"'What!' said Jordan, 'would yo' mount that wild beast? He's a devil. My
best riders cannot sit him. Indeed, he has tossed half the cowboys in
Texas.'

"'Let me try him,' said I.

"'_All right_,' said Jordan, 'come on.'

"We climbed into the big corral. One of the boys threw a rope upon the
horse, drew him up to the center post, blinded him, and said to me:

"'Young feller! If you ride him, you'll be a good one, shore 'nough.'

"I took off my coat, vest and suspenders, tied a heavy handkerchief
around my stomach, fixed the saddle, sprang upon the horse, and the blind
was drawn off at the same moment. Then for ten minutes I had a game as
lively as I had experienced with the coon. How he did jolt me! But I sat
him. Then, when all his other tricks had failed, he started in a run for
the center post of the corral, with the intention of raking me off. But
it was his side that struck the post; my knee was on top of the saddle,
and when the rebound knocked him away from the post it was not a second
until I was back in the saddle; and then I assumed the offensive and
drove the rowels into him. Between the shock of the blow and the surprise
of the rowels, he gave up, made a feeble jump or two, stopped and stood
trembling.

"I dismounted, and the cowboys threw up their hats and cheered the
'tenderfoot.' Then I took down the reins of the hackamore (the Mexican
Jaquema), bent the brute's head around, and tied him in a half circle to