance away.

“Good critters fer this country,” continued the camel enthusiast, glad of an audience. “Don’t git sore feet, don’t need shoein’.”

“Why not?” asked Sturgis with interest.

“ ’Cause they don’t shuffle none when they walk, jus’ picks their feet straight up from the ground ’n puts ’em back without no slidin’. Bottom of the foot spreads out a mite, doesn’t rub the skin off on tough ground. ’N they can live off on the country without water ’n eatin’ greasewood ’n screw beans ’n such. They really relish that trash, I tell yo’!”

Sturgis regarded the “mule” critically. “This fellow has a meanish eye. I wouldn’t care to have him clump those teeth at me. I’ll stick to horses and mules awhile yet—”

The camel man shook his head. “This country needs camels, soljer. That’s why the army brought ’em in. They can carry heavy ’n travel twenty-five to thirty miles a day. Show me a mule as can do that!”

“You have a point there,” Sturgis conceded, rocking back on his heels. “Only some Apache is going to begin wondering how camel steak tastes. And between wondering and tasting is mighty small distance for Apaches. An animal as big as this one will make a mighty good target.”

“Jus’ let ’em try!” The camel man was fierce. “I ain’t leavin’ all the guardin’ to yo’ soljer boys.”

And he wasn’t, as Ritchie discovered when he went

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