Tad threw up his hands to frighten the stallion aside. The animal, however, refused to be swerved from its course.
"He's going to run over me," cried the boy, as he noted that the horse was rising for another leap.
Tad ducked just as the beast sprang clear of the ground. He felt the rush of air as the gleaming body was lifted over his head, the boy at the instant uttering a shrill yell to hasten the stallion's movements.
The front hoofs caught the rim of the Pony Rider Boy's sombrero, snipping it from his head. The hind feet came closer. They raked Tad's head, bowling him completely over, rolling him from the knoll on which he had been standing.
He brought up with a jolt some ten feet further down. Tad scrambled to his feet a little dizzy from the blow and the fall.
"Whew! That was a close call," he muttered, feeling his head to learn if it had been injured.
"No; the skin isn't broken, but I'm going to have a beautiful goose egg there," he concluded. "It's swelling already. If I'd had my rope I could have roped him easily when he rose at me that last time."
Scrambling up the bank, Tad found his hat. Then he picked his way to the pyramid-shaped rock on which he had first discovered the stallion.
Poising himself, he swung his sombrero to his companions down in the foothills.
"Hurrah!" he shouted. "I met the enemy. I've seen the white stallion, fellows!"