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+Project Gutenberg's The Pony Rider Boys in Montana, by Frank Gee Patchin
+
+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: The Pony Rider Boys in Montana
+
+Author: Frank Gee Patchin
+
+Posting Date: May 27, 2013 [EBook #6068]
+Release Date: July, 2004
+First Posted: November 1, 2002
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN MONTANA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Kent Fielden
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN MONTANA
+
+BY FRANK GEE PATCHIN
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+FITTING OUT FOR THE JOURNEY
+
+
+"Forsythe!"  announced the trainman in a loud voice.
+
+"That is where we get off, is it not!"  asked Tad Butler.
+
+"Yes, this is the place," answered Professor Zepplin.
+
+"I don't see any place," objected Stacy Brown, peering from the car
+window.  "Where is it?"
+
+"You'll see it in a minute," said Walter Perkins.
+
+"Chunky, we are too busy to bother answering all your silly
+questions.  Why don't you get a railroad guide?  Town's on the other
+side.  It's one of those one-sided towns.  Use your eyes more and your
+tongue less," added Ned Rector impatiently.
+
+With this injunction, Ned rose and began pulling his belongings from
+the rack over his head, which action was followed by the three other
+boys in the party.  Professor Zepplin had already risen and was
+walking toward the car door.
+
+The Northern Pacific train on which they were riding, came to a
+slow, noisy stop.  From it, alighted the four boys, sun-burned,
+clear-eyed and springy of step.  They were clad in the regulation
+suits of the cowboy, the faded garments giving evidence of long
+service on the open plains.
+
+Accompanying the lads was a tall, athletic looking man, his face
+deeply bronzed from exposure to wind, sun and storm, his iron gray
+beard standing out in strong contrast, giving to his sun burned
+features a ferocious appearance that was not at all in keeping with
+the man's real nature.
+
+A man dressed in a neat business suit, but wearing a broad brimmed
+sombrero stepped up to the boys without the least hesitation, the
+moment they reached the platform.
+
+"Are you the Pony Rider Boys?"  he asked smilingly.
+
+"We are, sir," replied Tad, lifting his hat courteously.
+
+"Glad to know you, young man.  I am Mr. Simms the banker here.  I was
+requested by banker Perkins of Chillicothe, Missouri, to meet you
+young gentlemen.  Funds for your use while here are deposited in my
+bank ready for your order.  Where is Professor--Professor----"
+
+"Zepplin?"
+
+"Yes, that's the name."  "This is he," Tad informed him, introducing
+the Professor.
+
+"If you and the young men will come up to the bank we will talk
+matters over.  I would ask you to my house, but my family is spending
+the summer at my ranch out near Gracy Butte."
+
+"It is just as well," said the Professor.  "We are not exactly up
+here on a social mission.  The boys are crowding all the time
+possible into their life during their vacation.  I presume they are
+anxious to get started again."
+
+Leaving their baggage at the railroad station, the party set off up
+the street with the banker, to make final arrangements for the
+journey to which they looked forward with keen anticipation.
+
+Readers of this series will remember how, in "THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN
+THE ROCKIES," the four lads set off on horseback to spend part of
+their summer vacation in the mountains.  The readers will remember
+too, the many thrilling experiences that the boys passed through on
+that eventful trip, between hunting big game in hand to hand
+conflict, fighting a real battle with the bad men of the mountains,
+and how in the end they discovered and took possession of the Lost
+Claim.
+
+Readers will also remember how the lads next joined in a cattle
+drive, and their adventures and exciting trip across the plains in
+"THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN TEXAS."
+
+It will be recalled that on this expedition they became cowboys in
+reality, living the life of the cattle men, sharing their duties and
+their hardships, participating in wild, daring night rides, facing
+appalling storms, battling with swollen torrents, bravely facing
+many perils, and tow eventually Tad Butler and his companions solved
+the Veiled Riddle of the Plains, thus bringing great happiness to
+others as well as keen satisfaction to themselves.
+
+After having completed their eventful trip in Texas, the boys had
+expressed a desire to next make a trip of exploration to the north
+country.  Arrangements had therefore been made by the father of
+Walter Perkins for a journey into the wilder parts of Montana.
+
+None of the details, however, had been decided upon.  The boys felt
+that they were now experienced enough to be allowed to make their
+own arrangements, always, of course, with the approval of their
+companion, Professor Zepplin.
+
+As a result they arrived in Forsythe one hot July day, about
+noon.  Their ponies had been shipped home, the little fellows having
+become a bit too docile to suit the tastes of the lads, who had been
+riding bucking bronchos during their trip on a cattle drive in
+southern Texas.  They knew they would have little difficulty in
+finding animals to suit them up in the grazing country.
+
+"And now what are your plans, young men?"  smiled the hanker, after
+all had taken seats in his office in the rear of the bank.
+
+The lads waited for Professor Zepplin to speak.
+
+"Tell Mr. Simms what you have in mind," he urged.
+
+"We had thought of going over the old Custer trail," spoke up
+Walter.
+
+"Where, down in the Black Hills?"
+
+"No, not so far down as that.  We should like to go over the trail he
+followed and visit the scene of his last battle and get a little
+mountain trip as well----"
+
+"Are there any mountains around here?"  asked Stacy innocently.
+
+Mr. Simms laughed, in which he was joined by the boys.
+
+"My lad, there's not much else up here.  You'll find all the
+mountains you want and some that you will not want----"
+
+"Any Indians?"  asked Chunky.
+
+"State's full of them."
+
+"Good Indians, of course," nodded the Professor.
+
+"Well, you know the old saying that 'the only good Indian is a dead
+Indian.' They're good when they have to be.  We have very little
+trouble with the Crows, but sometimes the Black feet and Flat Heads
+get off their reservations and cause us a little trouble."
+
+Chunky was listening with wide open eyes.  "I--I don't like Indians,"
+he stammered.  "None of us are overfond of them, I guess.  Since you
+arrived I have been thinking of something that may interest you."
+
+"We are in your hands," smiled the Professor.
+
+"As I said a short time ago, I have a ranch out near Gracy Butte."
+
+"Cattle?"  asked Tad, with quickened interest.
+
+"No, sheep.  I have another up on the Missouri River.  I am getting
+in five thousand more sheep that some of my men are bringing in on a
+drive.  They should be along very shortly now."
+
+"You deal in large numbers in this country," smiled the Professor.
+
+"Yes, we have to if we expect to make a profit.  I intend to send
+these five thousand new sheep to the Missouri River ranch.  It will
+be a long, hard drive and we shall need some extra men.  How would
+you boys like to join the outfit and go through with them?  I promise
+you you will get all the outdoor life you want."
+
+"Well, I don't know," said Tad doubtfully.  "I don't just like
+sheep."
+
+Mr. Simms laughed.
+
+"You've been with a cattle outfit.  I can see that.  You have learned
+to hate sheep and for no reason--no good reason whatever.  Sheep are
+a real pleasure to manage.  Besides, they are wholesome, intelligent
+little animals.  The cattle men resent their being on the range for
+the reason that the sheep crop down the grass so close that the
+cattle are unable to get enough.  They try to drive us off."
+
+"By what right?"  interrupted the Professor.
+
+"Right of strength, that's all.  On free grass we have as much right
+as the cattle men.  Have you your own ponies?"
+
+"No; we expect to purchase some here.  Can you recommend us to a
+ranch where we can fit ourselves out?  We have our saddles and camp
+outfit, of course," said Tad.
+
+"Yes; I'll take you out to my brother's ranch just outside the
+town.  He has some lively little bronchos there.  He won't ask you any
+fancy price, either.  If you buy, why, you can give him an order on
+my bank and I will settle with him.  You know you have funds here for
+your requirements.  What do you say to the sheep idea?"
+
+"Will you let us think it over, Mr. Simms!"  asked Walter.
+
+"Why, certainly.  You will have plenty of time to visit the Rosebud
+Mountains as well.  I have arranged for a guide.  You will find him at
+the edge of the foothills where he lives.  You can't miss him.  When
+do you plan to start?"  asked the banker.
+
+"We thought we should like to get away today," replied Tad.
+
+"I see you are not losing any time, young men.  We may be able to fix
+you up so you can start this afternoon.  You will want to camp out, I
+imagine, and not make the journey in one day."
+
+"Oh, yes, we are used to that," interjected Ned.  "We have slept out
+of doors so long now that we should not feel comfortable in a real
+bed."
+
+"I understand.  I have been a cowboy as well as sheepman, and have
+spent many weeks on the open range.  It was different then," he added
+reminiscently.  "We will drive out to my brother's ranch now, if you
+are ready."
+
+The boys rose instantly.  They were looking forward to having their
+new ponies, with keen anticipation.
+
+After a short drive they reached the ranch, and a herd of half wild
+ponies was driven into a corral where the lads might look them over
+and make their choice.
+
+"I think that little bay there, with the pink eyes will suit me,"
+decided Tad.  "Is he saddle broken?"
+
+"After a fashion, yes.  He's been out a few times.  But he's full of
+ginger," announced the cowboy who was showing the horses to them.
+
+"That's what I want.  Don't like to have to use the spur to keep my
+mount from going to sleep," laughed the boy.
+
+"You won't need the irons to keep this pony awake or yerself
+either."
+
+"You may give me the most gentle beast on the premises," spoke up
+the Professor.  "I have had quite enough of wild horses and their
+pranks," a speech at which the boys all laughed heartily.
+
+"Me too," agreed Chunky.
+
+"You'll take what you get.  You couldn't stay on any kind of horse
+for long at a time.  Why, you'd fall off one of those wooden horses
+that they have in harness shops," announced Ned Rector witheringly.
+
+"I can ride as well as you can," retorted the fat boy, looking his
+tormentor straight in the eyes.
+
+"Chunky means business when he looks at you that way," laughed
+Walter.  "Better keep away from him, Ned."
+
+"Think I'll take the pink-eyed one," decided Tad.  "Pink-eye.  That
+will be a good name for him.  Got a rope?"
+
+"Yes, kin you rope him?"
+
+"I'll try if you will stir them up a bit," answered the
+freckle-faced boy.
+
+"You might as well pick out our ponies, too," observed the
+Professor.  "You are the only one of our party who is a competent
+judge of horse flesh."
+
+Tad nodded.  His rope was held loosely in his hand, the broad loop
+lying on the ground a few feet behind him, while the cowboy began
+milling the biting, kicking animals about the corral.
+
+Now Pink-eye's head was raised above the back of his fellows so that
+Tad got a good roping sight.  The lariat began curving in the air,
+then its great loop opened, shot out and dropped neatly over the
+head of the pink-eyed pony.  Tad drew it taut before it settled to
+the animal's shoulder, at the same time throwing his full weight on
+the rawhide.
+
+He would have been equally successful in trying to hold a steam
+engine.  Before the lad had time to swing the line and throw the pony
+from its feet, the muscular little animal had leaped to one side.
+
+The sudden jerk hurled the boy through the air.
+
+"Look out!"  warned the cowboy.
+
+His warning came too late.
+
+Tad was thrown with great force full against the heels of another
+broncho.
+
+"He'll be killed!"  cried Professor Zepplin.
+
+Up went the pony's hind feet and with them Tad Butler.  The pony came
+down as quickly as it had gone up, but Tap kept on going.  He had
+been near the wire corral when he was jerked against the animal's
+feet.
+
+The pony kicked a clean goal and Tad was projected over the wire
+fence, landing in a heap several feet outside the corral.
+
+The lad was on his feet almost instantly.  When they saw that he had
+not been seriously injured the boys set up a defiant yell.
+
+"Hurt you any?"  grinned the cowboy.
+
+"Only my pride," answered Tad, with a sheepish smile.  "I never had
+that happen to me before."
+
+"Other ponies got in your way so you couldn't throw your rope down
+on the pink-eyed one and trip him.  I'll get him out for you."
+
+"You will do nothing of the sort.  I can rope my own stock."
+
+After having obtained another lariat, Tad, not deeming it wise to
+attempt to try to pick up the rope that the animal was dragging
+about the corral, once more took his station, while the cowman began
+milling them around the enclosure by sundry shouts and prods.
+
+There was much kicking and squealing.
+
+"Now cut him out!" shouted Tad.
+
+The cowboy did so.  Pink-eye was beating a tattoo in the air with
+his heels.  He was occupying a little open space all by himself at
+that moment.
+
+The rope again curled through the air.  Tad gave it a quick
+undulating motion after feeling the pull on the pony's neck, and the
+next moment the little animal fell heavily to his side.
+
+"Woof!"  said the pony.
+
+"Come out of here!"  commanded the lad, jerking the animal to its
+feet and starting for the exit.
+
+The pink-eyed broncho followed its new master out as if he had been
+doing so every day for a long time.
+
+Tad picked out a spotted roan for Stacy Brown, to which he gave the
+appropriate name of "Painted-squaw".  Bad-eye, was considered an
+appropriate name for Ned Rector's broncho, while Walter drew a
+dapple gray which he decided to call Buster.
+
+After choosing a well broken animal for the Professor, and picking
+out a suitable pack horse, the boys announced that they were ready
+for the start.  An hour or so was spent in getting provisions enough
+to last them for a few days, all of which, together with their camp
+equipment, was strapped to the backs of the ponies.
+
+It was now three o'clock in the afternoon.  Ahead of them was a
+thirty mile journey over an unknown trail.
+
+"I think we had better have a guide to take us out to the foothills
+until we shall have found our permanent guide," said the Professor.
+
+"No, please don't," urged Tad.
+
+"We are plainsmen enough now to be able to find our own way," added
+Ned.  "It's a clear trail.  We can see the Rosebud Range from here.
+That's it over there, isn't it, Mr. Simms?"
+
+"Yes," replied the banker.  "All you will have to do will be to get
+your direction by your compass before you start, and hold to it.  You
+will not be able to see the mountains all the time, as the country
+is rolling and there are numerous buttes between here and there."
+
+"Any Indians?"  asked Stacy apprehensively.
+
+"You may see some, but they will not bother you," laughed the
+banker.  "I shall hope to have you all spend next Sunday with us at
+my ranch; then we can discuss our plans for your joining my outfit."
+
+"How far is it from where we are bound?"  asked the Professor.
+
+"Not more than twenty miles.  Just a few hours' ride."
+
+Filled with joyful anticipations the little party set out, headed
+for the mountain ranges that lay low in the southwest, some thirty
+miles distant.  Contrary to their usual practice, they had taken no
+cook with them, having decided to rely wholly on their own resources
+for a time at least, which they felt themselves safe in doing after
+their many experiences thus far on their summer vacation.
+
+The little western village was soon left behind them.  Turning in
+their saddles, they found that it had sunk out of sight.  They could
+not tell behind which of the endless succession of high and low
+buttes the town was nestling.  Tad consulted his compass, after which
+the lads faced the southwest and pressed cheerfully on.
+
+The Pony Rider Boys were fairly started now on what was to prove the
+most exciting and eventful journey of their lives.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+YAWNS PROVE DISASTROUS
+
+
+"Yah-h-h hum."  Stacy Brown yawned loudly.  "Yah-hum," breathed
+Walter Perkins, half rousing himself from his nap.
+
+"Ho-ho-hum," added the deep bass voice of Professor Zepplin.
+
+"Yah--see here, stop that!"  commanded Ned Rector, suddenly raising
+himself to a sitting posture.  "You've done nothing but stretch your
+mouth in yawns ever since we reached Montana.  See, you've waked up
+the whole camp."
+
+"Ho-hum," said Chunky.
+
+"Say, what ails you?"  demanded Tad, putting down by supreme force of
+will, his own inclination to yawn.
+
+"I--I guess--yah--it must be the--the mountain air.  Yah-hum," yawned
+the fat boy.
+
+Pink-eye coughed off among the cedars.
+
+"What means all this disturbance, young gentlemen?"  demanded the
+Professor.
+
+"It's Chunky and the bronchos yawning," Ned Rector informed him.
+
+"So did you," observed Stacy Brown.
+
+"Did what?"
+
+"Yawned.  See, see!  Your mouth's open now.  You're going to yawn this
+very second You----"
+
+His taunts were lost in the shouts of the Pony Riders.  Ned Rector's
+face was set determinedly, a vacant expression having taken full
+possession of his eyes.
+
+"He is going to yawn," announced Walter solemnly.  "Stake down the
+camp."
+
+In spite of his determination not to yield to the impulse of the
+moment, Ned's mouth slowly opened to its extreme capacity,
+accompanied by a deep intake of breath.
+
+"Y-a-h-h-h-hum!"  he exploded.
+
+"Got you that time.  He--he----" Walter's words died away in a
+long-drawn, gaping yawn.
+
+Ned waited to hear no more.  With a yell he projected himself at the
+fat boy.  Stacy, however, observing the move, had quickly rolled to
+one side.  Ned struck the ground heavily.
+
+Stacy was rolling over and over now as if his very life depended
+upon getting away.  He could not spare the time to get up and run, so
+he continued to roll over and over, making no mean progress at that.
+
+"Go it, Chunky!"  shouted Walter in high glee.
+
+The scene, dimly lighted by the smouldering camp-fire, was so
+ludicrous as to send the boys into shouts of laughter.  All were
+thoroughly awake now.  They had made camp at sunset on the banks of
+the East Fork, of what was known as Fennell's Creek, a broad, deep
+stream which, joining its companion fork some ten miles further
+down, flowed into the clear waters of the Yellowstone.  Here they had
+cooked their supper after many attempts, made with varying degrees
+of success and much laughter.  Later they had rolled themselves into
+their blankets and gone to sleep.
+
+They had been awakened by Stacy Brown's yawns.  In a moment each had
+taken his turn at yawning, but all took the interruption
+good-naturedly, save Ned Rector.  By this time he had grown very much
+excited.  No sooner would he pounce upon the spot where Stacy
+appeared to be, than the fat boy by a few swift rolls would propel
+himself well beyond the reach of his irate companion.
+
+"It'll be the worse for you when I do get you," cried Ned.
+
+At that moment Ned tripped over a limb, and, plunging headlong,
+measured his length on the ground.
+
+The sympathy of the camp was with the rolling Chunky.
+
+"Get a net," shouted Walter.
+
+"No, rope him, Ned.  That's the only way you ever will catch him,"
+jeered Tad.
+
+Both boys were dancing about their companions, shivering in their
+pajamas and uttering shouts of glee.
+
+"He's a regular high roller," said Tad.
+
+"No, not a high roller," answered Walter.
+
+"Here, here!"  admonished the Professor.  "Stop this nonsense.  I
+want to go to sleep.  I don't mind you young gentlemen enjoying
+yourselves, but midnight is rather late for such pranks, it strikes
+me.  Into your blankets, every one of you."
+
+It was doubtful that the boys even heard his voice.  If they did,
+they failed entirely to catch the meaning of his words, so absorbed
+were they in the mad scramble of Ned Rector and Stacy Brown.
+
+"Roll, Chunky, roll!"  urged Walter, jumping up and down in his bare
+feet.
+
+"Good thing he's fat.  If he weren't so round he could never do it,"
+mocked Tad.  "I'll bet he was a fast creeper when he was a baby."
+
+The ponies, disturbed by the noise and excitement, had scrambled to
+their feet and were moving about restlessly in the bushes where they
+were tethered.
+
+"Master Stacy, you will get up at once!"  commanded the Professor
+sternly.
+
+"I can't," wailed the fat boy.
+
+"Then I'll help you," decided the Professor firmly, striding toward
+the spot where he had last heard the lad's voice.
+
+"Look out for the river!"  warned Tad, as the thought of what was
+below the boy suddenly occurred to him.
+
+"Help, help!  I'm rolling in," cried Stacy.
+
+"There he goes, down the bank!  Grab him!"  shouted Walter.
+
+"Where?"  demanded Ned, not fully grasping the import of the warning.
+
+"There, there!  Don't you see him?  Right in front of you.  He's going
+to fall into the river!"
+
+Stacy had forgotten that they were encamped on the east shore of the
+fork and that the broad stream was flowing rapidly along just below
+him.  The banks at that point were high and precipitous, the water
+almost icy cold, being fresh from the clear mountain streams a few
+miles above.  In spots it was deep and treacherous.
+
+Frantically grasping at weeds and slender sprouts, as he rolled down
+the almost perpendicular bluff, Stacy yelled lustily for help.  From
+the soft, sandy soil the weeds came away in his hands, without in
+the slightest degree checking his progress.
+
+Tad realized the danger perhaps more fully than did the others.  In
+the darkness the lad might slip into one of the treacherous river
+pockets and drown before they could reach him.
+
+Grasping his rope which lay beside his cot.  Tad sprang to the top of
+the bluff, swinging the loop of his lariat above his head as he ran.
+
+He could faintly make out the figure of his companion rolling down
+the steep bank.
+
+"Hold up your hand so I can drop the rope over you," shouted Tad, at
+the same time making a skillful cast.
+
+His aim was true.  The rawhide reached the mark.  Chunky, however,
+feeling it slap him smartly on the cheek, brushed the rope aside in
+his excitement, not realizing what it was that had struck him.
+
+"Grab it!"  roared Tad, observing that he had failed to rope the lad.
+
+With a mighty splash, Stacy Brown plunged into the stream broadside
+on.
+
+"He's in!  I heard him strike!"  cried Walter.
+
+With a warning cry to the others to bring lights, Tad, without an
+instant's hesitation, leaped over the bluff and went shooting down
+it in a sitting posture.
+
+"Tad's gone in, too," shouted Walter excitedly, as their ears caught
+a second splash.  It was more clean cut than had been Stacy's dive,
+and might have passed unnoticed had they not known the meaning of
+the sound.
+
+Ned Rector stood as if dazed.  He knew that somehow he had
+thoughtlessly plunged his companions into dire peril.
+
+"Wha--what is it?"  he stammered.
+
+"They're in the river!  Don't you understand?"  answered Walter
+sharply, moving forward as if to follow over the bank in an effort
+to rescue his companion.
+
+"Keep back!"  commanded the Professor.  "You'll all drown if you go
+over that bank."
+
+The Professor, with more presence of mind than the others, had
+sprung up and rushed for the camp-fire, from which he snatched a
+burning ember.
+
+At any other time the sight of his long, gaunt figure, clad in a
+full suit of pink pajamas, dashing madly about the camp, would have
+excited the lads to uproarious merriment.  But laughter was far from
+their thoughts at that moment.
+
+"Use your eyes!  Do you see him?"  demanded Professor Zepplin, peering
+down anxiously into the shadows.
+
+"No.  Oh, Tad!"  shouted Ned.  There was no reply to the boy's
+hail.  "Thaddeus!"  roared the Professor.  Still no answer.
+
+Down the stream a short distance they could hear the water roaring
+over the rocks, from where it dropped some twenty feet and continued
+on its course.  The falls there were known as Buttermilk Falls,
+because of the churning the water received in its lively drop, and
+more than one mountaineer had been swept over them to his death in
+times of high water.  Between the camp and these falls there was a
+sharp bend in the river, and ere the boys had recovered from their
+surprise, their companions undoubtedly had been swept around the
+bend and on beyond their sight.
+
+"Do--do you--do you think----" stammered Walter.
+
+"They have gone down stream," answered the Professor shortly.  "Run
+for it, boys!  Run as you never ran before!"
+
+Ned dived for the thicket where the ponies were tethered.  It was the
+work of a moment only to release Bad-eye.  Without waiting to saddle
+him, Ned threw himself upon the surprised animal's back, and with a
+wild yell sent the broncho plunging through the camp.
+
+He was nearly unseated when Bad-eye suddenly veered to avoid
+stepping into the camp-fire, which Ned Rector in his haste had
+forgotten.
+
+The lad gripped the pony's mane and hung on desperately until he
+finally succeeded in righting himself, all the while kicking the
+pony's sides with his bare feet to urge him on faster.
+
+They were out of the camp, tearing through the thicket before the
+Professor and Walter had even gotten beyond the glow of the
+fire.  Ned was obliged to make a wide detour instead of taking a
+short cut across the bend made by the river.  There were rocks in his
+way, so that a few moments of valuable time were lost before he
+reached the stream on the other side of the obstruction.
+
+"Come, we must run," urged the Professor.  "I'm afraid both of them
+may have gone over the falls."
+
+"Oh, I hope he is not too late!"  answered Walter, with a half sob,
+as they ran regardless of the fact that sharp sticks and jagged
+stones were cruelly cutting into their feet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE BOYS RESCUE EACH OTHER
+
+
+Ned swung around the bend at a tremendous pace.  He was able to see
+little about him, though as he once more reached the bank he could
+tell where the river lay, because the river gorge lay in a deeper
+shadow than did the rest of the landscape about him.
+
+"Oh, Tad!  Tad!"  he shouted.
+
+A faint call answered him.  He was not quite sure that it was not an
+echo of his own voice.
+
+"Tad!  T-a-d!"
+
+"Hurry!"
+
+It seemed a long distance away--that faint reply to his hail.
+
+"That you, Tad!"
+
+"Y-e-s."
+
+"Where are you!"
+
+"Here."
+
+"Where?  I don't see you."
+
+"In the river.  Just below the bend."
+
+Hurriedly dismounting and making a quick examination of the banks he
+discovered that they were so nearly straight up and down that it
+would be impossible to get his companions out at that point.
+
+"I can't get you out here.  You'll have to wait a few moments.  Are
+you swimming?"
+
+"No, I am holding to a rock.  It's awful slippery and I'm freezing
+too."
+
+"All right.  Is Stacy with you?"
+
+"Yes, I've got him."
+
+"Good!  Have courage!  I'll be with you," said Ned encouragingly.
+
+"You'll have to hurry.  I can't hold on much longer.  The falls are
+just below here and if I have to let go it's all up with us."
+
+Ned had no need to be told that.  He could almost feel the spray from
+the falls on his face, so close were they to him and their roar was
+loud in his ears, so that he was obliged to raise his voice in
+calling to his companions.
+
+Leaping to the back of Bad-eye, Ned was off like a shot, tearing
+through the brush, headed toward camp.  On the way he passed
+Professor Zepplin and Walter, nearly running them down in his mad
+haste.
+
+"Got a rope?"  he shouted in passing.  "No," answered Walter.  "Then
+get one and hurry around the bend.  You'll be needed there in a
+minute.  I'm going down into the stream from the camp."
+
+The Professor, seeming to comprehend what Ned had in mind, turned
+and ran back to the camp.
+
+Without an instant's hesitation, Ned Rector, upon reaching their
+camping place, put his pony at the bank where the two boys had gone
+over.
+
+The little animal refused to take it.  He bucked and the lad had a
+narrow escape from following where Tad and Chunky had gone a short
+time before.
+
+"I've got to have a saddle.  That's the only way I can stick on to
+drive him in, and we'll need it to hold to as well," he decided.
+
+Every moment was precious now.  Whirling the animal about, Ned drove
+him into the thicket where the saddles lay folded against trees.
+
+It was the work of seconds for him to leap off and throw the heavy
+saddle on Bad-eye's back.  The boy worked with the speed and
+precision of a Gattling gun.  Yet he groaned hopelessly when he
+realized that his delay might mean the death of two of his
+companions.
+
+Professor Zepplin arrived at the camp just as Ned had finally
+cinched the girths and swung himself into the saddle.
+
+"Where--where is he?"  gasped the Professor, now breathing hard.
+
+"Below the bend.  Get back there with a rope and be ready to toss it
+to him if he lets go."
+
+Ned and his pony crashed through the brush.  He had no spur with
+which to urge on the animal, but Ned had thoughtfully picked up a
+long, stout stick, and once more they drove straight at the high
+bank.
+
+"Stop!  I forbid it!"  thundered the Professor.
+
+Ned paid no more attention to him than had he not spoken.  It was a
+time when words were useless.  What was necessary was action and
+quick action at that.
+
+"Hurry with that rope!"  commanded Ned.
+
+The pony slowed up as they approached the bank of the river, but Ned
+was in no mood for trifling now.  He brought down the stick on the
+animal's hip with a terrific whack.
+
+Bad-eye angered by the blow, squealed and leaped into the air with
+all four feet free of the ground.
+
+"Hi-yi!"  exclaimed the Pony Rider sharply, again smiting the animal
+while the latter was still in the air.
+
+Ned's plan was to enter the stream at that point and swim down with
+the pony until they should have reached the boys and rescued them
+from their perilous position.  While the bluff was sandy at the point
+where they had fallen in, down below, where Tad was now desperately
+clinging to the rock, the stream wound through a rocky cut, whose
+high sides were slippery and uncertain, especially in the darkness
+of the night.
+
+Bad-eye needed no further goading to force him to do his master's
+bidding.  With another squeal of protest the little animal plunged
+for the bank.  No sooner had his forward feet reached over the edge
+of it than the treacherous sands gave way beneath them.
+
+The pony pivoted on its head, landing violently on its back.  Ned had
+dismounted without the least effort on his part, so that he was well
+out of the way when his mount landed.  He had been hurled from the
+saddle the instant the pony's feet struck the unresisting sand.
+
+But Ned clung doggedly to the bridle reins.  He, too, struck on his
+back.  He heard the squealing, kicking pony floundering down upon
+him, its every effort to right itself forcing it further and further
+down the slippery bank.  Now on its back, now with its nose in the
+sand, Bad-eye was rapidly nearing the swiftly moving creek.  Ned had
+all he could do to keep out of the way, and on account of the
+darkness he had to be guided more by instinct than by any other
+sense.  However, it was not difficult to keep track of the now
+thoroughly frightened animal.
+
+Ned leaped to one side.  An instant later, and he would have been
+caught under the pony.
+
+The animal hit the water with a mighty splash, with Ned still
+clinging to the reins.  As the pony went in, Ned was jerked in also,
+striking the water head first.
+
+He could have screamed from the shock of the icy water, which seemed
+to smite him like a heavy blow.
+
+For a moment boy and pony floundered about in the stream.  It seemed
+almost a miracle that the lad was not killed by those flying hoofs
+that were beating the water almost into a froth.
+
+As soon as he was able to get to the surface Ned exerted all his
+strength to swim out further toward the middle of the stream.  Even
+when he was under water, he still kept a firm grip on the rein.  To
+let go would be to lose all that he had gained after so much danger
+in getting as far as he had.
+
+By this time, both boy and pony had drifted down stream several
+rods.
+
+The pony righted himself and struck out for the bank.  Ned was by his
+side almost instantly, being aided in the effort to get there by
+having the reins to pull himself in by.
+
+Bad-eye refused instinctively to head down stream.  There was only
+one thing to do.  That was to climb into the saddle and get him
+started.  Ned did this with difficulty.  His weight made the pony sink
+at first, the animal whinnying with fear.
+
+Fearing to drown the broncho, the boy slipped off, at the same time
+taking a firm grip on the lines.
+
+Bad-eye came to the surface at once.  Ned's right hand was on the
+pommel, the reins bunched in his left.  He brought his knee sharply
+against the animal's side.
+
+"Whoop!"  he urged, again driving the knee against the pony's ribs.
+
+Under the strong guiding hand of his master, the animal fighting
+every inch of the way, began swimming down stream.
+
+"I'm coming!"  shouted the boy.
+
+Before that moment he had not had breath nor the time to call.
+
+"I'm coming!"  he repeated, as they swung around the wide sweeping
+curve.
+
+"Are you there, Tad?"
+
+"Yes," was the scarcely distinguishable reply.  "I've got to let go."
+
+"You hold on.  Bad-eye and I will be there in a minute and the
+Professor is hurrying down along the bank with a rope."
+
+"I'm freezing.  I'm all numb, that's the trouble," answered Tad
+weakly.
+
+Ned knew that the plucky lad was well-nigh exhausted.  The strain of
+holding to the slippery rock in the face of the swift current was
+one that would have taxed the strength of the strongest man, to say
+nothing of the almost freezing cold water, which chilled the blood
+and benumbed the senses.
+
+"You've gone past me," cried Tad.
+
+"I know it.  I'm heading up," replied Ned Rector.
+
+Ned had purposely driven his pony further down stream so that he
+might the easier pick them up as he went by on the return trip.
+
+"Are you all right down there?"  called the Professor, who had
+reached a point on the bank opposite to them.
+
+"Yes, but get ready to cast me a rope," directed Ned.
+
+"I'm afraid I cannot."
+
+"Then have Walter do it."
+
+"He is not here.  I directed him to remain in camp in case he was
+needed there."
+
+"All right.  You can try later.  I'll tell you how.  I'm busy now."
+
+"Don't run me down," warned Tad Butler.
+
+"Keep talking then, so I'll know where you are.  Just say yip-yip and
+keep it up."
+
+Tad did so, but his voice was weak and uncertain.
+
+Ned swam the pony alongside of them, pulling hard on the reins to
+slow the animal down without exerting pressure enough to stop him.
+
+"Is Chunky able to help himself?"
+
+"Yes, if he will."
+
+"Then both of you grab Bad-eye by the mane as he goes by.  Don't you
+miss, for if you do, we're all lost."
+
+"The pony won't be able to get the three of us up the stream,"
+objected Tad.
+
+"I know it."
+
+"Then, what are we going to do?"
+
+"I'll stay here and hang on.  You send Walter back with the pony as
+soon as you get there. Better call to him to get Pink-eye or one of
+the others saddled as soon as you can make him hear.  We'll save
+time that way.  I'm afraid Bad-eye won't be able to make the return
+trip."
+
+"Now grab for the rock," cried Tad.
+
+Ned did so, but he missed it.
+
+Tad still clinging to Chunky fastened his right hand in
+the broncho's mane.  All three of the boys were now clinging to the
+overburdened animal.  Ned began swimming to assist the pony, for he
+realized that they had dropped back a few feet in taking on the
+extra weight.
+
+"Work further back and get hold of the saddle," Ned directed.
+
+Tad followed his instructions.
+
+"I'm afraid he'll never make it," groaned Ned.  "I----"
+
+At that instant his hand came in violent contact with a hard, cold
+object.  It was the slender, pillar-like rock that Tad had been
+clinging to for so long in the icy water.
+
+"I've got it," exclaimed Ned.
+
+He cast loose from Bad-eye and threw both arms about the
+rock.  The pony freed from a share of his burden, struck off up
+stream against the current, making excellent headway.
+
+"I don't like to do this," Tad called back.  "I wouldn't, were it not
+for Chunky.  He couldn't have stood it there another minute."
+
+"You can't help yourself now.  How's the kid?"  called Ned.
+
+"He's all right now."
+
+"Professor, are you up there?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+He had heard the dialogue between the boys, and understood well what
+had been done.
+
+"That was a brave thing to do, Master Ned."
+
+"Thank you, Professor.  Suppose you try to cast that rope to me.  I'm
+afraid I shall never be able to hold on here alone as long as Tad
+did.  B-r-r-r, but it's cold!"  he shivered.
+
+The Professor tried his hand at casting the lariat.
+
+"Never touched me," said Ned, more to keep up his own spirits than
+with the intent to speak slightingly of the Professor's effort.
+
+"Take it up stream throw it out, then let it float down," suggested
+Ned.
+
+Professor Zepplin did so, but the rope was found to be too short to
+reach, and at Ned's direction, he made no further attempt.
+
+Soon Ned heard some one shouting cheerily up the stream.  It was Tad
+Butler.  He had dashed up to camp immediately upon reaching shore,
+and the exercise restored his circulation.  Walter, who was in camp
+had Pink-eye ready and saddled for an emergency, and Tad mounting
+the pony, forced him to take to the water.  He was now returning to
+rescue his brave friend, who was clinging to the rock.  He had been
+unwilling to trust the perilous trip to anyone else.
+
+"I was afraid Walt would go over the falls, pony and all," he
+explained, wheeling alongside Ned Rector and picking him up from the
+rock.
+
+"I'll run a foot race with you when we get ashore," laughed Tad.
+
+"Go you," answered Ned promptly.  "The one who loses has to get up
+and cook the breakfast."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+SURPRISED BY AN UNWELCOME VISITOR
+
+
+"I'm sorry I was to blame for your going into the creek," apologized
+Ned Rector, bending over the shivering Stacy.
+
+"I fell in, didn't I?"  grinned the fat boy.
+
+"No, you rolled in.  My, but that water was cold!"
+
+"B-r-r-r!"  shivered Stacy, as the recollection of his icy bath came
+back to him.  "Di--did you win the race?"
+
+"Tad won it.  I've got to get up and cook the breakfast, and it
+wasn't my turn at all.  It was Tad's turn."
+
+"Yab-hum," yawned Stacy, "I'm awful sleepy."
+
+"So am I," answered Ned, uttering a long-drawn yawn.
+
+"See here, Master Ned.  Get out of those wet pajamas, rub yourself
+down thoroughly and put on a dry suit.  I can't have you all sick on
+my hands to-morrow," commanded the Professor.
+
+"Don't worry about us," laughed Ned.  "It takes more than a bath in a
+cold creek to lay us up, eh, Tad?"
+
+"I hope so," answered Tad Butler, who had rubbed himself until his
+body glowed.  "But I thought once or twice that I was a goner while I
+was holding to that rock.  I could not make Chunky try to support
+himself at all.  He just clung to me until he fagged me all out."
+
+"Come now, young gentlemen, down with this coffee and into the
+blankets."
+
+Professor Zepplin had prepared the coffee, with which to warm the
+lads up, and had heated in the camp-fire some good sized boulders,
+which he wrapped in blankets and tucked in their beds.  Chunky was
+the only one of the boys who did not protest.  Ned and Tad objected
+to being "babied" as they called it, and when the Professor was not
+looking, they quickly rolled the feet warmers out at the foot of
+their beds.
+
+Early next morning they were aroused by the cook's welcome call to
+breakfast.  None of the lads seemed to be any the worse for his
+exciting experiences in the creek, much to the relief of Professor
+Zepplin, who feared the icy bath might at least bring on heavy
+colds.
+
+Tumbling from their cots, they quickly washed; and then sprinting
+back and forth a few times, stirred up their circulation, after
+which the boys sat down to the morning meal with keen appetites.
+
+Ned had cooked a liberal supply of bacon and potatoes and boiled a
+large pot of coffee.
+
+Stacy opened his mouth as if he were about to yawn.
+
+"Don't you dare to do that," warned Ned, waving the coffee pot
+threateningly.  "The first boy who yawns to-day gets into
+trouble.  And Stacy Brown, if you fall in the river again you'll get
+out the best way you can alone.  We won't help you, remember that."
+
+"This bacon looks funny," retorted Stacy, holding up a piece at the
+end of his fork.  "Kind of looks as if something had happened to it."
+
+"Just what I was going to say," added Walter.
+
+"Yes, what has happened to it?  It's as black as the Professor's
+hat."
+
+All eyes were fixed upon the cook.  "I don't care, I couldn't help
+it.  If any of you fellows think you can do any better, you just try
+it.  Cook your own meals if you don't like my way of serving them
+up.  It wasn't my turn to get the breakfast, anyway."
+
+"Our cook evidently has a grouch on this morning," laughed
+Walter.  "Doesn't agree with him to take a midnight bath."
+
+"The bath was all right, but I object to having my cooking
+criticised."
+
+"The bacon does look peculiar," decided Professor Zepplin, sniffing
+gingerly at his own piece.
+
+Ned's face flushed.
+
+"What did you do to it to give it that peculiar shade, young man?"
+
+"Why, I soused it in the creek to wash it off, then laid it in the
+fire to cook," replied Ned.
+
+"In the fire?"  shouted Tad.
+
+"Of course.  How do you expect I cooked it?"  demanded the boy
+irritably.  "I cooked it in the fire."
+
+"I could do better'n that myself," muttered Stacy.
+
+"Didn't you use the spider?"  asked Walter.
+
+"Spider?  No.  I didn't know you used a spider.  Do you?"
+
+"He cooked it in the fire," groaned Tad.
+
+"Peculiar, very peculiar to say the least," decided the Professor
+grimly.  "Gives it that peculiar sooty flavor, common to smoked ham I
+think we shall have to elect a new cook if you cannot do better than
+that.  However, we'll manage to get along very well with this
+meal.  If we have to get others we will hold a consultation as to the
+latest and most approved methods of doing so," he added, amid a
+general laugh at Ned's expense.
+
+Breakfast over, blankets were rolled and packed on the ponies.  About
+nine o'clock the Pony Riders set out for the foothills, after first
+having consulted their compasses and decided upon the course they
+were to follow to reach the point, some fifteen miles distant, where
+they expected to pick up the guide.
+
+"Seems good to be in the saddle once more, doesn't it?"  smiled
+Walter, after they had gotten well under way.
+
+"Beats being in the river at midnight," laughed Tad.  "Bad-eye looks
+as if he needed grooming, too.  Ned, I take back all I said about the
+bacon this morning.  You did me a good turn last night.  If it hadn't
+been for you, Chunky and I wouldn't be here now.  I couldn't have
+held to that rock much longer."
+
+"Neither could I," interjected Stacy wisely.
+
+Ned gave him a withering glance.
+
+"You are an expert at falling in, but when it comes to getting out,
+that's another matter."
+
+"How blue those mountains look!"  marveled Walter, shading his eyes
+and gazing off toward the Rosebud Range.
+
+"I hear there are some lawless characters in there, too," Tad
+answered thoughtfully.
+
+"Where'd your hear that?"  demanded Ned.
+
+"Heard some men talking about it in the hotel back at Forsythe."
+
+"Mustn't believe all you hear.  What did they say?"
+
+"Acting upon your advice, I should say that you wouldn't believe it
+if I told you," answered Tad sharply.  "These men are a kind of
+outlaws, I believe.  They steal horses and cattle.  Probably sell the
+hides--I don't know.  Somehow the Government officers have not been
+able to catch them, let alone to find out who they are."
+
+"Indians, probably," replied Ned.  "The country is full of them about
+here, so I hear."
+
+"Mustn't believe all you hear," piped up Stacy, repeating Ned
+Rector's own words, and the latter's muttered reply was lost in the
+laughter that followed.
+
+It was close to twelve o'clock when they finally emerged on a broad
+table or mesa.  Before them lay the foothills of the Rosebud, rising
+in broken mounds, some of which towered almost level with the lower
+peaks of the mountains themselves.
+
+"I don't see anything of our guide's cabin," said Tad, halting and
+looking about them.  "What do you think, Professor!"
+
+"We will go on to the foothills and wait there.  I imagine he will be
+waiting for us somewhere hereabouts."
+
+"Yes, we have followed our course by the compass," answered Tad.
+
+However, the lad had overlooked the fact, as had the others, that in
+order to find a suitable fording place, they had followed the hanks
+of the East Fork for several miles.  This served to throw them off
+their course and when they finally reached the foothills they were
+some six miles to the north of the place where the guide was to pick
+them up.
+
+As they rode on, the ground gradually rose under them, nor did they
+realize that they were entering the foothills themselves; and so it
+continued until they finally found themselves surrounded by hills,
+narrow draws and broad, rocky gorges.
+
+"Young gentlemen, I think we had better halt right here.  We shall be
+lost if we continue any farther," decided the Professor.  "This is a
+nice level spot with just enough trees to give us shade.  I propose
+that we dismount and make camp."
+
+"Yes, we haven't had the tents up since we were in the Rockies,"
+replied Ned.  "We shall be forgetting how to pitch them soon if we do
+not have some practice."
+
+On this trip, besides their small tents, the Pony Riders had brought
+with them canvas for a nine by twelve feet tent, which they proposed
+to use for a dining tent in wet weather, as well as a place for
+social gathering whenever the occasion demanded its use.  They named
+it the parlor.
+
+In high spirits, the lads leaped from their ponies and began
+removing their packs.  Stacy Brown began industriously tugging at the
+fastenings which held the large tent to the back of the pack pony.
+
+"I can't get it loose," he shouted.  "What kind of hitch do you call
+this, anyway?"
+
+"Young man, that's a squaw hitch.  Ever hear of it before?"  laughed
+Tad.
+
+"No.  What kind of hitch is a squaw hitch?"  asked Chunky.
+
+"Probably one that the braves use to tie up their wives with when
+they get lazy," Ned informed him.
+
+"I know," spoke up Walter.  "It's a hitch used to fasten the packs to
+the ponies.  Mr. Stallings explained that to me when we were in
+Texas."
+
+"Right," announced Tad, skillfully loosening the hitch, thus
+allowing the canvas of the parlor tent to fall to the ground.
+
+While Tad and Walter were doing this, Professor Zepplin with Stacy
+had started off with hatchets to cut poles for the tents.
+
+The sleeping tents were erected in a straight row with the parlor
+tent set up to the rear some few rods, backing up against the hills
+nearest to the mountains.
+
+In front of the small tents the ponies were tethered out among the
+trees so as to be in plain view of the boys in case of
+trouble.  Profiting from past experiences, they knew that without
+their mounts they would find themselves helpless.
+
+In an hour the camp was pitched and the boys stood off to view the
+effect of their work.
+
+"Looks like a military camp," said Ned.
+
+"All but the guns," replied Walter.  "We might stack our rifles
+outside here to make it look more military like."
+
+"Let's do it."  suggested Tad.
+
+Laughing joyously, the lads got out their rifles, standing them on
+their stocks, with the muzzles together in front of the small
+tents.  Not being equipped with bayonets the guns refused to stand
+alone, so they bound the muzzles together with twine wrapped about
+the sights.  This held them firmly.
+
+"There!"  glowed Ned.  "Where's the flag?  Somebody get that and I'll
+cut a pole for it," suggested Tad Butler.
+
+In a few moments Old Glory was waving idly in the gentle summer
+breeze and the boys, doffing their hats, gave three cheers and a
+tiger for it, in which Professor Zepplin joined with almost boyish
+enthusiasm.
+
+"I always take off my hat to that beautiful flag," said the
+Professor, gazing up at it admiringly.
+
+"How about your own country's flag?"  teased Ned.
+
+"That is it.  I am an American citizen.  Your flag is my flag.  And now
+that we have done homage to our country and our flag, supposing we
+consult our own bodily comfort by getting dinner.  Of course, if you
+young gentlemen are not hungry we can skip the noon----"
+
+"Not hungry?  Did you ever hear of our skipping a meal when we could
+get it?"  protested Walter.
+
+"For a young man with a delicate appetite, you do very well,"
+laughed the Professor.  "It wag less than two months ago, if I
+remember correctly, that the doctors thought you were not going to
+live, you were so delicate."
+
+"Almost as delicate as Chunky now," chuckled Ned maliciously.
+
+The midday meal was more successful than had been their
+breakfast.  They ate it under the trees, deciding to dine in the
+parlor tent just at dusk.
+
+The afternoon was spent in shooting, at which the boys were becoming
+quite proficient.  By this time, even Stacy Brown could be trusted to
+manage his own rifle without endangering the lives of his
+companions.
+
+"Is there any game in these hills?"  asked Ned, while he was
+refilling the magazine of his repeating rifle.
+
+"Plenty of it, I am told," replied the Professor.  "There is big game
+all over the state."
+
+"What kind?"
+
+"Bears, mountain lions and the like."
+
+"W-h-e-w.  That sounds interesting.  May we go gunning to-morrow?"
+
+"Better wait until the guide joins us.  It will be best to have some
+one with us who understands the habits of the animals.  As you have
+learned, hunting big game is not boys' play," concluded the
+Professor.
+
+"Yes, I remember our experience in hunting the cougar in the
+Rockies.  I guess I'll wait."
+
+During the afternoon, the boys made short trips along the foothills
+hoping to find some trace of the guide, but search as they would
+they were unable to locate him.  Nor did they dare stray far from the
+camp for fear of being unable to find their way back.  The foothills
+all looked so alike that if one unfamiliar with them should lose his
+way he would find himself in a serious predicament.
+
+"I guess we shall have to camp here for the rest of the summer,"
+Professor Zepplin said, while they were eating their supper.  "We
+must be a long distance from our man if he has not heard our
+shooting this afternoon."
+
+The boys were enjoying themselves, however; in addition, there was a
+sense of independence that they had not felt before.  They were alone
+and entirely on their own resources, which of itself added to the
+zest of the trip.
+
+The supper dishes having been cleared away and the camp-fire stirred
+up to a bright, cheerful blaze, all hands gathered in the parlor
+tent for an evening chat.
+
+Above them swung an oil lantern which dimly shed its rays over the
+little company.  Professor Zepplin was poring over an old volume that
+he had brought with him, while the boys were discussing the merits
+of their new ponies, which by this time had developed their
+individual peculiarities.
+
+Chunky, growing sleepy, had crawled to the rear of the tent, where
+he sat leaning against the closed flap, nodding drowsily.
+
+Finally they saw him straighten up and brush a hand over the back of
+his head.
+
+"He's dreaming," laughed Ned.  "Imagines he's rolling down the river
+bank again."
+
+Suddenly they were aroused by the fat boy's voice raised in angry
+protest.
+
+"Stop tickling my neck," he growled, vigorously rubbing that part of
+his anatomy.  "Funny, you fellows can't let me alone."
+
+"You must be having bad dreams," laughed Ned.  "We are not bothering
+you.  We're all over here."
+
+"Yes, you are.  You've done it three times and you woke me up,"
+answered the fat boy, settling back and closing his eyes preparatory
+to renewing his disturbed nap.
+
+He was asleep in a moment, not having heeded the laughter of his
+companions, nor their noisy comments.
+
+But Stacy dozed for a moment only.  He sat up quickly and very
+straight, while a shrewd expression appeared in his eyes.  Had they
+been looking they might have observed one of his hands being drawn
+cautiously behind him, as if he were reaching for something.  The
+boys were too busy, however, to pay any heed to the lad, and the
+Professor was deeply absorbed in his book.
+
+"I've got you this time!  Tell me you weren't tickling my neck?  I'll
+show you Stacy Brown's not the sleepy head you----"
+
+The boy paused suddenly and scrambling to all fours turned about on
+his hands and knees, intently gazing at the flap against which he
+had been leaning.
+
+"What's the matter, gone crazy over there!"  called Tad.  "Anybody
+would think you had from the racket you are making."
+
+Stacy did not answer.  He had not even heard Tad speak to him.  His
+eyes, bulging with fear, were fixed on the flap.  What he saw was a
+long black snout poked through the slit in the canvas, and just back
+of that a pair of beady, evil eyes.
+
+"Y-e-o-w!"  yelled Stacy.  The lad leaped to his feet and dashed from
+the tent, bowling over Walter and Tad as he ran, shouting in his
+fright and crying for help.  Knowing instinctively that something
+really serious had happened, the others sprang up, peering at the
+other end of the tent.  For a moment, they could see nothing in the
+flickering shadows; then as their eyes became more accustomed to the
+half light, they discovered what filled them with alarm as well.
+
+"Run for your lives!"  shouted Tad, bolting from the tent in a single
+leap, followed almost instantly by Ned Rector and Walter Perkins.
+
+The Professor with one startled glance, hurled his precious book at
+the object he saw entering the tent at the back, and bolted through
+the front opening, taking the end tent pole down with him in his
+hasty flight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE PURSUIT OF THE BURNING BEAR
+
+
+"What is it?"  cried Walter breathlessly, slowing up when he observed
+that the others were doing likewise.  "It's a bear, I think," replied
+the Professor.  "I only saw the head so I can't be sure.  Keep
+away.  Where is Stacy?"
+
+"I--I think he's running, still," answered Ned, his voice somewhat
+shaky.
+
+"There goes the other tent pole down!"  shouted Tad.
+
+"He's wrecking the place.  That's too bad," groaned Walter.
+
+"Are the provisions all in there?"  asked the Professor anxiously.
+
+"No, most of them are over in my tent, where I took them from the
+pack pony," Ned informed him.
+
+"We are that much ahead anyway.  I think we had better get a little
+further away, young gentlemen.  We had better get near trees so we
+can make a fairly dignified escape if that fellow concludes to come
+out after us."
+
+"He's too busy just now," announced Tad, with an attempt at
+laughter.
+
+"Get the guns," ordered the Professor.
+
+"I can't," cried Tad.
+
+"Why can't you?  I will get them myself."
+
+"They are all in that tent there with the bear," groaned Tad.
+
+"There's a box of shells in there, too," added Walter.  "I put it
+there myself."
+
+"Then, indeed, we had better take to the trees," decided Professor
+Zepplin.
+
+"Wait," warned Tad.  "He won't get out right away.  See, he has pulled
+the tent down about him."
+
+"Yes, he's having the time of his life," nodded Ned.  "I hope he
+never gets out.  If we had our guns now!"
+
+And, indeed, Mr. Bruin was having his own troubles.  Angry snarls and
+growls could be heard under the heaving canvas as the black bear
+plunged helplessly about, twisting the tent about him in his
+desperate struggles to free himself.
+
+They could hear the clatter of the tinware as he threshed about, and
+the crash and bang of other articles belonging to their equipment.
+
+"Look!  What's that light?"  exclaimed Walter.
+
+"Fire!"  cried the Professor.
+
+"The tent's on fire!"  shouted Tad.
+
+"Quick, get water!"  urged Ned.
+
+"What for?  To put out the bear?"  laughed Tad.
+
+"I had forgotten about the lantern.  That's what has caused the
+fire.  When the tent collapsed the lantern went down with it, and in
+his floundering about he has managed to set the place on fire," the
+Professor informed them.
+
+"There goes the parlor tent.  That settles it," said Walter.
+
+The other two boys groaned.
+
+"Has he-ha-ha-has he gone?"  wailed Chunky, peering from behind a
+tree.
+
+"No, he hasn't gone.  He's very much here.  Don't you see that tent!
+What do you suppose is making it hump up in the middle, if he isn't
+there?  And the tent's on fire, too," answered Ned, in a tone of
+disgust.  "This is a bad start for sure."
+
+"I didn't fall in that time, did I?  I fell out," interrupted
+Stacy.  "Lucky for me that I did, too.  I would have been in a nice
+fix if that tent had come down on me and that animal at the same
+time."  He shivered at the thought.  "What is it, a lion?"
+
+"Lion!  No, you ninny, it's a bear.  B-e-a-r," spelled Ned, with
+strong emphasis.  "Do you understand that?"
+
+"Y-y-e-s.  I-I-I thought it was a lion.  I did, honest," he
+muttered.  "And it tickled my neck with its paw, too.  Wow!"
+
+Stacy instinctively moved further away from the tent.
+
+Disturbing as their situation was at that moment, the lads could not
+repress a shout of laughter over Stacy's funny words.  But Stacy's
+face was solemn.  He saw nothing to laugh at.
+
+"Lucky for both of you that you didn't yawn.  The bear might nave
+fallen in," jeered Ned.
+
+"Might have been a good thing for us if Chunky had yawned.  Maybe the
+bear would have got to yawning at the same time, and yawned and
+yawned until he was so helpless that we could have captured him,"
+laughed Walter.
+
+"Not much chance of that," answered Tad.  "Bears don't yawn until
+after a full meal.  I guess our bear over there hasn't had one lately
+or he wouldn't have been nosing about our camp when we were all
+there."
+
+"Keep back there, boys.  Please don't get too close.  He is liable to
+break out at any time.  He is a small bear, but there is no telling
+what he may do in his rage when he emerges," warned the Professor.
+
+"We're not afraid," answered Ned.
+
+The boys, having no weapons, had armed themselves with clubs,
+prepared to do battle with their visitor should he chance to come
+their way.
+
+"What's that racket over there in the bushes?"  demanded Ned,
+wheeling sharply.
+
+"It's the ponies," answered Tad, darting away.
+
+At last the little animals had discovered the presence of the bear
+in camp and were making frantic efforts to break their tethers.
+
+"Come over here, some of you.  The bronchos are having a fit.  I can't
+manage all of them at once," called Tad in an excited tone.
+
+"What's the matter--are they afraid?"  called the Professor.
+
+"I should say they are.  They'll get away from me if you don't
+hurry."
+
+Leaving the hear to his own desperate efforts, the boys rushed to
+the aid of Tad Butler.  They were not quick enough, however.
+
+"There goes one of them!"  cried Tad.
+
+A pony had broken the rope and with a snort, had bounded away.  Tad,
+leaped on the bare back of his own pony, first having caught up his
+lariat, and set out after the fleeing animal.
+
+Luckily the runaway broncho had headed for the open and Tad was able
+to overhaul him before they had gone far from the camp.
+
+Riding up beside the little animal it was an easy matter to drop the
+loop over his head and bring him down.
+
+"There, that will teach you to run away," growled the boy, cinching
+the rope and dragging the unruly pony back to camp.
+
+In the meantime the others, after considerable effort, had succeeded
+in securing the other plunging bronchos, more rope having been
+brought for the purpose, while Tad, breathing hard, staked down the
+frightened animal he had roped.
+
+"Now we'll see how Mr. Bear is getting along," announced the
+Professor, as they turned back toward the camp, where the bear was
+still fighting desperately with the smouldering tent.
+
+As they reached the scene they observed Professor Zepplin hurrying
+to his tent.  He was back again almost at once.
+
+"Just happened to think of my revolver," he explained.
+
+"Think you can kill him with that?"  asked Tad.
+
+"I don't know.  I can try.  It's a thirty-eight calibre."
+
+"Won't even feel it," sniffed Ned.  "I've read lots of times that it
+takes a lot to kill a bear."
+
+The Professor raised his weapon and fired at the spot where the tent
+appeared to be most active.
+
+Though he had pulled the trigger only once a series of sudden
+explosions followed, seemingly coming from beneath the tent itself.
+
+"What's that!"  demanded the Professor, lowering his own weapon,
+plainly puzzled.
+
+"Guess the bear's shooting at us," suggested Chunky wisely.
+
+"No.  I know what it is," cried Tad.
+
+"You know?"  demanded Ned.
+
+"Sure.  It's our cartridges exploding.  The fire from the lantern has
+got at those pasteboard boxes in which we carried the shells."
+
+Now they were popping with great rapidity, and instinctively the
+boys drew further away from the danger zone, though the Professor
+told them the bullets could not hurt them, there being not
+sufficient force behind to carry them that distance.
+
+The Professor stood his ground as an object lesson and again resumed
+his target practice.  The tough canvas resisted the bear's efforts,
+and the fire was burning slowly.  However, the tent seemed to be
+ruined and the boys feared their rifles would share a similar fate.
+
+"He's breaking out!"  yelled Chunky, who was some distance to the
+right of the others, now dancing up and down in his
+excitement.  "Look out for him!"
+
+With a last desperate effort, the animal had succeeded in forcing
+his way through the stubborn canvas.
+
+"Look, look!"  yelled Walter Perkins, greatly excited.
+
+The spectacle was one that for the moment held the boys
+spellbound.  A mass of flame separated itself from the ruins of the
+tent.  With snarls of pain and rage the mass ambled rapidly away in a
+trail of fire.
+
+"The bear's on fire!"  shouted Ned Rector.
+
+"Help!"  screamed Chunky.
+
+Blinded by the pain and the flames that had gotten into its eyes,
+the animal not seeing the lad, lurched heavily against him and Stacy
+Brown went down with a howl of terror.
+
+The boy, who had not been harmed, was up like a flash, running from
+the fearful thing as fast as his short legs would carry him.
+
+"Oh, that's too bad!"  exclaimed Tad.
+
+He did not refer to the accident to his companion, which he
+considered as too trivial to notice, but rather to the sufferings of
+the animal.  Tad felt a deep sympathy for any dumb animal that was in
+trouble, no matter if it were a bear which would have shown him no
+mercy had they met face to face.
+
+"Professor, let me have your revolver please," he cried.
+
+"What for?"
+
+"I want to put the brute out of his misery.  Please do!"
+
+"There are no more shells in it."
+
+"Then load it.  I'm going to get Pink-eye.  Hurry, hurry!  Can't you
+see how the miserable creature is suffering?"
+
+The lad darted away for his pony, while Professor Zepplin, sharing
+something of the boy's own feelings, hurried to his tent and
+recharged his weapon.
+
+He had no more than returned when Tad came dashing up on Pink-eye.
+
+"Where is he?  Do you see him?"
+
+"Over there, I can see the fire in the bushes," answered Ned Rector.
+
+"Quick, give me the gun," demanded Tad.
+
+"Wait, I'll go with you," said Ned.
+
+"No, remain where you are," ordered Professor Zepplin.  "Some of you
+will surely be shot.  Thaddeus, remember, you are not to go far from
+camp."
+
+Tad was off in a twinkle.  Putting the spurs to Pink-eye, the animal
+leaped from the camp and disappeared among the trees.
+
+"I am afraid I should not have allowed him to go," announced the
+Professor, with a doubtful shake of his head.  But it was too late
+now for regrets.
+
+Tad found the going rough.  He soon made out the flaming animal just
+ahead of him.  The beast was down rolling from side to side in a
+frantic effort to put out the fire that was burning into his flesh.
+
+Tad could not understand why the fur should make so much flame.  He
+spurred the pony as near to the animal as he could get.  Then he saw
+that the bear had become entangled in the guy ropes, and that he was
+pulling along with him portions of the burning canvas, attached to
+the ropes.  It was this which made the animal a living torch.
+
+The pony in its fright was rearing and plunging, bucking and
+squealing so that the lad had difficulty in keeping his seat.
+
+"Steady, steady, Pink-eye," he soothed.
+
+For an instant the broncho ceased its wild antics and stood
+trembling with fear.
+
+"Bang!"
+
+Tad had aimed the heavy revolver and pulled the trigger.
+
+Instantly the pony went up into the air again and the lad gripped
+its sides with his legs, giving a gentle pressure with the spurs.
+
+"Whoa, Pink-eye!  I hit Mm, I did.  I aimed for his head, but I must
+have merely grazed it.  I wish I could kill the brute and put him out
+of his misery," said the lad more concerned for the suffering animal
+before him than for his own safety.
+
+No sooner had he fired the first shot, than the bear sprang to its
+feet and sped away up a steep bank.  Tad noticed that the bear's
+rolling had extinguished some of the fire, but he knew that it was
+still burrowing in the beast's fur, causing him great agony.
+
+"I am too far away to hit him.  I've got to get closer," decided the
+boy.  "Pink-eye, do you think you can make that climb?"
+
+The pony shook its head and rattled the bits in its mouth.
+
+"All right, old chap, try it."
+
+A cluck and a gentle slap on the broncho's flanks sent him straight
+for the steep bank.  At first his feet slipped under him; he
+stumbled, righted himself and digging in the slender hoofs fairly
+lifted himself up and up.  In the meantime Mr. Bruin was making
+better progress.  He seemed unable to escape from the fire, but he
+could get away from this new enemy, the gun in the hands of the boy
+on the horse.
+
+Every little while as he found he had gained on his pursuer the bear
+would throw himself down, and with snarls and angry growls, take a
+few awkward rolls; then be up and off again.
+
+Once more the lad thought he was near enough to take another shot.
+
+Releasing the reins and dropping them to the pony's neck, he
+steadied the hand that held the gun with the left and fired.
