Max Brand by The Garden of Eden Read Free Book Online

blue with white
polka-dots, when she was not making hurried trips into the kitchen, cast
one glance of approval at Ben Connor and another of surprise at the
girl. Other glances followed, for the room was fairly well filled, and a
whisper went trailing about them, before and behind.
    It was easy to see that Ruth Manning was being accused of "scraping"
acquaintance with the stranger, but she bore up beautifully, and Connor
gauging her with an accurate eye, admired and wondered where she had
learned. Yet when they found a table and he drew out a chair for her, he
could tell from the manner in which she lowered herself into it that she
was not used to being seated. That observation gave him a feeling of
power over her.
    "You liked the gray, too?" she was saying, as he took his place.
    "I lost a hundred betting against him," said the gambler quietly. "I
hope you made a killing."
    He saw by the slight widening of her eyes that a hundred dollars was a
good deal of money to her; and she flushed as she answered:
    "I got down a bet with Jud Alison; it was only five dollars, but I had
odds of ten to one. Fifty dollars looks pretty big to me," she added,
and he liked her frankness.
    "But does everybody know about these grays?"
    "Not so many. They only come from one outfit, you see. Dad knew horses,
and he told me an Eden Gray was worth any man's money. Poor Dad!"
    Connor watched her eyes turn dark and dull, but he tossed sympathy aside
and stepped forward in the business.
    "I've been interested since I saw that little streak of gray shoot over
the finish. Eighteen years old. Did you know that?"
    "Really? Well, Dad said an Eden Gray was good to twenty-five."
    "What else did he say?"
    "He didn't know a great deal about them, after all, but he said that now
and then a deaf and dumb Negro comes. He's a regular giant. Whenever he
meets a man he gets off the horse and puts a paper into the hand of the
other. On the paper it says: Fifty dollars in gold coin! Always that."
    It was like a fairy tale to Connor.
    "Jude Harper of Collinsville met him once. He had only ten dollars in
gold, but he had three hundred in paper. He offered the whole three
hundred and ten to the deaf-mute but he only shook his head."
    "How often does he come out of the valley?"
    "Once a year—once in two years—nobody knows how often. Of course it
doesn't take him long to find a man who'll buy a horse like one of the
grays for fifty dollars. The minute the horse is sold he turns around
and starts walking back. Pete Ricks tried to follow him. He turned back
on Pete, jumped on him from behind a rock, and jerked him off his horse.
Then he got him by the hair and bent his head back. Pete says he
expected to have his neck broken—he was like a child in the arms of
that giant. But it seemed that the mute was only telling him in
deaf-and-dumb talk that he mustn't follow. After he'd frightened the
life out of Pete the big mute went away again, and Pete came home as
fast as his horse could carry him."
    Connor swallowed. "Where do they get the name Eden Gray?"
    "I don't know. Dad said that three things were true about every gray.
It's always a gelding; it's always one price, and it always has a flaw.
I looked the one over that ran to-day and couldn't see anything wrong,
though."
    "Cow-hocked," said Connor, breathing hard. "Go on!"
    "Dad made up his mind that the reason they didn't sell more horses was
because the owner only sold to weed out his stock."
    "Wait," said Connor, tapping on the table to make his point. "Do I
gather that the only Eden Grays that are sold are the poorest of the
lot?"
    "That was Dad's idea."
    "Go on," said Connor.
    "You're excited?"
    But he answered quickly: "Well, one of those grays beat me out of a
hundred dollars. I can't help being interested."
    He detached his watch-charm from its catch and began to finger it
carelessly; it was the head of an ape carved in ivory yellowed with age.
    The girl watched, fascinated, but she made no mention of it, for the