Page:Patches (1928).pdf/228

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

the finals for the third day and the rest were eliminated from the contest. So those who survived for this supreme effort were in what was called the world's championship class.

The third day of the Wyoming rodeo dawned as auspicious as the other two had and by half past twelve every seat in the vast arena had been taken and ten thousand were sitting on the grass. The contests for that day were many and the sports were to begin at one o'clock. We will pass over most of the events and come at once to the cowboy's bucking contest. For this occasion an outlaw horse with the fearful reputation as a killer had been reserved. He was a stallion called Big Thunder.

The first cow-puncher who undertook to ride him lasted about ten seconds. After several high bucks and the sunfishing maneuver, and then a combination of bucking and sunfishing which was all his own, Big Thunder sent his rider sprawling in the dust and he was out of the contest.

The second cowboy fared no better for after three high straight-away bucks of terrific proportions blood spurted from the man's nostrils and he clung to the saddle and so was disqualified.

The third man lasted through all the preliminary bucking and sunfishing, but when Big Thunder at-