CONEY ISLAND
It is wonderful how much a smile, or even a grin, will do for a
disconsolate lover. Bowles woke suddenly to the beauties of nature and
the wild joy of living; and that evening, instead of dropping into his
blankets like a dead man, he tarried by the fire. A chill wind swept in
from the frigid north, and the smoke guttered and flurried from the
burning logs; but the cowboys sat about in their shirt-sleeves and
blinked patiently when they caught the smoke. Inside the bunk-house the
noise of the perpetual pitch game told where battles were being lost and
won, a secret understanding that every game was worth a quarter on
pay-day being the contributing cause for the excitement, since Henry Lee
allowed no gambling among his punchers. But outside everybody was either
broke or in the hole, and so there was nothing but peace and amity and
long-winded arguments.
The talk for the moment was centered upon "ring-tail" in horses, a
subject upon which Brigham Clark claimed to be an authority, although
Bowles had never even heard of it before.
"No, sir," asserted Brigham, addressing the company at large; "you show
me a ring-tailed hawse, and I'll show you a hawse with weak kidneys,
every time. Now, I don't say how he gits them weak kidneys,
y'understand; he may git 'em from bein' rode too young, the way Uncle
Joe claims; or he may git 'em from drinkin' bad water, like folks; or he
may jest be born that way. But that ain't the point--when you take a
nice young hawse and turn him up a hill, and he quits and goes to
ringin' his tail around--that hawse is weak, I say, or he wouldn't quit.
A ring-tailed hawse is a weak hawse, and you might jest as well give 'im
to the kids to play with--he'll never be no good fer a cow-pony."
Coming as this did at the end of a long and technical argument, it was
allowed to pass by the company. A quiet fell, and three or four men to
leeward got up to avoid the smoke; but all the time Brigham Clark sat on
the box he had captured, his big black hat pushed back on his head, his
hand held out to the fire, and his shrewd eyes twinkling as he gazed
down into the flames. Then he shook with silent laughter, and they knew
he was off on another one.
"Heh, heh, heh!" he chuckled. "Speakin' of ring-tails reminds me of a
ring-tailed monkey I used to have to take care of when I was on the
road. He was the orneriest little brat you ever see in yore life--a
little, spider-legged proposition, with a long, limber tail, and big
eyes that he'd always be winkin' and a-blinkin' while he was figurin'
out some new kind of devilment--and all the time he'd be sneezin' and
cuddlin' and snugglin' up ag'inst you like he loved you more'n his
mammy. The boss's wife kept the little snifter fer company-like, and
she'd pet and coddle and talk foolish to 'im until the boss would nigh
have a fit. Jest like when a woman keeps a lap-dog, I reckon--kinder
makes a man want to kill 'im, to keep her from muchin' 'im all the time.
"Well, this here lady was shore foolish about that monkey, and every
mornin' when we were in a town I had to take 'im out fer a walk.
Leastways, somebody had to do it; and rather than not see the town at
all I'd take him along under my arm. If I'd had a hand-organ I'd shore
made a lot of money that trip--but I was thinkin' about the time I took
the ring out of his tail. Every time we'd come to a tree, or a
fire-escape, or something like that, the little devil would begin to
hook up at it with his tail; and this time I'm speakin' of we was goin'
through a little park, and I'm a son-of-a-gun if he didn't git away on
me. Jest reached out with his tail where it was hangin' down behind, and
grabbed a limb, and slipped the collar on me.
"Yes, sir! And then he begun doin' circus stunts through them trees.
First he'd climb up one, and then another, and then he hooked on to a
fire-escape, and I chased him clean over a house. Policeman came along
and wanted to arrest me, but I give 'im a talk and kept travelin',
because I knew if I didn't ketch that monkey I didn't need to go back to
the tent. Well, I chased him till my tongue hung out, but about the time
I'd reach out to ketch 'im he'd swing off with his tail and git into the
next tree; so I went over to a fruit store and tried to ketch 'im with
bananas. Last chance I had, and I was gittin' pretty mad. All the kids
was there to tease me, the policeman was tellin' me to move on--and that
cussed monkey kept hangin' down by his tail and makin' faces at me,
until, by grab, I reached down and took up a rock.
"'Now, hyer,' I says, holdin' up the banana, 'you'd better come down
before I git hot and soak you with this,' and I showed him the size of
that pavin' stone.
"'Etchee-etchee-etchee!' he says, swingin' up for a limb; and then I let
'im have it. They wasn't any ring in his tail when he come down, believe
me; and when I showed the remains to the missus she like to tore my hair
out. Boss he fired me--mad as the devil--then when she wasn't lookin' he
slipped me a twenty, and told me to go back to Coney. There was a happy
man, fellers, but he had to let on different--married, you know. So I
took the twenty and went back to old Coney, where they shoot the chutes
and loop the loops, and any man that's got a dime is as rich as John G.
Rockefeller. Big doin's back there, fellers--you don't know what you're
missin'."
