e, too experienced to struggle
against the inevitable.

At last the fleeing horses stopped, whirled and with up-pricked ears
and flashing eyes waited and watched. Lady Lightfoot's angry snort
trumpeted her fear and defiance; she moved not so much as a muscle
except of her eyes which swept swiftly back and forth from Big Bill to
Shandon, from Shandon to Big Bill. Then, as almost at the same instant
two ropes sped their hissing way toward her she leaped forward, swerved
aside, dropped her head a little--and then, instead of breaking into a
wild flight, she bunched her four feet and slid to a trembling
standstill before either rope had tightened about a steel saddle horn.

"Wise ol' lady," chuckled Big Bill as he and Shandon rode closer to the
mare coiling their ropes. "Ain't forgot who's who, have you, Lady?"

The other horses saw their chance and took it. Little Saxon in the
lead from the first terrified leap, they shot by Lady Lightfoot,
swerved widely about Shandon, and were off and away down the valley.

"Let 'em go," cried Shandon. "We'll follow in a minute and drive them
on down to the corrals."

He swung down from his saddle and went up to Lady Lightfoot's high
lifted head, a head that rose higher in the air as he drew near.
Laying a gentle hand on the quivering nose, he rubbed it softly,
speaking to the animal in a tone that coaxed and soothed and assured.
He talked to her as a man talks who loves a horse, understands it--as
he might talk to a human being. And Big Bill, watching, nodded and
grunted approval as he saw Shandon slip the hard bit between the strong
teeth, and at last swing up into the saddle and turn a high spirited
but well trained and obedient mare down the valley after the runaways.

Fifteen minutes later they caught up with the stragglers of Little
Saxon's followers. And it was then that Little Saxon snorted his last
defiance at pursuit and achieved his freedom.

The animals had been driven again into a woodland _cul de sac_. Here
there was a wide reaching plot of grassy, unbroken soil, and here the
two men counted upon teaching the three year old his first lesson of
the supremacy of man. As they drew nearer their ropes were again
ready, trailing at their sides. Again the horses drew close together,
bunched in a mass of watchful distrust. Little Saxon alone held
slightly apart, his great head lifted high, scenting mischief. He saw
the ropes before they were lifted, and at the fi