s, and in a few seconds they had flung
them on and had drawn the loops tight, and pulled the animal down and
held it. Mick at once loosened the lasso and Poona went back to the
mob to rope another. "Brand-o!" was called, Eagle handed up a T.D.3
and a number brand, the head-stockman pressed these on to the near-side
shoulder of the prostrate beast, and with a shout of "Let her go!" the
leg ropes were taken off, and the dazed animal staggered to its feet
and rejoined its companions. By this time Uncle had pulled his animal
up near the tree, and as soon as it was branded, Poona had caught his
second. And so the work went on without interruption, everybody
working as hard as he could.

After about an hour Uncle threw his lasso and missed. The beast he was
after was a three-year-old red bull with wide horns which he kept on
tossing angrily. The animal saw the green-hide coming and ducked its
head, and the whirling rope fell and flicked it in the eye. It was not
Uncle's fault that he had missed, but it was a failure all the same,
and nobody likes to come off second best when it is a case of such keen
rivalry. He looked round and saw that his ill-luck had been observed
by all his companions, for there was a lull in the work just at that
time, and all hands were watching. The black-boy was on his mettle to
redeem his reputation, and his blood was up to perform a feat which he
had learnt on a northern cattle-station, but which had never been seen
on Sidcotinga. The lasso had flicked the bull in the eye. With a roar
of pain, it lifted its great horns and shook them and rushed out of the
mob. Sax wheeled to turn it back, but Uncle signed to him to leave it
alone. When the wild red bull was clear of the mob, the black stockman
coiled the lasso on his left arm and made after it.

Everybody expected him to fling the lasso, but instead of doing that,
he galloped up on the near-side of the animal and kept level with its
rump for a yard or two. It was on the tip of Mick's tongue to shout
out and tell the boy not to "play the fool", when Uncle leaned over
with his hand spread out wide. Suddenly he grabbed the galloping
bull's tail near the root and gave it a dexterous twist. Over went the
animal. It crashed to the ground and threw up a cloud of dust. Uncle
flung himself instantly off his horse and held the fallen beast for a
moment, while he slipped the noose of the lasso over its head. Then he
remounted and lay back