The Pacing Mustang 



colt, now a vigorous, young horse, rising three, 

 was beginning to be talked of. 



Antelope Springs is in the middle of a great 

 level plain. When the water is high it spreads 

 into a small lake with a belt of sedge around it ; 

 when it is low there is a wide flat of black mud, 

 glistening white with alkali in places, and the 

 spring a water-hole in the middle. It lias no 

 flow or outlet and yet is fairly good water, the 

 only drinking-place for many miles. 



This flat, or prairie as it would be called far- 

 ther north, was the favorite feeding-ground of 

 the Black Stallion, but it was also the pasture 

 of many herds of range horses and cattle. 

 Chiefly interested was the ' L cross F ' outfit. 

 Foster, the manager and part owner, was a man 

 of enterprise. He believed it would pay to 

 handle a better class of cattle and horses on 

 the range, and one of his ventures was ten half- 

 blooded mares, tall, clean-limbed, deer-eyed 

 creatures, that made the scrub cow -ponies look 

 like pitiful starvelings of some degenerate and 

 quite different species. 



One of these was kept stabled for use, but 

 the nine, after the weaning of their colts, 



233 



Lf 



