His mind was busy examining every chance that offered.
All at once a thought struck him; and, obedient to its impulse, he called to his brothers below,-- "A rope! a rope! Fling me a rope! Haste! for heaven's sake haste! a rope, or I am lost!" Fortunately, there lay a rope under the tree.

It was a raw-hide lasso, used in packing Jeanette.

It lay by the spot where they had slept.
Lucien dropped his half-loaded rifle, and sprang towards it, coiling it as he took it up.

Lucien could throw a lasso almost as well as Basil himself; and that was equal to a Mexican "vaquero" or a "gaucho" of the Pampas.

He ran nearly under the limb, twirled the lasso around his head, and launched it upwards.
Basil, to gain time, had crept out upon the limb as far as it would bear him, while his fierce pursuer followed after.