“Quick, Hippy!” cried Nora excitedly. “She will fall over!”
Lieutenant Wingate sprang forward and gave the mare a quick slap on her flank. The mare jumped, then down she fell on her side with hindquarters hanging partly over the brink, and there she lay groaning dismally, the picture of misery and fear. The faces of the Overland girls paled, for each knew that the slightest struggle on the part of the white mare would send her sliding to the bottom of the canyon fully a thousand feet below.
CHAPTER XVI
GOING TO BED IN THE CLOUDS
“Oh, Hippy, you have done it this time!” cried Nora.
“Keep quiet! Don’t frighten her!” cried Grace, snatching the lariat from her saddle and handing it to Hippy. “Slip the loop over one of her hind legs, but for goodness sake do not make any sudden moves.”
“Wait! I’ll get a derrick,” shouted Stacy.
“Keep quiet!” commanded Tom sternly, at the same time taking a rope from the pommel of his own saddle and hurrying to Lieutenant Wingate’s assistance. While Grace, was patting the head of the fallen animal, trying to soothe her, Tom slipped the rope over her neck, Hippy having dropped the loop over one hind foot.
“Oh, Tom, you surely will choke Kitty to death if you pull on the neck rope,” warned Grace.
“Serve her right if I did,” growled Tom. “She is a perpetual nuisance. What next, Lieutenant?”
“We must haul her up, that’s all. Keep your rope taut, but don’t put too much strength on it,” directed Hippy, as he began to pull on the rope about the white mare’s hind leg. He failed to budge her.