e a chance to
turn them off just here."

At the point at which he stood the slope of the hillside fell somewhat
toward the left and away slightly from the mouth of the funnel. A
skilled cowboy with sufficient nerve, on a first-class horse, might turn
the herd away from the cut-bank into the little coulee that led down
from the end of the fence, but for a man on foot the thing was quite
impossible. He determined, however, to make the effort. No man can
certainly tell how cattle will behave when excited and at night.

As he stood there rapidly planning how to divert the rush of cattle from
that deadly funnel, there rose on the still night air a soft rumbling
sound like low and distant thunder. That sound Cameron knew only too
well. It was the pounding of two hundred steers upon the resounding
prairie. He rushed back again to the right side of the fenced runway,
and then forward to meet the coming herd. A half moon rising over the
round top of the hill revealed the black surging mass of steers, their
hoofs pounding like distant artillery, their horns rattling like a
continuous crash of riflery. Before them at a distance of a hundred
yards or more a mounted Indian rode toward the farther side of the
funnel and took his stand at the very spot at which there was some hope
of diverting the rushing herd from the cut-bank down the side coulee to
safety.

"That man has got to go," said Cameron to himself, drawing his gun. But
before he could level it there shot out from the dim light behind the
Indian a man on horseback. Like a lion on its prey the horse leaped with
a wicked scream at the Indian pony. Before that furious leap both man
and pony went down and rolled over and over in front of the pounding
herd. Over the prostrate pony leaped the horse and up the hillside fair
in the face of that rushing mass of maddened steers. Straight across
their face sped the horse and his rider, galloping lightly, with never
a swerve or hesitation, then swiftly wheeling as the steers drew almost
level with him he darted furiously on their flank and rode close at
their noses. "Crack! Crack!" rang the rider's revolver, and two steers
in the far flank dropped to the earth while over them surged the
following herd. Again the revolver rang out, once, twice, thrice, and
at each crack a leader on the flank farthest away plunged down and was
submerged by the rushing tide behind. For an instant the column faltered
on its left and slowly began to swer