ing on. She saw Bud mount the fence near where the
two Shannon boys were sitting, though hardly able to maintain their
seats because of their laughter.

"Going to try it again, Bud?" asked Dick.

"Surest thing you know!" snapped back the boy rancher.

"Wait till I go in and get you a bit of fly paper!" suggested Nort.

"Fly paper! What for?" demanded Bud.

"So you can stick on!"

"Ho! Ho! That's pretty good!" shouted such a loud voice that Nell
would have covered her ears only she knew, from past experience, that
Yellin' Kid did not keep up his strident tones long. But this time he
went on, like an announcer at a hog-calling contest, with: "Fly paper!
Ho! Ho! So Bud can stick! That's pretty good!"

"Go ahead! Be nasty!" commented Bud good-naturedly as he climbed up
the top rail and perched himself there in standing position while he
looked over the dusty corral that was now a conglomeration of restless
cow ponies. "But I'll do it yet!"

"I wonder what in the world Bud is trying to do?" asked Nell of herself.

She learned a moment later. For Bud, after balancing himself on the
top rail, looked across the corral to where Old Billee Dobb was holding
a restless pony, and the lad called:

"Turn him loose, Billee!"

"Here he comes! All a-lather!" shouted the veteran cow puncher, as he
slapped his hat on the flank of the pony and sent it galloping around
the inside fence toward the waiting youth. "It's now or never, Bud!"

"It's going to be now!" shouted Nell's brother.

Fascinated, as any true girl of the west would be, by the spirited
scene, Nell saw Bud poise himself for a leap. Then she understood what
was about to take place.

"He's going to jump from the top rail of the fence and try to land on
the back of the pony when it gallops past him!" murmured Nell.
"Regular circus trick that is! I wonder if he can do it? But from the
looks of him I should say he'd already fallen two or three times.
Billee gave him a fast one this round."

Nell referred to the horse. And it was characteristic of her that she
was not in the least afraid of what might be the consequences of her
brother attempting the aforesaid "circus trick." Nell was as eager to
see what would happen, as were any of the cowboys perched on the corral
fence, and in furtherance of her desire she drew nearer.

By this time the pony, started on its way by the slapping from Billee
Dobb's hat, was running fast. And its speed was furth