“Well, now you will see my horse hold this fellow down while I put a bit in his mouth. Look out, there,” he added, as the boys, having dismounted, ran up to watch his movements; “don’t come too near his heels, for he can out-kick a mule. Keep a good hold of your own horses too, or they’ll go off to join the drove.”
Archie’s nag, as his owner afterward declared, had shown himself to be a “perfect trump.” He seemed to know what the boy intended to do as well as the boy knew it himself. When the lariat settled down over the bay’s head and the latter was about to run off, he planted his fore-feet firmly on the ground to stop him, and the bay was thrown on his side, as we have described. Archie’s horse, without waiting for the word from his rider, quickly backed up until the lariat was drawn tight, and thus the bay was held as securely as if he had been tied to the ground.
Archie, finding that his horse could be depended on, quickly dismounted, slipped the bridle off his head, and when Fred and Eugene came up he was kneeling on the bay’s neck, trying to force the bits into his mouth.
“You’re not going to ride him now, are you?” exclaimed Fred, amazed at Archie’s apparent recklessness.
“Certainly I am,” was the reply. “He’s got to be backed some time, and it might as well be now as to-morrow.”
“How are you going to get a saddle on him? You can’t put the girth around him while he is lying down.”
“I don’t want any saddle!”
“Why, he’ll throw you and break your neck!”
“If he does it shan’t cost him anything,” answered Archie, as he buckled the throat-latch about the bay’s neck. “Now, Fred, slack up on that lariat, please, and give us room according to our size and importance. We shall need plenty of space to spread ourselves in!”
Fred, in compliance with the request, unfastened the rawhide rope from Archie’s saddle, and then he and Eugene, still holding fast to their horses and leading Archie’s, retreated quickly to the foot of the cliffs. As soon as Archie saw that they were out of the way, he removed his weight from the bay’s neck, and in an instant the captured horse was on his feet. How Archie managed to get upon his back as he was rising was a great mystery to the two boys who were looking on—it was done so quickly. But he was there, and he had secured a firm seat, too.