quirt his horse
across the crick!"

"Isn't it the ford?"

"I should say not! It looks like the place but it ain't--he's
mixed--he'll be in a jack-pot quick if he don't back out. Onct his horse
stumbles it'll never git its feet in there."

They rode close enough to hear Canby cursing as he whipped.

"Look at him punish the poor brute! See him use that quirt and cut him
with his spurs! Say, that makes me sick to see a good horse abused!"
Pinkey cried, indignantly.

Wallie said nothing but watched with hard, narrowed eyes.

"I s'pose I'd oughta yell and warn him," finally Pinkey said,
reluctantly.

"You let out a yip and I'll slat you across the face!"

Pinkey stared at the words--at Wallie's voice--at an expression he never
had seen before.

"I know how you feel, but it's pure murder to let him git into that
crick."

"Will you shut up?" Wallie looked at him with steely eyes, and there was
a glint in them that silenced Pink.

He waited, wonderingly, to see what it all meant. The battle between man
and horse continued while they watched from the high bank. In terrified
protest the animal snorted, reared, whirled, while the rider plied the
quirt mercilessly and spurred. Finally the sting of leather, the pain of
sharp steel, and the stronger will won out, and the trembling horse
commenced to take the water.

Pinkey muttered, as, fascinated, he looked on:

"I've no idea that he knows enough to quit his horse on the down-stream
side. He'll wash under, tangle up, and be drowned before we get a chanst
to snake him out. He's a gone goslin' right now."

Cautiously, a few inches to a step, the horse advanced.

"There! He's in the boulders! Watch him flounder! Look at him slip--he's
hit the current! Good-night--he's down--no, he's goin' to ketch himself!
Watch him fight! Good ol' horse--good ol' horse!" Pinkey was beside
himself with excitement now. "He's lost his feet--he's swimmin'--strikin'
out for the shore--too swift, and the fool don't know enough to give him
his head!"

They followed along the bank as the current swept horse and rider down.

"He swims too high--he's playin' out--there's so much mud he'll choke up
quick. It'll soon be over now." Pinkey's face wore a queer,
half-frightened grin. "Fifty yards more and----"

Wallie commenced to uncoil his saddle rope.

"You goin' to drag him out?"

Wallie made no answer but touched his horse and galloped until he was
ahead of Canby and the drowning hors