AMONG THE COWBOYS 273 



came down on me he looked like a mountain ; his eyes 

 were bright, he was blowing" a bit, and looked particu- 

 larly nasty. When in such a condition it does not 

 do to overpress, as, if you do, the chances are the 

 steer will wheel round, challenge you, and get on the 

 fight. Much circumspection is needed. He will cer- 



^N&f 



tainly charge you if you get too near, and on a tired 

 horse he would have the advantage. So you must 

 e'en halt and wait not get down, that would be fatal- 

 wait five minutes, it may be, ten minutes, or a quarter 

 of an hour, till the gentleman cools off a bit. Then 

 you start him off again, not so much driving him now 

 he won't be driven but guiding his course towards 

 the herd. In this case we succeeded beautifully, though 

 at the end he had to be raced once more. And so h;e 

 was finally headed into the round-up. But, dear me I 

 he only entered it from curiosity. No round-up for him, 

 indeed ! No corral, and no going to market ! He 

 entered the herd, took a look round, a sniff and a 

 smell, and was off again out at the other side as if 

 the devil was after him, and indeed he wasn't far 

 wrong. The chase was abandoned, and his Majesty 

 was doomed later on to a rifle bullet wherever found. 

 Our principal, and indeed only, corral at that time 

 was of solid stone walls, a ' blind ' corral, and most 

 difficult to get any kind of cattle into. While pushing 

 them in each man had his ' rope ' down ready to at 

 once drop it over the horns of any animal attempting 

 to break back. Thus half our force would sometimes 

 be seen tying down these truants, which were left 

 lying on the ground to cool their tempers till we had 

 time to attend to them ; and it is a fact that some of 

 these individuals, especially females, died where they 



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