an had sent some guardian devil to choose for us an act of folly,
he could not have chosen better than I. It is possible that the cattle
would have taken the line of the leaders against the current if we had
kept out of the river, but when they saw our horses they became
bewildered, lost their sense of direction and drifted down into the
eddy,--a great tangle of fighting cattle.

We swung down-stream, and taking a long circle came in below the drove
as it drifted around in the outer orbit of the eddy. The crowd of cattle
swam past, butting each other, and churning the water under their
bellies, led by a half-blood Aberdeen-Angus steer with a ring in his
nose. Half-way around we met Ump. He was a terrible creature. His shirt
was in ribbons, and his hair was matted to his head. He was trying to
force the Bay Eagle into the mass of cattle, and he was cursing like a
fiend.

I have already said that his mare knew more than any other animal in the
Hills. She dodged here and there like a water rat, slipped in among the
cattle and shot out when they swung together. On any other horse the
hunchback would have been crushed to pulp.

We joined him and tried to drive a wedge through the great tangle to
split it in half, Jud and the huge Cardinal for a centre. We got
half-way in and were flung off like a plank.

We floated down into the rim of the eddy below the cattle, spread out,
and endeavoured to force the drove up stream. We might as well have
ridden against a floating log-jam. The mad, bellowing steers swam after
their leader, moving in toward the vortex of the eddy. The half-blood
Aberdeen-Angus, whom the cattle seemed to follow, was now on the inner
border of the drove, the tangle of steers stretched in a circle around
him. It was clear that in a very few minutes he would reach the centre,
the mass of cattle would crowd down on him, and the whole bunch would go
to the bottom. We determined to make another effort to break through
this circle, and if possible capture the half-blood and force him out
toward the shore. A more dangerous undertaking could not be easily
imagined.

The chances of driving this steer out were slight if we should ever
reach him. The possibility of forcing a way in was remote, and if we
succeeded in penetrating to the centre of the jam and failed to break
it, we should certainly be wedged in and crushed. If Ump's head had been
cool, I do not think he would ever have permitted me to join in such
ma