ked his
horse to the rise and for some fantastic reason decided to rope the
cow. He swung his rope. It fell true--in fact, too true, for it
encircled the animal's neck and looped tight just where the neck joins
the shoulders. He took a turn of the rope around the saddle horn. At
last he had mastered the knack of the thing! Why, it was as easy as
rolling pie-crust! He was about to wonder what he was going to do
next, when the cow--which happened to be a large and active
steer--humped itself and departed for realms unknown.

With the perversity of inanimate objects the rope flipped in a loop
around Sundown's foot. The horse bucked, just once, and Sundown was
launched on a new and promising career. The ground shot beneath him.
He clutched wildly at the bunch-grass, secured some, and took it along
with him. Chance, who always accompanied Sundown, raced alongside,
enjoying the novelty of the thing. He barked and then shot ahead,
nipping at the steer's heels, and this did not add to his master's
prospects of ultimate survival. Sundown shouted for help when he
could, which was not often. Startled prairie-dogs disappeared in their
holes as the mad trio shot past. The steer, becoming warmed up to his
work, paid little attention to direction and much to speed. That a
band of sheep were grazing ahead made no difference to the charging
steer. He plunged into the band. Sundown dimly saw a sea of sheep
surge around him and break in storm-tossed waves of wool on either
side. He heard some one shout. Then he fainted.

When he again beheld the sun, a girl was kneeling beside him, a girl
with dark, troubled eyes. She offered him wine from a wicker jug. He
drank and felt better.

"Are you hurt badly?" she asked.

"Am--I--all here?" queried Sundown.

"I guess so. You seem to be."

"Was anybody else killed in the wreck?"

The girl smiled. "You're feeling better. Let me help you to sit up."

Sundown for the moment felt disinclined to move. He was in fact pretty
thoroughly used up. "Say, did he win?" he queried finally.

"Who?"

"Me dog, Chance. I got the start at first, but he kind of got ahead
for a spell."

"I don't know. Chance is right behind you. He's out of breath."

"Huh! Reckon I'm out more'n that. He's in luck this trip."

"How did it happen?"

"That's what I'm wonderin', lady. And say, would you be so kind as to
tell me which way is north?"

Despite her solicitude for the recumbent