+
+"Oh, pshaw, I missed him!"  he groaned.  "That's too bad.  I'm only
+adding to his misery.  Next time I'll get nearer to him before I try
+to shoot."
+
+He went at Pink-eye, applying every method with which he was
+familiar to increase the pony's speed.  Pink-eye responded as best he
+could, and began climbing the hill that had now developed into a
+fair sized mountain, making even more rapid headway than the bear
+himself.
+
+"Good boy," encouraged Tad.  "We'll overhaul him if you can keep that
+up.  Steady now.  Don't slip or you'll tumble me down the hill and
+yourself, too.  Steady, Pink-eye.  W-h-o-e-e!"
+
+"Bang!"
+
+The bear was running broadside to him and the lad could not resist
+taking another shot at it.  Like the previous effort, however, he had
+failed.
+
+Tad tittered an exclamation of disgust and put spurs to the pony.
+
+"I never did know how to handle a revolver," he complained.  "I'll
+begin to practise with this gun to-morrow if I get out of this
+scrape safely."
+
+He had failed to take into consideration that a bear was an
+extremely difficult animal to kill, and that frequently one of them
+could carry many bullets in its body without seeming to be bothered
+at all.
+
+But the lad was determined to get this one.  He had not thought of
+where he was going nor how far from camp he had strayed.  His one
+desire now was to get the animal and put a quick end to it.
+
+This time Tad was enabled to get closer to Bruin than at any time
+during the chase.  He drove the pony at a gallop right up alongside
+of the animal.
+
+Leaning over he aimed the gun at the beast's head, holding it firmly
+with both hands.
+
+Tad gave the trigger a quick, firm pressure.  A sharp explosion
+followed.
+
+At the same instant, Pink-eye in a frightened effort to get clear of
+the bear, leaped to one side.  The lad, leaning over from the saddle,
+was taken unawares, and making a desperate effort to grasp the
+saddle pommel, Tad was hurled sideways to the ground.
+
+"Whoa, Pink-eye!"  he commanded sharply as he was falling.  But
+Pink-eye refused to obey.  The pony uttered a loud snort and plunged
+into the bushes.  There he paused, wheeled, and peered out
+suspiciously at the boy and the bear.
+
+Tad's shot had gone home.  His aim had been true.  Yet the sting of
+the bullet served only to anger the bear still further.  With an
+angry growl, it turned and charged the lad ferociously.
+
+In falling, the plucky boy had struck on his head and shoulders, the
+fall partially stunning him.  For an instant, he pivoted on his head,
+then toppling over on his back, he lay still.
+
+Powerless to move a muscle, the lad was dimly conscious of a hulking
+figure standing over him, its hot breath on his face.  His right hand
+clutched the revolver, but he seemed unable to raise it.
+
+A loud explosion sounded in Tad Butler's ears, then sudden darkness
+overwhelmed him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+LOST IN THE ROSEBUD RANGE
+
+
+"Whoa, Pink-eye!"  muttered the lad, stirring restlessly.  "I'll get
+him next time.  Look out, he's charging us.  Oh!"
+
+The boy suddenly opened his eyes.  The darkness about him was deep
+and impenetrable and he was conscious of a heavy weight on his
+chest.  What it was, he did not know, and some moments passed before
+he had recovered sufficiently to form an intelligent idea of what
+had happened.
+
+All at once he recollected.
+
+"It was the bear," he murmured.  "I wonder if I am dead!"
+
+No, he could feel the ground under him, and a rock that his right
+hand rested on, felt cold and chilling.  But what of the pressure on
+his chest?
+
+Cautiously the lad moved a hand toward the object that was holding
+him down.  His fingers lightly touched it.
+
+Tad could scarce repress a yell.
+
+It was the head of the bear that was resting on him, and he had no
+idea whether the animal were dead or asleep, awaiting the moment
+when the lad should stir again to fasten its cruel teeth into his
+body.
+
+The boy was satisfied, however, that by exerting all his strength he
+would be able to pull himself away before the beast could awaken,
+even, providing it were still alive.
+
+First he sought cautiously for his weapon, his fingers groping about
+over the ground at his right hand.  He could not find it.  Undoubtedly
+it had fallen underneath the bear.
+
+Tad determined to mate a desperate effort to escape.  He felt as if
+his hair were standing on end.
+
+With a cry that he could not keep back, the lad whirled over and
+sprang to his feet.  As he did so he leaped away, running with all
+his might until he had put some distance between himself and the
+prostrate animal.
+
+Realizing that he was not being followed, Tad brought up sharply and
+dodged behind a tree.  There he stood listening intently for several
+minutes.
+
+Not a sound disturbed the stillness of the night.  The leaves of the
+trees hung limp and lifeless, for no breeze was stirring.
+
+"I wonder if he's dead," whispered the lad, almost afraid to trust
+his voice out loud.  "Maybe that shot finished him.  I must find out
+somehow."
+
+Tad searched his clothes for matches, finally finding his match
+safe.  Next he sought to gather some sticks with which to make a
+torch, but the only wood he was able to find was of oak and so green
+that it would not burn.
+
+"That's too bad," he muttered.  "I'll have to try it with the
+matches."
+
+Lighting one he picked his way carefully toward the place where he
+had been lying, peering into the shadows ahead of him suspiciously
+as he went.
+
+"There he is," breathed Tad.
+
+He could faintly make out the figure of the bear lying half on its
+side as it had been before, the only difference being that the
+animal's head was stretched out on the ground instead of on the
+lad's chest.
+
+"I believe he's dead.  He must be or he'd have been after me before
+this," decided the boy.  "I 'm going to find out."
+
+Mustering his courage, Tad continued his cautious approach, lighting
+match after match, shading the flame with his hands so that the
+light would not get into his eyes and prevent him from seeing
+anything ahead of him.
+
+It required no little courage for a boy alone in the mountains to
+walk up to a bear, not knowing whether the animal were dead or
+alive.  Yet when Tad Butler made up his mind to do a certain thing,
+he persisted until he had accomplished it.
+
+He reached the side of the animal, that is, close enough so that he
+could get a good view of it.
+
+The bear never moved and Tad drew closer, walking on his toes that
+he might make no sound.  There seemed no other way to make certain
+except to stir the animal.
+
+"I'll do it," whispered Tad.
+
+Cautiously lighting another match he drew back his left foot and
+administered a sound kick to the beast's side.
+
+Thinking that the bear had moved under the blow, Tad whirled and ran
+tittering a loud "Oh!"
+
+He waited, but could hear no sound.
+
+"I believe I am afraid of myself.  That bear hasn't stirred at
+all.  I'm going back this time and make sure."
+
+He did.  But this time, steeling himself to the task, Tad stood still
+after he had prodded the beast with his foot again.  There was no
+movement other than a slight tremor caused by the impact of the
+kick.
+
+"Hurrah, I've shot a bear!"  cried the lad in the excess of his
+excitement.  "I wonder what the boys will say.  The next question is
+how am I going to get him back to camp?"
+
+Tad pondered over this problem some moments.
+
+"I know," he cried.  "I'll hitch a rope to him and make Pink-eye tow
+him out.  But where is that pony?"
+
+All at once the realization came to him that the pony had thrown him
+off.  That was the last he had seen of Pink-eye.
+
+Tad whistled and called, listening after each attempt without the
+slightest result.
+
+"He's gone.  I've got to find my way back as best I can.  The worst of
+it is I may be a long way from camp, but I guess I can find my way
+with the compass all right."
+
+The compass, however, was nowhere to be found.  The lad went through
+his pockets twice in search of it.
+
+"Pshaw!  Just my luck.  I'm as bad at losing things as Chunky is in
+falling in.  I'll get the gun anyway, for the Professor will be
+provoked if I go back without it.  Ah, there it is."
+
+Tad picked up the weapon joyfully.
+
+"I've got something to defend myself with, at least," he told
+himself.  A moment later when he discovered that the weapon held
+nothing but empty shells, the keen edge of his joy was dulled.
+
+"Well, it's better to pack back an empty gun than no gun at all," he
+decided philosophically.  "Let me see, I think we came up that way.
+They'll build a big fire so I can see it and I ought to be there
+within half an hour at least."
+
+The lad struck out confidently.  He had been lost in the wilderness
+before, and though he felt a slight uneasiness he had no doubt of
+his ability to find the camp eventually.
+
+He walked vigorously for half an hour.  Then he halted.  The same
+impressive silence surrounded him.
+
+"I think I have been going a little too far to the left," he
+decided.  He changed his course and plodded on methodically again.
+
+Another half hour passed and once more the lad paused, this time
+with the realization strong upon him that he had lost his way.
+
+Placing both hands to his mouth Tad uttered a long drawn
+"C-o-o-e-e-e!"  He listened intently, then repeated the call.
+
+The sound of his own voice almost frightened him.
+
+"Oh, I'm lost!"  he cried, now fully appreciating his position.
+
+The panic of the lost seized him and Tad ran this way and that,
+plunging ahead for some distance, then swerving to the right or to
+the left in a desperate attempt to free himself from the endless
+thicket, bruising his body from contact with the trunks of the trees
+and cutting his hands as they struck the rocks violently when he fell.
+
+"Tad Butler, you stop this!"  he commanded sternly, bringing himself
+up sharply.  "I didn't think you were such a silly kid as to be
+afraid of the dark."  But in his innermost heart the lad knew that it
+was not the shadows that had so upset him.  It was the feeling of
+being lost in an unknown forest.
+
+Instead of being in the foothills as he had supposed, he was
+penetrating the fastnesses of the Rosebud Mountains themselves.
+
+"There is no use in my going on like this," he decided
+finally.  "I'll sit down and wait for daylight.  That's all I can
+do.  I surely can find my way back to camp when the light comes
+again."
+
+The next question was where should he go--where find a safe place
+to stay until morning.  Tad remembered with a start that there were
+bears in the range.  He knew this from his own recent experience.  How
+many other savage beasts there might be in the woods he did not
+know.  He had heard some one speak of mountain lions, and having seen
+these before, he fervently hoped he might not have another
+experience with them, unarmed as he was.
+
+"If this gun only were loaded, I should feel better."
+
+After searching around for some time, Tad found a ledge that seemed
+to rise to a considerable height.  Up this he clambered.  It would
+give him a good view in the morning anyway, besides protecting him
+from any prowling animals that might chance in that part of the
+forest.
+
+Tad ensconced himself in a slight depression, and with a flat rock
+for a resting place, leaned back determined to make the best of his
+position.
+
+A gentle breeze now stirred the foliage above his head and all about
+him until the sound became a restless murmur, as if Nature were
+holding council over the lad's predicament.
+
+The lost boy did not so interpret the sounds, however.  He made a
+more practical application of them.
+
+"It's going to rain," he decided wisely, casting a glance above him
+at the sky, which was becoming rapidly overcast.  "And I haven't any
+umbrella," he added, grinning at his own feeble joke.  "Well, I've
+been wet before.  I cannot well be any more so than I was last
+night.  I'll bet the rainwater will be warmer than the waters in the
+East Fork.  If it isn't I'll surely freeze to death."
+
+Fortunately he had worn his coat when he left the camp, else he
+would now have suffered from the cold.  As it was, he shivered, but
+more from nervousness than from the chill night air.
+
+"Yoh--hum, but I'm sleepy," he murmured drowsily.  A moment more
+and his head had drooped to one side and Tad Butler was sleeping as
+soundly as if tucked away between his own blankets back in his tent
+in the foothills.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+ALMOST BETRAYED BY A SNEEZE
+
+
+Tad awakened with a start.
+
+His first impression was that he smelled smoke, and for the moment
+he believed himself back in camp.  A movement convinced him of his
+error.  A jagged point of rock had cut into his flesh while he
+slept.  He almost cried out with the pain of it, and as he moved a
+little to shift his body from it, the wound hurt worse than ever.
+
+The lad was still surrounded by an impenetrable darkness.  It all
+came back to him--but standing out stronger than all the rest was
+the fact that he was lost.
+
+"Wonder how long I've slept," he muttered.  "Seems as if I had been
+here a year.  Lucky I awoke or I'd been stuck fast on that rock, for
+good and all.  Whew!  B-r-r-r!  I think it's going to snow.  Thought it
+was going to rain just before I went to sleep.  Wonder if they have
+snow up here in the summer time.  Have almost everything else,"
+continued the lad, muttering to himself, half under his breath.
+
+Slowly rising he shook himself vigorously and rubbed his palms
+together to get his circulation stirred up.
+
+"Hello, what's that?  I remember now, I smelled smoke or thought I
+did."
+
+Tad sniffed the chill air suspiciously.
+
+"It is smoke," he decided.  "Maybe I've set the woods on fire with my
+matches.  Guess I'll climb down and investigate."
+
+He started to move down the side of the ledge when it occurred to
+him that perhaps it would be better to investigate from where he
+was; he did not know what danger he might be running into if he were
+to climb down without first having made sure that it was perfectly
+safe to do so.  Just what he might meet with he did not know.  But he
+felt an uneasy sense of impending danger.
+
+"Often feel that way when I first wake up, especially if I've been
+eating pie the night before," he confided to himself, in order to
+urge his courage back to life.
+
+Bending forward he peered from side to side, but was unable to find
+a single trace of light, anywhere about him.  If it were a fire it
+must be some distance away, he concluded.
+
+"If it were some distance away, I wouldn't smell it.  The wind has
+died down.  No, the fire that smoke comes from is right near by me,"
+he whispered.
+
+The sense of human habitation near him caused his pulses to beat
+more rapidly.  The question that remained for him to decide, was who
+was it that had started the fire?
+
+Tad Butler determined to find out if possible, and at once.
+
+He crept cautiously to the right, feeling his way along the ledge,
+not being sure how near he was to the edge.  He found it more
+suddenly than he had expected, and narrowly missed falling over head
+first.
+
+"Whew!  That was a close call," he muttered.  "I must be more
+careful."
+
+There was no sign of either smoke or fire below him, as he observed
+after getting his balance again.  He drew back cautiously and worked
+his way to the side that he had been facing, yet with no better
+result than before.
+
+There yet remained two sides to be investigated--the one he had
+climbed up and the other that lay to the left of him.  Tad chose the
+latter as the most likely to give him the information he
+sought.  However, he found that the edge lay some distance away.  The
+table of rock was much wider than he had imagined, when he first
+ascended to it.
+
+The way was rough.  Once the lad's foot slipped into a crevice.  In
+seeking to withdraw it he gave the ankle a wrench that caused him to
+settle down on the rocks with a half moan of pain.  His shoe had
+become wedged in between the rocks so that he had difficulty in
+withdrawing it at all, and the injured ankle gave him a great deal
+of pain as he struggled to release himself.
+
+"Guess I'll have to take off my shoe.  Hope I haven't sprained my
+ankle.  I'll be in a fine mess if I have," he grumbled.
+
+The ankle gave him considerable trouble; but he rubbed it all of ten
+minutes, and he found that he could endure his shoe again.  He was
+full of curiosity as well as anxiety to learn the cause of the
+smoke, which, by this time, seemed to be coming his way in greater
+volume.
+
+After having relaced the shoe and leggin, Tad started on again, this
+time on all fours, not trusting himself to try to walk, feeling his
+way ahead of him with his hands, which he considered the safer way
+to do.
+
+"There's somebody down there," he whispered, after a long interval
+of slow creeping over the rocks.  "I wonder who it is?  Perhaps they
+are looking for me.  I'll give them a surprise if they are."
+
+The surprise, however, was to be Tad's.
+
+At last he reached the edge of the little butte.  Slowly stretching
+his neck and lying flat on his stomach, he peered over.
+
+A cloud of black smoke rolled up into his face, causing the lad to
+withdraw hastily.
+
+"Aka-c-h-e-w," sneezed Tad, burying his face in his hands.
+
+"Whew, what a smudge!  I'll bet they heard that sneeze."
+
+"What's that?"  demanded a gruff voice below.  "Sounded like somebody
+sneezing."
+
+"No, it's an owl," replied another.  "I've heard that kind
+before.  Sometimes you'd think it was a fellow snoring."
+
+"Must be funny kind of a bird," grunted the first speaker.
+
+"He's right.  That's exactly what I am," growled Tad, who had plainly
+overheard their conversation.  Yet he was thankful that the men below
+had not realized the truth.  Tad was quite willing to be mistaken for
+a bird under the circumstances.
+
+After making sure that the men were not going to investigate the
+sound, the boy crept again toward the edge, working to the right a
+little further this time, so that the smoke might not smite him full
+in the face as had been the case before.
+
+There were four of them--strangers.  The boy observed that they were
+dressed like cowboys, broad brimmed hats, blue shirts and all.  From
+the belt of each was suspended a holster from which protruded the
+butt of a heavy revolver.
+
+"Cowboys," he breathed.  "At least they ought to be and I hope they
+are nothing else."
+
+The lad's attention was fixed particularly on one of the party.  He
+was all of six feet tall, powerfully built, his swarthy face covered
+with a scraggly growth of red beard, and with a face of a peculiarly
+sinister appearance.
+
+"When do they expect the herd?"  asked the first speaker.
+
+"Be here the day after tomorrer I reckon," answered the man with the
+red beard.
+
+"How many?"
+
+"They say there's five thousand sheep in the herd, but it's more'n
+likely there'll be ten when they git here."
+
+"Huh!"  grunted the other.
+
+"There'll be less when we git through with them."
+
+"You bet."
+
+"Boss Simms will be mad.  He'll be ripping, when we clean him out."
+
+Two of the men rose at the big fellow's direction and stalked off
+into the bushes to attend to their ponies, which the lad could hear
+stirring restlessly, but could not see.
+
+"Simms!"  breathed Tad.  "What does this mean? Those men are up to
+some mischief.  I know it.  I must find out what it is they are
+planning to do."
+
+Tad learned a few moments later, but in his attempts to overhear
+what the plans of these strange men were, he nearly lost his own
+life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+INTO THE ENEMY'S CAMP
+
+
+"Has Simms been warned that he'd better keep them out of this here
+territory?"  asked one.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Who told him?"
+
+"Bob Moore, who owns the Double X Ranch on the west side of the
+range.  I saw to that," announced the man with the beard.
+
+Tad decided that he was the leader of the party, but it was not yet
+clear what they were planning to do.  Yet he knew that if he listened
+long enough something was sure to be dropped that would give him a
+clue to the mystery.
+
+"Bob's mad as a trapped bear over it.  Swears he'll kill every sheep
+in the country before he'll let Simms drive in the new herd and
+graze it here."
+
+"Suppose you put it into his head proper like to do something?"
+laughed one.
+
+"Well, I did talk it over with him a bit," admitted the leader.  "But
+he wasn't hard to show."
+
+"When is the thing coming off?"
+
+"We haven't decided yet.  We four will talk that over.  Perhaps the
+same night they get in.  They'll be restless then and easy to
+start."
+
+"But won't the foreman corral the sheep?"
+
+"Don't think so.  Haven't room.  They haven't fixed up a new
+corral, because they expected to graze the sheep on north.  That many
+will clean up the range right straight ahead of us for more'n a
+hundred miles, so that we cattle men won't have half a chance to
+graze our cattle," grinned the spokesman of the party.
+
+His companions laughed harshly.
+
+"I reckon," answered another.  "We'll have all the cattle men on
+both sides of the Rosebud range so stirred up that they will pitch
+into that flock like hyenas who haven't had a square meal since snow
+fell last.  When they break loose there's going to be fun, now I
+tell you.  That's the time we get busy.  We ought to be able to get
+a thousand of them anyhow.  Before next morning we'll be so far down
+toward the Big Horn range that they won't catch us.  And besides,
+after the cattle men get through killing mutton, a thousand more or
+less won't be missed.  It'll make a nice bunch to add to our flock.
+If we work that a few times we'll have enough to make a shipment
+worth while."
+
+"So that's the game is it?"  muttered Tad Butler.  "Well, they won't
+do it if I can help it."  Yet be realized how powerless he was at
+that moment to defeat their nefarious plans.
+
+Somehow they were going to urge the real cattle men to use
+highhanded measures to destroy Mr. Simms's flock.  They were going to
+scatter them, and then these men were going to make off with all
+they could drive away.  It did not seem to the listening boy that
+such things were possible; yet Mr. Simms was authority for the
+statement that such acts were not unknown in this far northern
+state.
+
+There were still many points that Tad was not clear on, but he had
+heard enough to enable him to give the rancher a timely warning of
+what they proposed to do.
+
+The lad knew what that meant.  It meant trouble.  His sympathies had
+been largely with the cattle men--he had looked down on the sheep
+industry and for the reason that he knew only what the cattle men
+had told him about it.
+
+At that moment Tad Butler was experiencing a change of heart.  That
+they could plan ruthlessly to slaughter the inoffensive little
+animals passed his comprehension.  A remark below him caused the lad
+to prick up his ears and listen intently.
+
+"As I came over the Little Muddy this afternoon, I thought I saw
+some sort of a camp in the foothills," said a voice.  "Thought mebby
+that might be the outfit, though I couldn't see what they were doing
+on that side of the range."
+
+"Oh," laughed the big man, "I know the one you mean.  Yes, I took a
+look at that outfit myself."
+
+"Oh, he did, eh?  Wonder we didn't see him," grunted Tad, realizing
+that the men referred to the camp of the Pony Riders.  "There was
+something besides bears around there, I see."
+
+"Find out what it was!"
+
+"Yes, it seemed to be a camp of boys.  There was only one man in the
+bunch so far as I could see.  He was a tall gent with whiskers that
+hadn't been shaved for two weeks o' Sundays."
+
+Tad could not repress a laugh.
+
+"I wish the boys could hear that," he said, laughing softly.  "That
+hits off the Professor better than a real picture could do."
+
+"Huh!  What were they doing!"
+
+"You can search me for the answer.  I haven't got it," laughed the
+big fellow.  "We don't need to bother about them.  They're out here
+with some crazy idea in their tops.  They can't interfere with our
+plans any."
+
+"You'd better not be too sure about that," chuckled Tad.  "Perhaps
+one of them may if he has the good luck to get out of here without
+being discovered."
+
+"What's the plan, Bluff?"
+
+"So that's his name?  I'll remember that," muttered Tad.
+
+"That's what I wanted you boys to meet me here for.  I want you to
+see all the ranchers before to-morrow night on both sides of the
+Rosebud.  Understand now, no blunt giving away of the game.  You want
+to start by telling them you hear Boss Simms is bringing in ten
+thousand head of sheep, and that he's going to graze them up the
+valley all the way over the free grass to the north.  Tell them that
+it'll be mighty poor picking for the cows and so on until you get
+'em good and properly mad----"
+
+"Yes, what then?"
+
+"Better let the ranchers make threats first, then you can say that
+you hear the others are going to teach Boss Simms a lesson and
+stampede his flock to-morrow or next night.  Say you hear the word
+will go out when the mine is ready to touch a match to.  You'll know
+how to work it?"
+
+"Sure thing, Bluff.  Who do you want us to see?"
+
+"I want you and Jake to take the west side of the mountains.  Lazy
+and I will take the east.  Work it thoroughly and don't you go to
+making any bad breaks.  Right after the job is over, besides the
+sheep we get for our own herd, there'll be a few thousand laying
+dead around these parts.  We'll take the contract to skin them for
+the hides.  That'll be another rake off.  Do you follow me?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"To-morrow night meet me at the Three Sisters and I'll be able to
+give you your orders for the rest of the boys."
+
+"You don't think they'll suspect you--that they'll be wise to what
+the game is?"  asked one of the men apprehensively.
+
+"No fear of that.  They'd never mix me up with any such deal as
+that.  I'm a respectable law abiding rancher, I am," laughed the man
+with the red beard.  "Don't you go to getting cold feet.  That's the
+sure way to get caught," admonished the leader.
+
+"Want us to start now?"
+
+"No, sure not.  What's the use?  We'd better turn in and get some
+sleep.  It'll be light enough by three o'clock in the morning.  We'll
+get a rasher of bacon and some hot coffee, then we'll light out for
+the valley.  You know you don't have to see Bob Moore.  And better not
+go near the Circle T Ranch.  I'm not any too sure about those
+fellows.  We'll turn in now."
+
+"I've heard enough to hang the whole bunch," thought Tad
+Butler.  "The trouble is I don't know who they are.  But that does not
+make so much difference.  Only if I did know, Mr. Simms might be able
+to have them arrested.  As it is, I guess the best he can do is to
+get ready to fight them off when they do come," reasoned the lad.
+
+"Better stake the ponies nearer camp in case anything comes along.  I
+came across bear tracks a few miles to the east of here," the big
+man advised them.
+
+"So did I," thought Tad.
+
+"I forgot to tell you that there'll be three or four Crow braves
+with us on the raid as well as half a dozen Blackfeet?"
+
+"Blackfeet?  What are them redskins doing down here, off the
+reservation?"  demanded Jake.
+
+"They're like all critters, think the pasture over the fence is
+better'n their own," laughed Bluff.  "Guess there's no need of any of
+us keeping awake.  We ain't likely to have any surprises."
+
+The cowboy outlaw, however, was about to have the most surprising of
+surprises that could have come to him at that time.
+
+Tad, in his anxiety to catch every word that was uttered, had drawn
+his body close up to the edge of the cliff, his head and shoulders
+hanging well over.
+
+In front of him, right down to the camp stretched a long, sloping
+rock, whose smooth face, glistened in the light of the camp fire.  As
+the men rose to prepare for the night, Tad began pulling himself
+cautiously back, bracing himself with one hand.
+
+Suddenly the hand slipped.  How it happened he was unable to tell
+afterward, but instantly Tad was over the rock and tobogganing down
+its side head first.
+
+A spot rougher than the rest of the rock, caught in his clothes,
+righting the boy's body, permitting him to shoot down the rest of
+the way, feet first.
+
+The Pony Rider Boy's presence of mind did not desert him for an
+instant.  It was not a long drop.  He felt that he would land safely,
+providing he did not turn again and land on his head instead of his
+feet.  It was a chance very liable to happen, as he knew from his
+experience of a second before.
+
+They heard him coming, but did not catch the significance of it.
+
+"What's that!"  exclaimed Bluff, springing up in alarm.
+
+"I don----"
+
+"Y-e-o-w!"
+
+Tad had uttered the shrill scream.  With great presence of mind he
+hoped to take them so by surprise that they would hesitate for the
+few seconds, and that in this delay he would be able to get away.
+
+The lad's feet struck the ground, his body plunged forward and he
+fell sprawling at the very feet of the men he was seeking to get
+away from.
+
+"Catch him!  It's a man!"  roared the leader.
+
+With one accord they sprang for the prostrate form of Tad Butler.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+TAD OUTWITS HIS PURSUERS
+
+
+Tad was lithe and supple.  As the champion wrestler of the high
+school, back in his home town in Missouri, he was possessed of many
+tricks that had proved useful to him on more than one occasion since
+the Pony Riders set out on their summer's jaunt.
+
+"Y-e-o-w!"  yelled the lad in a high-pitched, piercing voice,
+intended to confuse his enemy.  And it served its purpose well.
+
+As the men leaped upon him, Tad raised himself to all fours, his
+back slightly arched.  In this position he ran on hands and feet like
+a monkey, darting straight between the legs of the man with the
+beard.
+
+The big man flattened himself on the ground face downward, while
+Tad, who had tripped him, was well outside the ring.  In an instant
+the leader's fellows had dropped on him and the four men were
+floundering helplessly, in what, to all appearances, might have been
+a football scrimmage.
+
+Tad was not yelling now.  He was fairly flying, running on his toes
+and seeking to do so without making the slightest sound.
+
+The men quickly untangled themselves and with yells of rage bounded
+from their camp in search of the one who had caused so much
+disturbance.  It had all happened so quickly that they had not
+succeeded in getting a good look at their tormentor.
+
+"It's a boy!"  roared Bluff.  "Catch him.  No, shoot!  Don't let him get
+away!"
+
+"Where is he!"
+
+"I don't know.  Fan the bushes, fan everything.  We've got to get
+him!"
+
+"Keep it up.  Do you see him?"
+
+"No."
+
+As Tad heard the bullets snipping the leaves over his head, he
+instinctively ducked and, turning sharply to the left, skulked
+through the trees.  By the flickering light of the camp fire he had
+seen something that gave him a sudden idea.
+
+"Watch out.  There he is?"
+
+"Where, where?"
+
+"There, by the ponies.  Give it to him!"  cried Jake.
+
+"Stop, you fools!"  thundered the leader.  "Do you want to kill the
+bronchs?  Get after him.  What are you standing there like a lot of
+dumbheads for?"
+
+"I see him.  I kin pink him," yelled one of the four.
+
+"I said go after him.  Not a shot in that direction!"  commanded
+Bluff.
+
+Tad bad caught a glimpse of the ponies.
+
+"I'm going to try it," he breathed.
+
+No thought of wrong entered his mind.  He was about to take a horse
+that did not belong to him.  He knew his life was at stake and that
+having overheard their plans he would be sure to suffer were he to
+fall into their hands.
+
+"It's not stealing.  It's just fighting them on their own ground,"
+gasped the boy, tugging desperately at the stake rope in an effort
+to free the first pony he came to.
+
+The leash resisted all his efforts.
+
+Out came the lad's jack knife.  One sweep and the rope fell
+apart.  They had discovered him.  Every second was precious now.  He
+was thankful that the men had removed neither bridles nor saddles,
+though he knew the bit was hanging from the animal's mouth.
+
+But Tad cared little for this.  He could manage the pony, he felt
+sure.  With a yell of defiance he leaped into the saddle and dug his
+fist into the animal's side, uttering a shrill, "yip-yip!"
+
+The pony, responding to the demands of its rider, sprang away
+through the forest, putting the lad in imminent peril of being swept
+off by low hanging limbs.
+
+"He's getting away.  He's got one of the ponies.  Give it to him now,
+but don't hit the rest of the cayuses!"  yelled the leader in high
+excitement.
+
+Tad had it in mind to liberate the other animals and start them off
+on a stampede.  It was the fault of the outlaw cowboys that he did
+not.  They discovered his whereabouts sooner than he had hoped they
+might.  It was all he could do to get one pony free and mount in
+time, for they were running toward him at top speed.
+
+Instantly, upon their leader giving them the order to fire, the men
+raised their weapons, taking quick, careful aim, and pulled the
+triggers.
+
+Their bullets whistled far above the head of the fleeing boy, as the
+ground was sloping and he was traveling downward rapidly.
+
+"Keep it up.  You may get in a chance shot.  No, stop.  Take to the
+ponies."
+
+Three of them, including the leader, cast loose the remaining
+animals, and springing upon their backs, spurred the bronchos into a
+run.  They were in hot pursuit of the lad now, with freshly loaded
+guns ready to fire the instant they came within range of him.
+
+Tad's pony was crashing through the brush, making such a racket that
+there could be no trouble about their keeping on the trail.  They
+needed no light by which to follow it unerringly.
+
+The boy soon came to a realization of this.  Then again the men were
+so much more familiar with mountain riding that he felt sure they
+would eventually overhaul him.  Even now they were gaining.  There
+could be no doubt of that.
+
+"I'll ride as long as I can, then I'll try to get away from them
+some other way," he decided.
+
+The moment was rapidly approaching when he would be forced to resort
+to other tactics.  Just what these should be he did not know.  He
+would either be shot or captured in the event of his being unable to
+devise some other method of escape.
+
+Tad Butler was resourceful.  He had no idea of giving up yet.  He was
+determined above all, to defeat the desperate purpose of these men
+and save Mr. Simms from the loss of his flock.
+
+"We're gaining on him!"  cried one of the pursuers.  "I can hear the
+pony plainer now."
+
+"Yes, I kin hear him snort," added another.
+
+"You'll hear that cub doing some snorting on his own account in a
+minute," snarled Bluff, applying the spurs mercilessly.
+
+"Shall we shoot, Cap!"
+
+"I'll let you know when to shoot.  No use filling all the trees in
+the range full of lead.  We'll be up with him in a few minutes now
+and there'll be things doing.  He can't get away.  We've got him to
+rights this time."
+
+"He's a slick one whoever he is.  Think he heard us?"
+
+"Can't guess.  Don't make any difference anyhow.  He won't have a
+chance to use the information, if he did hear."
+
+"We're coming up on him," cried Jake.
+
+"Halt!"  bellowed the leader.
+
+The pony in the lead did not slacken its speed in the least.
+
+Bluff repeated his command, but still without perceptible result.
+
+"Halt or we shoot!"
+
+Tad Butler made no reply.  He was leaning far over on the pony's neck
+now.  In this position he was less likely to be swept off by limbs,
+and, again, were they to fire on him as they had threatened, there
+was a much better chance of the shots going harmlessly over, instead
+of through him.  Thus far their marksmanship had been poor.
+
+This was the second time the lad had been under fire, the first
+having been in the battle of the mountaineers, when the Pony Riders
+were in the Rocky Mountains, on which occasion Tad had conducted
+himself with such coolness and bravery.
+
+Tad realized no fear, however.  It thrilled him.  A strange sense of
+elation possessed him.  He felt strong and resourceful--he felt that
+he would be willing to do or dare almost anything.
+
+"Let him have it!"  commanded the leader sternly.
+
+The men obeyed instantly.
+
+Their weapons sent a rattling fire in the direction of the fleeing
+broncho.
+
+"Halt!  Will you halt!"
+
+The pony still plunged on.
+
+"Once more!"
+
+The men fired again, two rounds each.
+
+This time they heard the pony plunge crashing to the ground.  His
+rapid course had come to a sudden end.
+
+The pursuers set up a yell of triumph.
+
+"He's down!  He's down!  We've got him!"
+
+"Give him another one!"
+
+To make sure that their man should not escape they fired their
+weapons again.
+
+The pursuers dashed up with drawn revolvers, ready to shoot at the
+least sign of resistance.
+
+Bluff leaped from his pony and struck a match.
+
+Tad's mount lay dying in the brush.
+
+"There's no one here," said Bluff, his face working nervously.
+
+Of Tad Butler there was no sign.  He had disappeared utterly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE RIDE FOB HELP
+
+
+"There's Pink-eye!"  exclaimed Ned Rector.
+
+"Is it possible?"  answered the Professor.  "Then something has
+happened to Tad."
+
+"Mebby--mebby the bear's got him," suggested Stacy Brown, his face
+blanching.
+
+All through the night the little party had sat up anxiously awaiting
+the return of their companion, who had set out after the bear.  The
+tent had been ruined, but they found that the rifles had not been
+harmed at all, having been stacked in front of the small tents.
+
+Early in the morning the three boys and Professor Zepplin had
+followed Tad's trail for some distance into the foothills, but
+feared to penetrate too far for fear of getting lost.  The Professor
+reasoned that it would be much better to return to camp and give Tad
+a chance to find his way in in case he himself should prove to have
+been lost.
+
+This the boys had done, but they were impatient to be doing
+something more active.  Ned Rector was fairly fuming, because their
+guardian would not permit him to set out alone in search of the
+missing boy.
+
+"No," the Professor had said; "if I did that with all of you, we
+should have the whole party scattered over the mountains and it is
+doubtful if we should all get together again before snow flies."
+
+Yet when Tad's pony came trotting back to camp, the matter took on a
+more serious aspect.  Something must be done and at once.
+
+"Now, will you let me go, Professor?"  begged Ned.
+
+"Not in those mountains alone, if that is what you mean."
+
+"Then what can we do?"
+
+"If the guide were only here!"  interjected Walter.  "Do you suppose I
+could find him?"
+
+"It will be useless to try, my boy.  About the only course we can
+follow now, is that leading back to Forsythe, and I am not sure that
+we shouldn't be lost doing that."
+
+"Then we don't know it," retorted Ned.  "I know the trail.  I could go
+back over it with my eyes shut.  Why would that not be the idea,
+Professor?  Why not let me ride back to Forsythe?  Mr. Simms would
+give us some one who knew the foothills and mountains and I could
+bring him back."
+
+"Let me see, how far is it?"  mused the Professor.
+
+"Thirty miles, he said."
+
+"Why, it would take you couple of days to make that and back."
+
+"You try me and see.  I can get a fresh pony to come back with, and
+if I do not return with the guide, what difference does it make?
+He's the one you want.  But never fear, I'll be back with him between
+now and morning if I have no bad luck," urged the lad earnestly.
+
+"I am half inclined to agree to your plan.  If I were sure that you
+knew the way----"
+
+"It is not possible to get lost.  We have the compasses and we know
+the direction in which Forsythe lies.  All we have to do is to travel
+in an opposite direction from that by which we came."
+
+"Supposing we all go!"  suggested Walter.
+
+"Wouldn't do at all," answered the Professor, with an emphatic shake
+of the head.  "Some one must remain here in case Tad returns.  That
+boy will get back somehow.  I feel sure of that.  He is resourceful
+and strong.  And besides, he has my revolver.  No; more than one on
+the trip would be apt to delay rather than to help.  Master Ned, you
+may go."   "Good!"  shouted the lad.  Bad-eye looked up almost
+resentfully as the boy approached him on the run, threw on the
+saddle and cinched the girths.
+
+The hits were slipped into the animal's mouth, and, placing his left
+foot in the stirrup, Ned threw himself into the saddle.
+
+"I'm ready now," he said, his eyes sparkling with anticipation, as
+he rode up to the little group.
+
+"I'll show you that I'm not a tenderfoot even if I am from
+Missouri," he laughed.
+
+"Be careful," warned Professor Zepplin.
+
+"Don't worry about me, and, Chunky, you look out for bears.  If Tad
+should come in within the next half hour or so, you can fire off
+your rifles to let me know.  Then I'll turn about and come
+back.  Good-bye, all."
+
+"Good-bye and good luck," they shouted.
+
+Giving a gentle pressure to the spurs, Ned Rector started off on his
+long ride at a brisk gallop.  Within a short time the lad had the
+satisfaction of finding that he was emerging from the foothills.  He
+then pulled up the pony and consulted his compass.  "Five points
+north of east.  The Professor said that should take me back.  Besides
+I remember that we came this way yesterday.  I'm going to save some
+time by fording that fork without going the roundabout way we took
+before."
+
+Ned galloped on again.  Had it not been for his anxiety over Tad, he
+would have enjoyed his ride to the fullest.  The morning was
+glorious; the sun had not yet risen high enough to make the heat
+uncomfortable; birds were singing and in spots where the sun had not
+yet penetrated a heavy dew was glistening on foliage and grass.
+
+Ned drew a long breath, drinking in the delicious air.
+
+"This is real," he said.  "Nothing artificial about this.  I wish I
+might stay here always."
+
+The lad did not think of the deep snows and biting cold of the
+northern winters there, winters so severe that hundreds of head of
+sheep and cattle frequently perished from the killing weather.  He
+saw nature only in her most peaceful mood.
+
+He had ridden on for something more than two hours, when he came to
+the East Fork, where they had had such an exciting experience two
+nights before.  After a few moments' riding along the bank he
+discovered the spot where they had made their camp on the opposite
+side.
+
+"I'm going to take a chance and ford right here," he decided.  "No, I
+guess my mission is too important to take the risk.  If I should get
+caught in there I should at least be delayed.  There's somebody else
+who must be considered.  That's Tad."
+
+Half a mile above, the lad found a place that he felt safe in
+trying.  Luckily he got across without mishap.  He had found a rocky
+bar without being aware of it, and the water while swift was shallow
+enough so that by slipping his feet from the stirrups and holding
+them up, he was able to ford the stream without even getting them
+damp.
+
+"I wonder why we didn't find this place the other night," he said
+aloud.  "I guess we were in too big a hurry.  That's the trouble with
+us boys.  We blunder along without using our heads.  But, I guess I
+had better not boast until after I have gotten back safely from
+Forsythe," he laughed.  "I may need some good advice myself before
+that is accomplished."
+
+The pony with ears laid back had settled to a long, loping gallop,
+covering mile after mile without seeming to feel the strain in the
+least.
+
+Some distance beyond the Fork, Ned descried a horseman who had
+halted on beyond him, evidently awaiting his approach.
+
+Ned was not greatly concerned about this.  On the contrary, it was a
+relief to see a human being.
+
+The man hailed him as he drew up.  Ned noted the red beard and the
+general sinister appearance of the man.
+
+"How," greeted the stranger, tossing his hand to the lad.
+
+"How," answered Ned in kind.
+
+"Where you headed!"
+
+"Forsythe."
+
+"Stranger in these parts, I reckon?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"On a herd?"
+
+"Expect to be soon.  Just finished a drive down in Texas."
+
+"Cattle, of course?"
+
+"Oh, yes."
+
+"That's right.  This sheep business has got to stop.  I hear there's
+going to be something doing round these parts pretty lively,"
+grinned the stranger.
+
+"What do you mean?"  asked the lad, peering sharply into the man's
+face.
+
+"Oh, nothing much," answered the other.  "Thought being as you were a
+cowman it might interest you some."
+
+"It does," replied the boy almost sharply.
+
+"Well, guess the rest, then," laughed the stranger.  "Where'd you get
+that pony?"
+
+"Is that not rather a personal question?"  asked Ned, smiling coldly.
+
+"Not in this country.  Kinder reminded me of a nag that belonged to
+me.  He strayed away from my ranch a few weeks ago," said the fellow
+significantly.
+
+"It wasn't this pony," retorted Ned, flushing. "I bought this animal.
+Good day, sir, I must be getting along."
+
+"In a hurry, ain't ye?"
+
+"I am," answered Ned, touching the spurs to the pony's sides and
+galloping off.
+
+"Hey, hold on a minute," called the stranger.
+
+"Can't.  In too much of a hurry," replied Ned.
+
+"I don't like the looks of that fellow at all," muttered the boy as
+he rode on, instinctively urging his mount along at an increased
+speed to put as much distance as possible between himself and the
+curious stranger.
+
+"Funny he should ask me that question about my pony.  However,
+perhaps it is a peculiarity in this part of the country.  Wonder what
+he meant by saying that there would be something doing here pretty
+quick."
+
+After a time Ned turned in his saddle and looked back.  The horseman
+was standing as Ned had left him.  He was watching the boy.  Ned swung
+his hand, and then turned, glad that he was well rid of the man.
+
+Late in the afternoon, he saw the village of Forsythe just ahead of
+him.  The boy could have shouted at the sight.
+
+"Straight as you could shoot a bullet," he chuckled.  "I guess I can
+follow the old Custer trail without getting lost."
+
+He did not pause, but galloped on into the village and up the main
+street, not halting until he had reached the bank with which
+Mr. Simms was connected.
+
+He was stiff and sore from the long, continuous ride, and as he
+dismounted he found that he could scarcely stand.
+
+After tethering the pony to the iron rod that had been fastened to
+two posts, Ned walked into the bank.  Red-faced and dusty he
+presented himself to the banker.  At first the latter did not appear
+to recognize him.
+
+"I am Ned Rector of the Pony Rider Boys," explained the lad.
+
+Mr. Simms sprang up and grasped the boy cordially by the hand.
+
+"This is a surprise.  You back so soon?  Why, is anything wrong!"
+
+"Well, yes, there is," admitted Ned.
+
+"Sit down and tell me about it."
+
+Ned seated himself, but the effort hurt him and he winced a little.
+
+"Stiffened up, eh?  Where did you come from?"
+
+The lad explained and Mr. Simms uttered a soft whistle.
+
+"Well, you have had a ride.  I didn't suppose you boys could ride
+like that.  I suppose the guide found you?"
+
+"We have seen nothing of him at all."
+
+"Is it possible?  I should not have troubled myself to come back to
+tell you had it not been for the fact that one of our boys is lost."
+
+"Lost?"
+
+"Yes.  At least we think so.  He has been away since early last
+evening.  We should not have worried so much had not his pony
+returned without him early this morning.  We dared not go far into
+the mountains to search for him for fear of getting lost ourselves."
+
+"You don't mean it?"
+
+"Yes.  I came back to see if you could give me a man from here, or
+get me one rather.  One who knows the mountains and who will ride
+back with me at once."
+
+"Of course I will.  You did perfectly right in coming to me
+quickly.  My foreman is in town to-day.  He will be in shortly and I
+think he will know of some one who will answer your purpose.  I wish
+you had ridden to my ranch, however.  It would have been much
+nearer."
+
+"I didn't know where it was."
+
+"Of course not."
+
+"While waiting for the foreman, tell me about how it all happened?"
+urged Mr. Simms.
+
+Ned went over the events of the previous evening, in detail, to all
+of which the banker gave an attentive ear.
+
+Mr. Simms regarded him with serious face.
+
+"You young men are having plenty of excitement, I must say.  Yes, you
+are right.  Something must have happened to Master Tad.  He looks to
+me like a boy who could be relied upon to look out for himself
+pretty well, however," added the banker.
+
+"He is.  We were afraid that perhaps he might have gotten into
+trouble with the bear."
+
+"Quite likely.  Do you plan on going back with the guide that we get
+for you?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Then you will need a fresh, pony.  I will have one brought around
+for you when you are ready to start.  I should think, however, that
+it would be best for you to remain over until tomorrow.  You'll be
+lamed up for sure."
+
+"No, I must go back.  I'll be lame all right, but it won't be the
+first time.  I'm lame and sore now.  I've polished that saddle so you
+could skate on it already," laughed Ned.
+
+Mr. Simms laughed.
+
+"I can understand that quite easily.  I've been in the saddle a good
+share of my life, too.  There comes the foreman now."
+
+The foreman of the Simms ranch, who bore the euphonious name of Luke
+Larue, was a product of the West.  Six feet tall, straight, muscular,
+with piercing gray eyes that looked out at one from beneath heavy
+eyelashes, Ned instinctively recognized him as a man calculated to
+inspire confidence.
+
+He shook hands with the young man cordially, sweeping him with a
+quick, comprehensive glance.
+
+Mr. Simms briefly related all that Ned Rector had told him, and the
+foreman glanced at the young man with renewed interest after
+learning of the ride he had taken that morning.
+
+"Pretty good for a tenderfoot, eh?"
+
+Ned's bronzed face took on a darker hue as he blushed violently.
+
+"I don't exactly call myself that now, sir," he replied.
+
+"Right.  You say your friend chased a bear out!"
+
+The lad nodded.
+
+Luke shook his head.
+
+"Bad.  Can he shoot?"
+
+"Oh, yes.  But he had only a revolver--a heavy thirty-eight calibre
+that belongs to Professor Zepplin."
+
+"Nice toy to hunt bears with," laughed the foreman.  "Bear's probably
+cleaned him up.  I'll get a man I know and I'll go back with you
+myself.  We can run down the trail easily enough, but it will need
+two trailers, one to follow the pony and the other the bear after
+their trails separate," the foreman informed them wisely.
+
+"Do--do--you think he has been killed?"   stammered Ned.
+
+"I ain't saying.  It looks bad, that's all."
+
+Ned forced a composure that he did not feel.  He started to ask a
+further question, when there came a sudden interruption that brought
+all three to their feet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+A RACE AGAINST TIME
+
+
+But to return to Tad and his experiences in seeking to elude his
+pursuers.  The boy saw that it was a question of a few moments only
+before they would surely overhaul him.  Already the bullets from
+their revolvers were making their presence known about him.
+
+"Getting too warm for me," decided the lad coolly.
+
+It occurred to him to leave the pony and take his chances on
+foot.  The animal did not belong to him and he would have to abandon
+it sooner or later.
+
+A volley closer than the rest emphasized his decision.  The lad freed
+his feet from the stirrups and slipped from the saddle, at the same
+time giving the pony a sharp slap, uttering a shrill little "yip!"
+as the animal dashed away.
+
+After this, Tad did not wait a second.  He ran obliquely away from
+the pony.  This he thought would be better than turning sharply to
+the left or right.  The next moment he came into violent contact with
+the base of a tree.  He noted that it's trunk was a sloping one, and
+without pausing to think of the wisdom of his act, the lad quickly
+scrambled up it.
+
+To his delight he found himself amid the spreading branches of a
+pinon tree.  He wriggled in among the foliage, stretching himself
+along a limb, where he clung almost breathless.  He had no sooner
+gained that position than the pony went down under the fire of his
+pursuers.
+
+"Too bad," muttered Tad.  "It's a shame I had to desert the
+broncho.  He did me a good service."
+
+The men galloped by a few feet from the boy's hiding place and came
+to a halt beside the prostrate pony.  His straining ears caught their
+every word.
+
+When they began to shoot, Tad flattened himself still more,
+instinctively.  Some of the bullets passed close beneath him, and he
+wished that he might have chosen a higher tree in which to hide.
+
+Bang!
+
+It seemed to have cut the leaves just behind his head.
+
+Tad repressed a shiver and shut his lips tightly together.  He was
+determined not to permit himself to feel any fear.
+
+At last the men joined each other right under the tree in which he
+was hiding.  Tad fairly held his breath.
+
+"Well, what do you think, Cap?"
+
+"Don't think.  I know.  The cayuse has given us the slip."
+
+"No, not much use looking for him.  Better wait here till morning
+then try to trail him down, if we don't find him laid out somewhere
+in the bushes round here," suggested one.
+
+"Yes, we might as well go back to camp.  We can't spend much time
+looking for him in the morning.  We've got other work to do.  I wish I
+knew just how much that fellow overheard.  Queerest thing I ever come
+across, and I don't like it a little bit."
+
+They removed the saddle and bridle from the dead pony, after which
+they started slowly away.
+
+Tad breathed again.  Yet he still lay along the pinon limb, every
+sense on the alert.  He was not sure that it was not a trick to draw
+him out.  He already was too good a woodsman to be caught napping
+thus easily.
+
+After a time, however, deciding that all the men had left, the lad
+cautiously began to work his way down the sloping tree trunk.  His
+feet touched the ground, his arms still being about the pinon
+trunk.  In that position he lay for several minutes.
+
+"I guess it's all right," decided Tad, straightening up.  "The
+question is, which way shall I go?  I've got to be a long ways from
+here by daylight or that will be the end of me.  It would be just my
+luck to run right into that gang again."
+
+After pondering a moment he decided that, knowing the direction the
+men had taken, there was only one thing for him to do.  He would
+strike out in the opposite direction.
+
+He did so at once, first standing in one spot for some time to get
+his bearings exactly.  Then, the lad started away bravely.  At first
+he moved cautiously and as he got further away, increased his speed
+and went on with less caution.
+
+He kept bearing to the right to offset the natural tendency to stray
+too far the other way, which is usual with those who are lost in the
+forest.
+
+Tad was tired and sore, but he did not allow himself to give any
+thought to that.  His one thought now, was to get out of the forest
+and give the alarm to the owner of the ranch against whom he had
+heard the men plotting.
+
+Hearing water running somewhere near, Tad realized that he was very
+thirsty, and after a few minutes' search, he located a small
+mountain stream.  Making a cup of his hands he drank greedily, then
+took up his weary journey again.  Forcing his way through dense
+patches of brush, stumbling into little gullies, becoming entangled
+amongst fallen trees and rotting brush heaps, boy and clothes
+suffered a sad beating.
+
+Day dawned faintly after what had seemed an endless night.  The sky
+which he could faintly make out through the trees above him, was of
+a dull leaden gray, which slowly merged into an ever deepening
+blue.  Off to his right he caught glimpses of patches of blue that
+were lower down.
+
+"I must be up in the mountains," said Tad aloud.  "I wonder how I
+ever got up here."
+
+This was a certain aid to him, however.  He reasoned that if the
+valley lay to his right, he must be going nearly northward.  That
+would lead him toward the place where he believed the Simms ranch
+lay, and at the present moment that was Tad Butler's objective
+point.  It might be losing valuable time were he to try to find his
+way back to camp.
+
+"I'll get down lower," he decided, turning sharply to the right and
+descending the sloping side of the mountains.
+
+Reaching the lower rocks, he found that he was more likely to lose
+his way there than higher up.  He was now in the foothills.  There,
+all sense of direction was lost.  So Tad, began ascending the
+mountain.  He went up just far enough to enable him to see the blue
+sky off to the right again, after which he forced his way along the
+rocky slope.  It was tough traveling and he felt it in every muscle
+of his body.
+
+After plodding on for hours, he paused finally and listened.
+
+"Thought I heard a bell tinkle," he muttered.  "I've heard of people
+hearing such things when they were nearly crazed with hunger and
+fatigue on the desert.  I wonder if I am going the same way.  Oh,
+pshaw!  Tad Butler, you could keep on walking all day.  Don't be
+silly," he said to himself encouragingly.
+
+The tinkling bell was now a certainty.
+
+"I know what it is!" exclaimed the lad joyously.  "It's sheep!  I've
+heard them before.  I'm near sheep and that means there will be men
+around.  It's sheepmen that I am looking for now."
+
+With hat in hand, the boy dashed off down the mountain side, leaping
+lightly from rock to rock, his red neck-handkerchief streaming in
+the breeze behind him, as he followed an oblique course toward the
+foothills.
+
+All at once he burst out on to a broad, green mesa, and there,
+before his delighted eyes was a great herd of snowy-white sheep
+grazing contentedly.  Off on the further side of the flock he
+descried a man lazily sitting in his saddle while a dog was rounding
+up a bunch of stray lambs further to Tad's right.
+
+The man was watching the work of the dog, so that he did not
+discover the lad at once.
+
+Tad decided that he would go around the herd to the left.  That
+appeared to be the shortest way to reach him.  He did not wish to try
+to go straight through the herd.
+
+He had gone but a little way before he saw that the man had observed
+him and was now riding around the upper end of the flock to meet
+him.
+
+"Hello, what do you want?"  shouted the fellow.
+
+"I want to find Mr. Simms's ranch.  Is it anywhere near here?"
+
+"Two miles up that way.  Where'd you come from?"
+
+"I don't know.  I've been lost in the mountains.  I must see Mr. Simms
+at once."
+
+"Guess you've got a long walk ahead of you then," laughed the
+sheepman.  "Boss Simms is up to Forsythe."
+
+"Is his family at the ranch?"  asked Tad.
+
+"I reckon the women folks is.  You seem to be in a hurry, pardner."
+
+"I am.  I must hurry."
+
+Wondering at the haste of the disreputable looking youngster, the
+sheepman watched him until he had gotten out of sight.  Finding the
+footing good and encouraged by the knowledge that he had but two
+miles to go, the lad dropped into a lope which he kept up until the
+white side of the Simms ranch buildings reflected back the morning
+sun just ahead of him.
+
+Tads legs almost collapsed under him as he staggered into the yard
+and asked a boy whom he saw there, for Mrs. Simms.
+
+He was directed by a wave of the hand to a near-by door, on which
+Tad rapped insistently.
+
+"I wish to see Mrs. Simms, please," he said to the servant, who
+responded to his knock.
+
+"I am Mrs. Simms.  What is it you wish?"  answered a voice somewhere
+in the room.  It was a pleasant voice, reminding Tad much of his
+mother's, and a sense of restfulness possessed him almost at
+once.  He felt almost as if he were at home again.
+
+"I would like to speak with you, alone, please."
+
+"Who are you?"
+
+"I am Tad Butler from Missouri.  I----"
+
+"Oh, yes, nay husband told me you were expected," she said
+cordially, extending her hand.
+
+"I owe you an apology for appearing in this shape, but I have been
+lost in the mountains and seem to be rather badly in need of a
+change of clothes," smiled the lad.
+
+"Come right in.  Never mind the clothes.  Perhaps I may be able to
+help you.  You say you have been lost?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Where are your companions?"
+
+"I don't know.  I left them in camp somewhere, I am not sure where."
+
+"Oh, that is too bad.  If you will remain until night perhaps we can
+spare one of the herders to help you find them----"
+
+"Pardon me, but it is not for that that I came here," interrupted
+the lad.  "It was on a far more important matter."
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"It is a matter that concerns your husband very seriously."
+
+"Tell me about it, please?"  said Mrs. Simms anxiously.
+
+"Have you anyone that you could send to Forsythe at once with an
+urgent message for your husband?"  he asked.
+
+"There is no one.  The herders would not dare to leave their
+flocks--that is not until the sheep were safe in their corral
+to-night."
+
+"That will be too late.  I'll have to go myself.  Have you a spare
+pony that I could ride!"
+
+"Of course.  That is if you can rope one out of the pen and saddle it
+yourself."
+
+"Certainly.  I can do that," said the boy quickly.  "But I shall
+probably ride him pretty hard and fast.  I do not think Mr. Simms
+will object when he learns my reasons."
+
+"Is it so serious as that?"
+
+"It seems so to me.  Last night while lost in the mountains I
+overheard some men plotting against your husband.  They said he was
+expecting a large number of sheep that were being brought in on a
+drive."
+
+"Yes, that is true."
+
+"They were planning to attack the herd, to stampede it and kill all
+the animals they could----"
+
+"Is it possible?"  demanded the woman, growing pale.
+
+"They mean it, too.  I think I will get the pony and start now,"
+decided Tad, rising.
+
+"You are a brave boy," exclaimed the banker's wife, laying an
+impulsive hand on Tad's shoulder.  "I wish you did not have to
+go.  You are tired out now.  I can see that."
+
+"I'll be all right when I get in the saddle again," he
+smiled.  "Thank you just as much."
+
+"You shall not leave this house until you have had your breakfast.
+What can I be thinking of?"  announced Mrs. Simms.  "You are doing
+us all a very great service and I am not even thoughtful enough to
+offer you something to eat though you are half starved."
+
+"I had better not spare the time to sit down," objected Tad.  "I must
+be going if you will show me the way."
+
+"Not until you have eaten."
+
+"Then, will you please make me some sandwiches?  I can eat them in
+the saddle, and I shall get along very nicely until I get to
+town.  I'll eat enough to make up for lost time when I get at it," he
+laughed.
+
+He was out of the house and running toward the corral, to which
+Mrs. Simms had directed him.  Tad hunted about until he found a rope;
+then going to the enclosure scanned the ponies critically.
+
+"I think I'll take that roan," he decided.  "Looks as if he had some
+life in him."
+
+The roan had plenty, as Tad soon learned.  However, after a lively
+little battle he succeeded in getting the animal from the enclosure
+and saddling and bridling him.
+
+Tad could find no spurs, but he helped himself to a crop which he
+found in the stable, though, from what he had been able to observe,
+the pony would require little urging to make him go at a good speed.
+
+Mrs. Simms was outside when Tad rode up.  She had prepared a lunch
+for him, placing it in a little leather bag with a strap attached
+for fastening the package over his shoulder.
+
+"Please say nothing about what I have told you," urged Tad.  "I don't
+want them to know we understand their plans.  That is the only way
+Mr. Simms will be able to catch them."
+
+"Of course, I shall not mention it.  Good-bye and good luck."
+
+Tad mounted his broncho and was off, head-ding directly for the town
+of Forsythe.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+A TIMELY WARNING
+
+
+Arriving in the little town about noon, Tad dashed up the street
+toward Mr. Simms' bank.  Tethering his broncho to the post, he
+entered the bank, and in his anxiety, pushed open the door of
+Mr. Simms' private office without ceremony.
+
+Here, as we already know, were Mr. Simms, Luke Larue and Ned, all
+eagerly discussing Tad's mysterious disappearance.  For a moment not
+one of those in the office spoke a word.  Tad stood before them, his
+clothes hanging in ribbons, his face scratched and torn, the dust
+and grime of the plains fairly ground into his face, hands and neck.
+
+Luke Larue, of course, did not know the lad, but the keen eyes of
+the banker lighted up with recognition.
+
+"Master Ned," he said.  "I think if this young man were washed and
+dressed up, you might recognize in him the friend you are looking
+for."
+
+"Tad!"  exclaimed the boy, springing forward, excitedly grasping the
+hands of the freckle-faced boy.
+
+"Hello, Ned.  What you doing here?'
+
+"Looking for you.  They're all upset back at the camp.  We thought the
+bear had gotten you."
+
+"No, I got the bear.  A two-legged bear nearly got me later on.  I'll
+tell you all about it later.  I want to see Mr. Simms now."
+
+"Master Tad, I don't know where you have been, but you certainly
+look used up.  This is the foreman of my ranch, Mr. Luke Larue," said
+the banker.
+
+With a quiet smile on the face of each, man and boy shook hands.
+
+"Heard about you," greeted Luke.  "Heard you was a tenderfoot.  Don't
+look like it."
+
+"Neither do I feel like it.  Feel as if I'd been put through an ore
+mill or something that would grind equally fine.  When do you expect
+the sheep?"
+
+The foreman shot a keen glance at him.
+
+"To-day or to-morrow.  Why?"
+
+"Because there is trouble ahead for you when they get here."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"What is this you say?"  demanded Mr. Simms.
+
+"That is what I have come here to tell you about.  There is a plan on
+foot to ride down your sheep when they get here."
+
+Larue laughed.
+
+"Guess they'd better not try it.  Where did you hear that fairy
+story, young man?"
+
+"It's not a fairy tale--it is the fact."
+
+Mr. Simms had risen from his chair and was now facing Tad.  He saw in
+the lad's face what convinced him that there was more to be told.
+
+"Let me hear all about it, Master Tad," he said.
+
+"Somebody's been filling the boy up with tenderfoot yarns," smiled
+the foreman.
+
+Tad did not appear to heed the foreman's scoffing.  Instead, he began
+in a low incisive voice the narration of his experiences of the
+previous night, beginning with the bear hunt and ending with his
+finding his way out of the forest that morning.
+
+As he proceeded with the story, the lines on the face of the banker
+grew tense, his blue eyes appearing to fade to a misty gray.
+
+At first indifferent, Larue soon pricked up his ears, then became
+intensely interested in the story.
+
+"And that's about all I can think of to tell you," concluded Tad.
+
+Ned uttered a low whistle of amazement.
+
+"So you think this is a tenderfoot yarn, eh?"  asked the banker,
+turning to his foreman.
+
+"Not now," answered Larue.  "I guess the boy did get it straight."
+
+"Humph!  You had no means of knowing--didn't hear what his name was,
+did you?"
+
+"No, sir.  He was a big man with red hair and beard and he had a scar
+over his left temple.  The men with him called him Bluff."
+
+"Don't know any such man, do you, Luke?"
+
+Luke shook his head.
+
+"Nobody who would mix up in such a dirty deal as that.  Oscar
+Stillwell who owns a cow ranch on the other side of the Rosebud,
+answers to that description, but he ain't the man for that kind of a
+raw job.  Known him five years now."
+
+"Sure about him, are you?"
+
+"Positive.  He don't approve of the hatred that the cowmen generally
+have for the sheep business.  Says there's free grass enough for all
+of us and that the sheepmen have just as much right to it as the
+cowmen.  I'll ride over to his ranch this afternoon and talk with
+him.  I can tell him the story without his giving it away."
+
+"Just as you think best.  You know your man and I don't."
+
+"Yes.  And if there's any such plan on foot, he'll be likely to know
+about it."
