Sunset Ranch: A Story of a Boy's Adventures in the West — page 121: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Horse Thieves. iI! something around his head, slowly at first, but with increasing momentum. It was a rope, a lariat, and this time intended for higher quarry than pony or steer. Having acquired the proper velocity, the coils were launched forth upon their mission. The cast- ing of a rope is a pretty thing when done by the deft hand of an accomplished lariat thrower, but there may necessarily be times when one loses interest in the performance. A cowboy recognizes the peculiar hissing sound made by the swift passage of the noose, and its at-. tendant coils through space—it is a “swish’’ that, once heard, can never be forgotten. And the first intuitive action of a herder upon catching this sound is to duck his head, to throw himself prone upon the ground, or perhaps elevate both hands after the manner of a stagecoach “hold-up,” so that the en- circling noose at least may not render him abso- lutely helpless by fastening his arms rigidly at his side, as though he were a mummy. With Cuthbert it was a case of dropping squat ~ upon the ground—instinct and not reason governs the action in such a case. He was just a little too late, or else the rope came with unusual swiftness, having been cast by a mas- ter hand. | However that might be the noose settled over the boy’s shoulders—he remembered feeling a quick jerk that announced its being made taut, and of try- ing to run toward the spot from whence it came, his only chance being to loosen the noose. Karl was on his mind when he uttered a shrill cry of alarm that must have carried far over the prairie and aroused his friend, always a light sleeper. Although his action was well taken, it failed of a result, for a second loop fell over his head and from quite a different quarter. cComiclooks C©