initial commit of ebook 36398HEADmain

1 files changed, 6150 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/36398.txt b/36398.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8f1a8c6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36398.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,6150 @@
+Project Gutenberg's Ruth Fielding at Silver Ranch, by Alice B. Emerson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Ruth Fielding at Silver Ranch
+       Schoolgirls Among Cowboys
+
+Author: Alice B. Emerson
+
+Release Date: June 12, 2011 [EBook #36398]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUTH FIELDING AT SILVER RANCH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank, David Edwards and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: FRECKLES LEAPED UP, FRIGHTENED AND SNORTING.]
+
+
+
+
+                             Ruth Fielding
+                            At Silver Ranch
+
+                                   OR
+
+                     SCHOOLGIRLS AMONG THE COWBOYS
+                                   BY
+
+                            ALICE B. EMERSON
+
+               Author of "Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill,"
+                "Ruth Fielding at Briarwood Hall," Etc.
+
+                             _ILLUSTRATED_
+
+
+                                NEW YORK
+                         CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
+                               PUBLISHERS
+
+
+
+
+                            Books for Girls
+                          BY ALICE B. EMERSON
+                          RUTH FIELDING SERIES
+                       12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.
+
+
+                   RUTH FIELDING OF THE RED MILL
+                   Or, Jasper Parloe's Secret.
+
+                   RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
+                   Or, Solving the Campus Mystery.
+
+                   RUTH FIELDING AT SNOW CAMP
+                   Or, Lost in the Backwoods.
+
+                   RUTH FIELDING AT LIGHTHOUSE POINT
+                   Or, Nita, the Girl Castaway.
+
+                   RUTH FIELDING AT SILVER RANCH
+                   Or, Schoolgirls Among the Cowboys.
+
+                          Copyright, 1918, by
+                         Cupples & Leon Company
+
+                     Ruth Fielding in the Red Cross
+
+                          Printed in U. S. A.
+
+
+
+
+                                CONTENTS
+
+        CHAPTER                                               PAGE
+             I. "Old Trouble-Maker"                              1
+            II. Bashful Ike                                     11
+           III. In Which Things Happen                          18
+            IV. The Fire Fight                                  30
+             V. "Old Trouble-Maker" Turned Loose                40
+            VI. The Roping Contest                              51
+           VII. Jane Ann Turns the Trick                        57
+          VIII. What Was on the Records                         66
+            IX. The Fox Is Reckless                             75
+             X. Ruth Shows Her Mettle                           83
+            XI. An Ursine Hold-Up                               89
+           XII. The Man From Tintacker                          97
+          XIII. The Party at the Schoolhouse                   103
+           XIV. Bashful Ike Comes Out Strong                   112
+            XV. "The Night Trick"                              123
+           XVI. The Joke That Failed                           136
+          XVII. The Stampede                                   143
+         XVIII. A Desperate Case                               150
+           XIX. The Man at Tintacker                           157
+            XX. The Wolf at the Door                           164
+           XXI. A Plucky Fight                                 171
+          XXII. Service Courageous                             178
+         XXIII. Bashful Ike Takes the Bit in His Teeth         185
+          XXIV. Coals of Fire                                  192
+           XXV. At the Old Red Mill Again                      199
+
+
+
+
+RUTH FIELDING AT SILVER RANCH
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I--"OLD TROUBLE-MAKER"
+
+
+Where the Silver Ranch trail branches from the state road leading down
+into Bullhide, there stretch a rambling series of sheds, or "shacks,"
+given up to the uses of a general store and provision emporium; beside
+it is the schoolhouse. This place on the forked trails is called "The
+Crossing," and it was the only place nearer than the town of Bullhide
+where the scattered population of this part of Montana could get any
+supplies.
+
+One of Old Bill Hicks' herds was being grazed on that piece of rolling
+country, lying in the foothills, right behind the Crossing, and two of
+his cow punchers had ridden in for tobacco. Being within sight of rows
+upon rows of tinned preserves (the greatest luxury extant to the cowboy
+mind), and their credit being good with Lem Dickson, who kept the store,
+the two cattle herders--while their cayuses stood with drooping heads,
+their bridle-reins on the road before them--each secured a can of
+peaches, and sitting cross-legged on the porch before the store, opened
+the cans with their knives and luxuriated in the contents.
+
+"Old man's nigh due, ain't he?" asked Lem, the storekeeper, lowering
+himself into a comfortable armchair that he kept for his own particular
+use on the porch.
+
+"Gittin' to Bullhide this mawnin'," drawled one of the cowboys. "An'
+he's got what he went for, too."
+
+"Bill Hicks most usually does git what he goes after, don't he?"
+retorted the storekeeper.
+
+The other puncher chuckled. "This time Old Bill come near goin' out
+after _rabbit_ an' only bringin' back the _hair_," he said. "Jane Ann is
+just as much of a Hicks as Bill himself--you take it from me. She made
+her bargain b'fore Old Bill got her headed back to the ranch, I reckon.
+Thar's goin' to be more newfangled notions at Silver Ranch from now on
+than you kin shake a stick at. You hear me!"
+
+"Old Bill can stand scattering a little money around as well as any man
+in this State," Lem said, ruminatively. "He's made it; he's saved it;
+now he might's well l'arn to spend some of it."
+
+"And he's begun. Jane Ann's begun for him, leastways," said one of the
+cowboys. "D'ye know what Mulvey brought out on his wagon last Sat'day?"
+
+"I knowed he looked like pitchers of 'movin' day' in New York City, or
+Chicago, when he passed along yere," grunted the storekeeper. "Eight
+head o' mules he was drivin'."
+
+"He sure was," agreed the cow puncher. "There was all sorts of trucks
+and gew-gaws. But the main thing was a pinanner."
+
+"A piano?"
+
+"That's what I said. And that half-Injun, Jib Pottoway, says he kin play
+on the thing. But it ain't to be unboxed till the boss and Jane Ann
+comes."
+
+"And they'll be gittin' along yere some time to-day," said the other
+cowboy, throwing his empty tin away. "And when they come, Lem, they're
+sure goin' to surprise yuh."
+
+"What with?"
+
+"With what they sail by yere in," drawled the puncher.
+
+"Huh? what's eatin' on you, Bud? Old Bill ain't bought an airship, has
+he?"
+
+"Mighty nigh as bad," chuckled the other. "He's bought Doosenberry's big
+automobile, I understand, and Jane Ann's brought a bunch of folks with
+her that she met down East, and they're just about goin' to tear the
+vitals out o' Silver Ranch--now you hear me!"
+
+"A steam wagon over these trails!" grunted the storekeeper. "Waal!"
+
+"And wait till Old Bill sees a bunch of his steers go up in the air when
+they sets eyes on the choo-choo wagon," chuckled Bud. "That'll about
+finish the automobile business, I bet yuh!"
+
+"Come on, Bud!" shouted his mate, already astride his pony.
+
+The two cowboys were off and lashing their ponies to a sharp run in half
+a minute. Scarcely had they disappeared behind a grove of scrub trees on
+the wind-swept ridge beyond the store when the honk of an automobile
+horn startled the slow-motioned storekeeper out of his chair.
+
+A balloon of dust appeared far down the trail. Out of this there shot
+the long hood of a heavy touring car, which came chugging up the rise
+making almost as much noise as a steam roller. Lem Dickson shuffled to
+the door of the store and stuck his head within.
+
+"Sally!" he bawled. "Sally!"
+
+"Yes, Paw," replied a sweet, if rather shrill, voice from the open
+stairway that led to the upper chamber of the store-building.
+
+"Here comes somebody I reckon you'll wanter see," bawled the old man.
+
+There was a light step on the stair; but it halted on the last tread and
+a lithe, red-haired, peachy complexioned girl looked into the big room.
+
+"Well, now, Paw," she said, sharply. "You ain't got me down yere for
+that bashful Ike Stedman, have you? For if he's come prognosticating
+around yere again I declare I'll bounce a bucket off his head. He's the
+biggest gump!"
+
+"Come on yere, gal!" snapped her father. "I ain't said nothin' about
+Ike. This yere's Bill Hicks an' all his crowd comin' up from Bullhide in
+a blamed ol' steam waggin."
+
+Sally ran out through the store and reached the piazza just as the
+snorting automobile came near and slowed down. A lithe, handsome, dark
+girl was at the wheel; beside her was a very pretty, plump girl with
+rosy cheeks and the brightest eyes imaginable; the third person crowded
+into the front seat was a youth who looked so much like the girl who was
+running the machine that they might have changed clothes and nobody
+would have been the wiser--save that Tom Cameron's hair was short and his
+twin sister, Helen's, was long and curly. The girl between the twins was
+Ruth Fielding.
+
+In the big tonneau of the car was a great, tall, bony man with an
+enormous "walrus" mustache and a very red face; beside him sat a rather
+freckled girl with snapping black eyes, who wore very splendid clothes
+as though she was not used to them. With this couple were a big, blond
+boy and three girls--one of them so stout that she crowded her companions
+on the seat into their individual corners, and packed them in there
+somewhat after the nature of sardines in a can.
+
+"Hello, Sally!" cried the girl in the very fine garments, stretching her
+hand out to greet the storekeeper's daughter as the automobile came to a
+stop.
+
+"Hi, Lem!" bawled the man with the huge mustache. "Is Silver Ranch on
+the map yet, or have them punchers o' mine torn the face of Nater all to
+shreds an' only left me some o' the pieces?"
+
+"I dunno 'bout that, Bill," drawled the fat storekeeper, shuffling down
+the steps in his list slippers, and finally reached and shaking the hand
+of Mr. William Hicks, owner of Silver Ranch. "But when some of your cows
+set their eyes on this contraption they're goin' to kick holes in the
+air--an' that's sartain!"
+
+"The cows will have to get used to seeing this automobile, Lem Dickson,"
+snapped the ranchman's niece, who had been speaking with Sally. "For
+uncle's bought it and it beats riding a cayuse, I tell you!"
+
+"By gollies!" grunted Bill Hicks, "it bucks wuss'n any critter I ever
+was astride of." But he spoke softly, and nobody but the storekeeper
+noticed what he said.
+
+"Mean to say you've bought this old chuck-waggin from Doosenberry?"
+demanded the storekeeper.
+
+"Uh-huh," nodded Mr. Hicks.
+
+"Wal, you're gittin' foolish-like in your old age, Bill," declared his
+friend.
+
+"No I ain't; I'm gittin' wise," retorted the ranchman, with a wide grin.
+
+"How's that?"
+
+"I'm l'arnin' how to git along with Jane Ann," declared Mr. Hicks, with
+a delighted chortle, and pinching the freckled girl beside him.
+
+"Ouch!" exclaimed his niece. "What's the matter, Uncle Bill?"
+
+"He says he's bought this contraption to please you, Jane Ann," said the
+storekeeper. "But what'll Old Trouble-Maker do when he sees it--heh?"
+
+"Gee!" ejaculated the ranchman. "I never thought o' that steer."
+
+"I reckon Old Trouble-Maker will have to stand for it," scoffed the
+ranchman's niece, tossing her head. "Now, Sally, you ride out and see
+us. These girls from down East are all right. And we're going to have
+heaps of fun at Silver Ranch after this."
+
+Helen Cameron touched a lever and the big car shot ahead again.
+
+"She's a mighty white girl, that Sally Dickson," declared Jane Ann Hicks
+(who hated her name and preferred to be called "Nita"). "She's taught
+school here at the Crossing for one term, too. And she's sweet in spite
+of her peppery temper----"
+
+"What could you expect?" demanded the stout girl, smiling all over her
+face as she looked back at the red-haired girl at the store. "She has a
+more crimson topknot than the Fox here----"
+
+There came a sudden scream from the front seat of the automobile. The
+car, under Helen Cameron's skillful manipulation, had turned the bend in
+the trail and the chapparel instantly hid the store and the houses at
+the Crossing. Right ahead of them was a rolling prairie, several miles
+in extent. And up the rise toward the trail was coming, in much dust, a
+bunch of cattle, with two or three punchers riding behind and urging the
+herd to better pasture.
+
+"Oh! see all those steers," cried Ruth Fielding. "Do you own _all_ of
+them, Mr. Hicks?"
+
+"I reckon they got my brand on 'em, Miss," replied the ranchman. "But
+that's only a leetle bunch--can't be more'n five hundred--coming up yere.
+I reckon, Miss Helen, that we'd better pull up some yere. If them cows
+sees us----"
+
+"See there! see there!" cried the stout girl in the back seat.
+
+As she spoke in such excitement, Helen switched off the power and braked
+the car. Out of the chapparel burst, with a frantic bellow, a huge black
+and white steer--wide horned, ferocious of aspect--quite evidently "on the
+rampage." The noise of the passing car had brought him out of
+concealment. He plunged into the trail not ten yards behind the slowing
+car.
+
+"Goodness me!" shouted the big boy who sat beside Bill Hicks and his
+niece. "What kind of a beast is that? It's almost as big as an
+elephant!"
+
+"Oh!" cried the girl called "The Fox." "That surely isn't the kind of
+cattle you have here, is it? He looks more like a buffalo. See! he's
+coming after us!"
+
+The black and white steer _did_ look as savage as any old buffalo bull
+and, emitting a bellow, shook his head at the automobile and began to
+cast the dust up along his flanks with his sharp hoofs. He was indeed of
+a terrifying appearance.
+
+"It's Old Trouble-Maker!" cried Jane Ann Hicks.
+
+"He looks just as though his name fitted him," said Tom Cameron, who had
+sprung up to look back at the steer.
+
+At that moment the steer lowered his head and charged for the auto. The
+girls shrieked, and Tom cried:
+
+"Go ahead, Nell! let's leave that beast behind."
+
+Before his sister could put on speed again, however, the big boy, who
+was Bob Steele, sang out:
+
+"If you go on you'll stampede that herd of cattle--won't she, Mr. Hicks?
+Why, we're between two fires, that's what we are!"
+
+"And they're both going to be hot," groaned Tom. "Why, that Old
+Trouble-Maker will climb right into this car in half a minute!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II--BASHFUL IKE
+
+
+The situation in the big automobile was quite as serious as Tom and Bob
+believed, and there was very good reason for the girls to express their
+fright in a chorus of screams. But Ruth Fielding, and her chum, Helen,
+on the front seat, controlled themselves better than the other Eastern
+girls; Jane Ann Hicks never said a word, but her uncle looked quite as
+startled as his guests.
+
+"I am sartainly graveled!" muttered the ranchman, staring all around for
+some means of saving the party from disaster. "Hi gollies! if I only had
+a leetle old rope now----"
+
+But he had no lariat, and roping a mad steer from an automobile would
+certainly have been a new experience for Bill Hicks. He had brought the
+party of young folk out to Montana just to give his niece pleasure, and
+having got Ruth Fielding and her friends here, he did not want to spoil
+their visit by any bad accident. These young folk had been what Bill
+Hicks called "mighty clever" to his Jane Ann when she had been castaway
+in the East, and he had promised their friends to look out for them all
+and send them home in time for school in the Fall with the proper
+complement of legs and arms, and otherwise whole as to their physical
+being.
+
+Ruth Fielding, after the death of her parents when she was quite a young
+girl, had left Darrowtown and all her old friends and home associations,
+to live with her mother's uncle, at the Red Mill, on the Lumano River,
+near Cheslow in York State. Her coming to Uncle Jabez Potter's, and her
+early adventures about the mill, were related in the first volume of
+this series, entitled "Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill; Or, Jasper
+Parloe's Secret."
+
+Ruth had found Uncle Jabez very hard to get along with, for he was a
+miser and his kinder nature had been crusted over by years of hoarding
+and selfishness; but through a happy turn of circumstances Ruth was
+enabled to get at the heart of her crotchety old uncle, and when Ruth's
+dearest friend, Helen Cameron, planned to go to boarding school, Uncle
+Jabez was won over to the scheme of sending the girl with her. The fun
+and work of that first term at school is related in the second volume of
+the series, entitled "Ruth Fielding at Briarwood Hall; Or, Solving the
+Campus Mystery."
+
+For the mid-winter vacation Ruth accompanied Helen and other school
+friends to Mr. Cameron's hunting camp, up toward the Canadian line. In
+"Ruth Fielding at Snow Camp; Or, Lost in the Backwoods," the girls and
+some of their boy friends experience many adventures and endure some
+hardship and peril while lost in the snow-shrouded forest.
+
+One of Ruth's chums, Jennie Stone, otherwise known as "Heavy," invited
+her to Lighthouse Point, with a party of young people, for part of the
+summer vacation; and although Uncle Jabez was in much trouble over his
+investment in the Tintacker Mine, which appeared to be a swindle, the
+old miller had allowed Ruth to accompany her friends to the seashore
+because he had already promised her the outing. In "Ruth Fielding at
+Lighthouse Point; Or, Nita, the Girl Castaway," is narrated all the fun
+and delightful experiences the girl of the Red Mill and her friends had
+at the seaside; including the saving of a girl from the wreck of a
+lumber schooner, a miss who afterward proved to be Jane Ann Hicks, the
+niece of a very wealthy Montana ranch owner. The girl had run away from
+the ranch and from her guardian and calls herself Nita, "because the
+girl in the paper-covered novel was called Nita."
+
+That was just the sort of a romantic, foolish girl Jane Ann Hicks was;
+but she learned a few things and was glad to see her old uncle, rough as
+he was, when he came hunting for her. And Mr. Bill Hicks had learned a
+few things, too. He had never seen people spend money before he came
+East, and he had not understood Jane Ann's longing for the delicate and
+beautiful things in life. He saw, too, that a girl could not be properly
+brought up on a cattle ranch, with nothing but cow punchers and Indians
+and Mexican women about, and Mr. Hicks had determined to give his niece
+"a right-down good time," as he expressed it.
+
+It was to give Jane Ann pleasure, and because of the kindness of Ruth
+and her friends to his niece, that Mr. Bill Hicks had arranged this trip
+West for the entire party, on a visit to Silver Ranch. But the old
+gentleman did not want their introduction to the ranch to be a tragedy.
+And with the herd of half-wild cattle ahead, and Old Trouble-Maker
+thundering along the trail behind the motor car, it did look as though
+the introduction of the visitors to the ranch was bound to be a
+strenuous one.
+
+"Do go ahead, Helen!" cried Madge Steele, Bob's elder sister, from the
+back seat of the tonneau. "Why, that beast may climb right in here!"
+
+Helen started the car again; but at that her brother and Ruth cried out
+in chorus:
+
+"Don't run us into the herd, Helen!"
+
+"What under the sun shall I _do_?" cried Miss Cameron. "I can't please
+you all, that's sure."
+
+"Oh, see that beast!" shrieked The Fox, who was likewise on the back
+seat. "I want to get out!"
+
+"Then the brute will catch you, sure," said Bob Steele.
+
+"Sit still!" commanded Mr. Hicks. "And stop the car, Miss! Better to be
+bunted by Old Trouble-Maker than set that whole bunch off on a
+stampede."
+
+"Mercy me!" cried Mary Cox. "I should think it would be better to
+frighten those cows in front than to be horned to death by this big
+beast from the rear."
+
+"Sit still," said Jane Ann, grimly. "We won't likely be hurt by either."
+
+Old Trouble-Maker did look awfully savage. Bellowing with rage, he
+thundered along after the car. Helen had again brought the automobile to
+a stop, this time at Bill Hicks' command. The next moment the girls
+screamed in chorus, for the car jarred all over.
+
+Crash went a rear lamp. About half a yard of paint and varnish was
+scraped off, and the car itself was actually driven forward, despite the
+brake being set, by the sheer weight of the steer.
+
+"If we could git the old cart turned around and headed the other way!"
+groaned the ranchman.
+
+"I believe I can turn it, Mr. Hicks," cried Helen, excitedly.
+
+But just then the steer, that had fallen back a few yards, charged
+again. "Bang!" It sounded like the exploding of a small cannon. Old
+Trouble-Maker had punctured a rear tire, and the car slumped down on
+that side. Helen couldn't start it now, for the trail was too rough to
+travel with a flattened tire.
+
+The black and white steer, with another furious bellow, wheeled around
+the back of the car and then came full tilt for the side. Heavy screamed
+at the top of her voice:
+
+"Oh, take me home! I never did want to go to a dairy farm. _I just
+abominate cows!_"
+
+But the crowd could not laugh. Huddled together in the tonneau, it
+looked as though Old Trouble-Maker would certainly muss them up a whole
+lot! Jane Ann and her uncle hopped out on the other side and called the
+others to follow. At that moment, with a whoop and a drumming of hoofs,
+a calico cow pony came racing along the trail toward the stalled car. On
+the back of this flying pony was a lanky, dust-covered cowboy, swinging
+a lariat in approved fashion.
+
+"Hold steady, boss!" yelled this apparition, and then let the coils of
+the rope whistle through the air. The hair line uncoiled like a writhing
+serpent and dropped over the wide-spread horns of Old Trouble-Maker.
+Then the calico pony came to an abrupt halt, sliding along the ground
+with all four feet braced.
+
+"Zip!" the noose tightened and the steer brought up with a suddenness
+that threatened to dislocate his neck. Down the beast fell, roaring a
+different tune. Old Trouble-Maker almost turned a somersault, while Jane
+Ann, dancing in delight, caught off her very modern and high-priced hat
+and swung it in the air.
+
+"Hurrah for Bashful Ike!" she shouted. "He's the best little old boy
+with the rope that ever worked for the Silver outfit. Hurrah!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III--IN WHICH THINGS HAPPEN
+
+
+The cow puncher who had rescued them was a fine looking, bronzed fellow,
+with heavy sheepskin chaps on his legs, a shirt open at the throat, his
+sleeves rolled up displaying muscular arms, and twinkling eyes under the
+flapping brim of his great hat. While he "snubbed" the big steer to his
+knees again as the bellowing creature tried to rise, he looked down with
+a broad smile upon the sparkling face of the Western girl.
+
+"Why, bless yo' heart, honey," he said, in a soft, Southern droll, "if
+you want me to, I'll jest natwcher'ly cinch my saddle on Old
+Trouble-Maker an' ride him home for yo'. It certainly is a cure for sore
+eyes to see you again."
+
+"And I'm glad to see you, Ike. And these are all my friends. I'll
+introduce you and the boys to them proper at the ranch," cried the
+Western girl.
+
+"Git that bellowin' critter away from yere, Ike," commanded Mr. Hicks.
+"I 'low the next bunch that goes to the railroad will include that black
+and white abomination."
+
+"Jest so, Boss," drawled his foreman. "I been figurin' Old Trouble-Maker
+better be in the can than on the hoof. He's made a plumb nuisance of
+himself. Yo' goin' on, Boss? Bud and Jimsey's got that bunch out o' the
+way of your smoke-waggin."
+
+"We've got to shift tires, Mr. Hicks," said Tom Cameron, who, with his
+chum, Bob Steele, was already jacking up the rear axle. "That steer
+ripped a long hole in this tire something awful."
+
+Bashful Ike--who didn't seem at all bashful when it came to handling the
+big black and white steer--suddenly let that bellowing beast get upon his
+four feet. Then he swooped down upon the steer, gathering up the coils
+of his rope as he rode, twitched the noose off the wide horns, and
+leaning quickly from his saddle grabbed the "brush" of the steer's tail
+and gave that appendage a mighty twist.
+
+Bellowing again, but for an entirely different reason, the steer started
+off after the bunch of cattle now disappearing in the dust-cloud, and
+the foreman spurred his calico pony after Old Trouble-Maker, yelling at
+the top of his voice at every jump of his pony:
+
+"Ye-ow! ye-ow! ye-ow!"
+
+"I declare I'm glad to see those cattle out of the way," said Helen
+Cameron, with a sigh.
+
+"I believe you," returned Ruth, who was still beside her on the front
+seat. "I just didn't realize before that cattle on the range are a whole
+lot different from a herd of cows in an eastern pasture."
+
+Tom and Bob got the new tire in place and pumped up, and then the
+automobile started again for the ranch house. Jane Ann was quite excited
+over her home-coming; anybody could see that with half an eye. She clung
+to her uncle's hand and looked at him now and again as though to assure
+the old fellow that she really was glad to be home.
+
+And Bill Hicks himself began to "fill into the picture" now that he was
+back in Montana. The young folks had seen many men like him since
+leaving Denver.
+
+"Why, he's just an old dear!" whispered Ruth to Helen, as the latter
+steered the car over the rough trail. "And just as kind and considerate
+as he can be. It's natural chivalry these Western men show to women,
+isn't it?"
+
+"He's nice," agreed Helen. "But he never ought to have named his niece
+'Jane Ann.' That was a mean trick to play on a defenseless baby."
+
+"He's going to make it up to her now," chuckled Tom, who heard this,
+being on the front seat with the two chums. "I know the 'pinanner' has
+gone on ahead, as he promised Nita. And carpets and curtains, too. I
+reckon this ranch we're coming to is going to 'blossom like the rose.'"
+
+When they came in sight of Silver Ranch, just before evening, the guests
+from the East were bound to express their appreciation of the beauty of
+its surroundings. It was a low, broad verandahed house, covering a good
+deal of ground, with cookhouses and other outbuildings in the rear, and
+a big corral for the stock, and bunkhouses for the men. It lay in a
+beautiful little valley--a "coulie," Jane Ann, or Nita, called it--with
+green, sloping sides to the saucer-like depression, and a pretty,
+winding stream breaking out of the hollow at one side.
+
+"I should think it would be damp down there," said Madge Steele, to the
+ranchman. "Why didn't you build your house on a knoll?"
+
+"Them sidehills sort o' break the winds, Miss," explained Mr. Hicks. "We
+sometimes git some wind out yere--yes, ma'am! You'd be surprised."
+
+They rode down to the big house and found a wide-smiling Mexican woman
+waiting for them on the porch. Jane Ann greeted her as "Maria" and Hicks
+sent her back to the kitchen to hurry supper. But everybody about the
+place, even Maria's husband, the "horse wrangler," a sleek looking
+Mexican with rings in his ears and a broken nose, found a chance to
+welcome the returned runaway.
+
+"My! it's great to be a female prodigal, isn't it?" demanded Heavy,
+poking Jane Ann with her forefinger. "Aren't you glad you ran away
+East?"
+
+The Western girl took it good-naturedly. "I'm glad I came back, anyway,"
+she acknowledged. "And I'm awfully glad Ruth and Helen and you-all could
+come with me."
+
+"Well, we're here, and I'm delighted," cried Helen Cameron. "But I
+didn't really expect either Ruth or Mary Cox would come. Mary's got such
+trouble at home; and Ruth's uncle is just as cross as he can be."
+
+Ruth heard that and shook her head, for all the girls were sitting on
+the wide veranda of the ranch-house after removing the traces of travel
+and getting into the comfortable "hack-about" frocks that Jane Ann had
+advised them to bring with them.
+
+"Uncle Jabez is in great trouble, sure," Ruth said. "Losing money--and a
+whole lot of money, too, as he has--is a serious matter. Uncle Jabez
+could lose lots of things better than he can money, for he loves money
+so!"
+
+"My gracious, Ruth," exclaimed Helen, with a sniff, "you'd find an
+excuse for a dog's running mad, I do believe! You are bound to see the
+best side of anybody."
+
+"What you say isn't very clear," laughed her chum, good-humoredly; "but
+I guess I know what you mean, and thank you for the compliment. I only
+hope that uncle's investment in the Tintacker Mine will come out all
+right in the end."
+
+Mary Cox, "The Fox," sat next to Ruth, and at this she turned to listen
+to the chums. Her sharp eyes sparkled and her face suddenly grew pale,
+as Ruth went on:
+
+"I expect Uncle Jabez allowed me to come out here partly because that
+mine he invested in is supposed to be somewhere in this district."
+
+"Oh!" said Helen. "A real mine?"
+
+"That is what is puzzling Uncle Jabez, as I understand it," said Ruth
+soberly. "He isn't sure whether it is a _real_ mine, or not. You see, he
+is very close mouthed, as well as close in money matters. He never said
+much to me about it. But old Aunt Alvirah told me all she knew.
+
+"You see, that young man came to the mill as an agent for a vacuum
+cleaner, and he talked Uncle Jabez into buying one for Aunt Alvirah.
+Now, you must know he was pretty smart to talk money right out of
+Uncle's pocket for any such thing as that," and Ruth laughed; but she
+became grave in a moment, and continued:
+
+"Not that he isn't as kind as he knows how to be to Aunt Alvirah; but
+the fact that the young man made his sale so quickly gave Uncle Jabez a
+very good opinion of his ability. So they got to talking, and the young
+man told uncle about the Tintacker Mine."
+
+"Gold or silver?" asked Helen.
+
+"Silver. The young fellow was very enthusiastic. He knew something about
+mines, and he had been out here to see this one. It had been the only
+legacy, so he said, that his father had left his family. He was the
+oldest, and the only boy, and his mother and the girls depended upon
+him. Their circumstances were cramped, and if he could not work this
+Tintacker Mine he did not know how he should support the family. There
+was money needed to develop the mine and--I am not sure--but I believe
+there was some other man had a share in it and must be bought out. At
+least, uncle furnished a large sum of money."
+
+"And then?" demanded Helen Cameron.
+
+"Why, then the young man came out this way. Aunt Alvirah said that Uncle
+Jabez got one letter from Denver and another from a place called Butte,
+Montana. Then nothing more came. Uncle's letters have been unanswered.
+That's ever since some time last winter. You see, uncle hates to spend
+more money, I suppose. He maybe doesn't know how to have the mine
+searched for. But he told me that the young man said something about
+going to Bullhide, and I am going to try to find out if anybody knows
+anything about the Tintacker Mine the first time we drive over to town."
+
+All this time Mary Cox had been deeply interested in what Ruth said. It
+was not often that The Fox paid much attention to Ruth Fielding, for she
+held a grudge against the girl of the Red Mill, and had, on several
+occasions, been very mean to Ruth. On the other hand, Ruth had twice
+aided in saving The Fox from drowning, and had the latter not been a
+very mean-spirited girl she would have been grateful to Ruth.
+
+About the time that Ruth had completed her story of the Tintacker Mine
+and the utter disappearance of the young man who had interested her
+Uncle Jabez in that mysterious silver horde, Jane Ann called them all to
+supper. A long, low-ceiled, cool apartment was the dining-room at Silver
+Ranch. Through a long gallery the Mexican woman shuffled in with the hot
+viands from the kitchen. Two little dark-skinned boys helped her; they
+were Maria's children.
