272 SPORT, TRAVEL, AND ADVENTURE 



be ten or twelve years old, quite a celebrity, in fact, 

 on account of his unmanageableness, his independence 

 and boldness, which we had frequently seen and tried 

 to secure, but hitherto without success. He had a 

 chum, another outlaw, and they grazed in a particular 

 part of the range far from the haunts of their kin and 

 of man. Three of us undertook to make one more 

 effort to secure him. At the headquarters ranch we 

 gathered a herd of cattle and we proposed to try and 

 run the steer in that direction, where the other boys 

 would be on the look-out and would head him into the 

 round-up. Two of us were tb : go out and find the steer 

 and start him homewards ; I myself undertook to wait 

 about half-way, and when they came in sight to take 

 up the running and relieve them. They found him all 

 right about twenty miles out, turned him, and started 

 him. No difficulty so far. He ran with the ease of a 

 horse, and he was still going as he willed, without 

 having the idea of being coerced. Meantime I had 

 been taking it easy, lolling on the ground, my horse 

 beside me with bridle down. Suddenly the sound of 

 hoof-beats and a succession of yells warned me to 

 'prepare to receive cavalry.' Through a cleft in a 

 hill I could see the quarry coming at a mad gallop 

 directly for me, the two men pounding along behind. 

 I had just time and no more to tighten girth and get 

 into the saddle when he was on me, and my horse 

 being a bit drowsy, it needed sharp digging of the 

 spurs to get out of the way. I forget how many miles 

 the boys said they had already run him, but it was a 

 prodigious distance, and we were still eight miles from 

 the ranch. The steer was getting hot, it began to 

 suspect something, and to feel the pressure. As he 