+
+"This business has been getting altogether too common.  All the way
+up and down the old Custer trail, there has been sheep killing,
+sheep stealing, stampeding and no end of trouble for the past
+year.  We have seemed unable to fix the responsibility on anyone.  But
+I'll tell you that if they try to break into any of our herds this
+time, somebody is going to be shot," decided Mr. Simms, compressing
+his lips tightly together.  "We're forewarned this time."
+
+"Have you any suggestions, Mr. Simms?  I must be getting back to the
+ranch if this is in the wind?"
+
+"Yes.  Let no one outside of our own men, know that we suspect,
+unless it be Stillwell and you are sure you can trust him----"
+
+"There's no doubt of it."
+
+"When the new herd gets here, put all the men on it save one who
+will watch the corral at night.  They won't be likely to attack the
+sheep that are in the enclosure.  It's the new ones that we have to
+herd on the open range that they will be likely to direct their
+efforts toward.  Master Tad has heard as much."
+
+"Will you be out?"
+
+"Of course.  I'll ride out this afternoon and remain at the ranch or
+on the range until this thing has blown over.  We had better begin
+grazing north at once.  I want to get them up where the grass is
+better, as soon as possible.  Then you can let them take their time
+until after shearing.  We're late with that as it is.  See that the
+men are well armed, but make no plans until I have been out and
+looked the ground over."
+
+"Very well.  Suppose you have no idea where it was that these men
+found you, or where you found them?"  asked the foreman.
+
+"No, sir.  I was too busy to take notice."
+
+"I should say so," laughed Mr. Simms.
+
+"I'd better be moving then, if there's nothing else to be said,"
+decided Luke.
+
+"I think you had better spare the time to take these young men back
+to their camp."
+
+"I helped myself to one of your horses, Mr. Simms.  The roan."
+
+"Help yourself to anything that belongs to me, young man," answered
+the banker.  "You have done us a service that nothing we can do will
+repay."
+
+"The roan--you say you rode the roan?"  asked Lame.
+
+"Yes.  He's a good one."
+
+"Did he throw you?"
+
+"He tried to," grinned Tad.
+
+"Then I take back all I said about your being a tenderfoot.  There
+aren't three men on the ranch who can stick on his back when he
+takes a notion that he doesn't want them to."
+
+"Luke, I have asked these young men to join our outfit.  When I did
+so, I didn't know I was drawing a prize.  They rather thought the
+sheep business wouldn't suit them, having been out with a herd of
+cows----"
+
+"We shall be glad to accept your kind offer, Mr. Simms," interrupted
+Tad.  "I've changed my mind since I saw how the cattle men act toward
+sheep."
+
+"That's good."
+
+"When do you wish us to join you?"
+
+"Join to-day by all means, if you have no other plans.  I am
+surprised that the guide failed you.  You will not need a guide if
+you go with the outfit, and you can take as many side trips for
+hunting, as you wish."
+
+"That will be fine," agreed Ned Rector.
+
+"Another idea occurs to me.  My boy Philip has not been well, and if
+you lads have no objection, I should like to send him along with the
+herd.  If you will keep an eye on him to see that he doesn't get into
+trouble, I shall be deeply grateful to you."
+
+"Of course we shall," answered Tad brightening.  "How old is he?"
+
+"Only twelve.  He's quite a baby still.  You will not have any
+responsibility at all, you understand.  He and Old Hicks the cook of
+the outfit, are great friends, and Hicks will look after him most of
+the time."
+
+"We shall be glad to have him with us," glowed Ned.
+
+"Perhaps you would prefer not to join until after this trouble is
+over.  It probably would be safer, come to think of it----"
+
+"No.  I think we should like to join right away," interrupted Tad
+hastily.  "Besides, we may be able to be of some service to you.  We
+can handle cattle, so I don't know why we should not be of use with
+sheep.  Don't you think so, Ned?"
+
+"Yes, of course.  That will just suit Chunky, too.  That's what we
+call our friend Stacy Brown," explained Ned, with a grin.  "He's the
+fat boy, you know."
+
+"Was once.  He's getting over it rapidly," laughed Tad.  "His uncle
+won't know him when he gets back to Chillicothe."
+
+"You have had most of the fun and excitement thus far, Tad.  Now the
+rest of us want to have some too."
+
+"If you call being shot at fun, then I have had more than my share."
+
+"Most likely you will have all that's coming to you if this thing
+comes off," grunted the foreman.  "I'm going out now.  Meet you here
+in an hour.  We'll ride back to the ranch.  I'll either accompany you
+to your own camp from there, or send some one else who knows the
+way.  I think I understand where your friends are located.  I'm going
+to get a case of shells at the hardware store, Mr. Simms."
+
+"That's the idea.  Better take out some more guns while you are about
+it.  You know what to buy."
+
+At the appointed time Larue presented himself at the bank,
+announcing himself as ready for the ride.  The banker again renewed
+his expressions of appreciation of all that Tad Butler had done for
+him, after which they swung into their saddles and started off on
+their long ride over the plains.
+
+There was plenty of excitement before the Pony Riders.  Their few
+weeks with the herd were to be more eventful, even, than had been
+their journey with the cattle over the plains of Texas.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+PREPARING FOR AN ATTACK
+
+
+It was late on the following forenoon when the Pony Rider Boys
+descended on the Simms ranch, bag and baggage.  Larue had relieved
+one of the herders and sent him back with Tad Butler and Ned Rector,
+to bring up the rest of the party.
+
+The parlor tent they found had been too badly damaged to be worth
+carrying along, so they left it where the bear had wrecked it.
+
+"Heard anything from the herd?"  was Tad's first question as
+Mr. Simms came out to greet them.
+
+"We certainly have.  They are within three miles of here now.  I have
+given orders to keep them clear of the ranch, and the herders are at
+work deflecting them to the northward.  We shall bed them down about
+five miles from here to-night.  To-morrow we will push on slowly for
+the grass regions up the state.  I have arranged for you to remain at
+the ranch to-night."
+
+"Oh, no.  We prefer to go out and join the herd," objected Tad.
+
+"We most certainly do," added Ned.  "That's what we are here for."
+
+"Have you heard anything new?"  asked Tad, in a low voice, leaning
+from his saddle.
+
+"Yes.  I heard that the cowmen all through here are stirred up.  It
+isn't any one man or set of men that's doing it.  We have received
+threats from different sources if we allow the sheep to stray from
+our own ranch," answered Mr. Simms, with serious face.
+
+"And you have decided----?"
+
+"To go on."
+
+"Hello, is this your son, Philip?"  asked Tad, as a slender,
+pale-faced boy came toward them.
+
+"Yes, this is Phil.  Come here, Phil and meet my young friends."
+
+The Pony Rider Boys took to the lad at once.  He was a manly little
+fellow, but delicate to the point of being fragile, the lad having
+only recently recovered from a serious attack of typhoid fever.
+
+"You see what the outdoor life has done for these young gentlemen,
+Phil," said Mr. Simms.  "I shall expect you to come back this fall,
+looking every bit as well as they do now.  All get ready for
+dinner.  It will be served in a few moments.  Later in the day, we
+shall move out on the range.  Phil, have you packed up your things?"
+
+"Yes, sir.  I'm all ready."
+
+The noon meal was a jolly affair.  The herders cooked their own meals
+out on the range, and after this the boys would eat with them.  But
+to-day they were invited guests in the home of the rancher and
+hanker.  In the meantime Professor Zepplin and Mr. Simms had become
+interested in each other and already were looking forward to the
+next few days on the range together, with keen pleasure.
+
+The start was made shortly after three o'clock, the party reaching
+their destination well before sundown.
+
+The Pony Riders uttered a shout as they descried the white canvas
+top of the chuck wagon.  It was a familiar sight to them.  On beyond
+that was a perfect sea of white backs and bobbing heads, where the
+great herd was grazing contentedly after its long journey to the
+free grass of Montana.  The boys had never seen anything like it.
+
+The sheep dogs, too, were a source of never-ending interest.  The
+boys watched the intelligent animals, as of their own accord they
+rounded up a bunch here and there that they had observed straying
+from the main herd, working the sheep back to their fellows quietly
+and without in the least appearing to disturb them.
+
+"What kind of sheep is that over there?"  asked Chunky, pointing.
+
+"That's no sheep.  That's Billy," answered Mr. Simms.
+
+"Who's he?"
+
+"The goat.  You've no doubt heard of a bell wether?"
+
+"I have," spoke up Tad.
+
+"That's what Billy is.  He leads the sheep.  They will follow a leader
+almost anywhere.  In crossing a stream Billy wades in without the
+least hesitation and they cross right over after him.  Otherwise we
+should have great difficulty in getting them over."
+
+"Oh, yes, I know a goat.  Had one once," replied Stacy.  "Does he
+butt?"
+
+"Sometimes.  His temper is not what might be called angelic.  I
+suspect the boys have been teasing him pretty well.  However, you
+want to look out for some of those rams.  They are ugly and they can
+easily knock a man down.  If you are up early in the morning you will
+see them at play--you will see what they can do with their tough
+heads."
+
+"I forgot to tell you," said Larue in a low voice, "that some of the
+men report having encountered Indians during the day."
+
+"That's nothing new.  There are plenty of them around here," laughed
+the banker.
+
+"They think they were Blackfeet.  The reds were so far away, however,
+that the men could not make certain."
+
+"Off the reservation again, eh?  Probably think they can pick up a
+few sheep.  Well, look out for them.  If you catch them at any shines
+just shoot to scare.  Don't hit them.  We don't want any Government
+inquiry.  I have suspected for a long time that some of them were
+hiding in the Rosebuds and that the Crow Indians were in league with
+them.  It's only the bad Indians who stray from their reservations,
+you see," explained Mr. Simms.  "We have to be on the lookout for
+these roving bands all the time or they'd steal all we have."
+
+"I should think you would complain to the Indian agencies,"
+suggested the Professor.
+
+"Doesn't pay.  They would take it out of us in a worse way,
+perhaps.  They're a revengeful gang."
+
+One by one the herders came in with their dogs and flocks, rounding
+the sheep in for the night, having chosen for the purpose a slight
+depression in the plain.  For the first time, the boys had an
+opportunity to meet the ranchers and compare them with the cattle
+men they tad known in Texas.  They were a hardy lot, taciturn and
+solemn-faced.  The most silent man in the bunch, was Noisy Cooper,
+who scarcely ever spoke a word unless forced to do so by an
+insistent question.  Bat Coyne had been a cattle man down in Texas,
+while Mary Johnson--so called because of his pink and white
+complexion, which no amount of sun or wind could tarnish--was said
+to have come from the East.  He had left there for reasons best known
+to himself, working on sheep ever since.
+
+It was Old Hicks, however, who interested Tad most.  Hicks's first
+words after being introduced were in apology for being cook on a
+sheep ranch.
+
+He was limping about, flourishing a frying-pan to accentuate his
+protests.
+
+"I'm a cowpuncher, I am.  Wish I'd never joined this mutton outfit,"
+he growled.
+
+"Then why did you?"  asked Tad, smiling broadly.
+
+"Why?  I joined because I could get more pay.  That's why.  What you
+suppose I joined for?"
+
+"I thought perhaps you preferred sheep," answered the lad meekly.
+
+"Like them--like mutton?"  snarled Old Hicks, hurling his frying-pan
+angrily into the chuck wagon.  "Between sheep and had Injuns, give me
+the Injun every time.  Why, every time I have to cook one it makes me
+sick; it does."
+
+"Indians?  Do you cook Indians?"  asked Stacy, who had been an
+interested listener to the conversation.
+
+"Wha--wha--cook Indians?  No!  I cook mutton.  What do you take me
+for?"
+
+"I--I--I didn't know," muttered Stacy meekly.  "Thought I heard you
+say you did."
+
+"You got another think coming," growled the cook, limping
+away.  "Come over here and take a sniff at this kettle?"  he called,
+turning back to Tad.
+
+The lad did so.
+
+"Smells fine, doesn't it?"
+
+"I think so.  What is it, mutton?"
+
+"Boiled mutton.  I kin smell the wool.  Bah."
+
+"Do you cook them with the wool on?"  asked Chunky, edging nearer the
+kettle.
+
+"See here, young man.  This here is a bad country to ask fool
+questions in.  Use your eyes and ears.  Give your tongue a rest.  It'll
+stop on you some day."
+
+Chunky retired somewhat crestfallen, and from that moment on he kept
+aloof from the irascible cook, whom he held in wholesome awe.
+
+"Come and get it!"  bellowed Old Hicks, who, after prodding about the
+interior of the kettle with a sharp stick for some time, decided
+that the hated mutton was ready to be served.
+
+The Pony Riders did not share Hicks's repugnance to mutton.  They
+helped themselves liberally, and even Phil Simms went so far as to
+pass his plate for a second helping.  By the time the meal had been
+finished twilight was upon them.
+
+The boys, when Professor Zepplin called their attention to the
+lateness of the hour, made haste to pitch their tents, while
+Mr. Simms, with Phil and the sheepmen, looked on approvingly.
+
+"You boys go at it like troopers," he smiled.  "You'll have to pitch
+your own, too, after to-day, Philip."
+
+"We'll help him," chorused the boys.  "We've got to do something to
+earn our board," said Ned.
+
+"If we eat all the time the way we have tonight, there won't be many
+sheep left to graze by the time we've finished the trip," laughed
+Walter.
+
+"Somebody has to eat the cook's share," interrupted Larue.  "What I
+came over here to ask was whether you boys were intending to take
+your turns at herding for the next few nights?"
+
+"Of course we are," they answered in one voice.  "That's what we are
+up here for," added Tad.
+
+"Got any guns?"
+
+"Rifles.  Fortunately, they were not in the tent that was set afire
+by the bear, so they are all right," replied Tad.  "However, I'll
+have to ask the Professor about taking them out.  I do not think he
+will care to have us do so."
+
+"I'll give you each a revolver," announced the foreman.
+
+"Luke, never mind the guns.  The boys will do their part by keeping
+guard.  We don't want them to be mixed up in any trouble that may
+follow.  If there is any shooting to be done, we can take care of
+that, I guess," said Mr. Simms, with a grim smile.
+
+"Yes, I could not think of permitting it," said the Professor
+firmly; hence it was decided that the lads should go on as they had
+been doing, leaving the sterner work to those whose business it was
+to attend to it.
+
+After the darkness had settled over the camp, the boys observed that
+there were more men present than had been the case when they had
+their supper.
+
+Mr. Simms explained that they were some men he had sent for to help
+protect the herd.  He had ordered them to report after dark, so that
+the trouble-makers might know nothing about the increased force.  The
+rancher was determined to teach the cattle men of the free-grass
+range a lesson they would not soon forget.
+
+"What do you wish us to do?"  asked Walter.  "We are anxious to get
+busy."
+
+"I think two of you had better go out for the first half of the
+night; the other two for the latter half."
+
+"Do we take our ponies?"  asked Tad.
+
+"Yes.  All of us will ride, excepting the few men who are regularly
+on guard with the sheep.  But you will not move around much.  Make no
+noise and be watchful.  That is all we can do."
+
+It was decided that Ned and Walter should take the early trick; Tad
+and Stacy Brown going out after midnight.
+
+The herders were already attending to their duties.  And now
+Mr. Simms and the foreman having given their orders, the reserve
+force moved out one at a time until all had disappeared in the
+darkness.  A signal had been agreed upon, so that they might
+recognize each other in the dark.
+
+The rancher had thrown out his reserve force in the shape of a
+picket line, located some distance out from the herd and covering a
+circle something more than a mile in diameter.  This was done so that
+in case of an attack they would have an opportunity to drive off
+their enemy without great danger to the herd.  The battle, more than
+likely, would be ended before the cowmen could get near enough to
+the sheep to inflict any damage.
+
+The two boys left camp rather closer together than had the others,
+as they were to keep in touch during their watch.
+
+In a short time the guards were all placed and a great silence
+settled over the scene, broken only now and then by the bleating of
+a lamb that had lost its mother in the darkness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+BUNTED BY A MERINO RAM
+
+
+The Simms outfit breathed a sigh of relief when daylight came
+again.  There had been nothing more disturbing than Stacy Brown's
+yawns in the early part of the night.
+
+So persistent had been these that the Professor and Mr. Simms found
+themselves yawning in sympathy.  Old Hicks, who was sitting up to
+prepare hot coffee for any of the sheepmen who might come in, was
+affected in a like manner.  Had it not been for the presence of the
+owner of the herd Hicks might have adopted heroic measures to put a
+stop to Stacy's yawns.  As it was, he threatened all sorts of dire
+things.  At breakfast time the cook seemed to be in a far worse humor
+than ever when he gave the breakfast call.
+
+"Come and get it.  And I hope it chokes you!"  he bellowed, voicing
+his displeasure at everything and everybody in general.
+
+Tad rode in as fresh as if he had not had a sleepless vigil.  His
+rest of late had been more or less irregular, but it seemed to have
+not the slightest effect either on his spirits or his appetite.
+
+All felt the relief from the strain of the night's watching and
+it was a more sociable company that gathered at the table than had
+been the case on the previous evening.
+
+"Well, how do you like being a sheepman?"  asked Mr. Simms jovially.
+
+"It's better than being lost in the mountains and being shot at by
+cowmen," averred Tad.
+
+"Perhaps you'll have a chance to enjoy the latter pleasure, still,"
+said Mr. Simms.  "I do not delude myself that we are out of danger
+yet; it may be that they have taken warning and given it up."
+
+"What are the plans for to-day?"  asked Ned Rector.
+
+"The herd will graze on, and later in the day we shall move the camp
+five or six miles up the range.  See any Indians last night?"
+
+"No," answered the boys, sobering a little.
+
+"Old Hicks is authority for the statement that they were hovering
+somewhere near during the night."
+
+"How does he know?"  asked Tad.
+
+"You'll have to make inquiry of Hicks himself if you want to find
+out," laughed the rancher.  "Probably the same way that he knows we
+are talking about him now."
+
+All eyes were directed toward the cook.
+
+Hicks was limping around the mutton kettle, shaking his fist at it
+and berating it, though in a voice too low for them to hear.
+
+"That's one of your cattle men for you," chuckled Mr. Simms.  "I
+think he would take genuine pleasure in boiling a sheepman in his
+pot.  But he takes the money," added Mr. Simms significantly.  "By the
+way, where's your chum?"
+
+"Whom do you mean?"  asked Walter, glancing about the table.
+
+"Chunky, I believe you call him."
+
+"That's so, where is he?"  demanded Tad, laying down his fork.
+
+"Probably fallen in somewhere again," growled Ned.
+
+"Did not Master Stacy come in with you, Ned?"  asked the Professor
+hurriedly.
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"He was with you last night?"
+
+"No, not all the time.  He went out with me, but I saw him only twice
+during the early part of my watch."
+
+Mr. Simms looked serious.  "I hope nothing has happened to him.  See
+here, Luke.  They tell me Master Stacy has not been seen this
+morning.  Know anything of it?"
+
+"Why, no.  Are you sure?  Have you looked in his tent?"
+
+"Excuse me, I'll go see if he isn't there," said Tad, rising from
+the table and hurrying to the tent occupied by his companion.
+
+"No," he said as he returned; "evidently he has not been there since
+we went out at midnight."
+
+"Ask Old Hicks if he has seen him come in," directed Mr. Simms.
+
+The cook said he had not set eyes on the fat boy, adding that he
+didn't care a rap if he never came back.
+
+The boys looked at each other with mute, questioning eyes.
+
+"We must go in search of him at once," decided the Professor.
+
+"Yes, don't worry, Professor," calmed the rancher.  "He has probably
+strayed off by himself and is unable to find his way back.  Luke will
+round him up in short order.  Finish your breakfast, everybody, then
+we will see that the young man is brought back.  Funny he should have
+gotten away without any one's having noticed it."
+
+"He's always getting himself into trouble," declared Ned.
+
+"I thought I was the only one that did that," retorted Tad, with an
+attempt at gayety.
+
+"That's different.  I know what I'm talking about.  Something is sure
+to happen to that boy before we are ready to go back home."
+
+"Begins to look as if something had already happened," said Walter.
+
+A wild yell startled the sheepmen at the table.  It seemed to come
+from some distance away.
+
+Everybody started up, some reaching for their guns.
+
+"We are attacked!"  cried one.
+
+"No, but we're going to be!"  shouted another.  "There comes one of
+the boys on a pony giving the alarm."
+
+"Get ready, everybody!"
+
+The camp was in instant confusion.  In their haste to prepare for
+action, the table was upset and its contents piled in a confused
+heap.  Old Hicks was roaring out his displeasure, the foreman was
+shouting out his orders, while Professor Zepplin was seeking to make
+himself heard in an effort to give directions to his charges.
+
+Suddenly the voice of the foreman was heard above the uproar.
+
+"Hold on!"  he shouted.  "It's one of our own--it's------Oh, bah!"
+
+"What is it?  What is it!"  cried Mr. Simms, unlimbering his weapon.
+
+"It's Chunky," snorted Ned Rector disgustedly.  "The fat boy has been
+falling in again or I'll eat mutton all the rest of my natural
+life."
+
+"It sure enough is he," answered Tad, gazing off at the horseman who
+was riding at top speed and trying to urge his pony on still
+faster.  "I wonder what he has been getting into this time.  Hope it's
+nothing serious."
+
+"Not to him, anyway, judging by the way he is riding," replied
+Walter.
+
+"Something has given him a mighty good start, anyhow," shrewdly
+decided the foreman.
+
+"I know what it is--I know what he's in such a hurry about," said
+Ned.
+
+"What?"  asked Walter.
+
+"Breakfast.  He's just found out it's breakfast time," jeered Ned.
+
+"Can't have no breakfast," growled Old Hicks.  "Breakfast is et."
+
+"Excepting what's on the ground," added Mary Johnson.  "What's he
+yelling about?"
+
+"Something's gone twisted," decided Champ Blake.  "Think so, Noisy?"
+"Uh-hu," agreed the silent one.  All eyes were fixed on Chunky.  He
+was gesticulating wildly and pointing back to the hills from which
+he had just come.
+
+"I believe they are after us, and in broad daylight, too," snapped
+Mr. Simms.  "Get your ponies.  Be quick!  Ride fast.  Don't let them get
+near the sheep."
+
+Thus admonished, the sheepmen sprang for their saddles.  The boys
+followed suit at once, leaving only the Professor and Old Hicks to
+look after the camp.
+
+A bunch of sheep had trotted to a water hole hard by the camp, a
+faithful shepherd dog following along after them to see that they
+returned to the main flock as soon as they should have satisfied
+their thirst.  The sheep were now between Chunky and the camp.  So
+intent was he on attracting the attention of the men that he failed
+to observe the small flock in his path.
+
+Neither did the sheepmen notice it.  If Old Hicks did, he did not
+care what happened either to the sheep or to the boy to whom he had
+taken such a violent dislike.
+
+"Wow!  Wow!  Wow!"  screamed the boy in a shrill, high-pitched voice.
+
+"What's the matter?"
+
+"Where are they?"
+
+"How many of 'em?"
+
+These and other questions were hurled at Chunky as he dashed
+straight toward the camp.
+
+He pointed back to the foothills.
+
+"They're there, he says," shouted the foreman.  "Come on.  Spread
+out so as to cover the herd.  Don't you let a man get through our
+lines."
+
+Their ponies were stretched out with noses reaching for some unseen
+object, as it seemed.  They swept past the lad within hailing
+distance, riding hard, while he continued to reach for home.
+
+Stacy had turned to look back at the racing sheepmen, when his pony
+drove biting and striking right into the flock crowded about the
+water hole, for the ponies liked the sheep no more than did the
+cook.
+
+The broncho went down like a flash, hopelessly entangled with the
+bleating, frightened animals.  But Stacy did not stop.  That is, he
+did not do so at once.  The lad had shot neatly over the broncho's
+head, describing a nice curve in the air as he soared.
+
+Pock!
+
+His head landed with a muffled sound.
+
+"Ouch!  Help!"
+
+A loud, angry bleat followed his exclamation.  The lad's head had
+been driven with great violence against the soft, unresisting side
+of a Merino ram.
+
+The Merino went down under the blow.  But his soft fleece had saved
+the boy from serious injury, if not from a broken neck.
+
+"I fell off," cried Stacy, struggling to his feet, running his
+fingers over his body, as if to determine whether or not he had been
+hurt.  "I--I didn't see them.  Th--they got in my way."
+
+Whether he had or not was not now the question, at least so far as
+the Merino was concerned.
+
+The ram was angry.  He resented being bunted over in any such manner.
+
+The animal, scrambling to his feet, uttered a bleat, at the same
+time viciously throwing up his head, landing lightly, for him, on
+Chunky's leg.
+
+"Stop kicking me!  I say you stop that you----"
+
+He did not finish what he had started to say.  The Merino, finding
+the mark a satisfactory one, had backed quickly off.  With head well
+down, eyes on the boy who had been the cause of his downfall, he
+charged with a rush.
+
+Just at the instant when he delivered the blow, the tough, horned
+head was raised ever so little.
+
+"Ye-o-ow!"  shrieked the boy as he felt himself suddenly lifted from
+his feet and once more propelled through the air head first.  It
+seemed in that brief interval of sailing through space as if every
+particular bone in his body had been jarred loose from its
+fastenings.  Chunky felt as if he were all falling apart while making
+his brief second flight.
+
+He was headed straight for the muddy water hole, and the ram was
+charging him a second time.  The lad did not know this, however.
+
+Just at the edge of the water hole the Merino caught him again,
+neatly flipping him in the air and landing the boy on his back, with
+a mighty splash, right in the middle of the pool.
+
+Yet the force of the ram's charge had been so great that he was
+unable to stop when he discovered the water at his feet.  In
+endeavoring to do so, his strong little feet ploughed into the soft
+turf.  The Merino did a pretty half somersault and he too landed in
+the mud pool on his back.
+
+Unfortunately, he struck in the identical spot that Chunky had, and
+for a moment there was such a threshing about, such a commotion
+there as two monsters of the deep might have made in a battle to
+the death.
+
+Old Hicks was hammering a dishpan on a wheel of the chuck wagon,
+regardless of the damage he was inflicting on the pan, and screaming
+with delight.
+
+Professor Zepplin as soon as he could recover his wits, rushed to
+the rescue and from the flying legs and horns managed to extract
+Stacy Brown and drag him up to the dry ground.
+
+The lad was a spectacle.  Mud was plastered over him from head to
+foot, while the muddy water was dripping from hair, mouth, ears,
+eyes and nose.
+
+"I--I fell in, didn't I?"  he gasped.  "Wh--who kicked me?"
+
+"Who kicked him?"  jeered Old Hicks.  "Oh, help, help!"  he cried,
+rolling with laughter.
+
+Stacy began to sputter in an uncertain voice.
+
+Professor Zepplin shook him roundly.
+
+"Why didn't you get out of it?  The water wasn't over my head, you
+Chunk," roared Old Hicks.
+
+Chunky eyed him sadly.
+
+"It was the way I went in," he said, breathing hard as he wrung the
+water from his trousers by twisting them in his hand.
+
+At that the irrepressible Hicks went off into another paroxysm of
+mirth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+ROPED BY A COWBOY
+
+
+The Professor had no sooner marched Stacy to his tent to wash the
+mud from himself and get into a clean suit of clothes, than the
+sheepmen came galloping back to camp.  A few of them had been left
+out near the foothills in case of a surprise.
+
+"Where's that boy who sent us off on this fool chase?"  demanded Luke
+Larue, riding right into the camp.
+
+Chunky poked his head from the tent, holding the flap about him to
+cover himself.
+
+"What did you tell us the cowmen were after us for?"
+
+"Who, me?"
+
+"Yes, come out here.  I want to talk to you."
+
+"I--I--I can't."
+
+"You'd better or I'll have to fetch you out.  Why can't you?"
+demanded the foreman sternly.
+
+"I--I haven't got any clothes on," stammered the boy.
+
+The foreman slipped from his pony, leaning against a tree with a
+helpless expression on his face.
+
+Stacy's companions with Mr. Simms and several of the sheepmen rode
+in at that moment.
+
+"Where's that boy?"  demanded the rancher of Larue.
+
+The foreman pointed to the tent.  But the lad not yet having finished
+his toilet, all hands were obliged to stand about waiting for
+him.  They did so with much impatience.  Stacy took all the time he
+needed, apparently not believing that there was any necessity for
+haste.
+
+At last he sauntered out smiling broadly.
+
+"I think you owe us an explanation, at least," announced Mr. Simms,
+a peculiar smile playing about the corners of his lips.  He had
+intended to be stern, but the sight of Chunky's good-natured face
+disarmed him at once, as it did most people.
+
+"'Bout what?"  asked the lad.
+
+"Sending us out to the foothills, telling us the cowmen were
+attacking us."
+
+Stacy's eyes opened widely.
+
+"Never said so."
+
+"What did you say, then?"
+
+"Nothing."
+
+"I guess we are all dreaming," laughed the rancher.  "Will you please
+tell me what did happen then, when you started us away?"
+
+"When I was riding in, you all started up and mounted your
+ponies.  Somebody yelled, 'where are they?' I pointed back to the
+mountains, and then you rode on," the lad informed him.
+
+It was an unusually long speech for Chunky to make without many
+halts and pauses.  But he did very well with it.
+
+"That is exactly what you did do.  When we got there we found not the
+slightest trace of the cowmen.  Where did you see them?"
+
+"I didn't see them," persisted the lad.
+
+"Then why did you tell us you did?"
+
+"I didn't."
+
+Mr. Simms thrust his hands in his pockets and strode back and forth
+several times.
+
+"Say, young man, did you see anything at all, except what your
+imagination furnished?"
+
+Chunky nodded emphatically.
+
+"What did you see?"
+
+"Indians."
+
+"Oh, pshaw!"  grunted Mr. Simms disgustedly.
+
+"Indians?"  interrupted Walter Perkins.  "Tell me about it?"
+
+"I was asleep," began Stacy.
+
+"So that's the way you keep watch over our herd is it?"  growled
+Luke.  "We were just about to organize a searching party to go after
+you, when we saw you coming."
+
+"I got tired.  I sat down by a rook and--y-a-li--hum----"
+
+"Ho-ho-ho--hum," yawned the foreman.
+
+Within half a minute the whole outfit was yawning lazily, all save
+Old Hicks, the cook, who with hands thrust into his trousers pockets
+stood peering at the fat boy out of the corners of his eyes.
+
+"Stop that, d'ye hear!"  snapped Ned Rector angrily.  "I'll duck you
+in that water hole, if you don't."
+
+"Just been ducked," answered Stacy lazily.  "Got kicked in by a
+sheep."
+
+"What about the Indians?"  asked Tad impatiently.  "I guess you
+dreamed you saw them."
+
+"No, I didn't.  I went to sleep by the rock and when I woke up it was
+daylight.  I yawned."
+
+"Of course you did," jeered Ned.  "Wouldn't have been you if you
+hadn't yawned."
+
+"I was rubbing my eyes and trying to make up my mind where I was
+when--when----"
+
+"When what?"  urged Tad.
+
+"When somebody said, 'How?'"
+
+The sheepmen laughed.
+
+"I--I looked around, and there--there stood a lot of Indians----"
+
+"On their heads!"  asked Ned.
+
+"No, sitting on their ponies.  Then--then I--"
+
+"Then you pitched into them and drove them away," laughed Walter.
+
+"No, I didn't.  I yelled and run away.  So would you."
+
+Every man and boy of the sheep outfit roared with laughter.
+
+"My boy," said Mr. Simms, "you will have to get used to seeing
+Indians if you remain with us long.  This state is full of them, some
+bad, some good.  But you need not be afraid of them.  They dare not
+interfere with us, so if you see any, just pass the time of day and
+go on along about your business."
+
+"When I got back here I fell in----" Professor Zepplin here broke
+into the conversation to explain what had happened to the fat boy,
+whereupon the outfit once more shouted with merriment.
+
+The camp finally having been restored to its normal state, plans
+were made for moving on to the north.
+
+"I wish you would ride over to Groveland Corners and get me fifty
+feet of quarter inch rope, Tad," said Mr. Simms.  "You will have no
+trouble in finding the way.  I'll show you exactly how to get there
+and find your way back afterwards.  And by the way, you might take
+Philip with you, if you don't mind.  I want him to get all the riding
+he can stand."
+
+"I'll answer yes to both, requests," smiled Tad.  "How far is it to
+the--the----"
+
+"Corners?  Five miles as the crow flies.  It will be a slightly longer
+distance, because you have to go around the Little Butte.  The place
+is situated just behind it on the west side."
+
+"Then, I'm ready now, if Phil is."
+
+The young man was not only ready, but anxious to be off, so without
+delay, the two lads brought in their ponies and after receiving
+final instructions as to how to find the new camp, they set off at
+an easy gallop in the fresh morning air, their spirits rising as
+they rode over the green mesa that lay sparkling in the morning
+sunlight.
+
+Groveland Corners was little more than its name implied, consisting
+of one store that supplied the wants of the half dozen families who
+inhabited the place, as well as furnishing certain supplies to
+near-by ranchmen.
+
+A group of cattle men had gathered at the store.  They were sitting
+on the front porch talking earnestly when the two boys rode up.  Tad
+dismounted, hitching his pony, while Phil, shifting to an easy
+position on his saddle, waited until the purchase of the rope had
+been made.
+
+The conversation came to a sudden pause as the boys rode up, the
+cowmen eyeing the newcomers almost suspiciously, Tad
+thought.  However, he paid no attention to them, further than to bid
+them a pleasant good morning, to which one or two of them gave a
+grunting reply.
+
+He had noticed one raw-boned mountain boy among the lot who had
+answered his greeting with a sneering smile and a reply under his
+breath that Tad had not caught.  The lad gave no heed to it, but went
+about his business.  Besides the rope, he made several small
+purchases for himself.  In reply to a question of the storekeeper,
+Tad informed him that he was with the Simms outfit.  One of the
+cowmen who had entered the store, overhearing this, went outside and
+informed his companions.
+
+"Hello, kid," greeted one, as the boy left the store.  "How's mutton
+to-day?"
+
+Busily coiling the rope, Tad paid no attention to the taunt; he hung
+the rope on his saddle horn and then methodically unhitched Pinkeye.
+
+"Going to hang yerself?"  jeered another.  "That's all a mutton
+puncher's worth.  I guess."
+
+Tad felt his face flush.  He paused long enough to turn and look
+straight into the eyes of the speaker.
+
+"My, but ain't our little boy spunky!"  called the fellow in
+derision.
+
+"If he is, he knows, at least, enough to mind his own business,"
+snapped Tad.
+
+A jeering laugh followed the remark.
+
+"Did ye mean that fer me?"  demanded the mountain boy, rising
+angrily.
+
+"If the coat fits, put it on," answered the freckle-faced boy
+indifferently, vaulting lightly into the saddle.
+
+"I'll bet that's Boss Simms's kid--the pale-faced dude, eh?"  sneered
+one sharply.
+
+An angry growl answered the suggestion.  Tad thinking it was time to
+be off, turned his pony about and Phil did the same.  But no sooner
+had they headed their mounts toward home, Tad being slightly in the
+lead, than a rope squirmed through the air.
+
+It dropped over the shoulders of Mr. Simms' delicate young son,
+tightened about his arms with a jerk.
+
+"Help!"  cried the frightened boy.
+
+Tad, glancing back apprehensively saw what had happened.  He wheeled
+his pony like a flash, but not quickly enough to save his companion
+from falling.
+
+Phil Simms was roped from his pony, landing heavily in the dust of
+the street.
+
+"Y-e-o-w!" chorused the cowboys.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+TAD WHIPS A MOUNTAIN BOY
+
+
+"Shame!  Shame on you!"  cried Tad Butler indignantly.
+
+The lad leaped from his pony which he quickly tethered to the
+hitching bar in front of the store.
+
+This done he ran to his fallen companion, who still lay where the
+lariat had thrown him.  He was half stunned and covered with
+dust.  After jerking him from his pony, however, the cowboys, though
+continuing their shouts of glee, had made no further effort to
+molest Philip.
+
+Tad quickly released him.
+
+"I 've had a lot to do with cowboys, but you're the first I ever
+knew who would do a thing like that.  The cowboys I know are
+gentlemen."
+
+"Then, d'ye mean to say that we ain't, ye miserable cayuse?"
+demanded one of the number, rising menacingly.
+
+"The fellow who roped that boy is a loafer!"  answered Tad bravely,
+taking a couple of paces forward and facing the crowd.  "You wouldn't
+dare do that to a man, especially if he had a gun as you have.  Why
+didn't you try it on Luke Lame when he was over here?"
+
+"Oh, go back to yer mammy," jeered one.
+
+"I want to know who threw that rope?  If he isn't too big a coward,
+he'll tell me.  I guess Mr. Simms will settle with him."
+
+"It's up to you, Bob, I guess," nodded one of them, addressing the
+angry-faced mountain boy who was one of their number.
+
+The latter rose with what was intended to appear as offended
+dignity.
+
+"Ye mean me?"  he demanded, glaring.
+
+"Yes, if you are the one who did it," answered Tad, looking him
+squarely in the eyes.
+
+"Then your going to git the alfiredest lickin' you ever had in your
+life," announced the mountain boy.
+
+Tad held the other with a gaze so steady and unflinching as to cause
+the mountain boy to pause hesitatingly.
+
+"Phil, jump on your pony and get out of here," directed the lad in a
+low tone.
+
+"He stays where he is," commanded one of the cowboys.
+
+"Do as I tell you," retorted Tad sharply.  "Be quick about it, too."
+
+A cowboy aimed a gun at Phil Simms.
+
+"Try it, if ye want ter git touched up," he warned.  "Bob, sail into
+the fresh kid," he added, nodding his head toward Tad Butler.
+
+"I'm not looking for a fight--I don't want to fight, but if that
+loafer comes near me I'll have to do the best I can," answered Tad
+bravely.  "I don't expect to get fair play.  I'll----"
+
+"You'll git fair play and you'll git more besides," called the
+previous speaker.  "Go to him, Bob."
+
+Bob lowered his head, sticking out his chin and assuming a
+belligerent attitude with eyes fixed on the slender figure of his
+opponent.
+
+Tad was observing the mountain boy keenly, measuring him mentally,
+while young Simms, pale-faced and frightened, was leaning against
+his pony, which he had caught and was preparing to mount when he was
+stopped by the gun of the cowboy.
+
+"See, you've got him rattled already, Bob," shouted a cowman
+triumphantly.  "He'll be running in a minute."
+
+"Come away, Tad," begged Philip.
+
+"Keep quiet.  Don't speak to me," answered the lad, without turning
+his head toward his companion.  Tad Butler's whole being was centered
+on the work that he knew was ahead of him.
+
+He was angry.  He felt that he had never been more so in his life,
+but not a trace of his emotion showed in his face or actions.  If he
+ever had need of coolness, it was at this very moment.  He did not
+know whether he would be able to master the raw-boned mountaineer or
+not.
+
+The lad's training in athletics had been thorough, and his title of
+champion wrestler of the high school in Chillicothe had been earned
+by hard work and persistent effort to make himself physically fit.
+
+"He's all of twenty-five pounds heavier than I am," decided the
+boy.  "I've got to try some tricks that he doesn't know about, if I
+hope to make any kind of showing."
+
+Bob was now approaching him with an ugly grin on his face.  Tad's
+arms hung easily by his side.
+
+"Come on, what are you waiting for?"  Tad smiled.
+
+With a bellow of rage, Bob rushed him.
+
+Tad laughed, and stepping quickly to one side, thrust a foot between
+the bully's legs as he passed.  Bob landed flat on his face in the
+dust of the street.
+
+The cowboys set up a roar of delight.  It was sport, no matter who
+got the worst of it.
+
+"Give them room," shouted some one, as the men closed quickly about
+the combatants.  "Let the kids fight it out."
+
+These tactics were so new to Bob, that he did not know just what had
+happened to him.  And when he had scrambled to his feet, he met the
+laughing face of Tad Butler, which enraged him past all
+control.  This was exactly what Tad wanted.
+
+Bob with a bellow again charged him.  Tad made a pass and missed, but
+covered his failure by neatly ducking under the upraised arm of the
+cowboy, whose surprised look when he found that he had been punching
+the empty air brought forth yells of delight from his companions.
+
+Tad had cast away his hat, that it might not interfere with his
+movements.  No sooner had he done so than his opponent renewed his
+attack.  But Tad skillfully parried the heavy blows, delivered
+awkwardly and without any great amount of skill.  The great danger
+was that his adversary with his superior strength might beat down
+the lad's defense and land a blow that would put a sudden end to the
+fray.
+
+Tad was watching for an opening that would enable him to put in
+practice a plan that had formed in his brain.
+
+"Look out for the cayuse, Bob.  He ain't so big a tenderfoot as he
+looks," warned a cowboy.  But Bob had already discovered this
+fact.  Though his fists were beating a tattoo in the air he seemed
+unable to land a blow on the body of his elusive adversary, and this
+only served to anger him the more.
+
+"Ki-yi!"  yelled the cowboys as a short arm blow, delivered through
+the mountaineer's windmill movements, reached his jaw and sent him
+sprawling.
+
+Tad had not been able to put the force into it that he wanted to,
+else the battle might have ended then and there.
+
+Bob came back.  This time he uttered no taunts.  The blow hurt
+him.  His head felt dizzy and his fists did not work with the same
+speed that they had done before.
+
+All at once Tad's right hand shot out, his fist open instead of
+being closed.  It closed over the left wrist of the cowboy with an
+audible slap.
+
+Tad's left hand joined his right in closing over his adversary's
+wrist.  He whirled sharply, bringing Bob's left arm over his
+adversary's shoulder.  Then something happened that made the cowmen
+gasp with astonishment.  The slender lad lifted the big mountain boy
+clear of the ground, hurled him over his head, and still clinging to
+the wrist, brought him down with a smashing jolt, flat on his back
+in the middle of the village street.  Phil Simms narrowly escaped
+being struck by the heels of the mountain boy's boots as they
+described a half circle in the air.
+
+Bob lay perfectly still.  And for a moment the cowboys stood
+speechless with amazement.
+
+"Whoopee!"  yelled one.  "Who-o-o-p-e-e!"  chorused the others, dancing
+about Tad Butler and his fallen victim in wild delight.
+
+"I'm sorry I had to do it," muttered the boy.
+
+They helped Bob to his feet, pounded him on the back, making jeering
+remarks about his being whipped by a kid, until his courage
+gradually was urged back as his strength returned.
+
+Suddenly Bob turned on his assailant, and throwing both arms about
+him, bore him to earth.  The move was so unexpected that the lad had
+no opportunity to side step out of the way.  The weight of the
+mountaineer was so great that Tad found himself unable to squirm
+from under.
+
+Bob, with a growl of rage, raised his fist, bringing it down with
+the same movement that he would wield a meat axe.
+
+Tad never flinched as he saw it coming.  His eyes were fixed upon the
+descending fist, his every nerve centered on the task of watching
+it.
+
+Just at the instant when fist and face seemed to be meeting, the lad
+by a mighty effort, jerked his head ever so little to the
+right.
+
+"Oh!"  yelled Bob.
+
+Something snapped.
+
+The pressure released from his body, ever so little, Tad by a
+supreme muscular effort, threw his opponent slightly to one side,
+and quickly wormed himself from under.  He was on his feet in an
+instant.
+
+The cowboys did not know what had happened, but they knew that the
+boy from the Simms ranch had done something to their companion that
+for the instant had taken all of the fight out of him.
+
+Tad had been only partly responsible for Bob's present condition,
+however.  By jerking his head to one side he had caused the mountain
+boy's fist to strike the hard roadbed instead of Tad's head.
+
+Bob struggled to his feet, holding the right wrist with the left
+hand and moaning with pain.  The right hung limp.  Tad knew what had
+happened.
+
+"He's broken his wrist.  I'm glad I didn't have to do it for him,"
+said the lad.
+
+At first glowering glances were cast in Tad's direction.  They were
+of half a mind to punish him in their own way.
+
+"You said it was to be a fair fight," spoke up the lad.  "Has it
+been?"
+
+There was a momentary silence.
+
+"The kid's right," exclaimed a cowman.  "He cleaned up Bob fair and
+square.  I reckon you kin go, now."
+
+"Thank you."
+
+"Hold on a minute.  Not so fast, young fellow.  I'm kinder curious
+like to know how ye put Bob over yer head like that!"  asked another.
+
+"It was a simple little Japanese wrestling trick," laughed the boy.
+
+"Kin ye do that to me?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"Well, yer going ter try and right here and now."
+
+"All right, come over here on the grass where the ground isn't so
+hard.  If I succeed in doing it, though, you must agree not to get
+mad.  I can't fight you, you know.  You are too big for me."
+
+The cowman grinned significantly, and strode over to the place
+indicated by Tad Butler.
+
+"Now what d'ye want me ter do?"  he demanded, leering.  "Yer see I'm
+willing?"
+
+"Strike at me, if you wish.  I don't care how you go about it,"
+replied Tad.
+
+"Here goes!"
+
+The cowman launched a terrific blow with his right.  Tad sprang back
+laughing.
+
+"If that had ever hit me, you never would have known how the other
+trick is worked," he said, while the cowboys laughed uproariously at
+the fellow's surprise when he found that his fist had not landed.
+
+"Guess the kid ain't no slouch, eh, Jim?"  jeered one.
+
+Jim let go another, then a third one.  The third blow proved his
+undoing.  The next instant Jim's boots were describing a half circle
+in the air over Tad Butler's head.  His revolvers slipping from their
+holsters in transit, dropped to the ground and Jim landed flat on
+his back with a mighty grunt.
+
+He was up with a roar, his right hand dropping instinctively to his
+empty holster.
+
+"Wh-o-o-o-e!"  warned the fellow's companions.  "No fair, Jim.  No
+fair.  He said as he'd do it, and he did.  Kid, you'd clean out the
+whole outfit, give you time, I reckon."
+
+Jim pulled himself together, restored his weapons to their places,
+and walked over to Tad, extending his hand.
+
+"That was a dizzy wallop ye give me, pardner," he said, with a
+sheepish grin.  "If ye'll show me how it's did, I'll call it square."
+
+Tad laughingly did so.
+
+"I guess I couldn't get even with them any easier than by showing
+them the trick," he grinned, mounting his pony, and accompanied by
+Philip rode away.  "They'll try that trick till the whole bunch of
+them get into a battle royal."
+
+They did, as Tad learned next day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+CHUNKY RIDES THE GOAT
+
+
+"There's the sheep," announced Tad, after they had ridden on for
+some time.
+
+"I'm glad," said Phil, "do you know, Tad, I thought those men were
+going to kill you."  Phil's courage had returned, when he realized
+that they were in sight of friends once more.
+
+Tad laughed.
+
+"They aren't half so bad as they would have us believe.  The boy was
+the worst of the lot.  He needed to be taught a lesson, but I wish I
+hadn't hurt him," he mused.
+
+"He did it himself; you didn't."
+
+"Yes, I know.  I had to to save my own face."  The lad laughed
+heartily at his own joke, which Philip, however, failed to
+catch.  "Now we'll find out where the camp is," said Tad, espying a
+herder off to the north of them.
+
+Having been directed to the new camp, Phil galloped away, Tad
+remaining to chat with the sheepman a few minutes.  Yet he made no
+mention of his experience at Groveland Corners, not being
+particularly proud of it, after all.  After riding slowly about with,
+the herder for half an hour, the lad jogged off toward camp, which
+his companion had reached before him.
+
+Philip had spread the story of Tad's battle with the cowboy.  Old
+Hicks, contrary to his usual practice, had listened with one ear,
+giving a grunt of satisfaction when the story had been told.  As a
+result there were several persons eagerly awaiting him in the sheep
+camp when he rode up.
+
+"Who's getting into trouble now?"  demanded Stacy, with mock
+seriousness.  "You need a guardian, I guess.  I presume Mr. Simms
+thinks so, too."
+
+"Heard you had two black eyes," jeered Ned Rector.
+
+"Say, Tad, we've agreed that you shall show us how you did it, using
+Chunky for your model," said Walter Perkins.
+
+Tad smiled good-naturedly, dismounting from the saddle and tethering
+the pony with his usual care.
+
+"Guess I'd better leave the saddle on.  There may be something doing
+any minute," he mused.
+
+"Mr. Simms wants ye over to his tent," Old Hicks informed Tad.
+
+"Oh, all right," answered the lad, walking briskly to the little
+tent occupied by the owner of the herd.
+
+The foreman was there awaiting Tad's arrival as well.
+
+"First I want to thank you for having taken Phil's part so
+splendidly," glowed Mr. Simms.  "It is a wonder they did not do you
+some harm after that."
+
+"Oh, they were not half bad," laughed Tad.  "They were ashamed of
+what they'd done after it was all over."
+
+"No.  There's no shame in that crowd.  I know them.  Phil has told me
+about it.  I know them all, and they shall suffer for roping that
+boy," went on the rancher angrily.
+
+"One of them has," answered Tad, with a mischievous twinkle in his
+eyes.  "Besides, there's going to be a big fight over there.  Perhaps
+they are at it now."
+
+"Fight?  I should judge from what I hear that there already has been
+one.  What do you mean?"
+
+"Oh, nothing very serious.  I taught them the Japanese trick of
+throwing a man over my head.  They were trying it on when I
+left.  Shouldn't be surprised, after they learn how to do the trick,
+if they got mad and had a real fight."
+
+Luke Larue leaned back, slapping his thighs and laughing
+uproariously.
+
+"Well, you are a smart one," he exclaimed.  "Couldn't lick them all
+yourself, so you fixed it so they'd sail in and lick each
+other.  Funniest thing I ever heard.  I'll have to tell Old Hicks
+about that.  But I won't do it till after dinner, or he'll burn the
+mutton and spoil our meal.  Fighting each other!"  Luke indulged in
+more hilarity.
+
+"You heard nothing, of course--they said nothing about our herd----"
+
+"No, but it was plain that they had no love for you, Mr. Simms.  It
+was the boy who roped Philip, though.  I do not think the men would
+have done anything like that."
+
+"It's all the same.  It shows the feeling that exists.  Nothing will
+ever wipe that out except a good whipping.  It's coming to them and
+they are going to get it."
+
+"You think then--you believe they have not given up their plan of
+attacking the sheep?"  asked Tad.
+
+"Given it up?  Not they.  They have been too well nagged on by your
+friend of the Rosebud.  I wish I knew who he is.  I probably never
+shall, though."
+
+"I'll know him if I see him again."
+
+"You might not.  Camp-fire sight is tricky."
+
+"I'll know his voice, sir.  I presume you will continue
+your watch over the herd to-night?"
+
+"Yes, and for many nights to come.  We shall keep it up until we get
+far enough to the north so that we are sure there will be no
+trouble.  I guess you had better go on the late trick to-night.  That
+is the most important.  We'll send your friend Chunky out early in
+the evening.  His habit of going to sleep at unusual times is too
+serious to trust him with the late and dangerous watch.  If they
+strike it will be close to morning, I imagine."
+
+"I hope they won't, for your sake."
+
+"So do I," answered Mr. Simms, with emphasis.
+
+The afternoon was waning.  The Pony Riders were all in camp, some
+reading, others writing letters home, for already much had happened
+that would make interesting reading to the folks off in the little
+Missouri town.
+
+Steam was rising from the big kettle, into which Old Hicks was about
+to drop a quarter of mutton for the evening meal, and an air of
+perfect peace hovered over the camp of the sheepmen.  Under a
+spreading tree the bell goat of the outfit lay stretched out sound
+asleep.  He had been in that position most of the afternoon, there
+being nothing special for him to do, as the herd was grazing as it
+saw fit, without any effort being made to urge it along.
+
+From the other side of the tree the round face of Stacy Brown might
+have been observed peering to one side of the sleeping goat.
+
+He listened intently.  Billy was breathing short, regular breaths,
+with no thought of the trouble that was in store for him.  From the
+expression of the boy's face it was evident that he was forming some
+mischievous plan of his own.  This was verified when, after dodging
+back behind the tree, his head appeared once more and a stick was
+cautiously thrust out.  Slowly it was pushed toward Billy's nose,
+which it gently rubbed and then was withdrawn.
+
+Billy probably thought it was a fly, for one impatient hoof brushed
+the troubled nose; then the interrupted nap was continued.
+
+Stacy tried it again with equal success.  His sides were shaking with
+laughter, and every little while he would hide himself behind the
+tree to give vent to his merriment.
+
+The others were too busy to notice what he was doing, though once
+Old Hicks paused in his work to cast a suspicious glance in that
+direction.
+
+Stacy had been amusing himself for several minutes and with such
+success that he grew more bold.  He had stepped from behind the tree
+that he might the better reach his victim.  Now the tickling and the
+sweep of the impatient hoof became more frequent.  Billy grunted as
+if he were having a bad dream, and this amused Stacy so much that he
+was obliged to retire behind the tree again to laugh.
+
+As he emerged this time, Billy slowly opened a cautious eye, all
+unobserved by his tormentor.  With a hand over his own mouth to keep
+back the laughter, the lad rubbed the stick gently over the goat's
+nose.  Billy's chin whiskers took an almost imperceptible upward tilt
+and the observing eye opened a little more widely.
+
+Next time Stacy varied the performance by giving the goat a
+malicious little dig in the ribs with the sharp end of the stick.
+
+Billy rose up into the air as if hurled there by an explosion
+beneath him.  When he landed on his four feet, it was with head
+pointed directly toward the foe and with fore legs sloping well back
+under him ready for a drive with his tough little head.
+
+"Oh!"  exclaimed Chunky, rapping the goat smartly over the nose with
+the stick to drive the animal off.
+
+Billy drove all right, but it was not away from the lad.  Stacy was
+standing with legs apart and Billy dived between them, at the same
+time lifting his head.
+
+The effect was instantaneous.  Chunky was neatly flipped to the
+goat's back, face down with his legs dangling about the animal's
+neck.  Instinctively he took a quick grip with the legs, locking his
+feet on the underside of Billy's neck and his hands about the
+withers.
+
+At that moment the surprised goat gave an excellent imitation of a
+broncho trying to throw its rider.
+
+"Hel-p!"  cried Chunky in a muffled voice.
+
+No one save the cook heard it.
+
+"Whoop!"  bellowed Old Hicks, smiting his thigh with a mighty fist
+and screaming with laughter.
+
+The Pony Riders and everyone else in camp sprang to their feet, not
+understanding what the commotion was about.
+
+"The kid's riding the goat," yelled Hicks.  "He's initiating himself
+into the order of Know Nuthins.  See him buck!  See him buck!"
+
+The camp roared.
+
+"Let go, Chunky!"  shouted Walter.
+
+"I can't, I'll fall off," answered the boy in a scarcely audible
+voice.
+
+"I'll help you then.  Come on, boys."
+
+They made a concerted rush to rescue their companion.  This was the
+signal for the goat to adopt new tactics.  He probably thought it was
+some new form of torture that they had planned for him.
+
+Billy headed for the tent of the owner of the herd.  He went through
+it like a projectile, upsetting the folding table on which Mr. Simms
+was writing, and out through the flap at the other end.
+
+By this time the outfit was in an uproar.  Even the sheep on the
+range near by paused in their grazing to gaze curiously campward;
+the herders off in that direction shaded their eyes against the sun
+and tried to make out the cause of the disturbance.
+
+"Y-e-o-w!"  encouraged the cook, waving a loaf of bread above his
+head and dancing about with a more pronounced limp than usual.
+
+Jerk, jerk, went Chunky's head until he feared it would be jerked
+from his body.
+
+"Stay by him, stay by him, kid," encouraged a sheepman.
+
+Mr. Simms rushing from his tent, startled and angry, instantly
+forgot the words of protest that were on his lips and joined
+heartily in laughter at the ludicrous sight.
+
+"Look out that you don't lose your stirrups," jeered Ned as goat and
+rider shot by him with a bleat.
+
+Walter made a grab for Billy with the result that he was pivoting on
+his own head the next second.
+
+Once they thought Chunky was going to fall off and put a sudden end
+to their fun, but he soon righted himself, whereupon he tightened
+the grip of hands and legs.
+
+By this time the goat was mad all through.  He seemed bent now upon
+doing all the damage he could.
+
+"Stop that!  Want to run me down!"  shouted Ned, grabbing a tree as
+the outfit swept by him, the goat uttering a sharp bleat and Chunky
+a howl of protest.
+
+All at once Billy headed for the kitchen department.  Old Hicks saw
+him coming and with a few quick hops got out of the way.
+
+"Hi there, hang you, where you heading?"  he roared.
+
+The tinware had been stacked up on a bench to dry out in the
+sunlight.  Perhaps it was the rays of the sun on the bright tin that
+attracted Billy's attention.  At any rate he went through it with a
+bound, amid the crash of rattling tin and splintering wood.
+
+Old Hicks made a swing at the animal with the long stick he had been
+using to prod the kettle of mutton.  He missed and sat down suddenly,
+his lame leg refusing to bear the strain that had been put upon it.
+
+It was astonishing the endurance the goat showed, for Chunky was no
+light weight in any sense of the word.  Now and then he would just
+graze the trunk of a tree, bringing a howl from his rider as the
+latter's leg was scraped its full length against the bark of the
+tree.
+
+By this time nearly everyone in camp had laughingly sought places of
+safety, some in the chuck wagon, others climbing saplings as best
+they could, for no man knew in what direction Billy might head next.
+
+Old Hicks refused to take the protection that the wagon offered.  He
+stood his ground, stick held firmly in both hands, awaiting a chance
+to rap the boy or the goat when they next passed.
+
+His opportunity came soon.  He had been baking pies for the
+sheepmen's supper and these he had placed on the tail board of the
+wagon, which he had removed and laid upon a frame made of sticks
+stuck into the ground.
+
+Billy finished the pies in one grand charge.
+
+The enraged cook forgot his own danger and boldly striding out into
+the open began throwing things at the mad goat.  It mattered not what
+he threw.  Anything he laid his hands on answered for the
+purpose--dishpans, small kettles, knives, loaves of bread--all went
+the same way, some of them reaching Chunky and bringing a howl from
+him.  The goat, however, escaped without being hit once.
+
+Twice more after wrecking the pies, did he charge the kitchen.  It
+was noticed, however, that he avoided the hot stove.  Hicks gladly
+would have lost that for the sake of seeing the goat smash against
+it and end his career.
+
+After one drive more ferocious than any he had made before, Billy
+whirled and came back.  Old Hicks stood with his back to the kettle,
+stick held aloft.  He was going to get the goat this time, for he saw
+the animal would pass close to him if he held his present course.
+
+Billy did so until within a few feet of the cook.  Then he changed
+his direction.  He changed it more suddenly than the cook had looked
+for.
+
+Billy's head hit Old Hicks a powerful blow.  The cook doubled up with
+a grunt.  When he came down he landed fairly in the kettle of hot
+mutton.  Cook and kettle toppled over, the former yelling for help
+and struggling desperately to extricate himself.
+
+Chunky too had fared badly in the final charge.  The shock had thrown
+him sideways and he crumpled up not far from the kettle and its
+human occupant.
+
+They fished Old Hicks from the wreck, fuming and raging and
+threatening to kill the goat and to chase the "heathen kid" out of
+the camp.
+
+Chunky was limp and breathless when they picked him up.  They dragged
+the lad away from the vicinity of the cook as quickly as
+possible.  Old Hicks' rage at that moment was a thing to avoid.  The
+goat, Billy, galloped away, the least disturbed of the outfit, but
+it was observed that he prudently remained out on the range with the
+sheep that night.
+
+"I didn't fall in that time, did I?"  gasped Chunky, after his breath
+had come back sufficiently to enable him to talk.
+
+"No, but you're going to do so when the cook gets hold of you,"
+warned Ned.
+
+"Hicks?  Old Hicks fell into the mutton broth, didn't he?"  chuckled
+the fat boy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE VIGIL BY THE FOOTHILLS
+
+
+Supper was late in the sheep camp that evening.  Old Hicks was in a
+terrible rage and no one dared protest at the delay, for fear he
+would get no supper at all.  The boys were still discussing Stacy
+Brown's feat, and every time the subject was referred to all during
+the evening, it was sure to elicit a roar of laughter.
+
+As night came on, the sky was gradually blotted out by a thin veil
+of clouds, which seemed to grow more dense as the evening wore
+on.  Chunky had been sent out with Mary Johnson on guard duty, Walter
+having gone out with the foreman.  That left Tad Butler and Ned
+Rector of the Pony Rider Boys, to take their turn on the late trick.
+
+Tad preferred to sit up rather than to try to sleep for the short
+time that would intervene before it came his turn to go out.
+
+"Do you think we shall have any trouble tonight?"  he asked, looking
+up as Mr. Simms passed his tent.
+
+"You know as much about that as I do, my boy.  Perhaps your courage
+over at the Corners may scare them off, eh?  They may think, if we
+are all such fighters over here, that it will be a good place to
+keep away from."
+
+Tad laughed good-naturedly.
+
+"Guess I didn't give them any such fright as that.  How is Philip
+this evening?"
+
+"Sound asleep.  It's doing the boy good.  He hasn't slept like this
+since his illness last spring."
+
+"I wish he might go on with us and spend the summer out of doors."
+
+"H-m-m-m," mused Mr. Simms.  "I am afraid he would be too great a
+care.  No, Tad, the boy is a little too young.  Where are you going
+next?"
+
+"I am not sure."
+
+"Well, let me know when you find out and we will talk it over.  Fine
+night for a raid of any kind, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, sir," answered Tad, glancing up at the black clouds.
+
+"Good luck to you to-night.  You and your partner must take care of
+yourselves.  Do not take any unnecessary risk.  You will have done
+your part in using your keen young eyes to see that no one gets near
+the camp."
+
+"I should feel better if I had a gun," laughed the boy.
+"Somehow--but no, I guess it is not best."
+
+"Certainly not."
+
+Tad turned up the lantern in his tent and sat down to his book,
+which he had been reading most of the evening.  He was not
+interrupted again until the camp watchmen came around to turn out
+the second guard.
+
+Ned was asleep and he tumbled out rubbing his eyes, not sure just
+what was wanted of him.
+
+"Wake up," laughed Tad.  "You are getting to be a regular sleepy
+head."
+
+"Guess I am.  Is--is it time to go out?"
+
+"It is.  And it is a dark night, too."
+
+"Whew!  I should say it is," replied Ned, with an apprehensive glance
+out beyond the camp.  "How are we ever going to find our way about
+to-night?"
+
+"I don't imagine we shall be moving about much after we get on our
+station.  Mr. Larue will place us there."
+
+"Where are we going to be?"
+
+"He hasn't said.  I did hear him say that we were going to watch singly
+instead of in pairs, in order that he might cover more territory with
+the men at his disposal."
+
+"Sounds shivery."
+
+"I don't know why it should.  It is night, that is the only
+difference.  I am getting used to being out in the night and not
+knowing where I am," laughed Tad.
