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"Can you hold on?" she asked in English

He was chilled to the one, swift-footed as a deer, toto the saddle and lean over it as the pace quickened to a gallop

He did not know her fingers were busy preparing the rawhide lariat that depended froht up with a jerk that dragged her round

Running open the noose of the lariat, she dropped it surely over his shoulders The other end of the rope was fastened to the saddle-horn, and the cow-pony, used to roping and throwing steers, braced itself ide-planted front feet for the shock

"Can you get your arirl

His arms were like lead, and al on Nor did he try longer than for that one desperate instant when he shot his fist through the loop The wall of water swept hi hiht with the strong current for the body of the ally, for there was strength in the small wrists and compact muscle in the shapely arms She aist deep in the water before she won, for from above she could find no purchase for the lift

The fisherazed at hiest lashes he had ever seen He had an odd sense of being tangled up in the both abashed and happy in his iht was: "They don't have eyes like those out of heaven" What he said was entirely different

"Near thing Hadn't been for you I wouldn't have made it"

At his words she rose froht, and he saw that she was slenderly tall and fashioned of gracious curves The darkness of her clear skin was emphasized by the mass of blue-black hair from which little ears peeped with exquisite daintiness The mouth eet and candid, red-lipped, with perfect teeth just showing in the full arch The straight nose, with its sensitive nostrils, proclaimed her pure patrician

"You are wet," he cried "You went in after hter rippled over her face like the wind in golden grain It brought out two adorable dimples near the tucked-in corners of her mouth