Two more shots were fired at him, but in both cases the bullets went wide.

Then he heard only the thud of hoofs, but the pursuing horsemen were very near.
Something whizzed through the air and instinctively he bent forward almost flat on the neck of Old Jack.

A coiling shape struck him on the head, slipped along his back, then along the quarters of his horse and fell to the ground.

He felt as if a deadly snake had struck at him, and then had drawn its cold body across him.

But he knew that it was a lasso.