+
+Tucking the lunches that had been wrapped for them into their pockets,
+the two boys walked over to the place where their ponies were
+tethered.  The animals had been left bridled and saddled, the saddle
+girths having been loosened. These the boys tightened and prepared to
+mount when Tad happened to think of something.
+
+"Hold my pony, Ned.  I want to get something from the tent."
+
+Tad returned a moment later with his lariat, which he coiled
+carefully and hung to the saddle horn, Ned Rector observing him with
+an amused smile.
+
+"If you can't shoot them you're going to rope them, eh?"
+
+"A rope is always a good thing to have with you.  You don't think so,
+but it is.  Never know what minute you are going to need it badly."
+
+"It wouldn't do me any good, no matter how much I needed it," smiled
+Ned.  "I couldn't lasso the side of a barn."
+
+"You do very well.  If you will practise every day you will be able
+to handle it as well as the average cowboy in less than a week.
+Come along."
+
+As they left the camp, Luke Larue met them to conduct the boys to the
+places where they were to spend the last half of the night.
+
+"After we leave the herd behind us, it's the frozen tongue for you,"
+he said.
+
+"You mean we are not to speak?" asked Tad.
+
+"Not a word out loud.  If you have anything you must say, whisper."
+
+"Oh, all right."
+
+They dropped Ned first.  His station was nearer to the herd than that
+which had been assigned to Tad.  The latter went on with the foreman
+until they were fairly out by the foothills.
+
+"I've given you one of the most responsible stations, you see,"
+whispered the foreman.  "It will be lonesome out here.  Do you mind?"
+
+"Not at all.  Anybody near me?"
+
+"Noisy Cooper is over there to your left about ten rods away.  Bat
+Coyne is to your right here.  You're not so close that you can rub
+elbows, however.  Be watchful.  It's just the night for a raid.  Use
+your own judgment in case you hear anything suspicious.  Above all
+look out for yourself.  You've got a pony that will take you away
+from trouble pretty fast if you get in a hurry.  You know the
+signal?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then good night and good luck," whispered Luke, reaching out and
+giving Tad's hand a hearty clasp.
+
+There was something so encouraging--so confident in the grip, that
+even had Tad Butler's courage been waning, it would have come back
+to him with a rush after that.
+
+"Good night," he breathed.  "I'll be on the spot if anything occurs."
+
+"I know that," answered the foreman.  In an instant Luke had been
+swallowed up in the great shadow and not even the hoof beats of his
+pony were audible to the listening ears of the boy.
+
+Tad looked about him inquiringly.  As his eyes became more used to
+the darkness he found himself able to make out objects about him,
+though the darkness distorted them into strange shapes.
+
+"I think I'll get under that tree," he decided.  "No one can see me
+there.  They'd pick me out here in a minute.  The cowboys have eyes as
+well as ears.  I know that, for I've lived with them."
+
+The lad tightened on the reins ever so little, and the pony pricking
+up its ears moved away with scarcely a sound, as if realizing that
+extreme caution were expected of it.
+
+They pulled up under the shadow of the tree.  There, Tad found that
+he could see what lay about him even better than before.
+
+He patted Pink-eye on the neck and a swish of the animal's tail told
+him that the little attention was appreciated.
+
+"Good boy," soothed the lad, running his fingers through the mane,
+straightening out a kink here and there.
+
+He had dropped the reins as he finished with the mane, and
+Pink-eye's head began to droop until his nose was almost on the
+ground.  He had settled himself for the long vigil.  Perhaps he would
+go to sleep in a few moments.  The rider hoped he would, for then
+there would be no movement that a stranger might hear.
+
+It was a lonesome post.  There was scarcely a sound, though now and
+then a bird twittered somewhere in the foliage and once he beard the
+mournful hoot of an owl far away to his left.
+
+"I wonder if that could have been a signal, or was it a real bird,"
+whispered Tad to himself.  "I have heard of a certain band of outlaws
+that always used the hoot of the owl as their signal to each other."
+
+After an interval of perhaps a minute another owl wailed out its
+weird cry off to his right.
+
+Tad Butler pricked up his ears.
+
+"Well, if it isn't a signal, those owls are holding a regular
+wireless conversation.  Hark!"
+
+Far back in the foothills there sounded another similar call.
+
+Tad Butler was sure, by this time, that something was going on that
+would bear watching.
+
+For a long time he heard nothing more, and was beginning to think
+that perhaps he had drawn on his imagination too far.  It might be
+owls after all.
+
+"I wonder if the others heard that, too?  Maybe they know better than
+I what it means, if it means anything at all.  I wish Mr. Larue would
+happen along now.  I'd like to tell him what I think."
+
+He knew, however, that the foreman, like himself was stationed
+somewhere off there in the blackness, sitting on his pony as
+immovable as a statue, his straining eyes peering into the night,
+his ears keyed to catch the slightest sound.
+
+A gentle breeze rippled over the trees, stirring the foliage into a
+soft murmur.  Then the breeze passed on and silence once more settled
+over the scene.
+
+Tad sighed.  Even a little wind was a welcome break in the
+monotony.  He was not afraid, but his nerves were on edge by this
+time, and Tad made no attempt to deny it.
+
+Something snapped to the left of him.  The sound was as if some one
+had stepped on a dry branch which had crumpled under his weight.
+
+The lad was all attention instantly.
+
+"There certainly is something over there," he whispered.  "It may be
+a man, but I'll bet it's a bear or some other animal.  If it's a
+bear, first thing I know Pink-eye will bolt and then I'll be in a
+fix."
+
+Tad cautiously gathered up the reins, using care not to disturb the
+pony, for it was all important that the animal remain absolutely
+quiet just now.
+
+But, though the boy listened with straining ears, there was no
+repetition of the sound and this led him to believe that it had been
+an animal, which perhaps had scented them and was stalking him
+already.
+
+It was not a comforting thought.  Yet Tad never moved.  He sat in his
+saddle rigidly, every nerve and muscle tense.  He was determined to
+be calm no matter what happened.
+
+The lad's head was thrown slightly forward, his chin protruding
+stubbornly, and as he listened there was borne to his ears another
+sound.  It was as if something was approaching with a soft tread.  He
+could hear it distinctly.
+
+"Whatever that thing is, it has four feet," decided the lad
+quickly.  "It's not a man, that is sure."
+
+Instinctively he permitted his left hand to drop to the pommel of
+the saddle so that he might not be unseated in case Pink-eye should
+take sudden alarm and leap to one side.  The reins were lightly
+bunched in the left, Tad's right hanging idly at his side.
+
+The footsteps became more and more pronounced, Tad's curiosity
+increasing in proportion.
+
+He fully expected to see a bear lumber from the shadows at any
+second now.  If this happened he did not know what he should do.  Of
+course he could ride away, but in doing so he might alarm the
+watching sheepmen and upset all their plans.
+
+The noise after approaching for some moments, suddenly ceased.  Tad's
+eyes were fairly boring into the shadows.  All at once the particular
+shadow at which he was looking moved.
+
+Tad started violently.
+
+The shadow moved forward a few steps, then halted.
+
+It was a man on horseback.  He had ridden right out from the
+foothills.
+
+"It's here," whispered Tad Butler to himself.  The rider moved up a
+few steps again, this time halting within a few feet of the watching
+boy.
+
+Tad's hand cautiously stole down to his lariat.  He brought it up at
+arm's length, held it for one brief moment then swung it over his
+head.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+A CLEVER CAPTURE
+
+
+His plan had been conceived in a flash and executed almost as
+quickly.
+
+The rawhide rope squirmed through the air.  He could not be sure of
+his aim in the darkness, but the stranger was so close that Tad did
+not believe he could miss.  He knew that if he did, he would find
+himself in a serious predicament.
+
+He heard a sudden startled exclamation.
+
+At that instant, Pink-eye, alarmed by the unusual movement on his
+back, awakened and leaped lightly to one side.
+
+"I've got him," breathed the boy, feeling the line draw tight under
+his hand.  "I've caught a man I----"
+
+Pink-eye had discovered the presence of strangers now and with a
+snort he changed his position by again leaping to one side.  Tad
+heard the man strike the ground with a grunt.  He took a turn of the
+lariat around the saddle pommel, drawing it taut.
+
+"Who are you!"  demanded the lad.
+
+A snarl of rage and a struggle over there on the ground was his only
+answer.
+
+"Get up, if you don't want to be dragged.  If you make a loud noise
+it will be the worse for you," announced the boy sternly.
+
+He clucked to the pony, which started forward suddenly, throwing a
+strain upon the rope.
+
+"Steady, Pink-eye.  We don't want to hurt him," he cautioned, slowing
+the animal down to almost a walk.
+
+"Are you on your feet back there?"
+
+"Y-y-y-yes."
+
+There came a sharp jerk on the line.  The boy knew that the man he
+had roped, pinioning his arms to his side had managed to get his
+hands up and grasped the line.  In a moment he would free himself.
+
+Tad pressed the rowels of his spurs against Pink-eye's sides.  The
+animal sprang forward, but the boy quickly checked him, pulling him
+down into a jog trot that was not beyond the endurance of a man to
+follow for a short distance.
+
+"Remember if you allow yourself to fall down I'll drag you the rest
+of the way in," warned Tad Butler.  "I won't hurt you if you behave
+yourself."
+
+"Le--le--let me go.  I--I--I--I--aint't done n-n-nothing."
+
+"We'll decide that when I get you back to camp," answered Tad.  "And
+don't let me hear you raising your voice again or I'll put spurs to
+the pony.  Do you understand?"
+
+"Y-y-y-e-s."
+
+On the soft ground the footfalls of the pony made no sound that
+could be heard any distance away.  On ahead of him the lad saw the
+dim light of a lantern, which he knew was at the camp and his heart
+leaped exultantly at the thought of what he had accomplished.  He
+wondered if the others or any of them had done as well.
+
+"Won't Mr. Simms be surprised?"  he glowed.
+
+"Wait, I--I--I'm going to drop," came a voice from behind him.  It
+sounded far away and indistinct.
+
+"You'd better not unless you want to go the rest of the way lying on
+your back," called back the lad.  However, he slackened the speed of
+his pony a little, thinking that perhaps his prisoner might be in
+distress.  Tad was too tender hearted to cause another to suffer,
+even if it were an enemy.
+
+The lad kept his left hand on the rope.  In this way he was able to
+judge how well the man was following.  Now and then a violent jerk
+told Tad that he was experimenting to see if he could not get
+away.  The fellow might have braced his feet and possibly snapped the
+line, but he evidently feared to do this lest he be thrown on his
+face and dragged that way, for the noose of the lariat had, by this
+time, so tightened about his body as to bind his arms tightly to his
+side.
+
+Tad uttered a warning whistle.
+
+Instantly he noted figures moving about the camp.  His call had been
+heard.  The camp-fire was stirred to give more light, and as its
+embers flared up, Tad Butler and his prisoner galloped in.
+
+At first they did not observe that he had a man in tow.
+
+Old Hicks hobbled forward with a growl and a demand to know what the
+row was about.
+
+"What is it, boy?  What is it?  Are they coming!"  exclaimed Mr. Simms,
+running toward him.
+
+"I've got a man.  I can't stop.  Grab him!"  cried Tad in an excited,
+triumphant tone.
+
+Mr. Simms saw.  The others observed at the same time.  They made a
+concerted rush for the lad's prisoner.
+
+"Stop!"  commanded the rancher.
+
+Tad drew up instantly.  As he did so three of them grabbed the man at
+the other end of the lariat, throwing him on the ground flat on his
+back.
+
+"All right?"  sang back Tad.
+
+"Yes."
+
+The boy unwound the rope from his saddle pommel and casting the end
+from him, rode back and dismounted.  Yes, he had caught a cowman, but
+the fellow sullenly refused to answer a question that was put to
+him.
+
+The prisoner was glaring up at him with eyes so full of malignant
+hate that Tad instinctively shrank back.
+
+"Know him!"  asked Mr. Simms sharply.
+
+"Not by name.  He's one of the men I saw over at the Corners.  He was
+the worst one of the lot, except the boy they called Bob."
+
+No amount of questioning, however, would draw the fellow out.  They
+had bound him hand and foot and straightened up to view their work.
+
+"There's no use in wasting time," decided Mr. Simms.  "Drag him over
+to my tent and throw him in.  Did you hear anybody besides this man?"
+
+Tad told him about the owl calls.  The rancher pondered a few
+seconds.
+
+"That sounds to me more like an Indian trick.  But I am satisfied we
+are going to be attacked tonight.  You had better go back to your
+post.  Can you find the way?"
+
+"Yes, I think so," answered the lad.
+
+"Boy, you've done a great piece of work.  I'll talk with you about
+it when we have more time.  I must hurry out and find Luke.  The
+rest of you stick by the camp until you know that the cowmen are
+here; then sail in.  There'll likely be some shooting."
+
+"Any further instructions?"  asked Tad, bunching the reins in his
+hand preparatory to mounting.
+
+"Nothing.  That is, unless you find you can rope some more of these
+cayuses.  I'd like to have them all tied up here for a while.  I've
+got a few things to say to them.  They'd have to listen whether they
+wanted to or not if they were all in the same fix that fellow is,"
+he added with a short, mirthless laugh.
+
+Tad swung himself into the saddle, first having coiled his rope and
+hung it in its place.
+
+"Good-bye," he sang out, starting out at a gallop and disappearing
+in the night.
+
+As Tad drew near the scene of his recent experience, he slowed the
+pony down to a walk, moving on with extreme caution.  He did not want
+to fall into the trap that the cowboy had only a short time before.
+
+After groping about in the darkness some time, he finally came upon
+the very tree that had sheltered him before.
+
+Tad uttered a low exclamation of satisfaction, once more taking up
+his position under its spreading branches.  He had been there but a
+short time when the foreman rode up, giving a low whistle so that
+the boy would know who it was.
+
+"Anything develop?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What?"
+
+Tad told him briefly of the capture of the cowboy.
+
+"Good boy," glowed Luke, reaching over and slapping Tad on the back
+approvingly.  "I guess we made no mistake in giving you this
+post.  But there's not likely to be any more of them come through
+this way.  I am going to send you down nearer the center.  We are
+going to have all the fun we want before morning.  So I wish you
+would move down nearer the herd.  When the racket begins, if it does,
+we shall need all the sheepmen to help drive off the raiders.  You
+will relieve one of them and look after the sheep.  I have told your
+friend Ned the same thing.  He's down there now."
+
+"Where are the sheep?"
+
+"Head just a little to your left and ride straight, on till you come
+up with them.  But be sure to give the whistle now and then so our
+men will know who you are if they chance to hear you coming.  Did
+anybody know the fellow you roped?"
+
+"No.  I saw him at the store yesterday, though."
+
+"Guess you've made no mistake then.  Well, so long."
+
+Tad missed his way in the darkness, and had roamed about for some
+time before finally coming up with the herd.  Even then he was at a
+part of the line where there seemed to be no one on guard.
+
+He whistled and waited.  After a little the signal was answered It
+was then only a matter of a few moments before he had joined the
+herder and delivered his message.
+
+The man rode away to take up his new position and Tad settled down
+to tending sheep.  There was little for him to do, the animals being
+sound asleep, but he rather enjoyed the relief from the strain that
+he had been under while watching for intruders off yonder under the
+tree.
+
+Dismounting, the boy sat down on the ground, having stripped the
+reins over the pony's neck so that he could keep them in his
+hand.  Pinkeye nibbled at the grass a few seconds.  It did not seem to
+satisfy the animal, for the sheep had worked it pretty well down
+ahead of him.  So Pink-eye went to sleep, and Tad found himself
+nodding so persistently that he forced himself to get up and walk
+back and forth a few paces each way.
+
+"I am getting to be as much of a sleepy head as Chunky is," he
+smiled.  "That goat ride was the funniest thing I ever saw.  I wonder
+where Billy took himself to.  He's a wise goat.  I actually believe he
+had more fun out of putting the camp to the bad than the rest of us
+experienced in watching him."
+
+Pink-eye woke up and rubbed his nose against the boy's coat sleeve.
+
+A shrill whistle trilled out off to the west.  It was followed by
+another and another, until the air seemed full of them.
+
+Tad paused abruptly in his walk and listened.
+
+A pistol spat viciously.  He caught the flash faintly in the
+distance.
+
+Tad threw the reins over Pink-eye's neck and vaulted into the
+saddle.  Boy and pony were both wide awake now.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THRILLING RESCUE OF THE RANCHER
+
+
+"They're here," breathed the lad.  "I wonder what's going to happen."
+
+As if in answer to his question, a volley of pistol shots sounded to
+the west of him.  Almost instantly following, guns began to pop to
+the north and south.
+
+Shouts and yells sounded everywhere.
+
+Startled, half a hundred sheep near him, scrambled to their feet.
+
+"W-h-o-e-e-e," soothed Tad, turning toward them as he remembered
+that he had a duty to perform.  "Come now, Pink-eye, never mind the
+shooting.  Just you and I attend to our business.  That's what we've
+got to do."
+
+Yet Tad regretted that he was not over there in the thick of the
+fight.  He gave a long whistle, hoping to find some one near him.  The
+whistle was not answered, therefore he concluded that he was alone
+on that side of the herd.  But where was Ned?  He should be somewhere
+near by.
+
+By this time the restless herd required his whole attention.  Tad
+galloped up and down the line, speaking soothing words to the
+frightened sheep, whistling and trying to sing.
+
+"Here, Barker," he cried, discovering that he was not alone in his
+efforts.  One of the sheep dogs was trotting along by his side,
+uttering little encouraging yelps to assist in keeping the lines
+well formed.  "That's a good dog.  I guess you and I can handle this
+outfit, can't we, Barker?"
+
+Barker barked as if in approval of the sentiment.
+
+Tad called the animal to him and sent him back the other way, while
+he pressed on.  The noise of the conflict seemed to be up that way
+and it was at that end that there would be more likelihood of
+disturbance to the sheep, he thought, urging his pony along a little
+faster.
+
+All at once guns began to flash ahead of him.
+
+"I believe they are in the flock already," he cried, putting spurs
+to Pink-eye and dashing on at top speed.  "Yes, they are shooting
+into the flock.  I can tell by the flashes of their guns.  Oh, if I
+had a gun!"
+
+The thought that they were slaughtering the innocent animals roused
+all the fighting blood in Tad Butler's nature.
+
+But what could he, single-handed and unarmed, expect to do to stop
+the ruthless slaughter?
+
+From the opposite direction, he heard a body of horsemen bearing
+down on the sheep killers.
+
+In a moment more they too began to shoot.  He noted quickly, however,
+that this latter body of men were not shooting down.  They were
+shooting over the heads of the herd at the men who were killing the
+stock.
+
+"Good!  Good!  Give it to them!"  fairly screamed the lad, rising in
+his stirrups, waving his hat and continuing his words of
+encouragement to the men of Mr. Simms's outfit.  What mattered it
+whether they could hear him or not?  A rattling fire was running
+along both lines of men.  But the sheep killers, now content to ride
+down the sheep, were shooting back at their assailants.
+
+"Somebody will be killed, I know," cried Tad.  "Who's there?"  he
+roared, as he heard the hoof beats of a running pony behind
+him.
+
+"It's me, Chunky," came the answer.
+
+"Get out of here, boy.  You will be killed."
+
+"I can't.  I'm afraid to stay back there in the camp all alone.
+Hicks has gone too and----"
+
+"Then get back down the line and help me to hold these sheep.  Don't
+give anyone a chance to say a Pony Rider Boy is afraid of anything.
+How'd you like to be over there where those guns are going off?
+Now, brace up.  Look cheerful and tend to those sheep the same as
+Barker is doing."
+
+Thus admonished, Stacy did brace up.
+
+"All right," he said, pulling himself together and turning his pony
+about.
+
+In the meantime the shouting had increased in volume and the
+shooting was more rapid.  Tad had all he could do to hold the sheep
+in place.  He knew that up above him they were rushing wildly here
+and there, and the wave of terror rolled over those in his immediate
+vicinity.
+
+"They're beating them back!"  cried the boy.  "The cowboys are giving
+way.  Hooray!"
+
+This proved to be the case.  The defense of the sheepmen was a
+surprise to the cowboys, where they had thought to surprise the
+sheep herders and stampede the herd before any opposition was
+offered.
+
+With a yell of triumph the forces under Mr. Simms rode right over
+the scurrying sheep in their effort to drive the cowmen off.
+
+At that moment the clouds parted and the full moon shone out,
+lighting up the scene brightly.  Tad gazed in awe on the rushing
+ponies as he pulled his own to a stop.  The cowmen, too, seemed to
+take courage from the moonlight.  Some had started to retreat.  These
+whirled about and returned to the charge.
+
+"Oh, there goes Mr. Simms!"  cried the boy.
+
+He saw the rancher waver in the saddle, throw up his hands and slip
+sideways with head and arms hanging down.
+
+"He's shot!  He's shot!  They don't see him!"  shouted Tad.  He cried
+out at the top of his voice to attract the attention of the
+ranchers, but in the uproar, no one heard him.  His voice in that mad
+melee was a puny thing.
+
+Fortunately the rancher's feet still clung to the stirrups, but his
+head was hanging so low that it appeared to be bumping along the
+ground with every leap of his pony, which was headed straight for
+the lines of the enemy.
+
+"Oh, why won't they see him!"  groaned the lad.  "I can't stand it to
+sit here doing nothing and see a man lose his life that way--if he's
+not dead already."
+
+Tad, acting upon a sudden resolve, shook out his reins, gave the
+pony a quick pressure with the spurs.
+
+"Hi-yi!"  he snapped.
+
+Pink-eye leaped forward, with Tad urging him to renewed efforts by
+sharp slaps on the animal's thigh.  The boy was not shouting now.  He
+did not wish to attract attention to himself if it could be
+avoided.  In order to head off the rancher's pony, Tad was compelled
+to follow an oblique direction which, if he continued it, would land
+him fairly in the center of the enemy's lines.
+
+"I must beat him out.  It's the only way I can do anything.  Go,
+Pink-eye!  Go!"  And Pink-eye did go as he had never gone before
+since Tad Butler had owned him.
+
+Slowly but surely he was heading off the other horse.  They saw him
+now and a few scattering shots were sent in his direction, but the
+lad heeded them no more than had they been rain drops.  His mind was
+too fully absorbed with the task he had set for himself.
+
+At last he and the rancher's pony were converging on a single
+point.  Mr. Simms's pony reached it first with Tad only a few feet
+away.  They were fairly between the lines now and bullets were flying
+about them.  Tad could hear their whut! whut! as they sped past him.
+
+He had lost the race.  But there still remained one more
+resource.  His rope was in its place.  Tad slipped it from the saddle
+horn and made a quick reach for the rancher.
+
+He groaned when he saw that he had missed his aim.
+
+Yet, instead of giving up the battle, the lad was more determined
+than ever to rescue the owner of the herd that he had cast his
+fortunes with.  The rowels were dug into the sides of the pony with a
+firmer pressure than before, and Tad began rapidly to haul in the
+lariat with one hand.  When once he felt the knot at his finger tips
+he began whirling the loop over his head, leaning well forward in
+his saddle, riding at a tremendous pace on the fleet-footed little
+pony.
+
+He cast.  This time the loop fell true.
+
+"Steady!  steady!  Pink-eye," he cautioned, taking a quick turn about
+the pommel.  To stop too suddenly might throw the other pony on its
+side and crush the rancher.
+
+The lariat had dropped over the other animal's neck and was quickly
+drawn down.  Pinkeye stopped, braced himself as he felt his fellow
+slowing down under the pressure of the loop on his neck.
+
+"Whoa!"  commanded Tad sharply, leaping from the saddle and taking up
+on the lariat as fast as he could.
+
+A shrill yell from the cowmen told him they would be upon him in a
+moment.  They understood now what he was trying to do.
+
+Tad worked with feverish haste to release Mr. Simms from the
+stirrups.  Yet when he had finally accomplished this, his work was
+not yet half done.  He did not know whether the rancher was dead or
+alive, nor had he the time to satisfy himself on this point.
+
+Grasping Mr. Simms under the arms, the lad dragged him over to
+Pink-eye, and with a strength born of the excitement of the moment,
+succeeded in throwing the rancher's body over the back of his own
+pony.
+
+The lad was panting in short, quick breaths.  He had barely enough
+strength left to crawl on Pink-eye's back.  Once there, he fairly
+fell across Mr. Simms's body, clinging to it with one hand, the
+other gripped on the pommel.
+
+Pink-eye seemed to know what was expected of him, for straightway he
+got under motion, trotting off toward the lines of the sheepmen.
+
+The cowboys turned their guns on the little outfit, but the sheepmen
+now discovering what was going on, gave a mighty yell and swept down
+on their enemy.
+
+The cowboys gave way before the resistless rush, and whirling their
+ponies, raced for the foothills, with the pursuers shooting and
+yelling as they lashed and spurred their ponies after them.
+
+Tad was almost overwhelmed as the sheepmen rushed by him.  But he had
+saved Mr. Simms and he did not care if the jostling ponies of his
+friends had almost run him down in their mad rush.
+
+The lad now gaining in strength, pulled himself to a sitting posture
+and hurried Pink-eye along at a little faster gait.  They were headed
+for the camp, which they reached in a few minutes.
+
+Tenderly the lad lifted the rancher from the saddle, stretching him
+out on the grass.  His first care was to determine whether the man
+were alive or dead.
+
+"He's alive!"  cried Tad exultingly.  "He's only stunned."
+
+A bullet had grazed the rancher's head, ploughing a little furrow as
+it passed, but there was nothing more.  Had Tad not reached him in
+time no doubt he would have been killed.
+
+Getting water from the chuck wagon, Tad bathed the wound and dashed
+water into the rancher's face until signs of returning consciousness
+were evident.  After a little while Mr. Simms opened his eyes and
+asked what had happened.
+
+Tad told him, leaving out his own part in the rescue entirely, save
+that he had brought him in.
+
+The lad, after telling Mr. Simms that the cowboys had been driven
+off, helped the rancher to his tent and put him to bed, or rather
+induced him to lie down on his cot, for Mr. Simms's head was
+whirling.
+
+No sooner had Tad done this than he heard a galloping pony rapidly
+approaching the camp.  The lad stepped out as the horseman pulled
+up.  It was the foreman.  He threw himself from his mount and started
+on a run for Mr. Simms's tent.
+
+"Hello!"  he exclaimed, bringing up short.  "Where's the boss?  Is
+he hurt?  What happened to him?"  he demanded excitedly, without
+giving Tad a chance to answer between questions.
+
+"I think he is all right, Mr. Larue.  He had a close call"----
+
+"Was he shot?"
+
+"A bullet grazed the side of his head, and then his pony ran away.  I
+guess that came nearer killing him than did the bullet."
+
+"He owes his life to you, and that's no joke," answered the foreman
+shortly.  "We didn't see that he was in trouble till one of the boys
+discovered you chasing his pony.  Then we saw you rope the critter
+and pack the boss on your own cayuse."
+
+"Was--was anybody killed?"  asked Tad hesitatingly.
+
+"No.  Mary got a bullet through the calf of his right leg, and Bat
+Coyne lost a piece of an ear.  Guess that's about all."
+
+"Yes; but what of the others?  Were any of the cowmen killed?"
+
+"No such luck," growled the foreman.  "We pinked a few of them, but
+they're too tough to kill.  We come mighty near having a fight,
+however," he mused.
+
+"Near!"  exploded the boy.  "I should say you were right up to it."
+
+"We've lost a lot of sheep, boy; that's of more consequence."
+
+"How many?"
+
+"No telling.  Can't tell till morning.  It'll take all day to round up
+the scattered bunches--those that were not killed."
+
+"Where are the boys--Ned and the rest of them?"  asked Tad, suddenly
+bethinking himself of his companions.
+
+"Oh, that's what I came back here for--one of the things.  They're
+all right.  That is, they're out there with the bunch, except
+Phil.  Have you seen him?"
+
+"Phil?  No.  Where is he?"
+
+"He was with me, but he got away somewhere."
+
+"Phil gone?"
+
+"It seems so."
+
+"Oh, that's too bad.  What shall we do?"
+
+"Go hunt for him.  Do you want to join me?"  asked the foreman, with
+sudden energy, leaping into his saddle again.
+
+"Of course I do," answered Tad Butler, running for his own pony and
+following the foreman out of camp at a quick gallop.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+TWO BOYS STRANGELY MISSING
+
+
+"No use.  He's been picked up by those dastardly cowmen," growled
+Luke after he and Tad had searched until daybreak.  "We must go back
+to the camp and then turn out the outfit.  We've got to find him,
+that's all.  Mr. Simms will be crazy when he hears that the boy has
+strayed away from us."
+
+"What do you think he'll do?"  asked Tad in a worried tone.
+
+"Heaven only knows.  If it's those cow fellows who have done it,
+he'll never rest till he's settled with them for good and all.  I'll
+plan out a hunt for the kid, but it has got to be each man for
+himself.  We must cover every inch of the territory to the north,
+west and south of us.  He couldn't have gone the other way.  Come,
+let's be hustling back to camp."
+
+"Perhaps they have not taken him at all.  I should not be surprised
+if he were only lost."
+
+But Luke shook his head.  He was convinced that the rancher's son had
+not strayed away of his own accord.  He believed that the cowmen had
+picked the lad up and carried him away for sheer revenge on
+Mr. Simms.  Having seen Philip at Groveland Comers, some of them knew
+him, argued the foreman.
+
+When Mr. Simms was informed of the loss of Phil, he was well-nigh
+beside himself.
+
+"Do something!  Why don't you do something?"  he exclaimed in agony.
+
+"We have," answered Luke.  "And we have returned to get the rest of
+your men started on a daylight hunt."
+
+"Did he take his pony with him?"  asked Tad, as a thought occurred to
+him.
+
+"Yes," replied Luke.
+
+"Then, if the pony has not come back, it is pretty good evidence
+that Philip is still on his back, it seems to me."
+
+"Then turn out; everybody turn out!"  shouted Mr. Simms.  "Don't come
+back till you get him or bring me some tidings."
+
+"You will want some one to round up each scattered band of sheep,
+Mr. Simms.  You do not want to lose your herd, do you?"  asked the
+foreman.
+
+"I don't care for the herd.  Let two men and the dogs remain with the
+sheep that did not stampede.  All the rest go out on the search.  I'll
+take a turn myself.  What's your plan, Luke?"
+
+The foreman explained that he proposed to send the searchers out
+alone, so that all the territory might be covered.  He had planned to
+lay his party out in the shape of a fan.  The fan closed, he would
+push up into the foothills, then open it in a wide sweep.  As he
+expressed it, "not even a jack rabbit could get away from them if he
+were within the semicircle covered by their formation."
+
+Mr. Simms bore the strain as well as a father could be expected to
+bear it.
+
+Without the loss of a moment Luke gathered the men about him,
+explaining briefly what was to be done and assigning to each man the
+part he was to play in the day's search.
+
+Foremost among the party were the Pony Rider Boys.  Even Stacy Brown,
+serious-faced and impatient to be off, had saddled and bridled his
+pony and sat awaiting the order to move.
+
+At last all was ready.
+
+"Right!"  announced the foreman, whereupon the sheepmen, headed by
+Luke and Tad Butler, started up at a brisk gallop, headed straight
+across the mesa, taking a course that would lead them to the
+foothills, a short distance ahead of them.  Beaching the foothills,
+they continued on for some two or three miles.  Here the foreman gave
+the order to open the fan, he taking the lead on the left and Tad on
+the right.  The searchers were now moving with a space of about a
+quarter of a mile between them, shouting out the name of Phil Simms
+now and then, these calls running down the line to the lower end of
+the fan-shaped formation.
+
+After a time Tad found that he could no longer hear the shouts of
+his companions, yet from the position of the sun, which he consulted
+frequently, he felt sure that he was following the right course.
+
+On and on he rode, until the sun lay on the western horizon.  The
+others of the party were making a thorough search, investigating
+every gully and draw that lay in their course, shouting for Phil,
+hut not shooting their guns, as this was to be the signal that the
+lost boy had been found.
+
+"I'm afraid we are going to miss him," mused the foreman.  "If we
+fail to find him, then they've got him, sure."
+
+At last he had completed his half of the sweep of the fan, and his
+face wore a troubled look as his pony emerged from the foothills
+onto the open mesa again.  The sun was setting.
+
+Luke rode out and waited a few moments, and when joined by the rest
+of his section, started back to the camp.
+
+Old Hicks had prepared the hated mutton for supper by the time the
+right side of the fan formation got in.  Not a trace had one of them
+found of the missing Philip Simms.
+
+The rancher said nothing when told that they had failed.  He strode
+away to his tent and they saw him no more for hours.
+
+They had just gathered about the table for the evening meal, all
+unusually silent, when Ned Rector, glancing about, made a sudden
+discovery.
+
+"Where's Tad?"  he demanded.
+
+"Didn't he come in?"  asked the foreman, pausing in the act of
+sitting down to the table.
+
+"That's what I should like to know?  Where is he?"
+
+No one seemed to know.
+
+"Now, he's gone, too," breathed the foreman anxiously.  "That's one
+more mystery on the old Custer trail."
+
+"We--we'll have to go hunt for Tad now.  You don't suppose he and
+Phil are together, do you?"  asked Walter.
+
+"I don't know.  I hope they are.  But, boy, it's useless to go out
+looking for them now.  All we can do will be to wait until morning,
+then take up the search again"----
+
+"That's what comes from taking kids out on a man's job," growled Old
+Hicks, as he served the mutton.
+
+"Hicks, no one asked you for your opinion," snapped the
+foreman.  "These boys have done men's work ever since they
+joined.  Had it not been for Tad, Boss Simms would have been out of
+business entirely now.  Don't let me hear anybody casting any slurs
+on these boys.  I won't stand for it."
+
+Old Hicks grumbled and hobbled away to his black kettle, while the
+others ate their supper in silence.  But, somehow, the meal was far
+from satisfying, and one by one they rose from the table, leaving
+plates half filled, and strolled away to spend the evening as best
+they could until bedtime.  Ned and the foreman remained up, for they
+were to go out at midnight and take their trick at watching over the
+herd.
+
+"I've just got an idea," said the foreman, calling Ned to him.
+
+"Yes; what is it?"
+
+"I'm going to put some one on the herd in my place and ride over to
+Groveland.  Want to go along?"
+
+"Yes, if it has anything to do with our friends."
+
+"That's what I mean."
+
+"All right, I'm ready; but it is pretty late."
+
+"Makes no difference.  We'll wake them up if they are in bed.  I want
+to see Cavanagh, who keeps the store.  I have one or two questions to
+ask him."
+
+Without saying anything to the others as to their intention, the two
+quietly saddled their ponies and rode off.  The foreman made
+arrangements to have others take their trick, after which they
+headed across the mesa toward the place where Tad had whipped the
+mountain boy.
+
+Though the night, like the one that had preceded it, was intensely
+dark, Luke rode on with perfect confidence, never for one instant
+hesitating over the course.
+
+Ned did not know that they had reached the little village until the
+foreman told him.
+
+"We're here," he said quietly.
+
+"Where's the town?"
+
+"In it now."
+
+"I don't see it, if we are."
+
+"You hold my horse.  I'll wake up Cavanagh," announced the foreman,
+dismounting and tossing the reins to his companion.
+
+Luke thundered on the front door of the store, above which the owner
+had his quarters.  After an interval, during which the foreman had
+pounded insistently with the butt of his revolver, an upper window
+opened and a voice demanded to know what was wanted.
+
+"Come down here and I'll tell you."
+
+"Who are you?  What do you mean prowling around this time of the
+night?"
+
+"I'm Luke Larue, of the Simms's outfit, and I want to see you."
+
+"Oh, hello, Luke.  Thought there was something familiar about your
+voice.  I'll be down in a minute.  Anybody with you?"  "Yes,
+friend.  Hurry up."  Cavanagh opened the front door, peering out
+suspiciously before he permitted his caller to enter.
+
+"Wait a minute.  I want to call my friend in.  Ned, tether the ponies
+and come along."
+
+After the lad had joined them, the two ranchers entered the store,
+the proprietor taking them to the back of the store and lighting a
+lantern, which he placed behind a cracker barrel, so that the light
+might not be observed from the outside.
+
+"Now, what is it?"  he demanded.  Luke told him briefly of the battle
+with the cowboys, of which Cavanagh had already heard.  Then he
+related the story of the mysterious disappearance of the two boys.
+
+"What do you want of me?"  asked the storekeeper, when the story had
+been finished.
+
+"To know whether you had heard any of the boys say anything that
+might lead you to believe they knew anything about the matter?"
+
+"No," answered Cavanagh after a moment's thought.  "Hain't heard a
+word.  Don't believe they know anything about it.  They'd a said
+something if they'd heard of it."
+
+"Don't you know anything about the boys yourself?"
+
+"No, don't know nothing about them."
+
+"Sure?"
+
+"Surest thing, you know."
+
+"Very well.  I believe you.  One of my reasons for coming over here,
+however, was to tell you to keep your eyes and ears open to-morrow."
+
+"I'll do that for you----"
+
+"If we fail to find them to-morrow, I'll ride over at night after
+the crowd has left here and hear what you have learned.  When any of
+the cowmen come in, I want you to bring up the subject and try to
+draw them out.  You'll get something that will be of use to us, I
+know, for I'm dead certain that they've got both of those boys."
+
+"Do you think they would dare do a thing like that?"  asked Ned.
+
+"Dare?"  Luke laughed harshly.  "They'd dare anything, especially
+about this time.  Oh, did you hear whether any of them got hit last
+night!"
+
+"Two or three is laid up for repairs," grinned the storekeeper.
+
+"I'm glad of it.  I wish the whole bunch had been trimmed."
+
+"Lose many sheep?"
+
+"Yes; too many.  But that isn't what's troubling us now."
+
+"No, I understand.  It's the kids."
+
+"Exactly.  Don't forget what you have got to do, now."
+
+Ned had been leaning against the counter listening to the
+conversation, when his hand came in contact with a soft object that
+lay on the counter.  He carelessly picked it up and looked at it.
+
+What he had found was a sombrero.  This of itself was unimportant,
+for the store carried them for sale.  A broad, yellow band about it
+was what attracted Ned Rector's attention, causing him to utter a
+sharp exclamation.
+
+"What is it?"  demanded Luke quickly.
+
+"Look.  Did you ever see this before?"  he asked excitedly.
+
+"It's Philip Simms's hat," answered the foreman, fixing a stern eye
+on the old storekeeper.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+CAPTURED BY THE INDIANS
+
+
+"Yes.  I recognized it the instant I saw it," answered Ned.
+
+"Cavanagh, what does this mean?"  demanded the foreman.  "I think it's
+up to you to explain and mighty quick at that."
+
+"I--I don't know anything about it," stammered the storekeeper.
+
+"Where did you get that hat?"
+
+"I bought it."
+
+"Off whom?"
+
+"Don't know what his name is.  I never seen him before."
+
+"Tell me all you know.  Come, I've no time to fool away asking you
+questions.  Get to the point."
+
+"I'll tell you all I know.  A fellow came in here this afternoon.  I
+give him fifty cents for the hat and that's all there was to it."
+
+"Say where he come from?"
+
+"Yes, said he was down from the Medicine range."
+
+"That's more than thirty miles north of here," mused the foreman.  "I
+don't understand it.  You sure that's all he said?"
+
+"Yes; I don't know any more."
+
+"Then we'll be off.  I guess we'd better hit the trail for the
+Medicine range to-night so as to be well on our way by daylight."
+
+"Here's fifty cents.  I'll take the hat with me," said Ned, tossing a
+half dollar on the counter, and stowing the sombrero under his belt.
+
+They hurried from the store, with a parting injunction to Cavanagh
+to be watchful.  Mounting their ponies they rode swiftly away.
+
+"We'll return to camp before we leave for the north," said Luke.
+
+As the sun went down, Tad, becoming concerned for himself, turned
+sharply to the right, urging his pony on so as to get back to camp
+before night.  He did not relish the idea of spending another night
+alone in the mountains.
+
+"I believe I don't know where I am," decided the lad at last,
+pulling up sharply and gazing first at the sky, then at the
+unfamiliar landscape about him.  "I seem to have acquired the habit
+of getting lost.  Hello, I hear some one coming.  W-h-o-o-p-e-e!"  he
+shouted to attract the attention of the newcomers, hoping that it
+might be some of the men from the Simms outfit.
+
+There were several of them, and though they made no reply, he heard
+them turn their ponies in his direction.  Suddenly there rode into
+the little clearing where he was sitting on his pony, half a dozen
+men, the sight of whom made him take a short, sharp breath.
+
+"Indians!"  he gasped.
+
+With gaudily painted faces, bright blankets and buckskin suits, they
+made a picturesque group as they halted and surveyed the young man
+questioningly.
+
+One who appeared to be the leader of the party rode forward and
+peered into Tad's face.
+
+"How," he grunted.
+
+"How," answered Tad, saluting bravely, but feeling far from brave at
+that moment.
+
+A second and younger brave rode up at this point and in very good
+English asked the lad who he was.
+
+"I am from the Simms sheep ranch, and I guess I have lost my way.  If
+you can set me straight, I shall be very much obliged."
+
+The younger man consulted with the older one, who had greeted Tad
+first.
+
+"The chief says we are going that way.  If you will come along with
+us we will leave you within about a mile of the camp."
+
+"Very well," answered the boy, with some reluctance.  They seemed
+friendly enough and, besides, there could be no danger to him in
+accompanying them.
+
+As they started to move on, Tad clucked to Pink-eye and fell in with
+the party.  He noticed shortly, that the others had ridden up and
+that he was in reality surrounded by the painted braves.  Then he
+remembered that he had heard of roving bands of Indians in that part
+of the country--Indians who had been getting off their reservations
+and indulging in various depredations.
+
+"Are we getting near the place?"  asked the lad finally, a growing
+uneasiness rising within him.
+
+"I'll ask the chief," said the young Indian, who had been riding by
+Tad's side.  "He says it will be two hours yet," was the reply, after
+a series of grunts and gestures had passed between the men.
+
+"It didn't take me that long to get here."
+
+"Camp almost one sun away."
+
+"Who is he?"  indicating the leader of the party.
+
+"Chief."
+
+"What's his name?"
+
+"Chief Willy.  He doesn't talk much English."
+
+"You do, though," answered Tad, glancing up at the expressionless
+face of his companion.
+
+"Me with Wild West show long, long time."
+
+"Is that so.  Maybe I have seen you.  Were you with the show that was
+in Chillicothe last summer? I saw the show then."
+
+"Me with um," answered the redskin.
+
+"Why, that's interesting," said the boy, now thoroughly interested
+and for the time so absorbed in questioning the Indian about his
+life with the show that he forgot his own uneasiness.
+
+By this time, darkness intense and impenetrable, at least to the
+eyes of the boy, had settled down about them.  Yet it seemed to make
+no difference to the Indians, who kept their ponies at a steady
+jog-trot, picking their way unerringly, avoiding rocks and
+treacherous holes as if it were broad daylight.
+
+Tad did not try to guide Pink-eye any more, but let him follow the
+others, and when he got a little out of his course, the pony next to
+him would crowd Pink-eye over where he belonged.
+
+"Seems to me we are a long time getting there," announced the boy
+finally.  He was beginning to grow uneasy again.
+
+"Come camp bymeby," informed the young Indian.  "Chief, him know
+way."
+
+Tad had his doubts about that, but he thought it best not to tell
+them of his misgivings until he was certain.  Perhaps they were
+honest Indians after all and were only seeking to do him a favor.
+
+The lad was getting tired and hungry, having had nothing more than a
+mutton sandwich since early morning.  He judged it must be getting
+close to midnight now.
+
+As if interpreting his thoughts, the young Indian rode up close
+beside him, at the same time thrusting something into Tad's
+hand.  "What is it?"  asked the boy.  "Eat.  Good meat," answered the
+Indian.  The boy nibbled at it gingerly.  It was meat of some kind,
+and it was tough.  But most anything in the nature of food was
+acceptable to him then, so he helped himself more liberally and
+enjoyed his lunch.  The dried meat was excellent, even if it was
+tough to chew.
+
+After a little they came to a level stretch, and now the Indians put
+their ponies to a lively gallop, which Pink-eye, being surrounded by
+the other ponies, was forced to fall into to keep from getting run
+down by the riders behind him.  Faster and faster they forced their
+mounts forward, uttering sharp little exclamations to urge them on,
+accompanied by sundry grunts and unintelligible mutterings.
+
+That they all meant something, the boy felt sure.  But it meant
+nothing to him so far as understanding was concerned.
+
+After hours had passed the lad found all at once that the gray dawn
+was upon them and it was not many minutes before the stolid faces of
+his companions stood out clear and distinct.
+
+Tad jerked Pink-eye up sharply.
+
+"See here, where are you taking me to?"  he demanded.
+
+"Camp," grunted the young Indian.
+
+"You're not.  You are taking me away.  I shall not go another step
+with you."
+
+Summoning all his courage the boy turned his pony about and started
+to move away.  A quick, grunted order from the chief and one of the
+braves caught Pink-eye's bridle, jerking him back to his previous
+position.
+
+"Take your hands off, please," demanded Tad quietly.  "You've no
+right to do that.  For some reason you have deceived me and taken me
+far from home.  I'll----"
+
+"No make chief angry," urged the young brave.
+
+"I tell you I'm going.  You let me alone," persisted the boy, making
+another effort to ride from them.
+
+This time the chief whirled his own pony across Tad's path.  From
+under his blanket, he permitted the boy to see the muzzle of a
+revolver that was protruding there.
+
+"Ugh!"  grunted the chief.  "Him say you must go.  Him shoot!  No
+hurt paleface boy."
+
+Tad hesitated.  His inclination was to put spurs to Pink-eye and dash
+away.  He did not fear the chief's revolver so much for himself.  He
+did fear, however, that the chief might shoot his pony from under
+him, which would leave the boy in a worse predicament still.
+
+"All right, I'll go with you.  But I warn you the first white man I
+see, I'll tell him you are taking me away."
+
+"Ugh!"
+
+"If he shoots, I don't see how he can help hurting me," added the
+lad to himself, with a mirthless grin.
+
+"Bymeby, boy go back with paleface friends."
+
+"That's what I expect to do.  But if Luke Larue finds out you have
+taken me away against my will, he'll do some shooting before the big
+chief gets a chance to.  Where are you taking me to?"
+
+Shrugs of the shoulders was all the answer that Tad could get, so he
+decided to make the best of his position and escape at the first
+opportunity.  Keeping his eyes on the alert he followed along without
+further protest.
+
+Once, as they ascended a sudden rise of ground on the gallop, he
+discovered two horsemen on beyond them about half a mile as near as
+he was able to judge.
+
+Evidently the Indians saw them at the same instant, for they changed
+their course and went off into the rougher lands to the left.
+
+"Had they been nearer, I'd have taken a chance and yelled for help,"
+thought the boy.  "I will do it the next time I get a chance even if
+they are a long way off.  I can make somebody hear."
+
+But they gave him no chance to put his plan into practice.  Not a
+human being did Tad see during the rest of the journey, nor even a
+sign of human habitation.  Evidently they were traveling through a
+very rough, uninhabited part of the state.  If this were the case, he
+reasoned that they must be working northward.  This surmise was
+verified with the rising of the sun.
+
+Chief Willy gave the lad a quick glance and grunted when he saw his
+captive looking up at the sun.
+
+The chief then uttered a series of grunts, which the younger Indian
+interpreted as meaning that they would soon reach their destination.
+
+Tad was somewhat relieved to hear this, for he ached all over from
+his many hours in the saddle.  Then again he was sleepy and hungry as
+well.  They offered him no more food, so he concluded that they had
+none.  In any event he did not propose to ask for more, even if he
+were starving.
+
+Along about nine o'clock in the morning they came suddenly upon a
+broad river.  Without hesitation the braves plunged their ponies in,
+with Tad and Pink-eye following.  There was nothing else they could
+do tinder the circumstances.
+
+The water was not deep, however, the chief having chosen a spot for
+fording where the stream was not above the ponies' hips.  Tad lifted
+up his legs to keep them dry, but the Indians stolidly held their
+feet in their stirrups, appearing not to notice that they were
+getting wet.
+
+"What river is this!"  he asked, the first question he had ventured
+in a long time.
+
+The young brave referred the question to his chief, to which the
+usual grunt of response was made.
+
+"Him say don't know."
+
+Tad grinned.
+
+"For men who can find their way in the dark as well as these fellows
+can, they know less than I would naturally suppose," smiled the boy.
+
+The chief saw the smile and scowled.
+
+Tad made careful note of the fording place in case he should have
+occasion to cross the river on his own hook later on.  He examined
+the hills on both sides of the stream at the same time.
+
+Leaving the river behind them, they began a gradual ascent.  Now they
+did not seem to be in so great a hurry as before, and allowed their
+ponies to walk for a mile or so, after which they took up their easy
+jog again.  Shortly after that the boy descried several wreaths of
+smoke curling up into the morning sky.  The Indians were heading
+straight toward the smoke.
+
+At first Tad had felt a thrill of hope.  But a few moments later when
+a number of tepees grew slowly out of the landscape he saw that they
+were approaching what appeared to be an Indian village, and his
+heart sank within him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+IN THE HOME OF THE BLACKFEET
+
+
+Their coming was greeted by the loud barking of dogs, while from the
+tepees appeared as if by magic, women and children, together with
+innumerable braves and boys.
+
+They fairly swarmed out into the open space in front of the camp,
+setting up a shout as they recognized the newcomers.
+
+"They seem to be mighty glad to see us," growled Tad.  "Wish I could
+say as much for them."
+
+The ponies, seeming to share the general good feeling, pricked up
+their ears and dashed into the camp at a gallop, Pink-eye with the
+rest.  Almost before the little animals had come to a stop, the
+braves threw themselves from their saddles and darted into their
+tepees.
+
+"They seem to have left me out of it, so I guess I'll go back,"
+decided the lad half humorously.  But he was given no chance to slip
+away.  The young brave who had accompanied his chief, came running
+out and grasped the pony by its bridle.
+
+"Boy, git off," he said.
+
+Tad threw a leg over the pommel and landed on the ground.  He could
+hardly stand, so stiff were his legs.
+
+The young brave took him into one of the tepees, held the flap aside
+while Tad entered, then closed it.  The lad heard him moving
+away.  Tired out and dispirited, Tad Butler threw himself down on the
+grass and, in spite of his troubles, was asleep in a few moments.
+
+A dog barking in front of his tepee awakened him.  The boy pulled the
+flap aside ever so little and peered out.  He was surprised to find
+that the sun was setting.  He had been asleep practically all day
+long.
+
+Scrambling to his feet hastily the lad stepped outside.  He did not
+know whether he would be permitted to roam about, but he proposed to
+try.  The answer came quickly.  A brave whom he had not seen before
+suddenly appeared and, with a grunt of disapproval, grabbed Tad by
+the arms, fairly flinging him into the tepee.
+
+The lad's cheeks burned with indignation.
+
+"I'll teach them to insult me like that," he fumed, shaking his fist
+toward the opening.  "I'll look out anyway."
+
+He did so, prudently drawing the flap close whenever he heard anyone
+approaching.  Once as he peered out, a disreputable looking cur
+snapped at his legs.  First, the lad coaxed the animal, then tried to
+drive him away, finally administering a kick that sent the dog away
+howling.
+
+"I've got revenge on one of the gang anyway," he laughed.  "But it's
+not much of a revenge, at that.  I wonder if they are going to bring
+me anything to eat.  I----"
+
+The flap was suddenly jerked aside and the face of the chief
+appeared in the opening.
+
+"How," greeted Chief Willy.
+
+"How," answered Tad rather sullenly.  "What do you want?"
+
+"Paleface want eat?"
+
+"You ought not to have to ask that question.  So you can talk
+English just a little bit?  Chief, when are you going to let me go
+away from here?  It will only get you into trouble if you try to
+keep me.  They are sure to find me."
+
+"No find," grunted the chief.
+
+"Oh, yes they will."
+
+"Ugh," answered the redskin, hastily withdrawing.  Then followed
+another long period when Tad was left alone with his thoughts.
+
+"I wonder two things," thought the lad aloud.  "I wonder what he
+brought me here for and I wonder when I am going to get something to
+eat?  Captured by the Indians, eh?  That's more than the rest of the
+Pony Riders can say."
+
+Yet there was a more serious side to it all.  They had taken him
+prisoner for some purpose, but what that purpose was he could not
+imagine.
+
+His thoughts were interrupted by some one silently entering the
+tent.  Glancing up, Tad saw a slender, rather pretty Indian girl
+standing there looking down at him.
+
+The boy scrambled to his feet and took off his sombrero.
+
+"How," he said.
+
+The girl answered in kind.  Then she placed on the ground before him
+a bowl of soup and a plate of steaming stew.  Tad sniffed the odor
+of mutton, which now was so familiar to him, wondering at the same
+time, if it had come from Mr. Simms's flock.
+
+"Thank you," he said.  "If you will excuse me I will eat.  I'm awfully
+hungry."
+
+She nodded and Tad went at the meal almost ravenously.  The Indian
+girl squatted down on the ground and watched him.
+
+"What's your name?"  he asked between mouthfuls.
+
+"Jinny."
+
+"That's a funny name.  Doesn't sound like an Indian name.  Is it?"
+
+"Me not know.  Young buck heap big eat," she added.
+
+"Yes.  Oh, yes, I have something of an appetite," laughed Tad.
+"Jinny, what are they going to do with me, do you know?"
+
+The girl shook her head with emphasis.
+
+"What tribe is this?"
+
+"Blackfeet.  Other paleface boy here too."
+
+Tad set down his plate and surveyed her inquiringly.
+
+"Say that again, please.  You say there's another paleface boy here
+in this village?"
+
+Jinny nodded vigorously.
+
+"Who is he?"
+
+"Jinny not know."
+
+"When did he--how long has he been here?"
+
+"Sun-up."
+
+"This morning?"
+
+"Yes.  He there," pointing with a finger to the lower end of the
+village.
+
+Tad's curiosity was aroused.  He wondered if another besides himself
+had been made an unwilling guest by the Blackfeet wanderers.  If so,
+it must have been by another party.  A sudden thought occurred to
+him.  Tad was wearing a cheap ring on the little finger of his left
+hand.  He had picked up the ring on the plains in Texas.  Hastily
+stripping it from his finger he handed it to the girl.
+
+"Want it, Jinny?"
+
+She did.  Her eyes sparkled as she slipped it on her own finger and
+held it off to view the effect.
+
+"Thank," she said, turning her glowing eyes on Tad.
+
+"You're welcome.  But now I want you to do something for me.  I'll
+send you another, a big, big ring when I get home, if you will help
+me to get away from here."
+
+Jinny eyed him steadily for a few seconds, then shook her head.
+
+"I'll send you beads, too, Jinny--beads like the paleface ladies
+wear."
+
+"You send Jinny white woman beads!"
+
+"I promise you."
+
+"Me help um little paleface buck.  Me help um two," she added,
+holding up two fingers.  Without another word, she slipped from the
+tepee as silently as she had come.
+
+Tad pondered over this last remark for some time.  He did not
+understand what Jinny had meant.
+
+"So I'm a buck, am I?  That's one thing I haven't been called before
+since I have been out on the range.  She said she would help me to
+get away.  I wonder when she is going to do it."
+
+Though Tad waited patiently until late in the evening, he saw no
+more of the little Indian girl.  Shortly after dark several
+camp-fires were lighted, the cheerful blazes lighting up the street
+or common in front of the row of tepees in which his own was
+located.
+
+Children played about the fires, the dogs were disputing over the
+bones tossed to them after the evening meal, while the squaws and
+braves, gathered in separate groups, were squatting about,
+gesticulating and talking.
+
+To Tad Butler the scene held a real interest.  He had never before
+seen an Indian camp, and least of all been a prisoner in it.  He lay
+down on his stomach, with elbows on the ground, chin in hands, and
+gazed out over the village curiously.
+
+"I wonder who that other boy is," he mused.  "I presume he is a
+prisoner, too.  Hello, there's my guard."
+
+An Indian, with knees clasped in his arms, was rocking to and fro a
+little distance from the tepee.  Though he was not looking toward
+Tad's tent, the lad felt sure the fellow had been placed there to
+watch him.  He understood then why Jinny had not been to the tepee
+since bringing his meal.
+
+Finally the camp quieted down, the fires smouldered and the dogs
+stretched out before them for sleep.  Tad Butler's tired head drooped
+lower and lower, his elbows settling until his arms were down and he
+was lying prone upon the ground, sound asleep.
+
+After a time the Indian whom the lad had seen sitting out in front
+rose, and, stepping softly to the tepee, looked in.  He gave a grunt
+of satisfaction, threw himself down right at the entrance and was
+snoring heavily half a minute later.
+
+The camp slumbered on undisturbed until aroused by the ill-natured
+curs at daybreak next morning.
+
+Tad was awakened by one of them barking at his door and snapping at
+him.  Suddenly pulling his flap open, he hurled his sombrero in the
+dog's face, frightening it, so that it slunk away with a howl.  Tad,
+laughing heartily, reached out and recovered the hat.
+
+"Hey, there, I want to wash," he called to a brave who was
+passing.  The redskin paid no attention to him.  "All right, if you
+won't, then I'll go without you."
+
+He stepped boldly from the tepee and headed for a small stream at
+the left of the village, which he had observed on the previous
+day.  He had not gone far before he observed that he was being
+followed at a distance.  He did not let it appear that he noticed
+this, and after making his toilet strolled back to his tepee.
+
+Tad shrewdly reasoned that if he could induce them to relax their
+vigilance over him, he would have a better chance to make his
+escape, and he determined that he would act as if he had no
+intention of leaving.
+
+He made an effort to find out where they had tethered Pink-eye, but
+there were no signs of ponies anywhere.  He knew, however, that they
+could not be far away, for the Indian always keeps in touch with his
+mount.
+
+Jinny came with his breakfast at sunrise.  He noticed the first thing
+that she was not wearing the ring he had given her, but before he
+had an opportunity to comment on it, the girl drew the ring from a
+pocket, placed it on a finger and fell to admiring it.
+
+Tad laughed and turned to his breakfast.  This consisted of a big
+bowl of corn meal, steaming hot, with some cold mutton on the
+side.  Frankly, he admitted to himself that he had eaten far worse
+meals in more civilized communities.
+
+"Good morning, Jinny.  I was so much interested in the breakfast that
+I forgot to say it when you first came in.  This is very good.  Did
+you cook it?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I thought so.  You beat Old Hicks's cooking already.  Hicks is the
+cook out on Mr. Simms's sheep ranch, where I come from.  Understand?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I thought you were going to help me to escape," said Tad, suddenly
+leaning toward her.  "Aren't you?"
+
+Jinny made a sign for silence, and then went to the opening and
+peered out cautiously.  She returned, and, placing her mouth close to
+the lad's ear, whispered, "Bymeby."
+
+Tad could scarcely repress a laugh at the tragic tone in which she
+said it.  Yet his face was perfectly sober and he continued with his
+breakfast without further comment.
+
+Jinny gathered up the dishes and left him without a word.  After a
+time the boy pulled back the flaps and sat down to watch the life of
+the camp by daylight.  The squaws were busily at work, carrying wood
+and engaged in other occupations, though few of the braves were to
+be seen.  The boy concluded that they must be sleeping.
+
+The hours dragged along slowly.  It seemed an age until night came
+once more.  Somehow he felt that the night would bring him good
+luck.  A warning glance from the Indian girl when she brought his
+supper told him that conversation were better not indulged in, so he
+said nothing to her.  She left the dishes with him and went away at
+once.
+
+That night Tad sat up until late, hoping vainly for word from Jinny,
+but none came.  When the guard approached the tent along toward
+midnight, Tad feigned sleep, and so well did he feign it that he
+really went to sleep.
+
+He thought he had been napping but a few moments, when a peculiar
+scratching sound on the back of his tepee brought him up sitting,
+every nerve on the alert.
+
+Tad peered out through the flap.  The guard was asleep.  He crept back
+to the other side of the tepee and scratched on the tepee wall with
+his finger-nail.
+
+"S-h-h."
+
+The warning was accompanied by a slight ripping sound, and he knew
+the wall was being slit with a knife.
+
+"Paleface buck, come with Jinny," whispered a voice in his ear.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+
+Grasping the lad by the arm, the Indian girl led him cautiously
+straight back from the tepee, guiding him in the darkness
+unerringly, around all obstructions.
+
+After proceeding in a straight line for some distance, she turned
+and made a wide detour around the camp.  He could tell this by the
+light of the smouldering camp-fires.  He dared ask no questions until
+Jinny had given him permission to speak, which was not until they
+had left the camp some distance behind them.  She paused suddenly and
+faced him.
+
+"You send Jinny ring?"
+
+"Yes, I promised you."
+
+"You send beads like white women wear?"
+
+"Of course I will."
+
+"Then come.  Ponies here.  Boy here."
+
+Not understanding her latter words, Tad followed obediently, passing
+around a point of rocks.
+
+"Here ponies.  Here boy."
+
+"O Tad, is that you?"  exclaimed a tremulous voice.
+
+"Who's that?"  demanded Tad sharply.
+
+"It's Phil.  O Tad!"
+
+"Phil!" cried the lad, grasping the boy about the neck and hugging
+him delightedly.  "They got you too, did they?  Oh, I'm so glad I've
+found you!  You must tell me all about it, but not now.  We've got to
+get away from here.  Thank you, Jinny.  I shall never forget this.  I--"
+
+"You send Jinny beads?"  demanded the girl suggestively.
+
+"Indeed you shall have the finest set of beads that an Indian girl
+ever wore, even if it takes all my money to buy them.  Now which way
+shall we go?"
+
+"Go river."
+
+"Where is it?"
+
+She took his hand in the darkness and pointed with it in the
+direction where the river lay.
+
+"Yes, yes, I know.  Then where?"
+
+"Find white man.  He tell um.  Jinny not know."
+
+She pressed something into his hand.
+
+"What's this?"  asked Tad sharply.
+
+"Knife.  Mebbyso brave catch um paleface buck."
+
+Tad caught the significance of her words instantly.
+
+"No, Jinny, thank you very much.  I couldn't do that.  You keep the
+knife.  I shall not need it, but you shall have the beads just the
+same."
+
+"Ugh!  Go pony.  Go quick.  Braves him follow."  She pointed back toward
+the camp, and, grasping Tad by the arm, hurried him toward the
+ponies.
+
+"When?"
+
+"Come now," she insisted.
+
+Tad felt a sudden thrill as he heard a great commotion back in the
+camp.
