d he felt the man
mount again. Then came rumbling in upon his tortured soul again the
insistent voice telling him to rebel further, and to keep on rebelling
until through sheer brute strength he had mastered these unnatural
things. With the grip on his ears released he once more gave heed to
this clamoring within.

He leaped straight up into the air. Returning to earth with
nerve-shattering shock, he whirled suddenly, pitched and bucked, tossed
and twisted, all in mad effort. But the weight clung fast. He whirled
again, and again leaped, leaped clear of the ground, returning to it
this time on stiffened legs. But he could not shake off the weight. He
flung across the corral, twisting, writhing, bucking; flung back
again--heart thumping, lungs shrieking for air, muscles wrenching and
straining; and again across, responding, and continuing to respond, to
the ringing voice within, like the king of kings that he was. But he
could not dislodge the weight.

"Great!" yelled an excited spectator.

"See that hoss sunfishin'!" burst out another.

"An' corkscrewin'!" added a third.

"Better 'n a outlaw!" amplified a fourth.

And now the first again: "Stay with him, Alex! I got two dollars--Oh,
hell!"--this disgustedly. "Come out o' that corner!" Then suddenly he
turned, face red as fire, and apologized to Helen. "I beg your pardon,
Miss Richards," he offered, meekly. But he turned back to the spectacle
and promptly forgot all else in his returning excitement. "Shoot it to
him, Alex!" he yelled. "Shoot it; shoot it! He's a helldinger, that
hoss!" Frenziedly he then yawped, cowboy fashion:
"Whe-e-e-o-o-o-yip-yip! Whe-e-e-o-o-o-yip-yip!"

Yet Helen--poor Helen!--had not heard. Holding her breath in tense fear,
eyes upon her pride fighting his fight of pride, half hopeful that he
would win, yet fearful of that very thing, she watched the strife of man
skill against brute strength, keyed up almost to snapping-point.

But her horse did not win. Neither did he lose. She saw him take up, one
after another, every trick known to those familiar with horses, and she
marveled greatly at his unexpected knowledge of things vicious. Along
one side of the inclosure, across the side adjacent to it, back along
the side opposite to the second, then forward along the first
again--thus round the corral--he writhed and twisted in mighty effort,
bucking and pitching and whirling and flinging, the while the sun rose
higher in the morning sky. Sp