+
+At supper Mr. Hicks took the head of the long table and Jane Ann did the
+honors at the other end. There were the Cameron twins, and Madge and
+Bob, and Jennie Stone and Mary Cox, beside Ruth Fielding herself. It was
+a merry party and they sat long over the meal; before they arose from
+the table, indeed, much shuffling and low voices and laughter, together
+with tobacco smoke, announced the presence of some of the cowboys
+outside.
+
+"The boys is up yere to hear that pinanner," said Mr. Hicks. "Jib's got
+it ready to slip out o' the box and we'll lift it into the other
+room--there's enough of us huskies to do it--and then you young folks can
+start something."
+
+Jane Ann was delighted with the handsome upright instrument. She had
+picked it out herself in New York, and it had been shipped clear across
+the continent ahead of the private car that had brought the party to
+Bullhide. The jarring it had undergone had not improved its tone; but
+Helen sat down to it and played a pretty little medley that pleased the
+boys at the windows.
+
+"Now, let Ruth sing," urged Jane Ann. "The boys like singing; give 'em
+something they can join in on the chorus like--that'll tickle 'em into
+fits!"
+
+So Ruth sang such familiar songs as she could remember. And then Helen
+got her violin and Madge took her place at the piano, and they played
+for Ruth some of the more difficult pieces that the latter had learned
+at Briarwood--for Ruth Fielding possessed a very sweet and strong voice
+and had "made the Glee Club" during the first half of her attendance at
+Briarwood Hall.
+
+The boys applauded from the veranda. There was at least a dozen of the
+ranchman's employes at the home corral just then. Altogether Mr. Hicks
+paid wages to about sixty punchers and horse wranglers. They were coming
+and going between the home ranch and the ranges all the time.
+
+The girls from the East gave the Silver Ranch cowboys a nice little
+concert, and then Jane Ann urged Jib Pottoway to come to the piano. The
+half-breed was on the veranda in the dusk, with the other fellows, but
+he needed urging.
+
+"Here, you Jibbeway!" exclaimed Mr. Hicks. "You hike yourself in yere
+and tickle these ivories a whole lot. These young ladies ain't snakes;
+an' they won't bite ye."
+
+The backward puncher was urged on by his mates, too, and finally he came
+in, stepping through the long window and sliding onto the piano bench
+that had been deserted by Madge. He was a tall, straight, big-boned
+young man, with dark, keen face, and the moment Tom Cameron saw him he
+seized Bob by the shoulder and whispered eagerly:
+
+"I know that fellow! He played fullback with Carlisle when they met
+Cornell three years ago. Why, he's an educated man--he must be! And
+punching cattle out on this ranch!"
+
+"Guess you forget that Theodore Roosevelt punched cattle for a while,"
+chuckled Bob. "Listen to that fellow play, will you?"
+
+And the Indian could--as Mr. Hicks remarked--"tickle the ivories." He
+played by ear, but he played well. Most of the tunes he knew were
+popular ditties and by and by he warmed the punchers up so that they
+began to hum their favorite melodies as Jib played them.
+
+"Come on, there, Ike!" said the Indian, suddenly. "Give us that 'Prayer'
+you're so fond of. Come on, now, Ike!"
+
+Bashful Ike evidently balked a little, but Jib played the accompaniment
+and the melody through, and finally the foreman of Silver Ranch broke in
+with a baritone roar and gave them "The Cowboy's Prayer." Ike possessed
+a mellow voice and the boys hummed in chorus in the dusk, and it all
+sounded fine until suddenly Jib Pottoway broke off with a sudden
+discordant crash on the piano keys.
+
+"Hel-lo!" exclaimed Bill Hicks, who had lain back in his wicker lounging
+chair, with his big feet in wool socks on another chair, enjoying all
+the music. "What's happened the pinanner, Jib? You busted it? By jings!
+that cost me six hundred dollars at the Bullhide station."
+
+But then his voice fell and there was silence both in the room and on
+the veranda. The sound of galloping hoofs had shut the ranchman up. A
+pony was approaching on a dead run, and the next moment a long, loud
+"Ye-ow! ye-ow!" announced the rider's excitement as something
+extraordinary.
+
+"Who's that, Ike?" cried Hicks, leaping from his chair.
+
+"Scrub Weston," said the foreman as he clumped down the veranda steps.
+
+Jib slipped through the window. Hicks followed him on the jump, and Jane
+Ann led the exodus of the visitors. There was plainly something of an
+exciting nature at hand. A pony flashed out of the darkness and slid to
+a perilous halt right at the steps.
+
+"Hi, Boss!" yelled the cowboy who bestrode the pony. "Fire's sweeping up
+from Tintacker way! I bet it's that Bughouse Johnny the boys have chased
+two or three times. He's plumb loco, that feller is--oughtn't to be left
+at large. The whole chapparel down that a-way is blazin' and, if the
+wind rises, more'n ha'f of your grazin'll be swept away."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV--THE FIRE FIGHT
+
+
+The guests had followed Mr. Hicks and Jib out of the long window and had
+heard the cow puncher's declaration. There was no light in the sky as
+far as the girls could see--no light of a fire, at least--but there seemed
+to be a tang of smoke; perhaps the smoke clung to the sweating horse and
+its rider.
+
+"You got it straight, Scrub Weston?" demanded Bill Hicks. "This ain't no
+burn you're givin' us?"
+
+"Great piping Peter!" yelled the cowboy on the trembling pony, "it'll be
+a burn all right if you fellows don't git busy. I left Number Three
+outfit fighting the fire the best they knew; we've had to let the cattle
+drift. I tell ye, Boss, there's more trouble brewin' than you kin shake
+a stick at."
+
+"'Nuff said!" roared Hicks. "Get busy, Ike. You fellers saddle and light
+out with Scrub. Rope you another hawse out o' the corral, Scrub; you've
+blamed near killed that one."
+
+"Oh! is it really a prairie fire?" asked Ruth, of Jane Ann. "Can't we
+see it?"
+
+"You bet we will," declared the ranchman's niece. "Leave it to me. I'll
+get the horse-wrangler to hitch up a pair of ponies and we'll go over
+there. Wish you girls could ride."
+
+"Helen rides," said Ruth, quickly.
+
+"But not our kind of horses, I reckon," returned Jane Ann, as she
+started after the cowboys. "But Tom and Bob can have mounts. Come on,
+boys!"
+
+"We'll get into trouble, like enough, if we go to this fire," objected
+Madge Steele.
+
+"Come on!" said Heavy. "Don't let's show the white feather. These folks
+will think we haven't any pluck at all. Eastern girls can be just as
+courageous as Western girls, I believe."
+
+But all the time Ruth was puzzling over something that the cowboy, Scrub
+Weston, had said when he gave warning of the fire. He had mentioned
+Tintacker and suggested that the fire had been set by somebody whom Ruth
+supposed the cowboys must think was crazy--otherwise she could not
+explain that expression, "Bughouse Johnny." These range riders were very
+rough of speech, but certainly their language was expressive!
+
+This Tintacker Mine in which she was so deeply interested--for Uncle
+Jabez's sake--must be very near the ranch. Ruth desired to go to the mine
+and learn if it was being worked; and she proposed to learn the whole
+history of the claim and look up the recording of it, as well. Of
+course, the young man who had gotten Uncle Jabez to invest in the silver
+mine had shown him deeds and the like; but these papers might have been
+forged. Ruth was determined to clear up the mystery of the Tintacker
+Mine before she left Silver Ranch for the East again.
+
+Just now, however, she as well as the other guests of Jane Ann Hicks was
+excited by the fire on the range. They got jackets, and by the time all
+the girls were ready Maria's husband had a pair of half-wild ponies
+hitched to the buckboard. Bob elected to drive the ponies, and he and
+the five girls got aboard the vehicle while the restive ponies were held
+by the Mexican.
+
+Tom and Jane Ann had each saddled a pony. Jane Ann rode astride like a
+boy, and she was up on a horse that seemed to be just as crazy as he
+could be. Her friends from the East feared all the time that Jane Ann
+would be thrown.
+
+"Let 'em go, Jose!" commanded the Silver Ranch girl. "You keep right
+behind me, Mr. Steele--follow me and Mr. Tom. The trail ain't good, but I
+reckon you won't tip over your crowd if you're careful."
+
+The girls on the buckboard screamed at that; But it was too late to
+expostulate--or back out from going on the trip. The half-wild ponies
+were off and Bob had all he could do to hold them. Old Bill Hicks and
+his punchers had swept away into the starlit night some minutes before
+and were now out of both sight and hearing. As the party of young folk
+got out of the coulie, riding over the ridge, they saw a dull glow far
+down on the western horizon.
+
+"The fire!" cried Ruth, pointing.
+
+"That's what it is," responded Jane Ann, excitedly. "Come on!"
+
+She raced ahead and Tom spurred his mount after her. Directly in their
+wake lurched the buckboard, with the excited Bob snapping the
+long-lashed whip over the ponies' backs. The vehicle pitched and jerked,
+and traveled sometimes on as few as two wheels; the girls were jounced
+about unmercifully, and The Fox and Helen squealed.
+
+"I'm--be--ing--jolt--ed--to--a--jel--ly!" gasped Heavy. "I'll be--one
+sol--id bruise."
+
+But Bob did not propose to be left behind by Jane Ann and Tom Cameron,
+and Madge showed her heartlessness by retorting on the stout girl:
+
+"You'll be solid, all right, Jennie, never mind whether you are bruised
+or not. You know that you're no 'airy, fairy Lillian.'"
+
+But the rate at which they were traveling was not conducive to
+conversation; and most of the time the girls clung on and secretly hoped
+that Bob would not overturn the buckboard. The ponies seemed desirous of
+running away all the time.
+
+The rosy glow along the skyline increased; and now flames leaped--yellow
+and scarlet--rising and falling, while the width of the streak of fire
+increased at both ends. Luckily there was scarcely any wind. But the
+fire certainly was spreading.
+
+The ponies tore along under Bob's lash and Jane Ann and Tom did not
+leave them far behind. Over the rolling prairie they fled and so rapidly
+that Hicks and his aides from the ranch-house were not far in advance
+when the visitors came within unrestricted view of the flames.
+
+Jane Ann halted and held up her hand to Bob to pull in the ponies when
+they topped a ridge which was the final barrier between them and the
+bottom where the fire burned. For several miles the dry grass, scrub,
+and groves of trees had been blackened by the fire. Light smoke clouds
+drifted away from the line of flame, which crackled sharply and advanced
+in a steady march toward the ridge on which the spectators were perched.
+
+"My goodness me!" exclaimed Heavy. "You couldn't put _that_ fire out by
+spilling a bucket of water on it, could you?"
+
+The fire line was several miles long. The flames advanced slowly; but
+here and there, where it caught in a bunch of scrub, the tongues of fire
+mounted swiftly into the air for twenty feet, or more; and in these
+pillars of fire lurked much danger, for when a blast of wind chanced to
+swoop down on them, the flames jumped!
+
+Toiling up the ridge, snorting and bellowing, tails in air and horns
+tossing, drifted a herd of several thousand cattle, about ready to
+stampede although the fire was not really chasing them. The danger lay
+in the fact that the flames had gained such headway, and had spread so
+widely, that the entire range might be burned over, leaving nothing for
+the cattle to eat.
+
+The rose-light of the flames showed the spectators all this--the black
+smooch of the fire-scathed land behind the barrier of flame, the
+flitting figures on horseback at the foot of the ridge, and the herd of
+steers going over the rise toward the north--and the higher foothills.
+
+"But what can they do?" gasped Ruth.
+
+"They're back-firing," Tom said, holding in his pony. Tom was a good
+horseman and it was evident that Jane Ann was astonished at his riding.
+"But over yonder where they tried it, the flames jumped ahead through
+the long grass and drove the men into their saddles again."
+
+"See what those fellows are doing!" gasped Madge, standing up. "They're
+roping those cattle--isn't that what you call it, _roping_?"
+
+"And hog-tieing them," responded Jane Ann, eagerly. "That's Jib--and
+Bashful Ike. There! that's an axe Ike's got. He's going to slice up that
+steer."
+
+"Oh, dear me! what for?" cried Helen.
+
+"Why, the butchering act--right here and now?" demanded Heavy. "Aren't
+thinking of having a barbecue, are they?"
+
+"You watch," returned the Western girl, greatly excited. "There! they've
+split that steer."
+
+"I hope it's the big one that bunted the automobile," cried The Fox.
+
+"Well, you can bet it ain't," snapped Jane Ann. "Old Trouble-Maker is
+going to yield us some fun at brandin' time--now you see."
+
+But they were all too much interested just then in what was going on
+near at hand--and down at the fire line--to pay much attention to what
+Jane Ann said about Old Trouble-Maker. Bashful Ike and Jib Pottoway had
+split two steers "from stem to stern." Two other riders approached, and
+the girls recognized one of them as Old Bill himself.
+
+"Tough luck, boys," grumbled the ranchman. "Them critters is worth five
+cents right yere on the hoof; but that fire's got to be smothered. Here,
+Jib! hitch my rope to t'other end of your half of that critter."
+
+In a minute the ranchman and the half-breed were racing down the slope,
+their ponies on the jump, the half of the steer jumping behind them. At
+the line of fire Hicks made his frightened horse leap the flames, they
+jerked the half of the steer over so that the cloven side came in
+contact with the flames, and then both men urged their ponies along the
+fire line, right in the midst of the smoke and heat, dragging the
+bleeding side of beef across the sputtering flames.
+
+Ike and his mate started almost at once in the other direction, and both
+teams quenched the fire in good shape. Behind them other cowboys drew
+the halves of the second steer that had been divided, making sure of the
+quenching of the conflagration in the main; but there were still spots
+where the fire broke out again, and it was a couple of hours, and two
+more fat steers had been sacrificed, before it was safe to leave the
+fire line to the watchful care of only half a dozen, or so, of the range
+riders.
+
+It had been a bitter fight while it lasted. Tom and Bob, and Jane Ann
+herself had joined in it--slapping out the immature fires where they had
+sprung up in the grass from sparks which flew from the greater fires.
+But the ridge had helped retard the blaze so that it could be
+controlled, and from the summit the girls from the East had enjoyed the
+spectacle.
+
+Old Bill Hicks rode beside the buckboard when they started back for the
+ranch-house, and was very angry over the setting of the fire. Cow
+punchers are the most careful people in the world regarding fire-setting
+in the open. If a cattleman lights his cigarette, or pipe, he not only
+pinches out the match between his finger and thumb, but, if he is afoot,
+he stamps the burned match into the earth when he drops it.
+
+"That yere half-crazy tenderfoot oughter be put away somewhares, whar he
+won't do no more harm to nobody," growled the ranchman.
+
+"Do you expect he set it, Uncle?" demanded Jane Ann.
+
+"So Scrub says. He seen him camping in the cottonwoods along Larruper
+Crick this mawnin'. I reckon nobody but a confounded tenderfoot would
+have set a fire when it's dry like this, noways."
+
+Here Ruth put in a question that she had longed to ask ever since the
+fire scare began: "Who _is_ this strange man you call the tenderfoot?"
+
+"Dunno, Miss Ruth," said the cattleman. "He's been hanging 'round yere a
+good bit since Spring. Or, he's been seen by my men a good bit. When
+they've spoke to him he's seemed sort of doped, or silly. They can't
+make him out. And he hangs around closest to Tintacker."
+
+"You're interested in _that_, Ruth!" exclaimed Helen.
+
+"What d'you know about Tintacker, Miss?" asked Old Bill, curiously.
+
+"Tintacker is a silver mine, isn't it?" asked Ruth, in return.
+
+"Tintacker used to be a right smart camp some years ago. Some likely
+silver claims was staked out 'round there. But they petered out, and
+ain't nobody raked over the old dumps, even, but some Chinamen, for ten
+year."
+
+"But was there a particular mine called 'Tintacker'?" asked Ruth.
+
+"Sure there was. First claim staked out. And it was a good one--for a
+while. But there ain't nothin' there now."
+
+"You say this stranger hangs about there?" queried Tom, likewise
+interested.
+
+"He won't for long if my boys find him arter this," growled Hicks.
+"They'll come purty close to running him out o' this neck o' woods--you
+hear me!"
+
+This conversation made Ruth even more intent upon solving the mystery of
+the Tintacker Mine, and her desire to see this strange "tenderfoot" who
+hung about the old mining claims increased. But she said nothing more at
+that time regarding the matter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V--"OLD TROUBLE-MAKER" TURNED LOOSE
+
+
+After getting to bed at midnight it could not be expected that the young
+people at Silver Ranch would be astir early on the morning following the
+fire scare. But Ruth, who was used to being up with the sun at the Red
+Mill--and sometimes a little before the orb of day--slipped out of the big
+room in which the six girls were domiciled when she heard the first stir
+about the corrals.
+
+When she came out upon the veranda that encircled the ranch-house,
+wreaths of mist hung knee-high in the coulee--mist which, as soon as the
+sun peeked over the hills, would be dissipated. The ponies were snorting
+and stamping at their breakfasts--great armfuls of alfalfa hay which the
+horse wranglers had pitched over the fence. Maria, the Mexican woman,
+came up from the cowshed with two brimming pails of milk, for the Silver
+Ranch boasted a few milch cows at the home place, and there had been
+sweet butter on the table at supper the night before--something which is
+usually very scarce on a cattle ranch.
+
+Ruth ran down to the corral and saw, on the bench outside the bunkhouse
+door, the row of buckets in which the boys had their morning plunge. The
+sleeping arrangements at Silver Ranch being rather primitive, Tom and
+Bob had elected to join the cowboys in the big bunkhouse, and they had
+risen as early as the punchers and made their own toilet in the buckets,
+too. The sheet-iron chimney of the chuckhouse kitchen was smoking, and
+frying bacon and potatoes flavored the keen air for yards around.
+
+Bashful Ike, the foreman, met the Eastern girl at the corner of the
+corral fence. He was a pleasant, smiling man; but the blood rose to the
+very roots of his hair and he got into an immediate perspiration if a
+girl looked at him. When Ruth bade him good-morning Ike's cheeks began
+to flame and he grew instantly tongue-tied! Beyond nodding a greeting
+and making a funny noise in his throat he gave no notice that he was
+like other human beings and could talk. But Ruth had an idea in her mind
+and Bashful Ike could help her carry it through better than anybody
+else.
+
+"Mr. Ike," she said, softly, "do you know about this man they say
+probably set the fire last night?"
+
+Ike gulped down something that seemed to be choking him and mumbled that
+he supposed he had seen the fellow "about once."
+
+"Do you think he is crazy, Mr. Ike?" asked the Eastern girl.
+
+"I--I swanny! I couldn't be sure as to that, Miss," stammered the foreman
+of Silver Ranch. "The boys say he acts plumb locoed."
+
+"'Locoed' means crazy?" she persisted.
+
+"Why, Miss, clear 'way down south from us, 'long about the Mexican
+border, thar's a weed grows called loco, and if critters eats it, they
+say it crazies 'em--for a while, anyway. So, Miss," concluded Ike,
+stumbling less in his speech now, "if a man or a critter acts batty
+like, we say he's locoed."
+
+"I understand. But if this man they suspect of setting the fire is crazy
+he isn't responsible for what he does, is he?"
+
+"Well, Miss, mebbe not. But we can't have no onresponsible feller
+hangin' around yere scatterin' fire--no, sir!--ma'am, I mean," Ike hastily
+added, his face flaming up like an Italian sunset again.
+
+"No; I suppose not. But I understand the man stays around that old camp
+at Tintacker, more than anywhere else?"
+
+"That's so, I reckon," agreed Ike. "The boys don't see him often."
+
+"Can't you make the boys just scare him into keeping off the range,
+instead of doing him real harm? They seemed very angry about the fire."
+
+"I dunno, Miss. Old Bill's some hot under the collar himself--and he
+might well be. Last night's circus cost him a pretty penny."
+
+"Did you ever see this man they say is crazy?" demanded Ruth.
+
+"I told you I did oncet."
+
+"What sort of a looking man is he?"
+
+"He ain't no more'n a kid, Miss. That's it; he's jest a tenderfoot kid."
+
+"A boy, you mean?" queried Ruth, anxiously.
+
+"Not much older than that yere whitehead ye brought with yuh," said Ike,
+beginning to grin now that he had become a bit more familiar with the
+Eastern girl, and pointing at Bob Steele. "And he ain't no bigger than
+him."
+
+"You wouldn't let your boys injure a young fellow like that, would you?"
+cried Ruth. "It wouldn't be right."
+
+"I dunno how I'm goin' to stop 'em from mussin' him up a whole lot if
+they chances acrost him," said Ike, slowly. "He'd ought to be shut up,
+so he had."
+
+"Granted. But he ought not to be abused. Another thing, Ike--I'll tell
+you a secret."
+
+"Uh-huh?" grunted the surprised foreman.
+
+"I want to see that young man awfully!" said Ruth. "I want to talk with
+him----"
+
+"Sufferin' snipes!" gasped Ike, becoming so greatly interested that he
+forgot it was a girl he was talking with. "What you wanter see that
+looney critter for?"
+
+"Because I'm greatly interested in the Tintacker Mine, and they say this
+young fellow usually sticks to that locality," replied Ruth, smiling on
+the big cow puncher. "Don't you think I can learn to ride well enough to
+travel that far before we return to the East?"
+
+"To ride to Tintacker, Miss?" he asked.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Why, suah, Miss!" cried Ike, cordially. "I'll pick you-all out a nice
+pony what's well broke, and I bet you'll ride him lots farther than
+that. I'll rope him now--I know jest the sort of a hawse you'd oughter
+ride----"
+
+"No; you go eat your breakfast with the other boys," laughed Ruth,
+preparing to go back to the ranch-house. "Jane Ann says we're all to
+have ponies to ride and she maybe will be disappointed if I don't let
+her pick out mine for me," added Ruth, with her usual regard for the
+feelings of her mates. "But I am going to depend on you, Mr. Ike, to
+teach me to ride."
+
+"And when you want to ride over to Tintacker tuh interview that yere
+maverick, yo' let me know, Miss," said Bashful Ike. "I'll see that yuh
+git thar with proper escort, and all that," and he grinned sheepishly.
+
+Tom and Bob breakfasted with the punchers, but after the regular meal at
+the ranch-house the two boys hastened to join their girl friends. First
+they must all go to the corral and pick out their riding ponies. Helen,
+Madge and The Fox could ride fairly well; but Jane Ann had warned them
+that Eastern riding would not do on the ranch. Such a thing as a
+side-saddle was unknown, so the girls had all supplied themselves with
+divided skirts so that they could ride astride like the Western girl.
+Besides, a cow pony would not stand for the long skirt of a riding habit
+flapping along his flank.
+
+Now, Ruth had ridden a few times on Helen's pony, and away back when she
+was a little girl she had ridden bareback on an old horse belonging to
+the blacksmith at Darrowtown. So she was not afraid to try the nervous
+little flea-bitten gray that Ike Stedman roped and saddled and bridled
+for her. Jane Ann declared it to be a favorite pony of her own, and
+although the little fellow did not want to stand while his saddle was
+being cinched, and stamped his cunning little feet on the ground a good
+bit, Ike assured the girl of the Red Mill that "Freckles," as they
+called him, was "one mighty gentle hawse!"
+
+There was no use in the girls from the East showing fear; Ruth was too
+plucky to do that, anyway. She was not really afraid of the pony; but
+when she was in the saddle it did seem as though Freckles danced more
+than was necessary.
+
+These cow ponies never walk--unless they are dead tired; about Freckles'
+easiest motion was a canter that carried Ruth over the prairie so
+swiftly that her loosened hair flowed behind her in the wind, and for a
+time she could not speak--until she became adjusted to the pony's motion.
+But she liked riding astride much better than on a side-saddle, and she
+soon lost her fear. Ike had given her some good advice about the holding
+of her reins so that a sharp pull on Freckles' curb would instantly
+bring the pony down to a dead stop. The bashful one had screwed tiny
+spurs into the heels of her high boots and given her a light quirt, or
+whip.
+
+The other girls--all but Heavy--were, as we have seen, more used to riding
+than the girl of the Red Mill; but with the stout girl the whole party
+had a great deal of fun. Of course, Jennie Stone expected to cause
+hilarity among her friends; she "poked fun" at herself all the time, so
+could not object if the others laughed.
+
+"I'll never in this world be able to get into a saddle without a kitchen
+chair to step upon," Jennie groaned, as she saw the other girls choosing
+their ponies. "Mercy! if I got on that little Freckles, he'd squat right
+down--I know he would! You'll have to find something bigger than these
+rabbits for _me_ to ride on."
+
+At that she heard the girls giggling behind her and turned to face a
+great, droop-headed, long-eared roan mule, with hip bones that you could
+hang your hat on--a most forlorn looking bundle of bones that had
+evidently never recovered the climatic change from the river bottoms of
+Missouri to the uplands of Montana. Tom Cameron held the mule with a
+trace-chain around his neck and he offered the end of the chain to Heavy
+with a perfectly serious face.
+
+"I believe you'd better saddle this chap, Jennie," said Tom. "You see
+how he's built--the framework is great. I know he can hold you up all
+right. Just look at how he's built."
+
+"Looks like the steel framework of a skyscraper," declared Heavy,
+solemnly. "Don't you suppose I might fall in between the ribs if I
+climbed up on that thing? I thought you were a better friend to me than
+that, Tom Cameron. You'd deliberately let me risk my life by being
+tangled up in that moth-eaten bag o' bones if it collapsed under me. No!
+I'll risk one of these rabbits. I'll have less distance to fall if I
+roll."
+
+But the little cow ponies were tougher than the stout girl supposed. Ike
+weighed in the neighborhood of a hundred and eighty pounds--solid bone
+and muscle--and the cayuse that he bestrode when at work was no bigger
+than Ruth's Freckles. They hoisted Heavy into the saddle, and Tom
+offered to lash her there if she didn't feel perfectly secure.
+
+"You needn't mind, Tommy," returned the stout girl. "If, in the course
+of human events, it becomes necessary for me to disembark from this
+saddle, I'll probably want to get down quick. There's no use in
+hampering me. I take my life in my hand--with these reins--and--ugh! ugh!
+ugh!" she finished as, on her picking up the lines, her restive pony
+instantly broke into the liveliest kind of a trot.
+
+But after all, Heavy succeeded in riding pretty well; while Ruth, after
+an hour, was not afraid to let her pony take a pretty swift gait with
+her. Jane Ann, however, showed remarkable skill and made the Eastern
+girls fairly envious. She had ridden, of course, ever since she was big
+enough to hold bridle reins, and there were few of the punchers who
+could handle a horse better than the ranchman's niece.
+
+But the visitors from the East did not understand this fact fully until
+a few days later, when the first bunch of Spring calves and yearlings
+were driven into a not far distant corral to be branded. Branding is one
+of the big shows on a cattle ranch, and Ruth and her chums did not
+intend to miss the sight; besides, some of the boys had corraled Old
+Trouble-Maker near by and promised some fancy work with the big black
+and white steer.
+
+"We'll show you some roping now," said Jane Ann, with enthusiasm. "Just
+cutting a little old cow out of that band in the corral and throwing it
+ain't nothing. Wait till we turn Old Trouble-Maker loose."
+
+The whole party rode over to the branding camp, and there was the black
+and white steer as wild as ever. While the branding was going on the big
+steer bellowed and stamped and tried to break the fence down. The smell
+of the burning flesh, and the bellowing of the calves and yearlings as
+their ears were slit, stirred the old fellow up.
+
+"Something's due to happen when that feller gits turned out," declared
+Jib Pottoway. "You goin' to try to rope that contrary critter, Jane
+Ann?"
+
+"It'll be a free-for-all race; Ike says so," cried Jane Ann. "You wait!
+You boys think you're so smart. I'll rope that steer myself--maybe."
+
+The punchers laughed at this boast; but they all liked Jane Ann and had
+it been possible to make her boast come true they would have seen to it
+that she won. But Old Trouble-Maker, as Jib said, "wasn't a lady's cow."
+
+It was agreed that only a free-for-all dash for the old fellow would
+do--and out on the open range, at that. Old Trouble-Maker was to be
+turned out of the corral, given a five-rod start, and then the bunch who
+wanted to have a tussle with the steer would start for him. Just to make
+it interesting Old Bill Hicks had put up a twenty dollar gold piece, to
+be the property of the winner of the contest--that is, to the one who
+succeeded in throwing and "hog-tieing" Old Trouble-Maker.
+
+It was along in the cool of the afternoon when the bars of the small
+corral were let down and the steer was prodded out into the open. The
+old fellow seemed to know that there was fun in store for him. At first
+he pawed the ground and seemed inclined to charge the line of punchers,
+and even shook his head at the group of mounted spectators, who were
+bunched farther back on the hillside. Bashful Ike stopped _that_ idea,
+however, for, as master of ceremonies, he rode in suddenly and used his
+quirt on the big steer. With a bellow Old Trouble-Maker swung around and
+started for the skyline. Ike trotted on behind him till the steer passed
+the five-rod mark. Then pulling the big pistol that swung at his hip the
+foreman shot a fusilade into the ground which started the steer off at a
+gallop, tail up and head down, and spurred the punchers into instant
+action, as well.
+
+"Ye-yip!" yelled Bashful Ike. "Now let's see what you 'ombres air good
+for with a rope. Go to it!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI--THE ROPING CONTEST
+
+
+With a chorus of "co-ees" and wild yells the cowboys of Silver Ranch
+dashed away on the race after the huge black and white steer. And Jane
+Ann, on her bay mustang, was right up with the leaders in the wild rush.
+It was indeed an inspiring sight, and the boys and girls from the East
+urged their own mounts on after the crowd with eagerness.
+
+"See Nita ride! isn't she just wonderful?" cried Helen.
+
+"I don't think there's anything wonderful about it," sneered The Fox, in
+her biting way. "She was almost _born_ on horseback, you know. It's as
+natural to her as breathing."
+
+"Bu--bu--but it shakes--you up--a good--bit more--than breath--breathing!"
+gasped Heavy, as her pony jounced her over the ground.
+
+Tom and Bob had raced ahead after the cowboys, and Ruth was right behind
+them. She had learned to sit the saddle with ease now, and she was
+beginning to learn to swing a rope; Ike was teaching her. Tom could
+really fling the lasso with some success; but of course he could not
+enter into this mad rush for a single steer.
