United States or Kosovo ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Dade's riata, tight as a fiddle-string at first, slackened as the buckskin, his breath coming in snorts, surged alongside. Jack leaned again this time to snatch the ivory-handled revolver from the holster on Dade's saddle.
If you have one perfectly stretched, oiled, and in a thoroughly good condition, you can throw well; if your rope is kinky or uneven, you will find it impossible to do accurate work." "What do you consider a good riata?" "Well, I can only tell you how a good one is made. First, the rawhide is cut in thin strips, as long as possible, and half tanned with the hair on.
I follow, or rather Chu-Chu darts after the roan, and in a few moments we are in the midst of apparently inextricable horns and hoofs. "Toro!" shouts George, with vaquero enthusiasm, and the band opens a way for the swinging riata. I can feel their steaming breaths, and their spume is cast on Chu-Chu's quivering flank.
As the men rode toward them, Phil took down his riata while Patches watched him questioningly. "We may as well begin right here," said the cowboy. "Do you see anything peculiar about anything in that bunch?" Patches studied the cattle in vain. "What about that calf yonder?" suggested Phil, leisurely opening the loop of his rope. "I mean that six-months youngster with the white face."
His hunting-knife had sheared at a stroke the riata round the engineer's neck. "Take it easy, boys," urged Fraser, still in his gentle drawl, to the astonished vigilantes whom his sudden sally had robbed of their victim. "Think about it twice. We'll all be a long time dead. No use in hurrying the funerals." Nevertheless he recognized battle as inevitable.
Near sixty feet he had to run and José was strangling before his eyes; strangling, because Surry's instant obedience was offset by José's horse, who, facing the other at the first jerk of the riata, backed involuntarily with the pull of the pinioned reins. The Spanish bit was cutting his mouth cruelly, and José's frenzied clawing could not ease the cruel strain upon either of them.
Another thicker and softer rope was knotted so that it could not slip about the now sweating neck, and fashioned into a hackamore or halter about the animal's nose. Then the riata was loosed. Working deftly, silently, gently ever wary of those dangerous hoofs Phil next placed blanket and saddle on the trembling black and drew the cinch tight.
That has caused the death of a good many. The bandit gets the right distance ahead and then lassoes him as I did you. A touch of his spur jerks his victim from the saddle and that ends it." "How is the lasso as a weapon of defence?" "Good. A quick riata man can beat a fellow with a pistol at fairly close quarters." "How?" "Well, here is a pistol.
And to tell the truth, as Enriquez and I fell back, although I had insisted upon still keeping hold of the end of the riata, it was a picture to admire.
A flip, and the riata curled in a half-hitch over Solano's nose; and Jack was edging slowly towards him, his hands moving along the taut riata like a sailor climbing a rope. Solano backed, shook his head futilely, snorted, and rolled his eyes mere frills of resentment that formed no real opposition to Jack's purpose.
Word Of The Day