The horses came nearer.

One of them, indeed, came quite close, and took a nip at the toe of my riding-boot.  I kicked at it sharply, however, and it moved away.

The man had gone on.  We watched the light of his cigarette, and thus, as he now and then turned his head, knew where he was.  It was now that I felt, rather than heard, that Tish was crawling out from the shelter of the rock.  At the same time we heard, by the crunching of branches, that the man had sat down near at hand.

Tish’s progress was slow but sure.  For a half-hour we sat there.  Then she returned, still crawling, and on putting out my hand I discovered that she had secured the lasso from her saddle and had brought it back.  How true had been her instinct when she practiced its use!  How my own words, that it was all foolishness, came back and whispered lessons of humility in my ear!

At this moment a deep, resonant sound came from the tree where the movie actor sat.  At the same moment a small creature dropped into my lap from somewhere above, and ran up my sleeve.  I made frantic although necessarily silent efforts to dislodge it, and it bit me severely.

The necessity for silence taxed all my strength, but managing finally to secure it by the tail, I forcibly withdrew it and flung it away.  Unluckily it struck Aggie in the left eye and inflicted a painful bruise.

Tish had risen to her feet and was standing, a silent and menacing figure, while this event transpired.  The movements of the horses as they grazed, the soft breeze blowing through the pines, were the only sounds.  Now she took a step forward.

“He’s asleep!” she whispered.  “Aggie, sit still and watch the horses.  Lizzie, come with me.”

As I advanced to her she thrust her revolver into my hand.

“When I give the word,” she said in a whisper, “hold it against his neck.  But keep your finger off the trigger.  It’s loaded.”

We advanced slowly, halting now and then to listen.  Although brush crackled under our feet, the grazing horses were making a similar disturbance, and the man slept on.  Soon we could see him clearly, sitting back against a tree, his head dropped forward on his breast.  Tish surveyed the scene with her keen and appraising eye, and raised the lasso.

The first result was not good.  The loaded end struck a branch, and, being deflected, the thing wrapped itself perhaps a dozen times round my neck.  Tish, being unconscious of what had happened, drew it up with a jerk, and I stood helpless and slowly strangling.  At last, however, she realized the difficulty and released me.  I was unable to breathe comfortably for some time, and my tongue felt swollen for several hours.

Through all of this the movie actor had slept soundly.  At the second effort Tish succeeded in lassoing him without difficulty.  We had feared a loud outcry before we could get to him, but owing to Tish’s swiftness in tightening the rope he was able to make, at first, only a low, gurgling sound.  I had advanced to him, and was under the impression that I was holding the revolver to his neck.  On discovering, however, that I was pressing it to the trunk of the tree, to which he was now secured by the lariat, I corrected the error and held it against his ear.