bearings after he had done so.

He remembered what Bob Stallings had said in speaking of a stampede.

"Keep them straight and hold them together. That's all you can do. You
can't stop them," the foreman had said.

The lad was doing this now as best he could, yet he wondered that none
of the cowmen had come to his assistance.

Again and again did Tad Butler throw his pony against the great
unreasoning wave on the right of the line, and again and again was he
buffeted back, only to return to the battle with desperate courage.

All at once the lad found himself almost surrounded by the beasts. A
lightning flash had shown him this at the right time. Had it been a few
seconds later Tad must have gone down under their irresistible rush.

The pony, seeming to realize the danger fully as much as did its rider,
bent every muscle in its little body to bear itself and rider to safety.

Yet try as they would, they were unable to get back to the right point
to take up the turning work again.

The cattle had closed in about the lad in almost a crescent formation,
Tad's position being about the center of it.

"Whoa-oo-ope! Whoa-oo-ope!" shouted Tad, taking up the cry that he had
heard the cowboys utter earlier in the stampede.

His voice was lost in the roar of the storm and the thunder of the
rushing herd.

Tad realized that there was only one thing left for him to do. That was
to keep straight ahead and ride. He would have to ride fast, too, if he
were to keep clear of the long-legged Mexican cattle.

They were descending a gradual slope that led down into a broad, sandy
arroyo where still stood the rotting stumps of oak and cottonwood trees
that once lined the ancient water course.

By this time the main herd lay to the rear nearly two miles, the cattle
having separated into several bands. However, the lad was unaware of
this.

Suddenly, in the darkness, rider and pony crashed into a dense mesquite
thicket.

There was not a second to hesitate, for they were already in. The
leading cattle tore in after Tad with a crashing of brush and a rattle
of horns--sounds that sent a chill up and down his spine in spite of all
the lad's sturdy courage.

The herd was closing in on him, leaving the boy no alternative but to go
through the thicket himself, and to go fast at that.

Tad formed his plan instantly. He made up his mind to ride it out and
let his pony have its own way. Yet the boy never expected to come
through the