An abashed silence followed this remark, calculated as it was to reduce
his hearers to a proper state of humility; and then, to add to its
effectiveness, the Odysseus of the cow camps turned to Bowles.
"Ain't that so, stranger?" he said; and Bowles thought he detected a
twinkle in his eye.
"Yes, indeed!" he replied. "There's no place in the world like Coney
Island. Changing very rapidly, too. Have you been there lately? That
Dreamland is wonderful, isn't it? And Luna Park----"
"Hah!" exclaimed Brigham, slapping his leg. "That's the place! Loony
Park! Ain't that the craziest place you ever see? Everything
upside-down, topsy-turvy--guess I never told you boys about that. Didn't
dare to, by grab--not till this gentleman come along to back me up!"
He glanced at Bowles significantly and waited for the questions.
"What does she look like, Brig?" inquired Bar Seven, the stray man.
"Pretty fancy, eh?"
"Fancy!" repeated Brigham, with royal insolence. "Well, believe me,
goin' through this Loony Park would make Tucson look like a cow camp!
She's shore elegant--silver and gold, and big barroom looking-glasses
everywhere--only everything is upside-down. You go into the house
through the chimney, walk around on the ceilin' and there's all the
tables and chairs stuck up on the top. Big chandeliers standin' straight
up from the floor, and all the pictures hangin' wrong side to on the
walls. Stairs is all built backwards, and when you're half way up, if
you look like a Rube, they'll straighten 'em out like a flat board and
shoot you into the attic. Talk about crazy--w'y, they's been a feller
walked through this Loony Park and never knowed straight up afterwards.
It's shore wonderful, ain't it, pardner?"
"Yes, indeed!" answered Bowles suavely; and, seeing that he could be
relied upon, Brigham Clark cut loose with another one.
"Ain't that so, mister?" he inquired at the end; and Bowles, who saw a
chance for revenge, assured the gawking cowboys that it was. These were
the boys who had been gloating over him for a week and more, but now it
was his turn.
"Yes, indeed," he replied, with a blase, worldly-wise air; "quite a
common occurrence, I'm sure."
At this the ready Brigham took fresh courage, and his little eyes
twinkled with mischief.
"Friend," he said, "if it's none of my business, of course you'll let me
know, but you've been around a little, haven't you? Seen the world,
mebbe? Well now, what's the wonderfulest thing you ever see?"
A flush of pleasure mantled Bowles' sunburned face, for it was the first
time he had been addressed as man to man since he struck the Bat Wing;
but he did not lose the point--Brigham had a bigger story to bring out
and he was waiting for a lead.
"Well," he said, "I _have_ seen a good many wonderful exhibitions, but
the one that I think of at this moment as the most striking was Selim,
the diving horse. You remember him, I guess--out at Coney Island. He was
a beautiful horse, wasn't he? Snowy white, with a long, flowing mane,
and intelligent as a human. He mounted to a platform forty-five feet
high and leaped off into a pool of water. That was the most wonderful
thing I ever saw, because he did it all by himself--climbed up to the
platform, stepped out to the diving-place, and jumped off when his
master said the word. Yes, that was certainly wonderful."
"You bet!" assented Brig, regarding him with admiring eyes; but the
others were not so easily satisfied. That was one thing they claimed to
be up on--horses--and they looked the solemn stranger over dubiously.
"How high did you say that platform was?" inquired Uncle Joe cautiously.
"Forty-five--well, that was shore high. I cain't hardly git my hawse to
cross the crick."
"How deep was that pool?" spoke up Bar Seven, the stray man. "Ten foot?
Huh! Say, boys, this reminds me of that divin' story of Brig's!"
"Well, what's the matter with that divin' story of mine?" demanded
Brigham orgulously. "You're behind the times, Bar Seven. While you was
on yore way this gentleman come into camp, and he's seen that done
himself. What do you know about it, anyhow--spent all yore life punchin'
cows and eatin' sand--what do you know about divin', anyhow?"
"Well, they's one thing I do know," retorted Bar Seven, "and that's
hawses. I been with hawses all my life, and you cain't tell me about no
hawse divin'--stands to reason he'd hit the bottom and break his neck,
anyway!"
"Perhaps I would better explain," broke in Bowles politely. "When the
horse leaves the platform he slides down an inclined chute, below which
is hung a heavily padded board. As the horse slips off he naturally
kicks and struggles, and his feet, flying out behind, strike the padded
board so that, while he leaps off headforemost, he rights himself in the
air and falls into the pool feet first. Of course, forty-five feet is
quite a distance, but he probably never goes to the bottom at all."
"Well, that's all right," admitted Bar Seven. "I don't know about
that--but tell me this, stranger: How does the man git that hawse to
climb up there and take the jump? Tell me that, and I'll believe
anything!"