+
+A twenty dollar gold piece was not to be scorned; and the cowboys were
+earnest in their attempt to make that extra twenty over and above their
+monthly stipend. But Jane Ann Hicks worked for the fun of it, and
+because she desired to show her Eastern friends how she excelled in
+horsemanship. There were so many other things which her friends knew, in
+which she was deficient!
+
+She was up with the leaders when they came within casting distance of
+the big steer. But the steer was wily; he dodged this way and that as
+they surrounded him, and finally one of the punchers got in an awkward
+position and Old Trouble-Maker made for him. The man couldn't pull his
+pony out of the way as the steer made a short turn, and the old fellow
+came head on against the pony's ribs. It was a terrific shock. It
+sounded like a man beating an empty rainwater barrel with a club!
+
+The poor pony was fairly lifted off his feet and rolled over and over on
+the ground. Luckily his rider kicked himself free of the stirrups and
+escaped the terrible horns of Old Trouble-Maker. The steer thundered on,
+paying no further attention to overturned pony or rider, and it was Jib
+Pottoway who first dropped a rope over the creature's horn.
+
+But it was only over one horn and when the galloping steer was suddenly
+"snubbed" at the end of Jib's rope, what happened? Ordinarily Old
+Trouble-Maker should have gone down to his knees with the shock; but the
+Indian's pony stumbled just at that anxious moment, and instead of the
+steer being brought to his knees, the pony was jerked forward by Old
+Trouble-Maker's weight.
+
+The cowboys uttered a chorus of dismal yells as Jib rose into the
+air--like a diver making a spring into the sea--and when he landed--well!
+it was fortunate that the noose slipped off the steer's horn and the
+pony did not roll over the Indian.
+
+Two men bowled over and the odds all in favor of the black and white
+steer! The other cowboys set up a fearful chorus as Jib scrambled up,
+and Old Trouble-Maker thundered on across the plain, having been
+scarcely retarded by the Indian's attempt. Bellowing and blowing, the
+steer kept on, and for a minute nobody else got near enough to the beast
+to fling a rope.
+
+Then one of the other boys who bestrode a remarkably fast little pony,
+got near enough (as he said afterward) to grab the steer by the tail and
+throw him! And it was too bad that he hadn't tried that feat; for what
+he _did_ do was to excitedly swing his lariat around his head and catch
+his nearest neighbor across the shoulders with the slack! This neighbor
+uttered a howl of rage and at once "ran amuck"--to the great hilarity of
+the onlookers. It was no fun for the fellow who had so awkwardly swung
+the rope, however; for his angry mate chased him half a mile straight
+across the plain before he bethought him, in his rage, that it was the
+steer, not his friend, that was to be flung and tied for the prize.
+
+The others laughed so over this incident that the steer was like to get
+away. But one of the fellows, known to them all as "Jimsey" had been
+working cautiously on the outside of the bunch of excited horsemen all
+the time. It was evident to Ruth, who was watching the game very
+earnestly from the rear, that this Jimsey had determined to capture the
+prize and was showing more strategy than the others. He was determined
+to be the one to down Old Trouble-Maker, and as he saw one after the
+other of his mates fail, his own grin broadened.
+
+Now, Ruth saw, he suddenly urged his pony in nearer the galloping steer.
+Standing suddenly in his stirrups, and swinging his lariat with a wide
+noose at the end, he dropped it at the moment when Old Trouble-Maker had
+just dodged another rope. The steer fairly ran into Jimsey's noose. The
+puncher snubbed down on the rope instantly, and the steer, caught over
+the horns and with one foreleg in the noose, came to the hard plain like
+a ton of bricks falling.
+
+"He's down! he's down!" shrieked Bob, vastly excited.
+
+"Oh, the poor thing!" his sister observed. "That must have hurt him."
+
+"Well, after the way that brute tried to crawl into the automobile, I
+wouldn't cry any if his neck was broken!" exclaimed Mary Cox, in sharp
+tones.
+
+Jimsey's horse was well broken and he swung his weight at the end of the
+rope in such a way that the huge steer could not get on his feet again.
+Jimsey vaulted out of the saddle and ran to the floundering steer with
+an agility that delighted the spectators from the East. How they cheered
+him! And his mates, too, urged him on with delight. It looked as though
+Jimsey had "called the trick" and would tie the struggling beast and so
+fulfill the requirements of the contest.
+
+As the agile puncher sought to lay hold of the steer's forefeet,
+however, Old Trouble-Maker flung his huge body around. The "yank" was
+too much for the pony and it was drawn forward perhaps a foot by the
+sheer weight of the big steer.
+
+"Stand still, thar!" yelled Jimsey to the pony. "Wait till I get this
+yere critter tied up in a true lover's knot! Whoa, Emma!"
+
+Again the big steer had jerked; but the pony braced his feet and swung
+backward. It was then the unexpected happened! The girth of Jimsey's
+saddle gave way, the taut rope pulling the saddle sideways. The pony
+naturally was startled and he jumped to one side. In an instant the big
+steer was nimbly on his feet, and flung Jimsey ten feet away! Bellowing
+with fear the brute tore off across the plain again, now with the wreck
+of Jimsey's saddle bounding over the ground behind him and whacking him
+across the rump at every other jump.
+
+If anything was needed to make Old Trouble-Maker mad he had it now. The
+steer sped across the plain faster than he had ever run before, and in a
+temper to attack anything or anybody who chanced to cross his trail.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII--JANE ANN TURNS THE TRICK
+
+
+"Oh, Ruth! that man is hurt," cried Helen, as the chums rode as hard as
+they dared after the flying bunch of cattle punchers.
+
+Jimsey lay on the ground, it was true; but when they came nearer they
+saw that he was shaking both fists in the air and spouting language that
+was the very reverse of elegant. Jimsey wasn't hurt; but he was awfully
+angry.
+
+"Come on! come on, girls!" called Tom. "That old steer is running like a
+dog with a can tied to its tail! Did you ever see the beat of that?"
+
+"And Nita is right in with the crowd. How they ride!" gasped Madge
+Steele. "She'll be killed!"
+
+"I hope not," her brother shouted back. "But she's just about the
+pluckiest girl I ever heard of."
+
+"She's swinging her rope now!" gasped Heavy. "Do you suppose she intends
+to try and catch that steer?"
+
+That was what Jane Ann Hicks seemed determined to do. She had ridden so
+that she was ahead of the troop of other riders. Bashful Ike, the
+foreman, put spurs to his own mount and tried to catch the boss's niece.
+If anything happened to Jane Ann he knew that Old Bill would call him to
+account for it.
+
+"Have a care there, Jinny!" he bawled "Look out that saddle don't give
+ye a crack."
+
+The saddle bounded high in the air--sometimes higher than Jane Ann's
+head--and if she ran her mount in too close to the mad steer the saddle
+might knock her off her pony. Nor did she pay the least attention to
+Bashful Ike's advice. She was using the quirt on her mount and he was
+jumping ahead like a streak of light.
+
+Jane Ann had coiled her rope again and it hung from her saddle. She had
+evidently formed a new plan of action since having the field to herself.
+The others--all but Ike--were now far behind.
+
+"Have a care thar, Jinny!" called the foreman again. "He'll throw you!"
+
+"You keep away, Ike!" returned the girl, excitedly. "This is my chance.
+Don't you dare interfere. I'll show those boys I can beat them at their
+own game."
+
+"Sufferin' snipes! You look out, Jinny! You'll be killed!"
+
+"I won't if you don't interfere," she yelled back at him.
+
+During this conversation both their mounts were on the keen jump. The
+saddle was bounding high over the plain as the steer still bellowed and
+ran. Jane Ann urged her pony as close alongside the steer as she dared,
+leaned sideways from her saddle, and made a sharp slash in the air with
+the hunting knife that had hung from her belt in its sheath. The keen
+blade severed Jimsey's best hair rope (there would be a postscript to
+Jimsey's remarks about that, later) and the saddle, just then bounding
+into the air, caromed from the steer's rump against Jane Ann's pony, and
+almost knocked it off its legs.
+
+But the girl kept her seat and the pony gathered his feet under him
+again and started after the relieved steer. But she did not use her rope
+even then, and after returning her knife to its sheath she guided her
+pony close in to the steer's flank. Before that saddle had beaten him so
+about the body, Old Trouble-Maker might have made a swift turn and
+collided with the girl's mount; but he was thinking only of running away
+now--getting away from that mysterious thing that had been chasing and
+thumping him!
+
+Ike, who cantered along just behind her (the rest of the crowd were many
+yards in the rear) suddenly let out a yell of fear. He saw that the girl
+was about to try, and he was scared. She leaned from her saddle and
+seized the stiff tail of the steer at its base. The foreman drew his gun
+and spurred his horse forward.
+
+"You little skeezicks!" he gasped. "If you break your neck your uncle
+will jest natcherly run me off'n this range!"
+
+"Keep away, Ike!" panted the girl, letting the tail of the maddened
+steer run through her hand until she felt the bunch of hair--or brush--at
+the end.
+
+Then she secured her grip. Digging her spurs into the pony's sides she
+made him increase his stride suddenly. He gained second by second on the
+wildly running steer and the girl leaned forward in her saddle, clinging
+with her left hand to the pommel, her face in the pony's tossing mane.
+
+The next moment the tail was taut and the jerk was almost enough to
+dislocate her arm. But she hung on and the shock was greater to the big
+steer than to Jane Ann. The yank on his tail made him lose his stride
+and forced him to cross his legs. The next moment Old Trouble-Maker was
+on his head, from which he rolled over on his side, bellowing with
+fright.
+
+It was a _vaquero_ trick that Jane Ann had seen the men perform; yet it
+was a mercy that she, a slight girl, was not pulled out of her saddle
+and killed. But Jane Ann had done the trick nicely; and in a moment she
+was out of her saddle, and before Ike was beside her, had tied the
+steer's feet, "fore and aft," with Jimsey's broken rope. Then, with one
+foot on the heaving side of the steer, she flung off her hat and shouted
+to the crowd that came tearing up:
+
+"That double-eagle's mine! Got anything to say against it, boys?"
+
+They cheered her to the echo, and after them came the party of Jane
+Ann's friends from the East to add their congratulations. But as Ruth
+and the others rode up Heavy of course had to meet with an accident.
+Hard luck always seemed to ride the stout girl like a nightmare!
+
+The pony on which she rode became excited because of the crowd of
+kicking, squealing cow ponies, and Heavy's seat was not secure. When the
+pony began to cavort and plunge poor Heavy was shaken right over the
+pommel of her saddle. Her feet lost the stirrups and she began to
+scream.
+
+"My--good--ness--me!" she stuttered. "Hold him--still! Stop!
+Ho--ho--ho----"
+
+And then she slipped right over the pony's rump and would have fallen
+smack upon the ground had not Tom and Bob, who had both seen her peril,
+leaped out of their own saddles, and caught the stout girl as she lost
+her hold on the reins and gave up all hope.
+
+The boys staggered under her weight, but managed to put her upright on
+her feet, while her pony streaked it off across the plain, very much
+frightened by such a method of dismounting. It struck the whole crowd as
+being uproariously funny; but the good-natured and polite cowboys tried
+to smother their laughter.
+
+"Don't mind me!" exclaimed the stout girl. "Have all the fun you want
+to. But I don't blame the pony for running away. I have been sitting all
+along his backbone, from his ears to the root of his tail, and I have
+certainly jounced my own backbone so loose that it rattles. I believe
+I'd better walk home."
+
+It was plain that Jennie Stone would never take a high mark in
+horsemanship; but they caught her pony for her and boosted her on again,
+and later she rode back to the ranch-house at an easy pace. But she
+declared that for the remainder of her stay at Silver Ranch she proposed
+to ride only in the automobile or in a carriage.
+
+But Ruth was vastly enamored of this new play of pony riding. She had a
+retentive memory and kept in mind all that Bashful Ike told her about
+the management of her own Freckles. She was up early each morning and
+had a gallop over the prairie before her friends were out of their beds.
+And when Mr. Hicks stated one day that he had to ride to Bullhide on
+business, Ruth begged the privilege of riding with him, although the
+rest of the young folks did not care to take such a long trip in the hot
+sun.
+
+"I've some business to attend to for my uncle," Ruth explained to the
+ranchman, as they started from the ranch-house soon after breakfast.
+"And I want your advice."
+
+"Sure, Ruthie," he said, "I'll advise ye if I can."
+
+So she told him about Uncle Jabez's mixup with the Tintacker mining
+properties. Bill Hicks listened to this tale with a frowning brow.
+
+"Bless your heart, Miss!" he ejaculated. "I believe you're chasin' a
+wild goose. I reckon your uncle's been stung. These wildcat mining
+properties are just the kind that greenhorn Easterners get roped into. I
+don't believe there's ten cents' worth of silver to the ton in all the
+Tintacker district. It played out years ago."
+
+"Well, that may be," returned Ruth, with a sigh. "But I want to see the
+records and learn just how the Tintacker Mine itself stands on the
+books. I want to show Uncle Jabez that I honestly tried to do all that I
+could for him while I was here."
+
+"That's all right, Ruthie. You shall see the records," declared Mr.
+Hicks. "I know a young lawyer in town that will help you, too; and it
+sha'n't cost you a cent. He's a friend of mine."
+
+"Oh, thank you," cried Ruth, and rode along happily by the big
+cattleman's side.
+
+They were not far from the house when Bashful Ike, who had been out on
+the range on some errand, came whooping over the low hills to the North,
+evidently trying to attract their attention. Mr. Hicks growled:
+
+"Now, what does that feller want? I got a list as long as my arm of
+things to tote back for the boys. Better have driv' a mule waggin, I
+reckon, to haul the truck home on."
+
+But it was Ruth the foreman wished to speak to. He rode up, very red in
+the face, and stammering so that Bill Hicks demanded, with scorn:
+
+"What's a-troubling you, Ike? You sputter like a leaky tea-kettle. Can't
+you out with what you've got to say to the leetle gal, an' let us ride
+on?"
+
+"I--I was just a thinkin' that mebbe you--you could do a little errand for
+me, Miss," stammered Bashful Ike.
+
+"Gladly, Mr. Stedman," returned Ruth, hiding her own amusement.
+
+"It--it's sort of a tick-lish job," said the cowboy. "I--I want ye should
+buy a leetle present. It's--it's for a lady----"
+
+Bill snorted. "You goin' to invest your plunder in more dew-dabs for
+Sally Dickson, Ike? Yah! she wouldn't look at you cross-eyed."
+
+Bashful Ike's face flamed up redder than ever--if that was possible.
+
+"I don't want her to look at me cross-eyed," he said. "She couldn't look
+cross-eyed. She's the sweetest and purtiest gal on this range, and don't
+you forgit that, Mr. Hicks."
+
+"Sho, now! don't git riled at me," grunted the older man. "No offense
+intended. But I hate to see you waste your time and money on a gal that
+don't give two pins for ye, Ike."
+
+"I ain't axin' her to give two pins for me," said Ike, with a sort of
+groan. "I ain't up to the mark with her--I know that. But thar ain't no
+law keepin' me from spending my money as I please, is there?"
+
+"I dunno," returned Bill Hicks. "Maybe there's one that'll cover the
+case and send a feller like you to the foolish factory. Sally Dickson
+won't have nothing to say to you."
+
+"Never mind," said Ike, grimly. "You take this two dollar bill, Miss
+Ruthie--if you will. And you buy the nicest box o' candy yo' kin find in
+Bullhide. When you come back by Lem Dickson's, jest drop it there for
+Sally. Yo' needn't say who sent it," added the bashful cowboy,
+wistfully. "Jest--jest say one o' the boys told you to buy it for her.
+That's all, Miss. It won't be too much trouble?"
+
+"Of course it won't, Mr. Stedman," declared Ruth, earnestly. "I'll
+gladly do your errand."
+
+"Thank you, Miss," returned the foreman, and spurring his horse he rode
+rapidly away to escape further remarks from his boss.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII--WHAT WAS ON THE RECORDS
+
+
+"Now, what can you do with a feller like that?" demanded Mr. Hicks, in
+disgust. "Poor old Ike has been shinning around Sally Dickson ever since
+Lem brought her home from school--from Denver. And she's a nice little
+gal enough, at that; but she ain't got no use for Ike and he ought to
+see it. Gals out here don't like fellers that ain't got sperit enough to
+say their soul's their own. And Ike's so bashful he fair hates hisself!
+You've noticed that."
+
+"But he's just as kind and good-natured as he can be," declared Ruth,
+her pony cantering on beside the ranchman's bigger mount.
+
+"That don't help a feller none with a gal like Sally," grunted Mr.
+Hicks. "She don't want a reg'lar _gump_ hanging around her. Makes her
+the laffin' stock of the hull range--don't you see? Ike better git a move
+on, if he wants her. 'Tain't goin' to be no bashful 'ombre that gets
+Sally Dickson, let me tell ye! Sendin' her lollipops by messenger--bah!
+He wants ter ride up and hand that gal a ring--and a good one--if he
+expects to ever git her into double harness. Now, you hear me!"
+
+"Just the same," laughed Ruth, "I'm going to buy the nicest box of candy
+I can find, and she shall know who paid for it, too."
+
+And she found time to purchase the box of candy while Mr. Hicks was
+attending to his own private business in Bullhide. The town boasted of
+several good stores as well as a fine hotel. Ruth went to the railroad
+station, however, where there was sure to be fresh candies from the
+East, and she bought the handsomest box she could find. Then she wrote
+Ike's name nicely on a card and had it tucked inside the wrapper, and
+the clerk tied the package up with gilt cord.
+
+"I'll make that red-haired girl think that Ike knows a few things, after
+all, if he is less bold than the other boys," thought Ruth. "He's been
+real kind to me and maybe I can help him with Sally. If she knew beans
+she'd know that Ike was true blue!"
+
+Mr. Hicks came along the street and found her soon after Ruth's errand
+was done and took her to the office of the young lawyer he had
+mentioned. This was Mr. Savage--a brisk, businesslike man, who seemed to
+know at once just what the girl wished to discover.
+
+"You come right over with me to the county records office and we'll look
+up the history of those Tintacker Mines," he said. "Mr. Hicks knows a
+good deal about mining properties, and he can check my work as we go
+along."
+
+So the three repaired to the county offices and the lawyer turned up the
+first records of the claims around Tintacker.
+
+"There is only one mine called Tintacker," he explained. "The adjacent
+mines are Tintacker _claims_. The camp that sprang up there and
+flourished fifteen years ago, was called Tintacker, too. But for more
+than ten years the kiotes have held the fort over there for the most
+part--eh, Mr. Hicks?"
+
+"And that crazy feller that's been around yere for some months," the
+ranchman said.
+
+"What crazy fellow is that?" demanded Lawyer Savage, quickly.
+
+"Why, thar's been a galoot around Tintacker ever since Spring opened. I
+dunno but he was thar in the winter----"
+
+"Young man, or old?" interrupted Savage.
+
+"Not much more'n a kid, my boys say."
+
+"You've never seen him?"
+
+"No. But I believe he set the grass afire the other day, and made us a
+heap of trouble along Larruper Crick," declared the ranchman.
+
+The lawyer looked thoughtful. "There was a young fellow here twice to
+look up the Tintacker properties. He came to see me the first time--that
+was more than a year ago. Said he had been left his father's share in
+the old Tintacker Mine and wanted to buy out the heirs of the other
+partner. I helped him get a statement of the record and the names of the
+other parties----"
+
+"Oh, please, Mr. Savage, what was his name?" asked Ruth, quickly.
+
+"I don't know what his name really _was_," replied the lawyer, smiling.
+"He called himself John Cox--might have been just a name he took for the
+time being. There wasn't any Cox ever had an interest in the Tintacker
+as far as I can find. But he probably had his own reasons for keeping
+his name to himself. Then he came back in the winter. I saw him on the
+street here. That's all I know about him."
+
+"Tenderfoot?" asked Hicks.
+
+"Yes, and a nice spoken fellow. He made a personal inspection of the
+properties the first time he was here. That I know, for I found a guide
+for him, Ben Burgess. He stayed two weeks at the old camp, Ben said, and
+acted like he knew something about minerals."
+
+Mr. Savage had found the proper books and he discovered almost at once
+that there had been an entry made since he had last looked up the
+records of Tintacker a year or more before.
+
+"That fellow did it!" exclaimed the lawyer. "He must have found those
+other heirs and he's got possession of the entire Tintacker Mine
+holdings. Yes-sir! the records are as straight as a string. And the
+record was made last winter. That is what he came back here for. Now,
+young lady, what do you want to know about it all?"
+
+"I want a copy, please, of the record just as it stands--the present
+ownership of the mine, I mean," said Ruth. "I want to send that to Uncle
+Jabez."
+
+"It is all held now in the name of John Cox. The original owners were
+two men named Symplex and Burbridge. It is Burbridge's heirs this fellow
+seems to have bought up. Now, he told me his father died and left his
+share of the Tintacker to him. That means that 'Symplex' was this young
+Cox's father. One, or the other of them didn't use his right name--eh?"
+suggested the lawyer.
+
+"But that doesn't invalidate the title. It's straight enough now. The
+Tintacker Mine--whether it is worth ten cents or ten thousand
+dollars--belongs to somebody known as John Cox--somebody who can produce
+the deeds. You say your uncle bought into the mine and took personal
+notes with the mine for security, Miss?"
+
+"That is the way I understand it," Ruth replied.
+
+"And it looks as though the young man used the money to buy out the
+other owners. That seems straight enough. Your uncle's security is all
+clear as far as the title of the mine goes----"
+
+"But according to what I know," broke in Mr. Hicks, "he might as well
+have a lien on a setting of hen's eggs as an interest in the Tintacker
+Mine."
+
+"That's about it," admitted Mr. Savage. "I don't believe the mine is
+worth the money it cost the young fellow to have these records made."
+
+"Well," said Ruth, with a sigh; "I'll pay you for making the copy, just
+the same; and I'll send it home to uncle. And, if you don't mind, Mr.
+Savage, I'll send him your name and address, too. Perhaps he may want
+you to make some move in the matter of the Tintacker property."
+
+This was agreed upon, and the lawyer promised to have the papers ready
+to send East in two or three days. Then Mr. Hicks took Ruth to the hotel
+to dinner, and they started for the ranch again soon after that meal.
+
+When they came in sight of the Crossing, Ruth saw that the little red
+painted schoolhouse was open. All the windows were flung wide and the
+door was ajar; and she could see Sally Dickson's brilliant hair, as well
+as other heads, flitting back and forth past the windows.
+
+"Hi Jefers!" ejaculated Bill Hicks. "I reckon thar's goin' to be a dance
+at the schoolhouse Saturday night. I nigh forgot it. We'll all hafter go
+over so that you folks from Down East kin see what a re'l Montany
+jamboree is like. The gals is fixin' up for it now, I reckon."
+
+"I want to see Sally," said Ruth, smiling.
+
+"Huh!" grunted Bill, with a glance at the big box of candy the Eastern
+girl held so carefully before her. "You kin see her all right. That red
+head of hers shines like a beacon in the night. And I'll speak to Lem."
+
+Ruth rode her pony close to one of the open windows of the little
+schoolhouse. She could see that the benches and desks had been all moved
+out--probably stacked in a lean-to at the end of the house. The floor had
+been swept and mopped up and the girls were helping Sally trim the walls
+and certain pictures which hung thereon with festoons of colored paper.
+One girl was polishing the lamp chimneys, and another was filling and
+trimming the lamps themselves.
+
+"Oh, hullo!" said the storekeeper's daughter, seeing Ruth at the window,
+and leaving her work to come across the room. "You're one of those young
+ladies stopping at Silver Ranch, aren't you?"
+
+"No," said Ruth, smiling. "I'm one of the girls visiting Jane Ann. I
+hope you are going to invite us to your party here. We shall enjoy
+coming, I am sure."
+
+"Guess you won't think much of our ball," returned Sally Dickson. "We're
+plain folk. Don't do things like they do East."
+
+"How do you know what sort of parties we have at home?" queried Ruth,
+laughing at her. "We're not city girls. We live in the country and get
+our fun where we can find it, too. And perhaps we can help you have a
+good time--if you'll let us."
+
+"Well, I don't know," began Sally, yet beginning to smile, too; nobody
+could be _grouchy_ and stare into Ruth Fielding's happy face for long.
+
+"What do you do for music?"
+
+"Well, one of the boys at Chatford's got a banjo and old Jim Casey plays
+the accordion--when he's sober. But the last time the music failed us,
+and one of the boys tried to whistle the dances; but one feller that was
+mad with him kept showing him a lemon and it made his mouth twist up so
+that he couldn't keep his lips puckered nohow."
+
+Ruth giggled at that, but said at once:
+
+"One of my friends plays the piano real nicely; but of course it would
+be too much trouble to bring Jane Ann's piano away over here. However,
+my chum, Helen, plays the violin. She will bring it and help out on the
+music, I know. And we'd _all_ be glad of an invitation."
+
+"Why, sure! you come over," cried Sally, warming up to Ruth's advances.
+"I suppose a bunch of the Silver outfit boys will be on hand. Some of
+'em are real nice boys----"
+
+"And that reminds me," said Ruth, advancing the package of candy. "One
+of the gentlemen working for Mr. Hicks asked me to hand you this, Miss
+Dickson. He was very particular that you should get it safely." She put
+the candy into the red-haired girl's hands. "And we certainly will be
+over--all of us--Saturday evening."
+
+Before Sally could refuse Ike's present, or comment upon it at all, Ruth
+rode away from the schoolhouse.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX--THE FOX IS RECKLESS
+
+
+When Ruth arrived at Silver Ranch that afternoon she found that the
+ranchman's niece and the other girls had planned an outing for the
+following day into the hills West of the range over which Mr. Hicks'
+cattle fed. It was to be a picnic jaunt, the object being mainly to view
+the wonderful "natural bridge" in a small canyon, some thirty miles from
+the ranch.
+
+A sixty-mile drive within twenty-four hours seemed a big undertaking in
+the minds of the Eastern young folk; but Jane Ann said that the ponies
+and mules could stand it. It was probable, however, that none of the
+visitors could stand the ride in the saddle, so arrangements had been
+made for both buckboards to be used.
+
+Tom and Bob were each to drive one of the vehicles. Jib Pottoway was to
+go as guide and general mentor of the party, and one of the little
+Mexican boys would drive the supply wagon, to which were hitched two
+trotting mules. The start would be made at three in the morning;
+therefore the ranch-house was quiet soon after dark that evening.
+
+Maria had breakfast ready for them as soon as the girls and Bob and Tom
+appeared; and the wagon was laden with provisions, as well as a light
+tent and blankets. Tom and Bob had both brought their guns with them,
+for there might be a chance to use the weapons on this jaunt.
+
+"There are plenty of kiotes in the hills," said Jane Ann. "And sometimes
+a gray wolf. The boys once in a while see cats about--in calving time,
+you know. But I reckon they're mighty scarce."
+
+"Cats?" cried Heavy. "Do you shoot cats?"
+
+"Pumas," explained Jane Ann. "They're some nasty when they're re'l
+hungry."
+
+"Oh, I don't want to see any more of the wildcat tribe," Ruth cried. "I
+had my fill of them last winter at Snow Camp."
+
+Tom of course was to drive the buckboard in which his twin and Ruth
+rode; but the chums certainly would not have chosen Mary Cox for the
+fourth member of the party. However, The Fox usually knew what she
+wanted herself, and got it, too! She liked Master Tom and wished to ride
+beside him; and the instant she learned which pair of ponies he was to
+drive, she hopped into the front seat of that buckboard.
+
+"I'm going to sit with you, Tom," she said, coolly. "I believe you've
+got the best ponies. And you can drive better than Bob, too."
+
+Tom didn't look overjoyed, and Helen, seeing the expression of her
+twin's face, began to giggle. There was, however, no polite way of
+getting rid of The Fox.
+
+In a few minutes they were off, Jib Pottoway heading the procession, and
+Ricardo, the Mexican, bringing up the rear with the mule cart.
+
+"You keep a sharp eye on them younguns, Jib!" bawled Bill Hicks, coming
+to the door of the ranch-house in his stocking feet and with his hair
+touseled from his early morning souse in the trough behind the house.
+"I'll hold you responsible if anything busts--now mind ye!"
+
+"All right, Boss," returned the Indian stolidly. "I reckon nothin' won't
+bite 'em."
+
+Driving off thirty miles into the wilderness was nothing in the opinion
+of these Westerners; but to the girls from Briarwood Hall, and their
+brothers, the trip promised all kinds of excitement. And they enjoyed
+every mile of the journey through the foothills. There was something new
+and strange (to the Easterners) to see almost every mile, and Jane Ann,
+or Jib, was right there to answer questions and explain the wonders.
+
+At first they saw miles upon miles of range, over which fed the Silver
+Ranch herds. Heretofore Ruth and her friends had not realized the size
+of the ranch itself and what it meant to own fifty thousand cattle.
+
+"Why!" exclaimed Heavy, with some awe. "Your uncle, Nita, is richer than
+Job--and the Bible says he was the greatest of all the men of the East!
+He only owned seven thousand sheep and three thousand camels and a
+thousand oxen and five hundred she-asses. Why, I believe there are more
+creatures in that one herd yonder than poor old Job owned."
+
+"I guess that was a pretty good herd for 'way down there in Arabia, and
+so long ago," returned Jane Ann. "But cattlemen have learned a lot since
+those times. I expect Uncle Bill has got more ponies than Job had
+mules."
+
+"And the men who looked after Job's cattle were a whole lot different
+from those fellows," cried Helen, from the forward buckboard, pointing
+to a couple of well-mounted punchers spurring after a score of strays
+that had broken away from the main herd. "Dear me, how recklessly they
+ride!"
+
+"But I guess that all cowboys have been reckless and brave," said Ruth,
+quickly. "Somehow, herding cattle on the open plains and hills seems to
+make for rugged character and courage. Think of King David, and lots of
+those Biblical characters. David was a cowboy, and went out and slew
+Goliath. And I expect any of these punchers we see around here wouldn't
+be afraid of a giant," she concluded.
+
+"Huh!" snapped The Fox, who usually found something sharp to say in
+comment upon Ruth's speeches, "I guess these cowboys aren't any better
+than the usual run of men. _I_ think they're rather coarse and ugly.
+Look at this half Indian ahead of us."
