Although not the nearest to him, he resolved to crease this horse.  It is said that creasing generally destroys or damages the spirit of the horse, so Dick determined to try whether his powers of close shooting would not serve him on this occasion.  Going down on one knee he aimed at the creature’s neck, just a hair’s-breadth above the spot where he had been told that hunters usually hit them, and fired.  The effect upon the group was absolutely tremendous.  With wild cries and snorting terror they tossed their proud heads in the air, uncertain for one moment in which direction to fly; then there was a rush as if a hurricane swept over the place, and they were gone.

But the brown horse was down.  Dick did not wait until the others had fled.  He dropped his rifle, and with the speed of a deer sprang towards the fallen horse, and affixed the hobbles to his legs.  His aim had been true.  Although scarcely half a minute elapsed between the shot and the fixing of the hobbles, the animal recovered, and with a frantic exertion rose on his haunches, just as Dick had fastened the noose of the short line in his under jaw.  But this was not enough.  If the horse had gained his feet before the longer line was placed round his neck, he would have escaped.  As the mustang made the second violent plunge that placed it on its legs, Dick flung the noose hastily; it caught on one ear, and would have fallen off, had not the horse suddenly shaken its head, and unwittingly sealed its own fate by bringing the noose round its neck.

And now the struggle began.  Dick knew well enough, from hearsay, the method of “breaking down” a wild horse.  He knew that the Indians choke them with the noose round the neck until they fall down exhausted and covered with foam, when they creep up, fix the hobbles, and the line in the lower jaw, and then loosen the lasso to let the horse breathe, and resume its plungings till it is almost subdued, when they gradually draw near and breathe into its nostrils.  But the violence and strength of this animal rendered this an apparently hopeless task.  We have already seen that the hobbles and noose in the lower jaw had been fixed, so that Dick had nothing now to do but to choke his captive, and tire him out, while Crusoe remained a quiet though excited spectator of the scene.

But there seemed to be no possibility of choking this horse.  Either the muscles of his neck were too strong, or there was something wrong with the noose which prevented it from acting, for the furious creature dashed and bounded backwards and sideways in its terror for nearly an hour, dragging Dick after it, till he was almost exhausted; and yet, at the end of that time, although flecked with foam and panting with terror, it seemed as strong as ever.  Dick held both lines, for the short one attached to its lower jaw gave him great power over it.  At last he thought of seeking assistance from his dog.

“Crusoe,” he cried, “lay hold, pup!”