ignored.




CHAPTER XVI

NEWS AND A THREAT


A stampede of mad cattle is like the charge of a blind and insane
monster. River, nor ravine, nor any other obstruction can halt the mad
rush of the horned beasts. They pile right into it, and only if it is
too steep or too high do they split and go around.

A stampede of horses is different in that the equine brain appreciates
danger more clearly than that of the sullen steer. Behind a cattle
stampede is often left an aftermath of dead and crippled beasts. But
horses are more canny. A wild horse seldom breaks a leg or suffers other
injury. It is not often that the picked skeleton of a horse is found in
the hills.

This herd belonging to the Hubbell ranch charged through the night
directly across the trail along which the moving picture company was
riding. Those on horseback could probably escape; but the motor-cars
could not be driven very rapidly over the rough road.

The girls screamed as the cars bumped and jounced. Out of the darkness
appeared the up-reared heads and tossing manes of the ponies. There were
possibly three hundred in the herd, and they ran _en masse,_ snorting