+
+"What do you mean--_him_?" exclaimed Tom Cameron, who was pretty well
+disgusted with The Fox and her sly and sneering ways. "Why, he's got a
+better education than most of the men you meet. He stood high at
+Carlisle, in his books as well as athletics. You wouldn't scoff at any
+other college-bred fellow--why at Jib?"
+
+"Indian," said Mary Cox, with her nose in the air.
+
+"His folks owned the country-the whole continent!" cried the excited
+Tom, "until white men drove them out. You'd consider an Englishman, or a
+German, or a Belgian, with his education, the equal of any American. And
+Jib's a true American at that."
+
+"Well, I can't say that I ever could admire a savage," sniffed The Fox,
+tossing her head.
+
+For the most part, however, the girls and their drivers had a very jolly
+time, and naturally there could not be much "bickering" even in the
+leading buckboard where The Fox rode, for Ruth was there, and Ruth was
+not one of the bickering kind. Helen was inclined to think that her chum
+was altogether too "tame"; she would not "stand up for herself" enough,
+and when The Fox said cutting things Ruth usually ignored her
+schoolfellow's ill-nature.
+
+Tom was not entirely happy with The Fox on the seat beside him. He had
+hoped Ruth would occupy that place. When Mary spoke to him perhaps the
+young fellow was a bit cold. At least, before they came to the canyon,
+through which flowed Rolling River, Master Tom had somehow managed to
+offend The Fox and her eyes snapped and she held her lips grimly shut.
+
+The trail became narrow here and it rose steeply, too. The roaring river
+tumbled over the rocks on the left hand, while on the right the sheer
+cliff rose higher and higher. And while the ponies climbed the rather
+steep ascent Jib Pottoway spurred his horse ahead to see if the path was
+all clear to the place where the canyon became a veritable tunnel under
+the "natural bridge."
+
+"Go slow, Tom Cameron!" shouted the ranchman's niece from the second
+carriage. "There are bad places when we get to the upper level--very
+narrow places. And the river is a hundred feet below us there."
+
+"She's trying to scare us," snapped The Fox. "I never saw such people!"
+
+"I guess it will be best to take care," grunted Tom. "She's been here
+before, remember."
+
+"Pah! you're afraid!"
+
+"Perhaps I am," returned Tom. "I'm not going to take any chances with
+these half wild ponies--and you girls in the wagon."
+
+In a minute more they were at the top of the rise. Jib had disappeared
+around a distant turn in the path, which here was straight and level for
+fully a mile. The muffled roar of the river came up to them, and the
+abrupt cliff on the right cast its shadow clear across the canyon. It was
+a rugged and gloomy place and Helen hid her eyes after glancing once
+down the steep descent to the river.
+
+"Oh! drive on, Tommy!" she cried. "I don't want to look down there
+again. What a fearful drop it is! Hold the ponies tight, Tommy."
+
+"Pshaw, you are making a great adieu about nothing," snapped Mary Cox.
+
+"I'll have a care, Nell; don't you fear," assured her brother.
+
+Ruth was as serious as her chum, and as she had a quick eye she noticed
+a strap hanging from the harness of one of the ponies and called Tom's
+attention to it.
+
+"There's a strap unbuckled, Tom," she cried. "Do you see it hanging?"
+
+"Good for you, Ruthie!" cried the boy, leaning out of his seat to
+glimpse the strap. "Here, Mary! hold these reins, please."
+
+He put the reins into the hands of The Fox and hopped out. She laughed
+and slapped them across the ponies' backs and the beasts reared and
+snorted.
+
+"Have a care what you're doing, Mary Cox!" shrieked Helen.
+
+"Whoa!" cried her brother, and leaped to seize the nearest pony by the
+bit. But the half wild animals jerked away from him, dashing across the
+narrow trail.
+
+"Pull up! pull up!" shouted Tom.
+
+"Don't let them run!" cried Jane Ann Hicks, standing up in the carriage
+behind.
+
+But in that single moment of recklessness the ponies became
+unmanageable--at least, unmanageable for The Fox. She pulled the left
+rein to bring them back into the trail, and off the creatures dashed, at
+headlong speed, along the narrow way. On the right was the unscalable
+wall of rock; on the left was the awful drop to the roaring river!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X--RUTH SHOWS HER METTLE
+
+
+Shouting after the runaway, and shrieking advice to The Fox, who still
+clung to the reins, was of no particular use, and Tom Cameron realized
+that as well as did Jane Ann. The boy from the East picked himself up
+and leaped upon the rear of the second buckboard as it passed him, and
+they tore on after the frightened ponies.
+
+Mary Cox could not hold them. She was not a good horsewoman, in any
+case; and a moment after the ponies broke loose, she was just as
+frightened as ever she could be.
+
+She did not drop the lines; that was because she did not think to do so.
+She was frozen with terror. The ponies plunged along the narrow trail,
+weaving the buckboard from side to side, and Mary was helpless to stop
+them. On the rear seat Helen and Ruth clung together in the first shock
+of fear; the threatening catastrophe, too, appalled them.
+
+But only for the first few seconds was Ruth inactive. Behind the
+jouncing vehicle Tom was shouting to them to "pull 'em down!" Ruth
+wrenched herself free from her chum's grasp and leaned forward over the
+seat-back.
+
+"Give the reins to me!" she cried in Mary's ear, and seized the leathers
+just as they slipped from the hands of The Fox.
+
+Ruth gripped them firmly and flung herself back into her own seat. Helen
+seized her with one hand and saved her from being thrown out of the
+pitching vehicle. And so, with her chum holding her into her seat, Ruth
+swung all her weight and force against the ponies' bits.
+
+At first this seemed to have not the least effect upon the frightened
+animals. Ruth's slight weight exercised small pressure on those iron
+jaws. On and on they dashed, rocking the buckboard over the rough
+trail--and drawing each moment nearer to that perilous elbow in the
+canyon!
+
+Ruth realized the menacing danger of that turn in the trail from the
+moment the beasts first jumped. There was no parapet at the outer edge
+of the shelf--just the uneven, broken verge of the rock, with the awful
+drop to the roaring river below.
+
+She remembered this in a flash, as the ponies tore on. There likewise
+passed through her mind a vision of the chum beside her, crushed and
+mangled at the bottom of the canyon--and again, Helen's broken body being
+swept away in the river! And The Fox--the girl who had so annoyed
+her--would likewise be killed unless she, Ruth Fielding, found some means
+of averting the catastrophe.
+
+It was a fact that she did not think of her own danger. Mainly the
+runaway ponies held her attention. _She must stop them before they
+reached the fatal turn!_
+
+Were the ponies giving way a little? Was it possible that her steady,
+desperate pulling on the curbs was having its effect? The pressure on
+their iron jaws must have been severe, and even a half-broken mustang
+pony is not entirely impervious to pain.
+
+But the turn in the road was so near!
+
+Snorting and plunging, the animals would--in another moment--reach the
+elbow. Either they must dash themselves headlong over the precipice, and
+the buckboard would follow, or, in swerving around the corner, the
+vehicle and its three passengers would be hurled over the brink.
+
+And then something--an inspiration it must have been--shot athwart Ruth's
+brain. The thought could not have been the result of previous knowledge
+on her part, for the girl of the Red Mill was no horsewoman. Jane Ann
+Hicks might have naturally thought to try the feat; but it came to Ruth
+in a flash and without apparent reason.
+
+She dropped the left hand rein, stood up to seize the right rein with a
+shorter grip, and then flung herself back once more. The force she
+brought to bear on the nigh pony by this action was too much for him.
+His head was pulled around, and in an instant he stumbled and came with
+a crash to the ground!
+
+The pony's fall brought down his mate. The runaway was stopped just at
+the turn of the trail--and so suddenly that Mary Cox was all but flung
+headlong upon the struggling animals. Ruth and Helen _did_ fall out of
+the carriage--but fortunately upon the inner side of the trail.
+
+Even then the maddened, struggling ponies might have cast themselves--and
+the three girls likewise--over the brink had not help been at hand. At
+the turn appeared Jib Pottoway, his pony in a lather, recalled by the
+sound of the runaways' drumming hoofs. The Indian flung himself from the
+saddle and gripped the bridles of the fallen horses just in season. Bob,
+driving the second pair of ponies with a firm hand, brought them to a
+halt directly behind the wreck, and Tom and Jane Ann ran to Jib's
+assistance.
+
+"What's the matter with these ponies?" demanded the Indian, sharply.
+"How'd they get in this shape? I thought you could drive a pair of
+hawses, boy?" he added, with scorn, looking at Tom.
+
+"I got out to buckle a strap and they got away," said Tom, rather
+sheepishly.
+
+"Don't you scold him, Jib!" commanded Jane Ann, vigorously. "He ain't to
+blame."
+
+"Who is?"
+
+"That girl yonder," snapped the ranchman's niece, pointing an accusing
+finger at Mary Cox. "I saw her start 'em on the run while Tom was on the
+ground."
+
+"Never!" cried The Fox, almost in tears.
+
+"You did," repeated Jane Ann.
+
+"Anyway, I didn't think they'd start and run so. They're dangerous. It
+wasn't right for the men to give us such wild ponies. I'll speak to Mr.
+Hicks about it."
+
+"You needn't fret," said Jane Ann, sternly. "I'll tell Uncle Bill all
+right, and I bet you don't get a chance to play such a trick again as
+long as you're at Silver Ranch----"
+
+Ruth, who had scrambled up with Helen, now placed a restraining hand on
+the arm of the angry Western girl; but Jane Ann sputtered right out:
+
+"No! I won't keep still, Ruth Fielding. If it hadn't been for you that
+Mary Cox would now be at the bottom of these rocks. And she'll never
+thank you for saving her life, and for keeping her from killing you and
+Helen. She doesn't know how to spell gratitude! Bah!"
+
+"Hush up, Jinny," commanded Jib, easily. "You've got all that off your
+mind now, and you ought to feel some better. The ponies don't seem to be
+hurt much. Some scraped, that's all. We can go on, I reckon. You ride my
+hawse, Mr. Cameron, and I'll sit in yere and drive. Won't trust these
+gals alone no more."
+
+"I guess you could trust Ruth Fielding all right," cried the loyal Tom.
+"She did the trick--and showed how plucky she is in the bargain. Did you
+ever see anything better done than the way she threw that pony?"
+
+Jane Ann ran to the girl of the Red Mill and flung her arms around her
+neck.
+
+"You're just as brave as you can be, Ruthie!" she cried. "I don't know
+of anybody who is braver. If you'd been brought up right out here in the
+mountains you couldn't have done any better--could she, Jib?"
+
+"Miss Fielding certainly showed good mettle," admitted the Indian, with
+one of his rare smiles. "And now we'll go on to the camping place. Don't
+let's have any more words about it, or your fun will all be spoiled.
+Where's Ricardo, with the camp stuff? I declare! that Greaser is five
+miles behind, I believe."
+
+With which he clucked to the still nervous ponies and, Tom now in the
+lead, the procession started on in a much more leisurely style.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI--AN URSINE HOLD-UP
+
+
+The party of young people were so excited by the adventure that they
+were scarcely in mind to appreciate the rugged beauty of the canyon. The
+opposite wall was covered with verdure--hardy trees and shrubs found
+their rootage in the crevices between the rocks. Some beds of moss, far
+down where the spray from the river continually irrigated the thin soil,
+were spangled so thickly with starlike, white flowers that the patches
+looked like brocaded bedspreads.
+
+Around the elbow in the trail--that sharp turn which had been the scene
+of the all but fatal accident--the driveway broadened. Far ahead (for the
+canyon was here quite straight again) they could see the arching roof of
+rock, surmounted by the primeval forest, which formed the so-called
+natural bridge. The river tumbled out of the darkness of the tunnel,
+fretted to a foaming cascade by battling with the boulders which strewed
+its bed under the roof-rock. The water's surface gleamed ghostly in the
+shadow of the arch, and before the opening the arc of a rainbow shone in
+the spray.
+
+As the girls' excitement subsided, Ruth saw this scene far ahead and
+cried aloud in rapture:
+
+"Look! Oh, just look! Isn't that beautiful?"
+
+"The waterfall," agreed her chum, "or cascade, or whatever they call it,
+is just a picture, Ruthie!"
+
+"Mighty pretty," said Tom, reining in the pony beside them.
+
+"The cavern is so black and the water is so white--like milk," cried
+Madge from the second carriage. "What a contrast!"
+
+"I tell you what it looks like," added Heavy, who sat beside her. "A
+great, big chocolate cream drop that's broken and the cream oozing out.
+M--m!"
+
+They all laughed at the stout girl's figure of speech, for Jennie
+Stone's mind seemed always to linger upon good things to eat, and this
+comparison was quite characteristic.
+
+"I'd be afraid to go down under that bridge," said Helen. "It's so dark
+there."
+
+"But there's a path through the tunnel, Miss," said Jib, the Indian.
+"And there's another path by which you can climb out on the top of the
+bridge. But the trail for a waggin' stops right yonder, where we camp."
+
+This spot was a sort of cove in the wall of the canyon--perhaps half an
+acre in extent. There was a pretty lawn with a spring of sweet water,
+the overflow of which trickled away to the edge of the precipice and
+dashed itself to spray on the rocks fifty feet below.
+
+They had become used to the sullen roar of the river now and did not
+heed its voice. This was a delightful spot for camping and when Ricardo
+came up with the wagon, the boys and Jib quickly erected the tent,
+hobbled the ponies, and built a fire in the most approved campers'
+fashion.
+
+Never had a picnic luncheon tasted so good to any of the party. The
+mountain air had put an edge on their appetites, and Heavy performed
+such feats of mastication that Helen declared she trembled for the
+result.
+
+"Don't you trouble about me," said the stout girl. "You want to begin to
+worry over _my_ health when I don't eat at all. And I can't see where I
+have got so far ahead of any of the rest of you in the punishment of
+this lunch."
+
+But afterward, when the other girls proposed to climb the rocky path to
+the summit of the natural bridge, Heavy objected.
+
+"It's injurious to take violent exercise after eating heavily," she
+said.
+
+"I never knew the time when Heavy considered it safe to exercise," said
+The Fox, who had gradually recovered her usual manner since the runaway.
+"The time between meals isn't long enough, in her opinion, to warrant
+anybody's working. Come on! let's leave her to slothful dreams."
+
+"And blisters," added Heavy. "My shoes have hurt me for two days. I
+wouldn't climb over these rocks for a farm--with a pig on't! Go on--and
+perspire--and tell yourselves you're having a good time. I've a book here
+to read," declared the graceless and lazy stout girl.
+
+"But aren't the boys going?" asked Ruth.
+
+"They've started for the tunnel down there--with Jib," said Jane Ann,
+with a snap. "Huh! boys aren't no good, anyway."
+
+"Your opinion may be correct; your grammar is terrible," scoffed Mary
+Cox.
+
+"Never you mind about my grammar, Miss Smarty!" rejoined the Western
+girl, who really couldn't forget the peril into which The Fox had run
+her friends so recently. "If you girls are comin' along to the top of
+the bridge, come on. Let the boys go down there, if they want to. The
+rocks are slippery, and they'll get sopping wet."
+
+"There isn't any danger, is there?" queried Helen, thinking of her
+brother.
+
+"No, of course not," replied Jane Ann. "No more danger than there is up
+this way," and she led the way on the path that wound up the rocky
+heights.
+
+The girls were dressed in corduroy skirts and strong, laced walking
+boots--a fitting costume for the climb. But had Jib been present at the
+camp perhaps he would not have allowed them to start without an escort.
+Ricardo had to remain at the camp. This was a wild country and not even
+Jane Ann carried any weapon, although when the ranchman's niece rode
+about the range alone she carried a gun--and she knew how to use the
+weapon, too.
+
+But they could hear the shouts of the boys, rising above the thunder of
+the river, when they left the plateau and began to climb the heights,
+and danger of any kind did not enter the minds of the girls. It was like
+picnicking along the Lumano River, at home, only the scenery here was
+grander.
+
+Ruth and Helen assumed the lead after a very few minutes; they were even
+better climbers than the Western girl. But the way was steep and rugged
+and it wasn't long before their chatter ceased and they saved their
+breath for the work in hand. Madge and Jane Ann came along after the
+chums quite pluckily; but The Fox began clamoring for rest before they
+had climbed half the distance to the top of the cliff.
+
+"Oh, come on, Mary!" ejaculated Madge. "Don't be whining."
+
+"I don't see anything in this," grumbled The Fox. "It's no fun
+scrambling over these rocks. Ouch! Now I've torn my stocking."
+
+"Aw, come on!" said Jane Ann. "You're a regular wet blanket, you are."
+
+"There's no sense in working so hard for nothing," snapped The Fox.
+
+"What did you start out for, Mary?" demanded Madge. "You might have
+remained at the camp with Heavy."
+
+"And she had sense."
+
+"It's too bad _you_ haven't a little, then," observed Jane Ann, rudely.
+
+Ruth and Helen, who really enjoyed the climb, looked down from the
+heights and beckoned their comrades on.
+
+"Hurry up, Slow Pokes!" cried Ruth. "We shall certainly beat you to the
+top."
+
+"And much good may that do you!" grumbled Mary Cox. "What a silly thing
+to do, anyway."
+
+"I do wish you'd go back, if you want to, Mary," declared Madge,
+wearily.
+
+"She's as cross as two sticks," ejaculated Jane Ann.
+
+"Well, why shouldn't I be cross?" demanded The Fox, quite ready to
+quarrel. "This place is as dull as ditch-water. I wish I hadn't come
+West at all. I'm sure, _I've_ had no fun."
+
+"Well, you've made enough trouble, if you haven't had a good time," Jane
+Ann said, frankly.
+
+"I must say you're polite to your guests," exclaimed Mary Cox,
+viciously.
+
+"And I must say you're anything but polite to me," responded the ranch
+girl, not at all abashed. "You're pretty near the limit, _you_ are.
+Somebody ought to give you a good shaking."
+
+Ruth and Helen had gotten so far ahead because they had not wasted their
+breath. Now they were waiting for the other three who came puffing to
+the shelf on which the chums rested, all three wearing frowns on their
+faces.
+
+"For pity's sake!" gasped Helen; "what's the matter with you all?"
+
+"I'm tired," admitted Madge, throwing herself upon the short turf.
+
+"This girl says it's all foolishness to climb up here," said Jane Ann,
+pointing at The Fox.
+
+"Oh, I want to reach the very summit, now I've started," cried Ruth.
+
+"That's silly," declared Mary Cox.
+
+"You're just as cross as a bear," began the Western girl, when Helen
+suddenly shrieked:
+
+"Oh, _oh_! Will you look at that? _What is it?_"
+
+Ruth had already started on. She did not wish to have any words with The
+Fox. A rod or more separated her from her mates. Out of an aperture
+heretofore unnoticed, and between Ruth and the other girls, was thrust
+the shaggy head and shoulders of a huge animal.
+
+"A dog!" cried Madge.
+
+"It's a wolf!" shrieked Mary Cox.
+
+But the Western girl knew instantly what the creature was. "Run,
+Ruthie!" she shouted. "I'll call Jib and the boys. _It's a bear!_"
+
+And at that moment Bruin waddled fully out of the hole--a huge, hairy,
+sleepy looking beast. He was between Ruth and her friends, and his
+awkward body blocked the path by which they were climbing to the summit
+of the natural bridge.
+
+"Wu-uh-uh-uff!" said the bear, and swung his head and huge shoulders
+from the group of four girls to the lone girl above him.
+
+"Run, Ruth!" shrieked Helen.
+
+Her cry seemed to startle the ursine marauder. He uttered another grunt
+of expostulation and started up the steep path. Nobody needed to advise
+Ruth to run a second time. She scrambled up the rocks with an awful fear
+clutching at her heart and the sound in her ears of the bear's
+sabre-like claws scratching over the path!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII--THE MAN FROM TINTACKER
+
+
+Ruth was just as scared as she could be. Although the bear did not seem
+particularly savage, there surely was not room enough on the path for
+him and Ruth to pass. The beast was ragged and gray looking. His little
+eyes twinkled and his tongue lolled out of his mouth, like that of an ox
+when it is plowing. Aside from a grunt, or two, he made at first no
+threatening manifestation.
+
+Helen could not remain inactive and see a bear chase her chum over the
+rocks; therefore she picked up a good-sized stone and threw it at the
+beast. They say--at least, boys say!--that a girl can't throw straight.
+But Helen hit the bear!
+
+The stone must have hurt, for the beast let out a sudden growl that was
+in quite a different tone from the sounds he had made before. He turned
+sharply and bit at the place on his flank where the stone had hit him,
+and then, in a perfectly unreasonable manner, the bear turned sharp
+around and scampered after Ruth harder than ever. It was plain that he
+blamed her for throwing the stone. At least, she was nearest to him, and
+the bear was anxious to get out of the way of the screaming girls below.
+
+Ruth did not give voice to her fear. Perhaps if she had shrieked as The
+Fox did the bear would have been afraid of her. As it was, he came on,
+growling savagely. And in half a minute he was fairly upon her heels!
+
+The way up the height was in a gully with steep sides. Ruth, casting
+back over her shoulder a single terrified glance, saw the lumbering
+beast right upon her heels. The rocks on either hand were too steep to
+climb; it seemed as though the bear would seize her in a moment.
+
+And then it was that the miracle happened. It seemed as though the girl
+_must_ be torn and mangled by the bear, when a figure darted into sight
+above her. A voice shouted:
+
+"Lie down! Lie down, so I can shoot!"
+
+It was a man with a gun. In the second Ruth saw him she only knew he was
+trying to draw bead on the pursuing bear. She had no idea what her
+rescuer looked like--whether he was old, or young.
+
+It took courage to obey his command. But Ruth had that courage. She
+flung herself forward upon her hands and knees and--seemingly--at the same
+instant the man above fired.
+
+The roar of the weapon in the rocky glen and the roar of the stricken
+bear, was a deafening combination of sound. The bullet had hit the big
+brute somewhere in a serious spot and he was rolling and kicking on the
+rocks--his first throes of agony flinging him almost to Ruth's feet.
+
+But the girl scrambled farther away and heard the rifle speak again. A
+second bullet entered the body of the bear. At the same time a lusty
+shout arose from below. The boys and Jib having explored the
+river-tunnel as far as they found it practicable, had returned to the
+camp and there discovered where the girls had gone. Jib hastened after
+them, for he felt that they should not be roaming over the rocks without
+an armed escort.
+
+"Hi, yi!" he yelped, tearing up the path with a rifle in his hand. "Keep
+it up, brother! We're comin'!"
+
+Tom and Bob came with him. Jib saw the expiring bear, and he likewise
+glimpsed the man who had brought bruin down. In a moment, however, the
+stranger darted out of sight up the path and they did not even hear his
+footsteps on the rocks.
+
+"Why, that's that feller from Tintacker!" cried the Indian. "Hey, you!"
+
+"Not the crazy man?" gasped Jane Ann.
+
+"Oh, surely he'll come back?" said Helen.
+
+Ruth turned, almost tempted to run after the stranger. "Do you really
+mean to say it is the young man who has been staying at the Tintacker
+properties so long?" she asked.
+
+"That's the feller."
+
+"We'd ought to catch him and see what Uncle Bill has to say to him about
+the fire," said Jane Ann.
+
+"Oh, we ought to thank him for shooting the bear," cried Madge.
+
+"And I wanted to speak with him so much!" groaned Ruth; but nobody heard
+her say this. The others had gathered around the dead bear. Of a sudden
+a new discovery was made:
+
+"Where's Mary?" cried Helen.
+
+"The Fox has run away!" exclaimed Madge.
+
+"I'll bet she has!" exclaimed Jane Ann Hicks. "Didn't you see her, Jib?"
+
+"We didn't pass her on the path," said Tom.
+
+Ruth's keen eye discovered the missing girl first. She ran with a cry to
+a little shelf upon which the foxy maid had scrambled when the
+excitement started. The Fox was stretched out upon the rock in a dead
+faint!
+
+"Well! would you ever?" gasped Madge. "Who'd think that Mary Cox would
+faint? She's always been bold enough, goodness knows!"
+
+Ruth had hurried to the shelf where The Fox lay. She was very white and
+there could be no doubt but that she was totally unconscious. Jib lent
+his assistance and getting her into his arms he carried her bodily down
+the steep path to the camp, leaving Tom and Bob to guard the bear until
+he returned to remove the pelt. The other girls strung out after their
+fainting comrade, and the journey to the summit of the natural bridge
+was postponed indefinitely.
+
+Cold water from the mountain stream soon brought The Fox around. But
+when she opened her eyes and looked into the face of the ministering
+Ruth, she muttered:
+
+"And _you_ saw him, too!"
+
+Then she turned her face away and began to cry.
+
+"Aw, shucks!" exclaimed the ranchman's niece, "don't bawl none about it.
+The bear won't hurt you now. He's dead as can be."
+
+But Ruth did not believe that Mary Cox was crying about the bear. Her
+words and subsequent actions _did_ puzzle the girl of the Red Mill. Ruth
+had whispered to Tom, before they left the scene of the bear shooting:
+
+"See if you can find that man. If you can, bring him into camp."
+
+"But if he's crazy?" Tom suggested, in surprise.
+
+"He isn't too crazy to have saved my life," declared the grateful girl.
+"And if he is in his right mind, all the more reason why we should try
+to help him."
+
+"You're always right, Ruthie," admitted Helen's brother. But when the
+boy and Jib returned to camp two hours later, with the bear pelt and
+some of the best portions of the carcass, they had to report that the
+stranger who had shot the bear seemed to have totally disappeared. Jib
+Pottoway was no bad trailer; but over the rocks it was impossible to
+follow the stranger, especially as he had taken pains to hide his trail.
+
+"If you want to thank that critter for saving you from the b'ar, Miss
+Ruthie," the Indian said, "you'll hafter go clear over to Tintacker to
+do so. That's my opinion."
+
+"How far away is that?" demanded Mary Cox, suddenly.
+
+"Near a hundred miles from this spot," declared Jib. "That is, by wagon
+trail. I reckon you could cut off thirty or forty miles through the
+hills. The feller's evidently l'arnt his way around since Winter."
+
+Mary asked no further question about the man from Tintacker; but she had
+shown an interest in him that puzzled Ruth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII--THE PARTY AT THE SCHOOLHOUSE
+
+
+The bear fight and the runaway together so disturbed the minds of the
+picnicking party in the canyon that nobody objected to the suggestion of
+an early return to the ranch-house. Ruth was secretly much troubled in
+her mind over the mysterious individual who had killed the bear. She had
+not seen her rescuer's face; but she wondered if Mary Cox had seen it?
+
+The girls never did get to the top of the natural bridge. Jib and the
+boys in trying to trace the stranger had gone over the summit; but they
+did not tarry to look around. The girls and Ricardo got supper,
+immediately after which they set out on the return drive.
+
+Jib insisted upon holding the lines over the backs of the team that had
+run away--and he saw that Mary Cox rode in that vehicle, too. But The Fox
+showed no vexation at this; indeed, she was very quiet all the way to
+Silver Ranch. She was much unlike her usual snappy, sharp-tongued self.
+
+But, altogether, the party arrived home in very good spirits. The
+wonders of the wild country--so much different from anything the
+Easterners had seen before--deeply impressed Ruth and her friends. The
+routine work of the ranch, however, interested them more. Not only Tom
+and Bob, but their sisters and the other girls, found the free,
+out-of-door life of the range and corral a never-failing source of
+delight.
+
+Ruth herself was becoming a remarkably good horsewoman. Freckles carried
+her many miles over the range and Jane Ann Hicks was scarcely more bold
+on pony-back than was the girl from the Red Mill.
+
+As for the cowboys of the Silver outfit, they admitted that the visitors
+were "some human," even from a Western standpoint.
+
+"Them friends o' yourn, Miss Jinny," Jimsey said, to Old Bill's niece,
+"ain't so turrible 'Bawston' as some tenderfoots I've seen." ("Boston,"
+according to Jimsey, spelled the ultra-East and all its "finicky" ways!)
+"I'm plum taken with that Fielding gal--I sure am. And I believe old Ike,
+here, is losin' his heart to her. Old Lem Dickson's Sally better bat her
+eyes sharp or Ike'll go up in the air an' she'll lose him."
+
+It was true that the foreman was less bashful with Ruth than with any of
+the other girls. Ruth knew how to put him at his ease. Every spare hour
+Bashful Ike had he put in teaching Ruth to improve her riding, and as
+she was an early riser they spent a good many morning hours cantering
+over the range before the rest of the young people were astir at Silver
+Ranch.
+
+It was on one of these rides that Bashful Ike "opened up" to Ruth upon
+the subject of the red-haired school-teacher at the Crossing.
+
+"I've jest plumb doted on that gal since she was knee-high to a Kansas
+hopper-grass," the big puncher drawled. "An' she knows it well enough."
+
+"Maybe she knows it too well?" suggested Ruth, wisely.
+
+"Gosh!" groaned Ike. "I _gotter_ keep her reminded I'm on the job--say,
+ain't I? Now, them candies you bought for me an' give to her--what do you
+s'pose she did with 'em?"
+
+"She ate them if she had right good sense," replied Ruth, with a smile.
+"They were nice candies."
+
+"I rid over to Lem's the next night," said Ike, solemnly, "an' that
+leetle pink-haired skeezicks opened up that box o' sweetmeats on the
+counter an' had all them lop-eared jack-rabbits that sits around her
+pa's store o' nights he'pin' themselves out o' _my_ gift-box. Talk
+erbout castin' pearls before swine!" continued Bashful Ike, in deep
+disgust, "_that_ was suah flingin' jewels to the hawgs, all right. Them
+'ombres from the Two-Ten outfit, an' from over Redeye way, was stuffin'
+down them bonbons like they was ten-cent gumdrops. An' Sally never ate
+a-one."
+
+"She did that just to tease you," said Ruth, sagely.
+
+"Huh!" grunted Ike. "I never laid out to hurt her feelin's none. Dunno
+why she should give me the quirt. Why, I've been hangin' about her an'
+tryin' to show her how much I think of her for years! She must know I
+wanter marry her. An' I got a good bank account an' five hundred head o'
+steers ter begin housekeepin' on."
+
+"Does Sally know all that?" asked Ruth, slyly.
+
+"Great Peter!" ejaculated Ike. "She'd oughter. Ev'rybody else in the
+county does."
+
+"But did you ever ask Sally right out to marry you?" asked the Eastern
+girl.
+
+"She never give me a chance," declared Ike, gruffly.
