Norton, Andre - Novel 32 Read Online Free Page A

far as he could—his tail was puffed up and he was spit ting. Another car had pulled up
beside the sta tion
wagon.
    Car? No, it was a truck—or was it a
trailer- camper? It looked, Christie
thought, as if some one had seen a trailer
and then built something like it on a
truck body. And it was painted bril liant
blue with patches of yellow here and there. Attached behind it was a horse trailer.
    "Lucas!" Pinto stopped Susie by the corral and handed down Christie, who ran
to catch Baron's
collar, keeping him from rushing at the people getting out of the cab of the truck.
    There was a man wearing jeans and a red shirt, the tails
hanging outside. He had a hat like Pinto's, only it was newer and black and there was a band of silver discs
around the crown.
There was a big buckle of the same metal on the belt he wore over his shirt and he had a
heavy necklace of silver set with blue stones.
    He pushed back his hat a little and looked at Pinto very solemnly, raising the
other hand palm out
and saying, "How!"
    Pinto laughed, "How, Lucas. Glad to see you, ma'am," he added to the
lady who dropped
from the opposite side of the cab. She wore jeans and boots, too, and a shirt of deep orangy yellow. Her long black hair was fas tened back with a silver clip and
she had on two
jingly necklaces.
    "Pinto," she called, "you just get younger every year instead of older.
My"—she threw out
her arms and took a deep breath—"it's good to get back!"
    Two more travelers were tumbling out. One was a boy who looked to be about
Neal's age.
    He had on jeans, boots, and a red shirt like his father's, but he was bareheaded
and his thick black
hair was a rather untidy-looking mop. The
girl behind him came more slowly, staring at
Christie. She had a blue shirt and a necklace like her mother's, and her hair lay in two smooth braids over her shoulders.
    "Something new! Pinto, don't tell me you have taken to wheels at
last!" The man looked at the station wagon.
    "Ten Mile's startin ' up again. That's the new owner's." Pinto dropped
Susie's reins to the ground
and came across the yard. "Here's Christie Kimball." He nodded at Christie. "Her family's goin ' to make this into a highway stop for that danged road when
they get it finished."
    "Christie"—now he spoke to her—"these folks are the Wildhorses I was talkin ' 'bout a while back. There's Lucas and Marina, Toliver and Libby."
    The Wildhorses were no longer
smiling. In stead
they had drawn together by their home on wheels. Lucas glanced from Christie to the station.
    "Maybe we'd better pull on, Pinto. Didn't hear about the change—"
    Just then the door opened and Father came out. Pinto again introduced the
newcomers. Father
held out his hand.
    "Glad to see new neighbors. Simpson told me that you planned
to spend the summer near here."
    "We did," Lucas answered. "But if the sta tion is starting up we can make
other plans—"
    "Nonsense!" Father said quickly. "You have a better right to be here
than the rest of us,
if the truth be told. Patricia," he called, "come and meet our
neighbors."
    So they had breakfast together, Mother and Mrs. Wildhorse working to prepare it. Christie eyed Libby and Toliver shyly.
She did not get up courage to speak until the Navajo girl knelt to admire Shan. The twins and
Neal had already drawn closer to see Toliver's knife in its beaded sheath, eagerly listening to him tell about the horse that had just been
transferred from their trailer to the
corral.
    "I never saw a cat like this before," Libby said.
    "His name's Thai Shan. He's Siamese and Burmese both," Christie
answered in a rush of words.
"That's a lot different from most cats. Look! He really likes you."
    Shan had stopped washing a paw to sniff at the hand Libby held out to him.
Then he rubbed his
head back and forth against her fingers.
    "Scratch him behind the ears and under his throat. That's what he likes
best," Christie sug gested.
    "I had a cat once," Libby volunteered. "But when we traveled
around so much she got