But he had been hurried, pressed into this adventure, and now welcomed an opportunity to think it all out coolly.

At first, for a half mile or more, the plunging buckskin kept him busy, bucking viciously, rearing, leaping madly from side to side, practising every known equine trick to dislodge the grim rider in the saddle.

The man fought out the battle silently, immovable as a rock, and apparently as indifferent.

Twice his spurs brought blood, and once he struck the rearing head with clenched fist.

The light of the stars revealed the faint lines of the trail, and he was content to permit the maddened brute to race forward, until, finally mastered, the animal settled down into a swift gallop, but with ears laid back in ugly defiance.