Then, by way of finding out, he dropped the noose suddenly. It fell over the animal's head and around its neck.
Warned by the touch of the rope, the bull backed hastily off, nearly hauling the high school boy out of the tree.
"There's just one chance to get you, and that's happening now," mused Dick Prescott, as, still holding to the rope, he fairly shot down the tree trunk.
For an instant the bull watched as though incredulous. It gave Dick time to touch his feet to the ground, passing the rope loosely once around the tree trunk.
As the bull lumbered forward Prescott pulled on his rope, while retreating in the opposite direction.
All in a twinkling the bull's head was close to the tree, and Dick with the end of the rope in his hands, and aided by the twist around the tree, had a leverage that enable him to hold the bull there.
For a few moments the dirt fairly flew before the maddened animal's efforts to free itself. Then, finding itself a prisoner, with its head fastened close to the tree, the bull again stopped to consider.
"You fellows can come over here now," Dick called. "The bull is safely caught—-provided neither the rope nor the tree break."
With a yell of delight Dick's chums ran to the spot. Dr. Bentley came, too, though he walked.
Dick's success did not seem destined, how ever to last. A halt and a rest seemed to give the bull strength far greater than it had used in pulling against the rope before. With an angry snort the animal dug its hind hoofs into the soil and began to back away.