upon him Mr. Melton once more leaped aside, and
with a dexterous flick on the rope pulled the loop down over Satan's
back. Before the horse could check his headlong speed Mr. Melton had
worked the loop down about his legs. With a quick jerk he pulled it
taut, and Satan, suddenly hobbled, fell to the earth with a crash.

Several of the cowboys ran up, and in a few seconds the stallion was
securely trussed up. The bay stallion in the meantime had retreated to
the farthest corner of the corral, and was standing there dejectedly, all
the fight gone out of him. He was quickly secured and led back into his
own inclosure. Very carefully Satan was then loosed a trifle, and allowed
to struggle to his feet. He was still "hunting trouble," as one of the
men expressed it, but with the confining ropes about his fetlocks was
powerless. He was left hobbled, and the gate to his corral was fastened
securely this time.

"That was sure a great ropin' stunt you pulled off, boss," said "Curley"
to Mr. Melton. "I never seen the trick done neater, nohow."

"It was great!" Bert exclaimed. "I didn't know you were such an expert
roper, Mr. Melton."

"It wasn't so bad for an old fellow," admitted his host with a smile;
"it took some pretty quick sidestepping to get out of Satan's way, I'll
admit. But when I was twenty years younger I used to rope cattle for a
living, and narrow escapes were part of the business."

He turned and gave a few directions to the men, together with strict
injunctions to keep the two gates between the corrals closed.

"If anything like this happens again," he warned, "somebody's going to
get fired pretty pronto, savvy? And do all you can for the bay. I don't
think he's seriously hurt, and if we're careful we can bring him back
into shape all right."

After this, he and the boys returned to the ranch house, where they
discussed the recent exciting happenings pro and con. The boys had
planned to take an exploring expedition that afternoon, but all thought
of this was banished from their minds. After a while they returned to the
stables, where the stallions were having their wounds doctored. It
appeared that, as Mr. Melton had surmised, neither was very badly injured
physically, but the bay stallion's spirit seemed utterly broken. After
many days, however, he regained the pride which had been so rudely
shattered in his encounter with Satan, and proved to be a valuable horse.
He was of a more gentle disposition also,