Buckin' the air

In Short

This brisk, humorous short story follows two rodeo riders, Bearcat Gibson and his narrator partner, as they flee a small-town riot by boarding a derelict airplane. What begins as a desperate bid to reach a competition turns into an accidental, cross-country wrecking spree. By blending the rugged vernacular of the American West with the burgeoning wonder of 1920s aviation, the book captures a unique moment of cultural transition. It remains a spirited piece of pulp fiction, celebrated for its relentless pace and the absurdity of its protagonists' misadventures.

The Story

The tale opens in Eldora, where our two protagonists are celebrating a hard-won victory at the local rodeo. Their joy is short-lived; a misunderstanding with the local marshal—a man with a prominent pinto mustache and a penchant for canes—escalates into a brawl. After the cowboys shove the marshal into a shop window filled with delicate lingerie and wax mannequins, they find themselves pursued by both the law and a furious shopkeeper, known as "Battling Mary," who is armed with a prosthetic display leg.

Desperate to escape, the pair hitches a ride with two struggling aviators in a dilapidated car. The men lead them to a nearby pasture where a rusted, patched-together airplane sits, waiting for a paying passenger. While the narrator remains skeptical of the machine—which looks like a "busted kite"—Bearcat sees a golden opportunity to reach their next rodeo in San Dominick. Despite the pilot’s admission that he is unsure if there is enough fuel to make the flight, the cowboys climb aboard, spurred on by the sight of the marshal and the vengeful Battling Mary closing in on the pasture.

As the plane takes off, the reality of the situation hits the narrator; they are aloft in a machine that is sputtering almost immediately. The engine fails mid-flight, and the pilot initiates a forced landing that is more of a controlled catastrophe. The plane descends like a "wild bounding antelope," carving a path of destruction through the countryside. They collide with a greenhouse, shatter tombstones in a cemetery, mow down a watermelon patch, and scatter a flock of geese, all while losing pieces of the plane to various barns and henhouses.

The flight concludes with a violent crash into a rocky creek bank, leaving both men unconscious. The story ends in a hospital, where the two cowboys awake to find the law and the aggrieved shopkeeper waiting to claim the prize money they won at the rodeo. Despite the ruin of their finances and their battered physical state, the narrator finds himself laughing at the sheer, improbable absurdity of their journey. A sympathetic nurse watches over them as they confront the consequences of their wild aerial escape, marking the final, ironic stop on their trip.

How It Unfolds

A celebration interrupted The cowboys win big at the Eldora rodeo, but their victory party turns into a public disturbance. Their refusal to surrender to the local marshal results in a massive pile-up in a store window.

The aerial gamble Fleeing the marshal and the indomitable Battling Mary, the pair encounters two struggling aviators. They decide that a flight to their next rodeo is safer than facing the angry mob, despite the plane’s clearly broken condition.

The takeoff The narrator realizes too late that the plane is held together by hay-wire and hope. They soar above the town just as their pursuers reach the field, trading the danger of the street for the peril of the sky.

The long descent When the fuel runs dry, the plane begins a terrifying, low-altitude odyssey across the landscape. The landing becomes a demolition derby that consumes greenhouses, cemeteries, and livestock alike.

The final tally The pair wakes up in a hospital bed, physically ruined but mentally intact. They watch as their hard-earned prize money is handed over to pay for the damages caused by their flight.

The People

The Narrator is a cautious, observant cowboy who possesses a vivid imagination for potential disasters. He approaches the world with a healthy dose of skepticism and a wry sense of humor, though he is easily led by his partner. By the end, he realizes that he is a part of a life that defies logic.

Bearcat Gibson is the irrepressible, stubborn engine of the pair’s chaos. He is a master of irrational persuasion, convinced that he understands aviation physics despite having no evidence to support his theories. His impulsive decisions dictate their fate, yet he remains entirely unbothered by the absurdity of their situation.

The Marshal serves as the primary antagonist, defined by his "diving Adam’s apple" and his desperate need to save face during an election year. He is a symbol of small-town authority who finds himself outmaneuvered and humiliated by the cowboys.

Battling Mary is the force of nature who pursues the men with a severed display leg. She represents the tangible, physical consequences of their recklessness, ensuring that the cowboys cannot escape the mess they made in Eldora.

In Its Own Voice

"The marshal’s gasping form shot across the sidewalk like a flying comet and plowed its way through a plate-glass window which protected a display of elegant female lingerie."

The narrator describes the inciting incident that forces their flight from Eldora.

"I have one happy thought, and that’s what I will do to Bearcat Gibson for getting me into such a predicament."

While suspended in the air, the narrator contemplates the irony of his current situation.

What It's Really About

At its heart, this is a story about the collision between the dying myth of the American West and the chaotic, modern mechanical age. The cowboys represent a vanishing era of horse-bound freedom, while the airplane—the "tin whipporwill"—symbolizes a future that is fragile, unreliable, and prone to breaking. The book poses a subtle question: what happens when men used to the simple, brutal physics of the rodeo are confronted by the complex, lethal physics of early aviation? The answer is a chaotic, comic destruction where the old world and the new world crash together, leaving the protagonists to reconcile their survival with the total loss of their status and security.

Why Read It Today

Readers will enjoy this book if they appreciate the dry, deadpan humor of early 20th-century pulp fiction. It reads like an extended tall tale, moving with the breakneck speed of a slapstick film. The language is rich with colorful, period-specific Western slang, which brings a rhythmic, musical quality to the narration. However, a modern reader should be prepared for the casual, often dismissive attitude toward property damage and the rough-and-tumble violence of the era. The dialect is thick and intentional, reflecting the "cowboy" persona of the time rather than any attempt at historical realism. It is a brief, intense experience that captures the exhilaration of "buckin’ the air" before flight became a mundane or regulated activity. What stays with the reader is the image of the two cowboys, battered and broke in a hospital bed, still laughing at the absurdity of their own bad luck. It is a reminder that in the grand scheme of life’s adventures, the journey—no matter how disastrous—is often the only thing left to talk about.