I

Flashing in the windowpanes, the sun rode up the
tip of Taylor Mountain. The little town of Eagle
Rock clung to the curve of the cool river like a
dewdrop on a spider’s web.

II

Jeb's hand paused above the desk. Shadows cast
by the vertical shutters cross»hatched the paper
he had lined in pencil. A drop of blue-black ink
quivered on the iron point of his stick pen. The
black wood of its handle melted into the shadow.
Like a blunt nose his ink‘stained fingernailtested
the edge of the sunlight. The light striped pattern
of the desk top curved against the ventral surface
of the black bulb. The reflectionassumeda convex
breadth and width out of which protruded coarse
wood-pulp fibres. Dust particles and filaments of
lint orbited the elongating mass. The point's needle
clean edge bisected the viscous shape. Slowly
stretching the globule gravitated toward the page.
As if out by a knife the spicule dropped and,
spinning and rotating, becamea hurtling spheroid.
A shape had crossed the window.

III

Peggy Willow rose to raise the shade. From her
third floor room in the Eagle's Nest Saloon and
Hotel she heard the sounds of the river and the
saw at the mill three-quarters ofa mile upstream.
But she withdrew her handfrom the blind, wheeled
into a yellow dressing gown, threw open the French
doors leading to the balcony above Broadway, and
walked with Spring in her stepandSummer on her
body into the cool air of morning.

To the West across the river she saw a golden
cloud approaching along the road to Borah.

IV

Well before dawn he had packed his gear, left
the opening of the cave, and cut Northa quarter of
a mile to the wagon tracks.

The tips of the yellow bandana played at the
stubbied skin beneath his chin. His neck-hair
furled forward against his ears, parting exactly
through the furrow of the cords of his neck. The
ridges ofa milk-blue scar cut around the back of
his head just below the hairline from ear to car.
But his skin was dark.

The stallion was black bUt his off-left leg was
white from the withers down. The sun strucka
glow to the dirt covered hair on its haunches.
Muscles moved the gleam of dust forward to the
light tips of its funneling ears. The leftfoOt of the

A leaf drifts down silently

But in dying

Makes room for another.
Merry Wiesner

BATES FLORIST

Phone 236-3197

“Horse orkus”
by Brion Harris

rider was thick with it, built up intoa sharp ridge
on the black leather between the anvil of the
stirrup and the pointed toe. A sharp cone rose out
of the tip. The dragging hoof spumed dust against
the low wall of brush along the road. A llmp
syncopated the horse's walk.

A bedroli and groundblanket were lashed behind
the saddle. With the swing of the horse tinny
sounds came from a canvas bag tied on in intricate
lashings of a braided line. A wide leather sling
hooked up over the pommel from the left side.
The stock of the inverted Sharpes 50 lay tucked
under his leg. Its handworn and ollrubbedsurface
was scratched and scarred. The metal buttplate
gleamed through the dust. The screwheads were
golden. The metal of the rolling-block action was
worn bright andwaspitted with rustfrom handling.
The forend was heavily grained. Dark stripes
flowed toward the copper band which held the
octagonal barrel to the wood. The upper Two
facets of the tube caught the sun in flashes in
rhythm with the movements of the horse. Beaded
blue, yellow, and red patterns brushed at the toe
of the boot. A feathered headdress was draped
across the horse's neck under the reins and the
gun barrel.

As the sun rose, the intricate design worked into
a single saddiebag over the right hauneh of the
horse became increasingly detailed. Ridges and
bevels were framed by a wide groove burned
around the perimeter of the flap. Two sharp
narrow lines began from opposing sides of the
upper right corner and met near the centerof the
field. The continuing line snaked toward a sloping
indentation in the lower left corner. A thin line
had been freshly out just above a burned gouge
left of the heavy diagonal, crossing it well below
the point where the two narrower lines joined.
Points above, below, and to the right of the new
intersection had been scored into the leather.
The ridges and the pattern moved and changed
with the motion of the horse in the light.

