"Run, you little fool," said he. "Run."
He meant the girl and not the cow. He said it under his breath so she wouldn't hear, for he didn't want to lose the chance to do the rescue act and have something to tell us boys about afterward.
The girl was scared. Any one with half an eye could have seen that. The cow hadn't quite made up its mind what to do, and Skinny was beginning to be afraid that the girl would get across without giving him a chance to get in his work. Then what did she do but take off her sunbonnet and swing it around by one string, just to let the cow know that she wasn't afraid of any animal that walked on four legs.
She hadn't seen Skinny yet, on account of his being back of the cow. The cow didn't know he was there, either, until about four seconds afterward. It knew then, all right.
Maybe the cow wasn't mad when she saw that red sunbonnet whirling around in the air. She tore up the sod with her horns, gave a big snort, and started, head down.
Say, it was Skinny's busy day about that time. Before the cow could get fairly going he had crawled under the fence and run up behind, whirling his lasso around his head. Then he gave a yell like a wild Indian and threw it.
I think the yell scared the girl worse than the cow did. Anyhow, between the cow and the Indian she was scared stiff; just stood there paralyzed. And she didn't do any more singing.
If that lasso had caught there would have been a paralyzed cow all right. Skinny threw it in great shape. It went straight for her horns, but when he yelled she lifted her head suddenly. The loop struck against one of the horns, instead of going over it, and then fell off to the ground.
"Gee!" groaned Skinny. "Missed!"
There wasn't time to say anything more, and he knew that he would have to get mighty busy or there wouldn't be any rescuing done.