16 THE LOG OF A TIMBER CRUISER 



careless ease, ducking perfunctorily whenever the 

 loop by any chance threatened to fall in the vicinity 

 of one of their, number. Whereat Horace would 

 carefully recoil his rope and swear mightily. He 

 was, he assured us, a "f earful blasphemer." 



After a time the unsuccessful roper decided that 

 his methods were too precipitate. He selected an 

 inoffensive-looking jinny with drooping ears and be- 

 gan a policy of stealthy and insidiously slow ad- 

 vances. He stalked his victim, infinitely cautious, 

 until within a few yards, then with a yell of triumph 

 rushed upon her and holding the noose in both hands 

 dropped it over her head. 



"I've got one! I've got one!" he shouted, much 

 as an angler hails the landing of a three-pound trout. 



But instead of driving his captive to the fire he 

 attempted to lead it, a procedure to which the burro 

 is notoriously averse. There was a brief but fervid 

 tug of war. Horace and the jinny, a few feet apart, 

 glared into each other's eyes and strove fiercely. 

 It was indubitably a draw, since neither moved. 



Wetherby, however, now thoroughly aroused, was 

 not to be denied. He looped his rope around the 

 burro's nose, shutting off her "wind,' ' and the strug- 

 gle began anew. Half suffocated, she advanced per- 

 force a few short steps; the rope slackened sud- 

 denly, and Horace stumbled and fell full length upon 

 his back. This manoeuvre, practically simultaneous 

 with the burro's forward movement, convinced the 

 alarmed youth that he was being attacked. He 