+
+"We've got to hurry, Phil.  I guess they have discovered our
+escape.  You run, Jinny.  Run back.  Don't you let them know you helped
+us.  Say, what will the chief do if he finds it out?"  demanded the
+boy, pausing sharply.
+
+"Huh.  Jinny no afraid chief.  Jinny laugh in chief face.  Bye."
+
+She disappeared with surprising suddenness.
+
+"Quick, Phil!  Get on your pony and follow me.  Keep close to me."
+
+"I am on," answered the boy bravely.  "It's my pony, too."
+
+"And so is this one mine.  It's Pink-eye."
+
+"What's that noise!" asked Phil in a tremulous voice.
+
+"Hi-yi-yip-yah--yah-hi-yah!" rang out the Indian war cry, as the
+braves threw themselves on the bare backs of their ponies and tore
+from the village, going in all directions.
+
+Tad drove the spurs in viciously.
+
+"Quick!  Quick, Phil!  They're after us."
+
+"I'm coming."
+
+Both ponies sprang away in the darkness, the lads clinging to the
+saddles, none too sure of the path that lay before them, and riding
+desperately.
+
+Bang, bang, bang!
+
+Three rifle shots rang out in quick succession, and the boys
+imagined they could hear the bullets sing over their heads.
+
+"Hi-yi-yip--yah-hi-yah!"
+
+"They're gaining on us.  They're gaining, Phil.  Ride for your life!"
+
+The shrill yells of the Indians sounded much closer.  The boys
+believed that their enemies had picked up the trail.
+
+"We have got to do something, and do it quick.  We've got to outwit
+them," shouted Tad.
+
+"What--what"----
+
+"I'll tell you.  When we think they are getting too near, I'll pull
+over by you and take you on my pony.  We'll send the other one flying
+on while we turn off," decided Tad.
+
+The time for the change came a few moments later.  The Indians were
+gaining on them every second.  Now the "hi-yi-yip--yah-hi-yah"
+sounded as if it was being shrieked into their ears.
+
+Tad drove Pink-eye right against the other pony.
+
+"Jump!"  he commanded, and Phil landed on Pink-eye's back without
+mishap, while Tad, giving a vicious kick to the free pony, turned
+off to the left a little and drove his pony at a run.  They reached
+the river.  As the pony plunged in the boys slipped off on opposite
+sides of him, hanging to the saddle while the pony swam.
+
+"Hang on tightly.  Don't let go.  There is a strong current here."
+
+They could hear the savages racing up and down the river bank,
+shouting and shooting and searching vainly for the other pony.  Every
+minute Tad expected to hear them take to the river, but for some
+reason they did not do so.  After a chilling swim, the boys at last
+reached the other bank, and, shaking the water from their clothes as
+best they could, both mounted the one pony and struck off, guided by
+the stars alone.
+
+They continued on until daylight, having heard nothing more of the
+Indians.  Both boys were shivering with cold and exhausted for want
+of something to eat after their trying night.
+
+Tad learned from his companion that he had been taken by white men
+and turned over to the Indians for some purpose unknown to him.  Phil
+described his captor as a man with a scar on his temple and having a
+red beard.
+
+Shortly after sunrise they came upon a flock of sheep, and soon
+after they were at the house of a rancher, where the boys told their
+story.  The owner of the ranch knew Mr. Simms well, and besides
+providing Phil with a pony, sent one of his own men to pilot the
+boys home.
+
+They rode into the Simms camp about midnight, rousing the camp with
+their shouts.  And the jollification that followed the safe return of
+Phil and his rescuer did the hearts of both boys good.  There was no
+sleep in the Simms outfit that night.
+
+Tad and Phil were obliged to tell the story of their experiences
+over and over again, while the other boys listened in wide-eyed
+wonder.
+
+Mr. Simms was of the opinion that, having taken Phil, the Indians
+picked up Tad so that he might not report their being off the
+reservation.
+
+"At any rate we have got the man, thanks to your description," he
+added.
+
+"What, the man with the scar?"
+
+"Yes.  He is the cattle rancher whom Luke insisted was such a friend
+of his.  I took a long chance and had the sheriff arrest him
+to-day.  He is being held until you take a look to see if you can
+identify him.  I hope you will be able to."
+
+"Where is he?"  asked the lad.  "Tied up in the chuck wagon.  I'll have
+him brought over."
+
+"Hello, Bluff," greeted Tad, the instant he set eyes on the surly
+face of the prisoner.
+
+"Hello, kid.  Never saw me before, did you?"
+
+"I should say I had.  That's the man, Mr. Simms.  There can be no
+doubt about it."
+
+"And he is the fellow who caught and turned me over to the Indians,"
+added Philip, shrinking away from the bearded face.
+
+"Then I guess there is nothing more to be said," announced
+Mr. Simms, with a grim smile.  "This man has been doing a crooked
+business for years, all up and down the trail.  Of course he had
+accomplices, but we shall hardly get them.  Nobody suspected him.  The
+frequent thefts of stock and the killing of sheep was a mystery
+until you solved it, Master Tad.  I wish I knew how to express my
+appreciation of what you have done for us."
+
+"There is one favor you can do for me if you will, Mr. Simms."
+
+"It is already granted.  Name it."
+
+"I wish you would see that Jinny gets the beads I promised her and
+which I am going to buy as soon as I get where I can."
+
+"She shall have them," replied the rancher, "and a present from me,
+besides.  I'll send one of my men to the Blackfeet Agency especially
+to deliver your present and mine to the Indian girl."
+
+"Thank you."
+
+"To-morrow we shall have to go back to town with the sheriff and his
+prisoner.  I should like to have you accompany us if you will.  The
+prosecuting attorney can take your deposition and thus avoid the
+necessity of your having to wait for the trial.  You are free to
+continue on your trip then, if you desire."
+
+"Of course he will go with you," spoke up the Professor, who, up to
+that point, had been too deeply absorbed in the developments of the
+hour to offer any comment.  "All of us will accompany you.  Boys, you
+had better get your belongings together before we turn in, as I
+imagine Mr. Simms will want to make an early start in the morning.  I
+guess you are all pretty well satisfied with what you have seen of
+the old Custer trail."
+
+"Yes," shouted the boys.  "We've had a great time."
+
+"At least some of us have," smiled Tad.
+
+At Forsythe next day Tad Butler and young Philip Simms appeared
+against the prisoner.  As the result of their positive identification
+and further testimony, Bluff broke down.  He made a full confession,
+implicating others who had been concerned with him in various
+misdeeds along the trail, each of whom was eventually brought to
+justice and punished.
+
+Their presence being no longer necessary in Forsythe, that afternoon
+the Pony Rider Boys boarded a sleeping car, loudly cheered by a
+crowd of enthusiastic ranchers and villagers, who had gathered to
+see them off.  And there, with their four smiling faces framed in the
+Pullman windows, we shall take leave of the Pony Rider Boys.  They
+will next be heard from in another volume, entitled, "THE PONY RIDER
+BOYS IN THE OZARKS, or the Secret of Ruby Mountain," a stirring tale
+of adventure and daring deeds among the Missouri mountains, in which
+the lads pass through many perils.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pony Rider Boys in Montana, by 
+Frank Gee Patchin
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pony Rider Boys in Montana
+by Frank Gee Patchin
+(#3 in our series by Frank Gee Patchin)
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
+copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
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+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
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+Title: The Pony Rider Boys in Montana
+
+Author: Frank Gee Patchin
+
+Release Date: July, 2004  [EBook #6068]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on November 1, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN MONTANA ***
+
+
+
+
+** transcription by Kent Fielden
+
+THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN MONTANA
+
+BY FRANK GEE PATCHIN
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+   FITTING OUT FOR THE JOURNEY
+
+"Forsythe!"  announced the trainman in a loud voice.
+
+"That is where we get off, is it not!"  asked Tad Butler.
+
+"Yes, this is the place," answered Professor Zepplin.
+
+"I don't see any place," objected Stacy Brown, peering from the car
+window.  "Where is it?"
+
+"You'll see it in a minute," said Walter Perkins.
+
+"Chunky, we are too busy to bother answering all your silly
+questions.  Why don't you get a railroad guide?  Town's on the other
+side.  It's one of those one-sided towns.  Use your eyes more and your
+tongue less," added Ned Rector impatiently.
+
+With this injunction, Ned rose and began pulling his belongings from
+the rack over his head, which action was followed by the three other
+boys in the party.  Professor Zepplin had already risen and was
+walking toward the car door.
+
+The Northern Pacific train on which they were riding, came to a
+slow, noisy stop.  From it, alighted the four boys, sun-burned,
+clear-eyed and springy of step.  They were clad in the regulation
+suits of the cowboy, the faded garments giving evidence of long
+service on the open plains.
+
+Accompanying the lads was a tall, athletic looking man, his face
+deeply bronzed from exposure to wind, sun and storm, his iron gray
+beard standing out in strong contrast, giving to his sun burned
+features a ferocious appearance that was not at all in keeping with
+the man's real nature.
+
+A man dressed in a neat business suit, but wearing a broad brimmed
+sombrero stepped up to the boys without the least hesitation, the
+moment they reached the platform.
+
+"Are you the Pony Rider Boys?"  he asked smilingly.
+
+"We are, sir," replied Tad, lifting his hat courteously.
+
+"Glad to know you, young man.  I am Mr. Simms the banker here.  I was
+requested by banker Perkins of Chillicothe, Missouri, to meet you
+young gentlemen.  Funds for your use while here are deposited in my
+bank ready for your order.  Where is Professor--Professor----"
+
+"Zepplin?"
+
+"Yes, that's the name."  "This is he," Tad informed him, introducing
+the Professor.
+
+"If you and the young men will come up to the bank we will talk
+matters over.  I would ask you to my house, but my family is spending
+the summer at my ranch out near Gracy Butte."
+
+"It is just as well," said the Professor.  "We are not exactly up
+here on a social mission.  The boys are crowding all the time
+possible into their life during their vacation.  I presume they are
+anxious to get started again."
+
+Leaving their baggage at the railroad station, the party set off up
+the street with the banker, to make final arrangements for the
+journey to which they looked forward with keen anticipation.
+
+Readers of this series will remember how, in "THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN
+THE ROCKIES," the four lads set off on horseback to spend part of
+their summer vacation in the mountains.  The readers will remember
+too, the many thrilling experiences that the boys passed through on
+that eventful trip, between hunting big game in hand to hand
+conflict, fighting a real battle with the bad men of the mountains,
+and how in the end they discovered and took possession of the Lost
+Claim.
+
+Readers will also remember how the lads next joined in a cattle
+drive, and their adventures and exciting trip across the plains in
+"THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN TEXAS."
+
+It will be recalled that on this expedition they became cowboys in
+reality, living the life of the cattle men, sharing their duties and
+their hardships, participating in wild, daring night rides, facing
+appalling storms, battling with swollen torrents, bravely facing
+many perils, and tow eventually Tad Butler and his companions solved
+the Veiled Riddle of the Plains, thus bringing great happiness to
+others as well as keen satisfaction to themselves.
+
+After having completed their eventful trip in Texas, the boys had
+expressed a desire to next make a trip of exploration to the north
+country.  Arrangements had therefore been made by the father of
+Walter Perkins for a journey into the wilder parts of Montana.
+
+None of the details, however, had been decided upon.  The boys felt
+that they were now experienced enough to be allowed to make their
+own arrangements, always, of course, with the approval of their
+companion, Professor Zepplin.
+
+As a result they arrived in Forsythe one hot July day, about
+noon.  Their ponies had been shipped home, the little fellows having
+become a bit too docile to suit the tastes of the lads, who had been
+riding bucking bronchos during their trip on a cattle drive in
+southern Texas.  They knew they would have little difficulty in
+finding animals to suit them up in the grazing country.
+
+"And now what are your plans, young men?"  smiled the hanker, after
+all had taken seats in his office in the rear of the bank.
+
+The lads waited for Professor Zepplin to speak.
+
+"Tell Mr. Simms what you have in mind," he urged.
+
+"We had thought of going over the old Custer trail," spoke up
+Walter.
+
+"Where, down in the Black Hills?"
+
+"No, not so far down as that.  We should like to go over the trail he
+followed and visit the scene of his last battle and get a little
+mountain trip as well----"
+
+"Are there any mountains around here?"  asked Stacy innocently.
+
+Mr. Simms laughed, in which he was joined by the boys.
+
+"My lad, there's not much else up here.  You'll find all the
+mountains you want and some that you will not want----"
+
+"Any Indians?"  asked Chunky.
+
+"State's full of them."
+
+"Good Indians, of course," nodded the Professor.
+
+"Well, you know the old saying that 'the only good Indian is a dead
+Indian.' They're good when they have to be.  We have very little
+trouble with the Crows, but sometimes the Black feet and Flat Heads
+get off their reservations and cause us a little trouble."
+
+Chunky was listening with wide open eyes.  "I--I don't like Indians,"
+he stammered.  "None of us are overfond of them, I guess.  Since you
+arrived I have been thinking of something that may interest you."
+
+"We are in your hands," smiled the Professor.
+
+"As I said a short time ago, I have a ranch out near Gracy Butte."
+
+"Cattle?"  asked Tad, with quickened interest.
+
+"No, sheep.  I have another up on the Missouri River.  I am getting
+in five thousand more sheep that some of my men are bringing in on a
+drive.  They should be along very shortly now."
+
+"You deal in large numbers in this country," smiled the Professor.
+
+"Yes, we have to if we expect to make a profit.  I intend to send
+these five thousand new sheep to the Missouri River ranch.  It will
+be a long, hard drive and we shall need some extra men.  How would
+you boys like to join the outfit and go through with them?  I promise
+you you will get all the outdoor life you want."
+
+"Well, I don't know," said Tad doubtfully.  "I don't just like
+sheep."
+
+Mr. Simms laughed.
+
+"You've been with a cattle outfit.  I can see that.  You have learned
+to hate sheep and for no reason--no good reason whatever.  Sheep are
+a real pleasure to manage.  Besides, they are wholesome, intelligent
+little animals.  The cattle men resent their being on the range for
+the reason that the sheep crop down the grass so close that the
+cattle are unable to get enough.  They try to drive us off."
+
+"By what right?"  interrupted the Professor.
+
+"Right of strength, that's all.  On free grass we have as much right
+as the cattle men.  Have you your own ponies?"
+
+"No; we expect to purchase some here.  Can you recommend us to a
+ranch where we can fit ourselves out?  We have our saddles and camp
+outfit, of course," said Tad.
+
+"Yes; I'll take you out to my brother's ranch just outside the
+town.  He has some lively little bronchos there.  He won't ask you any
+fancy price, either.  If you buy, why, you can give him an order on
+my bank and I will settle with him.  You know you have funds here for
+your requirements.  What do you say to the sheep idea?"
+
+"Will you let us think it over, Mr. Simms!"  asked Walter.
+
+"Why, certainly.  You will have plenty of time to visit the Rosebud
+Mountains as well.  I have arranged for a guide.  You will find him at
+the edge of the foothills where he lives.  You can't miss him.  When
+do you plan to start?"  asked the banker.
+
+"We thought we should like to get away today," replied Tad.
+
+"I see you are not losing any time, young men.  We may be able to fix
+you up so you can start this afternoon.  You will want to camp out, I
+imagine, and not make the journey in one day."
+
+"Oh, yes, we are used to that," interjected Ned.  "We have slept out
+of doors so long now that we should not feel comfortable in a real
+bed."
+
+"I understand.  I have been a cowboy as well as sheepman, and have
+spent many weeks on the open range.  It was different then," he added
+reminiscently.  "We will drive out to my brother's ranch now, if you
+are ready."
+
+The boys rose instantly.  They were looking forward to having their
+new ponies, with keen anticipation.
+
+After a short drive they reached the ranch, and a herd of half wild
+ponies was driven into a corral where the lads might look them over
+and make their choice.
+
+"I think that little bay there, with the pink eyes "will suit me,"
+decided Tad.  "Is he saddle broken?"
+
+"After a fashion, yes.  He's been out a few times.  But he's full of
+ginger," announced the cowboy who was showing the horses to them.
+
+"That's what I want.  Don't like to have to use the spur to keep my
+mount from going to sleep," laughed the boy.
+
+"You won't need the irons to keep this pony awake or yerself
+either."
+
+"You may give me the most gentle beast on the premises," spoke up
+the Professor.  "I have had quite enough of wild horses and their
+pranks," a speech at which the boys all laughed heartily.
+
+"Me too," agreed Chunky.
+
+"You'll take what you get.  You couldn't stay on any kind of horse
+for long at a time.  Why, you'd fall off one of those wooden horses
+that they have in harness shops," announced Ned Rector witheringly.
+
+"I can ride as well as you can," retorted the fat boy, looking his
+tormentor straight in the eyes.
+
+"Chunky means business when he looks at you that way," laughed
+Walter.  "Better keep away from him, Ned."
+
+"Think I'll take the pink-eyed one," decided Tad.  "Pink-eye.  That
+will be a good name for him.  Got a rope?"
+
+"Yes, kin you rope him?"
+
+"I'll try if you will stir them up a bit," answered the
+freckle-faced boy.
+
+"You might as well pick out our ponies, too," observed the
+Professor.  "You are the only one of our party who is a competent
+judge of horse flesh."
+
+Tad nodded.  His rope was held loosely in his hand, the broad loop
+lying on the ground a few feet behind him, while the cowboy began
+milling the biting, kicking animals about the corral.
+
+Now Pink-eye's head was raised above the back of his fellows so that
+Tad got a good roping sight.  The lariat began curving in the air,
+then its great loop opened, shot out and dropped neatly over the
+head of the pink-eyed pony.  Tad drew it taut before it settled to
+the animal's shoulder, at the same time throwing his full weight on
+the rawhide.
+
+He would have been equally successful in trying to hold a steam
+engine.  Before the lad had time to swing the line and throw the pony
+from its feet, the muscular little animal had leaped to one side.
+
+The sudden jerk hurled the boy through the air.
+
+"Look out!"  warned the cowboy.
+
+His warning came too late.
+
+Tad was thrown with great force full against the heels of another
+broncho.
+
+"He'll be killed!"  cried Professor Zepplin.
+
+Up went the pony's hind feet and with them Tad Butler.  The pony came
+down as quickly as it had gone up, but Tap kept on going.  He had
+been near the wire corral when he was jerked against the animal's
+feet.
+
+The pony kicked a clean goal and Tad was projected over the wire
+fence, landing in a heap several feet outside the corral.
+
+The lad was on his feet almost instantly.  When they saw that be had
+not been seriously injured the boys set up a defiant yell.
+
+"Hurt you any?"  grinned the cowboy.
+
+"Only my pride," answered Tad, with a sheepish smile.  "I never had
+that happen to me before."
+
+"Other ponies got in your way so you couldn't throw your rope down
+on the pink-eyed one and trip him.  I'll get him out for you."
+
+"You will do nothing of the sort.  I can rope my own stock."
+
+After having obtained another lariat, Tad, not deeming it wise to
+attempt to try to pick up the rope that the animal was dragging
+about the corral, once more took his station, while the cowman began
+milling them around the enclosure by sundry shouts and prods.
+
+There was much kicking and squealing.
+
+"Now cut him out!" shouted Tad.
+
+The cowboy did so.  Pink-eye was beating a tattoo in the air with
+his heels.  He was occupying a little open space all by himself at
+that moment.
+
+The rope again curled through the air.  Tad gave it a quick
+undulating motion after feeling the pull on the pony's neck, and the
+next moment the little animal fell heavily to his side.
+
+"Woof!"  said the pony.
+
+"Come out of here!"  commanded the lad, jerking the animal to its
+feet and starting for the exit.
+
+The pink-eyed broncho followed its new master out as if he had been
+doing so every day for a long time.
+
+Tad picked out a spotted roan for Stacy Brown, to which he gave the
+appropriate name of "Painted-squaw".  Bad-eye, was considered an
+appropriate name for Ned Rector's broncho, while Walter drew a
+dapple gray which he decided to call Buster.
+
+After choosing a well broken animal for the Professor, and picking
+out a suitable pack horse, the boys announced that they were ready
+for the start.  An hour or so was spent in getting provisions enough
+to last them for a few days, all of which, together with their camp
+equipment, was strapped to the backs of the ponies.
+
+It was now three o'clock in the afternoon.  Ahead of them was a
+thirty mile journey over an unknown trail.
+
+"I think we had better have a guide to take us out to the foothills
+until we shall have found our permanent guide," said the Professor.
+
+"No, please don't," urged Tad.
+
+"We are plainsmen enough now to he able to find our own way," added
+Ned.  "It's a clear trail.  We can see the Rosebud Range from here.
+That's it over there, isn't it, Mr. Simms?"
+
+"Yes," replied the banker.  "All you will have to do will be to get
+your direction by your compass before you start, and hold to it.  You
+will not be able to see the mountains all the time, as the country
+is rolling and there are numerous buttes between here and there."
+
+"Any Indians?"  asked Stacy apprehensively.
+
+"You may see some, but they will not bother you," laughed the
+banker.  "I shall hope to have you all spend next Sunday with us at
+my ranch; then we can discuss our plans for your joining my outfit."
+
+"How far is it from where we are bound?"  asked the Professor.
+
+"Not more than twenty miles.  Just a few hours' ride."
+
+Filled with joyful anticipations the little party set out, headed
+for the mountain ranges that lay low in the southwest, some thirty
+miles distant.  Contrary to their usual practice, they had taken no
+cook with them, having decided to rely wholly on their own resources
+for a time at least, which they felt themselves safe in doing after
+their many experiences thus far on their summer vacation.
+
+The little western village was soon left behind them.  Turning in
+their saddles, they found that it had sunk out of sight.  They could
+not tell behind which of the endless succession of high and low
+buttes the town was nestling.  Tad consulted his compass, after which
+the lads faced the southwest and pressed cheerfully on.
+
+The Pony Rider Boys were fairly started now on what was to prove the
+most exciting and eventful journey of their lives.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+   YAWNS PROVE DISASTROUS
+
+"Yah-h-h hum."  Stacy Brown yawned loudly.  "Yah-hum," breathed
+Walter Perkins, half rousing himself from his nap.
+
+"Ho-ho-hum," added the deep bass voice of Professor Zepplin.
+
+"Yah--see here, stop that!"  commanded Ned Rector, suddenly raising
+himself to a sitting posture.  "You've done nothing but stretch your
+mouth in yawns ever since we reached Montana.  See, you've waked up
+the whole camp."
+
+"Ho-hum," said Chunky.
+
+"Say, what ails you?"  demanded Tad, putting down by supreme force of
+will, his own inclination to yawn.
+
+"I--I guess--yah--it must be the--the mountain air.  Yah-hum," yawned
+the fat boy.
+
+Pink-eye coughed off among the cedars.
+
+"What means all this disturbance, young gentlemen?"  demanded the
+Professor.
+
+"It's Chunky and the bronchos yawning," Ned Rector informed him.
+
+"So did you," observed Stacy Brown.
+
+"Did what?"
+
+"Yawned.  See, see!  Your mouth's open now.  You're going to yawn this
+very second You----"
+
+His taunts were lost in the shouts of the Pony Riders.  Ned Rector's
+face was set determinedly, a vacant expression having taken full
+possession of his eyes.
+
+"He is going to yawn," announced Walter solemnly.  "Stake down the
+camp."
+
+In spite of his determination not to yield to the impulse of the
+moment, Ned's mouth slowly opened to its extreme capacity,
+accompanied by a deep intake of breath.
+
+"Y-a-h-h-h-hum!"  he exploded.
+
+"Got you that time.  He--he----" Walter's words died away in a
+long-drawn, gaping yawn.
+
+Ned waited to hear no more.  With a yell he projected himself at the
+fat boy.  Stacy, however, observing the move, had quickly rolled to
+one side.  Ned struck the ground heavily.
+
+Stacy was rolling over and over now as if his very life depended
+upon getting away.  He could not spare the time to get up and run, so
+he continued to roll over and over, making no mean progress at that.
+
+"Go it, Chunky!"  shouted Walter in high glee.
+
+The scene, dimly lighted by the smouldering camp-fire, was so
+ludicrous as to send the boys into shouts of laughter.  All were
+thoroughly awake now.  They had made camp at sunset on the banks of
+the East Fork, of what was known as Fennell's Creek, a broad, deep
+stream which, joining its companion fork some ten miles further
+down, flowed into the clear waters of the Yellowstone.  Here they had
+cooked their supper after many attempts, made with varying degrees
+of success and much laughter.  Later they had rolled themselves into
+their blankets and gone to sleep.
+
+They had been awakened by Stacy Brown's yawns.  In a moment each had
+taken his turn at yawning, but all took the interruption
+good-naturedly, save Ned Rector.  By this time he had grown very much
+excited.  No sooner would he pounce upon the spot where Stacy
+appeared to be, than the fat boy by a few swift rolls would propel
+himself well beyond the reach of his irate companion.
+
+"It'll be the worse for you when I do get you," cried Ned.
+
+At that moment Ned tripped over a limb, and, plunging headlong,
+measured his length on the ground.
+
+The sympathy of the camp was with the rolling Chunky.
+
+"Get a net," shouted Walter.
+
+"No, rope him, Ned.  That's the only way you ever will catch him,"
+jeered Tad.
+
+Both boys were dancing about their companions, shivering in their
+pajamas and uttering shouts of glee.
+
+"He's a regular high roller," said Tad.
+
+"No, not a high roller," answered Walter.
+
+"Here, here!"  admonished the Professor.  "Stop this nonsense.  I
+want to go to sleep.  I don't mind you young gentlemen enjoying
+yourselves, but midnight is rather late for such pranks, it strikes
+me.  Into your blankets, every one of you."
+
+It was doubtful that the boys even heard his voice.  If they did,
+they failed entirely to catch the meaning of his words, so absorbed
+were they in the mad scramble of Ned Rector and Stacy Brown.
+
+"Roll, Chunky, roll!"  urged Walter, jumping up and down in his bare
+feet.
+
+"Good thing he's fat.  If he weren't so round he could never do it,"
+mocked Tad.  "I'll bet he was a fast creeper when be was a baby."
+
+The ponies, disturbed by the noise and excitement, had scrambled to
+their feet and were moving about restlessly in the bushes where they
+were tethered.
+
+"Master Stacy, you will get up at once!"  commanded the Professor
+sternly.
+
+"I can't," wailed the fat boy.
+
+"Then I'll help you," decided the Professor firmly, striding toward
+the spot where he had last heard the lad's voice.
+
+"Look out for the river!"  warned Tad, as the thought of what was
+below the boy suddenly occurred to him.
+
+"Help, help!  I'm rolling in," cried Stacy.
+
+"There he goes, down the bank!  Grab him!"  shouted Walter.
+
+"Where?"  demanded Ned, not fully grasping the import of the warning.
+
+"There, there!  Don't you see him?  Right in front of you.  He's going
+to fall into the river!"
+
+Stacy had forgotten that they were encamped on the east shore of the
+fork and that the broad stream was flowing rapidly along just below
+him.  The banks at that point were high and precipitous, the water
+almost icy cold, being fresh from the clear mountain streams a few
+miles above.  In spots it was deep and treacherous.
+
+Frantically grasping at weeds and slender sprouts, as he rolled down
+the almost perpendicular bluff, Stacy yelled lustily for help.  From
+the soft, sandy soil the weeds came away in his hands, without in
+the slightest degree checking his progress.
+
+Tad realized the danger perhaps more fully than did the others.  In
+the darkness the lad might slip into one of the treacherous river
+pockets and drown before they could reach him.
+
+Grasping his rope which lay beside his cot.  Tad sprang to the top of
+the bluff, swinging the loop of his lariat above his head as he ran.
+
+He could faintly make out the figure of his companion rolling down
+the steep bank.
+
+"Hold up your hand so I can drop the rope over you," shouted Tad, at
+the same time making a skillful cast.
+
+His aim was true.  The rawhide reached the mark.  Chunky, however,
+feeling it slap him smartly on the cheek, brushed the rope aside in
+his excitement, not realizing what it was that had struck him.
+
+"Grab it!"  roared Tad, observing that he had failed to rope the lad.
+
+With a mighty splash, Stacy Brown plunged into the stream broadside
+on.
+
+"He's in!  I heard him strike!"  cried Walter.
+
+With a warning cry to the others to bring lights, Tad, without an
+instant's hesitation, leaped over the bluff and went shooting down
+it in a sitting posture.
+
+"Tad's gone in, too," shouted Walter excitedly, as their ears caught
+a second splash.  It was more clean cut than had been Stacy's dive,
+and might have passed unnoticed had they not known the meaning of
+the sound.
+
+Ned Rector stood as if dazed.  He knew that somehow he had
+thoughtlessly plunged his companions into dire peril.
+
+"Wha--what is it?"  he stammered.
+
+"They're in the river!  Don't you understand?"  answered Walter
+sharply, moving forward as if to follow over the bank in an effort
+to rescue his companion.
+
+"Keep back!"  commanded the Professor.  "You'll all drown if you go
+over that bank."
+
+The Professor, with more presence of mind than the others, had
+sprung up and rushed for the camp-fire, from which he snatched a
+burning ember.
+
+At any other time the sight of his long, gaunt figure, clad in a
+full suit of pink pajamas, dashing madly about the camp, would have
+excited the lads to uproarious merriment.  But laughter was far from
+their thoughts at that moment.
+
+"Use your eyes!  Do you see him?"  demanded Professor Zepplin, peering
+down anxiously into the shadows.
+
+"No.  Oh, Tad!"  shouted Ned.  There was no reply to the boy's
+hail.  "Thaddeus!"  roared the Professor.  Still no answer.
+
+Down the stream a short distance they could hear the water roaring
+over the rocks, from where it dropped some twenty feet and continued
+on its course.  The falls there were known as Buttermilk Falls,
+because of the churning the water received in its lively drop, and
+more than one mountaineer had been swept over them to his death in
+times of high water.  Between the camp and these falls there was a
+sharp bend in the river, and ere the boys had recovered from their
+surprise, their companions undoubtedly had been swept around the
+bend and on beyond their sight.
+
+"Do--do you--do you think----" stammered Walter.
+
+"They have gone down stream," answered the Professor shortly.  "Run
+for it, boys!  Run as you never ran before!"
+
+Ned dived for the thicket where the ponies were tethered.  It was the
+work of a moment only to release Bad-eye.  Without waiting to saddle
+him, Ned threw himself upon the surprised animal's back, and with a
+wild yell sent the broncho plunging through the camp.
+
+He was nearly unseated when Bad-eye suddenly veered to avoid
+stepping into the camp-fire, which Ned Rector in his haste had
+forgotten.
+
+The lad gripped the pony's mane and hung on desperately until he
+finally succeeded in righting himself, all the while kicking the
+pony's sides with his bare feet to urge him on faster.
+
+They were out of the camp, tearing through the thicket before the
+Professor and Walter had even gotten beyond the glow of the
+fire.  Ned was obliged to make a wide detour instead of taking a
+short cut across the bend made by the river.  There were rocks in his
+way, so that a few moments of valuable time were lost before he
+reached the stream on the other side of the obstruction.
+
+"Come, we must run," urged the Professor.  "I'm afraid both of them
+may have gone over the falls."
+
+"Oh, I hope he is not too late!"  answered Walter, with a half sob,
+as they ran regardless of the fact that sharp sticks and jagged
+stones were cruelly cutting into their feet.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+   THE BOYS RESCUE EACH OTHER
+
+Ned swung around the bend at a tremendous pace.  He was able to see
+little about him, though as he once more reached the bank he could
+tell where the river lay, because the river gorge lay in a deeper
+shadow than did the rest of the landscape about him.
+
+"Oh, Tad!  Tad!"  he shouted.
+
+A faint call answered him.  He was not quite sure that it was not an
+echo of his own voice.
+
+"Tad!  T-a-d!"
+
+"Hurry!"
+
+It seemed a long distance away--that faint reply to his hail.
+
+"That you, Tad!"
+
+"Y-e-s."
+
+"Where are you!"
+
+"Here."
+
+"Where?  I don't see you."
+
+"In the river.  Just below the bend."
+
+Hurriedly dismounting and making a quick examination of the banks he
+discovered that they were so nearly straight up and down that it
+would be impossible to get his companions out at that point.
+
+"I can't get you out here.  You'll have to wait a few moments.  Are
+you swimming?"
+
+"No, I am holding to a rock.  It's awful slippery and I'm freezing
+too."
+
+"All right.  Is Stacy with you?"
+
+"Yes, I've got him.  "
+
+"Good!  Have courage!  I'll be with you," said Ned encouragingly.
+
+"You'll have to hurry.  I can't hold on much longer.  The falls are
+just below here and if I have to let go it's all up with us."
+
+Ned had no need to be told that.  He could almost feel the spray from
+the falls on his face, so close were they to him and their roar was
+loud in his ears, so that he was obliged to raise his voice in
+calling to his companions.
+
+Leaping to the back of Bad-eye, Ned was off like a shot, tearing
+through the brush, headed toward camp.  On the way he passed
+Professor Zepplin and Walter, nearly running them down in his mad
+haste.
+
+"Got a rope?"  he shouted in passing.  "No," answered Walter.  "Then
+get one and hurry around the bend.  You'll be needed there in a
+minute.  I'm going down into the stream from the camp."
+
+The Professor, seeming to comprehend what Ned had in mind, turned
+and ran back to the camp.
+
+Without an instant's hesitation, Ned Rector, upon reaching their
+camping place, put his pony at the bank where the two boys had gone
+over.
+
+The little animal refused to take it.  He bucked and the lad had a
+narrow escape from following where Tad and Chunky had gone a short
+time before.
+
+"I've got to have a saddle.  That's the only way I can stick on to
+drive him in, and we'll need it to hold to as well," he decided.
+
+Every moment was precious now.  Whirling the animal about, Ned drove
+him into the thicket where the saddles lay folded against trees.
+
+It was the work of seconds for him to leap off and throw the heavy
+saddle on Bad-eye's back.  The boy worked with the speed and
+precision of a Gattling gun.  Yet he groaned hopelessly when he
+realized that his delay might mean the death of two of his
+companions.
+
+Professor Zepplin arrived at the camp just as Ned had finally
+cinched the girths and swung himself into the saddle.
+
+"Where--where is he?"  gasped the Professor, now breathing hard.
+
+"Below the bend.  Get back there with a rope and be ready to toss it
+to him if he lets go."
+
+Ned and his pony crashed through the brush.  He had no spur with
+which to urge on the animal, but Ned had thoughtfully picked up a
+long, stout stick, and once more they drove straight at the high
+bank.
+
+"Stop!  I forbid it!"  thundered the Professor.
+
+Ned paid no more attention to him than had he not spoken.  It was a
+time when words were useless.  What was necessary was action and
+quick action at that.
+
+"Hurry with that rope!"  commanded Ned.
+
+The pony slowed up as they approached the bank of the river, but Ned
+was in no mood for trifling now.  He brought down the stick on the
+animal's hip with a terrific whack.
+
+Bad-eye angered by the blow, squealed and leaped into the air with
+all four feet free of the ground.
+
+"Hi-yi!"  exclaimed the Pony Rider sharply, again smiting the animal
+while the latter was still in the air.
+
+Ned's plan was to enter the stream at that point and swim down with
+the pony until they should have reached the boys and rescued them
+from their perilous position.  While the bluff was sandy at the point
+where they had fallen in, down below, where Tad was now desperately
+clinging to the rock, the stream wound through a rocky cut, whose
+high sides were slippery and uncertain, especially in the darkness
+of the night.
+
+Bad-eye needed no further goading to force him to do his master's
+bidding.  With another squeal of protest the little animal plunged
+for the bank.  No sooner had his forward feet reached over the edge
+of it than the treacherous sands gave way beneath them.
+
+The pony pivoted on its head, landing violently on its back.  Ned had
+dismounted without the least effort on his part, so that he was well
+out of the way when his mount landed.  He had been hurled from the
+saddle the instant the pony's feet struck the unresisting sand.
+
+But Ned clung doggedly to the bridle reins.  He, too, struck on his
+back.  He heard the squealing, kicking pony floundering down upon
+him, its every effort to right itself forcing it further and further
+down the slippery bank.  Now on its back, now with its nose in the
+sand, Bad-eye was rapidly nearing the swiftly moving creek.  Ned had
+all he could do to keep out of the way, and on account of the
+darkness he had to be guided more by instinct than by any other
+sense.  However, it was not difficult to keep track of the now
+thoroughly frightened animal.
+
+Ned leaped to one side.  An instant later, and he would have been
+caught under the pony.
+
+The animal hit the water with a mighty splash, with Ned still
+clinging to the reins.  As the pony went in, Ned was jerked in also,
+striking the water head first.
+
+He could have screamed from the shock of the icy water, which seemed
+to smite him like a heavy blow.
+
+For a moment boy and pony floundered about in the stream.  It seemed
+almost a miracle that the lad was not killed by those flying hoofs
+that were beating the water almost into a froth.
+
+As soon as he was able to get to the surface Ned exerted all his
+strength to swim out further toward the middle of the stream.  Even
+when he was under water, he still kept a firm grip on the rein.  To
+let go would be to lose all that he had gained after so much danger
+in getting as far as he had.
+
+By this time, both boy and pony had drifted down stream several
+rods.
+
+The pony righted himself and struck out for the bank.  Ned was by his
+side almost instantly, being aided in the effort to get there by
+having the reins to pull himself in by.
+
+Bad-eye refused instinctively to head down stream.  There was only
+one thing to do.  That was to climb into the saddle and get him
+started.  Ned did this with difficulty.  His weight made the pony sink
+at first, the animal whinnying with fear.
+
+Fearing to drown the broncho, the boy slipped off, at the same time
+taking a firm grip on the lines.
+
+Bad-eye came to the surface at once.  Ned's right hand was on the
+pommel, the reins bunched in his left.  He brought his knee sharply
+against the animal's side.
+
+"Whoop!"  he urged, again driving the knee against the pony's ribs.
+
+Under the strong guiding hand of his master, the animal fighting
+every inch of the way, began swimming down stream.
+
+"I'm coming!"  shouted the boy.
+
+Before that moment he had not had breath nor the time to call.
+
+"I'm coming!"  he repeated, as they swung around the wide sweeping
+curve.
+
+"Are you there, Tad?"
+
+"Yes," was the scarcely distinguishable reply.  "I've got to let go."
+
+"You hold on.  Bad-eye and I will be there in a minute and the
+Professor is hurrying down along the bank with a rope."
+
+"I'm freezing.  I'm all numb, that's the trouble," answered Tad
+weakly.
+
+Ned knew that the plucky lad was well-nigh exhausted.  The strain of
+holding to the slippery rock in the face of the swift current was
+one that would have taxed the strength of the strongest man, to say
+nothing of the almost freezing cold water, which chilled the blood
+and benumbed the senses.
+
+"You've gone past me," cried Tad.
+
+"I know it.  I'm heading up," replied Ned Rector.
+
+Ned had purposely driven his pony further down stream so that he
+might the easier pick them up as he went by on the return trip.
+
+"Are you all right down there?"  called the Professor, who had
+reached a point on the bank opposite to them.
+
+"Yes, but get ready to cast me a rope," directed Ned.
+
+"I'm afraid I cannot."
+
+"Then have Walter do it."
+
+"He is not here.  I directed him to remain in camp in case he was
+needed there."
+
+"All right.  You can try later.  I'll tell you how.  I'm busy now."
+
+"Don't run me down," warned Tad Butler.
+
+"Keep talking then, so I'll know where you are.  Just say yip-yip and
+keep it up."
+
+Tad did so, but his voice was weak and uncertain.
+
+Ned swam the pony alongside of them, pulling hard on the reins to
+slow the animal down without exerting pressure enough to stop him.
+
+"Is Chunky able to help himself?"
+
+"Yes, if he will."
+
+"Then both of you grab Bad-eye by the mane as he goes by.  Don't you
+miss, for if you do, we're all lost."
+
+"The pony won't be able to get the three of us up the stream,"
+objected Tad.
+
+"I know it."
+
+"Then, what are we going to do?"
+
+"I'll stay here and hang on.  You send Walter back with the pony as
+soon as you get there. Better call to him to get Pink-eye or one of
+the others saddled as soon as you can make him hear.  We'll save
+time that way.  I'm afraid Bad-eye won't be able to make the return
+trip."
+
+"Now grab for the rock," cried Tad.
+
+Ned did so, but he missed it.
+
+Tad still clinging to Chunky fastened his right hand in
+the broncho's mane.  All three of the boys were now clinging to the
+overburdened animal.  Ned began swimming to assist the pony, for he
+realized that they had dropped back a few feet in taking on the
+extra weight.
+
+"Work further back and get hold of the saddle," Ned directed.
+
+Tad followed his instructions.
+
+"I'm afraid he'll never make it," groaned Ned.  "I----"
+
+At that instant his hand came in violent contact with a hard, cold
+object.  It was the slender, pillar-like rock that Tad had been
+clinging to for so long in the icy water.
+
+"I've got it," exclaimed Ned.
+
+He cast loose from Bad-eye and threw both arms about the
+rock.  The pony freed from a share of his burden, struck off up
+stream against the current, making excellent headway.
+
+"I don't like to do this," Tad called back.  "I wouldn't, were it not
+for Chunky.  He couldn't have stood it there another minute."
+
+"You can't help yourself now.  How's the kid?"  called Ned.
+
+"He's all right now."
+
+"Professor, are you up there?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+He had heard the dialogue between the boys, and understood well what
+had been done.
+
+"That was a brave thing to do, Master Ned."
+
+"Thank you, Professor.  Suppose you try to cast that rope to me.  I'm
+afraid I shall never be able to hold on here alone as long as Tad
+did.  B-r-r-r, but it's cold!"  he shivered.
+
+The Professor tried his hand at casting the lariat.
+
+"Never touched me," said Ned, more to keep up his own spirits than
+with the intent to speak slightingly of the Professor's effort.
+
+"Take it up stream throw it out, then let it float down," suggested
+Ned.
+
+Professor Zepplin did so, but the rope was found to be too short to
+reach, and at Ned's direction, he made no further attempt.
+
+Soon Ned heard some one shouting cheerily up the stream.  It was Tad
+Butler.  He had dashed up to camp immediately upon reaching shore,
+and the exercise restored his circulation.  Walter, who was in camp
+had Pink-eye ready and saddled for an emergency, and Tad mounting
+the pony, forced him to take to the water.  He was now returning to
+rescue his brave friend, who was clinging to the rock.  He had been
+unwilling to trust the perilous trip to anyone else.
+
+"I was afraid Walt would go over the falls, pony and all," he
+explained, wheeling alongside Ned Rector and picking him up from the
+rock.
+
+"I'll run a foot race with you when we get ashore," laughed Tad.
+
+"Go you," answered Ned promptly.  "The one who loses has to get up
+and cook the breakfast."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+   SURPRISED BY AN UNWELCOME VISITOR
+
+"I'm sorry I was to blame for your going into the creek," apologized
+Ned Rector, bending over the shivering Stacy.
+
+"I fell in, didn't I?"  grinned the fat boy.
+
+"No, you rolled in.  My, but that water was cold!"
+
+"B-r-r-r!"  shivered Stacy, as the recollection of his icy bath came
+back to him.  "Di--did you win the race?"
+
+"Tad won it.  I've got to get up and cook the breakfast, and it
+wasn't my turn at all.  It was Tad's turn."
+
+"Yab-hum," yawned Stacy, "I'm awful sleepy."
+
+"So am I," answered Ned, uttering a long-drawn yawn.
+
+"See here, Master Ned.  Get out of those wet pajamas, rub yourself
+down thoroughly and put on a dry suit.  I can't have you all sick on
+my hands to-morrow," commanded the Professor.
+
+"Don't worry about us," laughed Ned.  "It takes more than a bath in a
+cold creek to lay us up, eh, Tad?"
+
+"I hope so," answered Tad Butler, who had rubbed himself until his
+body glowed.  "But I thought once or twice that I was a goner while I
+was holding to that rock.  I could not make Chunky try to support
+himself at all.  He just clung to me until he fagged me all out."
+
+"Come now, young gentlemen, down with this coffee and into the
+blankets."
+
+Professor Zepplin had prepared the coffee, with which to warm the
+lads up, and had heated in the camp-fire some good sized boulders,
+which he wrapped in blankets and tucked in their beds.  Chunky was
+the only one of the boys who did not protest.  Ned and Tad objected
+to being "babied" as they called it, and when the Professor was not
+looking, they quickly rolled the feet warmers out at the foot of
+their beds.
+
+Early next morning they were aroused by the cook's welcome call to
+breakfast.  None of the lads seemed to be any the worse for his
+exciting experiences in the creek, much to the relief of Professor
+Zepplin, who feared the icy bath might at least bring on heavy
+colds.
+
+Tumbling from their cots, they quickly washed; and then sprinting
+back and forth a few times, stirred up their circulation, after
+which the boys sat down to the morning meal with keen appetites.
+
+Ned had cooked a liberal supply of bacon and potatoes and boiled a
+large pot of coffee.
+
+Stacy opened his mouth as if he were about to yawn.
+
+"Don't you dare to do that," warned Ned, waving the coffee pot
+threateningly.  "The first boy who yawns to-day gets into
+trouble.  And Stacy Brown, if you fall in the river again you'll get
+out the best way you can alone.  We won't help you, remember that."
+
+"This bacon looks funny," retorted Stacy, holding up a piece at the
+end of his fork.  "Kind of looks as if something had happened to it."
+
+"Just what I was going to say," added Walter.
+
+"Yes, what has happened to it?  It's as black as the Professor's
+hat."
+
+All eyes were fixed upon the cook.  "I don't care, I couldn't help
+it.  If any of you fellows think you can do any better, you just try
+it.  Cook your own meals if you don't like my way of serving them
+up.  It wasn't my turn to get the breakfast, anyway."
+
+"Our cook evidently has a grouch on this morning," laughed
+Walter.  "Doesn't agree with him to take a midnight bath."
+
+"The bath was all right, but I object to having my cooking
+criticised."
+
+"The bacon does look peculiar," decided Professor Zepplin, sniffing
+gingerly at his own piece.
+
+Ned's face flushed.
+
+"What did you do to it to give it that peculiar shade, young man?"
+
+"Why, I soused it in the creek to wash it off, then laid it in the
+fire to cook," replied Ned.
+
+"In the fire?"  shouted Tad.
+
+"Of course.  How do you expect I cooked it?"  demanded the boy
+irritably.  "I cooked it in the fire."
+
+"I could do better'n that myself," muttered Stacy.
+
+"Didn't you use the spider?"  asked Walter.
+
+"Spider?  No.  I didn't know you used a spider.  Do you?"
+
+"He cooked it in the fire," groaned Tad.
+
+"Peculiar, very peculiar to say the least," decided the Professor
+grimly.  "Gives it that peculiar sooty flavor, common to smoked ham I
+think we shall have to elect a new cook if you cannot do better than
+that.  However, we'll manage to get along very well with this
+meal.  If we have to get others we will hold a consultation as to the
+latest and most approved methods of doing so," he added, amid a
+general laugh at Ned's expense.
+
+Breakfast over, blankets were rolled and packed on the ponies.  About
+nine o'clock the Pony Riders set out for the foothills, after first
+having consulted their compasses and decided upon the course they
+were to follow to reach the point, some fifteen miles distant, where
+they expected to pick up the guide.
+
+"Seems good to be in the saddle once more, doesn't it?"  smiled
+Walter, after they had gotten well under way.
+
+"Beats being in the river at midnight," laughed Tad.  "Bad-eye looks
+as if he needed grooming, too.  Ned, I take back all I said about the
+bacon this morning.  You did me a good turn last night.  If it hadn't
+been for you, Chunky and I wouldn't be here now.  I couldn't have
+held to that rock much longer."
+
+"Neither could I," interjected Stacy wisely.
+
+Ned gave him a withering glance.
+
+"You are an expert at falling in, but when it comes to getting out,
+that's another matter."
+
+"How blue those mountains look!"  marveled Walter, shading his eyes
+and gazing off toward the Rosebud Range.
+
+"I hear there are some lawless characters in there, too," Tad
+answered thoughtfully.
+
+"Where'd your hear that?"  demanded Ned.
+
+"Heard some men talking about it in the hotel back at Forsythe."
+
+"Mustn't believe all you hear.  What did they say?"
+
+"Acting upon your advice, I should say that you wouldn't believe it
+if I told you," answered Tad sharply.  "These men are a kind of
+outlaws, I believe.  They steal horses and cattle.  Probably sell the
+hides--I don't know.  Somehow the Government officers have not been
+able to catch them, let alone to find out who they are."
+
+"Indians, probably," replied Ned.  "The country is full of them about
+here, so I hear."
+
+"Mustn't believe all you hear," piped up Stacy, repeating Ned
+Rector's own words, and the latter's muttered reply was lost in the
+laughter that followed.
+
+It was close to twelve o'clock when they finally emerged on a broad
+table or mesa.  Before them lay the foothills of the Rosebud, rising
+in broken mounds, some of which towered almost level with the lower
+peaks of the mountains themselves.
+
+"I don't see anything of our guide's cabin," said Tad, halting and
+looking about them.  "What do you think, Professor!"
+
+"We will go on to the foothills and wait there.  I imagine he will he
+waiting for us somewhere hereabouts."
+
+"Yes, we have followed our course by the compass," answered Tad.
+
+However, the lad had overlooked the fact, as had the others, that in
+order to find a suitable fording place, they had followed the hanks
+of the East Fork for several miles.  This served to throw them off
+their course and when they finally reached the foothills they were
+some six miles to the north of the place where the guide was to pick
+them up.
+
+As they rode on, the ground gradually rose under them, nor did they
+realize that they were entering the foothills themselves; and so it
+continued until they finally found themselves surrounded by hills,
+narrow draws and broad, rocky gorges.
+
+"Young gentlemen, I think we had better halt right here.  We shall be
+lost if we continue any farther," decided the Professor.  "This is a
+nice level spot with just enough trees to give us shade.  I propose
+that we dismount and make camp."
+
+"Yes, we haven't had the tents up since we were in the Rockies,"
+replied Ned.  "We shall be forgetting how to pitch them soon if we do
+not have some practice."
+
+On this trip, besides their small tents, the Pony Riders had brought
+with them canvas for a nine by twelve feet tent, which they proposed
+to use for a dining tent in wet weather, as well as a place for
+social gathering whenever the occasion demanded its use.  They named
+it the parlor.
+
+In high spirits, the lads leaped from their ponies and began
+removing their packs.  Stacy Brown began industriously tugging at the
+fastenings which held the large tent to the back of the pack pony.
+
+'I can't get it loose," he shouted.  "What kind of hitch do you call
+this, anyway?"
+
+"Young man, that's a squaw hitch.  Ever hear of it before?"  laughed
+Tad.
+
+"No.  What kind of hitch is a squaw hitch?"  asked Chunky.
+
+"Probably one that the braves use to tie up their wives with when
+they get lazy," Ned informed him.
+
+"I know," spoke up Walter.  "It's a hitch used to fasten the packs to
+the ponies.  Mr. Stallings explained that to me when we were in
+Texas."
+
+"Right," announced Tad, skillfully loosening the hitch, thus
+allowing the canvas of the parlor tent to fall to the ground.
+
+While Tad and Walter were doing this, Professor Zepplin with Stacy
+had started off with hatchets to cut poles for the tents.
+
+The sleeping tents were erected in a straight row with the parlor
+tent set up to the rear some few rods, backing up against the hills
+nearest to the mountains.
+
+In front of the small tents the ponies were tethered out among the
+trees so as to be in plain view of the boys in case of
+trouble.  Profiting from past experiences, they knew that without
+their mounts they would find themselves helpless.
+
+In an hour the camp was pitched and the boys stood off to view the
+effect of their work.
+
+"Looks like a military camp," said Ned.
+
+"All but the guns," replied Walter.  "We might stack our rifles
+outside here to make it look more military like."
+
+"Let's do it."  suggested Tad.
+
+Laughing joyously, the lads got out their rifles, standing them on
+their stocks, with the muzzles together in front of the small
+tents.  Not being equipped with bayonets the guns refused to stand
+alone, so they bound the muzzles together with twine wrapped about
+the sights.  This held them firmly.
+
+"There!"  glowed Ned.  "Where's the flag?  Somebody get that and I'll
+cut a pole for it," suggested Tad Butler.
+
+In a few moments Old Glory was waving idly in the gentle summer
+breeze and the boys, doffing their hats, gave three cheers and a
+tiger for it, in which Professor Zepplin joined with almost boyish
+enthusiasm.
+
+"I always take off my hat to that beautiful flag," said the
+Professor, gazing up at it admiringly.
+
+"How about your own country's flag?"  teased Ned.
+
+"That is it.  I am an American citizen.  Your flag is my flag.  And now
+that we have done homage to our country and our flag, supposing we
+consult our own bodily comfort by getting dinner.  Of course, if you
+young gentlemen are not hungry we can skip the noon----"
+
+"Not hungry?  Did you ever hear of our skipping a meal when we could
+get it?"  protested Walter.
+
+"For a young man with a delicate appetite, you do very well,"
+laughed the Professor.  "It wag less than two months ago, if I
+remember correctly, that the doctors thought you were not going to
+live, you were so delicate."
+
+"Almost as delicate as Chunky now," chuckled Ned maliciously.
+
+The midday meal was more successful than had been their
+breakfast.  They ate it under the trees, deciding to dine in the
+parlor tent just at dusk.
+
+The afternoon was spent in shooting, at which the boys were becoming
+quite proficient.  By this time, even Stacy Brown could be trusted to
+manage his own rifle without endangering the lives of his
+companions.
+
+"Is there any game in these hills?"  asked Ned, while he was
+refilling the magazine of his repeating rifle.
+
+"Plenty of it, I am told," replied the Professor.  "There is big game
+all over the state."
+
+"What kind?"
+
+"Bears, mountain lions and the like."
+
+"W-h-e-w.  That sounds interesting.  May we go gunning to-morrow?"
+
+"Better wait until the guide joins us.  It will be best to have some
+one with us who understands the habits of the animals.  As you have
+learned, hunting big game is not boys' play," concluded the
+Professor.
+
+"Yes, I remember our experience in hunting the cougar in the
+Rockies.  I guess I'll wait."
+
+During the afternoon, the boys made short trips along the foothills
+hoping to find some trace of the guide, but search as they would
+they were unable to locate him.  Nor did they dare stray far from the
+camp for fear of being unable to find their way back.  The foothills
+all looked so alike that if one unfamiliar with them should lose his
+way he would find himself in a serious predicament.
+
+"I guess we shall have to camp here for the rest of the summer,"
+Professor Zepplin said, while they were eating their supper.  "We
+must be a long distance from our man if he has not heard our
+shooting this afternoon."
+
+The boys were enjoying themselves, however; in addition, there was a
+sense of independence that they had not felt before.  They were alone
+and entirely on their own resources, which of itself added to the
+zest of the trip.
+
+The supper dishes having been cleared away and the camp-fire stirred
+up to a bright, cheerful blaze, all hands gathered in the parlor
+tent for an evening chat.
+
+Above them swung an oil lantern which dimly shed its rays over the
+little company.  Professor Zepplin was poring over an old volume that
+he had brought with him, while the boys were discussing the merits
+of their new ponies, which by this time had developed their
+individual peculiarities.
+
+Chunky, growing sleepy, had crawled to the rear of the tent, where
+he sat leaning against the closed flap, nodding drowsily.
+
+Finally they saw him straighten up and brush a hand over the back of
+his head.
+
+"He's dreaming," laughed Ned.  "Imagines he's rolling down the river
+bank again."
+
+Suddenly they were aroused by the fat boy's voice raised in angry
+protest.
+
+"Stop tickling my neck," he growled, vigorously rubbing that part of
+his anatomy.  "Funny, you fellows can't let me alone."
+
+"You must be having bad dreams," laughed Ned.  "We are not bothering
+you.  We're all over here."
+
+"Yes, you are.  You've done it three times and you woke me up,"
+answered the fat boy, settling back and closing his eyes preparatory
+to renewing his disturbed nap.
+
+He was asleep in a moment, not having heeded the laughter of his
+companions, nor their noisy comments.
+
+But Stacy dozed for a moment only.  He sat up quickly and very
+straight, while a shrewd expression appeared in his eyes.  Had they
+been looking they might have observed one of his hands being drawn
+cautiously behind him, as if he were reaching for something.  The
+boys were too busy, however, to pay any heed to the lad, and the
+Professor was deeply absorbed in his book.
+
+"I've got you this time!  Tell me you weren't tickling my neck?  I'll
+show you Stacy Brown's not the sleepy head you----"
+
+The boy paused suddenly and scrambling to all fours turned about on
+his hands and knees, intently gazing at the flap against which he
+had been leaning.
+
+"What's the matter, gone crazy over there!"  called Tad.  "Anybody
+would think you had from the racket you are making."
+
+Stacy did not answer.  He had not even heard Tad speak to him.  His
+eyes, bulging with fear, were fixed on the flap.  What he saw was a
+long black snout poked through the slit in the canvas, and just back
+of that a pair of beady, evil eyes.
+
+"Y-e-o-w!"  yelled Stacy.  The lad leaped to his feet and dashed from
+the tent, bowling over Walter and Tad as he ran, shouting in his
+fright and crying for help.  Knowing instinctively that something
+really serious had happened, the others sprang up, peering at the
+other end of the tent.  For a moment, they could see nothing in the
+flickering shadows; then as their eyes became more accustomed to the
+half light, they discovered what filled them with alarm as well.
+
+"Run for your lives!"  shouted Tad, bolting from the tent in a single
+leap, followed almost instantly by Ned Rector and Walter Perkins.
+
+The Professor with one startled glance, hurled his precious book at
+the object he saw entering the tent at the back, and bolted through
+the front opening, taking the end tent pole down with him in his
+hasty flight.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+   THE PURSUIT OF THE BURNING BEAR
+
+What is it?"  cried Walter breathlessly, slowing up when he observed
+that the others were doing likewise.  "It's a bear, I think," replied
+the Professor.  "I only saw the head so I can't be sure.  Keep
+away.  Where is Stacy?"
+
+"I--I think he's running, still," answered Ned, his voice somewhat
+shaky.
+
+"There goes the other tent pole down!"  shouted Tad.
+
+"He's wrecking the place.  That's too bad," groaned Walter.
+
+"Are the provisions all in there?"  asked the Professor anxiously.
+
+"No, most of them are over in my tent, where I took them from the
+pack pony," Ned informed him.
+
+"We are that much ahead anyway.  I think we had better get a little
+further away, young gentlemen.  We had better get near trees so we
+can make a fairly dignified escape if that fellow concludes to come
+out after us."
+
+"He's too busy just now," announced Tad, with an attempt at
+laughter.
+
+"Get the guns," ordered the Professor.
+
+"I can't," cried Tad.
+
+"Why can't you?  I will get them myself."
+
+"They are all in that tent there with the bear," groaned Tad.
+
+"There's a box of shells in there, too," added Walter.  "I put it
+there myself."
+
+"Then, indeed, we had better take to the trees," decided Professor
+Zepplin.
+
+"Wait," warned Tad.  "He won't get out right away.  See, he has pulled
+the tent down about him."
+
+"Yes, he's having the time of his life," nodded Ned.  "I hope he
+never gets out.  If we had our guns now!"
+
+And, indeed, Mr. Bruin was having his own troubles.  Angry snarls and
+growls could be heard under the heaving canvas as the black bear
+plunged helplessly about, twisting the tent about him in his
+desperate struggles to free himself.
+
+They could hear the clatter of the tinware as he threshed about, and
+the crash and bang of other articles belonging to their equipment.
+
+"Look!  What's that light?"  exclaimed Walter.
+
+"Fire!"  cried the Professor.
+
+"The tent's on fire!"  shouted Tad.
+
+"Quick, get water!"  urged Ned.
+
+"What for?  To put out the bear?"  laughed Tad.
+
+"I had forgotten about the lantern.  That's what has caused the
+fire.  When the tent collapsed the lantern went down with it, and in
+his floundering about he has managed to set the place on fire," the
+Professor informed them.
+
+"There goes the parlor tent.  That settles it," said Walter.
+
+The other two boys groaned.
+
+"Has he-ha-ha-has he gone?"  wailed Chunky, peering from behind a
+tree.
+
+"No, he hasn't gone.  He's very much here.  Don't you see that tent!
+What do you suppose is making it hump up in the middle, if he isn't
+there?  And the tent's on fire, too," answered Ned, in a tone of
+disgust.  "This is a bad start for sure."
+
+"I didn't fall in that time, did I?  I fell out," interrupted
+Stacy.  "Lucky for me that I did, too.  I would have been in a nice
+fix if that tent had come down on me and that animal at the same
+time."  He shivered at the thought.  "What is it, a lion?"
+
+"Lion!  No, you ninny, it's a bear.  B-e-a-r," spelled Ned, with
+strong emphasis.  "Do you understand that?"
+
+"Y-y-e-s.  I-I-I thought it was a lion.  I did, honest," he
+muttered.  "And it tickled my neck with its paw, too.  Wow!"
+
+Stacy instinctively moved further away from the tent.
+
+Disturbing as their situation was at that moment.  the lads could not
+repress a shout of laughter over Stacy's funny words.  But Stacy's
+face was solemn.  He saw nothing to laugh at.
+
+"Lucky for both of you that you didn't yawn.  The bear might nave
+fallen in," jeered Ned.
+
+"Might have been a good thing for us if Chunky had yawned.  Maybe the
+bear would have got to yawning at the same time, and yawned and
+yawned until he was so helpless that we could have captured him,"
+laughed Walter.
+
+"Not much chance of that," answered Tad.  "Bears don't yawn until
+after a full meal.  I guess our bear over there hasn't had one lately
+or he wouldn't have been nosing about our camp when we were all
+there."
+
+"Keep back there, boys.  Please don't get too close.  He is liable to
+break out at any time.  He is a small bear, but there is no telling
+what he may do in his rage when he emerges," warned the Professor.
+
+"We're not afraid," answered Ned.
+
+The boys, having no weapons, had armed themselves with clubs,
+prepared to do battle with their visitor should he chance to come
+their way.
+
+"What's that racket over there in the bushes?"  demanded Ned,
+wheeling sharply.
+
+"It's the ponies," answered Tad, darting away.
+
+At last the little animals had discovered the presence of the bear
+in camp and were making frantic efforts to break their tethers.
+
+"Come over here, some of you.  The bronchos are having a fit.  I can't
+manage all of them at once," called Tad in an excited tone.
+
+"What's the matter--are they afraid?"  called the Professor.
+
+"I should say they are.  They'll get away from me if you don't
+hurry."
+
+Leaving the hear to his own desperate efforts, the boys rushed to
+the aid of Tad Butler.  They were not quick enough, however.
