f his rough treatment on the road, and his skin
shone with a satin-like luster in the morning sun.

There was a moment's pause, while Haig and the others looked at the
horse, and he at them.

"Now then, Farrish! Pete!" commanded Haig.

And the battle began. Farrish and Pete turn by turn flung their
lariats at the horse's head and feet, but time after time he dodged,
and ducked, and capered away from the whirling noose, or wriggled out
of the coil as it tightened around him.

"He's greased lightning!" ejaculated Bill, from his perch on the
fence.

"He's hell, that's what he is!" retorted Curly, from a corner of the
corral.

Farrish and Pete went silently on with their work. They knew that
eventually, dance and squirm as he might, the horse would be caught in
one or the other of the relentless loops. And so it proved. While
Sunnysides was side-stepping a throw by Farrish, Pete's rope slipped
snakily over his head, and tightened around the arched neck. With an
artful lunge toward the Indian, and a lowering of his head, the horse
struggled to throw off the coil. But it held.

Then followed a mad performance. The horse was over all the corral at
once, it seemed: rearing, plunging, leaping, tossing his head,
crashing into the fence with such fury that it barely stood up under
his onslaughts. Bill was knocked off the fence backward on to his
head; Curly, crowded into his corner, barely avoided a vicious kick;
and Haig's temper was not improved by the narrow escape he had from
being crushed against a post.

"Bill!" he yelled. "Get a rope!"

The man ran into the barn, returned with a lariat, and joined the
fray. Plainly chagrined, though unhurt by his fall, Bill took long
chances to even up the score; and under the very hoofs of the
infuriated animal, he made a throw that brought Sunnysides sprawling
on the ground, his forefeet caught in Bill's noose. It was the work of
a few seconds then for Farrish to secure the hind feet also; and the
horse lay prostrate, panting and half-choked, but defiant still.

Giving him no time to recover, and no more breath than he actually
required, Haig and Curly forced the bit of a bridle into the outlaw's
foaming mouth. Then the noose on his hind feet was cautiously removed,
one forefoot was freed, and the horse was allowed to rise. The next
proceeding appeared to be resented by Sunnysides even more than what
he had already been subjected to. While Farrish and Pete held his
head, Hai