"Save him! Don't let him go under, boys! Daddy will never forgive
you if Walter is hurt."

But before she spoke a single rider had left the encampment like a
missile from a gun. It was Hesitation Kane, riding low along his
horse's neck, and swinging his big pistol in his left hand. He had
taken it upon himself to go against Steve's orders.

A fusillade of shots met the forefront of the stampeded cattle just
as it seemed Walter Mason must be overwhelmed. It was in the narrow
cut between the two valleys. The leaders went down in a heap, and
against the ridge made by their bodies the steers directly behind
them crashed with an impact like two colliding trains!

The lightning revealed from moment to moment the awful sight. The
cattle behind pressed against those ahead. The bellowing beasts
were smothered--were crushed--by the score! It seemed to the girls
and to Walter, who now had gained control of his pony and came
riding back, as though half that herd of mad beasts must be
sacrificed.

But Steve and the other herders saw their chance. They swept down
on the flank of the herd. The well trained ponies made a living
wall against the cattle. The latter began to mill--that is, turn
and travel on the herd's own center.

Of course, many dropped and were trampled. It was a situation that
took every ounce of pluck in a man's body to go up against that
maddened herd. But Steve and his crew did it.