Suddenly the yells of appreciation gave place to gasps even from the
initiated, as the rage-crazed animal leaped high into the air and
throwing himself backward, crashed to the ground squarely upon his
back. As the dust cloud lifted the Texan stood beside him, one foot
still in the stirrup, slashing right and left across the struggling
brute's ears with his braided quirt. The outlaw leaped to his feet
with the cowboy in the saddle and the crowd went wild. Then with the
enthusiasm at its height, the man jerked at his hackamore knot, and the
next moment the horse's head was free and the rider rode "on his
balance" without the sustaining grip on the hackamore rope to hold him
firm in his saddle. The sudden loosening of the rawhide thongs gave
the outlaw new life. He sunk his head and redoubled his efforts, as
with quirt in one hand and hackamore in the other the cowboy lashed his
shoulders while his spurs raked the animal to a bloody foam. Slower
and slower the outlaw fought, pausing now and then to scream shrilly as
with bared teeth and blazing eyes he turned this way and that, sucking
the air in great blasts through his blood-dripping nostrils.

At last he was done. Conquered. For a moment he stood trembling in
every muscle, and as he sank slowly to his knees, the Texan stepped
smiling from the saddle.

"Sometime, Slim," he grinned as he reached for his tobacco and papers,
"if you-all can get holt of a horse that ain't plumb gentle, I'll show
you a real ride."

All about was the confusion attendant to the breaking-up of the crowd.
Men yelled at horses as they hitched them to the wagons. Pedestrians,
hurrying with their tickets toward the saloons, dodged from under the
feet of cowboys' horses, and the flat became a tangle of wagons with