THE COWARDLY COUGAR 



of the rock, where he balanced dizzily, whirling 

 his lariat until Miller again stopped the ma- 

 chine, saying he guessed it was no use. 



We lost our third horse. He went into the 

 cage more easily than the first two, and there- 

 fore less care was taken in tying him close. 

 Just before the start he began to plunge and, 

 in a sudden frenzy of terror, he managed, as a 

 result of our carelessness, to get partially over 

 the bars in front of him and fetch up, head 

 down, in which position he threatened to 

 strangle, for the ropes at his neck, although 

 they prevented him from sliding out of the 

 open end of the cage, also shut off his wind. 



Lauzon leaped to the rescue, but the ani- 

 mal's struggles broke the cage loose from its 

 moorings and it shot out from the landing. 

 Bert was as quick to appreciate the perils of 

 an aerial trip in a cage with a struggling horse 

 as were we, and even as we yelled at him to 

 jump he quitted the car. Immediately below 

 him was a steep slope of broken rock, the foot 

 of which was swept by the rushing river. Out 

 over this, man, horse, and car had begun their 

 trip. Bert landed on a thin knife edge of 

 rock, slipped, but caught himself with his 

 hands, steadied himself, and climbed back to 



159 



