Then, as if remembering something he had forgotten, Dave looked toward his pony. To his great relief he saw Crow rise to his feet, shake himself and run off a little way, seemingly little the worse for his adventure.
"Thank goodness!" murmured Dave, and there was a prayer of gratitude in his heart. "I thought he was a goner."
"And we thought you were," put in Tubby Larkin, as he strode up. "That was some fall—believe me!"
"Must have got tangled up in the rope," commented Pocus Pete, who had finished a task he was at, and who now spurred forward.
"That's what happened," Dave explained, as he rubbed the back of his head and threw out one leg as if to test whether or not it had been knocked out of joint. "I didn't see the trailing lasso, and it got around Crow's feet."
"Yes, that's how it happened," said Mr. Carson. "But I certainly thought both steer and pony fell on you."
"I managed to roll out of the way," said Dave, grimly.
"Lucky for you," commented Pocus Pete. "That's one of the biggest and worst steers on the ranch, and he weighs something, too."
"His own weight broke his neck," said Tubby, reflectively. "Well, we was needin' some beef an' now we've got it."
"I'm sorry he had to go," remarked Dave, as he walked off toward his pony, having made sure that none of his bones was broken.