Phil instinctively let the horn fall away from his lips. He
peered curiously over the swaying line to learn what, if
anything, had gone wrong.
He made out the cause of the trouble almost at once. A pony with
a woman on its back had broken from the line, and was plunging
toward them at a terrific pace. She appeared to have lost all
control of the animal, and the pony, which proved to be an ugly
broncho, was bucking and squealing as it plunged madly down the
street.
The others failed to see what Phil had observed almost from the
first. The bit had broken in the mouth of the broncho and the
reins hung loosely in the woman's helpless hands.
They were almost up with the clowns' wagon when the woman was
seen to sway dizzily in her saddle, as the leather slipped
beneath her. Then she plunged headlong to the ground.
Instead of falling in a heap, the circus woman, with head
dragging, bumping along the ground, was still fast to the pony.
"Her foot is caught in the stirrup!" yelled half a dozen men at
once, but not a man of them made an effort to rescue her. Perhaps
this was because none of the real horsemen of the show were near
enough to do so.
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