at sea, wing broken, crippled in business. Afoot on the plains is the
sum of earthly terrors. Even Jake realized this, and ere his foggy wits
had fully felt the shock he sighted the steed afar on a flat, grazing
and stepping ever farther from the camp. At a second glance Jake noticed
that the Horse was trailing the rope. If the rope had been left behind
Jake would have known that it was hopeless to try to catch him; he would
have finished his den-hunt and found the little Coyotes. But, with the
trailing rope, there was a good chance of catching the Horse; so Jake
set out to try.

Of all the maddening things there is nothing worse than to be almost,
but not quite, able to catch your Horse. Do what he might, Jake could
not get quite near enough to seize that short rope, and the Horse led
him on and on, until at last they were well on the homeward trail.

Now Jake was afoot anyhow, so seeing no better plan, he set out to
follow that Horse right back to the Ranch.

But when about seven miles were covered Jake succeeded in catching him.
He rigged up a rough _jaquima_ with the rope and rode barebacked in
fifteen minutes over the three miles that lay between him and the
Sheep-ranch, giving vent all the way to his pent-up feelings in cruel
abuse of that Horse. Of course it did not do any good, and he knew that,
but he considered it was heaps of satisfaction. Here Jake got a meal
and borrowed a saddle and a mongrel Hound that could run a trail, and
returned late in the afternoon to finish his den-hunt. Had he known it,
he now could have found it without the aid of the cur, for it was really
close at hand when he took up the feather-trail where he last had left
it. Within one hundred yards he rose to the top of the little ridge;
then just over it, almost face to face, he came on a Coyote, carrying in