h firm footing to aid he would have slid from beneath the
flying danger, but as it was he heard the live rope whisper in the air
above his head.

He landed on stiff legs, checked his forward impetus and flung
sidewise. On solid footing he would have dodged successfully; as it
was the noose barely clipped past his ear.

As the rope touched his neck, it seemed to Alcatraz that every wound
dealt him by the hand of man was suddenly aching and bleeding again,
the skin along his flanks quivered where the spurs of Cordova had
driven home time and again, and on shoulders and belly and hips
there were burning stripes where the quirt had raised its wale. Most
horrible of all, in his mouth came the taste of iron and his own blood
where the Spanish bit had wrenched his jaws apart. Out of the old days
he might have remembered the first and bitterest lesson--that it is
folly to pull against a rope--but now he saw nothing save the fleeing
forms of the seven mares and his own freedom vanishing with them. In
his mid-leap the lariat hummed taut, sank in a burning circle into
the flesh at the base of his neck, and he was flung to the ground. No
man's power could have stopped him so short; the cunning enemy had
turned a half-hitch around the top of that deep-rooted rock.

He landed, not inert, but shocked out of hysteria into all his old
cunning--that wily savagery which had kept Cordova in fear, ten-fold
more terrible since the free life had clothed him with his full
strength. The very impetus of his fall he used to help him whirl to
his feet, and as he rose he knew what he must do. To struggle against
the tools of man was always madness and brought only pain as a result;
like a good general he determined to end the battle by getting at the
root of the enemy's fire, and wheeling on his hind legs he charged Red
Perris.

The first leap revealed the mystery of the man's appearance. Behind
this rock, which was barely sufficient shelter for his head, he had
excavated a pit sufficient to shelter his crouching body and the sand
which he removed for this purpose had been spread evenly over the
slope so that no suspicion might be created in the most watchful eye.
He had sprung from his concealment and was now working to loosen the
half-hitch from the rock. As the knot came free Alcatraz was turning
and now Perris faced the charge with the rope caught in his hand. What
could he do? There was only one thing, and the stallion saw the heavy
revol