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."