"Why, certainly," said Bowles. "At the time of which I speak, a young
girl rode on his back when he made the plunge--just to make it more
exciting, you know--but I watched the man quite closely, and really it
was very interesting. First the girl went up the long incline, which had
a railing and was provided with cleats, of course. Then the trainer
brought Selim out and gave him a handful of sugar from his pocket,
rubbing his head and talking to him while he was begging for more, until
he had him up to the chute. There he stripped the halter off and spoke
to him, and the horse started up by himself, he was so eager for the
reward. At the top the girl mounted him and turned him down the
diving-chute; and, don't you know, the first thing he did when he got to
land was to trot back and get his sugar!"
"Oh, sugar!" cried Bar Seven, in disgust; but somehow the
circumstantiality of the narrative seemed to carry conviction with the
others, and he found himself alone.
"What breed of hawse was that?" inquired Uncle Joe, after a pause.
"A pure-blooded Arabian," answered Bowles; "supposed to be the most
intelligent horses in the world. The Arabians, you know, keep their
horses about their tents and raise them as if they were children,
teaching them to understand the human voice and to answer like a dog."
"W'y, sure!" broke in Brigham, artfully taking the lead again. "Don't
you fellers remember that story in the school book about Ali Ben Hassan,
or whatever his name was, that was wounded in a battle and his hawse
picked him up by his belt and packed him back to his tent? I tell you,
them A-rabs are a pretty smooth bunch of _hombres_. They not only savvy
hawses from the ground up but they're the finest jugglers and
strong-armed men that the world has ever seen. I remember back at Coney
they was three brothers that did sech tricks you couldn't hardly believe
it.
"They was called the Hassan brothers--all A-rabs is either named Hassan
or A-li--and the oldest one was a balancer. That feller could balance a
peacock feather on his nose--throw a flip-flap clean over it, and come
up with it still on his nose--but that was jest fer a starter. His big
stunt was balancin' clay pipes. He'd take a hundred and forty-four
long-handled pipes, balance 'em one on top of the other, and then skip
up to the top and set there while he took a smoke."
"What! One on top of the other?" demanded Bar Seven incredulously.
"Aw, no, you bone head!" replied Brigham impatiently. "What d'ye
think--would he pile 'em up a hundred foot high? He made 'em into a kind
of pyramid-like--but he was nothin' to his younger brother. That feller
was a rope-sharp. You punchers think you can twirl the rope some, but
you're back in the calf corral alongside of him. He could throw a loop
out on the floor, and send it quilin' around like a snake, hoppin' over
chairs and tables like a trained dog, and then have it come back and
hog-tie 'im at one lick, so that an expert couldn't unfasten the knots
in half an hour. But that was jest good rope work with him; his big play
come at the end when he tied a twenty-pound weight at the end of it and
began to swing it round. By Joe, that was great! And then, right at the
end, when he pulled his big stuff, he heaved that weight forty foot into
the air, clum up the rope and set down on top of it smokin' his cigar!
Now, by grab, can you beat that?"
"Kin we beat it?" echoed Bar Seven and the bunch. "Kin we believe
it--that's the point!"
"Well, what's the matter with it?" demanded Brigham irritably. "Seems
like every time I tell you cotton-pickers anythin' you up an' call me a
liar. What's the matter, anyway?"
"What's the matter?" yelled Bar Seven, raising his voice above the rest.
"W'y, you ignorant devil, how could the feller set on the weight when it
was only throwed up in the air?"
A chorus of other demands followed, but Brigham only sat on his box,
smiling easily.
"Say, what do you take me for?" he inquired, gazing about him pityingly.
"If I knowed how that A-rab did that rope-work, d'ye think I'd be
punchin' cows? Not fer me--I'd be drawin' a thousand dollars a week back
at Coney. Of co'se I can't say how it was done--no more than you
can--but that's what makes the show! If the people knowed, they wouldn't
come no more! Ain't that so, pardner?"
"Yes, indeed!" responded Bowles.
"W'y sure!" went on Brigham. "Anybody that knows anythin' about the show
business knows that. No matter how good a stunt is, it's got to be
mysterious or the people won't pay to see it. Either that, or it's got
to be feats of strength and darin'. Now this youngest Hassan brother was
a strong-armed man. He'd wrap a piece of chain around his arm, tighten
up his muscle and _pop!_ it'd break right square in two. Same thing with
his chest--he'd wrap a loggin' chain around his breast, suck in his
breast, and snap it like a thread. You've seen fellers like that,
haven't you?"
"Sure!" said Bowles.
"Yes--all right!" continued Brigham apologetically. "Seems like the
simplest thing I tell these fellers some rabbit-twister from Texas up
and contradicts me. Well, this youngest brother had a pretty good stunt
to end up with--nothin' flashy, of co'se, but pretty good fer a kid. He
was powerful strong in the right arm and he'd hold it out like
this"--Brigham held out his brawny arm--"and then he'd muscle up, real
slow-like, and then, by grab, he'd raise himself right up, and come down
over, and set right down on that thumb!"
He elevated his thumb as he spoke, and the cowboys gazed at it as if
hypnotized. Then Bar Seven rose up slowly and, walking over to the
defenseless Brigham, mashed his hat down over his eyes at a single blow.
"Brig," he said, his voice trembling with conviction, "you're a
dad-burned liar!"