+
+"There goes one of them!"  cried Tad.
+
+A pony had broken the rope and with a snort, had bounded away.  Tad,
+leaped on the bare back of his own pony, first having caught up his
+lariat, and set out after the fleeing animal.
+
+Luckily the runaway broncho had headed for the open and Tad was able
+to overhaul him before they had gone far from the camp.
+
+Riding up beside the little animal it was an easy matter to drop the
+loop over his head and bring him down.
+
+"There, that will teach you to run away," growled the boy, cinching
+the rope and dragging the unruly pony back to camp.
+
+In the meantime the others, after considerable effort, had succeeded
+in securing the other plunging bronchos, more rope having been
+brought for the purpose, while Tad, breathing hard, staked down the
+frightened animal he had roped.
+
+"Now we'll see how Mr. Bear is getting along," announced the
+Professor, as they turned back toward the camp, where the bear was
+still fighting desperately with the smouldering tent.
+
+As they reached the scene they observed Professor Zepplin hurrying
+to his tent.  He was back again almost at once.
+
+"Just happened to think of my revolver," he explained.
+
+"Think you can kill him with that?"  asked Tad.
+
+"I don't know.  I can try.  It's a thirty-eight calibre."
+
+"Won't even feel it," sniffed Ned.  "I've read lots of times that it
+takes a lot to kill a bear."
+
+The Professor raised his weapon and fired at the spot where the tent
+appeared to be most active.
+
+Though he had pulled the trigger only once a series of sudden
+explosions followed, seemingly coming from beneath the tent itself.
+
+"What's that!"  demanded the Professor, lowering his own weapon,
+plainly puzzled.
+
+"Guess the bear's shooting at us," suggested Chunky wisely.
+
+"No.  I know what it is," cried Tad.
+
+"You know?"  demanded Ned.
+
+"Sure.  It's our cartridges exploding.  The fire from the lantern has
+got at those pasteboard boxes in which we carried the shells."
+
+Now they were popping with great rapidity, and instinctively the
+boys drew further away from the danger zone, though the Professor
+told them the bullets could not hurt them, there being not
+sufficient force behind to carry them that distance.
+
+The Professor stood his ground as an object lesson and again resumed
+his target practice.  The tough canvas resisted the bear's efforts,
+and the fire was burning slowly.  However, the tent seemed to be
+ruined and the boys feared their rifles would share a similar fate.
+
+"He's breaking out!"  yelled Chunky, who was some distance to the
+right of the others, now dancing up and down in his
+excitement.  "Look out for him!"
+
+With a last desperate effort, the animal had succeeded in forcing
+his way through the stubborn canvas.
+
+"Look, look!"  yelled Walter Perkins, greatly excited.
+
+The spectacle was one that for the moment held the boys
+spellbound.  A mass of flame separated itself from the ruins of the
+tent.  With snarls of pain and rage the mass ambled rapidly away in a
+trail of fire.
+
+"The bear's on fire!"  shouted Ned Rector.
+
+"Help!"  screamed Chunky.
+
+Blinded by the pain and the flames that had gotten into its eyes,
+the animal not seeing the lad, lurched heavily against him and Stacy
+Brown went down with a howl of terror.
+
+The boy, who had not been harmed, was up like a flash, running from
+the fearful thing as fast as his short legs would carry him.
+
+"Oh, that's too bad!"  exclaimed Tad.
+
+He did not refer to the accident to his companion, which he
+considered as too trivial to notice, but rather to the sufferings of
+the animal.  Tad felt a deep sympathy for any dumb animal that was in
+trouble, no matter if it were a bear which would have shown him no
+mercy had they met face to face.
+
+"Professor, let me have your revolver please," he cried.
+
+"What for?"
+
+"I want to put the brute out of his misery.  Please do!"
+
+"There are no more shells in it."
+
+"Then load it.  I'm going to get Pink-eye.  Hurry, hurry!  Can't you
+see how the miserable creature is suffering?"
+
+The lad darted away for his pony, while Professor Zepplin, sharing
+something of the boy's own feelings, hurried to his tent and
+recharged his weapon.
+
+He had no more than returned when Tad came dashing up on Pink-eye.
+
+"Where is he?  Do you see him?"
+
+"Over there, I can see the fire in the bushes," answered Ned Rector.
+
+"Quick, give me the gun," demanded Tad.
+
+"Wait, I'll go with you," said Ned.
+
+"No, remain where you are," ordered Professor Zepplin.  "Some of you
+will surely be shot.  Thaddeus, remember, you are not to go far from
+camp.
+
+Tad was off in a twinkle.  Putting the spurs to Pink-eye, the animal
+leaped from the camp and disappeared among the trees.
+
+"I am afraid I should not have allowed him to go," announced the
+Professor, with a doubtful shake of his head.  But it was too late
+now for regrets.
+
+Tad found the going rough.  He soon made out the flaming animal just
+ahead of him.  The beast was down rolling from side to side in a
+frantic effort to put out the fire that was burning into his flesh.
+
+Tad could not understand why the fur should make so much flame.  He
+spurred the pony as near to the animal as he could get.  Then he saw
+that the bear had become entangled in the guy ropes, and that he was
+pulling along with him portions of the burning canvas, attached to
+the ropes.  It was this which made the animal a living torch.
+
+The pony in its fright was rearing and plunging, bucking and
+squealing so that the lad had difficulty in keeping his seat.
+
+"Steady, steady, Pink-eye," he soothed.
+
+For an instant the broncho ceased its wild antics and stood
+trembling with fear.
+
+"Bang!"
+
+Tad had aimed the heavy revolver and pulled the trigger.
+
+Instantly the pony went up into the air again and the lad gripped
+its sides with his legs, giving a gentle pressure with the spurs.
+
+"Whoa, Pink-eye!  I hit Mm, I did.  I aimed for his head, but I must
+have merely grazed it.  I wish I could kill the brute and put him out
+of his misery," said the lad more concerned for the suffering animal
+before him than for his own safety.
+
+No sooner had he fired the first shot, than the bear sprang to its
+feet and sped away up a steep bank.  Tad noticed that the bear's
+rolling had extinguished some of the fire, but he knew that it was
+still burrowing in the beast's fur, causing him great agony.
+
+"I am too far away to hit him.  I've got to get closer," decided the
+boy.  "Pink-eye, do you think you can make that climb?"
+
+The pony shook its head and rattled the bits in its mouth.
+
+"All right, old chap, try it."
+
+A cluck and a gentle slap on the broncho's flanks sent him straight
+for the steep bank.  At first his feet slipped under him; he
+stumbled, righted himself and digging in the slender hoofs fairly
+lifted himself up and up.  In the meantime Mr. Bruin was making
+better progress.  He seemed unable to escape from the fire, but he
+could get away from this new enemy, the gun in the hands of the boy
+on the horse.
+
+Every little while as he found he had gained on his pursuer the bear
+would throw himself down, and with snarls and angry growls, take a
+few awkward rolls; then be up and off again.
+
+Once more the lad thought he was near enough to take another shot.
+
+Releasing the reins and dropping them to the pony's neck, he
+steadied the hand that held the gun with the left and fired.
+
+"Oh, pshaw, I missed him!"  he groaned.  "That's too bad.  I'm only
+adding to his misery.  Next time I'll get nearer to him before I try
+to shoot."
+
+He went at Pink-eye, applying every method with which he was
+familiar to increase the pony's speed.  Pink-eye responded as best he
+could, and began climbing the hill that had now developed into a
+fair sized mountain, making even more rapid headway than the bear
+himself.
+
+"Good boy," encouraged Tad.  "We'll overhaul him if you can keep that
+up.  Steady now.  Don't slip or you'll tumble me down the hill and
+yourself, too.  Steady, Pink-eye.  W-h-o-e-e!"
+
+"Bang!"
+
+The bear was running broadside to him and the lad could not resist
+taking another shot at it.  Like the previous effort, however, he had
+failed.
+
+Tad tittered an exclamation of disgust and put spurs to the pony.
+
+"I never did know how to handle a revolver," he complained.  "I'll
+begin to practise with this gun to-morrow if I get out of this
+scrape safely."
+
+He had failed to take into consideration that a bear was an
+extremely difficult animal to kill, and that frequently one of them
+could carry many bullets in its body without seeming to be bothered
+at all.
+
+But the lad was determined to get this one.  He had not thought of
+where he was going nor how far from camp he had strayed.  His one
+desire now was to get the animal and put a quick end to it.
+
+This time Tad was enabled to get closer to Bruin than at any time
+during the chase.  He drove the pony at a gallop right up alongside
+of the animal.
+
+Leaning over he aimed the gun at the beast's head, holding it firmly
+with both hands.
+
+Tad gave the trigger a quick, firm pressure.  A sharp explosion
+followed.
+
+At the same instant, Pink-eye in a frightened effort to get clear of
+the bear, leaped to one side.  The lad, leaning over from the saddle,
+was taken unawares, and making a desperate effort to grasp the
+saddle pommel, Tad was hurled sideways to the ground.
+
+"Whoa, Pink-eye!"  he commanded sharply as he was falling.  But
+Pink-eye refused to obey.  The pony uttered a loud snort and plunged
+into the bushes.  There he paused, wheeled, and peered out
+suspiciously at the boy and the bear.
+
+Tad's shot had gone home.  His aim had been true.  Yet the sting of
+the bullet served only to anger the bear still further.  With an
+angry growl, it turned and charged the lad ferociously.
+
+In falling, the plucky boy had struck on his head and shoulders, the
+fall partially stunning him.  For an instant, he pivoted on his head,
+then toppling over on his back, he lay still.
+
+Powerless to move a muscle, the lad was dimly conscious of a hulking
+figure standing over him, its hot breath on his face.  His right hand
+clutched the revolver, but he seemed unable to raise it.
+
+A loud explosion sounded in Tad Butler's ears, then sudden darkness
+overwhelmed him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+   LOST IN THE ROSEBUD RANGE
+
+"Whoa, Pink-eye!"  muttered the lad, stirring restlessly.  "I'll get
+him next time.  Look out, he's charging us.  Oh!"
+
+The boy suddenly opened his eyes.  The darkness about him was deep
+and impenetrable and he was conscious of a heavy weight on his
+chest.  What it was, he did not know, and some moments passed before
+he had recovered sufficiently to form an intelligent idea of what
+had happened.
+
+All at once he recollected.
+
+"It was the bear," he murmured.  "I wonder if I am dead!"
+
+No, he could feel the ground under him, and a rock that his right
+hand rested on, felt cold and chilling.  But what of the pressure on
+his chest?
+
+Cautiously the lad moved a hand toward the object that was holding
+him down.  His fingers lightly touched it.
+
+Tad could scarce repress a yell.
+
+It was the head of the bear that was resting on him, and he had no
+idea whether the animal were dead or asleep, awaiting the moment
+when the lad should stir again to fasten its cruel teeth into his
+body.
+
+The boy was satisfied, however, that by exerting all his strength he
+would be able to pull himself away before the beast could awaken,
+even, providing it were still alive.
+
+First he sought cautiously for his weapon, his fingers groping about
+over the ground at his right hand.  He could not find it.  Undoubtedly
+it had fallen underneath the bear.
+
+Tad determined to mate a desperate effort to escape.  He felt as if
+his hair were standing on end.
+
+With a cry that he could not keep back, the lad whirled over and
+sprang to his feet.  As he did so he leaped away, running with all
+his might until he had put some distance between himself and the
+prostrate animal.
+
+Realizing that he was not being followed, Tad brought up sharply and
+dodged behind a tree.  There he stood listening intently for several
+minutes.
+
+Not a sound disturbed the stillness of the night.  The leaves of the
+trees hung limp and lifeless, for no breeze was stirring.
+
+"I wonder if he's dead," whispered the lad, almost afraid to trust
+his voice out loud.  "Maybe that shot finished him.  I must find out
+somehow."
+
+Tad searched his clothes for matches, finally finding his match
+safe.  Next he sought to gather some sticks with which to make a
+torch, but the only wood he was able to find was of oak and so green
+that it would not burn.
+
+"That's too bad," he muttered.  "I'll have to try it with the
+matches."
+
+Lighting one he picked his way carefully toward the place where he
+had been lying, peering into the shadows ahead of him suspiciously
+as he went.
+
+"There he is," breathed Tad.
+
+He could faintly make out the figure of the bear lying half on its
+side as it had been before, the only difference being that the
+animal's head was stretched out on the ground instead of on the
+lad's chest.
+
+"I believe he's dead.  He must be or he'd have been after me before
+this," decided the boy.  "I 'm going to find out."
+
+Mustering his courage, Tad continued his cautious approach, lighting
+match after match, shading the flame with his hands so that the
+light would not get into his eyes and prevent him from seeing
+anything ahead of him.
+
+It required no little courage for a boy alone in the mountains to
+walk up to a bear, not knowing whether the animal were dead or
+alive.  Yet when Tad Butler made up his mind to do a certain thing,
+he persisted until he had accomplished it.
+
+He reached the side of the animal, that is, close enough so that he
+could get a good view of it.
+
+The bear never moved and Tad drew closer, walking on his toes that
+he might make no sound.  There seemed no other way to make certain
+except to stir the animal.
+
+"I'll do it," whispered Tad.
+
+Cautiously lighting another match he drew back his left foot and
+administered a sound kick to the beast's side.
+
+Thinking that the bear had moved under the blow, Tad whirled and ran
+tittering a loud "Oh!"
+
+He waited, but could hear no sound.
+
+"I believe I am afraid of myself.  That bear hasn't stirred at
+all.  I'm going back this time and make sure."
+
+He did.  But this time, steeling himself to the task, Tad stood still
+after he had prodded the beast with his foot again.  There was no
+movement other than a slight tremor caused by the impact of the
+kick.
+
+"Hurrah, I've shot a bear!"  cried the lad in the excess of his
+excitement.  "I wonder what the boys will say.  The next question is
+how am I going to get him back to camp?"
+
+Tad pondered over this problem some moments.
+
+"I know," he cried.  "I'll hitch a rope to him and make Pink-eye tow
+him out.  But where is that pony?"
+
+All at once the realization came to him that the pony had thrown him
+off.  That was the last he had seen of Pink-eye.
+
+Tad whistled and called, listening after each attempt without the
+slightest result.
+
+"He's gone.  I've got to find my way back as best I can.  The worst of
+it is I may be a long way from camp, but I guess I can find my way
+with the compass all right."
+
+The compass, however, was nowhere to be found.  The lad went through
+his pockets twice in search of it.
+
+"Pshaw!  Just my luck.  I'm as bad at losing things as Chunky is in
+falling in.  I'll get the gun anyway, for the Professor will be
+provoked if I go back without it.  Ah, there it is."
+
+Tad picked up the weapon joyfully.
+
+"I've got something to defend myself with, at least," he told
+himself.  A moment later when he discovered that the weapon held
+nothing but empty shells, the keen edge of his joy was dulled.
+
+"Well, it's better to pack back an empty gun than no gun at all," he
+decided philosophically.  Let me see, I think we came up that way.
+They'll build a big fire so I can see it and I ought to be there
+within half an hour at least."
+
+The lad struck out confidently.  He had been lost in the wilderness
+before, and though he felt a slight uneasiness he had no doubt of
+his ability to find the camp eventually.
+
+He walked vigorously for half an hour.  Then he halted.  The same
+impressive silence surrounded him.
+
+"I think I have been going a little too far to the left," he
+decided.  He changed his course and plodded on methodically again.
+
+Another half hour passed and once more the lad paused, this time
+with the realization strong upon him that he had lost his way.
+
+Placing both hands to his mouth Tad uttered a long drawn
+"C-o-o-e-e-e!"  He listened intently, then repeated the call.
+
+The sound of his own voice almost frightened him.
+
+"Oh, I'm lost!"  he cried, now fully appreciating his position.
+
+The panic of the lost seized him and Tad ran this way and that,
+plunging ahead for some distance, then swerving to the right or to
+the left in a desperate attempt to free himself from the endless
+thicket, bruising his body from contact with the trunks of the trees
+and cutting his hands as they struck the rocks violently when he fell.
+
+"Tad Butler, you stop this!"  he commanded sternly, bringing himself
+up sharply.  "I didn't think you were such a silly kid as to be
+afraid of the dark."  But in his innermost heart the lad knew that it
+was not the shadows that had so upset him.  It was the feeling of
+being lost in an unknown forest.
+
+Instead of being in the foothills as he had supposed, he was
+penetrating the fastnesses of the Rosebud Mountains themselves.
+
+"There is no use in my going on like this," he decided
+finally.  "I'll sit down and wait for daylight.  That's all I can
+do.  I surely can find my way back to camp when the light comes
+again."
+
+The next question was where should he go-- where find a safe place
+to stay until morning.  Tad remembered with a start that there were
+bears in the range.  He knew this from his own recent experience.  How
+many other savage beasts there might be in the woods he did not
+know.  He had heard some one speak of mountain lions, and having seen
+these before, he fervently hoped he might not have another
+experience with them, unarmed as he was.
+
+"If this gun only were loaded, I should feel better."
+
+After searching around for some time, Tad found a ledge that seemed
+to rise to a considerable height.  Up this he clambered.  It would
+give him a good view in the morning anyway, besides protecting him
+from any prowling animals that might chance in that part of the
+forest.
+
+Tad ensconced himself in a slight depression, and with a flat rock
+for a resting place, leaned back determined to make the best of his
+position.
+
+A gentle breeze now stirred the foliage above his head and all about
+him until the sound became a restless murmur, as if Nature were
+holding council over the lad's predicament.
+
+The lost boy did not so interpret the sounds, however.  He made a
+more practical application of them.
+
+"It's going to rain," he decided wisely, casting a glance above him
+at the sky, which was becoming rapidly overcast.  "And I haven't any
+umbrella," he added, grinning at his own feeble joke.  "Well, I've
+been wet before.  I cannot well be any more so than I was last
+night.  I'll bet the rainwater will be warmer than the waters in the
+East Fork.  If it isn't I'll surely freeze to death."
+
+Fortunately he bad worn his coat when he left the camp, else he
+would now have suffered from the cold.  As it was, he shivered, but
+more from nervousness than from the chill night air.
+
+"Yoh -- hum, but I'm sleepy," he murmured drowsily.  A moment more
+and his head had drooped to one side and Tad Butler was sleeping as
+soundly as if tucked away between his own blankets back in his tent
+in the foothills.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+   ALMOST BETRAYED BY A SNEEZE
+
+Tad awakened with a start.
+
+His first impression was that he smelled smoke, and for the moment
+he believed himself back in camp.  A movement convinced him of his
+error.  A jagged point of rock had cut into his flesh while he
+slept.  He almost cried out with the pain of it, and as he moved a
+little to shift his body from it, the wound hurt worse than ever.
+
+The lad was still surrounded by an impenetrable darkness.  It all
+came back to him--but standing out stronger than all the rest was
+the fact that he was lost.
+
+"Wonder how long I've slept," he muttered.  "Seems as if I had been
+here a year.  Lucky I awoke or I'd been stuck fast on that rock, for
+good and all.  Whew!  B-r-r-r!  I think it's going to snow.  Thought it
+was going to rain just before I went to sleep.  Wonder if they have
+snow up here in the summer time.  Have almost everything else,"
+continued the lad, muttering to himself, half under his breath.
+
+Slowly rising he shook himself vigorously and rubbed his palms
+together to get his circulation stirred up.
+
+"Hello, what's that?  I remember now, I smelled smoke or thought I
+did."
+
+Tad sniffed the chill air suspiciously.
+
+"It is smoke," he decided.  "Maybe I've set the woods on fire with my
+matches.  Guess I'll climb down and investigate."
+
+He started to move down the side of the ledge when it occurred to
+him that perhaps it would be better to investigate from where he
+was; he did not know what danger he might be running into if he were
+to climb down without first having made sure that it was perfectly
+safe to do so.  Just what he might meet with he did not know.  But he
+felt an uneasy sense of impending danger.
+
+"Often feel that way when I first wake up, especially if I've been
+eating pie the night before," he confided to himself, in order to
+urge his courage back to life.
+
+Bending forward he peered from side to side, but was unable to find
+a single trace of light, anywhere about him.  If it were a fire it
+must be some distance away, he concluded.
+
+"If it were some distance away, I wouldn't smell it.  The wind has
+died down.  No, the fire that smoke comes from is right near by me,"
+he whispered.
+
+The sense of human habitation near him caused his pulses to beat
+more rapidly.  The question that remained for him to decide, was who
+was it that had started the fire?
+
+Tad Butler determined to find out if possible, and at once.
+
+He crept cautiously to the right, feeling his way along the ledge,
+not being sure how near he was to the edge.  He found it more
+suddenly than he had expected, and narrowly missed falling over head
+first.
+
+"Whew!  That was a close call," he muttered.  "I must be more
+careful."
+
+There was no sign of either smoke or fire below him, as he observed
+after getting his balance again.  He drew back cautiously and worked
+his way to the side that he had been facing, yet with no better
+result than before.
+
+There yet remained two sides to be investigated--the one he had
+climbed up and the other that lay to the left of him.  Tad chose the
+latter as the most likely to give him the information he
+sought.  However, he found that the edge lay some distance away.  The
+table of rock was much wider than he had imagined, when he first
+ascended to it.
+
+The way was rough.  Once the lad's foot slipped into a crevice.  In
+seeking to withdraw it he gave the ankle a wrench that caused him to
+settle down on the rocks with a half moan of pain.  His shoe had
+become wedged in between the rocks so that he had difficulty in
+withdrawing it at all, and the injured ankle gave him a great deal
+of pain as he struggled to release himself.
+
+"Guess I'll have to take off my shoe.  Hope I haven't sprained my
+ankle.  I'll be in a fine mess if I have," he grumbled.
+
+The ankle gave him considerable trouble; but he rubbed it all of ten
+minutes, and he found that he could endure his shoe again.  He was
+full of curiosity as well as anxiety to learn the cause of the
+smoke, which, by this time, seemed to be coming his way in greater
+volume.
+
+After having relaced the shoe and leggin, Tad started on again, this
+time on all fours, not trusting himself to try to walk, feeling his
+way ahead of him with his hands, which he considered the safer way
+to do.
+
+"There's somebody down there," he whispered, after a long interval
+of slow creeping over the rocks.  "I wonder who it is?  Perhaps they
+are looking for me.  I'll give them a surprise if they are."
+
+The surprise, however, was to be Tad's.
+
+At last he reached the edge of the little butte.  Slowly stretching
+his neck and lying flat on his stomach, he peered over.
+
+A cloud of black smoke rolled up into his face, causing the lad to
+withdraw hastily.
+
+"Aka-c-h-e-w," sneezed Tad, burying his face in his hands.
+
+"Whew, what a smudge!  I'll bet they heard that sneeze."
+
+"What's that?"  demanded a gruff voice below.  "Sounded like somebody
+sneezing."
+
+"No, it's an owl," replied another.  "I've heard that kind
+before.  Sometimes you'd think it was a fellow snoring."
+
+"Must be funny kind of a bird," grunted the first speaker.
+
+"He's right.  That's exactly what I am," growled Tad, who had plainly
+overheard their conversation.  Yet he was thankful that the men below
+had not realized the truth.  Tad was quite willing to be mistaken for
+a bird under the circumstances.
+
+After making sure that the men were not going to investigate the
+sound, the boy crept again toward the edge, working to the right a
+little further this time, so that the smoke might not smite him full
+in the face as had been the case before.
+
+There were four of them--strangers.  The boy observed that they were
+dressed like cowboys, broad brimmed hats, blue shirts and all.  From
+the belt of each was suspended a holster from which protruded the
+butt of a heavy revolver.
+
+"Cowboys," he breathed.  "At least they ought to be and I hope they
+are nothing else."
+
+The lad's attention was fixed particularly on one of the party.  He
+was all of six feet tall, powerfully built, his swarthy face covered
+with a scraggly growth of red beard, and with a face of a peculiarly
+sinister appearance.
+
+"When do they expect the herd?"  asked the first speaker.
+
+"Be here the day after tomorrer I reckon," answered the man with the
+red beard.
+
+"How many?"
+
+"They say there's five thousand sheep in the herd, but it's more'n
+likely there'll be ten when they git here."
+
+"Huh!"  grunted the other.
+
+"There'll be less when we git through with them."
+
+"You bet."
+
+"Boss Simms will be mad.  He'll be ripping, when we clean him out."
+
+Two of the men rose at the big fellow's direction and stalked off
+into the bushes to attend to their ponies, which the lad could hear
+stirring restlessly, but could not see.
+
+"Simms!"  breathed Tad.  "What does this mean? Those men are up to
+some mischief.  I know it.  I must find out what it is they are
+planning to do."
+
+Tad learned a few moments later, but in his attempts to overhear
+what the plans of these strange men were, he nearly lost his own
+life.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+   INTO THE ENEMY'S CAMP
+
+"Has Simms been warned that he'd better keep them out of this here
+territory?"  asked one.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Who told him?"
+
+"Bob Moore, who owns the Double X Ranch on the west side of the
+range.  I saw to that," announced the man with the beard.
+
+Tad decided that he was the leader of the party, but it was not yet
+clear what they were planning to do.  Yet he knew that if he listened
+long enough something was sure to be dropped that would give him a
+clue to the mystery.
+
+"Bob's mad as a trapped bear over it.  Swears he'll kill every sheep
+in the country before he'll let Simms drive in the new herd and
+graze it here."
+
+"Suppose you put it into his head proper like to do something?"
+laughed one.
+
+"Well, I did talk it over with him a bit," admitted the leader.  "But
+he wasn't hard to show."
+
+"When is the thing coming off?"
+
+"We haven't decided yet.  We four will talk that over.  Perhaps the
+same night they get in.  They'll be restless then and easy to
+start."
+
+"But won't the foreman corral the sheep?"
+
+"Don't think so.  Haven't room.  They haven't fixed up a new
+corral, because they expected to graze the sheep on north.  That many
+will clean up the range right straight ahead of us for more'n a
+hundred miles, so that we cattle men won't have half a chance to
+graze our cattle," grinned the spokesman of the party.
+
+His companions laughed harshly.
+
+"I reckon," answered another.  "We'll have all the cattle men on
+both sides of the Rosebud range so stirred up that they will pitch
+into that flock like hyenas who haven't had a square meal since snow
+fell last.  When they break loose there's going to be fun, now I
+tell you.  That's the time we get busy.  We ought to be able to get
+a thousand of them anyhow.  Before next morning we'll be so far down
+toward the Big Horn range that they won't catch us.  And besides,
+after the cattle men get through killing mutton, a thousand more or
+less won't be missed.  It'll make a nice bunch to add to our flock.
+If we work that a few times we'll have enough to make a shipment
+worth while."
+
+"So that's the game is it?"  muttered Tad Butler.  "Well, they won't
+do it if I can help it."  Yet be realized how powerless he was at
+that moment to defeat their nefarious plans.
+
+Somehow they were going to urge the real cattle men to use
+highhanded measures to destroy Mr. Simms's flock.  They were going to
+scatter them, and then these men were going to make off with all
+they could drive away.  It did not seem to the listening boy that
+such things were possible; yet Mr. Simms was authority for the
+statement that such acts were not unknown in this far northern
+state.
+
+There were still many points that Tad was not clear on, but he had
+heard enough to enable him to give the rancher a timely warning of
+what they proposed to do.
+
+The lad knew what that meant.  It meant trouble.  His sympathies had
+been largely with the cattle men--he had looked down on the sheep
+industry and for the reason that he knew only what the cattle men
+had told him about it.
+
+At that moment Tad Butler was experiencing a change of heart.  That
+they could plan ruthlessly to slaughter the inoffensive little
+animals passed his comprehension.  A remark below him caused the lad
+to prick up his ears and listen intently.
+
+"As I came over the Little Muddy this afternoon, I thought I saw
+some sort of a camp in the foothills," said a voice.  "Thought mebby
+that might be the outfit, though I couldn't see what they were doing
+on that side of the range."
+
+"Oh," laughed the big man, "I know the one you mean.  Yes, I took a
+look at that outfit myself."
+
+"Oh, he did, eh?  Wonder we didn't see him," grunted Tad, realizing
+that the men referred to the camp of the Pony Riders.  "There was
+something besides bears around there, I see."
+
+"Find out what it was!"
+
+"Yes, it seemed to be a camp of boys.  There was only one man in the
+bunch so far as I could see.  He was a tall gent with whiskers that
+hadn't been shaved for two weeks o' Sundays."
+
+Tad could not repress a laugh.
+
+"I wish the boys could hear that," he said, laughing softly.  "That
+hits off the Professor better than a real picture could do."
+
+"Huh!  What were they doing!"
+
+"You can search me for the answer.  I haven't got it," laughed the
+big fellow.  "We don't need to bother about them.  They're out here
+with some crazy idea in their tops.  They can't interfere with our
+plans any."
+
+"You'd better not be too sure about that," chuckled Tad.  "Perhaps
+one of them may if he has the good luck to get out of here without
+being discovered."
+
+"What's the plan, Bluff?"
+
+"So that's his name?  I'll remember that," muttered Tad.
+
+"That's what I wanted you boys to meet me here for.  I want you to
+see all the ranchers before to-morrow night on both sides of the
+Rosebud.  Understand now, no blunt giving away of the game.  You want
+to start by telling them you hear Boss Simms is bringing in ten
+thousand head of sheep, and that he's going to graze them up the
+valley all the way over the free grass to the north.  Tell them that
+it'll be mighty poor picking for the cows and so on until you get
+'em good and properly mad----"
+
+"Yes, what then?"
+
+"Better let the ranchers make threats first, then you can say that
+you hear the others are going to teach Boss Simms a lesson and
+stampede his flock to-morrow or next night.  Say you hear the word
+will go out when the mine is ready to touch a match to.  You'll know
+how to work it?"
+
+"Sure thing, Bluff.  Who do you want us to see?"
+
+"I want you and Jake to take the west side of the mountains.  Lazy
+and I will take the east.  Work it thoroughly and don't you go to
+making any bad breaks.  Right after the job is over, besides the
+sheep we get for our own herd, there'll be a few thousand laying
+dead around these parts.  We'll take the contract to skin them for
+the hides.  That'll be another rake off.  Do you follow me?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"To-morrow night meet me at the Three Sisters and I'll be able to
+give you your orders for the rest of the boys."
+
+"You don't think they'll suspect you--that they'll be wise to what
+the game is?"  asked one of the men apprehensively.
+
+"No fear of that.  They'd never mix me up with any such deal as
+that.  I'm a respectable law abiding rancher, I am," laughed the man
+with the red beard.  "Don't you go to getting cold feet.  That's the
+sure way to get caught," admonished the leader.
+
+"Want us to start now?"
+
+"No, sure not.  What's the use?  We'd better turn in and get some
+sleep.  It'll be light enough by three o'clock in the morning.  We'll
+get a rasher of bacon and some hot coffee, then we'll light out for
+the valley.  You know you don't have to see Bob Moore.  And better not
+go near the Circle T Ranch.  I'm not any too sure about those
+fellows.  We'll turn in now."
+
+"I've heard enough to hang the whole bunch," thought Tad
+Butler.  "The trouble is I don't know who they are.  But that does not
+make so much difference.  Only if I did know, Mr. Simms might be able
+to have them arrested.  As it is, I guess the best he can do is to
+get ready to fight them off when they do come," reasoned the lad.
+
+"Better stake the ponies nearer camp in case anything comes along.  I
+came across bear tracks a few miles to the east of here," the big
+man advised them."
+
+"So did I," thought Tad.
+
+"I forgot to tell you that there'll be three or four Crow braves
+with us on the raid as well as half a dozen Blackfeet?"
+
+"Blackfeet?  What are them redskins doing down here, off the
+reservation?"  demanded Jake.
+
+"They're like all critters, think the pasture over the fence is
+better'n their own," laughed Bluff.  "Guess there's no need of any of
+us keeping awake.  We ain't likely to have any surprises."
+
+The cowboy outlaw, however, was about to have the most surprising of
+surprises that could have come to him at that time.
+
+Tad, in his anxiety to catch every word that was uttered, had drawn
+his body close up to the edge of the cliff, his head and shoulders
+hanging well over.
+
+In front of him, right down to the camp stretched a long, sloping
+rock, whose smooth face, glistened in the light of the camp fire.  As
+the men rose to prepare for the night, Tad began pulling himself
+cautiously back, bracing himself with one hand.
+
+Suddenly the hand slipped.  How it happened he was unable to tell
+afterward, but instantly Tad was over the rock and tobogganing down
+its side head first.
+
+A spot rougher than the rest of the rock, caught in his clothes,
+righting the boy's body, permitting him to shoot down the rest of
+the way, feet first.
+
+The Pony Rider Boy's presence of mind did not desert him for an
+instant.  It was not a long drop.  He felt that he would land safely,
+providing he did not turn again and land on his head instead of his
+feet.  It was a chance very liable to happen, as he knew from his
+experience of a second before.
+
+They heard him coming, but did not catch the significance of it.
+
+"What's that!"  exclaimed Bluff, springing up in alarm.
+
+"I don----"
+
+"Y-e-o-w!"
+
+Tad had uttered the shrill scream.  With great presence of mind he
+hoped to take them so by surprise that they would hesitate for the
+few seconds, and that in this delay he would be able to get away.
+
+The lad's feet struck the ground, his body plunged forward and he
+fell sprawling at the very feet of the men he was seeking to get
+away from.
+
+"Catch him!  It's a man!"  roared the leader.
+
+With one accord they sprang for the prostrate form of Tad Butler.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+   TAD OUTWITS HIS PURSUERS
+
+Tad was lithe and supple.  As the champion wrestler of the high
+school, back in his home town in Missouri, he was possessed of many
+tricks that had proved useful to him on more than one occasion since
+the Pony Riders set out on their summer's jaunt.
+
+"Y-e-o-w!"  yelled the lad in a high-pitched, piercing voice,
+intended to confuse his enemy.  And it served its purpose well.
+
+As the men leaped upon him, Tad raised himself to all fours, his
+back slightly arched.  In this position he ran on hands and feet like
+a monkey, darting straight between the legs of the man with the
+beard.
+
+The big man flattened himself on the ground face downward, while
+Tad, who had tripped him, was well outside the ring.  In an instant
+the leader's fellows had dropped on him and the four men were
+floundering helplessly, in what, to all appearances, might have been
+a football scrimmage.
+
+Tad was not yelling now.  He was fairly flying, running on his toes
+and seeking to do so without making the slightest sound.
+
+The men quickly untangled themselves and with yells of rage bounded
+from their camp in search of the one who had caused so much
+disturbance.  It had all happened so quickly that they had not
+succeeded in getting a good look at their tormentor.
+
+"It's a boy!"  roared Bluff.  "Catch him.  No, shoot!  Don't let him get
+away!"
+
+"Where is he!"
+
+"I don't know.  Fan the bushes, fan everything.  We've got to get
+him!"
+
+"Keep it up.  Do you see him?"
+
+"No."
+
+As Tad heard the bullets snipping the leaves over his head, he
+instinctively ducked and, turning sharply to the left, skulked
+through the trees.  By the flickering light of the camp fire he had
+seen something that gave him a sudden idea.
+
+"Watch out.  There he is?"
+
+"Where, where?"
+
+"There, by the ponies.  Give it to him!"  cried Jake.
+
+"Stop, you fools!"  thundered the leader.  "Do you want to kill the
+bronchs?  Get after him.  What are you standing there like a lot of
+dumbheads for?"
+
+"I see him.  I kin pink him," yelled one of the four.
+
+"I said go after him.  Not a shot in that direction!"  commanded
+Bluff.
+
+Tad bad caught a glimpse of the ponies.
+
+"I'm going to try it," he breathed.
+
+No thought of wrong entered his mind.  He was about to take a horse
+that did not belong to him.  He knew his life was at stake and that
+having overheard their plans he would be sure to suffer were he to
+fall into their hands.
+
+"It's not stealing.  It's just fighting them on their own ground,"
+gasped the boy, tugging desperately at the stake rope in an effort
+to free the first pony he came to.
+
+The leash resisted all his efforts.
+
+Out came the lad's jack knife.  One sweep and the rope fell
+apart.  They had discovered him.  Every second was precious now.  He
+was thankful that the men had removed neither bridles nor saddles,
+though he knew the bit was hanging from the animal's mouth.
+
+But Tad cared little for this.  He could manage the pony, he felt
+sure.  With a yell of defiance he leaped into the saddle and dug his
+fist into the animal's side, uttering a shrill, "yip-yip!"
+
+The pony, responding to the demands of its rider, sprang away
+through the forest, putting the lad in imminent peril of being swept
+off by low hanging limbs.
+
+"He's getting away.  He's got one of the ponies.  Give it to him now,
+but don't hit the rest of the cayuses!"  yelled the leader in high
+excitement.
+
+Tad had it in mind to liberate the other animals and start them off
+on a stampede.  It was the fault of the outlaw cowboys that he did
+not.  They discovered his whereabouts sooner than he had hoped they
+might.  It was all he could do to get one pony free and mount in
+time, for they were running toward him at top speed.
+
+Instantly, upon their leader giving them the order to fire, the men
+raised their weapons, taking quick, careful aim, and pulled the
+triggers.
+
+Their bullets whistled far above the head of the fleeing boy, as the
+ground was sloping and he was traveling downward rapidly.
+
+"Keep it up.  You may get in a chance shot.  No, stop.  Take to the
+ponies."
+
+Three of them, including the leader, cast loose the remaining
+animals, and springing upon their backs, spurred the bronchos into a
+run.  They were in hot pursuit of the lad now, with freshly loaded
+guns ready to fire the instant they came within range of him.
+
+Tad's pony was crashing through the brush, making such a racket that
+there could be no trouble about their keeping on the trail.  They
+needed no light by which to follow it unerringly.
+
+The boy soon came to a realization of this.  Then again the men were
+so much more familiar with mountain riding that he felt sure they
+would eventually overhaul him.  Even now they were gaining.  There
+could be no doubt of that.
+
+"I'll ride as long as I can, then I'll try to get away from them
+some other way," he decided.
+
+The moment was rapidly approaching when he would be forced to resort
+to other tactics.  Just what these should be he did not know.  He
+would either be shot or captured in the event of his being unable to
+devise some other method of escape.
+
+Tad Butler was resourceful.  He had no idea of giving up yet.  He was
+determined above all, to defeat the desperate purpose of these men
+and save Mr. Simms from the loss of his flock.
+
+"We're gaining on him!"  cried one of the pursuers.  "I can hear the
+pony plainer now."
+
+"Yes, I kin hear him snort," added another.
+
+"You'll hear that cub doing some snorting on his own account in a
+minute," snarled Bluff, applying the spurs mercilessly.
+
+"Shall we shoot, Cap!"
+
+"I'll let you know when to shoot.  No use filling all the trees in
+the range full of lead.  We'll be up with him in a few minutes now
+and there'll be things doing.  He can't get away.  We've got him to
+rights this time."
+
+"He's a slick one whoever he is.  Think he heard us?"
+
+"Can't guess.  Don't make any difference anyhow.  He won't have a
+chance to use the information, if he did hear."
+
+"We're coming up on him," cried Jake.
+
+"Halt!"  bellowed the leader.
+
+The pony in the lead did not slacken its speed in the least.
+
+Bluff repeated his command, but still without perceptible result.
+
+"Halt or we shoot!"
+
+Tad Butler made no reply.  He was leaning far over on the pony's neck
+now.  In this position he was less likely to be swept off by limbs,
+and, again, were they to fire on him as they had threatened, there
+was a much better chance of the shots going harmlessly over, instead
+of through him.  Thus far their marksmanship had been poor.
+
+This was the second time the lad had been under fire, the first
+having been in the battle of the mountaineers, when the Pony Riders
+were in the Rocky Mountains, on which occasion Tad had conducted
+himself with such coolness and bravery.
+
+Tad realized no fear, however.  It thrilled him.  A strange sense of
+elation possessed him.  He felt strong and resourceful--he felt that
+he would be willing to do or dare almost anything.
+
+"Let him have it!"  commanded the leader sternly.
+
+The men obeyed instantly.
+
+Their weapons sent a rattling fire in the direction of the fleeing
+broncho.
+
+"Halt!  Will you halt!"
+
+The pony still plunged on.
+
+"Once more!"
+
+The men fired again, two rounds each.
+
+This time they heard the pony plunge crashing to the ground.  His
+rapid course had come to a sudden end.
+
+The pursuers set up a yell of triumph.
+
+"He's down!  He's down!  We've got him!"
+
+"Give him another one!"
+
+To make sure that their man should not escape they fired their
+weapons again.
+
+The pursuers dashed up with drawn revolvers, ready to shoot at the
+least sign of resistance.
+
+Bluff leaped from his pony and struck a match.
+
+Tad's mount lay dying in the brush.
+
+"There's no one here," said Bluff, his face working nervously.
+
+Of Tad Butler there was no sign.  He had disappeared utterly.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+   THE RIDE FOB HELP
+
+"There's Pink-eye!"  exclaimed Ned Rector.
+
+"Is it possible?"  answered the Professor.  "Then something has
+happened to Tad."
+
+"Mebby--mebby the bear's got him," suggested Stacy Brown, his face
+blanching.
+
+All through the night the little party had sat up anxiously awaiting
+the return of their companion, who had set out after the bear.  The
+tent had been ruined, but they found that the rifles had not been
+harmed at all, having been stacked in front of the small tents.
+
+Early in the morning the three boys and Professor Zepplin had
+followed Tad's trail for some distance into the foothills, but
+feared to penetrate too far for fear of getting lost.  The Professor
+reasoned that it would be much better to return to camp and give Tad
+a chance to find his way in in case he himself should prove to have
+been lost.
+
+This the boys had done, but they were impatient to be doing
+something more active.  Ned Rector was fairly fuming, because their
+guardian would not permit him to set out alone in search of the
+missing boy.
+
+"No," the Professor had said; "if I did that with all of you, we
+should have the whole party scattered over the mountains and it is
+doubtful if we should all get together again before snow flies."
+
+Yet when Tad's pony came trotting back to camp, the matter took on a
+more serious aspect.  Something must be done and at once.
+
+"Now, will you let me go, Professor?"  begged Ned.
+
+"Not in those mountains alone, if that is what you mean."
+
+"Then what can we do?"
+
+"If the guide were only here!"  interjected Walter.  "Do you suppose I
+could find him?"
+
+"It will be useless to try, my boy.  About the only course we can
+follow now, is that leading back to Forsythe, and I am not sure that
+we shouldn't be lost doing that."
+
+"Then we don't know it," retorted Ned.  "I know the trail.  I could go
+back over it with my eyes shut.  Why would that not be the idea,
+Professor?  Why not let me ride back to Forsythe?  Mr. Simms would
+give us some one who knew the foothills and mountains and I could
+bring him back."
+
+"Let me see, how far is it?"  mused the Professor.
+
+"Thirty miles, he said."
+
+"Why, it would take you couple of days to make that and back."
+
+"You try me and see.  I can get a fresh pony to come back with, and
+if I do not return with the guide, what difference does it make?
+He's the one you want.  But never fear, I'll be back with him between
+now and morning if I have no bad luck," urged the lad earnestly.
+
+"I am half inclined to agree to your plan.  If I were sure that you
+knew the way----"
+
+"It is not possible to get lost.  We have the compasses and we know
+the direction in which Forsythe lies.  All we have to do is to travel
+in an opposite direction from that by which we came."
+
+"Supposing we all go!"  suggested Walter.
+
+"Wouldn't do at all," answered the Professor, with an emphatic shake
+of the head.  "Some one must remain here in case Tad returns.  That
+boy will get back somehow.  I feel sure of that.  He is resourceful
+and strong.  And besides, he has my revolver.  No; more than one on
+the trip would be apt to delay rather than to help.  Master Ned, you
+may go."   "Good!"  shouted the lad.  Bad-eye looked up almost
+resentfully as the boy approached him on the run, threw on the
+saddle and cinched the girths.
+
+The hits were slipped into the animal's mouth, and, placing his left
+foot in the stirrup, Ned threw himself into the saddle.
+
+"I'm ready now," he said, his eyes sparkling with anticipation, as
+he rode up to the little group.
+
+"I'll show you that I'm not a tenderfoot even if I am from
+Missouri," he laughed.
+
+"Be careful," warned Professor Zepplin.
+
+"Don't worry about me, and, Chunky, you look out for bears.  If Tad
+should come in within the next half hour or so, you can fire off
+your rifles to let me know.  Then I'll turn about and come
+back.  Good-bye, all."
+
+"Good-bye and good luck," they shouted.
+
+Giving a gentle pressure to the spurs, Ned Rector started off on his
+long ride at a brisk gallop.  Within a short time the lad had the
+satisfaction of finding that he was emerging from the foothills.  He
+then pulled up the pony and consulted his compass.  "Five points
+north of east.  The Professor said that should take me back.  Besides
+I remember that we came this way yesterday.  I'm going to save some
+time by fording that fork without going the roundabout way we took
+before."
+
+Ned galloped on again.  Had it not been for his anxiety over Tad, he
+would have enjoyed his ride to the fullest.  The morning was
+glorious; the sun had not yet risen high enough to make the heat
+uncomfortable; birds were singing and in spots where the sun had not
+yet penetrated a heavy dew was glistening on foliage and grass.
+
+Ned drew a long breath, drinking in the delicious air.
+
+"This is real," he said.  "Nothing artificial about this.  I wish I
+might stay here always."
+
+The lad did not think of the deep snows and biting cold of the
+northern winters there, winters so severe that hundreds of head of
+sheep and cattle frequently perished from the killing weather.  He
+saw nature only in her most peaceful mood.
+
+He had ridden on for something more than two hours, when he came to
+the East Fork, where they had had such an exciting experience two
+nights before.  After a few moments' riding along the bank he
+discovered the spot where they had made their camp on the opposite
+side.
+
+"I'm going to take a chance and ford right here," he decided.  "No, I
+guess my mission is too important to take the risk.  If I should get
+caught in there I should at least be delayed.  There's somebody else
+who must be considered.  That's Tad."
+
+Half a mile above, the lad found a place that he felt safe in
+trying.  Luckily he got across without mishap.  He had found a rocky
+bar without being aware of it, and the water while swift was shallow
+enough so that by slipping his feet from the stirrups and holding
+them up, he was able to ford the stream without even getting them
+damp.
+
+"I wonder why we didn't find this place the other night," he said
+aloud.  "I guess we were in too big a hurry.  That's the trouble with
+us boys.  We blunder along without using our heads.  But, I guess I
+had better not boast until after I have gotten back safely from
+Forsythe," he laughed.  "I may need some good advice myself before
+that is accomplished."
+
+The pony with ears laid back had settled to a long, loping gallop,
+covering mile after mile without seeming to feel the strain in the
+least.
+
+Some distance beyond the Fork, Ned descried a horseman who had
+halted on beyond him, evidently awaiting his approach.
+
+Ned was not greatly concerned about this.  On the contrary, it was a
+relief to see a human being.
+
+The man hailed him as he drew up.  Ned noted the red beard and the
+general sinister appearance of the man.
+
+"How," greeted the stranger, tossing his hand to the lad.
+
+"How," answered Ned in kind.
+
+"Where you headed!"
+
+"Forsythe."
+
+"Stranger in these parts, I reckon?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"On a herd?"
+
+"Expect to he soon.  Just finished a drive down in Texas."
+
+"Cattle, of course?"
+
+"Oh, yes."
+
+"That's right.  This sheep business has got to stop.  I hear there's
+going to be something doing round these parts pretty lively,"
+grinned the stranger.
+
+"What do you mean?"  asked the lad, peering sharply into the man's
+face.
+
+"Oh, nothing much," answered the other.  "Thought being as you were a
+cowman it might interest you some."
+
+"It does," replied the boy almost sharply.
+
+"Well, guess the rest, then," laughed the stranger.  "Where'd you get
+that pony?"
+
+"Is that not rather a personal question?"  asked Ned, smiling coldly.
+
+"Not in this country.  Kinder reminded me of a nag that belonged to
+me.  He strayed away from my ranch a few weeks ago," said the fellow
+significantly.
+
+"It wasn't this pony," retorted Ned, flushing. "I bought this animal.
+Good day, sir, I must be getting along."
+
+"In a hurry, ain't ye?"
+
+"I am," answered Ned, touching the spurs to the pony's sides and
+galloping off.
+
+"Hey, hold on a minute," called the stranger.
+
+"Can't.  In too much of a hurry," replied Ned.
+
+"I don't like the looks of that fellow at all," muttered the boy as
+he rode on, instinctively urging his mount along at an increased
+speed to put as much distance as possible between himself and the
+curious stranger.
+
+"Funny he should ask me that question about my pony.  However,
+perhaps it is a peculiarity in this part of the country.  Wonder what
+he meant by saying that there would be something doing here pretty
+quick."
+
+After a time Ned turned in his saddle and looked back.  The horseman
+was standing as Ned had left him.  He was watching the boy.  Ned swung
+his hand, and then turned, glad that he was well rid of the man.
+
+Late in the afternoon, he saw the village of Forsythe just ahead of
+him.  The boy could have shouted at the sight.
+
+"Straight as you could shoot a bullet," he chuckled.  "I guess I can
+follow the old Custer trail without getting lost.
+
+He did not pause, but galloped on into the village and up the main
+street, not halting until he had reached the bank with which
+Mr. Simms was connected.
+
+He was stiff and sore from the long, continuous ride, and as he
+dismounted he found that he could scarcely stand.
+
+After tethering the pony to the iron rod that had been fastened to
+two posts, Ned walked into the bank.  Red-faced and dusty he
+presented himself to the banker.  At first the latter did not appear
+to recognize him.
+
+"I am Ned Rector of the Pony Rider Boys," explained the lad.
+
+Mr. Simms sprang up and grasped the boy cordially by the hand.
+
+"This is a surprise.  You back so soon?  Why, is anything wrong!"
+
+"Well, yes, there is," admitted Ned.
+
+"Sit down and tell me about it."
+
+Ned seated himself, but the effort hurt him and he winced a little.
+
+"Stiffened up, eh?  Where did you come from?"
+
+The lad explained and Mr. Simms uttered a soft whistle.
+
+"Well, you have had a ride.  I didn't suppose you boys could ride
+like that.  I suppose the guide found you?"
+
+"We have seen nothing of him at all."
+
+"Is it possible?  I should not have troubled myself to come back to
+tell you had it not been for the fact that one of our boys is lost."
+
+"Lost?"
+
+"Yes.  At least we think so.  He has been away since early last
+evening.  We should not have worried so much had not his pony
+returned without him early this morning.  We dared not go far into
+the mountains to search for him for fear of getting lost ourselves."
+
+"You don't mean it?"
+
+"Yes.  I came back to see if you could give me a man from here, or
+get me one rather.  One who knows the mountains and who will ride
+back with me at once."
+
+"Of course I will.  You did perfectly right in coming to me
+quickly.  My foreman is in town to-day.  He will be in shortly and I
+think he will know of some one who will answer your purpose.  I wish
+you had ridden to my ranch, however.  It would have been much
+nearer."
+
+"I didn't know where it was."
+
+"Of course not."
+
+"While waiting for the foreman, tell me about how it all happened?"
+urged Mr. Simms.
+
+Ned went over the events of the previous evening, in detail, to all
+of which the banker gave an attentive ear.
+
+Mr. Simms regarded him with serious face.
+
+"You young men are having plenty of excitement, I must say.  Yes, you
+are right.  Something must have happened to Master Tad.  He looks to
+me like a boy who could be relied upon to look out for himself
+pretty well, however," added the banker.
+
+"He is.  We were afraid that perhaps he might have gotten into
+trouble with the bear."
+
+"Quite likely.  Do you plan on going back with the guide that we get
+for you?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Then you will need a fresh, pony.  I will have one brought around
+for you when you are ready to start.  I should think, however, that
+it would be best for you to remain over until tomorrow.  You'll be
+lamed up for sure."
+
+"No, I must go back.  I'll be lame all right, but it won't be the
+first time.  I'm lame and sore now.  I've polished that saddle so you
+could skate on it already," laughed Ned.
+
+Mr. Simms laughed.
+
+"I can understand that quite easily.  I've been in the saddle a good
+share of my life, too.  There comes the foreman now."
+
+The foreman of the Simms ranch, who bore the euphonious name of Luke
+Larue, was a product of the West.  Six feet tall, straight, muscular,
+with piercing gray eyes that looked out at one from beneath heavy
+eyelashes, Ned instinctively recognized him as a man calculated to
+inspire confidence.
+
+He shook hands with the young man cordially, sweeping him with a
+quick, comprehensive glance.
+
+Mr. Simms briefly related all that Ned Rector had told him, and the
+foreman glanced at the young man with renewed interest after
+learning of the ride he had taken that morning.
+
+"Pretty good for a tenderfoot, eh?"
+
+Ned's bronzed face took on a darker hue as he blushed violently.
+
+"I don't exactly call myself that now, sir," he replied.
+
+"Right.  You say your friend chased a bear out!"
+
+The lad nodded.
+
+Luke shook his head.
+
+"Bad.  Can he shoot?"
+
+"Oh, yes.  But he had only a revolver--a heavy thirty-eight calibre
+that belongs to Professor Zepplin."
+
+"Nice toy to hunt bears with," laughed the foreman.  "Bear's probably
+cleaned him up.  I'll get a man I know and I'll go back with you
+myself.  We can run down the trail easily enough, but it will need
+two trailers, one to follow the pony and the other the bear after
+their trails separate," the foreman informed them wisely.
+
+"Do--do--you think he has been killed?"   stammered Ned.
+
+"I ain't saying.  It looks bad, that's all."
+
+Ned forced a composure that he did not feel.  He started to ask a
+further question, when there came a sudden interruption that brought
+all three to their feet.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+   A RACE AGAINST TIME
+
+But to return to Tad and his experiences in seeking to elude his
+pursuers.  The boy saw that it was a question of a few moments only
+before they would surely overhaul him.  Already the bullets from
+their revolvers were making their presence known about him.
+
+"Getting too warm for me," decided the lad coolly.
+
+It occurred to him to leave the pony and take his chances on
+foot.  The animal did not belong to him and he would have to abandon
+it sooner or later.
+
+A volley closer than the rest emphasized his decision.  The lad freed
+his feet from the stirrups and slipped from the saddle, at the same
+time giving the pony a sharp slap, uttering a shrill little "yip!"
+as the animal dashed away.
+
+After this, Tad did not wait a second.  He ran obliquely away from
+the pony.  This he thought would be better than turning sharply to
+the left or right.  The next moment he came into violent contact with
+the base of a tree.  He noted that it's trunk was a sloping one, and
+without pausing to think of the wisdom of his act, the lad quickly
+scrambled up it.
+
+To his delight he found himself amid the spreading branches of a
+pinon tree.  He wriggled in among the foliage, stretching himself
+along a limb, where he clung almost breathless.  He had no sooner
+gained that position than the pony went down under the fire of his
+pursuers.
+
+"Too bad," muttered Tad.  "It's a shame I had to desert the
+broncho.  He did me a good service."
+
+The men galloped by a few feet from the boy's hiding place and came
+to a halt beside the prostrate pony.  His straining ears caught their
+every word.
+
+When they began to shoot, Tad flattened himself still more,
+instinctively.  Some of the bullets passed close beneath him, and he
+wished that he might have chosen a higher tree in which to hide.
+
+Bang!
+
+It seemed to have cut the leaves just behind his head.
+
+Tad repressed a shiver and shut his lips tightly together.  He was
+determined not to permit himself to feel any fear.
+
+At last the men joined each other right under the tree in which he
+was hiding.  Tad fairly held his breath.
+
+"Well, what do you think, Cap?"
+
+"Don't think.  I know.  The cayuse has given us the slip."
+
+"No, not much use looking for him.  Better wait here till morning
+then try to trail him down, if we don't find him laid out somewhere
+in the bushes round here," suggested one.
+
+"Yes, we might as well go back to camp.  We can't spend much time
+looking for him in the morning.  We've got other work to do.  I wish I
+knew just how much that fellow overheard.  Queerest thing I ever come
+across, and I don't like it a little bit."
+
+They removed the saddle and bridle from the dead pony, after which
+they started slowly away.
+
+Tad breathed again.  Yet he still lay along the pinon limb, every
+sense on the alert.  He was not sure that it was not a trick to draw
+him out.  He already was too good a woodsman to be caught napping
+thus easily.
+
+After a time, however, deciding that all the men had left, the lad
+cautiously began to work his way down the sloping tree trunk.  His
+feet touched the ground, his arms still being about the pinon
+trunk.  In that position he lay for several minutes.
+
+"I guess it's all right," decided Tad, straightening up.  "The
+question is, which way shall I go?  I've got to be a long ways from
+here by daylight or that will be the end of me.  It would be just my
+luck to run right into that gang again."
+
+After pondering a moment he decided that, knowing the direction the
+men had taken, there was only one thing for him to do.  He would
+strike out in the opposite direction.
+
+He did so at once, first standing in one spot for some time to get
+his bearings exactly.  Then, the lad started away bravely.  At first
+he moved cautiously and as he got further away, increased his speed
+and went on with less caution.
+
+He kept bearing to the right to offset the natural tendency to stray
+too far the other way, which is usual with those who are lost in the
+forest.
+
+Tad was tired and sore, but he did not allow himself to give any
+thought to that.  His one thought now, was to get out of the forest
+and give the alarm to the owner of the ranch against whom he had
+heard the men plotting.
+
+Hearing water running somewhere near, Tad realized that he was very
+thirsty, and after a few minutes' search, he located a small
+mountain stream.  Making a cup of his hands he drank greedily, then
+took up his weary journey again.  Forcing his way through dense
+patches of brush, stumbling into little gullies, becoming entangled
+amongst fallen trees and rotting brush heaps, boy and clothes
+suffered a sad beating.
+
+Day dawned faintly after what had seemed an endless night.  The sky
+which he could faintly make out through the trees above him, was of
+a dull leaden gray, which slowly merged into an ever deepening
+blue.  Off to his right he caught glimpses of patches of blue that
+were lower down.
+
+"I must be up in the mountains," said Tad aloud.  "I wonder how I
+ever got up here."
+
+This was a certain aid to him, however.  He reasoned that if the
+valley lay to his right, he must be going nearly northward.  That
+would lead him toward the place where he believed the Simms ranch
+lay, and at the present moment that was Tad Butler's objective
+point.  It might be losing valuable time were he to try to find his
+way back to camp.
+
+"I'll get down lower," he decided, turning sharply to the right and
+descending the sloping side of the mountains.
+
+Reaching the lower rocks, he found that he was more likely to lose
+his way there than higher up.  He was now in the foothills.  There,
+all sense of direction was lost.  So Tad, began ascending the
+mountain.  He went up just far enough to enable him to see the blue
+sky off to the right again, after which he forced his way along the
+rocky slope.  It was tough traveling and he felt it in every muscle
+of his body.
+
+After plodding on for hours, he paused finally and listened.
+
+"Thought I heard a bell tinkle," he muttered.  "I've heard of people
+hearing such things when they were nearly crazed with hunger and
+fatigue on the desert.  I wonder if I am going the same way.  Oh,
+pshaw!  Tad Butler, you could keep on walking all day.  Don't be
+silly," he said to himself encouragingly.
+
+The tinkling bell was now a certainty.
+
+"I know what it is!" exclaimed the lad joyously.  "It's sheep!  I've
+heard them before.  I'm near sheep and that means there will be men
+around.  It's sheepmen that I am looking for now."
+
+With hat in hand, the boy dashed off down the mountain side, leaping
+lightly from rock to rock, his red neck-handkerchief streaming in
+the breeze behind him, as he followed an oblique course toward the
+foothills.
+
+All at once he burst out on to a broad, green mesa, and there,
+before his delighted eyes was a great herd of snowy-white sheep
+grazing contentedly.  Off on the further side of the flock he
+descried a man lazily sitting in his saddle while a dog was rounding
+up a bunch of stray lambs further to Tad's right.
+
+The man was watching the work of the dog, so that he did not
+discover the lad at once.
+
+Tad decided that he would go around the herd to the left.  That
+appeared to be the shortest way to reach him.  He did not wish to try
+to go straight through the herd.
+
+He had gone but a little way before he saw that the man had observed
+him and was now riding around the upper end of the flock to meet
+him.
+
+"Hello, what do you want?"  shouted the fellow.
+
+"I want to find Mr. Simms's ranch.  Is it anywhere near here?"
+
+"Two miles up that way.  Where'd you come from?"
+
+"I don't know.  I've been lost in the mountains.  I must see Mr. Simms
+at once."
+
+"Guess you've got a long walk ahead of you then," laughed the
+sheepman.  "Boss Simms is up to Forsythe."
+
+"Is his family at the ranch?"  asked Tad.
+
+"I reckon the women folks is.  You seem to be in a hurry, pardner."
+
+"I am.  I must hurry."
+
+Wondering at the haste of the disreputable looking youngster, the
+sheepman watched him until he had gotten out of sight.  Finding the
+footing good and encouraged by the knowledge that he had but two
+miles to go, the lad dropped into a lope which he kept up until the
+white side of the Simms ranch buildings reflected back the morning
+sun just ahead of him.
+
+Tads legs almost collapsed under him as he staggered into the yard
+and asked a boy whom he saw there, for Mrs. Simms.
+
+He was directed by a wave of the hand to a near-by door, on which
+Tad rapped insistently.
+
+"I wish to see Mrs. Simms, please," he said to the servant, who
+responded to his knock.
+
+"I am Mrs. Simms.  What is it you wish?"  answered a voice somewhere
+in the room.  It was a pleasant voice, reminding Tad much of his
+mother's, and a sense of restfulness possessed him almost at
+once.  He felt almost as if he were at home again.
+
+"I would like to speak with you, alone, please."
+
+"Who are you?"
+
+"I am Tad Butler from Missouri.  I----"
+
+"Oh, yes, nay husband told me you were expected," she said
+cordially, extending her hand.
+
+"I owe you an apology for appearing in this shape, but I have been
+lost in the mountains and seem to be rather badly in need of a
+change of clothes," smiled the lad.
+
+"Come right in.  Never mind the clothes.  Perhaps I may be able to
+help you.  You say you have been lost?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Where are your companions?"
+
+"I don't know.  I left them in camp somewhere, I am not sure where."
+
+"Oh, that is too bad.  If you will remain until night perhaps we can
+spare one of the herders to help you find them----"
+
+"Pardon me, but it is not for that that I came here," interrupted
+the lad.  "It was on a far more important matter."
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"It is a matter that concerns your husband very seriously."
+
+"Tell me about it, please?"  said Mrs. Simms anxiously.
+
+"Have you anyone that you could send to Forsythe at once with an
+urgent message for your husband?"  he asked.
