In the meanwhile Joe Jackson and his men, followed by Jack and the others, were doing their best to get the cattle to turn back to the point from which they had started. The best herd riders were circling the edge of the rushing animals, shouting at the top of their lungs and firing their pistols. But so far this demonstration had had little effect.
“Oh, Jack! do you think they’ll be run down?” gasped Randy.
“I hope not.”
“They’re on a pair of good horses; they ought to be able to outrun the cattle,” came from Gif.
“Don’t be so sure of that,” cried Spouter. “A mad steer can go some, believe me.”
“Who ever thought they would start off like that?” went on Randy.
“It was firing at those rattlesnakes did it,” declared Jack. “Of course, I can’t blame the cowboys for doing that.”
Andy and Fred found the rocks anything but easy to ascend. They went up a few feet, and then the horses began to slip and were in danger of rolling over, carrying their young riders with them.
“Look out!” screamed Fred. He had to catch his horse around the neck to keep from being flung headlong.
But the horses were as anxious to escape the maddened cattle as were the lads, and the steeds continued to scramble upward until they reached a ledge of rock where the footing was comparatively level.