But the brown horse was down. Dick did not wait until the others
had fled. He dropped his rifle, and with the speed of a deer sprang
towards the fallen horse, and affixed the hobbles to his legs. His aim
had been true. Although scarcely half a minute elapsed between the
shot and the fixing of the hobbles, the animal recovered, and with a
frantic exertion rose on his haunches, just as Dick had fastened the
noose of the short line in his under jaw. But this was not enough. If
the horse had gained his feet before the longer line was placed round
his neck, he would have escaped. As the mustang made the second
violent plunge that placed it on its legs, Dick flung the noose
hastily; it caught on one ear, and would have fallen off, had not the
horse suddenly shaken its head, and unwittingly sealed its own fate by
bringing the noose round its neck.
And now the struggle began. Dick knew well enough, from hearsay, the
method of "breaking down" a wild horse. He knew that the Indians choke
them with the noose round the neck until they fall down exhausted and
covered with foam, when they creep up, fix the hobbles, and the line
in the lower jaw, and then loosen the lasso to let the horse breathe,
and resume its plungings till it is almost subdued, when they
gradually draw near and breathe into its nostrils.
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