His quarry was not in the barn nor in the corral behind the barn.

There stood Satan and Black Bart, but their owner was not in sight.

But a thought came to Buck while he looked, rather mournfully, at the stallion's promise of limitless speed.

"If I can hold him up jest half a minute," murmured Buck to himself, "jest half a minute till I get a start, I've got a rabbit's chance of livin' out the night!" From the door of the first shed he took a heavy chain with the key in the padlock.

This chain he looped about the post and the main timber of the gate, snapped the padlock, and threw the key into the distance.