slipped tight he had thrown it off. Then he hid behind the
branches.

"I'm going farther up," said Jones.

"Be quick," yelled Jim.

Jones evidently had that in mind. When he reached the middle fork of
the cedar, he stood erect and extended the noose of his lasso on the
point of his pole. Tom, with a hiss and snap, struck at it savagely.
The second trial tempted the lion to saw the rope with his teeth. In
a flash Jones withdrew the pole, and lifted a loop of the slack rope
over the lion's ears.

"Pull!" he yelled.

Emett, at the other end of the lasso, threw his great strength into
action, pulling the lion out with a crash, and giving the cedar such a
tremendous shaking that Jones lost his footing and fell heavily.

Thrilling as the moment was, I had to laugh, for Jones came up out of
a cloud of dust, as angry as a wet hornet, and made prodigious leaps
to get out of the reach of the whirling lion.

"Look out!" he bawled.

Tom, certainly none the worse for his tumble, made three leaps, two at
Jones, one at Jim, which was checked by the short length of the rope
in Emett's hands. Then for a moment, a thick cloud of dust enveloped
the wrestling lion, during which the quick-witted Jones tied the free
end of the lasso to a sapling.

"Dod gast the luck!" yelled Jones reaching for another lasso. "I
didn't mean for you to pull him out of the tree. Now he'll get loose
or kill himself."

When the dust cleared away, we discovered our prize stretched out at
full length and frothing at the mouth. As Jones approached, the lion
began a series of evolutions so rapid as to be almost indiscernible to
the eye. I saw a wheel of dust and yellow fur. Then came a thud and
the lion lay inert.

Jones pounced upon him and loosed the lasso around his neck.

"I think he's done for, but maybe not. He's breathing yet. Here, help
me tie his paws together. Look out! He's coming to!"

The lion stirred and raised his head. Jones ran the loop of the second
lasso around the two hind paws and stretched the lion out. While in
this helpless position and with no strength and hardly any breath left
in him the lion was easy to handle. With Emett's help Jones quickly
clipped the sharp claws, tied the four paws together, took off the
neck lasso and substituted a collar and chain.

"There, that's one. He'll come to all right," said Jones. "But we are
lucky. Emett, never pull another lion clear out of a tree. Pull him over
a limb and hang him ther