+
+"There is no one.  The herders would not dare to leave their
+flocks--that is not until the sheep were safe in their corral
+to-night."
+
+"That will be too late.  I'll have to go myself.  Have you a spare
+pony that I could ride!"
+
+"Of course.  That is if you can rope one out of the pen and saddle it
+yourself."
+
+"Certainly.  I can do that," said the boy quickly.  "But I shall
+probably ride him pretty hard and fast.  I do not think Mr. Simms
+will object when he learns my reasons."
+
+"Is it so serious as that?"
+
+"It seems so to me.  Last night while lost in the mountains I
+overheard some men plotting against your husband.  They said he was
+expecting a large number of sheep that were being brought in on a
+drive."
+
+"Yes, that is true."
+
+"They were planning to attack the herd, to stampede it and kill all
+the animals they could----"
+
+"Is it possible?"  demanded the woman, growing pale.
+
+"They mean it, too.  I think I will get the pony and start now,"
+decided Tad, rising.
+
+"You are a brave boy," exclaimed the banker's wife, laying an
+impulsive hand on Tad's shoulder.  "I wish you did not have to
+go.  You are tired out now.  I can see that."
+
+"I'll be all right when I get in the saddle again," he
+smiled.  "Thank you just as much."
+
+"You shall not leave this house until you have had your breakfast.
+What can I be thinking of?"  announced Mrs. Simms.  "You are doing
+us all a very great service and I am not even thoughtful enough to
+offer you something to eat though you are half starved."
+
+"I had better not spare the time to sit down," objected Tad.  "I must
+be going if you will show me the way."
+
+"Not until you have eaten."
+
+"Then, will you please make me some sandwiches?  I can eat them in
+the saddle, and I shall get along very nicely until I get to
+town.  I'll eat enough to make up for lost time when I get at it," he
+laughed.
+
+He was out of the house and running toward the corral, to which
+Mrs. Simms had directed him.  Tad hunted about until he found a rope;
+then going to the enclosure scanned the ponies critically.
+
+"I think I'll take that roan," he decided.  "Looks as if he had some
+life in him."
+
+The roan had plenty, as Tad soon learned.  However, after a lively
+little battle he succeeded in getting the animal from the enclosure
+and saddling and bridling him.
+
+Tad could find no spurs, but he helped himself to a crop which he
+found in the stable, though, from what he had been able to observe,
+the pony would require little urging to make him go at a good speed.
+
+Mrs. Simms was outside when Tad rode up.  She had prepared a lunch
+for him, placing it in a little leather bag with a strap attached
+for fastening the package over his shoulder.
+
+"Please say nothing about what I have told you," urged Tad.  "I don't
+want them to know we understand their plans.  That is the only way
+Mr. Simms will be able to catch them."
+
+"Of course, I shall not mention it.  Good-bye and good luck."
+
+Tad mounted his broncho and was off, head-ding directly for the town
+of Forsythe.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+   A TIMELY WARNING
+
+Arriving in the little town about noon, Tad dashed up the street
+toward Mr. Simms' bank.  Tethering his broncho to the post, he
+entered the bank, and in his anxiety, pushed open the door of
+Mr. Simms' private office without ceremony.
+
+Here, as we already know, were Mr. Simms, Luke Larue and Ned, all
+eagerly discussing Tad's mysterious disappearance.  For a moment not
+one of those in the office spoke a word.  Tad stood before them, his
+clothes hanging in ribbons, his face scratched and torn, the dust
+and grime of the plains fairly ground into his face, hands and neck.
+
+Luke Larue, of course, did not know the lad, but the keen eyes of
+the banker lighted up with recognition.
+
+"Master Ned," he said.  "I think if this young man were washed and
+dressed up, you might recognize in him the friend you are looking
+for."
+
+"Tad!"  exclaimed the boy, springing forward, excitedly grasping the
+hands of the freckle-faced boy.
+
+"Hello, Ned.  What you doing here?'
+
+"Looking for you.  They're all upset back at the camp.  We thought the
+bear had gotten you."
+
+"No, I got the bear.  A two-legged bear nearly got me later on.  I'll
+tell you all about it later.  I want to see Mr. Simms now."
+
+"Master Tad, I don't know where you have been, but you certainly
+look used up.  This is the foreman of my ranch, Mr. Luke Larue," said
+the banker.
+
+With a quiet smile on the face of each, man and boy shook hands.
+
+"Heard about you," greeted Luke.  "Heard you was a tenderfoot.  Don't
+look like it."
+
+"Neither do I feel like it.  Feel as if I'd been put through an ore
+mill or something that would grind equally fine.  When do you expect
+the sheep?"
+
+The foreman shot a keen glance at him.
+
+"To-day or to-morrow.  Why?"
+
+"Because there is trouble ahead for you when they get here."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"What is this you say?"  demanded Mr. Simms.
+
+"That is what I have come here to tell you about.  There is a plan on
+foot to ride down your sheep when they get here."
+
+Larue laughed.
+
+"Guess they'd better not try it.  Where did you hear that fairy
+story, young man?"
+
+"It's not a fairy tale--it is the fact."
+
+Mr. Simms had risen from his chair and was now facing Tad.  He saw in
+the lad's face what convinced him that there was more to be told.
+
+"Let me hear all about it, Master Tad," he said.
+
+"Somebody's been filling the boy up with tenderfoot yarns," smiled
+the foreman.
+
+Tad did not appear to heed the foreman's scoffing.  Instead, he began
+in a low incisive voice the narration of his experiences of the
+previous night, beginning with the bear hunt and ending with his
+finding his way out of the forest that morning.
+
+As he proceeded with the story, the lines on the face of the banker
+grew tense, his blue eyes appearing to fade to a misty gray.
+
+At first indifferent, Larue soon pricked up his ears, then became
+intensely interested in the story.
+
+"And that's about all I can think of to tell you," concluded Tad.
+
+Ned uttered a low whistle of amazement.
+
+"So you think this is a tenderfoot yarn, eh?"  asked the banker,
+turning to his foreman.
+
+"Not now," answered Larue.  "I guess the boy did get it straight."
+
+"Humph!  You had no means of knowing-- didn't hear what his name was,
+did you?"
+
+"No, sir.  He was a big man with red hair and beard and he had a scar
+over his left temple.  The men with him called him Bluff."
+
+"Don't know any such man, do you, Luke?"
+
+Luke shook his head.
+
+"Nobody who would mix up in such a dirty deal as that.  Oscar
+Stillwell who owns a cow ranch on the other side of the Rosebud,
+answers to that description, but he ain't the man for that kind of a
+raw job.  Known him five years now."
+
+"Sure about him, are you?"
+
+"Positive.  He don't approve of the hatred that the cowmen generally
+have for the sheep business.  Says there's free grass enough for all
+of us and that the sheepmen have just as much right to it as the
+cowmen.  I'll ride over to his ranch this afternoon and talk with
+him.  I can tell him the story without his giving it away."
+
+"Just as you think best.  You know your man and I don't."
+
+"Yes.  And if there's any such plan on foot, he'll be likely to know
+about it."
+
+"This business has been getting altogether too common.  All the way
+up and down the old Custer trail, there has been sheep killing,
+sheep stealing, stampeding and no end of trouble for the past
+year.  We have seemed unable to fix the responsibility on anyone.  But
+I'll tell you that if they try to break into any of our herds this
+time, somebody is going to be shot," decided Mr. Simms, compressing
+his lips tightly together.  "We're forewarned this time."
+
+"Have you any suggestions, Mr. Simms?  I must be getting back to the
+ranch if this is in the wind?"
+
+"Yes.  Let no one outside of our own men, know that we suspect,
+unless it be Stillwell and you are sure you can trust him----"
+
+"There's no doubt of it."
+
+"When the new herd gets here, put all the men on it save one who
+will watch the corral at night.  They won't be likely to attack the
+sheep that are in the enclosure.  It's the new ones that we have to
+herd on the open range that they will be likely to direct their
+efforts toward.  Master Tad has heard as much."
+
+"Will you be out?"
+
+"Of course.  I'll ride out this afternoon and remain at the ranch or
+on the range until this thing has blown over.  We had better begin
+grazing north at once.  I want to get them up where the grass is
+better, as soon as possible.  Then you can let them take their time
+until after shearing.  We're late with that as it is.  See that the
+men are well armed, but make no plans until I have been out and
+looked the ground over."
+
+"Very well.  Suppose you have no idea where it was that these men
+found you, or where you found them?"  asked the foreman.
+
+"No, sir.  I was too busy to take notice."
+
+"I should say so," laughed Mr. Simms.
+
+"I'd better be moving then, if there's nothing else to be said,"
+decided Luke.
+
+"I think you had better spare the time to take these young men back
+to their camp."
+
+"I helped myself to one of your horses, Mr. Simms.  The roan."
+
+"Help yourself to anything that belongs to me, young man," answered
+the banker.  "You have done us a service that nothing we can do will
+repay."
+
+"The roan--you say you rode the roan?"  asked Lame.
+
+"Yes.  He's a good one."
+
+"Did he throw you?"
+
+"He tried to," grinned Tad.
+
+"Then I take back all I said about your being a tenderfoot.  There
+aren't three men on the ranch who can stick on his back when he
+takes a notion that he doesn't want them to."
+
+"Luke, I have asked these young men to join our outfit.  When I did
+so, I didn't know I was drawing a prize.  They rather thought the
+sheep business wouldn't suit them, having been out with a herd of
+cows----"
+
+"We shall be glad to accept your kind offer, Mr. Simms," interrupted
+Tad.  "I've changed my mind since I saw how the cattle men act toward
+sheep."
+
+"That's good."
+
+"When do you wish us to join you?"
+
+"Join to-day by all means, if you have no other plans.  I am
+surprised that the guide failed you.  You will not need a guide if
+you go with the outfit, and you can take as many side trips for
+hunting, as you wish."
+
+"That will be fine," agreed Ned Rector.
+
+"Another idea occurs to me.  My boy Philip has not been well, and if
+you lads have no objection, I should like to send him along with the
+herd.  If you will keep an eye on him to see that he doesn't get into
+trouble, I shall be deeply grateful to you."
+
+"Of course we shall," answered Tad brightening.  "How old is he?"
+
+"Only twelve.  He's quite a baby still.  You will not have any
+responsibility at all, you understand.  He and Old Hicks the cook of
+the outfit, are great friends, and Hicks will look after him most of
+the time."
+
+"We shall be glad to have him with us," glowed Ned.
+
+"Perhaps you would prefer not to join until after this trouble is
+over.  It probably would be safer, come to think of it----"
+
+"No.  I think we should like to join right away," interrupted Tad
+hastily.  "Besides, we may be able to be of some service to you.  We
+can handle cattle, so I don't know why we should not be of use with
+sheep.  Don't you think so, Ned?"
+
+"Yes, of course.  That will just suit Chunky, too.  That's what we
+call our friend Stacy Brown," explained Ned, with a grin.  "He's the
+fat boy, you know."
+
+"Was once.  He's getting over it rapidly," laughed Tad.  "His uncle
+won't know him when he gets back to Chillicothe."
+
+"You have had most of the fun and excitement thus far, Tad.  Now the
+rest of us want to have some too."
+
+"If you call being shot at fun, then I have had more than my share."
+
+"Most likely you will have all that's coming to you if this thing
+comes off," grunted the foreman.  "I'm going out now.  Meet you here
+in an hour.  We'll ride back to the ranch.  I'll either accompany you
+to your own camp from there, or send some one else who knows the
+way.  I think I understand where your friends are located.  I'm going
+to get a case of shells at the hardware store, Mr. Sirnms."
+
+"That's the idea.  Better take out some more guns while you are about
+it.  You know what to buy."
+
+At the appointed time Larue presented himself at the bank,
+announcing himself as ready for the ride.  The banker again renewed
+his expressions of appreciation of all that Tad Butler had done for
+him, after which they swung into their saddles and started off on
+their long ride over the plains.
+
+There was plenty of excitement before the Pony Riders.  Their few
+weeks with the herd were to be more eventful, even, than had been
+their journey with the cattle over the plains of Texas.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+   PREPARING FOR AN ATTACK
+
+It was late on the following forenoon when the Pony Rider Boys
+descended on the Simms ranch, bag and baggage.  Larue had relieved
+one of the herders and sent him back with Tad Butler and Ned Rector,
+to bring up the rest of the party.
+
+The parlor tent they found had been too badly damaged to be worth
+carrying along, so they left it where the bear had wrecked it.
+
+"Heard anything from the herd?"  was Tad's first question as
+Mr. Simms came out to greet them.
+
+"We certainly have.  They are within three miles of here now.  I have
+given orders to keep them clear of the ranch, and the herders are at
+work deflecting them to the northward.  We shall bed them down about
+five miles from here to-night.  To-morrow we will push on slowly for
+the grass regions up the state.  I have arranged for you to remain at
+the ranch to-night."
+
+"Oh, no.  We prefer to go out and join the herd," objected Tad.
+
+"We most certainly do," added Ned.  "That's what we are here for."
+
+"Have you heard anything new?"  asked Tad, in a low voice, leaning
+from his saddle.
+
+"Yes.  I heard that the cowmen all through here are stirred up.  It
+isn't any one man or set of men that's doing it.  We have received
+threats from different sources if we allow the sheep to stray from
+our own ranch," answered Mr. Simms, with serious face.
+
+"And you have decided----?"
+
+"To go on."
+
+"Hello, is this your son, Philip?"  asked Tad, as a slender,
+pale-faced boy came toward them.
+
+"Yes, this is Phil.  Come here, Phil and meet my young friends."
+
+The Pony Rider Boys took to the lad at once.  He was a manly little
+fellow, but delicate to the point of being fragile, the lad having
+only recently recovered from a serious attack of typhoid fever.
+
+"You see what the outdoor life has done for these young gentlemen,
+Phil," said Mr. Simms.  "I shall expect you to come back this fall,
+looking every bit as well as they do now.  All get ready for
+dinner.  It will be served in a few moments.  Later in the day, we
+shall move out on the range.  Phil, have you packed up your things?"
+
+"Yes, sir.  I'm all ready."
+
+The noon meal was a jolly affair.  The herders cooked their own meals
+out on the range, and after this the boys would eat with them.  But
+to-day they were invited guests in the home of the rancher and
+hanker.  In the meantime Professor Zepplin and Mr. Simms had become
+interested in each other and already were looking forward to the
+next few days on the range together, with keen pleasure.
+
+The start was made shortly after three o'clock, the party reaching
+their destination well before sundown.
+
+The Pony Riders uttered a shout as they descried the white canvas
+top of the chuck wagon.  It was a familiar sight to them.  On beyond
+that was a perfect sea of white backs and bobbing heads, where the
+great herd was grazing contentedly after its long journey to the
+free grass of Montana.  The boys had never seen anything like it.
+
+The sheep dogs, too, were a source of never-ending interest.  The
+boys watched the intelligent animals, as of their own accord they
+rounded up a bunch here and there that they had observed straying
+from the main herd, working the sheep back to their fellows quietly
+and without in the least appearing to disturb them.
+
+"What kind of sheep is that over there?"  asked Chunky, pointing.
+
+"That's no sheep.  That's Billy," answered Mr. Simms.
+
+"Who's he?"
+
+"The goat.  You've no doubt heard of a bell wether?"
+
+"I have," spoke up Tad.
+
+"That's what Billy is.  He leads the sheep.  They will follow a leader
+almost anywhere.  In crossing a stream Billy wades in without the
+least hesitation and they cross right over after him.  Otherwise we
+should have great difficulty in getting them over."
+
+"Oh, yes, I know a goat.  Had one once," replied Stacy.  "Does he
+butt?"
+
+"Sometimes.  His temper is not what might be called angelic.  I
+suspect the boys have been teasing him pretty well.  However, you
+want to look out for some of those rams.  They are ugly and they can
+easily knock a man down.  If you are up early in the morning you will
+see them at play--you will see what they can do with their tough
+heads."
+
+"I forgot to tell you," said Larue in a low voice, "that some of the
+men report having encountered Indians during the day."
+
+"That's nothing new.  There are plenty of them around here," laughed
+the banker.
+
+"They think they were Blackfeet.  The reds were so far away, however,
+that the men could not make certain."
+
+"Off the reservation again, eh?  Probably think they can pick up a
+few sheep.  Well, look out for them.  If you catch them at any shines
+just shoot to scare.  Don't hit them.  We don't want any Government
+inquiry.  I have suspected for a long time that some of them were
+hiding in the Rosebuds and that the Crow Indians were in league with
+them.  It's only the bad Indians who stray from their reservations,
+you see," explained Mr. Simms.  "We have to be on the lookout for
+these roving bands all the time or they'd steal all we have."
+
+"I should think you would complain to the Indian agencies,"
+suggested the Professor,
+
+"Doesn't pay.  They would take it out of us in a worse way,
+perhaps.  They're a revengeful gang."
+
+One by one the herders came in with their dogs and flocks, rounding
+the sheep in for the night, having chosen for the purpose a slight
+depression in the plain.  For the first time, the boys had an
+opportunity to meet the ranchers and compare them with the cattle
+men they tad known in Texas.  They were a hardy lot, taciturn and
+solemn-faced.  The most silent man in the bunch, was Noisy Cooper,
+who scarcely ever spoke a word unless forced to do so by an
+insistent question.  Bat Coyne had been a cattle man down in Texas,
+while Mary Johnson --so called because of his pink and white
+complexion, which no amount of sun or wind could tarnish--was said
+to have come from the East.  He had left there for reasons best known
+to himself, working on sheep ever since.
+
+It was Old Hicks, however, who interested Tad most.  Hicks's first
+words after being introduced were in apology for being cook on a
+sheep ranch.
+
+He was limping about, flourishing a frying-pan to accentuate his
+protests.
+
+"I'm a cowpuncher, I am.  Wish I'd never joined this mutton outfit,"
+he growled.
+
+"Then why did you?"  asked Tad, smiling broadly.
+
+"Why?  I joined because I could get more pay.  That's why.  What you
+suppose I joined for?"
+
+"I thought perhaps you preferred sheep," answered the lad meekly.
+
+"Like them --like mutton?"  snarled Old Hicks, hurling his frying-pan
+angrily into the chuck wagon.  "Between sheep and had Injuns, give me
+the Injun every time.  Why, every time I have to cook one it makes me
+sick; it does."
+
+"Indians?  Do you cook Indians?"  asked Stacy, who had been an
+interested listener to the conversation.
+
+"Wha--wha--cook Indians?  No!  I cook mutton.  What do you take me
+for?"
+
+"I--I--I didn't know," muttered Stacy meekly.  "Thought I heard you
+say you did."
+
+"You got another think coming," growled the cook, limping
+away.  "Come over here and take a sniff at this kettle?"  he called,
+turning back to Tad.
+
+The lad did so.
+
+"Smells fine, doesn't it?"
+
+"I think so.  What is it, mutton?"
+
+"Boiled mutton.  I kin smell the wool.  Bah."
+
+"Do you cook them with the wool on?"  asked Chunky, edging nearer the
+kettle.
+
+"See here, young man.  This here is a bad country to ask fool
+questions in.  Use your eyes and ears.  Give your tongue a rest.  It'll
+stop on you some day."
+
+Chunky retired somewhat crestfallen, and from that moment on he kept
+aloof from the irascible cook, whom he held in wholesome awe.
+
+"Come and get it!"  bellowed Old Hicks, who, after prodding about the
+interior of the kettle with a sharp stick for some time, decided
+that the hated mutton was ready to be served.
+
+The Pony Riders did not share Hicks's repugnance to mutton.  They
+helped themselves liberally, and even Phil Simms went so far as to
+pass his plate for a second helping.  By the time the meal had been
+finished twilight was upon them.
+
+The boys, when Professor Zepplin called their attention to the
+lateness of the hour, made haste to pitch their tents, while
+Mr. Simms, with Phil and the sheepmen, looked on approvingly.
+
+"You boys go at it like troopers," he smiled.  "You'll have to pitch
+your own, too, after to-day, Philip."
+
+"We'll help him," chorused the boys.  "We've got to do something to
+earn our board," said Ned.
+
+"If we eat all the time the way we have tonight, there won't be many
+sheep left to graze by the time we've finished the trip," laughed
+Walter.
+
+"Somebody has to eat the cook's share," interrupted Larue.  "What I
+came over here to ask was whether you boys were intending to take
+your turns at herding for the next few nights?"
+
+"Of course we are," they answered in one voice.  "That's what we are
+up here for, "added Tad.
+
+"Got any guns?"
+
+"Rifles.  Fortunately, they were not in the tent that was set afire
+by the bear, so they are all right," replied Tad.  "However, I'll
+have to ask the Professor about taking them out.  I do not think he
+will care to have us do so."
+
+"I'll give you each a revolver," announced the foreman.
+
+"Luke, never mind the guns.  The boys will do their part by keeping
+guard.  We don't want them to be mixed up in any trouble that may
+follow.  If there is any shooting to be done, we can take care of
+that, I guess," said Mr. Simms, with a grim smile.
+
+"Yes, I could not think of permitting it," said the Professor
+firmly; hence it was decided that the lads should go on as they had
+been doing, leaving the sterner work to those whose business it was
+to attend to it.
+
+After the darkness had settled over the camp, the boys observed that
+there were more men present than had been the case when they had
+their supper.
+
+Mr. Simms explained that they were some men he had sent for to help
+protect the herd.  He had ordered them to report after dark, so that
+the trouble-makers might know nothing about the increased force.  The
+rancher was determined to teach the cattle men of the free-grass
+range a lesson they would not soon forget.
+
+"What do you wish us to do?"  asked Walter.  "We are anxious to get
+busy."
+
+"I think two of you had better go out for the first half of the
+night; the other two for the latter half."
+
+"Do we take our ponies?"  asked Tad.
+
+"Yes.  All of us will ride, excepting the few men who are regularly
+on guard with the sheep.  But you will not move around much.  Make no
+noise and be watchful.  That is all we can do."
+
+It was decided that Ned and Walter should take the early trick; Tad
+and Stacy Brown going out after midnight.
+
+The herders were already attending to their duties.  And now
+Mr. Simms and the foreman having given their orders, the reserve
+force moved out one at a time until all had disappeared in the
+darkness.  A signal had been agreed upon, so that they might
+recognize each other in the dark.
+
+The rancher had thrown out his reserve force in the shape of a
+picket line, located some distance out from the herd and covering a
+circle something more than a mile in diameter.  This was done so that
+in case of an attack they would have an opportunity to drive off
+their enemy without great danger to the herd.  The battle, more than
+likely, would be ended before the cowmen could get near enough to
+the sheep to inflict any damage.
+
+The two boys left camp rather closer together than had the others,
+as they were to keep in touch during their watch.
+
+In a short time the guards were all placed and a great silence
+settled over the scene, broken only now and then by the bleating of
+a lamb that had lost its mother in the darkness.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+   BUNTED BY A MERINO RAM
+
+The Simms outfit breathed a sigh of relief when daylight came
+again.  There had been nothing more disturbing than Stacy Brown's
+yawns in the early part of the night.
+
+So persistent had been these that the Professor and Mr. Simms found
+themselves yawning in sympathy.  Old Hicks, who was sitting up to
+prepare hot coffee for any of the sheepmen who might come in, was
+affected in a like manner.  Had it not been for the presence of the
+owner of the herd Hicks might have adopted heroic measures to put a
+stop to Stacy's yawns.  As it was, he threatened all sorts of dire
+things.  At breakfast time the cook seemed to be in a far worse humor
+than ever when he gave the breakfast call.
+
+"Come and get it.  And I hope it chokes you!"  he bellowed, voicing
+his displeasure at everything and everybody in general.
+
+Tad rode in as fresh as if he had not had a sleepless vigil.  His
+rest of late had been more or less irregular, but it seemed to have
+not the slightest effect either on his spirits or his appetite.
+
+All felt the relief from the strain of the night's watching and
+it was a more sociable company that gathered at the table than had
+been the case on the previous evening.
+
+"Well, how do you like being a sheepman?"  asked Mr. Simms jovially.
+
+"It's better than being lost in the mountains and being shot at by
+cowmen," averred Tad.
+
+"Perhaps you'll have a chance to enjoy the latter pleasure, still,"
+said Mr. Simms.  "I do not delude myself that we are out of danger
+yet; it may be that they have taken warning and given it up."
+
+"What are the plans for to-day?"  asked Ned Rector.
+
+"The herd will graze on, and later in the day we shall move the camp
+five or six miles up the range.  See any Indians last night?"
+
+"No," answered the boys, sobering a little.
+
+"Old Hicks is authority for the statement that they were hovering
+somewhere near during the night."
+
+"How does he know?"  asked Tad.
+
+"You'll have to make inquiry of Hicks himself if you want to find
+out," laughed the rancher.  "Probably the same way that he knows we
+are talking about him now."
+
+All eyes were directed toward the cook.
+
+Hicks was limping around the mutton kettle, shaking his fist at it
+and berating it, though in a voice too low for them to hear.
+
+"That's one of your cattle men for you," chuckled Mr. Simms.  "I
+think he would take genuine pleasure in boiling a sheepman in his
+pot.  But he takes the money," added Mr. Simms significantly.  "By the
+way, where's your chum?"
+
+"Whom do you mean?"  asked Walter, glancing about the table.
+
+"Chunky, I believe you call him."
+
+"That's so, where is he?"  demanded Tad, laying down his fork.
+
+"Probably fallen in somewhere again," growled Ned.
+
+"Did not Master Stacy come in with you, Ned?"  asked the Professor
+hurriedly.
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"He was with you last night?"
+
+"No, not all the time.  He went out with me, but I saw him only twice
+during the early part of my watch."
+
+Mr. Simms looked serious.  "I hope nothing has happened to him.  See
+here, Luke.  They tell me Master Stacy has not been seen this
+morning.  Know anything of it?"
+
+"Why, no.  Are you sure?  Have you looked in his tent?"
+
+"Excuse me, I'll go see if he isn't there," said Tad, rising from
+the table and hurrying to the tent occupied by his companion.
+
+"No," he said as he returned; "evidently he has not been there since
+we went out at midnight."
+
+"Ask Old Hicks if he has seen him come in," directed Mr. Simms.
+
+The cook said he had not set eyes on the fat boy, adding that he
+didn't care a rap if he never came back.
+
+The boys looked at each other with mute, questioning eyes.
+
+"We must go in search of him at once," decided the Professor.
+
+"Yes, don't worry, Professor," calmed the rancher.  "He has probably
+strayed off by himself and is unable to find his way back.  Luke will
+round him up in short order.  Finish your breakfast, everybody, then
+we will see that the young man is brought back.  Funny he should have
+gotten away without any one's having noticed it."
+
+"He's always getting himself into trouble," declared Ned.
+
+"I thought I was the only one that did that," retorted Tad, with an
+attempt at gayety.
+
+"That's different.  I know what I'm talking about.  Something is sure
+to happen to that boy before we are ready to go back home."
+
+"Begins to look as if something had already happened," said Walter.
+
+A wild yell startled the sheepmen at the table.  It seemed to come
+from some distance away.
+
+Everybody started up, some reaching for their guns.
+
+"We are attacked!"  cried one.
+
+"No, but we're going to be!"  shouted another.  "There comes one of
+the boys on a pony giving the alarm."
+
+"Get ready, everybody!"
+
+The camp was in instant confusion.  In their haste to prepare for
+action, the table was upset and its contents piled in a confused
+heap.  Old Hicks was roaring out his displeasure, the foreman was
+shouting out his orders, while Professor Zepplin was seeking to make
+himself heard in an effort to give directions to his charges.
+
+Suddenly the voice of the foreman was heard above the uproar.
+
+"Hold on!"  he shouted.  "It's one of our own --it's------Oh, bah!"
+
+"What is it?  What is it!"  cried Mr. Simms, unlimbering his weapon.
+
+"It's Chunky," snorted Ned Rector disgustedly.  "The fat boy has been
+falling in again or I'll eat mutton all the rest of my natural
+life."
+
+"It sure enough is he," answered Tad, gazing off at the horseman who
+was riding at top speed and trying to urge his pony on still
+faster.  "I wonder what he has been getting into this time.  Hope it's
+nothing serious."
+
+"Not to him, anyway, judging by the way he is riding," replied
+Walter.
+
+"Something has given him a mighty good start, anyhow," shrewdly
+decided the foreman.
+
+"I know what it is--I know what he's in such a hurry about," said
+Ned.
+
+"What?"  asked Walter.
+
+"Breakfast.  He's just found out it's breakfast time," jeered Ned.
+
+"Can't have no breakfast," growled Old Hicks.  "Breakfast is et."
+
+"Excepting what's on the ground," added Mary Johnson.  "What's he
+yelling about?"
+
+"Something's gone twisted," decided Champ Blake.  "Think so, Noisy?"
+"Uh-hu," agreed the silent one.  All eyes were fixed on Chunky.  He
+was gesticulating wildly and pointing back to the hills from which
+he had just come.
+
+"I believe they are after us, and in broad daylight, too," snapped
+Mr. Simms.  "Get your ponies.  Be quick!  Ride fast.  Don't let them get
+near the sheep."
+
+Thus admonished, the sheepmen sprang for their saddles.  The boys
+followed suit at once, leaving only the Professor and Old Hicks to
+look after the camp.
+
+A bunch of sheep had trotted to a water hole hard by the camp, a
+faithful shepherd dog following along after them to see that they
+returned to the main flock as soon as they should have satisfied
+their thirst.  The sheep were now between Chunky and the camp.  So
+intent was he on attracting the attention of the men that he failed
+to observe the small flock in his path.
+
+Neither did the sheepmen notice it.  If Old Hicks did, he did not
+care what happened either to the sheep or to the boy to whom he had
+taken such a violent dislike.
+
+"Wow!  Wow!  Wow!"  screamed the boy in a shrill, high-pitched voice.
+
+"What's the matter?"
+
+"Where are they?"
+
+"How many of 'em?"
+
+These and other questions were hurled at Chunky as he dashed
+straight toward the camp.
+
+He pointed back to the foothills.
+
+"They're there, he says," shouted the foreman.  "Come on.  Spread
+out so as to cover the herd.  Don't you let a man get through our
+lines."
+
+Their ponies were stretched out with noses reaching for some unseen
+object, as it seemed.  They swept past the lad within hailing
+distance, riding hard, while he continued to reach for home.
+
+Stacy had turned to look back at the racing sheepmen, when his pony
+drove biting and striking right into the flock crowded about the
+water hole, for the ponies liked the sheep no more than did the
+cook.
+
+The broncho went down like a flash, hopelessly entangled with the
+bleating, frightened animals.  But Stacy did not stop.  That is, he
+did not do so at once.  The lad had shot neatly over the broncho's
+head, describing a nice curve in the air as he soared.
+
+Pock!
+
+His head landed with a muffled sound.
+
+"Ouch!  Help!"
+
+A loud, angry bleat followed his exclamation.  The lad's head had
+been driven with great violence against the soft, unresisting side
+of a Merino ram.
+
+The Merino went down under the blow.  But his soft fleece had saved
+the boy from serious injury, if not from a broken neck.
+
+"I fell off," cried Stacy, struggling to his feet, running his
+fingers over his body, as if to determine whether or not he had been
+hurt.  "I --I didn't see them.  Th--they got in my way."
+
+Whether he had or not was not now the question, at least so far as
+the Merino was concerned.
+
+The ram was angry.  He resented being bunted over in any such manner.
+
+The animal, scrambling to his feet, uttered a bleat, at the same
+time viciously throwing up his head, landing lightly, for him, on
+Chunky's leg.
+
+"Stop kicking me!  I say you stop that you----"
+
+He did not finish what he had started to say.  The Merino, finding
+the mark a satisfactory one, had backed quickly off.  With head well
+down, eyes on the boy who had been the cause of his downfall, he
+charged with a rush.
+
+Just at the instant when he delivered the blow, the tough, horned
+head was raised ever so little.
+
+"Ye-o-ow!"  shrieked the boy as he felt himself suddenly lifted from
+his feet and once more propelled through the air head first.  It
+seemed in that brief interval of sailing through space as if every
+particular bone in his body had been jarred loose from its
+fastenings.  Chunky felt as if he were all falling apart while making
+his brief second flight.
+
+He was headed straight for the muddy water hole, and the ram was
+charging him a second time.  The lad did not know this, however.
+
+Just at the edge of the water hole the Merino caught him again,
+neatly flipping him in the air and landing the boy on his back, with
+a mighty splash, right in the middle of the pool.
+
+Yet the force of the ram's charge had been so great that he was
+unable to stop when he discovered the water at his feet.  In
+endeavoring to do so, his strong little feet ploughed into the soft
+turf.  The Merino did a pretty half somersault and he too landed in
+the mud pool on his back.
+
+Unfortunately, he struck in the identical spot that Chunky had, and
+for a moment there was such a threshing about, such a commotion
+there as two monsters of the deep might have made in a battle to
+the death.
+
+Old Hicks was hammering a dishpan on a wheel of the chuck wagon,
+regardless of the damage he was inflicting on the pan, and screaming
+with delight.
+
+Professor Zepplin as soon as he could recover his wits, rushed to
+the rescue and from the flying legs and horns managed to extract
+Stacy Brown and drag him up to the dry ground.
+
+The lad was a spectacle.  Mud was plastered over him from head to
+foot, while the muddy water was dripping from hair, mouth, ears,
+eyes and nose.
+
+"I--I fell in, didn't I?"  he gasped.  "Wh-- who kicked me?"
+
+"Who kicked him?"  jeered Old Hicks.  "Oh, help, help!"  he cried,
+rolling with laughter.
+
+Stacy began to sputter in an uncertain voice.
+
+Professor Zepplin shook him roundly.
+
+"Why didn't you get out of it?  The water wasn't over my head, you
+Chunk," roared Old Hicks.
+
+Chunky eyed him sadly.
+
+"It was the way I went in," he said, breathing hard as he wrung the
+water from his trousers by twisting them in his hand.
+
+At that the irrepressible Hicks went off into another paroxysm of
+mirth.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+   ROPED BY A COWBOY
+
+The Professor had no sooner marched Stacy to his tent to wash the
+mud from himself and get into a clean suit of clothes, than the
+sheepmen came galloping back to camp.  A few of them had been left
+out near the foothills in case of a surprise.
+
+"Where's that boy who sent us off on this fool chase?"  demanded Luke
+Larue, riding right into the camp.
+
+Chunky poked his head from the tent, holding the flap about him to
+cover himself.
+
+"What did you tell us the cowmen were after us for?"
+
+"Who, me?"
+
+"Yes, come out here.  I want to talk to you."
+
+"I--I--I can't."
+
+"You'd better or I'll have to fetch you out.  Why can't you?"
+demanded the foreman sternly.
+
+"I--I haven't got any clothes on," stammered the boy.
+
+The foreman slipped from his pony, leaning against a tree with a
+helpless expression on his face.
+
+Stacy's companions with Mr. Simms and several of the sheepmen rode
+in at that moment.
+
+"Where's that boy?"  demanded the rancher of Larue.
+
+The foreman pointed to the tent.  But the lad not yet having finished
+his toilet, all hands were obliged to stand about waiting for
+him.  They did so with much impatience.  Stacy took all the time he
+needed, apparently not believing that there was any necessity for
+haste.
+
+At last he sauntered out smiling broadly.
+
+"I think you owe us an explanation, at least," announced Mr. Simms,
+a peculiar smile playing about the corners of his lips.  He had
+intended to be stern, but the sight of Chunky's good-natured face
+disarmed him at once, as it did most people.
+
+"'Bout what?"  asked the lad.
+
+"Sending us out to the foothills, telling us the cowmen were
+attacking us."
+
+Stacy's eyes opened widely.
+
+"Never said so."
+
+"What did you say, then?"
+
+"Nothing."
+
+"I guess we are all dreaming," laughed the rancher.  "Will you please
+tell me what did happen then, when you started us away?"
+
+"When I was riding in, you all started up and mounted your
+ponies.  Somebody yelled, 'where are they?' I pointed back to the
+mountains, and then you rode on," the lad informed him.
+
+It was an unusually long speech for Chunky to make without many
+halts and pauses.  But he did very well with it.
+
+"That is exactly what you did do.  When we got there we found not the
+slightest trace of the cowmen.  Where did you see them?"
+
+"I didn't see them," persisted the lad.
+
+"Then why did you tell us you did?"
+
+"I didn't."
+
+Mr. Simms thrust his hands in his pockets and strode back and forth
+several times.
+
+"Say, young man, did you see anything at all, except what your
+imagination furnished?"
+
+Chunky nodded emphatically.
+
+"What did you see?"
+
+"Indians."
+
+"Oh, pshaw!"  grunted Mr. Simms disgustedly.
+
+"Indians?"  interrupted Walter Perkins.  "Tell me about it?"
+
+"I was asleep," began Stacy.
+
+"So that's the way you keep watch over our herd is it?"  growled
+Luke.  "We were just about to organize a searching party to go after
+you, when we saw you coming."
+
+"I got tired.  I sat down by a rook and-- y-a-li--hum----"
+
+"Ho-ho-ho--hum," yawned the foreman.
+
+Within half a minute the whole outfit was yawning lazily, all save
+Old Hicks, the cook, who with hands thrust into his trousers pockets
+stood peering at the fat boy out of the corners of his eyes.
+
+"Stop that, d'ye hear!"  snapped Ned Rector angrily.  "I'll duck you
+in that water hole, if you don't."
+
+"Just been ducked," answered Stacy lazily.  "Got kicked in by a
+sheep."
+
+"What about the Indians?"  asked Tad impatiently.  "I guess you
+dreamed you saw them."
+
+"No, I didn't.  I went to sleep by the rock and when I woke up it was
+daylight.  I yawned."
+
+"Of course you did," jeered Ned.  "Wouldn't have been you if you
+hadn't yawned."
+
+"I was rubbing my eyes and trying to make up my mind where I was
+when--when----"
+
+"When what?"  urged Tad.
+
+"When somebody said, 'How?'"
+
+The sheepmen laughed.
+
+"I--I looked around, and there--there stood a lot of Indians----"
+
+"On their heads!"  asked Ned.
+
+"No, sitting on their ponies.  Then--then I --"
+
+"Then you pitched into them and drove them away," laughed Walter.
+
+"No, I didn't.  I yelled and run away.  So would you."
+
+Every man and boy of the sheep outfit roared with laughter.
+
+"My boy," said Mr. Simms, "you will have to get used to seeing
+Indians if you remain with us long.  This state is full of them, some
+bad, some good.  But you need not be afraid of them.  They dare not
+interfere with us, so if you see any, just pass the time of day and
+go on along about your business."
+
+"When I got back here I fell in----" Professor Zepplin here broke
+into the conversation to explain what had happened to the fat boy,
+whereupon the outfit once more shouted with merriment.
+
+The camp finally having been restored to its normal state, plans
+were made for moving on to the north.
+
+"I wish you would ride over to Groveland Corners and get me fifty
+feet of quarter inch rope, Tad," said Mr. Simms.  "You will have no
+trouble in finding the way.  I'll show you exactly how to get there
+and find your way back afterwards.  And by the way, you might take
+Philip with you, if you don't mind.  I want him to get all the riding
+he can stand."
+
+"I'll answer yes to both, requests," smiled Tad.  "How far is it to
+the--the----"
+
+"Corners?  Five miles as the crow flies.  It will be a slightly longer
+distance, because you have to go around the Little Butte.  The place
+is situated just behind it on the west side."
+
+"Then, I'm ready now, if Phil is."
+
+The young man was not only ready, but anxious to be off, so without
+delay, the two lads brought in their ponies and after receiving
+final instructions as to how to find the new camp, they set off at
+an easy gallop in the fresh morning air, their spirits rising as
+they rode over the green mesa that lay sparkling in the morning
+sunlight.
+
+Groveland Corners was little more than its name implied, consisting
+of one store that supplied the wants of the half dozen families who
+inhabited the place, as well as furnishing certain supplies to
+near-by ranchmen.
+
+A group of cattle men had gathered at the store.  They were sitting
+on the front porch talking earnestly when the two boys rode up.  Tad
+dismounted, hitching his pony, while Phil, shifting to an easy
+position on his saddle, waited until the purchase of the rope had
+been made.
+
+The conversation came to a sudden pause as the boys rode up, the
+cowmen eyeing the newcomers almost suspiciously, Tad
+thought.  However, he paid no attention to them, further than to bid
+them a pleasant good morning, to which one or two of them gave a
+grunting reply.
+
+He had noticed one raw-boned mountain boy among the lot who had
+answered his greeting with a sneering smile and a reply under his
+breath that Tad had not caught.  The lad gave no heed to it, but went
+about his business.  Besides the rope, he made several small
+purchases for himself.  In reply to a question of the storekeeper,
+Tad informed him that he was with the Simms outfit.  One of the
+cowmen who had entered the store, overhearing this, went outside and
+informed his companions.
+
+"Hello, kid," greeted one, as the boy left the store.  "How's mutton
+to-day?"
+
+Busily coiling the rope, Tad paid no attention to the taunt; he hung
+the rope on his saddle horn and then methodically unhitched Pinkeye.
+
+"Going to hang yerself?"  jeered another.  "That's all a mutton
+puncher's worth.  I guess."
+
+Tad felt his face flush.  He paused long enough to turn and look
+straight into the eyes of the speaker.
+
+"My, but ain't our little boy spunky!"  called the fellow in
+derision.
+
+"If he is, he knows, at least, enough to mind his own business,"
+snapped Tad.
+
+A jeering laugh followed the remark.
+
+"Did ye mean that fer me?"  demanded the mountain boy, rising
+angrily.
+
+"If the coat fits, put it on," answered the freckle-faced boy
+indifferently, vaulting lightly into the saddle.
+
+"I'll bet that's Boss Simms's kid--the pale-faced dude, eh?"  sneered
+one sharply.
+
+An angry growl answered the suggestion.  Tad thinking it was time to
+be off, turned his pony about and Phil did the same.  But no sooner
+had they headed their mounts toward home, Tad being slightly in the
+lead, than a rope squirmed through the air.
+
+It dropped over the shoulders of Mr. Simms' delicate young son,
+tightened about his arms with a jerk.
+
+"Help!"  cried the frightened boy.
+
+Tad, glancing back apprehensively saw what had happened.  He wheeled
+his pony like a flash, but not quickly enough to save his companion
+from falling.
+
+Phil Simms was roped from his pony, landing heavily in the dust of
+the street.
+
+"Y-e-o-w!" chorused the cowboys.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+   TAD WHIPS A MOUNTAIN BOY
+
+Shame!  Shame on you!"  cried Tad Butler indignantly.
+
+The lad leaped from his pony which he quickly tethered to the
+hitching bar in front of the store.
+
+This done he ran to his fallen companion, who still lay where the
+lariat had thrown him.  He was half stunned and covered with
+dust.  After jerking him from his pony, however, the cowboys, though
+continuing their shouts of glee, had made no further effort to
+molest Philip.
+
+Tad quickly released him.
+
+"I 've had a lot to do with cowboys, but you're the first I ever
+knew who would do a thing like that.  The cowboys I know are
+gentlemen."
+
+"Then, d'ye mean to say that we ain't, ye miserable cayuse?"
+demanded one of the number, rising menacingly.
+
+"The fellow who roped that boy is a loafer!"  answered Tad bravely,
+taking a couple of paces forward and facing the crowd.  "You wouldn't
+dare do that to a man, especially if he had a gun as you have.  Why
+didn't you try it on Luke Lame when he was over here?"
+
+"Oh, go back to yer mammy," jeered one.
+
+"I want to know who threw that rope?  If he isn't too big a coward,
+he'll tell me.  I guess Mr. Simms will settle with him."
+
+"It's up to you, Bob, I guess," nodded one of them, addressing the
+angry-faced mountain boy who was one of their number.
+
+The latter rose with what was intended to appear as offended
+dignity.
+
+"Ye mean me?"  he demanded, glaring.
+
+"Yes, if you are the one who did it," answered Tad, looking him
+squarely in the eyes.
+
+"Then your going to git the alfiredest lickin' you ever had in your
+life," announced the mountain boy.
+
+Tad held the other with a gaze so steady and unflinching as to cause
+the mountain boy to pause hesitatingly.
+
+"Phil, jump on your pony and get out of here," directed the lad in a
+low tone.
+
+"He stays where he is," commanded one of the cowboys.
+
+"Do as I tell you," retorted Tad sharply.  "Be quick about it, too."
+
+A cowboy aimed a gun at Phil Simms.
+
+"Try it, if ye want ter git touched up," he warned.  "Bob, sail into
+the fresh kid," he added, nodding his head toward Tad Butler.
+
+"I'm not looking for a fight--I don't want to fight, but if that
+loafer comes near me I'll have to do the best I can," answered Tad
+bravely.  "I don't expect to get fair play.  I'll----"
+
+"You'll git fair play and you'll git more besides," called the
+previous speaker.  "Go to him, Bob."
+
+Bob lowered his head, sticking out his chin and assuming a
+belligerent attitude with eyes fixed on the slender figure of his
+opponent.
+
+Tad was observing the mountain boy keenly, measuring him mentally,
+while young Simms, pale-faced and frightened, was leaning against
+his pony, which he had caught and was preparing to mount when he was
+stopped by the gun of the cowboy.
+
+"See, you've got him rattled already, Bob," shouted a cowman
+triumphantly.  "He'll be running in a minute."
+
+"Come away, Tad," begged Philip.
+
+"Keep quiet.  Don't speak to me," answered the lad, without turning
+his head toward his companion.  Tad Butler's whole being was centered
+on the work that he knew was ahead of him.
+
+He was angry.  He felt that he had never been more so in his life,
+but not a trace of his emotion showed in his face or actions.  If he
+ever had need of coolness, it was at this very moment.  He did not
+know whether he would be able to master the raw-boned mountaineer or
+not.
+
+The lad's training in athletics had been thorough, and his title of
+champion wrestler of the high school in Chillicothe had been earned
+by hard work and persistent effort to make himself physically fit.
+
+"He's all of twenty-five pounds heavier than I am," decided the
+boy.  "I've got to try some tricks that he doesn't know about, if I
+hope to make any kind of showing."
+
+Bob was now approaching him with an ugly grin on his face.  Tad's
+arms hung easily by his side.
+
+"Come on, what are you waiting for?"  Tad smiled.
+
+With a bellow of rage, Bob rushed him.
+
+Tad laughed, and stepping quickly to one side, thrust a foot between
+the bully's legs as he passed.  Bob landed flat on his face in the
+dust of the street.
+
+The cowboys set up a roar of delight.  It was sport, no matter who
+got the worst of it.
+
+"Give them room," shouted some one, as the men closed quickly about
+the combatants.  "Let the kids fight it out."
+
+These tactics were so new to Bob, that be did not know just what had
+happened to him.  And when he had scrambled to his feet, he met the
+laughing face of Tad Butler, which enraged him past all
+control.  This was exactly what Tad wanted.
+
+Bob with a bellow again charged him.  Tad made a pass and missed, but
+covered his failure by neatly ducking under the upraised arm of the
+cowboy, whose surprised look when he found that he had been punching
+the empty air brought forth yells of delight from his companions.
+
+Tad had cast away his hat, that it might not interfere with his
+movements.  No sooner had he done so than his opponent renewed his
+attack.  But Tad skillfully parried the heavy blows, delivered
+awkwardly and without any great amount of skill.  The great danger
+was that his adversary with his superior strength might beat down
+the lad's defense and land a blow that would put a sudden end to the
+fray.
+
+Tad was watching for an opening that would enable him to put in
+practice a plan that had formed in his brain.
+
+"Look out for the cayuse, Bob.  He ain't so big a tenderfoot as he
+looks," warned a cowboy.  But Bob had already discovered this
+fact.  Though his fists were beating a tattoo in the air he seemed
+unable to land a blow on the body of his elusive adversary, and this
+only served to anger him the more.
+
+"Ki-yi!"  yelled the cowboys as a short arm blow, delivered through
+the mountaineer's windmill movements, reached his jaw and sent him
+sprawling.
+
+Tad had not been able to put the force into it that he wanted to,
+else the battle might have ended then and there.
+
+Bob came back.  This time he uttered no taunts.  The blow hurt
+him.  His head felt dizzy and his fists did not work with the same
+speed that they had done before.
+
+All at once Tad's right hand shot out, his fist open instead of
+being closed.  It closed over the left wrist of the cowboy with an
+audible slap.
+
+Tad's left hand joined his right in closing over his adversary's
+wrist.  He whirled sharply, bringing Bob's left arm over his
+adversary's shoulder.  Then something happened that made the cowmen
+gasp with astonishment.  The slender lad lifted the big mountain boy
+clear of the ground, hurled him over his head, and still clinging to
+the wrist, brought him down with a smashing jolt, flat on his back
+in the middle of the village street.  Phil Simms narrowly escaped
+being struck by the heels of the mountain boy's boots as they
+described a half circle in the air.
+
+Bob lay perfectly still.  And for a moment the cowboys stood
+speechless with amazement.
+
+"Whoopee!"  yelled one.  "Who-o-o-p-e-e!"  chorused the others, dancing
+about Tad Butler and his fallen victim in wild delight.
+
+"I'm sorry I had to do it," muttered the boy.
+
+They helped Bob to his feet, pounded him on the back, making jeering
+remarks about his being whipped by a kid, until his courage
+gradually was urged back as his strength returned.
+
+Suddenly Bob turned on his assailant, and throwing both arms about
+him, bore him to earth.  The move was so unexpected that the lad had
+no opportunity to side step out of the way.  The weight of the
+mountaineer was so great that Tad found himself unable to squirm
+from under.
+
+Bob, with a growl of rage, raised his fist, bringing it down with
+the same movement that he would wield a meat axe.
+
+Tad never flinched as he saw it coming.  His eyes were fixed upon the
+descending fist, his every nerve centered on the task of watching
+it.
+
+Just at the instant when fist and face seemed to be meeting, the lad
+by a mighty effort, jerked his head ever so little to the
+right.
+
+"Oh!"  yelled Bob.
+
+Something snapped.
+
+The pressure released from his body, ever so little, Tad by a
+supreme muscular effort, threw his opponent slightly to one side,
+and quickly wormed himself from under.  He was on his feet in an
+instant.
+
+The cowboys did not know what had happened, but they knew that the
+boy from the Simms ranch had done something to their companion that
+for the instant had taken all of the fight out of him.
+
+Tad had been only partly responsible for Bob's present condition,
+however.  By jerking his head to one side he had caused the mountain
+boy's fist to strike the hard roadbed instead of Tad's head.
+
+Bob struggled to his feet, holding the right wrist with the left
+hand and moaning with pain.  The right hung limp.  Tad knew what had
+happened.
+
+"He's broken his wrist.  I'm glad I didn't have to do it for him,"
+said the lad.
+
+At first glowering glances were cast in Tad's direction.  They were
+of half a mind to punish him in their own way.
+
+"You said it was to be a fair fight," spoke up the lad.  "Has it
+been?"
+
+There was a momentary silence.
+
+"The kid's right," exclaimed a cowman.  "He cleaned up Bob fair and
+square.  I reckon you kin go, now."
+
+"Thank you."
+
+"Hold on a minute.  Not so fast, young fellow.  I'm kinder curious
+like to know how ye put Bob over yer head like that!"  asked another.
+
+"It was a simple little Japanese wrestling trick," laughed the boy.
+
+"Kin ye do that to me?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"Well, yer going ter try and right here and now."
+
+"All right, come over here on the grass where the ground isn't so
+hard.  If I succeed in doing it, though, you must agree not to get
+mad.  I can't fight you, you know.  You are too big for me."
+
+The cowman grinned significantly, and strode over to the place
+indicated by Tad Butler.
+
+"Now what d'ye want me ter do?"  he demanded, leering.  "Yer see I'm
+willing?"
+
+"Strike at me, if you wish.  I don't care how you go about it,"
+replied Tad.
+
+"Here goes!"
+
+The cowman launched a terrific blow with his right.  Tad sprang back
+laughing.
+
+"If that had ever hit me, you never would have known how the other
+trick is worked," he said, while the cowboys laughed uproariously at
+the fellow's surprise when he found that his fist had not landed.
+
+"Guess the kid ain't no slouch, eh, Jim?"  jeered one.
+
+Jim let go another, then a third one.  The third blow proved his
+undoing.  The next instant Jim's boots were describing a half circle
+in the air over Tad Butler's head.  His revolvers slipping from their
+holsters in transit, dropped to the ground and Jim landed flat on
+his back with a mighty grunt.
+
+He was up with a roar, his right hand dropping instinctively to his
+empty holster.
+
+"Wh-o-o-o-e!"  warned the fellow's companions.  "No fair, Jim.  No
+fair.  He said as he'd do it, and he did.  Kid, you'd clean out the
+whole outfit, give you time, I reckon."
+
+Jim pulled himself together, restored his weapons to their places,
+and walked over to Tad, extending his hand.
+
+"That was a dizzy wallop ye give me, pardner," he.  said, with a
+sheepish grin.  "If ye'll show me how it's did, I'll call it square."
+
+Tad laughingly did so.
+
+"I guess I couldn't get even with them any easier than by showing
+them the trick," he grinned, mounting his pony, and accompanied by
+Philip rode away.  "They'll try that trick till the whole bunch of
+them get into a battle royal."
+
+They did, as Tad learned next day.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+   CHUNKY RIDES THE GOAT
+
+"There's the sheep," announced Tad, after they had ridden on for
+some time.
+
+"I'm glad," said Phil, "do you know, Tad, I thought those men were
+going to kill you."  Phil's courage had returned, when he realized
+that they were in sight of friends once more.
+
+Tad laughed.
+
+"They aren't half so bad as they would have us believe.  The boy was
+the worst of the lot.  He needed to he taught a lesson, but I wish I
+hadn't hurt him," he mused.
+
+"He did it himself; you didn't."
+
+"Yes, I know.  I had to to save my own face."  The lad laughed
+heartily at his own joke, which Philip, however, failed to
+catch.  "Now we'll find out where the camp is," said Tad, espying a
+herder off to the north of them.
+
+Having been directed to the new camp, Phil galloped away, Tad
+remaining to chat with the sheepman a few minutes.  Yet he made no
+mention of his experience at Groveland Corners, not being
+particularly proud of it, after all.  After riding slowly about with,
+the herder for half an hour, the lad jogged off toward camp, which
+his companion had reached before him.
+
+Philip had spread the story of Tad's battle with the cowboy.  Old
+Hicks, contrary to his usual practice, had listened with one ear,
+giving a grunt of satisfaction when the story had been told.  As a
+result there were several persons eagerly awaiting him in the sheep
+camp when he rode up.
+
+"Who's getting into trouble now?"  demanded Stacy, with mock
+seriousness.  "You need a guardian, I guess.  I presume Mr. Simms
+thinks so, too."
+
+"Heard you had two black eyes," jeered Ned Rector.
+
+"Say, Tad, we've agreed that you shall show us how you did it, using
+Chunky for your model," said Walter Perkins.
+
+Tad smiled good-naturedly, dismounting from the saddle and tethering
+the pony with his usual care.
+
+"Guess I'd better leave the saddle on.  There may he something doing
+any minute," he mused.
+
+"Mr. Simms wants ye over to his tent," Old Hicks informed Tad.
+
+"Oh, all right," answered the lad, walking briskly to the little
+tent occupied by the owner of the herd.
+
+The foreman was there awaiting Tad's arrival as well.
+
+"First I want to thank you for having taken Phil's part so
+splendidly," glowed Mr. Simms.  "It is a wonder they did not do you
+some harm after that."
+
+"Oh, they were not half bad," laughed Tad.  "They were ashamed of
+what they'd done after it was all over."
+
+"No.  There's no shame in that crowd.  I know them.  Phil has told me
+about it.  I know them all, and they shall suffer for roping that
+boy," went on the rancher angrily.
+
+"One of them has," answered Tad, with a mischievous twinkle in his
+eyes.  "Besides, there's going to be a big fight over there.  Perhaps
+they are at it now."
+
+"Fight?  I should judge from what I hear that there already has been
+one.  What do you mean?"
+
+"Oh, nothing very serious.  I taught them the Japanese trick of
+throwing a man over my head.  They were trying it on when I
+left.  Shouldn't be surprised, after they learn how to do the trick,
+if they got mad and had a real fight."
+
+Luke Larue leaned back, slapping his thighs and laughing
+uproariously.
+
+"Well, you are a smart one," he exclaimed.  "Couldn't lick them all
+yourself, so you fixed it so they'd sail in and lick each
+other.  Funniest thing I ever heard.  I'll have to tell Old Hicks
+about that.  But I won't do it till after dinner, or he'll burn the
+mutton and spoil our meal.  Fighting each other!"  Luke indulged in
+more hilarity.
+
+"You heard nothing, of course--they said nothing about our herd----"
+
+"No, but it was plain that they had no love for you, Mr. Simms.  It
+was the boy who roped Philip, though.  I do not think the men would
+have done anything like that."
+
+"It's all the same.  It shows the feeling that exists.  Nothing will
+ever wipe that out except a good whipping.  It's coming to them and
+they are going to get it."
+
+"You think then--you believe they have not given up their plan of
+attacking the sheep?"  asked Tad.
+
+"Given it up?  Not they.  They have been too well nagged on by your
+friend of the Rosebud.  I wish I knew who he is.  I probably never
+shall, though."
+
+"I'll know him if I see him again."
+
+"You might not.  Camp-fire sight is tricky."
+
+"I'll know his voice, sir.  I presume you will continue
+your watch over the herd to-night?"
+
+"Yes, and for many nights to come.  We shall keep it up until we get
+far enough to the north so that we are sure there will be no
+trouble.  I guess you had better go on the late trick to-night.  That
+is the most important.  We'll send your friend Chunky out early in
+the evening.  His habit of going to sleep at unusual times is too
+serious to trust him with the late and dangerous watch.  If they
+strike it will be close to morning, I imagine."
+
+"I hope they won't, for your sake."
+
+"So do I," answered Mr. Simms, with emphasis.
+
+The afternoon was waning.  The Pony Riders were all in camp, some
+reading, others writing letters home, for already much had happened
+that would make interesting reading to the folks off in the little
+Missouri town.
+
+Steam was rising from the big kettle, into which Old Hicks was about
+to drop a quarter of mutton for the evening meal, and an air of
+perfect peace hovered over the camp of the sheepmen.  Under a
+spreading tree the bell goat of the outfit lay stretched out sound
+asleep.  He had been in that position most of the afternoon, there
+being nothing special for him to do, as the herd was grazing as it
+saw fit, without any effort being made to urge it along.
+
+>From the other side of the tree the round face of Stacy Brown might
+have been observed peering to one side of the sleeping goat.
+
+He listened intently.  Billy was breathing short, regular breaths,
+with no thought of the trouble that was in store for him.  From the
+expression of the boy's face it was evident that he was forming some
+mischievous plan of his own.  This was verified when, after dodging
+back behind the tree, his head appeared once more and a stick was
+cautiously thrust out.  Slowly it was pushed toward Billy's nose,
+which it gently rubbed and then was withdrawn.
+
+Billy probably thought it was a fly, for one impatient hoof brushed
+the troubled nose; then the interrupted nap was continued.
+
+Stacy tried it again with equal success.  His sides were shaking with
+laughter, and every little while he would hide himself behind the
+tree to give vent to his merriment.
+
+The others were too busy to notice what he was doing, though once
+Old Hicks paused in his work to cast a suspicious glance in that
+direction.
+
+Stacy had been amusing himself for several minutes and with such
+success that he grew more bold.  He had stepped from behind the tree
+that he might the better reach his victim.  Now the tickling and the
+sweep of the impatient hoof became more frequent.  Billy grunted as
+if he were having a bad dream, and this amused Stacy so much that he
+was obliged to retire behind the tree again to laugh.
+
+As he emerged this time, Billy slowly opened a cautious eye, all
+unobserved by his tormentor.  With a hand over his own mouth to keep
+back the laughter, the lad rubbed the stick gently over the goat's
+nose.  Billy's chin whiskers took an almost imperceptible upward tilt
+and the observing eye opened a little more widely.
+
+Next time Stacy varied the performance by giving the goat a
+malicious little dig in the ribs with the sharp end of the stick.
+
+Billy rose up into the air as if hurled there by an explosion
+beneath him.  When he landed on his four feet, it was with head
+pointed directly toward the foe and with fore legs sloping well back
+under him ready for a drive with his tough little head.
+
+"Oh!"  exclaimed Chunky, rapping the goat smartly over the nose with
+the stick to drive the animal off.
+
+Billy drove all right, but it was not away from the lad.  Stacy was
+standing with legs apart and Billy dived between them, at the same
+time lifting his head.
+
+The effect was instantaneous.  Chunky was neatly flipped to the
+goat's back, face down with his legs dangling about the animal's
+neck.  Instinctively he took a quick grip with the legs, locking his
+feet on the underside of Billy's neck and his hands about the
+withers.
+
+At that moment the surprised goat gave an excellent imitation of a
+broncho trying to throw its rider.
+
+"Hel-p!"  cried Chunky in a muffled voice.
+
+No one save the cook heard it.
+
+"Whoop!"  bellowed Old Hicks, smiting his thigh with a mighty fist
+and screaming with laughter.
+
+The Pony Riders and everyone else in camp sprang to their feet, not
+understanding what the commotion was about.
+
+"The kid's riding the goat," yelled Hicks.  "He's initiating himself
+into the order of Know Nuthins.  See him buck!  See him buck!"
+
+The camp roared.
+
+"Let go, Chunky!"  shouted Walter.
+
+"I can't, I'll fall off," answered the boy in a scarcely audible
+voice.
+
+"I'll help you then.  Come on, boys."
+
+They made a concerted rush to rescue their companion.  This was the
+signal for the goat to adopt new tactics.  He probably thought it was
+some new form of torture that they had planned for him.
+
+Billy headed for the tent of the owner of the herd.  He went through
+it like a projectile, upsetting the folding table on which Mr. Simms
+was writing, and out through the flap at the other end.
+
+By this time the outfit was in an uproar.  Even the sheep on the
+range near by paused in their grazing to gaze curiously campward;
+the herders off in that direction shaded their eyes against the sun
+and tried to make out the cause of the disturbance.
+
+"Y-e-o-w!"  encouraged the cook, waving a loaf of bread above his
+head and dancing about with a more pronounced limp than usual.
+
+Jerk, jerk, went Chunky's head until he feared it would be jerked
+from his body.
+
+"Stay by him, stay by him, kid," encouraged a sheepman.
+
+Mr. Simms rushing from his tent, startled and angry, instantly
+forgot the words of protest that were on his lips and joined
+heartily in laughter at the ludicrous sight.
+
+"Look out that you don't lose your stirrups," jeered Ned as goat and
+rider shot by him with a bleat.