+
+"Chance!" gasped Ruth, wanting to laugh, but being too kind-hearted to
+do so. "What sort of a chance do you expect?"
+
+"I never git to talk with her ten minutes at a time," grumbled Ike.
+
+"But why don't you _make_ a chance?"
+
+"Great Peter!" cried the foreman again. "I can't throw an' hawg-tie her,
+can I? I never can git down to facts with her--she won't let me."
+
+"If I were a great, big man," said Ruth, her eyes dancing, "I surely
+wouldn't let a little wisp of a girl like Miss Dickson get away from
+me--if I wanted her."
+
+"How am I goin' to he'p it?" cried Ike, in despair. "She's jest as sassy
+as a cat-bird. Ye can't be serious with her. She plumb slips out o' my
+fingers ev'ry time I try to hold her."
+
+"You are going to the dance at the schoolhouse, aren't you?" asked Ruth.
+
+"I reckon."
+
+"Can't you get her to dance with you? And when you're dancing can't you
+ask her? Come right out plump with it."
+
+"Why, when I'm a-dancin'," confessed Ike, "I can't think o' nawthin' but
+my feet."
+
+"Your feet?" cried Ruth.
+
+"Yes, ma'am. They're so e-tar-nal big I gotter keep my mind on 'em all
+the time, or I'll be steppin' on Sally's. An' if I trod on her jest
+wunst--wal, that would suah be my finish with her. She ain't got that red
+hair for nawthin'," concluded the woeful cowpuncher.
+
+Ike was not alone at the Silver Ranch in looking forward to the party at
+the schoolhouse. Every man who could be spared of the --X0 outfit
+("Bar-Cross-Naught") planned to go to the Crossing Saturday night. Such
+a rummaging of "war-bags" for fancy flannel shirts and brilliant ties
+hadn't occurred--so Old Bill Hicks said--within the remembrance of the
+present generation of prairie-dogs!
+
+"Jest thinkin' about cavortin' among the gals about drives them 'ombres
+loco," declared the ranchman. "Hi guy! here's even Jimsey's got a bran'
+new shirt on."
+
+"'Tain't nuther!" scoffed Bud. "Whar's your eyes, Boss? Don't you
+reckernize that gay and festive shirt? Jimsey bought it 'way back when
+Mis' Hills' twins was born."
+
+"So it's as old as the Hills, is it?" grunted Mr. Hicks. "Wal, he ain't
+worn it right frequent in this yere neck o' woods--that I'll swear to!
+An' a purple tie with it--Je-ru-sha! Somebody'll take a shot at him in
+that combination of riotin' colors--you hear me!"
+
+The girls too were quite fluttered over the prospect of attending the
+party. Helen had agreed to take her violin along and Bob offered to help
+out with the music by playing his harmonica--an instrument without which
+he never went anywhere, save to bed or in swimming!
+
+"And I can't think of anything more utterly sad, Bobbie," declared his
+sister, "than your rendition of 'the Suwanee River' on that same
+mouth-organ. When it comes to your playing for square dances, I fear you
+would give our Western friends much cause for complaint--and many of
+them, I notice, go armed," she continued, significantly.
+
+"Huh!" sniffed Bob. "I guess I don't play as bad as all that. Busy Izzy
+could dance a jig to my playing."
+
+"That's what I thought," responded Madge. "You're just about up to
+playing jig-tunes on that old mouth-organ."
+
+Just the same, Bob slipped the harmonica into his pocket. "You never can
+tell what may happen," he grunted.
+
+"It'll be something mighty serious, then, Bobbie, if it necessitates the
+bringing forth of that instrument of torture," said his sister, bound to
+have the last word.
+
+At dusk the big automobile got away from Silver Ranch, surrounded by a
+gang of wall-eyed ponies that looked on the rattling machine about as
+kindly as they would have viewed a Kansas grain thrasher. The visitors
+and Jane Ann all rode in the machine, for even Ruth's Freckles would
+have turned unmanageable within sight and sound of that touring car.
+
+"That choo-choo cart," complained Bud, the cowboy, "would stampede a
+battalion of hoptoads. Whoa, you Sonny! it ain't goin' tuh bite yuh."
+This to his own half-crazy mount. "Look out for your Rat-tail, Jimsey,
+or that yere purple necktie will bite the dust, as they say in the
+storybooks."
+
+The hilarious party from Silver Ranch, however, reached the Crossing
+without serious mishap. They were not the first comers, for there were
+already lines of saddle ponies as well as many various "rigs" hitched
+about Lem Dickson's store. The schoolhouse was lit brightly with
+kerosene lamps, and there was a string of Chinese lanterns hung above
+the doorway.
+
+The girls, in their fresh frocks and furbelows, hastened over to the
+schoolhouse, followed more leisurely by their escorts. Sally Dickson, as
+chief of the committee of reception, greeted Jane Ann and her friends,
+and made them cordially welcome, although they were all some years
+younger than most of the girls from the ranches roundabout.
+
+"If you Eastern girls can all dance, you'll sure help us out a whole
+lot," declared the brisk little schoolmistress. "For if there's anything
+I do dispise it's to see two great, hulking men paired off in a reel, or
+a 'hoe-down.' And you brought your violin, Miss Cameron? That's fine!
+You can play without music, I hope?"
+
+Helen assured her she thought she could master the simple dance tunes to
+which the assembly was used. There were settees ranged around the walls
+for the dancers to rest upon, and some of the matrons who had come to
+chaperone the affair were already ensconced upon these. There was a buzz
+of conversation and laughter in the big room. The men folk hung about
+the door as yet, or looked in at the open windows.
+
+"Did that big gump, Ike Stedman, come over with you-all, Miss Fielding?"
+Sally Dickson asked Ruth, aside. "Or did he know enough to stay away?"
+
+"I don't believe Mr. Hicks could have kept him on the ranch to-night,"
+replied Ruth, smiling. "He has promised to dance with me at least once.
+Ike is an awfully nice man, I think--and so kind! He's taught us all to
+ride and is never out of sorts, or too busy to help us out. We
+'tenderfoots' are always getting 'bogged,' you know. And Ike is right
+there to help us. We all like him immensely."
+
+Sally looked at her suspiciously. "Humph!" said she. "I never expected
+to hear that Bashful Ike was so popular."
+
+"Oh, I assure you he is," rejoined Ruth, calmly. "He is developing into
+quite a lady's man."
+
+Miss Dickson snorted. Nothing else could explain her method of
+emphatically expressing her disbelief. But Ruth was determined that the
+haughty little schoolmistress should have her eyes opened regarding
+Bashful Ike before the evening was over, and she proceeded to put into
+execution a plan she had already conceived on the way over from Silver
+Ranch.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV--BASHFUL IKE COMES OUT STRONG
+
+
+Ruth first of all took Jane Ann into her confidence. The ranchman's
+niece had been going about the room renewing her acquaintance with the
+"neighbors," some of whom lived forty miles from Silver Ranch. The
+Western girl was proud of the friends she had made "Down East," too, and
+she was introducing them all, right and left. But Ruth pinched her arm
+and signified that she wished to see her alone for a moment.
+
+"Now, Nita," the girl from the Red Mill whispered, "we want to see that
+Mr. Stedman has a good time to-night. You know, he's been awfully good
+to us all."
+
+"Bashful Ike?" exclaimed Jane Ann.
+
+"Yes. And we must give him so good a time that he will forget to be
+bashful."
+
+"He's a right good feller--yes," admitted Jane Ann, somewhat puzzled.
+"But what can we do for him?"
+
+"Every one of us girls from the ranch must dance with him."
+
+"Oh, crickey!" chuckled Jane Ann, suddenly. "You want to try to make
+Sally Dickson jealous, don't you?"
+
+"No. I only want to make her see that Ike is popular, even if she
+doesn't think him worth being kind to. And Ike _is_ worth being kind to.
+He's a gentleman, and as kind-hearted a man as I ever saw."
+
+"He's all of that," admitted the Western girl. "But he's so clumsy--"
+
+"Forget that!" exclaimed Ruth. "And make _him_ forget his clumsiness.
+He's as good as gold and deserves better treatment at the hands of Sally
+than he has been getting. Of course, she won't be jealous of us young
+girls----"
+
+"Humph! 'Young girls,'" scoffed Jane Ann. "I don't think we're so awful
+young."
+
+"Well, we're too young to be accused of trying to take Sally's beau away
+from her," cried Ruth, merrily. "Now, you'll make him dance with you--and
+first, too. He'll have to if you say so, for he's your uncle's foreman."
+
+"I'll do it," agreed Jane Ann.
+
+Ruth of course found Helen ready and willing to agree to her plan, and
+Madge did not need much urging. They all liked Ike Stedman, and although
+the brisk little schoolmistress seemed to be a very nice girl, the
+foreman of Silver Ranch was quite worthy of her.
+
+"If he dares to dance with me," chuckled Heavy, "I am willing to keep it
+up all the evening. That is, if you think such a course, Ruthie, will
+awaken Miss Dickson to poor Ike's good points."
+
+"And how about those blisters you were complaining about the other day?"
+asked Madge, slyly.
+
+"Pshaw! what girl ever remembered blisters when she could dance?"
+responded the stout girl, with scorn.
+
+Ruth had all but The Fox in line when the violin struck up the first
+number; she did not think it wise to speak to Mary about the plan, for
+she feared that the latter would refuse to cooperate. The boys came
+straggling in at the first notes of Helen's violin, and there were no
+medals on Ike Stedman for bashfulness at first. Tom Cameron, spurred on
+by his sister, broke the ice and went at once to the school-teacher and
+asked for the dance. Bob followed suit by taking Mary Cox for a partner
+(Mary engineered _that_), and soon the sets began to form while Helen
+played her sprightliest.
+
+The young men crowded in awkwardly and when Jane Ann saw the tall figure
+of Ike just outside the door she called to him:
+
+"Come on in, Mr. Stedman. You know this is our dance. Hurry up!"
+
+Now Ike usually didn't get up sufficient courage to appear upon the
+floor until half the evening was over, and there was a deal of chuckling
+and nudging when the foreman, his face flaming, pushed into the room.
+But he could not escape "the boss' niece." Jane Ann deliberately led him
+into the set of which Tom and Sally Dickson were the nucleus.
+
+"My great aunt!" groaned Ike. "Just as like as not, honey, I'll trample
+all over you an' mash yo' feet. It's like takin' life in your han's to
+dance with me."
+
+"Mebbe I better take my feet in my hands, according to your warning,
+Ike," quoth Jane Ann. "Aw, come on, I reckon I can dodge your feet, big
+as they are."
+
+Nor did Bashful Ike prove to be so poor a dancer, when he was once on
+the floor. But he went through the figures of the dance with a face--so
+Jane Ann said afterward--that flamed like a torchlight procession every
+time he came opposite to Sally Dickson.
+
+"I see you're here early, Mr. Stedman," said the red-haired
+schoolmistress, as she was being swung by the giant cow puncher in one
+of the figures. "Usually you're like Parson Brown's cow's tail--always
+behind!"
+
+"They drug me in, Sally--they just drug me in," explained the suffering
+Ike.
+
+"Well, do brace up and look a little less like you was at your own
+funeral!" snapped the schoolmistress.
+
+This sharp speech would have completely quenched Ike's desire to dance
+had Ruth not laid her plans so carefully. The moment the music ceased
+and Ike made for the door, Heavy stopped him. She was between the
+bashful cow puncher and all escape--unless he went through the window!
+
+"Oh, Mr. Stedman! I do so want to dance," cried the stout girl, with her
+very broadest and friendliest smile. "Nobody asked me to this time, and
+I just know they're all afraid of me. Do I look as though I bite?"
+
+"Bless you, no, Miss!" responded the polite foreman of Silver Ranch.
+"You look just as harmless as though you'd never cut a tooth, as fur as
+that goes!"
+
+"Then you're not afraid to dance the next number with me? There! Helen's
+tuning up."
+
+"If you re'lly want me to, Miss," exclaimed the much-flurried foreman.
+"But I won't mislead ye. I ain't a good dancer."
+
+"Then there will be a pair of us," was Heavy's cheerful reply. "If the
+other folk run off the floor, we'll be company for each other."
+
+Carefully rehearsed by Ruth Fielding, Jennie Stone likewise picked the
+group of dancers of which Sally Dickson and a new partner were members;
+and once again Bashful Ike found himself close to the object of his
+adoration.
+
+"Hullo, Ike! you back again?" demanded Sally, cheerfully, as they
+clasped hands in a "walk-around." "I believe you are getting to be a
+regular lady's man."
+
+"Aw--now--Sally!"
+
+"So that Ruth Fielding says," laughed Sally. "You're sure popular with
+those youngsters."
+
+Ike grinned feebly. But he was feeling better. He had actually forgotten
+his feet--even in Sally's presence. Jennie Stone, although an all too
+solid bit of humanity, was remarkably light upon her feet when it came
+to dancing. Indeed, she was so good a dancer that she steered Ike over
+the floor to such good purpose that he--as well as other people--began to
+believe that Bashful Ike was no more awkward than the next man off the
+range.
+
+"Why, Ruthie!" whispered Madge Steele, who was the next "victim" in
+line. "Ike is a regular Beau Brummel beside some of these fellows. Look
+at Heavy steering him around! And look at the teacher watching them.
+Humph! young lady I believe you're got a 'great head on you,' to quote
+Master Bobbie."
+
+"Now, you be real nice to him, Madge," Ruth urged.
+
+"Of course I shall, child," replied Miss Steele, with her most
+"grown-uppish" air. "He's nice anyway; and if we can 'wake teacher' up
+to his importance, I'll gladly do my part."
+
+"If it only gives him a grain of confidence in himself, I shall be
+satisfied," declared Ruth. "That is what Ike lacks."
+
+The foreman of Silver Ranch was coming out pretty strong, however. The
+Virginia Reel was the favorite dance, and when Helen stopped playing the
+applause was so great, that she responded with a repetition of the whole
+figure; so Ike and Heavy continued on the floor for a much longer
+period, and the big cowpuncher gained more ease of manner. When they
+ceased dancing the stout girl led her escort right into the clutches of
+Madge Steele.
+
+Now, Madge was taller than the schoolmistress and in her city-made gown
+looked years older. The boys were rather afraid of Madge when she "put
+on the real thing," as her brother inelegantly expressed it, for she
+seemed then quite a young lady grown!
+
+"I really believe you Western men are gallant, Mr. Stedman," she
+announced. "Chivalrous, and unafraid, and bold, and all that. I am
+deeply disappointed."
+
+"How's that, Miss?" exclaimed poor Ike.
+
+"I haven't had an invitation to dance yet," pursued Madge. "If I had
+scarletina, or the measles--or even the mumps--I do not think I should be
+more avoided by the male portion of the assembly. What do you suppose is
+the matter with me, Mr. Stedman?"
+
+"Why, I--I----"
+
+Ike was on the verge of declaring that he would find her a partner if he
+had to use a gun to get one to come forward; but he was inspired for
+once to do the right thing. He really bowed before Madge with something
+of a flourish, as the tinkle of the violin strings began again.
+
+"If you think you can stand _me_, Miss Steele," declared the big
+foreman, "I'd be near about tickled to death to lead you out myself."
+
+"You are very good," said Madge, demurely. "But are you sure--I think
+that pretty little teacher is looking this way. You are not neglecting
+any old friends for _me_ I hope, Mr. Stedman?"
+
+Ike's face flamed again furiously. He stole a glance at Sally Dickson,
+who had just refused Jimsey for a partner--and with sharpness.
+
+"I'm pretty sure I'll be a whole lot better off with you, Miss," he
+admitted. "Jest now, especially."
+
+Madge's ringing laugh caught Sally's ear, as the Eastern girl bore the
+foreman of Silver Ranch off to join the next set of dancers. The teacher
+did not dance that number at all.
+
+Mrs. "Jule" Marvin, the young and buxom wife of the owner of the Two-Ten
+Ranch, caught Ike's hand and whispered loudly:
+
+"I never suspected you was such a heart-breaker, Ike. Goodness me!
+you're dancing every dance, and with a new partner each time. I haven't
+got to be left out in the cold just because I'm married to Tom, I hope?
+He can't dance with that game leg, poor old man! You going to save a
+dance for me, Ike?"
+
+"Suah's your bawn, honey!" responded the foreman, who was beginning to
+enjoy his prominence and had known Mrs. Jule for years. "The next one's
+yours if you say the word."
+
+"You're my meat, then, Ike," declared the jolly Western matron, as she
+glided away with her present partner.
+
+So there was a little rift in Ruth Fielding's scheme, for Ike danced
+next with the ranchman's wife. But that pleased the girl from the Red
+Mill and her fellow conspirators quite as well. Ike was no neglected
+male "wall-flower." Sally only skipped one dance; but she watched the
+big foreman with growing wonder.
+
+A rest was due Helen anyway; and Bob Steele was at hand with his
+never-failing harmonica. "The heart-rending strains," as Madge termed
+the rather trying music from the mouth-organ, were sufficiently lively
+for most of the party, and the floor was filled with dancers when Helen
+captured Ike and he led her into a set just forming.
+
+"You must be the best dancer among the men, Mr. Ike," declared Ruth's
+chum, dimpling merrily. "You are in such demand."
+
+"I b'lieve you gals have jest been ladlin' the syrup intuh me, Miss
+Cam'ron," Ike responded, but grinning with growing confidence. "It's
+been mighty nice of you."
+
+"You'd better give Sally a chance pretty soon," whispered Helen. "There
+is surely fire in her eye."
+
+"Great Peter!" groaned Ike. "I'm almost afraid to meet up with her now."
+
+"Pluck up your spirit, sir!" commanded Helen. And she maneuvered so
+that, when the dance was done, they stood right next to Sally Dickson
+and her last partner.
+
+"Well, ain't you the busy little bee, Ike," said the school-teacher, in
+a low voice. "Are you bespoke for the rest of the evening? These
+young-ones certainly have turned your head."
+
+"Me, Sally?" responded her bashful friend. "They like tuh dance, I
+reckon, like all other young things--an' the other boys seem kinder
+backward with 'em; 'cause they're Bawston, I s'pose."
+
+"Humph!" ejaculated Miss Sally; "you ain't such a gump as to believe all
+that. That little Smartie, Ruth Fielding, planned all this, I bet a
+cent!"
+
+"Miss Ruth?" queried Ike, in surprise. "Why, I ain't danced with her at
+all."
+
+"Nor you ain't a-goin' to!" snapped Sally. "You can dance with me for a
+spell now." And for the remainder of that hilarious evening Sally
+scarcely allowed Bashful Ike out of her clutches.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV--"THE NIGHT TRICK"
+
+
+The party at the schoolhouse was declared a success by all Jane Ann
+Hick's Eastern friends--saving, of course, The Fox. She had only danced
+with Tom and Bob and had disproved haughtily of the entire proceedings.
+She had pronounced Ruth's little plot for getting Ike and Sally
+together, "a silly trick," although the other girls had found
+considerable innocent enjoyment in it, and the big foreman of Silver
+Ranch rode home with them after midnight in a plain condition of
+ecstacy.
+
+"Ike suah has made the hit of his life," Jimsey declared, to the other
+cowboys.
+
+"He was the 'belle of the ball' all right," chimed in another.
+
+"If I warn't a person of puffectly tame an' gentle nature, I'd suah be a
+whole lot jealous of his popularity," proceeded he of the purple
+necktie. "But I see a-many of you 'ombres jest standin' around and
+a-gnashin' of your teeth at the way Ike carried off the gals."
+
+"Huh!" grunted Bud. "We weren't gnashin' no teeth at old Ike. What put
+our grinders on edge was that yere purple necktie an' pink-striped shirt
+you're wearin'. Ev'ry gal that danced with you, Jimsey, was in danger of
+gettin' cross-eyed lookin' at that ne-fa-ri-ous combination."
+
+Sunday was a quiet day at the ranch. Although there was no church nearer
+than Bullhide, Bill Hicks made a practice of doing as little work as
+possible on the first day of the week, and his gangs were instructed to
+simply keep the herds in bounds.
+
+At the ranch house Ruth and her girl friends arranged a song-service for
+the evening to which all the men about the home corral, and those who
+could be spared to ride in from the range, were invited. This broke up
+several card games in the bunk house--games innocent in themselves,
+perhaps, but an amusement better engaged in on week days.
+
+The boys gathered in the dusk on the wide porch and listened to the
+really beautiful music that the girls had learned at Briarwood Hall.
+Ruth was in splendid voice, and her singing was applauded warmly by the
+cowboys.
+
+"My soul, Bud!" gasped Jimsey. "Couldn't that leetle gal jest sing a
+herd of millin' cattle to by-low on the night trick, with that yere
+voice of hers?"
+
+"Uh-huh!" agreed Bud. "She could stop a stampede, she could."
+
+"Oh, I'd love to see a real stampede!" exclaimed Helen, who overheard
+this conversation.
+
+"You would eh?" responded Jane Ann. "Well, here's hoping you never get
+your wish--eh, boys?"
+
+"Not with the Bar-Cross-Naught outfit, Miss Jinny," agreed Bud,
+fervently.
+
+"But it must be a wonderful sight to see so many steers rushing over the
+plain at once--all running as tight as they can run," urged the innocent
+Helen.
+
+"Ya-as," drawled Jimsey. "But I want it to be some other man's cattle."
+
+"But do you really ever have much trouble with the cattle?" asked Helen.
+"They all look so tame."
+
+"Except Old Trouble-Maker," laughed her twin, who stood beside her.
+
+"Looks jest like a picnic, herdin' them mooley-cows, don't it?" scoffed
+Jimsey.
+
+"They'd ought to be on the night trick, once," said Jane Ann. "It's all
+right punching cows by daylight."
+
+"What's the night trick?" asked Heavy.
+
+"Night herding. That's when things happen to a bunch of cows," explained
+the ranchman's niece.
+
+"I believe that must be fun," cried Ruth, who had come out upon the
+porch. "Can't we go out to one of the camps and see the work by night as
+well as by day?"
+
+"Good for you, Ruth!" cried Tom Cameron. "That's the game."
+
+"Oh, I wouldn't want to do that," objected Mary Cox. "We'd have to camp
+out."
+
+"Well, them that don't want to go can stay here," Jane Ann said,
+quickly. If anything was needed to enlist her in the cause it was the
+opposition of The Fox. "I'll see what Uncle Bill says."
+
+"But, will it be dangerous?" demanded the more careful Madge.
+
+"I've ridden at night," said Jane Ann, proudly. "Haven't I, Jimsey?"
+
+"Just so," admitted the cowboy, gravely. "But a whole bunch o' gals
+might make the critters nervous."
+
+"Too many cows would sure make the girls nervous!" laughed Bob, grinning
+at his sister.
+
+But the idea once having taken possession of the minds of Ruth and her
+girl friends, the conclusion was foregone. Uncle Bill at first (to quote
+Jane Ann) "went up in the air." When he came down to earth, however, his
+niece was right there, ready to argue the point with him and--as usual--he
+gave in to her.
+
+"Tarnashun, Jane Ann!" exclaimed the old ranchman. "I'll bet these yere
+gals don't get back home without some bad accident happening. You-all
+are so reckless."
+
+"Now Uncle Bill! don't you go to croaking," she returned, lightly.
+"Ain't no danger of trouble at all. We'll only be out one night. We'll
+go down to Camp Number Three--that's nearest."
+
+"No, sir-ree! Them boys air too triflin' a crew," declared the ranchman.
+"Jib is bossing the Rolling River outfit just now. You can go over
+there. I can trust Jib."
+
+As the rest of the party was so enthusiastic, and all determined to
+spend a night at Number Two Camp on the Rolling River Range, Mary Cox
+elected to go likewise. She declared she did not wish to remain at the
+ranch-house in the sole care of a "fat and greasy Mexican squaw," as she
+called the cook.
+
+"Ouch! I bet that stings Maria when she knows how you feel about her,"
+chuckled Heavy. "Why let carking care disturb your serenity, Mary? Come
+on and enjoy yourself like the rest of us."
+
+"I don't expect to enjoy myself in any party that's just run by one
+girl," snapped Mary.
+
+"Who's that?" asked the stout girl, in wonder.
+
+"Ruth Fielding. She bosses everything. She thinks this is all her own
+copyrighted show--like the Sweetbriars. Everything we do she suggests----"
+
+"That shows how good a 'suggester' she is," interposed Heavy, calmly.
+
+"It shows how she's got you all hypnotized into believing she's a
+wonder," snarled The Fox.
+
+"Aw, don't Mary! Don't be so mean. I should think Ruth would be the last
+person _you'd_ ever have a grouch on. She's done enough for you----"
+
+"She hasn't, either!" cried Mary Fox, her face flaming.
+
+"I'd like to know what you'd call it?" Heavy demanded, with a good deal
+of warmth for her. "If she wasn't the sweetest-tempered, most forgiving
+girl that ever went to Briarwood, _you'd_ have lost your last friend
+long ago! I declare, I'm ashamed of you!"
+
+"She's not my friend," said Mary, sullenly.
+
+"Who is, then? She has helped to save your life on more than one
+occasion. She has never said a word about the time she fell off the
+rocks when we were at Lighthouse Point. You and she were together, and
+_you_ know how it happened. Oh, I can imagine how it happened. Besides,
+Nita saw you, and so did Tom Cameron," cried the stout girl, more hotly.
+"Don't think all your tricks can be hidden."
+
+"What do you suppose I care?" snarled Mary Cox.
+
+"I guess you care what Tom Cameron thinks of you," pursued Heavy,
+wagging her head. "But after the way you started those ponies when we
+drove to Rolling River Canyon, you can be sure that you don't stand high
+with him--or with any of the rest of the boys."
+
+"Pooh! those cowboys! Great, uneducated gawks!"
+
+"But mighty fine fellows, just the same. I'd a whole lot rather have
+their good opinion than their bad."
+
+Now all this was, for Jennie Stone, pretty strong language. She was
+usually so mild of speech and easy-going, that its effect was all the
+greater. The Fox eyed her in some surprise and--for once--was quelled to a
+degree.
+
+All these discussions occurred on Monday. The Rolling River Camp was
+twenty miles away in the direction of the mountain range. Tuesday was
+the day set for the trip. The party would travel with the supply wagon
+and a bunch of ponies for the herders, bossed by Maria's husband. On
+Wednesday the young folk would return under the guidance of little
+Ricarde, who was to go along to act as camp-boy.
+
+"But if we like it out there, Uncle Bill, maybe we'll stay till
+Thursday," Jane Ann declared, from her pony's back, just before the
+cavalcade left the ranch-house, very early on Tuesday.
+
+"You better not. I'm going to be mighty busy around yere, and I don't
+want to be worried none," declared the ranchman. "And I sha'n't know
+what peace is till I see you-all back again."
+
+"Now, don't worry," drawled his niece. "We ain't none of us sugar nor
+salt."
+
+"I wish I could let Ike go with ye--that's what I wish," grumbled her
+uncle.
+
+Ruth Fielding secretly wished the same. The direction of the Rolling
+River Camp lay toward Tintacker. She had asked the foreman about it.
+
+"You'll be all of thirty mile from the Tintacker claims, Miss Ruth,"
+Bashful Ike said. "But it's a straight-away trail from the ford a mile,
+or so, this side of the camp. Any of the boys can show you. And Jib
+might spare one of 'em to beau you over to the mine, if so be you are
+determined to try and find that 'bug'."
+
+"I _do_ want to see and speak with him," Ruth said, earnestly.
+
+"It's pretty sure he's looney," said Ike. "You won't make nothing out o'
+him. I wouldn't bother."
+
+"Why, he saved my life!" cried Ruth. "I want to thank him. I want to
+help him. And--and--indeed, I need very much to see and speak with him,
+Ike."
+
+"Ya-as. That does make a difference," admitted the foreman. "He sure did
+kill that bear."
+
+The ponies rattled away behind the heavy wagon, drawn by six mules. In
+the lead cantered Ricarde and his father, herding the dozen or more
+half-wild cow-ponies. The Mexican horse-wrangler was a lazy looking,
+half-asleep fellow; but he sat a pony as though he had grown in the
+saddle.
+
+Ruth, on her beloved little Freckles, rode almost as well now as did
+Jane Ann. The other girls were content to follow the mule team at a more
+quiet pace; but Ruth and the ranchman's niece dashed off the trail more
+than once for a sharp race across the plain.
+
+"You're a darling, Ruthie!" declared Jane Ann, enthusiastically. "I wish
+you were going to live out here at Silver Ranch all the time--I do! I
+wouldn't mind being 'buried in the wilderness' if you were along----"
+
+"Oh, but you won't be buried in the wilderness all the time," laughed
+the girl from the Red Mill. "I am sure of that."
+
+"Huh!" ejaculated the Western girl, startled. "What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean that we've been talking to Uncle Bill," laughed Ruth.
+
+"Oh! you ain't got it fixed for me?" gasped the ranchman's neice. "Will
+he send me to school?"
+
+"Surest thing you know, Nita!"
+
+"Not to that boarding school you girls all go to?"
+
+"Unless he backs down--and you know Mr. Bill Hicks isn't one of the
+backing-down kind."
+
+"Oh, bully for you!" gasped Jane Ann. "I know it's your doing. I can see
+it all. Uncle Bill thinks the sun just about rises and sets with you."
+
+"Helen and Heavy did their share. So did Madge--and even Heavy's aunt,
+Miss Kate, before we started West. You will go to Briarwood with us next
+half, Nita. You'll have a private teacher for a while so that you can
+catch up with our classes. It's going to be up to you to make good,
+young lady--that's all."
+
+Jane Ann Hicks was too pleased at that moment to say a word--and she had
+to wink mighty hard to keep the tears back. Weeping was as much against
+her character as it would have been against a boy's. And she was silent
+thereafter for most of the way to the camp.
+
+They rode over a rolling bit of ground and came in sight suddenly of the
+great herd in care of Number Two outfit. Such a crowd of slowly moving
+cattle was enough to amaze the eastern visitors. For miles upon miles
+the great herd overspread the valley, along the far side of which the
+hurrying river flowed. The tossing horns, the lowing of the cows calling
+their young, the strange, bustling movement of the whole mass, rose up
+to the excited spectators in a great wave of sound and color. It was a
+wonderful sight!
+
+Jib rode up the hill to meet them. The men on duty were either squatting
+here and there over the range, in little groups, playing cards and
+smoking, or riding slowly around the outskirts of the herd. There was a
+chuck-tent and two sleeping tents parked by the river side, and the
+smoke from the cook's sheet-iron stove rose in a thin spiral of blue
+vapor toward that vaster blue that arched the complete scene.
