'
'It isn't so very wonderful,' said Polly, nonchalantly 'the most
ordinary people can learn it; why! your brother Jack can lasso almost
as well as a Mexican.'
'And I can "lass" any stationary object myself,' cried Bell; 'a
hitching-post, or even a door-knob; I can do it two or three times
out of ten.'
'That shows immense skill,' answered Jack, 'but, as the thing you
want to "lass" never does stay still, and as it is absolutely
necessary to catch it more than three times out of ten, you probably
wouldn't make a name and fortune as a vaquero. Juan Capistrano, by
the way, used to be famous with the lariat. I had heard of his
adventure with a bull on the island of Santa Rosa, and I asked him
about it to-day; but he had so exhausted himself telling stories to
Bell that he had very few words for me. You see there was a bull, on
Santa Rosa island, so wild that they wanted to kill him; but nobody
could do it, though he was a terror to any one who ventured on the
island. They called him "Antiguelo," because of his long horns and
long tail. He was such a terrible fighter that all the vaqueros were
afraid to lass' him, for he always broke away with the lariat. You
see a horse throws a bull by skill and not by strength, of course.
You can choke almost any bull; but this one was too smart! he would
crouch on his haunches and pull back until the rope nearly choked him
and then suddenly "make" for the horse. Juan Capistrano had a
splendid horse--you see as much depends on the horse as the man in
such a case--and he came upon Antiguelo on the Cerro Negro and lass'd
him.
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