“Your dog will pull the deer down and kill him, Fatty!” cried Teddy. “Can’t you bring him back?”
“I’ll try,” said the fat boy, running after his dog. “Back, Hopper!”
Just when it seemed that the dog was about to jump on the deer, which seemed too frightened to run, a man suddenly leaped over the fence and took his place in front of the deer. There was something familiar about the man. And when he began swinging a rope in circles around his head Teddy cried:
“It’s the lasso cowboy!”
It was, and in another instant the loop of the lasso had settled over the head of the big hound. With a quick jerk on the rope the cowboy pulled the dog off its feet.
“Good work!” yelled Teddy.
“Now the deer is safe,” said Dick.
“He lassoed your dog just in time, Fatty,” said Joe.
“Yes, but I hope he doesn’t hurt him,” spoke the stout lad. “Hopper is a good dog but he gets excited when he sees a deer.”
The lassoing of Hopper seemed to have taken all the fight out of the dog. Perhaps he would not, after all, have attacked the deer. But the cowboy was taking no chances.