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As I stood debating the question in my mind, I was almost upon the point of
making the attempt at the long throw. I had plenty of rope, this Galu weapon
being fully sixty feet long. How I wished for the collies from the ranch! At a word
they would have circled this little bunch and driven it straight down to me; and
then it flashed into my mind that Nobs had run with those collies all one
summer, that he had gone down to the pasture with them after the cows every
evening and done his part in driving them back to the milking-barn, and had
done it intelligently; but Nobs had never done the thing alone, and it had been a
year since he had done it at all. However, the chances were more in favor of my
foozling the long throw than that Nobs would fall down in his part if I gave him
the chance.
Having come to a decision, I had to creep back to Nobs and get him, and then
with him at my heels return to a large bush near the four horses. Here we could
see directly through the bush, and pointing the animals out to Nobs I whispered:
"Fetch 'em, boy!"
In an instant he was gone, circling wide toward the rear of the quarry. They
caught sight of him almost immediately and broke into a trot away from him; but
when they saw that he was apparently giving them a wide berth they stopped
again, though they stood watching him, with high-held heads and quivering
nostrils. It was a beautiful sight. And then Nobs turned in behind them and
trotted slowly back toward me. He did not bark, nor come rushing down upon
them, and when he had come closer to them, he proceeded at a walk. The
splendid creatures seemed more curious than fearful, making no effort to escape
until Nobs was quite close to them; then they trotted slowly away, but at right
angles.
And now the fun and trouble commenced. Nobs, of course, attempted to turn
them, and he seemed to have selected the stallion to work upon, for he paid no
attention to the others, having intelligence enough to know that a lone dog could
run his legs off before he could round up four horses that didn't wish to be
rounded up. The stallion, however, had notions of his own about being headed,
and the result was as pretty a race as one would care to see. Gad, how that
horse could run! He seemed to flatten out and shoot through the air with the
very minimum of exertion, and at his forefoot ran Nobs, doing his best to turn
him. He was barking now, and twice he leaped high against the stallion's flank;
but this cost too much effort and always lost him ground, as each time he was
hurled heels over head by the impact; yet before they disappeared over a rise in
the ground I was sure that Nob's persistence was bearing fruit; it seemed to me
that the horse was giving way a trifle to the right. Nobs was between him and the
main herd, to which the yearling and filly had already fled.
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