32 ON THE FBONTIEB. 



tough as shoe-leather, vicious as tough, and only his tongue 

 and a portion of his hump eatable. But that one insulted 

 us ; he stopped, pawed the ground, lashed his tail, and 

 finally bellowed at us ; there was no standing that. Giving 

 our mustangs a taste of the steel, we dashed at him. 

 Instead of standing his ground like the brave defiant monster 

 he tried to look, he incontinently turned tail and fled ; going 

 with long powerful bounds, that plainly showed no sudden 

 rush would directly close on him. A waiting race had to be 

 made to win ; so, getting our weight well forward, and 

 taking a steady pull on the snaffle reins, we settled down 

 into a long swinging canter. 



A rnile or two, perhaps more we were not then taking 

 much notice of time or distance was soon ridden, though 

 we had not increased our pace, for we were waiting for a 

 stretch of level ground over which to do so. Suddenly the 

 bull changed his course to the right ; either he had caught 

 a glimpse of some of the herd in that direction, and 

 expected to find safety with numbers something in his 

 immediate front had alarmed him or possibly, he had 

 winded danger from his left ; but to the right he turned 

 his flight. My side that. First turn for me. Now for 

 first blood ! A fine chance for a cut off presents itself. The 

 ground is tolerably good. I settle well down in the saddle 

 for the contest, gather my nag together, and force the 

 running. 



Old bull instantly notices my change of pace, appre- 

 ciates the disadvantage to him of my having the cut off; 

 but, bull like, being determined to go the way he wanted, 

 tears along on it at full tilt. It is a Derby finish. My 



