Three more long summers of rodeo work went by, and The Cougar kept on a challenging the world's best riders. Another spring came, more rodeos was followed and where it was advertised that "The Cougar Will be Present." The posters went on a telling how in five years time no rider had been able to set the horse till the gun was fired, and as the cowboys remarked, "That was one truthful statement."
Smoky kept on a throwing men right and left that spring and on thru the summer. He kept his record and back clean that way till away along towards the fall, and then one day at the start of another rodeo, a cowboy from the Wyoming country, and who'd come south for the winter, happened to hear of the doings. A couple of days later that bronc fighter showed himself at the rodeo headquarters, and remarking how he'd heard of The Cougar, signed his name and entered on bronc riding.
He qualified and went thru the "tryouts" and "semi-finals" like it all was so much play. The Cougar was a horse kept for the finals only, and that's the pony the cowboy had been trying to reach, the others he'd had to ride had only been a means for him to get to The Cougar.
He'd easy won the right to ride that horse, and also the chance to win the thousand dollars that was up for any rider that could. He hung around the chute and mighty close the next afternoon. Soon the time would come for him to really try his ability, and while waiting he was using that time to seeing that the latigoes and cinch had no weak spots, and would be able to stand the strain of staying around the middle of that Cougar horse.
Then the judges hollered out his name as the next rider out, and about that time the mouse colored outlaw peeked thru the bars of the chute at him and snorted, the rider whistled at the sight of the mean looking head, and, grinning a little, remarked:
"I got a hunch that this pony is going to be totally different than any horse I ever rode, but here goes, and I got to wish myself luck."
About that time the mouse colored outlaw peeked thru the bars of the chute at him and snorted.