+
+"What a picture!" Ruth said to her chum. "The mountains are grand. That
+canyon we visited was wonderful. The great, rolling plains dwarf anything
+in the line of landscape that we ever saw back East. But _this_ caps all
+the sights we have seen yet."
+
+"I'm almost afraid of the cattle, Ruthie," declared Helen. "So many
+tossing horns! So many great, nervous, moving bodies! Suppose they
+should start this way--run us down and stamp us into the earth? Oh! they
+could do it easily."
+
+"I don't feel that fear of them," returned the girl from the Red Mill.
+"I mean to ride all around the herd to-night with Nita. She says she is
+going to help ride herd, and I am going with her."
+
+This declaration, however, came near not being fulfilled. Jib Pottoway
+objected. The tent brought for the girls was erected a little way from
+the men's camp, and the Indian stated it as his irrevocable opinion that
+the place for the lady visitors at night was inside the white walls of
+that tent.
+
+"Ain't no place for girls on the night trick, Miss Jinny--and you know
+it," complained Jib. "Old Bill will hold me responsible if anything
+happens to you."
+
+"'Twon't be the first time I've ridden around a bunch of beeves after
+sundown," retorted Jane Ann, sharply. "And I've promised Ruth. It's a
+real nice night. I don't even hear a coyote singing."
+
+"There's rain in the air. We may have a blow out of the hills before
+morning," said Jib, shaking his head.
+
+"Aw shucks!" returned the ranchman's niece. "If it rains we can borrow
+slickers, can't we? I never saw such a fellow as you are, Jib. Always
+looking for trouble."
+
+"You managed to get into trouble the other day when you went over to the
+canyon," grunted the Indian.
+
+"'Twarn't Ruthie and me that made you trouble. And that Cox girl
+wouldn't dare ride within forty rods of these cows," laughed the
+ranchman's niece.
+
+So Jib was forced to give way. Tom and Bob had craved permission to ride
+herd, too. The cowboys seemed to accept these offers in serious mood,
+and that made Jane Ann suspicious.
+
+"They'll hatch up some joke to play on you-all," she whispered to
+Ruthie. "But we'll find out what they mean to do, if we can, and just
+cross-cut 'em."
+
+The camp by the river was the scene of much hilarity at supper time. The
+guests had brought some especially nice rations from the ranch-house,
+and the herders welcomed the addition to their plain fare with gusto.
+Tom and Bob ate with the men and, when the night shift went on duty,
+they set forth likewise to ride around the great herd which, although
+seemingly so peacefully inclined, must be watched and guarded more
+carefully by night than by day.
+
+Soon after Jane Ann and Ruth rode forth, taking the place together of
+one of the regular herders. These additions to the night gang left more
+of the cow punchers than usual at the camp, and there was much hilarity
+among the boys as Jane Ann and her friend cantered away toward the not
+far-distant herd.
+
+"Those fellows are up to something," the ranchman's niece repeated. "We
+must be on the watch for them--and don't you be scared none, Ruthie, at
+anything that may happen."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI--THE JOKE THAT FAILED
+
+
+The two girls rode into the melting darkness of the night, and once out
+of the radiance of the campfires became suddenly appreciative of the
+subdued sounds arising from the far-extending valley in which the herd
+lay.
+
+At a great distance a coyote howled in mournful cadence. There was the
+uncertain movements of the cattle on the riders' left hand--here one
+lapped its body with its great tongue--again horns clashed--then a big
+steer staggered to its feet and blew through its nostrils a great sigh.
+There was, too, the steady chewing of many, many cuds.
+
+A large part of the herd was lying down. Although stars flecked the sky
+quite thickly the whole valley in which the cattle fed seemed
+over-mantled with a pall of blackness. Shapes loomed through this with
+sudden, uncertain outline.
+
+"My! it's shivery, isn't it?" whispered Ruth.
+
+"There won't nothing bite us," chuckled the Western girl. "Huh! what's
+that?"
+
+The sudden change in her voice made Ruth giggle nervously. "That's
+somebody riding ahead of us. _You're_ not afraid, Nita?"
+
+"Well, I should say not!" cried the other, very boldly. "It's one of the
+boys. Hello, Darcy! I thought you were a ghost."
+
+"You gals better git back to the camp," grunted the cowboy. "We're going
+to have a shower later. I feel it in the air."
+
+"We're neither sugar nor salt," declared Jane Ann. "We've both got
+slickers on our saddles."
+
+"Ridin' herd at night ain't no job for gals," said Darcy. "And that
+cloud yander is goin' ter spit lightnin'."
+
+"He's always got a grouch about something. I never did like old Darcy,"
+Jane Ann confided to her friend.
+
+But there was a general movement and confusion in the herd before the
+girls had ridden two miles. The cattle smelled the storm coming and, now
+and then, a faint flash of lightning penciled the upper edge of the
+cloud that masked the Western horizon.
+
+"'Tain't going to amount to anything," declared Jane Ann.
+
+"It just looks like heat lightning," agreed Ruth.
+
+"May not rain at all to-night," pursued the other girl, cheerfully.
+
+"Who's that yelling?" queried Ruth, suddenly.
+
+"Huh! that's somebody singing."
+
+"Singing?"
+
+"Yep."
+
+"Way out here?"
+
+"Yep. It's Fred English, I guess. And he's no Caruso."
+
+"But what's he singing for?" demanded the disturbed Ruth, for the sounds
+that floated to their ears were mournful to a degree.
+
+"To keep the cattle quiet," explained the ranch girl. "Singing often
+keeps the cows from milling----"
+
+"Milling?" repeated Ruth.
+
+"That's when they begin to get uneasy, and mill around and around in a
+circle. Cows are just as foolish as a flock of hens."
+
+"But you don't mean to say the boys sing 'em to sleep?" laughed Ruth.
+
+"Something like that. It often keeps 'em quiet. Lets 'em know there's
+humans about."
+
+"Why, I really thought he must be making that noise to keep himself from
+feeling lonely," chuckled Ruth.
+
+"Nobody'd want to do that, you know," returned Jane Ann, with
+seriousness. "Especially when they can't sing no better than that Fred
+English."
+
+"It is worse than a mourning dove," complained the girl from the East.
+"Why doesn't he try something a bit livelier?"
+
+"You don't want to whistle a jig-tune to keep cows quiet," Jane Ann
+responded, sagely.
+
+The entire herd seemed astir now. There was a sultriness in the air
+quite unfamiliar on the range. The electricity still glowed along the
+horizon; but it seemed so distant that the girls much doubted Darcy's
+prophecy of rain.
+
+The cattle continued to move about and crop the short herbage. Few of
+them remained "bedded down." In the distance another voice was raised in
+song. Ruth's mount suddenly jumped to one side, snorting. A huge black
+steer rose up and blew a startled blast through his nostrils.
+
+"Gracious! I thought that was a monster rising out of the very earth!
+And so did Freckles, I guess," cried Ruth, with some nervousness. "Whoa,
+Freckles! Whoa, pretty!"
+
+"You sing, too, Ruthie," advised her friend. "We don't want to start
+some foolish steer to running."
+
+The Eastern girl's sweet voice--clear and strong--rang out at once and the
+two girls rode on their way. The movement of the herd showed that most
+of the cattle had got upon their feet; but there was no commotion.
+
+As they rode around the great herd they occasionally passed a cowboy
+riding in the other direction, who hailed them usually with some
+witticism. But if Ruth chanced to be singing, they broke off their own
+refrains and applauded the girl's effort.
+
+Once a coyote began yapping on the hillside near at hand, as Ruth and
+Jane Ann rode. The latter jerked out the shiny gun that swung at her
+belt and fired twice in the direction of the brute's challenge.
+
+"That'll scare _him_," she explained. "They're a nuisance at calving
+time."
+
+Slowly, but steadily, the cloud crept up the sky and snuffed out the
+light of the stars. The lightning, however, only played at intervals,
+with the thunder muttering hundreds of miles away, in the hills.
+
+"It is going to rain, Nita," declared Ruth, with conviction.
+
+"Well, let's put the rubber blankets over us, and be ready for it," said
+the ranch girl, cheerfully. "We don't want to go in now and have the
+boys laugh at us."
+
+"Of course not," agreed Ruth.
+
+Jane Ann showed her how to slip the slicker over her head. Its folds
+fell all about her and, as she rode astride, she would be well sheltered
+from the rain if it began to fall. They were now some miles from the
+camp on the river bank, but had not as yet rounded the extreme end of
+the herd. The grazing range of the cattle covered practically the entire
+valley.
+
+The stirring of the herd had grown apace and even in the thicker
+darkness the girls realized that most of the beasts were in motion. Now
+and then a cow lowed; steers snorted and clashed horns with neighboring
+beeves. The restlessness of the beasts was entirely different from those
+motions of a grazing herd by day.
+
+Something seemed about to happen. Nature, as well as the beasts, seemed
+to wait in expectation of some startling change. Ruth could not fail to
+be strongly impressed by this inexplicable feeling.
+
+"Something's going to happen, Nita. I feel it," she declared.
+
+"Hark! what's that?" demanded her companion, whose ears were the
+sharper.
+
+A mutter of sound in the distance made Ruth suggest: "Thunder?"
+
+"No, no!" exclaimed Jane Ann.
+
+Swiftly the sound approached. The patter of ponies' hoofs--a crowd of
+horses were evidently charging out of a nearby coulie into the open
+plain.
+
+"Wild horses!" gasped Jane Ann.
+
+But even as she spoke an eerie, soul-wracking chorus of shrieks broke
+the oppressive stillness of the night. Such frightful yells Ruth had
+never heard before--nor could she, for the moment, believe that they
+issued from the lips of human beings!
+
+"Injuns!" ejaculated Jane Ann and swung her horse about, poising the
+quirt to strike. "Come on----"
+
+Her words were drowned in a sudden crackle of electricity--seemingly over
+their very heads. They were blinded by the flash of lightning which,
+cleaving the cloud at the zenith, shot a zigzag stream of fire into the
+midst of the cattle!
+
+Momentarily Ruth gained a view of the thousands of tossing horns. A
+chorus of bellowing rose from the frightened herd.
+
+But Jane Ann recovered her self-confidence instantly. "It's nothing but
+a joke, Ruthie!" she cried, in her friend's ear. "That's some of the
+boys riding up and trying to frighten us. But there, that's no joke!"
+
+Another bolt of lightning and deafening report followed. The cowboys'
+trick was a fiasco. There was serious trouble at hand.
+
+"The herd is milling!" yelled Jane Ann. "Sing again, Ruthie! Ride close
+in to them and sing! We must keep them from stampeding if we can!" and
+she spurred her own pony toward the bellowing, frightened steers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII--THE STAMPEDE
+
+
+Be it said of the group of thoughtless cowboys (of whom were the wildest
+spirits of Number Two camp) that their first demonstration as they
+dashed out of the coulie upon the two girls was their only one. Their
+imitation of an Indian attack was nipped in the bud by the bursting of
+the electric storm. There was no time for the continuance of the
+performance arranged particularly to startle Jane Ann and Ruth Fielding.
+Ruth forgot the patter of the approaching ponies. She had instantly
+struck into her song--high and clear--at her comrade's advice; and she
+drew Freckles closer to the herd. The bellowing and pushing of the
+cattle betrayed their position in any case; but the intermittent flashes
+of lightning clearly revealed the whole scene to the agitated girls.
+
+They were indeed frightened--the ranch girl as well as Ruth herself. The
+fact that this immense herd, crowding and bellowing together, might at
+any moment break into a mad stampede, was only too plain.
+
+Caught in the mass of maddened cattle, the girls might easily be
+unseated and trampled to death. Ruth knew this as well as did the
+Western girl. But if the sound of the human voice would help to keep the
+creatures within bounds, the girl from the Red Mill determined to sing
+on and ride closer in line with the milling herd.
+
+She missed Jane Ann after a moment; but another flash of lightning
+revealed her friend weaving her pony in and out through the pressing
+cattle, using the quirt with free hand on the struggling steers and
+breaking them up into small groups.
+
+The cowboys who had dashed out of the coulie saw the possibility of
+disaster instantly; and they, too, rode in among the bellowing steers.
+With so many heavy creatures pressing toward a common center, many would
+soon be crushed to death if the formation was not broken up. Each streak
+of lightning which played athwart the clouds added to the fear of the
+beasts. Several of the punchers rode close along the edge of the herd,
+driving in the strays. Now it began to rain, and as the very clouds
+seemed to open and empty the water upon the thirsty land, the swish of
+it, and the moaning of the wind that arose, added greatly to the
+confusion.
+
+How it _did_ rain for a few minutes! Ruth felt as though she were riding
+her pony beneath some huge water-spout. She was thankful for the
+slicker, off which the water cataracted. The pony splashed knee-deep
+through runlets freshly started in the old buffalo paths. Here and there
+a large pond of water gleamed when the lightning lit up their
+surroundings.
+
+And when the rain stopped as abruptly as it had begun, the cattle began
+to steam and were more troublesome than before. The lightning flashes
+and thunder continued, and when a second downpour of rain began it came
+so viciously, and with so great a wind, that the girls could scarcely
+ride against it.
+
+Suddenly a shout came down the wind. It was taken up and repeated by
+voice after voice. The camp at the far end of the herd had been aroused
+ere this, of course, and every man who could ride was in the saddle. But
+it was at the camp-end of the herd, after all, that the first break
+came.
+
+"They're off!" yelled Darcy, riding furiously past Ruth and Jane Ann
+toward where the louder disturbance had arisen.
+
+"And toward the river!" shouted another of the cowboys.
+
+The thunder of hoofs in the distance suddenly rose to a deafening sound.
+The great herd had broken away and were tearing toward the Rolling River
+at a pace which nothing could halt. Several of the cowboys were carried
+forward on the fore-front of the wave of maddened cattle; but they all
+managed to escape before the leaders reached the high bank of the
+stream.
+
+Jane Ann screamed some order to Ruth, but the latter could not hear what
+it was. Yet she imitated the Western girl's efforts immediately. No such
+tame attempts at controlling the cattle as singing to them was now in
+order. The small number of herdsmen left at this point could only force
+their ponies into the herd and break up the formation--driving the mad
+brutes back with their quirts, and finally, after a most desperate
+fight, holding perhaps a third of the great herd from running wildly
+into the stream.
+
+This had been a time of some drought and the river was running low. The
+banks were not only steep upon this side, but they were twenty feet and
+more high. When the first of the maddened beeves reached the verge of
+the bank they went headlong down the descent, and some landed at the
+edge of the water with broken limbs and so were trampled to death. But
+the plunging over of hundreds upon hundreds of steers at the same point,
+together with the washing of the falling rain, quickly cut down these
+banks until they became little more than steep quagmires in which the
+beasts wallowed more slowly to the river's edge.
+
+This heavy going did more than aught else to retard the stampede; but
+many of the first-comers got over the shallow river and climbed upon the
+plain beyond. All night long the cowboys were gathering up the herd upon
+the eastern shore of the river; those that had crossed must be left
+until day dawned.
+
+And a very unpleasant night it was, although the stampede itself had
+been of short duration. A troop of cattle had dashed through the camp
+and flattened out the tent that had sheltered the lady visitors.
+Fortunately the said visitors had taken refuge in the supply wagon
+before the cattle had broken loose.
+
+But, led by The Fox, there was much disturbance in the supply wagon for
+the time being. Fortunately a water-tight tarpaulin had kept the girls
+comparatively dry; but Mary Cox loudly expressed her wish that they had
+not come out to the camp, and the other girls were inclined to be a
+little fractious as well.
+
+When Jane Ann and Ruth rode in, however, after the trouble was all over,
+and the rain had ceased, a new fire was built and coffee made, and the
+situation took on a more cheerful phase. Ruth was quite excited over it
+all, but glad that she had taken a hand in the herding of the cattle
+that had not broken away.
+
+"And if you stay to help the boys gather the steers that got across the
+river, to-morrow, I am going to help, too," she declared.
+
+"Tom and Bob will help," Helen said. "I wish I was as brave as you are,
+Ruth; but I really am afraid of these horned beasts."
+
+"I never was cut out for even a milkmaid, myself," added Heavy. "When a
+cow bellows it makes me feel queer up and down my spine just as it does
+when I go to a menagerie and hear the lions roar."
+
+"They won't bite you," sniffed Jane Ann.
+
+"But they can hook you. And my! the noise they made when they went
+through this camp! You never heard the like," said the stout girl,
+shaking her head. "No. I'm willing to start back for the ranch-house in
+the morning."
+
+"Me, too," agreed Madge.
+
+So it was agreed that the four timid girls should return to Silver Ranch
+with Ricarde after breakfast; but Ruth and Jane Ann, with Tom Cameron
+and Bob Steele, well mounted on fresh ponies, joined the gang of cow
+punchers who forded the river at daybreak to bring in the strays.
+
+The frightened cattle were spread over miles of the farther plain and it
+was a two days' task to gather them all in. Indeed, on the second
+evening the party of four young folk were encamped with Jib Pottoway and
+three of the other punchers, quite twenty miles from the river and in a
+valley that cut deeply into the mountain chain which sheltered the range
+from the north and west.
+
+"It is over this way that the trail runs to Tintacker, doesn't it, Jib?"
+Ruth asked the Indian, privately.
+
+"Yes, Miss. Such trail as there is can be reached in half an hour from
+this camp."
+
+"Oh! I do so want to see that man who killed the bear, Jib," urged the
+girl from the Red Mill.
+
+"Well, it might be done, if he's over this way now," returned Jib,
+thoughtfully. "He is an odd stick--that's sure. Don't know whether he'd
+let himself be come up with. But----"
+
+"Will you ride with me to the mines?" demanded Ruth, eagerly.
+
+"I expect I could," admitted the Indian.
+
+"I would be awfully obliged to you."
+
+"I don't know what Mr. Hicks would say. But the cattle are in hand
+again--and there's less than a hundred here for the bunch to drive back.
+They can get along without me, I reckon."
+
+"And surely without me!" laughed Ruth.
+
+And so it was arranged. The Indian and Ruth were off up the valley
+betimes the next morning, while the rest of the party started for the
+river, driving the last of the stray beeves ahead of them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII--A DESPERATE CASE
+
+
+Jane Ann and Tom Cameron had both offered to accompany Ruth; but for a
+very good--if secret--reason Ruth did not wish any of her young friends to
+attend her at the meeting which she hoped would occur between her and
+the strange young man who (if report were true) had been hanging about
+the Tintacker properties for so long.
+
+She had written Uncle Jabez after her examination with the lawyer of the
+mining record books at Bullhide; but she had told her uncle only that
+the claims had been transferred to the name of "John Cox." That was the
+name, she knew, that the vacuum cleaner agent had given Uncle Jabez when
+he had interested the miller in the mine. But there was another matter
+in connection with the name of "Cox" which Ruth feared would at once
+become public property if any of her young friends were present at the
+interview to which she now so eagerly looked forward.
+
+Freckles, now as fresh as a pony could be, carried Ruth rapidly up the
+valley, and as the two ponies galloped side by side the girl from the
+Red Mill grew quite confidential with the Indian. She did not like Jib
+Pottoway as she did the foreman of the Bar Cross Naught ranch; but the
+Indian was intelligent and companionable, and he quite evidently put
+himself out to be entertaining.
+
+As he rode, dressed in his typical cowboy costume, Jib looked the
+full-blooded savage he was; but his conversation smacked of the East and
+of his experiences at school. What he said showed that Uncle Sam does
+very well by his red wards at Carlisle.
+
+Jib could tell her, too, much that was interesting regarding the country
+through which they rode. It was wild enough, and there was no human
+habitation in sight. Occasionally a jackrabbit crossed their trail, or a
+flock of birds flew whirring from the path before them. Of other life
+there was none until they had crossed the first ridge and struck into a
+beaten path which Jib declared was the old pack-trail to Tintacker.
+
+The life they then saw did not encourage Ruth to believe that this was
+either a safe or an inhabited country. Freckles suddenly shied as they
+approached a bowlder which was thrust out of the hillside beside the
+trail. Ruth was almost unseated, for she had been riding carelessly. And
+when she raised her eyes and saw the object that had startled the pony,
+she was instantly frightened herself.
+
+Crouching upon the summit of the rock was a lithe, tawny creature with a
+big, round, catlike head and flaming green eyes. The huge cat lashed its
+tail with evident rage and bared a very savage outfit of teeth.
+
+"Oh! what's that?" gasped Ruth, as Freckles settled back upon his
+haunches and showed very plainly that he had no intention of passing the
+bowlder.
+
+"Puma," returned the Indian, laconically.
+
+His mount, too, was circling around the rock with mincing steps, quite
+as unfavorably disposed toward the beast as was Freckles.
+
+"Can it leap this far, Jib?" cried Ruth.
+
+"It'll leap a whole lot farther in just a minute," returned the Indian,
+taking the rope off his saddle bow. "Now, look out, Miss!"
+
+Freckles began to run backward. The puma emitted a sudden, almost human
+shriek, and the muscles upon its foreshoulders swelled. It was about to
+leap.
+
+Jib's rope circled in the air. Even as the puma left the rock, its four
+paws all "spraddled out" in midair, the noose dropped over the savage
+cat. The lariat caught the puma around its neck and one foreleg, and
+before it struck the ground Jib had whirled his horse and was spurring
+off across the valley, his captive flying in huge (but involuntary)
+leaps behind him. He rode back in ten minutes with a beaten-out mass of
+fur and blood trailing at the end of his rope, and that was the end of
+Mr. Puma!
+
+"There isn't any critter a puncher hates worse than a puma," Jib said,
+gruffly. "We've killed a host of 'em this season."
+
+"And do you always rope them?" queried Ruth.
+
+"They ain't worth powder and shot. Now, a bear is a gentleman 'side of a
+lion--and even a little old kiote ain't so bad. The lion's so blamed
+crafty and sly. Ha! it always does me good to rope one of them."
+
+They rode steadily on the trail to the mines after that. It was scarcely
+more than fifteen miles to the claims which had been the site, some
+years before, of a thriving mining camp, but was now a deserted town of
+tumble-down shanties, corrugated iron shacks, and the rustied skeletons
+of machinery at the mouths of certain shafts. Money had been spent
+freely by individuals and corporations in seeking to develop the various
+"leads" believed by the first prospectors to be hidden under the surface
+of the earth at Tintacker. But if the silver was there it was so well
+hidden that most of the miners had finally "gone broke" attempting to
+uncover the riches of silver ore of which the first specimens discovered
+had given promise.
+
+"The Tintacker Lode" it had been originally called, in the enthusiasm of
+its discoverers. But unless this strange prospector, who had hung about
+the abandoned claims for so many months, had struck into a new vein, the
+silver horde had quite "petered out." Of this fact Ruth was pretty
+positive from all the lawyer and Old Bill Hicks had told her. Uncle
+Jabez had gone into the scheme of re-opening the Tintacker on the
+strength of the vacuum-cleaner agent's personality and some specimens of
+silver ore that might have been dug a thousand miles from the site of
+the Tintacker claims.
+
+"Don't look like there was anybody to home," grunted Jib Pottoway, as
+they rode up the last rise to the abandoned camp.
+
+"Why! it's a wreck," gasped Ruth.
+
+"You bet! There's hundreds of these little fly-by-night mining camps in
+this here Western country. And many a man's hopes are buried under the
+litter of those caved-in roofs. Hullo!"
+
+"What's the matter?" asked Ruth, startled as she saw Jib draw his gun
+suddenly.
+
+"What's that kiote doing diggin' under that door?" muttered the Indian.
+
+The skulking beast quickly disappeared and Jib did not fire. He rode his
+pony directly to the shack--one of the best of the group--and hammered on
+the door (which was closed) with the butt of his pistol.
+
+"Hullo, in there!" he growled.
+
+Ruth was not a little startled. "Why was the coyote trying to get in?"
+she asked.
+
+"You wait out here, Miss," said Jib. "Don't come too close. Kiotes don't
+usually try to dig into a camp when the owner's at home."
+
+"But you spoke as though you thought he might be there!" whispered the
+girl.
+
+"I--don't--know," grunted Jib, climbing out of his saddle.
+
+He tried the latch. The door swung open slowly. Whatever it was he
+expected to see in the shack, he was disappointed. When he had peered in
+for half a minute, he stuck the pistol back into its holster and strode
+over the threshhold.
+
+"Oh! what is it?" breathed Ruth again.
+
+He waved her back, but went into the hut. There was some movement there;
+then a thin, babbling voice said something that startled Ruth more than
+had the puma's yell.
+
+"Gee!" gasped Jib, appearing in the doorway, his face actually pale
+under its deep tan. "It's the 'bug'."
+
+"The man I want to see?" cried Ruth.
+
+"But you can't see him. Keep away," advised Jib, stepping softly out and
+closing the door of the shack.
+
+"What is the matter, Jib?" cried Ruth. "He--he isn't _dead_?"
+
+"Not yet," replied the Indian.
+
+"What is it, then?"
+
+"Mountain fever--or worse. It's catching--just as bad as typhoid. You
+mustn't go in there, Miss."
+
+"But--but--he'll die!" cried the girl, all her sympathy aroused. "Nobody
+to help him----"
+
+"He's far gone. It's a desperate case, I tell you," growled Jib. "Ugh! I
+don't know what we'd better do. No wonder that kiote was trying to dig
+under the door. _He knew_--the hungry beast!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX--THE MAN AT TINTACKER
+
+
+Ruth waited for her companion to suggest their course of action. The man
+she had come to see--the mysterious individual whom she believed had
+taken her uncle's money to buy up the property known as the Tintacker
+Claim--was in a raging fever in that old shack near the site of the mine.
+She had heard his delirious babblings while Jib was in the hut. It never
+entered her mind that Jib would contemplate leaving the unfortunate
+creature unattended.
+
+"You can't talk to him, Miss. He don't know nothing," declared the
+Indian. "And he's pretty far gone."
+
+"What shall we do for him? What needs doing first?" Ruth demanded.
+
+"Why, we can't do much--as I can see," grumbled Jib Pottoway.
+
+"Isn't there a doctor----"
+
+"At Bullhide," broke in Jib. "That's the nearest."
+
+"Then he must be got. We must save this man, Jib," said the girl,
+eagerly.
+
+"Save him?"
+
+"Certainly. If only because he saved my life when I was attacked by the
+bear. And he must be saved for another reason, too."
+
+"Why, Miss Ruth, he'll be dead long before a doctor could get here,"
+cried Jib. "That's plumb ridiculous."
+
+"He will die of course if he has no attention," said the girl,
+indignantly.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Surely you won't desert him!"
+
+"About all we can do for the poor fellow is to bury him," muttered Jib.
+
+"If there was no other reason than that he is a helpless fellow-being,
+we could not go away and leave him here unattended," declared the girl,
+gravely. "You know that well enough, Jib."
+
+"Oh, we'll wait around. But he's got to die. He's so far gone that
+nothing can save him. And I oughtn't to go into the shack, either. That
+fever is contagious, and he's just full of it!"
+
+"We must get help for him," cried Ruth, suddenly.
+
+"What sort of help?" demanded the Indian.
+
+"Why, the ranch is not so awfully far away, and I know that Mr. Hicks
+keeps a big stock of medicines. He will have something for this case."
+
+"Then let's hustle back," said Jib, starting to climb into his saddle.
+
+"But the coyote--and other savage beasts!" exclaimed Ruth.
+
+"Gee! I forgot that," muttered Jib.
+
+"One of us must stay here."
+
+"Well--I can do that, I suppose. But how about you finding your way to
+the Rolling River outfit? I--don't--know."
+
+"I'll stay here and watch," declared Ruth, firmly. "You ride for
+help--get medicine--tell Mr. Hicks to send for a doctor at Bullhide, too.
+I have some money with me and I know my Uncle Jasper will pay whatever
+it costs to get a doctor to this man. Besides--there are other people
+interested."
+
+"Why, Miss, I don't know about this," murmured Jib Pottoway. "It's risky
+to leave you here. Old Bill will be wild at me."
+
+"I'm going to stay right here," declared Ruth, getting out of the
+saddle. "You can leave me your gun if you will----"
+
+"Sure! I could do that. But I don't know what the boss'll say."
+
+"It won't much matter what he says," said Ruth, with a faint smile. "I
+shall be here and he will be at Silver Ranch."
+
+"Ugh!" muttered Jib. "But what'll he say to _me_?"
+
+"I believe Mr. Hicks is too good-hearted to wish to know that we left
+this unfortunate young man here without care. It would be too cruel."
+
+"You wait till I look about the camp," muttered Jib, without paying much
+attention to Ruth's last remark.
+
+He left his pony and walked quickly up the overgrown trail that had once
+been the main street of Tintacker Camp. Ruth slipped out of the saddle
+and ran to the door of the sick man's hut. She laid her hand on the
+latch, hesitated a moment, and then pushed the door open. There was
+plenty of light in the room. The form on the bed, under a tattered old
+blanket, was revealed. Likewise the flushed, thin face lying against the
+rolled-up coat for a pillow.
+
+"The poor fellow!" gasped Ruth. "And suppose it should be _her_ brother!
+Suppose it _should_ be!"
+
+Only for a few seconds did she stare in at the unfortunate fellow. His
+head began to roll from side to side on the hard pillow. He muttered
+some gibberish as an accompaniment to his fevered dreams. It was a young
+face Ruth saw, but so drawn and haggard that it made her tender heart
+ache.
+
+"Water! water!" murmured the cracked lips of the fever patient.
+
+"Oh! I can't stand this!" gasped the girl. She wheeled about and sent a
+long shout after Jib: "Jib! I say, Jib!"
+
+"What's wantin'?" replied the Indian from around the bend in the trail.
+
+"Bring some water! Get some fresh water somewhere."
+
+"I get you!" returned the cowboy, and then, without waiting another
+instant, Ruth stepped into the infected cabin and approached the
+sufferer's couch.
+
+The sick man's head moved incessantly; so did his lips. Sometimes what
+he said was audible; oftener it was just a hoarse murmur. But when Ruth
+raised his head tenderly and took out the old coat to refold it for a
+pillow, he screamed aloud and seized the garment with both hands and
+with an awful strength! His look was maniacal. There were flecks of foam
+on his lips and his eyes rolled wildly. There was more than ordinary
+delirium in his appearance, and he fought for possession of the coat,
+shrieking in a cracked voice, the sound of which went straight to Ruth's
+heart.
