le Captain Jack and obey
the impulse of the moment. Carolyn June's words, spoken of the Gold Dust
maverick: "It would be fun to see her run!" and uttered lightly and in a
spirit of coquetry that morning when she teased him to enter the outlaw
filly in the race against the Thunderbolt horse from the Vermejo, came
to his mind. The selfishness of the plea maddened him. She cared nothing
for the price in effort--the straining muscles, the panting breath--the
agony the beautiful mare must pay to defeat the black wonder from the
other part of the range. She wanted only to see the maverick run--to
coax him to yield and run the filly merely to please the cheap vanity of
her sex! No doubt also she counted on entertainment when, to-morrow, he
would ride the outlaw for the first time. It would be a kind of
show--the battle for mastery between himself and the high-bred untamed
mare. The whole bunch--Old Heck, Parker, Ophelia, Carolyn June, the
cowboys--yes, even that damned Chink--unquestionably would be crowded
about the corral to watch the fear and pain of the maverick as she
learned her first hard lesson of servitude to man! They would laugh at
her frenzied efforts to throw him.

He would fool them. He would ride the filly to-night!

He went to the shed, slipped his legs into the worn leather chaps, took
saddle, bridle, blanket and rope and returned to the corral.

Stepping inside he closed the gate behind him.

Captain Jack came to him and nosed at his shoulder.

"No, Little Man," the Ramblin' Kid said gently, "this ain't your turn.
You can go with us though, if you want to!" he laughed.

The Gold Dust maverick stood, half-afraid, at the other side of the
corral. She had not yet wholly conquered her dread of him. She did not,
however, offer to fight as she had done that morning when Skinny entered
the enclosure.

The Ramblin' Kid spoke to the filly and, as she began to move shyly
away, with one toss threw the loop over her head. The instant the mare
felt the rope she stopped and stood trembling a moment, then came
straight up to him. She was "rope-wise." The experience at the North
Springs the night he caught her, and when she had, three separate times,
been cruelly thrown by this same rope; had taught the Gold Dust maverick
the power that lay in those pliant strands.

She flinched from the touch of the blanket. The Ramblin' Kid worked
easily, carefully, but in absolute confidence, with her. As he
cautiously saddled th