to luck that the animal will get into the rope somehow will not do.  You must pick out your mark as carefully as if you were shooting at it, and then time it.  A steer jumping along changes his position constantly as regards you.  If you throw at his head high up the chances are that it will be away down when your rope reaches him, and you will overthrow.  Now, if you pick out a foot you must reckon so that that foot will be off the ground when your rope reaches him.  The noose does not travel like a bullet, and this element of time is most important.

“Of even more importance is it that the distances are gauged correctly.  You remember I spoke about holding the coils lightly in two or three fingers.  Well, that is done in order that as many coils as may be considered necessary may be let go.  If you are wielding a riata you know that each of your coils is almost two feet or two and one half feet long.  So if you want to lasso something twenty feet away you let go ten coils.

“As to letting go, you simply open your hand at the correct time and the rope slips off.

“But even after you have roped your steer your work is not over.  Almost any animal can pull you from your horse, and to prevent this you must get your rope around the horn of your saddle.  There is where you have to be quick.  There are two ways of making this hitch that are used ordinarily.  The one I prefer is simply to take two turns around the horn, taking care that the second turn comes lower and overlaps the other.  No pull in the world could make that rope slip, while I can, simply by throwing off one turn, let it all slide off.  This other fashion, which is really taking a ‘half-inch’ around the horn, holds just as fast, but you have to push the rope through to loosen it.  You see, in making this sudden twist, a finger is very likely to get caught, and I have known many fingers being taken off before such a hitch could be unfastened.

“It is often advisable to take an extra twist around anything you have lassoed, and this is done by simply throwing a coil.  Practice again is the only thing that can teach this.

“Now you have the whole theory of throwing a rope.

“There are four sorts of throws, but they are all made alike, only the position of the arm being different.  They are the overthrow, the underthrow, the sidethrow, and the backthrow.”

“Backthrow?”

“Yes, backthrow—­catching an object behind you—­something that you need not even see.  That sounds difficult, does it?  Well, you stand behind me and you can see it done.”

The reporter took his station twenty feet behind Mr. Ohnimus, quite out of sight, of course.  He swung the loop around his head, and, without turning, let it fly backward.  It circled the newspaper man exactly, and by pulling it quickly Ohnimus had his arms pinioned to his side.

“Are there any more trick throws?” asked the reporter.