V

Peggy leaned against the rail. Light througha
chink in the rough shingles cut across the ridged
cord of her neck. Her shoulder and face below
her earlobe were in deep shadow. The coarse»
grained wood flattened her deeply contrive navel.

1012 Broad

 

GRINNELL

liIIIIIllI

SII'IIIOII

pennem

mil-wow"

SHOP PENNEYS CATALOG DEPARTMENT

EOR All YOUR SPECIAl NEEDS

We're "The Friendly Place"

The yellow gown fluttered in the wind. Strands of
hair cut across her forehead, down over her nose,
to the right corner of her parted lips. Looking
down Broadway she saw the old man step slowly
out of the toll-house at the bridge. A coin splashed
in the dust at Harv Bledsoe‘s feet. A flash of
silver had arched down from the upraised hand
of the stranger.

Coming toward her the figure moved behind the
verticals of the railing. The crown of his hat
jogged through the cross-piece at her belly. He
stopped directly under her, lifted his hat, and
stared. The horse's Off‘left hoof remained sus-
pended in its downward curve. Peggy straightened.
The diaphonous sleeve over her rightarm opened,
revealing, in the stripe of sun- light that covered
her armpit, a blue vein running from her under-
arm and forking directly above the nipple. Ridged,
it cast no shadow. The rider grinned. His smile
was like a ricocheting bullet.

VI

Jeb leaned forward from the waist, balanced by
the motionless shape. The index finger of his left
hand, stubbed off at the second joint, followed the
direction of his eyes. Its pulpy tip pushed into a
ribbon of light and stopped. Heads of sweat
pooled beneath his left eye, which was cut verti-
wily by a shadow, leaving it and the outer left
side of his face, but for his ear, in bright sun.
The scarred skin of his left cheek reflected in
the lower hemisphere of his dark iris. The blue
pupil stared directly into the sun. There was no
flicker to the permanent squint of the lids or in
the deep ridges and cuts of flesh at the outer
corner where they joined. The right half of his
face too was cut with a band of light. The pupil
moved up from the epioanthus, where it had
rested against the edge of the shadow, jarred only
by the beat of his heart, and stopped with the
outer edge of the iris in the outer corner of the
eye. The edge ofa shadow halved the black pupil.
The lids flickered. Discharge from the squinting

eye caught in the lashes and stretched into a
refracting rainbow.

VII

Water-drop, steady sounds resounded from the
smithy's shop. Black David, the negro ferrier,
bent low to follow the kneading blows of his
mallet. Under his skilled fingers, from the forge
to the silvery anvil, metal took shapes reflections
from which lighted his laughing faceanddarkened
the very sunrise behind Taylor Mountain.

(Chapter VII from Horse Orkus, in progress)

Knit a scarf for Christmas

Try our KNITTING BAGS and KNITTING NEEDLES
We also have NEEDLE MASTER KITS

ESTY’S FABRIC STORE

1001 Broad St.

 

 

 

Direct to
DES MOINES
$2.90 one way

CHICAGO
$12.25 one way

- Ask about
convenient
return service.

COME FAST WITH US

TOM’S LONGHORNk

 

 

 

u Why lug luggage?
Send it by Greyhound.

- Buses leave from
EA TT EY’S
TEXACO STATION

For ticket and
Information, phone

236-5122

60 GREYHOUND
m

malld leave the driving lo us“

 

Northwestern
Mulual life

‘ 7th largest life Insurance Company In America
‘ Writes only lndlvidml lives - no group contracts
‘ Recognized leader in low net cost insurance

Before you buy - Check the Difference at

RAMSEY-WEEKS INSURANCE

RICK RAMSEY

717 Fifth 236-3141

 

GET YOUR HAIR TRIMMED THE WAY
YOU LIKE IT FOR THE HOLIDAYS

WE FEATURE HAIR STYLING
FOR THE GROOMED LOOK

EAEBE’W”S @Alfil Elfi Sliil©lP

932 MAIN

MEILLEURS VOEUX

JD’S RESTAURANT

Mom-Sat. S to 10 pm.
Sunday-Noon to 10 pm.

H0
H0
H0

from

BO

922- 1/2 Main

 

BILL WEEKS