s jam of steers.

For a moment the hunchback and the steer passed out of sight in the
boiling eddy, then they reached the open, went through it, and struck
up-stream for the ferry landing.

The cattle on the inner side of the circle followed the Aberdeen-Angus,
streaming through the opening in a great wedge that split the jam into
the two wings of an enormous V. The whole drove swung out and followed
in two lines, as one has seen the wild geese following their pilot to
the south.

Jud and I, wedged in, were tossed about by the surging of the cattle, as
the jam broke. We were protected a little by the bull, whose strength
seemed inexhaustible. Every moment I looked to see some black head rise
under the fore quarters of El Mahdi, throw him over, and force him down
beneath the bellies of the cattle, or some muley charge the fighting
bull and crush Jud and his horse. But the very closeness of the jamming
saved us from these dangers.

It was almost impossible for a bullock to turn. We were carried forward
by the press as a child is carried with a crowd. When the cattle split
into the wings of the V, we were flung off and found ourselves swimming
in open water between the two great lines.

I felt like a man lifted suddenly from a dungeon into the sunlit world.
I was weak. I caught hold of the horn, settled down nerveless in the
saddle, and looked around me. The cattle were streaming past in two long
lines for the shore, led by Ump and the Aberdeen-Angus, now half-way up
the north arm of the loop.

The river was still roaring with the bellowings of the cattle, as though
all the devils of the water howled with fury at this losing of their
prey.

The steers had now room to swim in, and they would reach the shore. I
looked down at El Mahdi. He floated easily, pumping the air far back
into his big lungs. He had been roundly jammed, but he was not
exhausted, and I knew he would be all right when he got his breath.

Then I looked for Jud. He was a few yards below me, staring at the
swimming cattle. The water was rising to his armpits. It poured over the
Cardinal, and over the saddle horn. It was plain that the horse was
going down. Only his muzzle hung above the water, with the nostrils
distended.

I shouted to Jud. He kicked his feet out of the stirrups, dropped into
the water and caught his horse by the shank of the bit. He went down
until the water bubbled against his chin. But he held the horse's head
above the river