ed the announcer through a mega

g with a friend, turned round and took notice. Most p

ady slanting from the west, kissed her crisp, ruddy gold hair and set it sparkling. Her skin was shell pink, amber clear. She walked

ver her because of her slimness, her beauty, the aura of daintiness that surrounded her, the little touches of shy youth that still clung to her manner. Other riders of her sex might be rough, ho

had been roped and cornered. Half a dozen wranglers in chaps were trying to get it ready for the saddle. From the red-hot eyes of the brute a devil of fury glared at the men trying to thrust a gunny sack over its head. The four l

bridle was adjusted and saddle slipped on. The girl attended to the cinching herself. If

over a white silk blouse. Her boots were of buckskin, silver-spurred. With

the stirrups. The gunny sack was whipped from the horse

es. The horse woke to galvanized action. The back humped. It shot into the air with a writhing

all fours again. A series of jarring bucks, each ending with the force of a pile-driver as Wild Fire's hoofs struck earth, varied the programme. The rider came down l

, the animal humped

!" a judg

keep it from being jammed. Up went the bronco again before Wild Rose could find the stirrup. She knew she was gone, felt herself shooting

jerked tight. Wild Fire, coming down hard for a second lunge at the green crumpled hea

ad run forward. He himself dived for the still girl beneath the hoofs of the rearing

he waiting ambulance. The closed eyes flicker

Kirby?" aske

ad a s

" He sensed the disapp

ed you into the fence,"

ned her. The rig

'm afraid,

uck?" the girl c

let me ride in the

tor said promptly. "I'm going to

ck in time," sh

t, but yo

hed. "If you're goi

into the ambulance and

going?" she asked with a

o far as the hos

parlor girl who has to be petted when she gets hurt? You

for an alibi so as not

ure a straig

g to let you beat yourself out of the championshi

fully. "You certainl

en you start to act so fooli

he called to her

way she waved cheerfully

one man was announcing that the contest for the wor