THE SPIRIT OF THE HERD 141 



reins hung on his straight neck, where his rider 

 had dropped them, as, yelling and firing over the 

 wild herd, he had given this horse the race to win, 

 to lose. 



They were riding the rim. Close on their left 

 bore down the flank of the herd, and on their 

 right, under their very feet, was a precipice, so 

 close that they felt its blackness — its three hun- 

 dred feet of fall I 



Suddenly they veered and went high in the 

 air, as a steer plunged headlong into a draw al- 

 most beneath their feet. They cleared the narrow 

 ravine, landed on bare rock and reeled on. 



A piercing, half-human bawl of terror told 

 where one of the animals had been crowded over. 

 Would the next leap carry them after him? Then 

 Wade found himself racing neck and neck with 

 a big white steer, which the horse, with marvelous 

 instinct, seemed to pick out from a bunch, and to 

 cling to, forcing him gradually ahead, till, cutting 

 him free from the bunch entirely, he bore him off 

 into the swishing sage. 



The steers coming on close behind followed 

 their leader, and in, after them, swung others. 

 The tide was turning from the rim. More and 



