"So that I shall have some time to look about me and pick up my duties," suddenly exclaimed Dudley, stretching his legs out and rubbing the back of his knees. Two days in the saddle had stiffened his limbs, and the unaccustomed exercise had chafed the skin from his legs. He felt sore and uncomfortable, and many a time on this last day he would have dismounted had he not been determined to master his horse and do exactly what Mr. Blunt did.
"Stiff and sore?" asked his employer with a laugh. "Yes, I have seen that. You managed to get across your horse at the landing stage in a very creditable manner. Not that you deceived the gauchos. They are too knowing for that. They saw, of course, that you had been in a saddle before. But even if they had been children they would have guessed that you had had very little practice. You see, once a horseman always one. Nearly six months later I return to this country and fall into its ways as if I had been away for only a day. My saddle comes as easy to me as a chair does to you, no doubt. My feet find the stirrups at once, and if there were need I could ride without them. Watch the gauchos when they return with our pack animals. They are amongst the finest horsemen. I have known, and there are few of the rough beasts that we capture from the pampas that they cannot ride after some little difficulty has been got over. They scarcely touch the stirrup, but place a hand on the neck of the beast and vault into the saddle. That's what I want you to practise, Dudley. The men will hardly reach here for a week, for they have a large amount of stuff to bring, and will come very slowly. Take your horse at dawn and make a wide circle round the rancho. Don't be afraid of riding off the place, for the land for fifteen miles round here belongs to me, though there is not a fence or a boundary stone to show where the property comes to an end. Get some food from Francia, the cook, take a shotgun with you, and spend the whole day in the saddle. Yes, yes, I know that you are sore," he went on, indulging in another smile at Dudley's expense, as the latter stroked his knees again. "I will give you something which will harden the skin, and to-morrow night you will be quite comfortable. Now, lad, how do you think you will like the life?"