ldly
forwards a few paces, then as wildly back, and then stood still and
trembled violently. But this was only a brief lull in the storm, so
Dick saw that the time was now come to assert the superiority of his
race.

"Stay back, Crusoe, and watch my rifle, pup," he cried, and, raising his
heavy switch he brought it down with a sharp cut across the horse's
flank, at the same time loosening the rein which hitherto he had held
tight.

The wild horse uttered a passionate cry, and sprang forward like the
bolt from a cross-bow.

And now commenced a race, which, if not as prolonged, was at least as
furious as that of the far-famed Mazeppa. Dick was a splendid rider,
however,--at least as far as "sticking on" goes. He might not have come
up to the precise pitch desiderated by a riding-master in regard to
carriage, etcetera, but he rode that wild horse of the prairie with as
much ease as he had formerly ridden his own good steed, whose bones had
been picked by the wolves not long ago.

The pace was tremendous, for the youth's weight was nothing to that
muscular frame which bounded with cat-like agility from wave to wave of
the undulating plain in ungovernable terror. In a few minutes the clump
of willows where Crusoe and his rifle lay were out of sight behind, but
it mattered not, for Dick had looked up at the sky and noted the
position of the sun at the moment of starting. Away they went on the
wings of the wind, mile after mile over the ocean-like waste--curving
slightly aside now and then to avoid the bluffs that occasionally
appeared on the scene for a few minutes and then swept out of sight
behind them. Then they came to a little rivulet; it was a mere brook of
a few feet wide, and two or three yards, perhaps, from bank to bank.
Over this they flew, so easily that the spring was scarcely felt, and
continued the headlong course. And now a more barren country was around
them. Sandy ridges and scrubby grass appeared everywhere, reminding
Dick of the place where he had been so ill. Rocks, too were scattered
about, and at one place the horse dashed with clattering hoofs between a
couple of rocky sand-hills which, for a few seconds, hid the prairie
from view. Here the mustang suddenly shied with such violence that his
rider was nearly thrown, while a rattlesnake darted from the path. Soon
they emerged from this pass, and again the plains became green and
verdant. Presently a distant line of trees showed that they