r up," observed Alice to her
sister. "It's our only safety--to remain upright. And we might try to
frighten the cattle."

"How?" asked Ruth.

"Let's shout and yell--and wave things at them. We've got parasols.
Let's wave them--open and shut them quickly. That will make flashes of
color, and it may frighten the steers. Come on, girls--it's worth
trying!"

The others fell in with her plan at once, and the spectacle was
presented of four young ladies, perched on a hill, toward which a
thousand or more steers were rushing, waving their parasols, opening and
shutting them and yelling at the top of their voices.

"Are--are they stopping any?" asked Miss Pennington, anxiously.

"I--I'm afraid not," faltered Alice.

And then, just in the nick of time, there came riding around one side
of the stampeding cattle a group of the Rocky Ranch cowboys. They had
succeeded in reaching the head of the bunch of steers, and now had a
chance to turn the excited cattle to one side--to mill them again.

"Hi--yi!" yelled the cowboys.

"Hi--yi!"

Bang! Bang! boomed the revolvers.

"Shoot right in their faces!" cried Buster Jones, as he fired point
blank at the steers.

Most of the cowboys had blank cartridges in their pistols for the
purpose of making a noise. But others had real bullets, and with these
some of the wildest of the steers were killed. It was absolutely
necessary to do this to stop the rush.

And this was just what was needed, for the fallen cattle tripped up
others and soon there was a mound of the living bodies on the ground,
offering an effectual barrier to those behind.

The cattle were now almost at the hill where the four young ladies stood
in fear and trembling, but with the advent of the cowboys new hope had
come to them.

"Now we're all right!" cried Alice, joyfully.

"How do you know?" Miss Pennington wanted to know.

"You'll see. They'll stop the stampede," was the confident answer.

And this was done. With the piling up of some of the steers into an
almost inextricable mass, and the dividing of the other bunch just as
they reached the foot of the mound, the danger to the girls was over.

In two streams of living animals the steers passed on either side of the
little hill, and after running a short distance farther they came to a
halt, being taken in charge by other cowboys who rode up from the rear
on fresh horses.

Other horses were brought up for the girls to ride, as they were too
weak and "