om the grasses. A sudden chirk,
chirk, chirk, rose all about me. We were in the very centre of a
prairie-dog town, but before I could formulate in my mind the
probabilities of holes and broken legs, the chirk, chirk, chirking had
fallen astern. Brown Jug had skipped and dodged successfully.

We were approaching the cattle. They ran stubbornly and well,
evidently unwilling to be turned until the latest possible moment. A
great rage at their obstinacy took possession of us both. A broad
shallow wash crossed our way, but we plunged through its rocks and
boulders recklessly, angered at even the slight delay they
necessitated. The hardland on the other side we greeted with joy.
Brown Jug extended himself with a snort.

Suddenly a jar seemed to shake my very head loose. I found myself
staring over the horse's head directly down into a deep and precipitous
gully, the edge of which was so cunningly concealed by the grasses as
to have remained invisible to my blurred vision. Brown Jug, however,
had caught sight of it at the last instant, and had executed one of
the wonderful stops possible only to a cow-pony.

But already the cattle had discovered a passage above, and were
scrambling down and across. Brown Jug and I, at more sober pace, slid
off the almost perpendicular bank, and out the other side.

A moment later we had headed them. They whirled, and without the
necessity of any suggestion on my part Brown Jug turned after them, and
so quickly that my stirrup actually brushed the ground.

After that we were masters. We chased the cattle far enough to start
them well in the proper direction, and then pulled down to a walk in
order to get a breath of air.

But now we noticed another band, back on the ground over which we had
just come, doubling through in the direction of Mount Graham. A hard
run set them to rights. We turned. More had poured out from the
hills. Bands were crossing everywhere, ahead and behind. Brown Jug
and I went to work.

Being an indivisible unit, we could chase only one bunch at a time;
and, while we were after one, a half dozen others would be taking
advantage of our preoccupation. We could not hold our own. Each run
after an escaping bunch had to be on a longer diagonal. Gradually we
were forced back, and back, and back; but still we managed to hold the
line unbroken. Never shall I forget the dash and clatter of that
morning. Neither Brown Jug nor I thought for a moment of s