He saw a coil of rope fly through the air and he bent forward again.

It struck Old Jack on the saddle and fell to the ground.

Ned wondered why they did not fire now, but he remembered that their rifles or muskets, too, might be empty, and suddenly he felt a strange exultation.

He was still lying forward on his horse's neck, and now he began to talk to him.
"On! On! Old Jack," he said, "show 'em the cleanest heels that were ever seen in Texas! On! On! my beauty of a horse, my jewel of a horse! Would you let miserable Mexican ponies overtake you?
You who were never beaten! Ah, now we gain! But faster! faster!" It seemed that Old Jack understood.

He stretched out his long neck and became a streak in the darkness.