t brought a grunt from him.

For an instant he lay still. And in that instant Calumet was at his
side. While advancing toward the black, he had taken off his
neckerchief, and now he deftly knotted it around the black's head,
covering its eyes. A moment later he was leading it, unprotesting, out
of the corral gate.

He halted near the fence and looked at Betty, who was watching
critically, though with a tenseness in her attitude that brought a
fugitive smile to Calumet's lips.

"I reckon you'd better move a way an' give this here animal plenty of
room," he said. "If he's as much horse as Kelton says he is he'll want
a heap of it."

He waited until in obedience to his suggestion Betty had withdrawn to a
safe distance toward the ranchhouse. Then with Kelton holding the
black's head he placed the saddle on, then the bridle, working with a
sure swiftness that brought an admiring glint into Betty's eyes. Then
he deliberately coiled his rope and fastened it to the pommel of the
saddle, taking extra care with it. This done he turned with a cold
grin to Kelton, nodding his head shortly.

Kelton pulled the neckerchief from the black's eyes, let go of its
head, and scurried to the top of the corral fence. Before he could
reach it Calumet had vaulted into the saddle, and before the black
could realize what had happened, his feet were in the stirrups.

For an instant the Black stood, its legs trembling, the muscles under
its glossy coat quivering, its ears laid flat, its nostrils distended,
its mouth open, its eyes wild and bloodshot. Then, tensed for
movement, but uncertain, waiting a brief instant before yielding to the
thousand impulses that flashed over him, he felt the rowels of
Calumet's spurs as they were driven viciously into his sides.

He sprang wildly upward, screaming with the sudden pain, and came down,
his legs asprawl, surprised, enraged, outraged. Alighting, he
instantly lunged--forward, sideways, with an eccentric movement which
he felt must dislodge the tormentor on his back. It was futile,
attended with punishment, for again the sharp spurs sank in, were
jammed into his sides, held there--rolling, biting points of steel that
hurt him terribly.

He halted for a moment, to gather his wits and his strength, for his
former experiences with this strange type of creature who clung so
tenaciously to his back had taught him that he must use all his craft,
all his strength, to dislodge him. To his rel