at blows rained on his muzzle, and we were driving slowly in like a
glut.

My mouth became suddenly dry to the root of my tongue. I dropped the
reins and whirled around in the saddle. Ump, whose knee was against El
Mahdi's flank, reached over and caught me by the shoulder. The grip of
his hand was firm and steady, and it brought me back to my senses, but
his face will not be whiter when they lay him finally in the little
chapel at Mount Horeb.

As I turned and gathered up the reins, the water was boiling over the
horses. Sometimes we went down to the chin, the horses entirely under;
at other times we were flung up almost out of the water by the surging
of the cattle. The Cardinal was beginning to grow tired. He had just
swam across the river and half-way back, and been then forced into this
tremendous struggle without time to gather his breath. He was a horse of
gigantic stature and great endurance, but his rider was heavy. He had
been long in the water, and the jamming of the cattle was enough to wear
out a horse built of ship timber.

His whole body was sunk to the nose and he went entirely under with
every surge of the bull. The naked back of Jud reeked with sweat, washed
off every minute with a flood of muddy water, and the muscles on his
huge shoulders looked like folds of brass.

He held the bridle-rein in his teeth and bent down over the saddle so as
to strike the bull when it tried to turn back. At times the man, horse,
and bull were carried down out of sight.

Suddenly I realised that we were on the inside. The river was a bedlam
of roars and bellows. We had broken through the circle of cattle, and it
drifted now in two segments, crowding in to follow the half-blood
Aberdeen-Angus. This steer passed a few yards below us, making for the
centre of the eddy. As he went by, Ump shot out on the Bay Eagle, dodged
through the cattle, and, coming up with the steer, reached down and
hooked his finger in the ring which the half-blood wore in his nose.
Then, holding the steer's muzzle against the shoulder of the mare, he
struck out straight through the vortex of the eddy, making for the
widest opening in the broken circle.

I watched the hunchback breathless. It was not difficult to lead the
steer. An urchin could have done it with a rope in the nosering, but the
two segments of the circle might swing together at any moment, and if
they did Ump would be penned in and lost and we would be lost also,
locked up in thi