+
+The sound brought Jib on the run.
+
+"What in all tarnation are you doing in that shack?" he shouted. "You
+come out o' there!"
+
+"Oh, Jib," said she, as the man fell back speechless and seemingly
+lifeless on the bed. "We can't leave him alone like this."
+
+"That whole place is infected. You come out!" the puncher commanded.
+
+"There's no use scolding me now, Jib," she said, softly. "The harm is
+done, if it _is_ to be done. I'm in here, and I mean to stay with him
+till you get help and medicine."
+
+"You--you----"
+
+"Don't call me names, but get the water. Find a pail somewhere. Bring
+plenty of cool water. He is burning up with fever and thirst."
+
+"Well, the hawse is stole, I reckon!" grunted the Indian. "But you'd
+ought to be shaken. What the boss says to me about this will be
+a-plenty."
+
+"Get the water, Jib!" commanded Ruth Fielding. "See! he breathes so
+hard. I believe he is dying of thirst more than anything else."
+
+Jib grabbed the canteen that swung at the back of his saddle, emptied
+the last of the stale water on the ground, and hurried away to where a
+thin stream tumbled down the hillside behind one of the old shaft
+openings. He brought the canteen back full--and it held two quarts.
+
+"Just a little at first," said the girl, pouring some of the cool water
+into her own folding cup that she carried in her pocket. "He mustn't
+have too much. And you keep out of the house, Jib. No use in both of us
+running the risk of catching the fever. You'll have to ride for help,
+too. And you don't want to take the infection among the other boys."
+
+"You _are_ a plucky one, Miss," admitted the cowboy. "But there's bound
+to be the piper to pay for this. They'll say it was my fault."
+
+"I won't let 'em," declared Ruth. She raised the sick man's head again
+and put the cup to his lips. "I wish I had some clean cloths. Oh! let
+somebody ride over from the camp with food and any stimulants that there
+may be there. See if you can find some larger receptacle for water
+before you go."
+
+"She's a cleaner!" muttered the Indian, shaking his head, and walking
+away to do her bidding.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX--THE WOLF AT THE DOOR
+
+
+Ruth had the old coat folded and under the sick man's head again when
+Jib returned with a rusty old bucket filled with water. He set it down
+just outside the open door of the cabin--and he did not come in.
+
+"What d'ye s'pose he's got in the pocket of that coat that he's so
+choice of, Miss?" he asked, curiously.
+
+"Why! I don't know," returned Ruth, wetting her cleanest handkerchief
+and folding it to press upon the patient's brow.
+
+"He hollered like a loon and grabbed at it when I tried to straighten it
+out," the Indian said, thoughtfully. "And so he did when you touched
+it."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"He's got something hid there. It bothers him even if he is delirious."
+
+"Perhaps," admitted Ruth.
+
+But she was not interested in this suspicion. The condition of the poor
+fellow was uppermost in her mind.
+
+"You let me have your pistol, Jib," she said. "I can use it. It will
+keep that old coyote away."
+
+"And anything else, too," said Jib, handing the gun to her and then
+stepping back to his pony. "I'll hobble your critter, Miss. Don't go far
+from the door. I'll either come back myself or send a couple of the boys
+from camp. They will bring food, anyway. I reckon the poor chap's hungry
+as well as thirsty."
+
+"He is in a very bad way, indeed," returned Ruth, gravely. "You'll
+hurry, Jib?"
+
+"Sure. But you'd better come back with me."
+
+"No. I'm in for it now," she replied, trying to smile at him bravely.
+"I'd better nurse him till he's better, or----"
+
+"You ain't got no call to do it!" exclaimed the Indian.
+
+"There is more reason for my helping him than you know," she said, in a
+low voice. "Oh! there is a very good reason for my helping him."
+
+"He's too far gone to be helped much, I reckon," returned the other,
+mounting into his saddle. "But I'll be going. Take care of yourself."
+
+"I'll be all right, Jib!" she responded, with more cheerfulness, and
+waved her hand to him as the cow puncher rode away.
+
+But when the patter of the pony's hoofs had died away the silence
+brooding over the abandoned mining camp seemed very oppressive indeed.
+It was not a pleasant prospect that lay before her. Not only was she
+alone here with the sick man, but she _was_ afraid of catching the
+fever.
+
+The patient on the couch was indeed helpless. He muttered and rolled his
+head from side to side, and his wild eyes stared at her as though he
+were fearful of what she might do to him. Ruth bathed his face and hands
+again and again; and the cool water seemed to quiet him. Occasionally
+she raised his head that he might drink. There was nothing else she
+could do for his comfort or betterment until medicines arrived.
+
+She searched the cabin for anything which might belong to him. She did
+not find his rifle--the weapon with which he had killed the bear in the
+canyon when Ruth had been in such peril. She did find, however, a worn
+water-proof knapsack; in it was a handkerchief, or two, a pair of torn
+socks and an old shirt, beside shaving materials, a comb and brush, and
+a toothbrush. Not a letter or a scrap of paper to reveal his identity.
+Yet she was confident that this was the man whom she had hoped to meet
+when she came West on this summer jaunt.
+
+This was the fellow who had encouraged Uncle Jabez to invest his savings
+in the Tintacker Mine. It was he, too, who had been to Bullhide and
+recorded the new papers relating to the claim. And if he had made way
+with all Uncle Jabez's money, and the mining property was worthless,
+Ruth knew that she would never see Briarwood Hall again!
+
+For Uncle Jabez had let her understand plainly that his resources were
+so crippled that she could not hope to return to school with her friends
+when the next term opened. Neither she, nor Aunt Alvirah, nor anybody
+else, could make the old miller change his mind. He had given her one
+year at the boarding school according to agreement. Uncle Jabez always
+did just as he said he would; but he was never generous, and seldom even
+kind.
+
+However, it was not this phase of the affair that so troubled the girl
+from the Red Mill. It was the identity of this fever-stricken man that
+so greatly disturbed her. She believed that there was somebody at Silver
+Ranch who must have a much deeper interest in him than even she felt.
+And she was deeply troubled by this suspicion. Was she doing right in
+not sending word to the ranch at once as to her belief in the identity
+of the man?
+
+The morning was now gone and Ruth would have been glad of some dinner;
+but in leaving the other herders she and Jib had not expected to remain
+so many hours from the Rolling River crossing. At least, they expected
+if they found the man at Tintacker at all, that he would have played the
+host and supplied them with lunch. Had Jib been here she knew he could
+easily have shot a bird, or a hare; there was plenty of small game
+about. But had she not felt it necessary to remain in close attendance
+upon the sick man she would have hesitated about going to the outskirts
+of the camp. Even the possession of Jib's loaded pistol did not make the
+girl feel any too brave.
+
+Already that morning she had been a witness to the fact that savage
+beasts lurked in the locality. There might be another puma about. She
+was not positively in fear of the coyotes; she knew them to be a
+cowardly clan. But what would keep a bear from wandering down from the
+heights into the abandoned camp? And Ruth had seen quite all the bears
+at close quarters that she wished to see. Beside, this six-shooter of
+Jib's would be a poor weapon with which to attack a full-grown bear.
+
+It must be late in the afternoon before any of the boys could ride over
+from the Rolling River outfit. She set her mind firmly on _that_, and
+would not hope for company till then. It was a lonely and trying watch.
+The sick man moaned and jabbered, and whenever she touched the old coat
+he used for a pillow, he became quite frantic. Perhaps, as Jib
+intimated, there was something valuable hidden in the garment.
+
+"Deeds--or money--perhaps both," thought the girl nurse. "And maybe they
+relate to the Tintacker Mine. Perhaps if it is money it is some of
+Uncle's money. Should I try to take it away from him secretly and keep
+it until he can explain?"
+
+Yet she could not help from thinking that perhaps Jib was right in his
+diagnosis of the case. The man might be too far gone to save. Neither
+physician nor medicines might be able to retard the fever. It seemed to
+have already worn the unfortunate to his very skeleton. If he died,
+would the mystery of the Tintacker Mine, and of Uncle Jabez's money,
+ever be explained?
+
+Meanwhile she bathed and bathed again the fevered face and hands of the
+unfortunate. This was all that relieved him. He was quiet for some
+minutes after each of these attentions. The water in the bucket became
+warm, like that in the canteen. Ruth thought she could risk going to the
+rivulet for another supply. So she stuck the barrel of the gun into her
+belt and taking the empty pail set out to find the stream.
+
+She closed the door of the sick man's cabin very carefully. It was not
+far to the water and she had filled the pail and was returning when she
+heard a scratching noise nearby, and then a low growl. Casting swift
+glances of apprehension all about her, she started to run to the cabin;
+but when she got to the trail, it was at the cabin door the peril lay!
+
+It was no harmless, cowardly coyote this time. Perhaps it had not been a
+coyote who had dug there when she and Jib rode up to the camp. She
+obtained this time a clear view of the beast.
+
+It was long, lean and gray. A shaggy beast, with pointed ears and a long
+muzzle. When he turned and glared at her, growling savagely, Ruth was
+held spellbound in her tracks!
+
+"A wolf!" she muttered. "A wolf at the door!"
+
+The fangs of the beast were exposed. The jaws dripped saliva, and the
+eyes seemed blood-red. A more awful sight the girl had never seen. This
+fierce, hungry creature was even more terrifying in appearance than the
+bear that had chased her in the canyon. He seemed, indeed, more savage
+and threatening than the puma that Jib had roped that forenoon as they
+rode over to Tintacker.
+
+He turned squarely and faced her. He was not afraid, but seemed to
+welcome her as an antagonist worthy of his prowess. He did not advance,
+but he stood between Ruth and the door of the sick man's cabin. She
+might retreat, but in so doing she would abandon the unfortunate to his
+fate. And what that fate would be she could not doubt when once she had
+glimpsed the savage aspect of the wolf.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI--A PLUCKY FIGHT
+
+
+Ruth had already set down the bucket of water and drawn the heavy pistol
+from her belt. The girls had been trying their skill with six-shooters
+at the ranch at odd times, and she knew that she stood a good chance of
+hitting the big gray wolf at ten or twelve yards. The beast made no
+approach; but his intention of returning to the door of the cabin where
+the sick man lay, if she did not disturb him, was so plain that Ruth
+dared not desert the helpless patient!
+
+The wolf crouched, growling and showing his fangs. If the girl
+approached too near he would spring upon her. Or, if she fired and
+wounded him but slightly she feared he would give chase and pull her
+down in a few seconds. She very well know that she could not hope to
+distance the beast if once he started to pursue her.
+
+This was indeed a dreadful situation for a tenderly nurtured girl. The
+wolf looked to be fully as large as Tom Cameron's mastiff, Reno. And
+Ruth wished with all her heart (as this comparison flashed through her
+mind) that the mastiff was here to give battle to the savage beast.
+
+But it were vain to think of such impossibilities. If anything was to be
+done to drive off the wolf at the cabin door, she must do it herself.
+Yet she dared not make the attack here in the open, and afoot. If she
+approached near enough to him to make her first shot sure and deadly,
+the beast gave every indication of opening the attack himself.
+
+And, indeed, he might spring toward her at any moment. He was growing
+impatient. He had scented the helpless man inside the shack
+and--undisturbed--would soon burrow under the door and get at him.
+Although not so cowardly as a coyote, the wolf seldom attacks human
+beings unless they are helpless or the beast is driven to desperation by
+hunger. And gaunt as this fellow was, there was plenty of small game for
+him in the chapparel.
+
+Thus, Ruth was in a quandary. But she saw plainly that she must withdraw
+or the wolf would attack. She left the bucket of water where it stood
+and withdrew back of the nearest hut. Once out of the wolf's sight, but
+still holding the revolver ready, she looked hastily about. Her pony,
+hobbled by Jib, had not wandered far. Nor had Freckles seen or even
+scented the savage marauder.
+
+Ruth spied him and crept away from the vicinity of the wolf, keeping in
+hiding all the time. She soon heard the beast clawing at the bottom of
+the door and growling. He might burst the door, or dig under it, any
+moment now!
+
+The last few yards to the pony Ruth made at a run. Freckles snorted his
+surprise; but he knew her and was easily caught. The frightened girl
+returned the revolver to her belt and removed the hobbles. Then she
+vaulted into the saddle and jerked the pony's head around, riding at a
+canter back toward the cabin.
+
+The wolf heard her coming and drew his head and shoulders back out of
+the hole he had dug. In a few minutes more he would be under the door
+and into the cabin, which had, of course, no floor but the hard-packed
+clay. He started up and glared at the pony and its rider, and the pony
+began to side-step and snort in a manner which showed plainly that he
+did not fancy the vicinity of the beast.
+
+"Whoa, Freckles! Steady, boy!" commanded Ruth.
+
+The cow pony, trained to perfection, halted, with his fore feet braced,
+glaring at the wolf. Ruth dropped the reins upon his neck, and although
+he winced and trembled all over, he did not move from the spot as the
+girl raised the heavy pistol, resting its barrel across her left
+forearm, and took the best aim she could at the froth-streaked chest of
+the wolf.
+
+Even when the revolver popped, Freckles did not move. The wolf sprang to
+one side, snarling with rage and pain. Ruth saw a streak of crimson
+along his high shoulder. The bullet had just nicked him. The beast
+snapped at the wound and whirled around and around in the dust, snarling
+and clashing his teeth.
+
+But when the girl tried to urge Freckles in closer, the wolf suddenly
+took the aggressive. He sprang out into the trail and in two leaps was
+beside the whirling pony. Freckles knew better than to let the beast get
+near enough to spring for his throat. But the pony's gyrations almost
+unseated his rider.
+
+Ruth fired a second shot; but the bullet went wild. She could not take
+proper aim with the pony dancing so; and she had to seize the lines
+again. She thrust the pistol into the saddle holster and grabbed the
+pommel of the saddle itself to aid her balance. Freckles pitched
+dreadfully, and struck out, seemingly with all four feet at once, to
+keep off the wolf. Perhaps it was as well that he did so, for the beast
+was maddened by the smart of the wound, and sought to tear the girl from
+her saddle.
+
+As Ruth allowed the pony to run off from the shack for several rods, the
+wolf went growling back to the door. He was a persistent fellow and it
+did seem as though he was determined to get at the sick man in spite of
+all Ruth could do.
+
+But the girl, frightened as she was, had no intention of remaining by to
+see such a monstrous thing happen. She controlled Freckles again, and
+rode him hard, using the spurs, straight at the door of the shack. The
+wolf whirled and met them with open jaws, the saliva running from the
+sides of his mouth. His foreleg was now dyed crimson.
+
+Freckles, squealing with anger, jumped to reach the wolf. He had been
+taught to ride down coyotes, and he tried the same tactics on this
+fellow. The wolf rolled over, snapping and snarling, and easily escaped
+the pony's hard hoofs. But Ruth urged the pony on and the wolf was
+forced to run.
+
+She tried her best to run him down. They tore through the main street of
+what had been Tintacker Camp, and out upon the open ridge. The wolf, his
+tail tucked between his legs, scurried over the ground, keeping just
+ahead, but circling around so as to get back to the abandoned town. He
+would not be driven from the vicinity.
+
+"I must try again to shoot him," exclaimed the girl, much worried. "If I
+ride back he will follow me. If I hobble Freckles again, he may attack
+the pony and Freckles could not defend himself so well if he were
+hobbled. And if I turn the pony loose the wolf may run him off
+entirely!"
+
+She drew Jib's pistol once more and tried to get a good shot at the
+wolf. But while she did this she could not keep so sharp an eye on the
+course the pony took and suddenly Freckles sunk one forefoot in a hole.
+
+He plunged forward, and Ruth came very near taking a dive over his head.
+She saved herself by seizing the pommel with both hands; but in so doing
+she lost the gun. Freckles leaped up, frightened and snorting, and the
+next moment the wolf had made a sharp turn and was almost under the
+pony's feet!
+
+The wolf let out an unmistakable yelp of pain and limped off, howling.
+Freckles kept on in pursuit and the revolver was soon far behind. The
+beast she pursued was now in a bad way; but the girl dared not ride back
+to search for her lost weapon. She did not propose that the wolf--after
+such a fight--should escape. Ruth was bent upon his destruction.
+
+The wolf, however, dodged and doubled, so that the pony could not
+trample it, even had he wished to come to such close quarters. The
+clashing teeth of the savage animal warned Freckles to keep his
+distance, however; and it was plain to Ruth that she must dismount to
+finish the beast. If only she had some weapon----
+
+What was that heap on the prairie ahead? Bones! hundreds of them! Some
+accident had befallen a bunch of cattle here in the past and their
+picked skeletons had been flung into a heap. The wolf ran for refuge
+behind this pile and Ruth immediately urged Freckles toward the spot.
+
+She leaped from the saddle, tossing the bridle reins over his head upon
+the ground and ran to seize one of the bigger bones. It was the leg bone
+of a big steer and it made a promising club.
+
+But even as she seized upon this primitive weapon the wolf made a final
+stand. He appeared around the far side of the pile. He saw that the girl
+was afoot, and with a snarl he sprang upon her.
+
+Ruth uttered an involuntary shriek, and ran back. But she could not
+reach Freckles. The wolf's hot breath steamed against her neck as she
+ran. He had missed her by a hair!
+
+The girl whirled and faced him, the club poised in both her hands,
+determined to give battle. Her situation was perilous in the extreme.
+Afoot as she was, the beast had the advantage, and he knew this as well
+as she did. He did not hurry, but approached his victim with
+caution--fangs bared, jaws extended, his wounds for the moment forgotten.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII--SERVICE COURAGEOUS
+
+
+There was no escape from the wolf's attack, even had Ruth desired to
+evade the encounter. The beast's flaming eyes showed his savage
+intention only too plainly. To turn and run at this juncture would have
+meant death for the brave girl. She stood at bay, the heavy bone poised
+to strike, and let the creature approach.
+
+He leaped, and with all her strength--and that was not slight--she struck
+him. The wolf was knocked sideways to the ground. She followed up the
+attack with a second and a third blow before he could recover his
+footing.
+
+The wound in his shoulder had bled a good deal, and Freckles' hard hoofs
+had crippled one leg. He could not jump about with agility, and although
+he was no coward, he was slow in returning to the charge.
+
+When he did, Ruth struck again, and with good effect. Again and again
+she beat him off. He once caught her skirt and tore it from the
+waist-binding; but she eluded his powerful claws and struck him down
+again. Then, falling upon him unmercifully, she beat his head into the
+hard ground until he was all torn and bleeding and could not see to
+scramble at her.
+
+It was an awful experience for the girl; but she conquered her
+antagonist before her strength was spent. When he lay, twitching his
+limbs in the final throes, she staggered back to where her pony stood
+and there, leaning upon his neck, sobbed and shook for several minutes,
+while Freckles put his soft nose into her palm and nuzzled her
+comfortably.
+
+"Oh, oh, Freckles! what a terrible thing!" she sobbed. "He's dead! he's
+dead!"
+
+She could say nothing more, nor could she recover her self-possession
+for some time. Then she climbed into the saddle and turned the pony's
+head toward the deserted huts without once looking back at the
+blood-bedabbled body and the gory club.
+
+At the camp, however, she was once more her own mistress. The fact that
+she must attend the sick man bolstered up her courage. She hobbled
+Freckles again and recovered the bucket of water. John Cox (if that was
+his name) raged in his fever and clutched at his precious coat, and was
+not quiet again until she had cooled his head and hands with the fresh
+water.
+
+After that he fell into a light sleep and Ruth went about the cabin,
+trying to set the poor furniture to rights and removing the debris that
+had collected in the corners. Every few moments she was at the door,
+looking out for either enemy or friend. But no other creature confronted
+her until the sound of pony hoofs delighted her ear and Tom Cameron and
+Jane Ann, with two of the cowboys from the Rolling River outfit, dashed
+up to the shack.
+
+"Ruth! Ruth!" cried the ranchman's niece, leaping off of her pony. "Come
+out of that place at once! Do as I tell you----"
+
+"Don't come here, dear--don't touch me," returned her friend, firmly. "I
+know what I am about. I mean to stay and nurse this man. I do not
+believe there is so much danger as Jib says----"
+
+"Uncle Bill will have his hide!" cried Jane Ann, indignantly. "You wait
+and see."
+
+"It is not his fault. I came in here when he could not stop me. And I
+mean to remain. But there is no use in anybody else being exposed to
+contagion--if there is any contagion in the disease."
+
+"Why, it's as bad as small-pox, Ruth!" cried Jane Ann.
+
+"I am here," returned Ruth, quietly. "Have you brought us food? And is
+that spirits in the bottle Mr. Darcy has?"
+
+"Yes, Miss," said the cowboy.
+
+"Set it down on that stone--and the other things. I'll come and get it. A
+few drops of the liquor in the water may help the man a little."
+
+"But, dear Ruth," interposed Tom, gravely, "he is nothing to you. Don't
+run such risks. If the man must be nursed _I'll_ try my hand----"
+
+"Indeed you shall not!"
+
+"It's a job for a man, Miss," said Darcy, grimly. "You mount your pony
+and go home with the others. I'll stay."
+
+"If any harm is done, it's done already," declared the girl, earnestly.
+"One of you can stay outside and help me--guard me, if you please.
+There's been an awful old wolf about----"
+
+"A wolf!" gasped Tom.
+
+"But I killed him." She told them how and where. "And I lost Jib's gun.
+He'll be furious."
+
+"He'll lose more than his little old Colts," growled the second cowboy.
+
+"It was not Jib's fault," declared the girl. "I could not so easily find
+my way back to the river as he. I had to stay while he went for help.
+Has word been sent on to the ranch?"
+
+"Everything will be done that can be done for the fellow, of course,"
+Jane Ann declared. "Uncle Bill will likely come over himself. Then there
+_will_ be ructions, young lady."
+
+"And what will Helen and the other girls say?" cried Tom.
+
+"I wish I had thought," murmured Ruth. "I would have warned Jib not to
+let Mary know."
+
+"What's that?" asked Tom, in surprise, for he had but imperfectly caught
+Ruth's words.
+
+"Never mind," returned the girl from the Red Mill, quickly.
+
+The others were discussing what should be done. Ruth still stood in the
+doorway and now a murmur from the bed called her turn back into the
+shack to make the unfortunate on the couch more comfortable--for in his
+tossings he became more feverish and hot. When she returned to the outer
+air the others had decided.
+
+"Darcy and I will remain, Ruth," Tom said, with decision. "We'll bring
+the water, and cook something for you to eat out here, and stand guard,
+turn and turn about. But you are a very obstinate girl."
+
+"As long as one is in for it, why increase the number endangered by the
+fever?" she asked, coolly. "You are real kind to stay, Tom--you and
+Darcy."
+
+"You couldn't get me away with a Gatling gun," said Tom, grimly. "You
+know _that_, Ruth."
+
+"I know I have a staunch friend in you, Tommy," she said, in a low
+voice.
+
+"One you can trust?"
+
+"To be sure," she replied, smiling seriously at him.
+
+"Then what is all this about Mary Cox? What has _she_ got to do with the
+fellow you've got hived up in that shack?" shot in Master Tom, shrewdly.
+
+"Oh, now, Tommy!" gasped Ruth.
+
+"You can't fool me, Ruth----"
+
+"Sh! don't let the others hear you," she whispered. "And don't come any
+nearer, Tom!" she added, warningly, and in a louder tone.
+
+"But The Fox has something to do with this man?" demanded Tom.
+
+"I believe so. I fear so. Oh, don't ask me any more!" breathed the girl,
+anxiously, as Jane Ann and the cowboy rode up to say good-bye.
+
+"I hope nothing bad will come of this, Ruth," said the ranch girl. "But
+Uncle Bill will be dreadfully mad."
+
+"Not with me, I hope," rejoined Ruth, shaking her head.
+
+"And all the girls will be crazy to come out here and help you nurse
+him."
+
+"They certainly _will_ be crazy if they want to," muttered Tom.
+
+"They would better not come near here until the man gets better--if he
+ever _does_ get better," added Ruth, in a low tone.
+
+"I expect they'll all want to come," repeated Jane Ann.
+
+"Don't you let them, Jane Ann!" admonished Ruth. "Above all, don't you
+let Mary Cox come over here--unless I send for her," and she went into
+the shack again and closed the door.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII--BASHFUL IKE TAKES THE BIT IN HIS TEETH
+
+
+There was great commotion at Silver Ranch when Jib Pottoway (on a fresh
+horse he had picked up at the riverside cow camp) rode madly to the
+ranch-house with the news of what was afoot so far away across Rolling
+River. From Old Bill down, the friends of Ruth were horror-stricken that
+she should so recklessly (or, so it seemed) expose herself to the
+contagion of the fever.
+
+"And for a person who is absolutely nothing to her at all!" wailed
+Jennie Stone. "Ruth is utterly reckless."
+
+"She is utterly brave," said Madge, sharply.
+
+"She has the most grateful heart in the world," Helen declared. "He
+saved her life in the canyon--you remember it, Mary. Of course she could
+not leave the poor creature to die there alone."
+
+The Fox had turned pallid and seemed horrified. But she was silent while
+all the others about the ranch-house, from Old Bill Hicks down to Maria
+the cook, were voluble indeed. The ranchman might have laid violent
+hands upon Jib Pottoway, only there was so much to do. Such simple
+medicines as there were in the house were packed to take to Tintacker.
+Old Bill determined to go over himself, but he would not allow any of
+the young folks to go.
+
+"And you kin bet," he added, "that you'll see Jane Ann come back here
+a-whizzin'!"
+
+The unfortunate Jib had enough to do to answer questions. The girls
+would not let him go until he had told every particular of the finding
+of the man at Tintacker.
+
+"Was he just _crazy_?" queried Heavy.
+
+"I don't know whether he's been loony all the time he's been hanging
+around the mines, or not," growled the Indian. "But I'm mighty sure he's
+loco _now_."
+
+"If that was him who shot the bear up in the canyon that day, he didn't
+appear to be crazy enough to hurt," said Helen.
+
+"But is this the same man?" queried Mary Cox, and had they not all been
+so busy pumping Jib of the last particular regarding the adventure, they
+might have noticed that The Fox was very pale.
+
+When Jib first rode up, however, and told his tale, Bashful Ike Stedman
+had set to work to run the big touring car out of the shed in which it
+was kept. During the time the young folk had been at Silver Ranch from
+the East, the foreman had learned from Tom and Bob how to run the car.
+It came puffing up to the door now, headed toward the Bullhide trail.
+
+"What in tarnashun you goin' ter do with that contarption, Ike?" bawled
+Mr. Hicks. "I can't go to Tintacker in it."
+
+"No, yuh can't, Boss. But I kin go to Bullhide for the sawbones in it,
+and bring him back, too. We kin git as far as the Rolling River camp in
+the old steam engine--if she don't break down. Then we'll foller on arter
+yuh a-hawseback."
+
+"You won't git no doctor to come 'way out there," gasped the ranch
+owner.
+
+"Won't I?" returned the foreman. "You wait and see. Ruthie says a
+doctor's got to be brought for that feller, and I'm goin' to git Doc.
+Burgess if I hafter rope an' hogtie him--you hear me!"
+
+The engine began to pop again and the automobile rolled away from the
+ranch-house before Mr. Hicks could enter any further objections, or any
+of the young folk could offer to attend Ike on his long trip.
+Fortunately Tom and Bob had seen to it that the machine was in excellent
+shape, there was plenty of gasoline in the tank, and she ran easily over
+the trail.
+
+At the Crossing Ike was hailed by Sally Dickson. Sally had been about to
+mount her pony for a ride, but when the animal saw the automobile coming
+along the trail he started on the jump for the corral, leaving Miss
+Sally in the lurch.
+
+"Well! if that ain't just like you, Ike Stedman!" sputtered the
+red-haired schoolma'am. "Bringin' that puffin' abomination over this
+trail. Ain't you afraid it'll buck and throw yuh?"
+
+"I got it gentled--it'll eat right off yuh hand," grinned the foreman of
+Silver Ranch.
+
+"And I was going to ride in to Bullhide," exclaimed Sally. "I won't be
+able to catch the pony in a week."
+
+"You hop in with me, Sally," urged Ike, blushing very red. "I'm goin' to
+Bullhide."
+
+"Go joy-ridin' with _you_, Mr. Stedman?" responded the schoolma'am. "I
+don't know about that. Are you to be trusted with that automobile?"
+
+"I tell yuh I got it gentled," declared Ike. "And I got to be moving on
+mighty quick." He told Sally why in a few words and immediately the
+young lady was interested.
+
+"That Ruth Fielding! Isn't she a plucky one for a Down East girl? But
+she's too young to nurse that sick man. And she'll catch the fever
+herself like enough."
+
+"Hope not," grunted Ike. "That would be an awful misfortune. She's the
+nicest little thing that ever grazed on _this_ range--yuh hear me!"
+
+"Well," said Sally, briskly. "I got to go to town and I might as well
+take my life in my hands and go with you, Ike," and she swung herself
+into the seat beside him.
+
+Ike started the machine again. He was delighted. Never before had Sally
+Dickson allowed him to be alone with her more than a scant few moments
+at a time. Ike began to swallow hard, the perspiration stood on his brow
+and he grew actually pale around the mouth. It seemed to him as though
+everything inside of him rose up in his throat. As he told about it long
+afterward, if somebody had shot him through the body just then it would
+only have made a flesh-wound!
+
+"Sally!" he gasped, before her father's store and the schoolhouse were
+out of sight.
+
+"Why, Ike! what's the matter with you? Are you sick?"
+
+"N-no! I ain't sick," mumbled the bashful one.
+
+"You're surely not scared?" demanded Sally. "There hasn't anything
+happened wrong to this automobile?"
+
+"No, ma'am."
+
+"Are you sure? It bumps a whole lot--Ugh! It's not running away, is it?"
+
+"I tell yuh it's tame all right," grunted Ike.
+
+"Then, what's the matter with you, Ike Stedman?" demanded the
+schoolmistress, with considerable sharpness.
+
+"I--I'm suah in love with yuh, Sally! That's what's the matter with me.
+Now, don't you laugh--I mean it."
+
+"Well, my soul!" exclaimed the practical Sally, "don't let it take such
+a hold on you, Ike. Other men have been in love before--or thought they
+was--and it ain't given 'em a conniption fit."
