not reliable. The newer rifles helped immensely, of course, as did the fact that she was shooting inside a great tent, so there was very little windage to speak of. She finished the last of her targets, mounted Lebkuchen, and made a circuit of the arena, accepting the applause with smiles and waves.
Once outside, she dismounted and drank thirstily from the barrel and dipper left at the entrance. She felt drained, more drained than after her first performance!
“Nervous?” She looked behind her. Cody was sitting at ease in Lightning’s saddle.
“I am,” she admitted.
“Don’ be,” he advised. “You was dead right. I heerd how them folks shined right up t’the Injuns. Jes’ wait’ll they come on as heroes.” He nodded. “Now you better run’n’ get inter yer next costume.”
Cody was right; now came the Cowboy Camp and the “cattle stampede,” during which the cowboys got to show their riding, roping and “bulldogging” expertise. Then the Grand Quadrille, and she really needed to be in her dress and on her horse well before time for that. So far, there was nothing changed in the show except the order of the turns, but that was going to change.
The new arrangements meant that she had to wear her Indian dress under the Quadrille dress, which took some . . . arrangement. And she had to wear her black Indian wig as well, with the wig braids hastily pinned up. She was in place before the cowboys had finished their “round-up” of the cattle, joining the other riders, who were all Mexican. They grinned at her; she grinned back, and they all rode in to perform what was probably her most relaxed turn in the show.
But next, Kellermann announced the “Pageant of the Plains.” Cody had rearranged some of the turns into a kind of pantomime play. There was some music to set the mood as Kellermann made a little speech setting the scene and stalling for the time needed for the new costume change. And she had to scramble with the help of one of the Mexican ladies to wiggle out of the satin blouse and skirt, get the braids of her wig taken down, then turn to help Juanita make the same change. It made the men grin to see them “disrobing” right out in the open, but they didn’t say a word, perhaps because they knew Juanita was as handy with a knife as Giselle was with a rifle. She wasn’t the only one; the four Mexican men really did have to jump right out of their satin trousers and shirts and into buckskin leggings, and they didn’t seem to worry very much about modesty!
She was barely ready to join the procession into the arena for the Indian war dance.
Then she and the Indians, and “Indians,” left to great applause, and the “settlers” drove their “wagon train” into the arena and made camp. She ran off to the little changing tent changed into her embroidered skirt, shirt, boots and vest, and ran back. There were a few songs and a “square dance,” then came the change. It was bandits, not Indians, who attacked the wagons.
The bandits seemed to enjoy their role very much.
And then, it wasn’t the cavalry that ran off the bandits, it was the Indians! And how the spectators cheered when they did! As for the Indians, they certainly enjoyed themselves; their war cries were positively bloodcurdling, and they certainly used up their entire allotment of blank cartridges in the process of defeating the bandits. Giselle was in the wings, waiting for her next turn and peeking around the side of the curtain, and was deeply gratified to see the audience reaction.
Half the “Indians” pursued the bandits. The real Indians all stayed behind to see to the settlers. The cavalry (with Cody in the lead) turned up with the horses and the cattle, and the Pawnee pantomimed an elaborate peace pipe ceremony with both Captain Cody and the chief of the settlers. Then the entire group rode off out of the arena together, with cavalry and Indians riding point and rearguard for the settlers. Exactly as the readers of a Karl May book would have liked. And the cheers were deafening. Certainly much more enthusiastic than Giselle remembered hearing before.
Then came bull riding, which was quite wild and exciting, and after that, Texas Tom. But then it was the turn of the Indians to target-shoot from the backs of their galloping horses. Neither she nor Leading Fox participated in this.