“It must have been funny, then, to make you act like that so long after it happened,” remarked Bob. “Tell me about it, Frank.”
“That’s why I can laugh at it now, because it was several years ago,” the other went on. “At the time, I tell you it was no joke. You see, I had jumped on a horse one of the boys was breaking in. The beast was a little ugly still, and I had a hackamore in place of a bridle. When he acted too mean I’d give that a twist, and the cruel rope caught his jaw in a way to bring him to his senses.”
“I know what you mean,” remarked Bob; “though I’ve never handled a hackamore myself. Go on, Frank.”
“Well, as we whooped along, it happened that the beast took a notion to turn sudden-like, and put into a bunch of trees. And Bob, before I could say Jack Robinson I found myself snatched right off that horse by a crotched limb that hung low down. The cayuse ran off with me kicking my heels in the air!”
“Just like Absalom was treated so long ago, eh, Frank?”
“Well, I wasn’t caught up by my hair, because I wear it short; but I did get caged in that crotch so it took me a long time to wiggle out. I never dared tell the boys about it. Say, they’d have joked me half to death over it. But the shock of being snatched right off the back of my mount was just as bad as what you just went through with. I’ve never forgotten my feelings as I swung up there, kicking to beat the band, and waving my arms, but unable to help myself for ten long minutes.”
“And I suppose I’ll remember that queer sensation I had as I felt myself being pulled out of my saddle; and in that flash reckoned it must be some of those reckless cattle rustlers after my good old Domino. Whew! excuse me from another experience along that line, Frank.”
“This is a fine place to spend an hour at noon,” remarked the other, as he lay back to stretch his legs; for there is always more or less of a cramped sensation during a long horseback ride.
“And with that warm sun it makes a fellow feel sleepy,” added Bob. “If I happen to drop off into a little doze, please don’t wake me up too sudden. I might think I was fast in the noose of another rope, and strike out, reckless like.”
“I’ll keep my hands off you for some little time,” declared Frank; “for I can see that you’re marked ‘dangerous,’ like a box of dynamite at the mines.”