+
+"I got it harder than most men," Ike was able to articulate. "Why,
+Sally, I love you so hard _that it makes me ache_!"
+
+The red-haired schoolmistress looked at him for a silent moment. Her
+eyes were pretty hard at first; but finally a softer light came into
+them and a faint little blush colored her face.
+
+"Well, Ike! is that all you've got to say?" she asked.
+
+"Why--why, Sally! I got lots to say, only it's plugged up and I can't
+seem to get it out," stammered Ike. "I got five hundred head o' steers,
+and I've proven on a quarter-section of as nice land as there is in this
+State--and there's a good open range right beside it yet----"
+
+"I never _did_ think I'd marry a bunch o' steers," murmured Sally.
+
+"Why--why, Sally, punchin' cattle is about all I know how to do well,"
+declared Bashful Ike. "But you say the word and I'll try any business
+you like better."
+
+"I wouldn't want you to change your business, Ike," said Sally, turning
+her head away. "But--but ain't you got anything else to offer me but
+those steers?"
+
+"Why--why," stammered poor Ike again. "I ain't got nothin' else but
+myself----"
+
+She turned on him swiftly with her face all smiling and her eyes
+twinkling.
+
+"There, Ike Stedman!" she ejaculated in her old, sharp way. "Have you
+finally got around to offering _yourself_? My soul! if you practiced on
+every girl you met for the next hundred years you'd never learn how to
+ask her to marry you proper. I'd better take you, Ike, and save the rest
+of the female tribe a whole lot of trouble."
+
+"D'ye mean it, Sally?" cried the bewildered and delighted foreman of
+Silver Ranch.
+
+"I sure do."
+
+"Ye-yi-yip!" yelled Ike, and the next moment the big touring car wabbled
+all over the trail and came near to dumping the loving pair into the
+gully.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV--COALS OF FIRE
+
+
+Once Bashful Ike had taken the bit in his teeth, his nickname never
+fitted him again. He believed in striking while the iron was hot, Ike
+did. And before the touring car ran them down into Bullhide, he had
+talked so hard and talked so fast that he had really swept Miss Sally
+Dickson away on the tide of his eloquence, and she had agreed to Ike's
+getting the marriage license and their being wedded on the spot!
+
+But the foreman of Silver Ranch found Dr. Burgess first and made the
+physician promise to accompany him to Tintacker. The doctor said he
+would be ready in an hour.
+
+"Gives us just about time enough, Sally," declared the suddenly awakened
+Ike. "I'll have that license and we'll catch Parson Brownlow on the fly.
+Come on!"
+
+"For pity's sake, Ike!" gasped the young lady. "You take my breath
+away."
+
+"We ain't got no time to fool," declared Ike. And within the hour he was
+a Benedict and Sally Dickson had become Mrs. Ike Stedman.
+
+"And I'm going over to Tintacker with you, Ike," she declared as they
+awaited before the doctor's office in the big automobile. "That poor
+fellow over there will need somebody more'n Ruth Fielding to nurse him.
+It takes skill to bring folks out of a fever spell. I nursed Dad through
+a bad case of it two year ago, and I know what to do."
+
+"That's all right, Sally," agreed Ike. "I'll make Old Bill give me muh
+time, if need be, and we'll spend our honeymoon at Tintacker. I kin fix
+up one of the old shacks to suit us to camp in. I don't wish that poor
+feller over there any harm," he added, smiling broadly at the pretty
+girl beside him, "but if it hadn't been that he got this fever, you an'
+I wouldn't be married now, honey."
+
+"You can thank Ruth Fielding--if you want to be thankful to anybody,"
+returned Sally, in her brisk way. "But maybe you won't be so thankful a
+year or two from now, Ike."
+
+Dr. Burgess came with his black bag and they were off. The automobile--as
+Sally said herself--behaved "like an angel," and they reached Silver
+Ranch (after halting for a brief time at the Crossing for Sally to pack
+_her_ bag and acquaint Old Lem Dickson of the sudden and unexpected
+change in her condition) late at night. Old Bill Hicks was off for
+Tintacker and the party remained only long enough to eat and for Bob
+Steele to go over the mechanism of the badly-shaken motor-car.
+
+"I'll drive you on to the river myself, Ike," he said. "You are all
+going on from there on horseback, I understand, and I'll bring the
+machine back here."
+
+But when the newly-married couple and the physician had eaten what Maria
+could hastily put before them, and were ready to re-enter the car, Mary
+Cox came out upon the verandah, ready to go likewise.
+
+"For pity's sake, Mary!" gasped Heavy. "You don't want to ride over to
+the river with them."
+
+"I'm going to those mines," said The Fox, defiantly.
+
+"What for?" asked Jane Ann, who had arrived at the ranch herself only a
+short time before.
+
+"That's my business. I am going," returned The Fox, shortly.
+
+"Why, you can't do any such thing," began Jane Ann; but Mary turned to
+Ike and proffered her request:
+
+"Isn't there room for me in the car, Mr. Stedman?"
+
+"Why, I reckon so, Miss," agreed Ike, slowly.
+
+"And won't there be a pony for me to ride from the river to Tintacker?"
+
+"I reckon we can find one."
+
+"Then I'm going," declared Mary, getting promptly into the tonneau with
+the doctor and Sally. "I've just as good a reason for being over
+there--maybe a better reason for going--than Ruth Fielding."
+
+None of her girl friends made any comment upon this statement in Mary's
+hearing; but Madge declared, as the car chugged away from the
+ranch-house:
+
+"I'll never again go anywhere with that girl unless she has a change of
+heart! She is just as mean as she can be."
+
+"She's the limit!" said Heavy, despondently. "And I used to think she
+wasn't a bad sort."
+
+"And once upon a time," said Helen Cameron, gravely, "I followed her
+leadership to the neglect of Ruth. I really thought The Fox was the very
+smartest girl I had ever met."
+
+"But she couldn't hold the Up and Doing Club together," quoth the stout
+girl.
+
+"Ruth's Sweetbriars finished both the Upedes and the Fussy Curls,"
+laughed Madge, referring to the two social clubs at Briarwood Hall,
+which had been quite put-out of countenance by the Sweetbriar
+Association which had been inaugurated by the girl from the Red Mill.
+
+"And The Fox has never forgiven Ruth," declared Heavy.
+
+"What she means by forcing herself on this party at Tintacker, gets my
+time!" exclaimed Jane Ann.
+
+"Sally will make her walk a chalk line if she goes over there with her,"
+laughed Helen. "Think of her and Ike getting married without a word to
+anybody!"
+
+Jane Ann laughed, too, at that. "Sally whispered to me that she never
+would have taken Ike so quick if it hadn't been for what we did at the
+party the other night. She was afraid some of the other girls around
+here would see what a good fellow Ike was and want to marry him. She's
+always intended to take him some time, she said; but it was Ruth that
+settled the affair at that time."
+
+"I declare! Ruth _does_ influence a whole lot of folk, doesn't she?"
+murmured Heavy. "I never saw such a girl."
+
+And that last was the comment Dr. Burgess made regarding the girl of the
+Red Mill after the party arrived at Tintacker. They reached the mine
+just at daybreak the next morning. Mary Cox had kept them back some, for
+she was not a good rider. But she had cried and taken on so when Sally
+and Ike did not want her to go farther than the river, that they were
+really forced to allow her to continue the entire journey.
+
+Dr. Burgess examined the sick man and pronounced him to be in a very
+critical condition. But he surely had improved since the hour that Ruth
+and Jib Pottoway had found him. Old Bill Hicks had helped care for the
+patient during the night; but Ruth had actually gone ahead with
+everything and--without much doubt, the doctor added--the stranger could
+thank her for his life if he _did_ recover.
+
+"That girl is all right!" declared the physician, preparing to return
+the long miles he had come by relays of horses to the ranch-house, and
+from thence to Bullhide in the automobile. "She has done just the right
+thing."
+
+"She's a mighty cute young lady," admitted Bill Hicks. "And this
+chap--John Cox, or whatever his name is--ought to feel that she's squared
+things up with him over that bear business----"
+
+"Then you have learned his name?" queried Tom Cameron, who was present.
+
+"I got the coat away from him when he was asleep in the night," said Mr.
+Hicks. "He had letters and papers and a wad of banknotes in it. Ruth's
+got 'em all. She says he is the man with whom her Uncle Jabez went into
+partnership over the old Tintacker claims. Mebbe the feller's struck a
+good thing after all. He seems to have an assayer's report among his
+papers that promises big returns on some specimens he had assayed. If he
+dug 'em out of the Tintacker Claim mebbe the old hole in the ground will
+take on a new lease of life."
+
+At that moment Mary Cox pushed forward, with Sally holding her by the
+arm.
+
+"I've got to know!" cried The Fox. "You must tell me. Does the--the poor
+fellow say his name is Cox?"
+
+"Jest the same as yourn, Miss," remarked Old Bill, watching her closely.
+"Letters and deeds all to 'John Cox.'"
+
+"I know it! I feared it all along!" cried The Fox, wringing her hands.
+"I saw him in the canyon when he shot the bear and he looked so much like
+John----"
+
+"He's related to you, then, Miss?" asked the doctor.
+
+"He's my brother--I know he is!" cried Mary, and burst into tears.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV--AT THE OLD RED MILL AGAIN
+
+
+The mist hovered over the river as though loth to uncover the dimpling
+current; yet the rising sun was insistent--its warm, soft September rays
+melting the jealous mist and uncovering, rod by rod, the sleeping
+stream. Ruth, fresh from her bed and looking out of the little window of
+her old room at the Red Mill farmhouse, thought that, after all, the
+scene was quite as soothing and beautiful as any of the fine landscapes
+she had observed during her far-western trip.
+
+For the Briarwood Hall girls were back from their sojourn at Silver
+Ranch. They had arrived the night before. Montana, and the herds of
+cattle, and the vast canons and far-stretching plains, would be but a
+memory to them hereafter. Their vacation on the range was ended, and in
+another week Briarwood Hall would open again and lessons must be
+attended to.
+
+Jane Ann Hicks would follow them East in time to join the school the
+opening week. Ruth looked back upon that first day at school a year ago
+when she and Helen Cameron had become "Infants" at Briarwood. They would
+make it easier for Jane Ann, remembering so keenly how strange they had
+felt before they attained the higher classes.
+
+The last of the mist rolled away and the warm sun revealed all the river
+and the woods and pastures beyond. Ruth kissed her hand to it and then,
+hearing a door close softly below-stairs, she hurried her dressing and
+ran down to the farmhouse kitchen. The little, stooping figure of an old
+woman was bent above the stove, muttering in a sort of sing-song
+refrain:
+
+"Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!"
+
+"Then let somebody else save your back and bones, Aunt Alviry!" cried
+Ruth, putting her arms around the old housekeeper's neck. "There! how
+good it is to see you again. Sit right down there. You are to play lady.
+_I_ am going to get the breakfast."
+
+"But your Uncle Jabez wants hot muffins, my pretty," objected Aunt
+Alvirah.
+
+"And don't you suppose anybody can make muffins but you?" queried Ruth,
+blithely. "I made 'em out to Silver Ranch. Maria, the Mexican cook,
+taught me. Even Uncle Jabez will like them made by my recipe--now you see
+if he doesn't."
+
+And the miller certainly praised the muffins--by eating a full half dozen
+of them. Of course, he did not say audibly that they were good.
+
+And yet, Uncle Jabez had a much more companionable air about him than he
+had ever betrayed before--at least, within the knowledge of Ruth
+Fielding. He smiled--and that not grimly--as the girl related some of her
+experiences during her wonderful summer vacation.
+
+"It was a great trip--and wonderful," she sighed, finally. "Of course,
+the last of it was rather spoiled by Mary Cox's brother being so ill.
+And the doctors found, when they got the better of the fever, that his
+head had been hurt some months before, and that is why he had wandered
+about there, without writing East--either to his folks or to you, Uncle
+Jabez. But he's all right now, and Mary expects to bring him home from
+Denver, where he stopped over, in a few days. She'll be home in time for
+the opening of school, at least," and here Ruth's voice halted and her
+face changed color, while she looked beseechingly at Uncle Jabez.
+
+The miller cleared his throat and looked at her. Aunt Alvirah stopped
+eating, too, and she and Ruth gazed anxiously at the flint-like face of
+the old man.
+
+"I got a letter from that lawyer at Bullhide, Montana, two days ago,
+Niece Ruth," said Uncle Jabez, in his harsh voice. "He has been going
+over the Tintacker affairs, and he has proved up on that young Cox's
+report. The young chap is as straight as a string. The money he got from
+me is all accounted for. And according to the assayers the new vein Cox
+discovered will mill as high as two hundred dollars to the ton of ore.
+If we work it as a stock company it will make us money; but young Cox
+being in such bad shape physically, and his finances being as they are,
+we'll probably decide to sell out to a syndicate of Denver people. Cox
+will close the contract with them before he comes East, it may be, and
+on such terms," added Uncle Jabez with a satisfaction that he could not
+hide, "that it will be the very best investment I ever made."
+
+"Oh, Uncle!" cried Ruth Fielding.
+
+"Yes," said Uncle Jabez, with complacency. "The mine is going to pay us
+well. Fortunately you was insistent on finding and speaking to young
+Cox. If you had not found him--and if he had not recovered his health--it
+might have been many months before I could have recovered even the money
+I had put into the young man's scheme. And--so he says--_you_ saved his
+life, Ruthie."
+
+"That's just talk, Uncle," cried the girl. "Don't you believe it.
+Anybody would have done the same."
+
+"However that may be, and whether it is due to you in any particular
+that I can quickly realize on my investment," said the miller, rising
+suddenly from the table, "circumstances are such now that there is no
+reason why you shouldn't have another term or two at school--if you want
+to go."
+
+"_Want to go to Briarwood!_ Oh, Uncle!" gasped Ruth.
+
+"Then I take it you _do_ want to go?"
+
+"More than anything else in the world!" declared his niece, reverently.
+
+"Wall, Niece Ruth," he concluded, with his usual manner. "If your Aunt
+Alviry can spare ye----"
+
+"Don't think about me, Jabez, don't think about me," cried the little
+old woman. "Just what my pretty wants--that will please her Aunt Alviry."
+
+Ruth ran and seized the hard hand of the miller before he could get out
+of the kitchen. "Oh, Uncle!" she cried, kissing his hand. "You _are_
+good to me!"
+
+"Nonsense, child!" he returned, roughly, and went out.
+
+Ruth turned to the little old woman, down whose face the tears were
+coursing unreproved.
+
+"And you, too, Auntie! You are too good to me! Everybody is too good to
+me! Look at the Camerons! and Jennie Stone! and all the rest. And Mary
+Cox just hugged me tight when we came away and said she loved me--that I
+had saved her brother's life. And Mr. Bill Hicks--and Jimsey and the
+other boys. And Bashful Ike and Sally made me promise that if ever I
+could get out West again I should spend a long time at their home----
+
+"Oh, dear, me Aunt Alvirah," finished the girl of the Red Mill, with a
+tearful but happy sigh, "this world is a very beautiful place after all,
+and the people in it are just lovely!"
+
+There were many more adventures in store for Ruth, and what some of them
+were will be related in the next volume of this series, to be entitled:
+"Ruth Fielding on Cliff Island; Or, The Old Hunter's Treasure Box," in
+which will be related the particulars of a most surprising mystery.
+
+"Only one Ruthie!" mused old Jabez. "Only one, but she's quite a
+gal--yes, quite a gal!"
+
+And we agree with him; don't we, reader?
+
+
+                                THE END
+
+
+
+
+THE RUTH FIELDING SERIES
+
+By ALICE B. EMERSON
+
+_12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid_
+
+RUTH FIELDING OF THE RED MILL _or Jasper Parole's Secret_
+
+RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL _or Solving the Campus Mystery_
+
+RUTH FIELDING AT SNOW CAMP _or Lost in the Backwoods_
+
+RUTH FIELDING AT LIGHTHOUSE POINT _or Nita, the Girl Castaway_
+
+RUTH FIELDING AT SILVER RANCH _or Schoolgirls Among the Cowboys_
+
+RUTH FIELDING ON CLIFF ISLAND _or The Old Hunter's Treasure Box_
+
+RUTH FIELDING AT SUNRISE FARM _or What Became of the Raby Orphans_
+
+RUTH FIELDING AND THE GYPSIES _or The Missing Pearl Necklace_
+
+RUTH FIELDING IN MOVING PICTURES _or Helping the Dormitory Fund_
+
+RUTH FIELDING DOWN IN DIXIE _or Great Days in the Land of Cotton_
+
+RUTH FIELDING AT COLLEGE _or The Missing Examination Papers_
+
+RUTH FIELDING IN THE SADDLE _or College Girls in the Land of Gold_
+
+RUTH FIELDING IN THE RED CROSS _or Doing Her Bit for Uncle Sam_
+
+RUTH FIELDING AT THE WAR FRONT _or The Hunt for a Lost Soldier_
+
+RUTH FIELDING HOMEWARD BOUND _or A Red Cross Worker's Ocean Perils_
+
+RUTH FIELDING DOWN EAST _or The Hermit of Beach Plum Point_
+
+RUTH FIELDING IN THE GREAT NORTHWEST _or The Indian Girl Star of the
+Movies_
+
+RUTH FIELDING ON THE ST. LAWRENCE _or The Queer Old Man of the Thousand
+Islands_
+
+RUTH FIELDING TREASURE HUNTING _or A Moving Picture that Became Real_
+
+RUTH FIELDING IN THE FAR NORTH _or The Lost Motion Picture Company_
+
+RUTH FIELDING AT GOLDEN PASS _or The Perils of an Artificial Avalanche_
+
+
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, _Publishers_ NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+BILLIE BRADLEY SERIES
+
+By JANET D. WHEELER
+
+_12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors_
+
+_Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid_
+
+1. BILLIE BRADLEY AND HER INHERITANCE _or The Queer Homestead at Cherry
+Corners_
+
+Billie Bradley fell heir to an old homestead that was unoccupied and
+located far away in a lonely section of the country. How Billie went
+there, accompanied by some of her chums, and what queer things happened,
+go to make up a story no girl will want to miss.
+
+2. BILLIE BRADLEY AT THREE-TOWERS HALL _or Leading a Needed Rebellion_
+
+Three-Towers Hall was a boarding school for girls. For a short time
+after Billie arrived there all went well. But then the head of the
+school had to go on a long journey and she left the girls in charge of
+two teachers, sisters, who believed in severe discipline and in very,
+very plain food and little of it--and then there was a row! The girls
+wired for the head to come back--and all ended happily.
+
+3. BILLIE BRADLEY ON LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND _or The Mystery of the Wreck_
+
+One of Billie's friends owned a summer bungalow on Lighthouse Island,
+near the coast. The school girls made up a party and visited the Island.
+There was a storm and a wreck, and three little children were washed
+ashore. They could tell nothing of themselves, and Billie and her chums
+set to work to solve the mystery of their identity.
+
+4. BILLIE BRADLEY AND HER CLASSMATES _or The Secret of the Locked Tower_
+
+Billie and her chums come to the rescue of several little children who
+have broken through the ice. There is the mystery of a lost invention,
+and also the dreaded mystery of the locked school tower.
+
+5. BILLIE BRADLEY AT TWIN LAKES _or Jolly Schoolgirls Afloat and Ashore_
+
+A tale of outdoor adventure in which Billie and her chums have a great
+variety of adventures. They visit an artists' colony and there fall in
+with a strange girl living with an old boatman who abuses her
+constantly. Billie befriended Hulda and the mystery surrounding the girl
+was finally cleared up.
+
+_Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue_
+
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, _Publishers_ NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+THE BETTY GORDON SERIES
+
+By ALICE B. EMERSON
+
+_Author of the Famous "Ruth Fielding" Series_
+
+_12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors_
+
+_Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid_
+
+_A series of stories by Alice B. Emerson which are bound to make this
+writer more popular than ever with her host of girl readers._
+
+1. BETTY GORDON AT BRAMBLE FARM _or The Mystery of a Nobody_
+
+At the age of twelve Betty is left an orphan.
+
+2. BETTY GORDON IN WASHINGTON _or Strange Adventures in a Great City_
+
+In this volume Betty goes to the National Capitol to find her uncle and
+has several unusual adventures.
+
+3. BETTY GORDON IN THE LAND OF OIL _or The Farm That Was Worth a
+Fortune_
+
+From Washington the scene is shifted to the great oil fields of our
+country. A splendid picture of the oil field operations of to-day.
+
+4. BETTY GORDON AT BOARDING SCHOOL _or The Treasure of Indian Chasm_
+
+Seeking the treasure of Indian Chasm makes an exceedingly interesting
+incident.
+
+5. BETTY GORDON AT MOUNTAIN CAMP _or The Mystery of Ida Bellethorne_
+
+At Mountain Camp Betty found herself in the midst of a mystery involving
+a girl whom she had previously met in Washington.
+
+6. BETTY GORDON AT OCEAN PARK _or School Chums on the Boardwalk_
+
+A glorious outing that Betty and her chums never forgot.
+
+7. BETTY GORDON AND HER SCHOOL CHUMS _or Bringing the Rebels to Terms_
+
+Rebellious students, disliked teachers and mysterious robberies make a
+fascinating story.
+
+8. BETTY GORDON AT RAINBOW RANCH _or Cowboy Joe's Secret_
+
+Betty and her chums have a grand time in the saddle.
+
+_Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue_
+
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, _Publishers_ NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+THE LINGER-NOT SERIES
+
+By AGNES MILLER
+
+_12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors_
+
+_Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid_
+
+_This new series of girls' books is in a new style of story writing. The
+interest is in knowing the girls and seeing them solve the problems that
+develop their character. Incidentally, a great deal of historical
+information is imparted._
+
+1. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THE MYSTERY HOUSE _or The Story of Nine
+Adventurous Girls_
+
+How the Linger-Not girls met and formed their club seems commonplace,
+but this writer makes it fascinating, and how they made their club serve
+a great purpose continues the interest to the end, and introduces a new
+type of girlhood.
+
+2. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THE VALLEY FEUD _or The Great West Point Chain_
+
+The Linger-Not girls had no thought of becoming mixed up with feuds or
+mysteries, but their habit of being useful soon entangled them in some
+surprising adventures that turned out happily for all, and made the
+valley better because of their visit.
+
+3. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THEIR GOLDEN QUEST _or The Log of the Ocean
+Monarch_
+
+For a club of girls to become involved in a mystery leading back into
+the times of the California gold-rush, seems unnatural until the reader
+sees how it happened, and how the girls helped one of their friends to
+come into her rightful name and inheritance, forms a fine story.
+
+4. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THE WHISPERING CHARMS _or The Secret from Old
+Alaska_
+
+Whether engrossed in thrilling adventures in the Far North or occupied
+with quiet home duties, the Linger-Not girls could work unitedly to
+solve a colorful mystery in a way that interpreted American freedom to a
+sad young stranger, and brought happiness to her and to themselves.
+
+_Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue_
+
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, _Publishers_ NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+THE GIRL SCOUT SERIES
+
+By LILIAN GARIS
+
+_12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors_
+
+_Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid_
+
+_The highest ideals of girlhood as advocated by the foremost
+organizations of America form the background for these stories and while
+unobtrusive there is a message in every volume._
+
+1. THE GIRL SCOUT PIONEERS _or Winning the First B. C._
+
+A story of the True Tred Troop in a Pennsylvania town. Two runaway
+girls, who want to see the city, are reclaimed through troop influence.
+The story is correct in scout detail.
+
+2. THE GIRL SCOUTS AT BELLAIRE _or Maid Mary's Awakening_
+
+The story of a timid little maid who is afraid to take part in other
+girls' activities, while working nobly alone for high ideals. How she
+was discovered by the Bellaire Troop and came into her own as "Maid
+Mary" makes a fascinating story.
+
+3. THE GIRL SCOUTS AT SEA CREST _or The Wig Wag Rescue_
+
+Luna Land, a little island by the sea, is wrapt in a mysterious
+seclusion, and Kitty Scuttle, a grotesque figure, succeeds in keeping
+all others at bay until the Girl Scouts come.
+
+4. THE GIRL SCOUTS AT CAMP COMALONG _or Peg of Tamarack Hills_
+
+The girls of Bobolink Troop spend their summer on the shores of Lake
+Hocomo. Their discovery of Peg, the mysterious rider, and the clearing
+up of her remarkable adventures afford a vigorous plot.
+
+5. THE GIRL SCOUTS AT ROCKY LEDGE _or Nora's Real Vacation_
+
+Nora Blair is the pampered daughter of a frivolous mother. Her dislike
+for the rugged life of Girl Scouts is eventually changed to
+appreciation, when the rescue of little Lucia, a woodland waif, becomes
+a problem for the girls to solve.
+
+_Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue_
+
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, _Publishers_ NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+THE RADIO GIRLS SERIES
+
+By MARGARET PENROSE
+
+_12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors_
+
+_Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid_
+
+_A new and up-to-date series, taking in the activities of several bright
+girls who become interested in radio. The stories tell of thrilling
+exploits, outdoor life and the great part the Radio plays in the
+adventures of the girls and in solving their mysteries. Fascinating
+books that girls of all ages will want to read._
+
+1. THE RADIO GIRLS OF ROSELAWN _or A Strange Message from the Air_
+
+Showing how Jessie Norwood and her chums became interested in
+radiophoning, how they gave a concert for a worthy local charity, and
+how they received a sudden and unexpected call for help out of the air.
+A girl wanted as witness in a celebrated law case disappears, and the
+radio girls go to the rescue.
+
+2. THE RADIO GIRLS ON THE PROGRAM _or Singing and Reciting at the
+Sending Station_
+
+When listening in on a thrilling recitation or a superb concert number
+who of us has not longed to "look behind the scenes" to see how it was
+done? The girls had made the acquaintance of a sending station manager
+and in this volume are permitted to get on the program, much to their
+delight. A tale full of action and fun.
+
+3. THE RADIO GIRLS ON STATION ISLAND _or The Wireless from the Steam
+Yacht_
+
+In this volume the girls travel to the seashore and put in a vacation on
+an island where is located a big radio sending station. The big brother
+of one of the girls owns a steam yacht and while out with a pleasure
+party those on the island receive word by radio that the yacht is on
+fire. A tale thrilling to the last page.
+
+4. THE RADIO GIRLS AT FOREST LODGE _or The Strange Hut in the Swamp_
+
+The Radio Girls spend several weeks on the shores of a beautiful lake
+and with their radio get news of a great forest fire. It also aids them
+in rounding up some undesirable folks who occupy the strange hut in the
+swamp.
+
+_Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue_
+
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, _Publishers_ NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+THE CURLYTOPS SERIES
+
+By HOWARD R. GARIS
+
+_Author of the famous "Bedtime Animal Stories"_
+
+_12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors_
+
+_Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid_
+
+1. THE CURLYTOPS AT CHERRY FARM _or Vacation Days in the Country_
+
+A tale of happy vacation days on a farm.
+
+2. THE CURLYTOPS ON STAR ISLAND _or Camping out with Grandpa_
+
+The Curlytops were delighted when grandpa took them to camp on Star
+Island.
+
+3. THE CURLYTOPS SNOWED IN _or Grand Fun with Skates and Sleds_
+
+The Curlytops, with their skates and sleds, on lakes and hills.
+
+4. THE CURLYTOPS AT UNCLE FRANK'S RANCH _or Little Folks on Ponyback_
+
+Out West on their uncle's ranch they have a wonderful time.
+
+5. THE CURLYTOPS AT SILVER LAKE _or On the Water with Uncle Ben_
+
+The Curlytops camp out on the shores of a beautiful lake.
+
+6. THE CURLYTOPS AND THEIR PETS _or Uncle Toby's Strange Collection_
+
+An old uncle leaves them to care for his collection of pets.
+
+7. THE CURLYTOPS AND THEIR PLAYMATES _or Jolly Times Through the
+Holidays_
+
+They have great times with their uncle's collection of animals.
+
+8. THE CURLYTOPS IN THE WOODS _or Fun at the Lumber Camp_
+
+Exciting times in the forest for Curlytops.
+
+9. THE CURLYTOPS AT SUNSET BEACH _or What Was Found in the Sand_
+
+The Curlytops have a fine time at the seashore, bathing, digging in the
+sand and pony-back riding.
+
+10. THE CURLYTOPS TOURING AROUND _or Delightful Days in Pleasant Places_
+
+The Curlytops fall in with a moving picture company and get in some of
+the pictures.
+
+_Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue_
+
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, _Publishers_ NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+FOUR LITTLE BLOSSOMS SERIES
+
+By MABEL C. HAWLEY
+
+_12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors_
+
+_Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid_
+
+1. FOUR LITTLE BLOSSOMS AT BROOKSIDE FARM
+
+Mother called them her Four Little Blossoms, but Daddy Blossom called
+them Bobby, Meg, and the twins. The twins, Twaddles and Dot, were a
+comical pair and always getting into mischief. The children had heaps of
+fun around the big farm.
+
+2. FOUR LITTLE BLOSSOMS AT OAK HILL SCHOOL
+
+In the Fall, Bobby and Meg had to go to school. It was good fun, for
+Miss Mason was a kind teacher. Then the twins insisted on going to
+school, too, and their appearance quite upset the class. In school
+something very odd happened.
+
+3. FOUR LITTLE BLOSSOMS AND THEIR WINTER FUN
+
+Winter came and with it lots of ice and snow, and oh! what fun the
+Blossoms had skating and sledding. And once Bobby and Meg went on an
+errand and got lost in a sudden snowstorm.
+
+4. FOUR LITTLE BLOSSOMS ON APPLE TREE ISLAND
+
+The Four Little Blossoms went to a beautiful island in the middle of a
+big lake and there had a grand time on the water and in the woods. And
+in a deserted cabin they found some letters which helped an old man to
+find his missing wife.
+
+5. FOUR LITTLE BLOSSOMS THROUGH THE HOLIDAYS
+
+The story starts at Thanksgiving. They went skating and coasting, and
+they built a wonderful snowman, and one day Bobby and his chums visited
+a carpenter shop on the sly, and that night the shop burnt down, and
+there was trouble for the boys.
+
+_Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue_
+
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, _Publishers_ NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Ruth Fielding at Silver Ranch, by Alice B. Emerson
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUTH FIELDING AT SILVER RANCH ***
+
+***** This file should be named 36398.txt or 36398.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/3/9/36398/
+
+Produced by Roger Frank, David Edwards and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.