+
+Walter made a grab for Billy with the result that he was pivoting on
+his own head the next second.
+
+Once they thought Chunky was going to fall off and put a sudden end
+to their fun, but he soon righted himself, whereupon he tightened
+the grip of hands and legs.
+
+By this time the goat was mad all through.  He seemed bent now upon
+doing all the damage he could.
+
+"Stop that!  Want to run me down!"  shouted Ned, grabbing a tree as
+the outfit swept by him, the goat uttering a sharp bleat and Chunky
+a howl of protest.
+
+All at once Billy headed for the kitchen department.  Old Hicks saw
+him coming and with a few quick hops got out of the way.
+
+"Hi there, hang you, where you heading?"  he roared.
+
+The tinware had been stacked up on a bench to dry out in the
+sunlight.  Perhaps it was the rays of the sun on the bright tin that
+attracted Billy's attention.  At any rate he went through it with a
+bound, amid the crash of rattling tin and splintering wood.
+
+Old Hicks made a swing at the animal with the long stick he had been
+using to prod the kettle of mutton.  He missed and sat down suddenly,
+his lame leg refusing to bear the strain that had been put upon it.
+
+It was astonishing the endurance the goat showed, for Chunky was no
+light weight in any sense of the word.  Now and then he would just
+graze the trunk of a tree, bringing a howl from his rider as the
+latter's leg was scraped its full length against the bark of the
+tree.
+
+By this time nearly everyone in camp had laughingly sought places of
+safety, some in the chuck wagon, others climbing saplings as best
+they could, for no man knew in what direction Billy might head next.
+
+Old Hicks refused to take the protection that the wagon offered.  He
+stood his ground, stick held firmly in both hands, awaiting a chance
+to rap the boy or the goat when they next passed.
+
+His opportunity came soon.  He had been baking pies for the
+sheepmen's supper and these he had placed on the tail board of the
+wagon, which he had removed and laid upon a frame made of sticks
+stuck into the ground.
+
+Billy finished the pies in one grand charge.
+
+The enraged cook forgot his own danger and boldly striding out into
+the open began throwing things at the mad goat.  It mattered not what
+he threw.  Anything he laid his hands on answered for the
+purpose--dishpans, small kettles, knives, loaves of bread--all went
+the same way, some of them reaching Chunky and bringing a howl from
+him.  The goat, however, escaped without being hit once.
+
+Twice more after wrecking the pies, did he charge the kitchen.  It
+was noticed, however, that he avoided the hot stove.  Hicks gladly
+would have lost that for the sake of seeing the goat smash against
+it and end his career.
+
+After one drive more ferocious than any he had made before, Billy
+whirled and came back.  Old Hicks stood with his back to the kettle,
+stick held aloft.  He was going to get the goat this time, for he saw
+the animal would pass close to him if he held his present course.
+
+Billy did so until within a few feet of the cook.  Then he changed
+his direction.  He changed it more suddenly than the cook had looked
+for.
+
+Billy's head hit Old Hicks a powerful blow.  The cook doubled up with
+a grunt.  When he came down he landed fairly in the kettle of hot
+mutton.  Cook and kettle toppled over, the former yelling for help
+and struggling desperately to extricate himself.
+
+Chunky too had fared badly in the final charge.  The shock had thrown
+him sideways and he crumpled up not far from the kettle and its
+human occupant.
+
+They fished Old Hicks from the wreck, fuming and raging and
+threatening to kill the goat and to chase the "heathen kid" out of
+the camp.
+
+Chunky was limp and breathless when they picked him up.  They dragged
+the lad away from the vicinity of the cook as quickly as
+possible.  Old Hicks' rage at that moment was a thing to avoid.  The
+goat, Billy, galloped away, the least disturbed of the outfit, but
+it was observed that he prudently remained out on the range with the
+sheep that night.
+
+"I didn't fall in that time, did I?"  gasped Chunky, after his breath
+had come back sufficiently to enable him to talk.
+
+"No, but you're going to do so when the cook gets hold of you,"
+warned Ned.
+
+"Hicks?  Old Hicks fell into the mutton broth, didn't he?"  chuckled
+the fat boy.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+   THE VIGIL BY THE FOOTHILLS
+
+Supper was late in the sheep camp that evening.  Old Hicks was in a
+terrible rage and no one dared protest at the delay, for fear he
+would get no supper at all.  The boys were still discussing Stacy
+Brown's feat, and every time the subject was referred to all during
+the evening, it was sure to elicit a roar of laughter.
+
+As night came on, the sky was gradually blotted out by a thin veil
+of clouds, which seemed to grow more dense as the evening wore
+on.  Chunky had been sent out with Mary Johnson on guard duty, Walter
+having gone out with the foreman.  That left Tad Butler and Ned
+Rector of the Pony Rider Boys, to take their turn on the late trick.
+
+Tad preferred to sit up rather than to try to sleep for the short
+time that would intervene before it came his turn to go out.
+
+"Do you think we shall have any trouble tonight?"  he asked, looking
+up as Mr. Simms passed his tent.
+
+"You know as much about that as I do, my boy.  Perhaps your courage
+over at the Corners may scare them off, eh?  They may think, if we
+are all such fighters over here, that it will be a good place to
+keep away from."
+
+Tad laughed good-naturedly.
+
+"Guess I didn't give them any such fright as that.  How is Philip
+this evening?"
+
+"Sound asleep.  It's doing the boy good.  He hasn't slept like this
+since his illness last spring."
+
+"I wish he might go on with us and spend the summer out of doors."
+
+"H-m-m-m," mused Mr. Simms.  "I am afraid he would be too great a
+care.  No, Tad, the boy is a little too young.  Where are you going
+next?"
+
+"I am not sure."
+
+"Well, let me know when you find out and we will talk it over.  Fine
+night for a raid of any kind, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, sir," answered Tad, glancing up at the black clouds.
+
+"Good luck to you to-night.  You and your partner must take care of
+yourselves.  Do not take any unnecessary risk.  You will have done
+your part in using your keen young eyes to see that no one gets near
+the camp."
+
+"I should feel better if I had a gun," laughed the boy.
+"Somehow--but no, I guess it is not best."
+
+"Certainly not."
+
+Tad turned up the lantern in his tent and sat down to his book,
+which he had been reading most of the evening.  He was not
+interrupted again until the camp watchmen came around to turn out
+the second guard.
+
+Ned was asleep and he tumbled out rubbing his eyes, not sure just
+what was wanted of him.
+
+"Wake up," laughed Tad.  "You are getting to be a regular sleepy
+head."
+
+"Guess I am.  Is--is it time to go out?"
+
+"It is.  And it is a dark night, too."
+
+"Whew!  I should say it is," replied Ned, with an apprehensive glance
+out beyond the camp.  "How are we ever going to find our way about
+to-night?"
+
+"I don't imagine we shall be moving about much after we get on our
+station.  Mr. Larue will place us there."
+
+"Where are we going to be?"
+
+"He hasn't said.  I did hear him say that we were going to watch singly
+instead of in pairs, in order that he might cover more territory with
+the men at his disposal."
+
+"Sounds shivery."
+
+"I don't know why it should.  It is night, that is the only
+difference.  I am getting used to being out in the night and not
+knowing where I am," laughed Tad.
+
+Tucking the lunches that had been wrapped for them into their pockets,
+the two boys walked over to the place where their ponies were
+tethered.  The animals had been left bridled and saddled, the saddle
+girths having been loosened. These the boys tightened and prepared to
+mount when Tad happened to think of something.
+
+"Hold my pony, Ned.  I want to get something from the tent."
+
+Tad returned a moment later with his lariat, which he coiled
+carefully and hung to the saddle horn, Ned Rector observing him with
+an amused smile.
+
+"If you can't shoot them you're going to rope them, eh?"
+
+"A rope is always a good thing to have with you.  You don't think so,
+but it is.  Never know what minute you are going to need it badly."
+
+"It wouldn't do me any good, no matter how much I needed it," smiled
+Ned.  "I couldn't lasso the side of a barn."
+
+"You do very well.  If you will practise every day you will be able
+to handle it as well as the average cowboy in less than a week.
+Come along."
+
+As they left the camp, Luke Larue met them to conduct the boys to the
+places where they were to spend the last half of the night.
+
+"After we leave the herd behind us, it's the frozen tongue for you,"
+he said.
+
+"You mean we are not to speak?" asked Tad.
+
+"Not a word out loud.  If you have anything you must say, whisper."
+
+"Oh, all right."
+
+They dropped Ned first.  His station was nearer to the herd than that
+which had been assigned to Tad.  The latter went on with the foreman
+until they were fairly out by the foothills.
+
+"I've given you one of the most responsible stations, you see,"
+whispered the foreman.  "It will be lonesome out here.  Do you mind?"
+
+"Not at all.  Anybody near me?"
+
+"Noisy Cooper is over there to your left about ten rods away.  Bat
+Coyne is to your right here.  You're not so close that you can rub
+elbows, however.  Be watchful.  It's just the night for a raid.  Use
+your own judgment in case you hear anything suspicious.  Above all
+look out for yourself.  You've got a pony that will take you away
+from trouble pretty fast if you get in a hurry.  You know the
+signal?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then good night and good luck," whispered Luke, reaching out and
+giving Tad's hand a hearty clasp.
+
+There was something so encouraging--so confident in the grip, that
+even had Tad Butler's courage been waning, it would have come back
+to him with a rush after that.
+
+"Good night," he breathed.  "I'll be on the spot if anything occurs."
+
+"I know that," answered the foreman.  In an instant Luke had been
+swallowed up in the great shadow and not even the hoof beats of his
+pony were audible to the listening ears of the boy.
+
+Tad looked about him inquiringly.  As his eyes became more used to
+the darkness he found himself able to make out objects about him,
+though the darkness distorted them into strange shapes.
+
+"I think I'll get under that tree," he decided.  "No one can see me
+there.  They'd pick me out here in a minute.  The cowboys have eyes as
+well as ears.  I know that, for I've lived with them."
+
+The lad tightened on the reins ever so little, and the pony pricking
+up its ears moved away with scarcely a sound, as if realizing that
+extreme caution were expected of it.
+
+They pulled up under the shadow of the tree.  There, Tad found that
+he could see what lay about him even better than before.
+
+He patted Pink-eye on the neck and a swish of the animal's tail told
+him that the little attention was appreciated.
+
+"Good boy," soothed the lad, running his fingers through the mane,
+straightening out a kink here and there.
+
+He had dropped the reins as he finished with the mane, and
+Pink-eye's head began to droop until his nose was almost on the
+ground.  He had settled himself for the long vigil.  Perhaps he would
+go to sleep in a few moments.  The rider hoped he would, for then
+there would be no movement that a stranger might hear.
+
+It was a lonesome post.  There was scarcely a sound, though now and
+then a bird twittered somewhere in the foliage and once he beard the
+mournful hoot of an owl far away to his left.
+
+"I wonder if that could have been a signal, or was it a real bird,"
+whispered Tad to himself.  "I have heard of a certain band of outlaws
+that always used the hoot of the owl as their signal to each other."
+
+After an interval of perhaps a minute another owl wailed out its
+weird cry off to his right.
+
+Tad Butler pricked up his ears.
+
+"Well, if it isn't a signal, those owls are holding a regular
+wireless conversation.  Hark!"
+
+Far back in the foothills there sounded another similar call.
+
+Tad Butler was sure, by this time, that something was going on that
+would bear watching.
+
+For a long time he heard nothing more, and was beginning to think
+that perhaps he had drawn on his imagination too far.  It might be
+owls after all.
+
+"I wonder if the others heard that, too?  Maybe they know better than
+I what it means, if it means anything at all.  I wish Mr. Larue would
+happen along now.  I'd like to tell him what I think."
+
+He knew, however, that the foreman, like himself was stationed
+somewhere off there in the blackness, sitting on his pony as
+immovable as a statue, his straining eyes peering into the night,
+his ears keyed to catch the slightest sound.
+
+A gentle breeze rippled over the trees, stirring the foliage into a
+soft murmur.  Then the breeze passed on and silence once more settled
+over the scene.
+
+Tad sighed.  Even a little wind was a welcome break in the
+monotony.  He was not afraid, but his nerves were on edge by this
+time, and Tad made no attempt to deny it.
+
+Something snapped to the left of him.  The sound was as if some one
+had stepped on a dry branch which had crumpled under his weight.
+
+The lad was all attention instantly.
+
+"There certainly is something over there," he whispered.  "It may be
+a man, but I'll bet it's a bear or some other animal.  If it's a
+bear, first thing I know Pink-eye will bolt and then I'll be in a
+fix."
+
+Tad cautiously gathered up the reins, using care not to disturb the
+pony, for it was all important that the animal remain absolutely
+quiet just now.
+
+But, though the boy listened with straining ears, there was no
+repetition of the sound and this led him to believe that it had been
+an animal, which perhaps had scented them and was stalking him
+already.
+
+It was not a comforting thought.  Yet Tad never moved.  He sat in his
+saddle rigidly, every nerve and muscle tense.  He was determined to
+be calm no matter what happened.
+
+The lad's head was thrown slightly forward, his chin protruding
+stubbornly, and as he listened there was borne to his ears another
+sound.  It was as if something was approaching with a soft tread.  He
+could hear it distinctly.
+
+"Whatever that thing is, it has four feet," decided the lad
+quickly.  "It's not a man, that is sure."
+
+Instinctively he permitted his left hand to drop to the pommel of
+the saddle so that he might not be unseated in case Pink-eye should
+take sudden alarm and leap to one side.  The reins were lightly
+bunched in the left, Tad's right hanging idly at his side.
+
+The footsteps became more and more pronounced, Tad's curiosity
+increasing in proportion.
+
+He fully expected to see a bear lumber from the shadows at any
+second now.  If this happened he did not know what he should do.  Of
+course he could ride away, but in doing so he might alarm the
+watching sheepmen and upset all their plans.
+
+The noise after approaching for some moments, suddenly ceased.  Tad's
+eyes were fairly boring into the shadows.  All at once the particular
+shadow at which he was looking moved.
+
+Tad started violently.
+
+The shadow moved forward a few steps, then halted.
+
+It was a man on horseback.  He had ridden right out from the
+foothills.
+
+"It's here," whispered Tad Butler to himself.  The rider moved up a
+few steps again, this time halting within a few feet of the watching
+boy.
+
+Tad's hand cautiously stole down to his lariat.  He brought it up at
+arm's length, held it for one brief moment then swung it over his
+head.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+   A CLEVER CAPTURE
+
+His plan had been conceived in a flash and executed almost as
+quickly.
+
+The rawhide rope squirmed through the air.  He could not be sure of
+his aim in the darkness, but the stranger was so close that Tad did
+not believe he could miss.  He knew that if he did, he would find
+himself in a serious predicament.
+
+He heard a sudden startled exclamation.
+
+At that instant, Pink-eye, alarmed by the unusual movement on his
+back, awakened and leaped lightly to one side.
+
+"I've got him," breathed the boy, feeling the line draw tight under
+his hand.  "I've caught a man I----"
+
+Pink-eye had discovered the presence of strangers now and with a
+snort he changed his position by again leaping to one side.  Tad
+heard the man strike the ground with a grunt.  He took a turn of the
+lariat around the saddle pommel, drawing it taut.
+
+"Who are you!"  demanded the lad.
+
+A snarl of rage and a struggle over there on the ground was his only
+answer.
+
+"Get up, if you don't want to be dragged.  If you make a loud noise
+it will be the worse for you," announced the boy sternly.
+
+He clucked to the pony, which started forward suddenly, throwing a
+strain upon the rope.
+
+"Steady, Pink-eye.  We don't want to hurt him," he cautioned, slowing
+the animal down to almost a walk.
+
+"Are you on your feet back there?"
+
+"Y-y-y-yes."
+
+There came a sharp jerk on the line.  The boy knew that the man he
+had roped, pinioning his arms to his side had managed to get his
+hands up and grasped the line.  In a moment he would free himself.
+
+Tad pressed the rowels of his spurs against Pink-eye's sides.  The
+animal sprang forward, but the boy quickly checked him, pulling him
+down into a jog trot that was not beyond the endurance of a man to
+follow for a short distance.
+
+"Remember if you allow yourself to fall down I'll drag you the rest
+of the way in," warned Tad Butler.  "I won't hurt you if you behave
+yourself."
+
+"Le--le--let me go.  I--I--I--I--aint't done n-n-nothing."
+
+"We'll decide that when I get you back to camp," answered Tad.  "And
+don't let me hear you raising your voice again or I'll put spurs to
+the pony.  Do you understand?"
+
+"Y-y-y-e-s."
+
+On the soft ground the footfalls of the pony made no sound that
+could be heard any distance away.  On ahead of him the lad saw the
+dim light of a lantern, which he knew was at the camp and his heart
+leaped exultantly at the thought of what he had accomplished.  He
+wondered if the others or any of them had done as well.
+
+"Won't Mr. Simms be surprised?"  he glowed.
+
+"Wait, I--I--I'm going to drop," came a voice from behind him.  It
+sounded far away and indistinct.
+
+"You'd better not unless you want to go the rest of the way lying on
+your back," called back the lad.  However, he slackened the speed of
+his pony a little, thinking that perhaps his prisoner might be in
+distress.  Tad was too tender hearted to cause another to suffer,
+even if it were an enemy.
+
+The lad kept his left hand on the rope.  In this way he was able to
+judge how well the man was following.  Now and then a violent jerk
+told Tad that he was experimenting to see if he could not get
+away.  The fellow might have braced his feet and possibly snapped the
+line, but he evidently feared to do this lest he be thrown on his
+face and dragged that way, for the noose of the lariat had, by this
+time, so tightened about his body as to bind his arms tightly to his
+side.
+
+Tad uttered a warning whistle.
+
+Instantly he noted figures moving about the camp.  His call had been
+heard.  The camp-fire was stirred to give more light, and as its
+embers flared up, Tad Butler and his prisoner galloped in.
+
+At first they did not observe that he had a man in tow.
+
+Old Hicks hobbled forward with a growl and a demand to know what the
+row was about.
+
+"What is it, boy?  What is it?  Are they coming!"  exclaimed Mr. Simms,
+running toward him.
+
+"I've got a man.  I can't stop.  Grab him!"  cried Tad in an excited,
+triumphant tone.
+
+Mr. Simms saw.  The others observed at the same time.  They made a
+concerted rush for the lad's prisoner.
+
+"Stop!"  commanded the rancher.
+
+Tad drew up instantly.  As he did so three of them grabbed the man at
+the other end of the lariat, throwing him on the ground flat on his
+back.
+
+"All right?"  sang back Tad.
+
+"Yes."
+
+The boy unwound the rope from his saddle pommel and casting the end
+from him, rode back and dismounted.  Yes, he had caught a cowman, but
+the fellow sullenly refused to answer a question that was put to
+him.
+
+The prisoner was glaring up at him with eyes so full of malignant
+hate that Tad instinctively shrank back.
+
+"Know him!"  asked Mr. Simms sharply.
+
+"Not by name.  He's one of the men I saw over at the Corners.  He was
+the worst one of the lot, except the boy they called Bob."
+
+No amount of questioning, however, would draw the fellow out.  They
+had bound him hand and foot and straightened up to view their work.
+
+"There's no use in wasting time," decided Mr. Simms.  "Drag him over
+to my tent and throw him in.  Did you hear anybody besides this man"
+
+Tad told him about the owl calls.  The rancher pondered a few
+seconds.
+
+"That sounds to me more like an Indian trick.  But I am satisfied we
+are going to be attacked tonight.  You had better go back to your
+post.  Can you find the way?"
+
+"Yes, I think so," answered the lad.
+
+"Boy, you've done a great piece of work.  I'll talk with you about
+it when we have more time.  I must hurry out and find Luke.  The
+rest of you stick by the camp until you know that the cowmen are
+here; then sail in.  There'll likely be some shooting."
+
+"Any further instructions?"  asked Tad, bunching the reins in his
+hand preparatory to mounting.
+
+"Nothing.  That is, unless you find you can rope some more of these
+cayuses.  I'd like to have them all tied up here for a while.  I've
+got a few things to say to them.  They'd have to listen whether they
+wanted to or not if they were all in the same fix that fellow is,"
+he added with a short, mirthless laugh.
+
+Tad swung himself into the saddle, first having coiled his rope and
+hung it in its place.
+
+"Good-bye," he sang out, starting out at a gallop and disappearing
+in the night.
+
+As Tad drew near the scene of his recent experience, he slowed the
+pony down to a walk, moving on with extreme caution.  He did not want
+to fall into the trap that the cowboy had only a short time before.
+
+After groping about in the darkness some time, he finally came upon
+the very tree that had sheltered him before.
+
+Tad uttered a low exclamation of satisfaction, once more taking up
+his position under its spreading branches.  He had been there but a
+short time when the foreman rode up, giving a low whistle so that
+the boy would know who it was.
+
+"Anything develop?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What?"
+
+Tad told him briefly of the capture of the cowboy.
+
+"Good boy," glowed Luke, reaching over and slapping Tad on the back
+approvingly.  "I guess we made no mistake in giving you this
+post.  But there's not likely to be any more of them come through
+this way.  I am going to send you down nearer the center.  We are
+going to have all the fun we want before morning.  So I wish you
+would move down nearer the herd.  When the racket begins, if it does,
+we shall need all the sheepmen to help drive off the raiders.  You
+will relieve one of them and look after the sheep.  I have told your
+friend Ned the same thing.  He's down there now."
+
+"Where are the sheep?"
+
+"Head just a little to your left and ride straight, on till you come
+up with them.  But be sure to give the whistle now and then so our
+men will know who you are if they chance to hear you coming.  Did
+anybody know the fellow you roped?"
+
+"No.  I saw him at the store yesterday, though."
+
+"Guess you've made no mistake then.  Well, so long."
+
+Tad missed his way in the darkness, and had roamed about for some
+time before finally coming up with the herd.  Even then he was at a
+part of the line where there seemed to he no one on guard.
+
+He whistled and waited.  After a little the signal was answered It
+was then only a matter of a few moments before he had joined the
+herder and delivered his message.
+
+The man rode away to take up his new position and Tad settled down
+to tending sheep.  There was little for him to do, the animals being
+sound asleep, but he rather enjoyed the relief from the strain that
+he had been under while watching for intruders off yonder under the
+tree.
+
+Dismounting, the boy sat down on the ground, having stripped the
+reins over the pony's neck so that he could keep them in his
+hand.  Pinkeye nibbled at the grass a few seconds.  It did not seem to
+satisfy the animal, for the sheep had worked it pretty well down
+ahead of him.  So Pink-eye went to sleep, and Tad found himself
+nodding so persistently that he forced himself to get up and walk
+back and forth a few paces each way.
+
+"I am getting to be as much of a sleepy head as Chunky is," he
+smiled.  "That goat ride was the funniest thing I ever saw.  I wonder
+where Billy took himself to.  He's a wise goat.  I actually believe he
+had more fun out of putting the camp to the bad than the rest of us
+experienced in watching him."
+
+Pink-eye woke up and rubbed his nose against the boy's coat sleeve.
+
+A shrill whistle trilled out off to the west.  It was followed by
+another and another, until the air seemed full of them.
+
+Tad paused abruptly in his walk and listened.
+
+A pistol spat viciously.  He caught the flash faintly in the
+distance.
+
+Tad threw the reins over Pink-eye's neck and vaulted into the
+saddle.  Boy and pony were both wide awake now.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+   THRILLING RESCUE OF THE RANCHER
+
+They're here," breathed the lad.  "I wonder what's going to happen."
+
+As if in answer to his question, a volley of pistol shots sounded to
+the west of him.  Almost instantly following, guns began to pop to
+the north and south.
+
+Shouts and yells sounded everywhere.
+
+Startled, half a hundred sheep near him, scrambled to their feet.
+
+"W-h-o-e-e-e," soothed Tad, turning toward them as he remembered
+that he had a duty to perform.  "Come now, Pink-eye, never mind the
+shooting.  Just you and I attend to our business.  That's what we've
+got to do."
+
+Yet Tad regretted that he was not over there in the thick of the
+fight.  He gave a long whistle, hoping to find some one near him.  The
+whistle was not answered, therefore he concluded that he was alone
+on that side of the herd.  But where was Ned?  He should be somewhere
+near by.
+
+By this time the restless herd required his whole attention.  Tad
+galloped up and down the line, speaking soothing words to the
+frightened sheep, whistling and trying to sing.
+
+"Here, Barker," he cried, discovering that he was not alone in his
+efforts.  One of the sheep dogs was trotting along by his side,
+uttering little encouraging yelps to assist in keeping the lines
+well formed.  "That's a good dog.  I guess you and I can handle this
+outfit, can't we, Barker?"
+
+Barker barked as if in approval of the sentiment.
+
+Tad called the animal to him and sent him back the other way, while
+he pressed on.  The noise of the conflict seemed to be up that way
+and it was at that end that there would be more likelihood of
+disturbance to the sheep, he thought, urging his pony along a little
+faster.
+
+All at once guns began to flash ahead of him.
+
+"I believe they are in the flock already," he cried, putting spurs
+to Pink-eye and dashing on at top speed.  "Yes, they are shooting
+into the flock.  I can tell by the flashes of their guns.  Oh, if I
+had a gun!"
+
+The thought that they were slaughtering the innocent animals roused
+all the fighting blood in Tad Butler's nature.
+
+But what could he, single-handed and unarmed, expect to do to stop
+the ruthless slaughter?
+
+>From the opposite direction, he heard a body of horsemen bearing
+down on the sheep killers.
+
+In a moment more they too began to shoot.  He noted quickly, however,
+that this latter body of men were not shooting down.  They were
+shooting over the heads of the herd at the men who were killing the
+stock.
+
+"Good!  Good!  Give it to them!"  fairly screamed the lad, rising in
+his stirrups, waving his hat and continuing his words of
+encouragement to the men of Mr. Simms's outfit.  What mattered it
+whether they could hear him or not?  A rattling fire was running
+along both lines of men.  But the sheep killers, now content to ride
+down the sheep, were shooting back at their assailants.
+
+"Somebody will be killed, I know," cried Tad.  "Who's there?"  he
+roared, as he heard the hoof beats of a running pony behind
+him.
+
+"It's me, Chunky," came the answer.
+
+"Get out of here, boy.  You will be killed."
+
+"I can't.  I'm afraid to stay back there in the camp all alone.
+Hicks has gone too and----"
+
+"Then get back down the line and help me to hold these sheep.  Don't
+give anyone a chance to say a Pony Rider Boy is afraid of anything.
+How'd you like to be over there where those guns are going off?
+Now, brace up.  Look cheerful and tend to those sheep the same as
+Barker is doing."
+
+Thus admonished, Stacy did brace up.
+
+"All right," he said, pulling himself together and turning his pony
+about.
+
+In the meantime the shouting had increased in volume and the
+shooting was more rapid.  Tad had all he could do to hold the sheep
+in place.  He knew that up above him they were rushing wildly here
+and there, and the wave of terror rolled over those in his immediate
+vicinity.
+
+"They're beating them back!"  cried the boy.  "The cowboys are giving
+way.  Hooray!"
+
+This proved to be the case.  The defense of the sheepmen was a
+surprise to the cowboys, where they had thought to surprise the
+sheep herders and stampede the herd before any opposition was
+offered.
+
+With a yell of triumph the forces under Mr. Simms rode right over
+the scurrying sheep in their effort to drive the cowmen off.
+
+At that moment the clouds parted and the full moon shone out,
+lighting up the scene brightly.  Tad gazed in awe on the rushing
+ponies as he pulled his own to a stop.  The cowmen, too, seemed to
+take courage from the moonlight.  Some had started to retreat.  These
+whirled about and returned to the charge.
+
+"Oh, there goes Mr. Simms!"  cried the boy.
+
+He saw the rancher waver in the saddle, throw up his hands and slip
+sideways with head and arms hanging down.
+
+"He's shot!  He's shot!  They don't see him!"  shouted Tad.  He cried
+out at the top of his voice to attract the attention of the
+ranchers, but in the uproar, no one heard him.  His voice in that mad
+melee was a puny thing.
+
+Fortunately the rancher's feet still clung to the stirrups, but his
+head was hanging so low that it appeared to be bumping along the
+ground with every leap of his pony, which was headed straight for
+the lines of the enemy.
+
+"Oh, why won't they see him!"  groaned the lad.  "I can't stand it to
+sit here doing nothing and see a man lose his life that way--if he's
+not dead already."
+
+Tad, acting upon a sudden resolve, shook out his reins, gave the
+pony a quick pressure with the spurs.
+
+"Hi-yi!"  he snapped.
+
+Pink-eye leaped forward, with Tad urging him to renewed efforts by
+sharp slaps on the animal's thigh.  The boy was not shouting now.  He
+did not wish to attract attention to himself if it could be
+avoided.  In order to head off the rancher's pony, Tad was compelled
+to follow an oblique direction which, if he continued it, would land
+him fairly in the center of the enemy's lines.
+
+"I must beat him out.  It's the only way I can do anything.  Go,
+Pink-eye!  Go!"  And
+
+Pink-eye did go as he had never gone before since Tad Butler had
+owned him.
+
+Slowly but surely he was heading off the other horse.  They saw him
+now and a few scattering shots were sent in his direction, but the
+lad heeded them no more than had they been rain drops.  His mind was
+too fully absorbed with the task he had set for himself.
+
+At last he and the rancher's pony were converging on a single
+point.  Mr. Simms's pony reached it first with Tad only a few feet
+away.  They were fairly between the lines now and bullets were flying
+about them.  Tad could hear their whut! whut! as they sped past him.
+
+He had lost the race.  But there still remained one more
+resource.  His rope was in its place.  Tad slipped it from the saddle
+horn and made a quick reach for the rancher.
+
+He groaned when he saw that he had missed his aim.
+
+Yet, instead of giving up the battle, the lad was more determined
+than ever to rescue the owner of the herd that he had cast his
+fortunes with.  The rowels were dug into the sides of the pony with a
+firmer pressure than before, and Tad began rapidly to haul in the
+lariat with one hand.  When once he felt the knot at his finger tips
+he began whirling the loop over his head, leaning well forward in
+his saddle, riding at a tremendous pace on the fleet-footed little
+pony.
+
+He cast.  This time the loop fell true.
+
+"Steady!  steady!  Pink-eye," he cautioned, taking a quick turn about
+the pommel.  To stop too suddenly might throw the other pony on its
+side and crush the rancher.
+
+The lariat had dropped over the other animal's neck and was quickly
+drawn down.  Pinkeye stopped, braced himself as he felt his fellow
+slowing down under the pressure of the loop on his neck.
+
+"Whoa!"  commanded Tad sharply, leaping from the saddle and taking up
+on the lariat as fast as he could.
+
+A shrill yell from the cowmen told him they would be upon him in a
+moment.  They understood now what he was trying to do.
+
+Tad worked with feverish haste to release Mr. Simms from the
+stirrups.  Yet when he had finally accomplished this, his work was
+not yet half done.  He did not know whether the rancher was dead or
+alive, nor had he the time to satisfy himself on this point.
+
+Grasping Mr. Simms under the arms, the lad dragged him over to
+Pink-eye, and with a strength born of the excitement of the moment,
+succeeded in throwing the rancher's body over the back of his own
+pony.
+
+The lad was panting in short, quick breaths.  He had barely enough
+strength left to crawl on Pink-eye's back.  Once there, he fairly
+fell across Mr. Simms's body, clinging to it with one hand, the
+other gripped on the pommel.
+
+Pink-eye seemed to know what was expected of him, for straightway he
+got under motion, trotting off toward the lines of the sheepmen.
+
+The cowboys turned their guns on the little outfit, but the sheepmen
+now discovering what was going on, gave a mighty yell and swept down
+on their enemy.
+
+The cowboys gave way before the resistless rush, and whirling their
+ponies, raced for the foothills, with the pursuers shooting and
+yelling as they lashed and spurred their ponies after them.
+
+Tad was almost overwhelmed as the sheepmen rushed by him.  But he had
+saved Mr. Simms and he did not care if the jostling ponies of his
+friends had almost run him down in their mad rush.
+
+The lad now gaining in strength, pulled himself to a sitting posture
+and hurried Pink-eye along at a little faster gait.  They were headed
+for the camp, which they reached in a few minutes.
+
+Tenderly the lad lifted the rancher from the saddle, stretching him
+out on the grass.  His first care was to determine whether the man
+were alive or dead.
+
+"He's alive!"  cried Tad exultingly.  "He's only stunned."
+
+A bullet had grazed the rancher's head, ploughing a little furrow as
+it passed, but there was nothing more.  Had Tad not reached him in
+time no doubt he would have been killed.
+
+Getting water from the chuck wagon, Tad bathed the wound and dashed
+water into the rancher's face until signs of returning consciousness
+were evident.  After a little while Mr. Simms opened his eyes and
+asked what had happened.
+
+Tad told him, leaving out his own part in the rescue entirely, save
+that he had brought him in.
+
+The lad, after telling Mr. Simms that the cowboys had been driven
+off, helped the rancher to his tent and put him to bed, or rather
+induced him to lie down on his cot, for Mr. Simms's head was
+whirling.
+
+No sooner had Tad done this than he heard a galloping pony rapidly
+approaching the camp.  The lad stepped out as the horseman pulled
+up.  It was the foreman.  He threw himself from his mount and started
+on a run for Mr. Simms's tent.
+
+"Hello!"  he exclaimed, bringing up short.  "Where's the boss?  Is
+he hurt?  What happened to him?"  he demanded excitedly, without
+giving Tad a chance to answer between questions.
+
+"I think he is all right, Mr. Larue.  He had a close call"----
+
+"Was he shot?"
+
+"A bullet grazed the side of his head, and then his pony ran away.  I
+guess that came nearer killing him than did the bullet."
+
+"He owes his life to you, and that's no joke," answered the foreman
+shortly.  "We didn't see that he was in trouble till one of the boys
+discovered you chasing his pony.  Then we saw you rope the critter
+and pack the boss on your own cayuse."
+
+"Was--was anybody killed?"  asked Tad hesitatingly.
+
+"No.  Mary got a bullet through the calf of his right leg, and Bat
+Coyne lost a piece of an ear.  Guess that's about all."
+
+"Yes; but what of the others?  Were any of the cowmen killed?"
+
+"No such luck," growled the foreman.  "We pinked a few of them, but
+they're too tough to kill.  We come mighty near having a fight,
+however," he mused.
+
+"Near!"  exploded the boy.  "I should say.  you were right up to it."
+
+"We've lost a lot of sheep, boy; that's of more consequence."
+
+"How many?"
+
+"No telling.  Can't tell till morning.  It'll take all day to round up
+the scattered bunches-- those that were not killed."
+
+"Where are the boys--Ned and the rest of them?"  asked Tad, suddenly
+bethinking himself of his companions.
+
+"Oh, that's what I came back here for--one of the things.  They're
+all right.  That is, they're out there with the bunch, except
+Phil.  Have you seen him?"
+
+"Phil?  No.  Where is he?"
+
+"He was with me, but he got away somewhere."
+
+"Phil gone?"
+
+"It seems so."
+
+"Oh, that's too bad.  What shall we do?"
+
+"Go hunt for him.  Do you want to join me?"  asked the foreman, with
+sudden energy, leaping into his saddle again.
+
+"Of course I do," answered Tad Butler, running for his own pony and
+following the foreman out of camp at a quick gallop.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+   TWO BOYS STRANGELY MISSING
+
+"No use.  He's been picked up by those dastardly cowmen," growled
+Luke after he and Tad had searched until daybreak.  "We must go back
+to the camp and then turn out the outfit.  We've got to find him,
+that's all.  Mr. Simms will be crazy when he hears that the boy has
+strayed away from us."
+
+"What do you think he'll do?"  asked Tad in a worried tone.
+
+"Heaven only knows.  If it's those cow fellows who have done it,
+he'll never rest till he's settled with them for good and all.  I'll
+plan out a hunt for the kid, but it has got to be each man for
+himself.  We must cover every inch of the territory to the north,
+west and south of us.  He couldn't have gone the other way.  Come,
+let's be hustling back to camp."
+
+"Perhaps they have not taken him at all.  I should not be surprised
+if he were only lost."
+
+But Luke shook his head.  He was convinced that the rancher's son had
+not strayed away of his own accord.  He believed that the cowmen had
+picked the lad up and carried him away for sheer revenge on
+Mr. Simms.  Having seen Philip at Groveland Comers, some of them knew
+him, argued the foreman.
+
+When Mr. Simms was informed of the loss of Phil, he was well-nigh
+beside himself.
+
+"Do something!  Why don't you do something?"  he exclaimed in agony.
+
+"We have," answered Luke.  "And we have returned to get the rest of
+your men started on a daylight hunt."
+
+"Did he take his pony with him?"  asked Tad, as a thought occurred to
+him.
+
+"Yes," replied Luke.
+
+"Then, if the pony has not come back, it is pretty good evidence
+that Philip is still on his back, it seems to me."
+
+"Then turn out; everybody turn out!"  shouted Mr. Simms.  "Don't come
+back till you get him or bring me some tidings."
+
+"You will want some one to round up each scattered band of sheep,
+Mr. Simms.  You do not want to lose your herd, do you?"  asked the
+foreman.
+
+"I don't care for the herd.  Let two men and the dogs remain with the
+sheep that did not stampede.  All the rest go out on the search.  I'll
+take a turn myself.  What's your plan, Luke?"
+
+The foreman explained that he proposed to send the searchers out
+alone, so that all the territory might be covered.  He had planned to
+lay his party out in the shape of a fan.  The fan closed, he would
+push up into the foothills, then open it in a wide sweep.  As he
+expressed it, "not even a jack rabbit could get away from them if he
+were within the semicircle covered by their formation."
+
+Mr. Simms bore the strain as well as a father could be expected to
+bear it.
+
+Without the loss of a moment Luke gathered the men about him,
+explaining briefly what was to be done and assigning to each man the
+part he was to play in the day's search.
+
+Foremost among the party were the Pony Rider Boys.  Even Stacy Brown,
+serious-faced and impatient to be off, had saddled and bridled his
+pony and sat awaiting the order to move.
+
+At last all was ready.
+
+"Right!"  announced the foreman, whereupon the sheepmen, headed by
+Luke and Tad Butler, started up at a brisk gallop, headed straight
+across the mesa, taking a course that would lead them to the
+foothills, a short distance ahead of them.  Beaching the foothills,
+they continued on for some two or three miles.  Here the foreman gave
+the order to open the fan, he taking the lead on the left and Tad on
+the right.  The searchers were now moving with a space of about a
+quarter of a mile between them,
+
+shouting out the name of Phil Simms now and then, these calls
+running down the line to the lower end of the fan-shaped formation.
+
+After a time Tad found that he could no longer hear the shouts of
+his companions, yet from the position of the sun, which he consulted
+frequently, he felt sure that he was following the right course.
+
+On and on he rode, until the sun lay on the western horizon.  The
+others of the party were making a thorough search, investigating
+every gully and draw that lay in their course, shouting for Phil,
+hut not shooting their guns, as this was to be the signal that the
+lost boy had been found.
+
+"I'm afraid we are going to miss him," mused the foreman.  "If we
+fail to find him, then they've got him, sure."
+
+At last he had completed his half of the sweep of the fan, and his
+face wore a troubled look as his pony emerged from the foothills
+onto the open mesa again.  The sun was setting.
+
+Luke rode out and waited a few moments, and when joined by the rest
+of his section, started back to the camp.
+
+Old Hicks had prepared the hated mutton for supper by the time the
+right side of the fan formation got in.  Not a trace had one of them
+found of the missing Philip Simms.
+
+The rancher said nothing when told that they had failed.  He strode
+away to his tent and they saw him no more for hours.
+
+They had just gathered about the table for the evening meal, all
+unusually silent, when Ned Rector, glancing about, made a sudden
+discovery.
+
+"Where's Tad?"  he demanded.
+
+"Didn't he come in?"  asked the foreman, pausing in the act of
+sitting down to the table.
+
+"That's what I should like to know?  Where is he?"
+
+No one seemed to know.
+
+"Now, he's gone, too," breathed the foreman anxiously.  "That's one
+more mystery on the old Custer trail."
+
+"We--we'll have to go hunt for Tad now.  You don't suppose he and
+Phil are together, do you?"  asked Walter.
+
+"I don't know.  I hope they are.  But, boy, it's useless to go out
+looking for them now.  All we can do will be to wait until morning,
+then take up the search again"----
+
+"That's what comes from taking kids out on a man's job," growled Old
+Hicks, as he served the mutton.
+
+"Hicks, no one asked you for your opinion," snapped the
+foreman.  "These boys have done men's work ever since they
+joined.  Had it not been for Tad, Boss Simms would have been out of
+business entirely now.  Don't let me hear anybody casting any slurs
+on these boys.  I won't stand for it."
+
+Old Hicks grumbled and hobbled away to his black kettle, while the
+others ate their supper in silence.  But, somehow, the meal was far
+from satisfying, and one by one they rose from the table, leaving
+plates half filled, and strolled away to spend the evening as best
+they could until bedtime.  Ned and the foreman remained up, for they
+were to go out at midnight and take their trick at watching over the
+herd.
+
+"I've just got an idea," said the foreman, calling Ned to him.
+
+"Yes; what is it?"
+
+"I'm going to put some one on the herd in my place and ride over to
+Groveland.  Want to go along?"
+
+"Yes, if it has anything to do with our friends."
+
+"That's what I mean."
+
+"All right, I'm ready; but it is pretty late."
+
+"Makes no difference.  We'll wake them up if they are in bed.  I want
+to see Cavanagh, who keeps the store.  I have one or two questions to
+ask him."
+
+Without saying anything to the others as to their intention, the two
+quietly saddled their ponies and rode off.  The foreman made
+arrangements to have others take their trick, after which they
+headed across the mesa toward the place where Tad had whipped the
+mountain boy.
+
+Though the night, like the one that had preceded it, was intensely
+dark, Luke rode on with perfect confidence, never for one instant
+hesitating over the course.
+
+Ned did not know that they had reached the little village until the
+foreman told him.
+
+"We're here," he said quietly.
+
+"Where's the town?"
+
+"In it now."
+
+"I don't see it, if we are."
+
+"You hold my horse.  I'll wake up Cavanagh," announced the foreman,
+dismounting and tossing the reins to his companion.
+
+Luke thundered on the front door of the store, above which the owner
+had his quarters.  After an interval, during which the foreman had
+pounded insistently with the butt of his revolver, an upper window
+opened and a voice demanded to know what was wanted.
+
+"Come down here and I'll tell you."
+
+"Who are you?  What do you mean prowling around this time of the
+night?"
+
+"I'm Luke Larue, of the Simms's outfit, and I want to see you."
+
+"Oh, hello, Luke.  Thought there was something familiar about your
+voice.  I'll be down in a minute.  Anybody with you?"  "Yes,
+friend.  Hurry up."  Cavanagh opened the front door, peering out
+suspiciously before he permitted his caller to enter.
+
+"Wait a minute.  I want to call my friend in.  Ned, tether the ponies
+and come along."
+
+After the lad had joined them, the two ranchers entered the store,
+the proprietor taking them to the back of the store and lighting a
+lantern, which he placed behind a cracker barrel, so that the light
+might not be observed from the outside,
+
+"Now, what is it?"  he demanded.  Luke told him briefly of the battle
+with the cowboys, of which Cavanagh had already heard.  Then he
+related the story of the mysterious disappearance of the two boys.
+
+"What do you want of me?"  asked the storekeeper, when the story had
+been finished.
+
+"To know whether you had heard any of the boys say anything that
+might lead you to believe they knew anything about the matter?"
+
+"No," answered Canavagh after a moment's thought.  "Hain't heard a
+word.  Don't believe they know anything about it.  They'd a said
+something if they'd heard of it."
+
+"Don't you know anything about the boys yourself?"
+
+"No, don't know nothing about them."
+
+"Sure?"
+
+"Surest thing, you know."
+
+"Very well.  I believe you.  One of my reasons for coming over here,
+however, was to tell you to keep your eyes and ears open to-morrow."
+
+"I'll do that for you----"
+
+"If we fail to find them to-morrow, I'll ride over at night after
+the crowd has left here and hear what you have learned.  When any of
+the cowmen come in, I want you to bring up the subject and try to
+draw them out.  You'll get something that will be of use to us, I
+know, for I'm dead certain that they've got both of those boys."
+
+"Do you think they would dare do a thing like that?"  asked Ned.
+
+"Dare?"  Luke laughed harshly.  "They'd dare anything, especially
+about this time.  Oh, did you hear whether any of them got hit last
+night!"
+
+"Two or three is laid up for repairs," grinned the storekeeper.
+
+"I'm glad of it.  I wish the whole bunch had been trimmed."
+
+"Lose many sheep?"
+
+"Yes; too many.  But that isn't what's troubling us now."
+
+"No, I understand.  It's the kids."
+
+"Exactly.  Don't forget what you have got to do, now."
+
+Ned had been leaning against the counter listening to the
+conversation, when his hand came in contact with a soft object that
+lay on the counter.  He carelessly picked it up and looked at it.
+
+What he had found was a sombrero.  This of itself was unimportant,
+for the store carried them for sale.  A broad, yellow band about it
+was what attracted Ned Rector's attention, causing him to utter a
+sharp exclamation.
+
+"What is it?"  demanded Luke quickly.
+
+"Look.  Did you ever see this before?"  he asked excitedly.
+
+"It's Philip Simms's hat," answered the foreman, fixing a stern eye
+on the old storekeeper.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+   CAPTURED BY THE INDIANS
+
+"Yes.  I recognized it the instant I saw it," answered Ned.
+
+"Cavanagh, what does this mean?"  demanded the foreman.  "I think it's
+up to you to explain and mighty quick at that."
+
+"I--I don't know anything about it," stammered the storekeeper.
+
+"Where did you get that hat?"
+
+"I bought it."
+
+"Off whom?"
+
+"Don't know what his name is.  I never seen him before."
+
+"Tell me all you know.  Come, I've no time to fool away asking you
+questions.  Get to the point."
+
+"I'll tell you all I know.  A fellow came in here this afternoon.  I
+give him fifty cents for the hat and that's all there was to it."
+
+"Say where he come from?"
+
+"Yes, said he was down from the Medicine range."
+
+"That's more than thirty miles north of here," mused the foreman.  "I
+don't understand it.  You sure that's all he said?"
+
+"Yes; I don't know any more."
+
+"Then we'll be off.  I guess we'd better hit the trail for the
+Medicine range to-night so as to be well on our way by daylight."
+
+"Here's fifty cents.  I'll take the hat with me," said Ned, tossing a
+half dollar on the counter, and stowing the sombrero under his belt.
+
+They hurried from the store, with a parting injunction to Cavanagh
+to be watchful.  Mounting their ponies they rode swiftly away.
+
+"We'll return to camp before we leave for the north," said Luke.
+
+As the sun went down, Tad, becoming concerned for himself, turned
+sharply to the right, urging his pony on so as to get back to camp
+before night.  He did not relish the idea of spending another night
+alone in the mountains.
+
+"I believe I don't know where I am," decided the lad at last,
+pulling up sharply and gazing first at the sky, then at the
+unfamiliar landscape about him.  "I seem to have acquired the habit
+of getting lost.  Hello, I hear some one coming.  W-h-o-o-p-e-e!"  he
+shouted to attract the attention of the newcomers, hoping that it
+might be some of the men from the Simms outfit.
+
+There were several of them, and though they made no reply, he heard
+them turn their ponies in his direction.  Suddenly there rode into
+the little clearing where he was sitting on his pony, half a dozen
+men, the sight of whom made him take a short, sharp breath.
+
+"Indians!"  he gasped.
+
+With gaudily painted faces, bright blankets and buckskin suits, they
+made a picturesque group as they halted and surveyed the young man
+questioningly.
+
+One who appeared to be the leader of the party rode forward and
+peered into Tad's face.
+
+"How," he grunted.
+
+"How," answered Tad, saluting bravely, but feeling far from brave at
+that moment.
+
+A second and younger brave rode up at this point and in very good
+English asked the lad who he was.
+
+"I am from the Simms sheep ranch, and I guess I have lost my way.  If
+you can set me straight, I shall be very much obliged."
+
+The younger man consulted with the older one, who had greeted Tad
+first.
+
+"The chief says we are going that way.  If you will come along with
+us we will leave you within about a mile of the camp."
+
+"Very well," answered the boy, with some reluctance.  They seemed
+friendly enough and, besides, there could be no danger to him in
+accompanying them.
+
+As they started to move on, Tad clucked to Pink-eye and fell in with
+the party.  He noticed shortly, that the others had ridden up and
+that he was in reality surrounded by the painted braves.  Then he
+remembered that he had heard of roving bands of Indians in that part
+of the country--Indians who had been getting off their reservations
+and indulging in various depredations.
+
+"Are we getting near the place?"  asked the lad finally, a growing
+uneasiness rising within him.
+
+"I'll ask the chief," said the young Indian, who had been riding by
+Tad's side.  "He says it will he two hours yet," was the reply, after
+a series of grunts and gestures had passed between the men.
+
+"It didn't take me that long to get here."
+
+"Camp almost one sun away."
+
+"Who is he?"  indicating the leader of the party.
+
+"Chief."
+
+"What's his name?"
+
+"Chief Willy.  He doesn't talk much English."
+
+"You do, though," answered Tad, glancing up at the expressionless
+face of his companion.
+
+"Me with Wild West show long, long time."
+
+"Is that so.  Maybe I have seen you.  Were you with the show that was
+in Chillicothe last summer? I saw the show then."
+
+"Me with um," answered the redskin.
+
+"Why, that's interesting," said the boy, now thoroughly interested
+and for the time so absorbed in questioning the Indian about his
+life with the show that he forgot his own uneasiness.
+
+By this time, darkness intense and impenetrable, at least to the
+eyes of the boy, had settled down about them.  Yet it seemed to make
+no difference to the Indians, who kept their ponies at a steady
+jog-trot, picking their way unerringly, avoiding rocks and
+treacherous holes as if it were broad daylight.
+
+Tad did not try to guide Pink-eye any more, but let him follow the
+others, and when he got a little out of his course, the pony next to
+him would crowd Pink-eye over where he belonged.
+
+"Seems to me we are a long time getting there," announced the boy
+finally.  He was beginning to grow uneasy again.
+
+"Come camp bymeby," informed the young Indian.  "Chief, him know
+way."
+
+Tad had his doubts about that, but he thought it best not to tell
+them of his misgivings until he was certain.  Perhaps they were
+honest Indians after all and were only seeking to do him a favor.
+
+The lad was getting tired and hungry, having had nothing more than a
+mutton sandwich since early morning.  He judged it must be getting
+close to midnight now.
+
+As if interpreting his thoughts, the young Indian rode up close
+beside him, at the same time thrusting something into Tad's
+hand.  "What is it?"  asked the boy.  "Eat.  Good meat," answered the
+Indian.  The boy nibbled at it gingerly.  It was meat of some kind,
+and it was tough.  But most anything in the nature of food was
+acceptable to him then, so he helped himself more liberally and
+enjoyed his lunch.  The dried meat was excellent, even if it was
+tough to chew.
+
+After a little they came to a level stretch, and now the Indians put
+their ponies to a lively gallop, which Pink-eye, being surrounded by
+the other ponies, was forced to fall into to keep from getting run
+down by the riders behind him.  Faster and faster they forced their
+mounts forward, uttering sharp little exclamations to urge them on,
+accompanied by sundry grunts and unintelligible mutterings.
+
+That they all meant something, the boy felt sure.  But it meant
+nothing to him so far as understanding was concerned.
+
+After hours had passed the lad found all at once that the gray dawn
+was upon them and it was not many minutes before the stolid faces of
+his companions stood out clear and distinct.
+
+Tad jerked Pink-eye up sharply.
+
+"See here, where are you taking me to?"  he demanded.
+
+"Camp," grunted the young Indian.
+
+"You're not.  You are taking me away.  I shall not go another step
+with you."
+
+Summoning all his courage the boy turned his pony about and started
+to move away.  A quick, grunted order from the chief and one of the
+braves caught Pink-eye's bridle, jerking him back to his previous
+position.
+
+"Take your hands off, please," demanded Tad quietly.  "You've no
+right to do that.  For some reason you have deceived me and taken me
+far from home.  I'll----"
+
+"No make chief angry," urged the young brave.
+
+"I tell you I'm going.  You let me alone," persisted the boy, making
+another effort to ride from them.
+
+This time the chief whirled his own pony across Tad's path.  From
+under his blanket, he permitted the boy to see the muzzle of a
+revolver that was protruding there.
+
+"Ugh!"  grunted the chief.  "Him say you must go.  Him shoot!  No
+hurt paleface boy."
+
+Tad hesitated.  His inclination was to put spurs to Pink-eye and dash
+away.  He did not fear the chief's revolver so much for himself.  He
+did fear, however, that the chief might shoot his pony from under
+him, which would leave the boy in a worse predicament still.
+
+"All right, I'll go with you.  But I warn you the first white man I
+see, I'll tell him you are taking me away."
+
+"Ugh!"
+
+"If he shoots, I don't see how he can help hurting me," added the
+lad to himself, with a mirthless grin.
+
+"Bymeby, boy go back with paleface friends."
+
+"That's what I expect to do.  But if Luke Larue finds out you have
+taken me away against my will, he'll do some shooting before the big
+chief gets a chance to.  Where are you taking me to?"
+
+Shrugs of the shoulders was all the answer that Tad could get, so he
+decided to make the best of his position and escape at the first
+opportunity.  Keeping his eyes on the alert he followed along without
+further protest.
+
+Once, as they ascended a sudden rise of ground on the gallop, he
+discovered two horsemen on beyond them about half a mile as near as
+he was able to judge.
+
+Evidently the Indians saw them at the same instant, for they changed
+their course and went off into the rougher lands to the left.
+
+"Had they been nearer, I'd have taken a chance and yelled for help,"
+thought the boy.  "I will do it the next time I get a chance even if
+they are a long way off.  I can make somebody hear."
+
+But they gave him no chance to put his plan into practice.  Not a
+human being did Tad see during the rest of the journey, nor even a
+sign of human habitation.  Evidently they were traveling through a
+very rough, uninhabited part of the state.  If this were the case, he
+reasoned that they must be working northward.  This surmise was
+verified with the rising of the sun.
+
+Chief Willy gave the lad a quick glance and grunted when he saw his
+captive looking up at the sun.
+
+The chief then uttered a series of grunts, which the younger Indian
+interpreted as meaning that they would soon reach their destination.
+
+Tad was somewhat relieved to hear this, for he ached all over from
+his many hours in the saddle.  Then again he was sleepy and hungry as
+well.  They offered him no more food, so he concluded that they had
+none.  In any event he did not propose to ask for more, even if he
+were starving.
+
+Along about nine o'clock in the morning they came suddenly upon a
+broad river.  Without hesitation the braves plunged their ponies in,
+with Tad and Pink-eye following.  There was nothing else they could
+do tinder the circumstances.
+
+The water was not deep, however, the chief having chosen a spot for
+fording where the stream was not above the ponies' hips.  Tad lifted
+up his legs to keep them dry, but the Indians stolidly held their
+feet in their stirrups, appearing not to notice that they were
+getting wet.
+
+"What river is this!"  he asked, the first question he had ventured
+in a long time.
+
+The young brave referred the question to his chief, to which the
+usual grunt of response was made.
+
+"Him say don't know."
+
+Tad grinned.
+
+"For men who can find their way in the dark as well as these fellows
+can, they know less than I would naturally suppose," smiled the boy.
+
+The chief saw the smile and scowled.
+
+Tad made careful note of the fording place in case he should have
+occasion to cross the river on his own hook later on.  He examined
+the hills on both sides of the stream at the same time.
+
+Leaving the river behind them, they began a gradual ascent.  Now they
+did not seem to be in so great a hurry as before, and allowed their
+ponies to walk for a mile or so, after which they took up their easy
+jog again.  Shortly after that the boy descried several wreaths of
+smoke curling up into the morning sky.  The Indians were heading
+straight toward the smoke.
+
+At first Tad had felt a thrill of hope.  But a few moments later when
+a number of tepees grew slowly out of the landscape he saw that they
+were approaching what appeared to be an Indian village, and his
+heart sank within him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+   IN THE HOME OF THE BLACKFEET
+
+Their coming was greeted by the loud barking of dogs, while from the
+tepees appeared as if by magic, women and children, together with
+innumerable braves and boys.
+
+They fairly swarmed out into the open space in front of the camp,
+setting up a shout as they recognized the newcomers.
+
+"They seem to be mighty glad to see us,"
+
+growled Tad.  "Wish I could say as much for them."
+
+The ponies, seeming to share the general good feeling, pricked up
+their ears and dashed into the camp at a gallop, Pink-eye with the
+rest.  Almost before the little animals had come to a stop, the
+braves threw themselves from their saddles and darted into their
+tepees.
+
+"They seem to have left me out of it, so I guess I'll go back,"
+decided the lad half humorously.  But he was given no chance to slip
+away.  The young brave who had accompanied his chief, came running
+out and grasped the pony by its bridle.
+
+"Boy, git off," he said.
+
+Tad threw a leg over the pommel and landed on the ground.  He could
+hardly stand, so stiff were his legs.
+
+The young brave took him into one of the tepees, held the flap aside
+while Tad entered, then closed it.  The lad heard him moving
+away.  Tired out and dispirited, Tad Butler threw himself down on the
+grass and, in spite of his troubles, was asleep in a few moments.
+
+A dog barking in front of his tepee awakened him.  The boy pulled the
+flap aside ever so little and peered out.  He was surprised to find
+that the sun was setting.  He had been asleep practically all day
+long.
+
+Scrambling to his feet hastily the lad stepped outside.  He did not
+know whether he would be permitted to roam about, but he proposed to
+try.  The answer came quickly.  A brave whom he had not seen before
+suddenly appeared and, with a grunt of disapproval, grabbed Tad by
+the arms, fairly flinging him into the tepee.
+
+The lad's cheeks burned with indignation.
+
+"I'll teach them to insult me like that," he fumed, shaking his fist
+toward the opening.  "I'll look out anyway."
+
+He did so, prudently drawing the flap close whenever he heard anyone
+approaching.  Once as he peered out, a disreputable looking cur
+snapped at his legs.  First, the lad coaxed the animal, then tried to
+drive him away, finally administering a kick that sent the dog away
+howling.
+
+"I've got revenge on one of the gang anyway," he laughed.  "But it's
+not much of a revenge, at that.  I wonder if they are going to bring
+me anything to eat.  I----"
+
+The flap was suddenly jerked aside and the face of the chief
+appeared in the opening.
+
+"How," greeted Chief Willy.
+
+"How," answered Tad rather sullenly.  "What do you want?"
+
+"Paleface want eat?"
+
+"You ought not to have to ask that question.  So you can talk
+English just a little bit?  Chief, when are you going to let me go
+away from here?  It will only get you into trouble if you try to
+keep me.  They are sure to find me."
+
+"No find," grunted the chief.
+
+"Oh, yes they will."
+
+"Ugh," answered the redskin, hastily withdrawing.  Then followed
+another long period when Tad was left alone with his thoughts.
+
+"I wonder two things," thought the lad aloud.  "I wonder what he
+brought me here for and I wonder when I am going to get something to
+eat?  Captured by the Indians, eh?  That's more than the rest of the
+Pony Riders can say."
+
+Yet there was a more serious side to it all.  They had taken him
+prisoner for some purpose, but what that purpose was he could not
+imagine.
+
+His thoughts were interrupted by some one silently entering the
+tent.  Glancing up, Tad saw a slender, rather pretty Indian girl
+standing there looking down at him.
+
+The boy scrambled to his feet and took off his sombrero.
+
+"How," he said.
+
+The girl answered in kind.  Then she placed on the ground before him
+a bowl of soup and a plate of steaming stew.  Tad sniffed the odor
+of mutton, which now was so familiar to him, wondering at the same
+time, if it had come from Mr. Simms's flock.
+
+"Thank you," he said.  "If you will excuse me I will eat.  I'm awfully
+hungry.
+
+She nodded and Tad went at the meal almost ravenously.  The Indian
+girl squatted down on the ground and watched him.
+
+"What's your name?"  he asked between mouthfuls.
+
+"Jinny."
+
+"That's a funny name.  Doesn't sound like an Indian name.  Is it?"
+
+"Me not know.  Young buck heap big eat," she added.
+
+"Yes.  Oh, yes, I have something of an appetite," laughed Tad.
+"Jinny, what are they going to do with me, do you know?"
+
+The girl shook her head with emphasis.
+
+"What tribe is this?"
+
+"Blackfeet.  Other paleface boy here too."
+
+Tad set down his plate and surveyed her inquiringly.
+
+"Say that again, please.  You say there's another paleface boy here
+in this village?"
+
+Jinny nodded vigorously.
+
+"Who is he?"
+
+"Jinny not know."
+
+"When did he--how long has he been here?"
+
+"Sun-up."
+
+"This morning?"
+
+"Yes.  He there," pointing with a finger to the lower end of the
+village.
+
+Tad's curiosity was aroused.  He wondered if another besides himself
+had been made an unwilling guest by the Blackfeet wanderers.  If so,
+it must have been by another party.  A sudden thought occurred to
+him.  Tad was wearing a cheap ring on the little finger of his left
+hand.  He had picked up the ring on the plains in Texas.  Hastily
+stripping it from his finger he handed it to the girl.
+
+"Want it, Jinny?"
+
+She did.  Her eyes sparkled as she slipped it on her own finger and
+held it off to view the effect.
+
+"Thank," she said, turning her glowing eyes on Tad.
+
+"You're welcome.  But now I want you to do something for me.  I'll
+send you another, a big, big ring when I get home, if you will help
+me to get away from here."
+
+Jinny eyed him steadily for a few seconds, then shook her head.
+
+"I'll send you beads, too, Jinny--beads like the paleface ladies
+wear."
+
+"You send Jinny white woman beads!"
+
+"I promise you."
+
+"Me help um little paleface buck.  Me help um two," she added,
+holding up two fingers.  Without another word, she slipped from the
+tepee as silently as she had come.
+
+Tad pondered over this last remark for some time.  He did not
+understand what Jinny had meant.
+
+"So I'm a buck, am I?  That's one thing I haven't been called before
+since I have been out on the range.  She said she would help me to
+get away.  I wonder when she is going to do it."
+
+Though Tad waited patiently until late in the evening, he saw no
+more of the little Indian girl.  Shortly after dark several
+camp-fires were lighted, the cheerful blazes lighting up the street
+or common in front of the row of tepees in which his own was
+located.
+
+Children played about the fires, the dogs were disputing over the
+bones tossed to them after the evening meal, while the squaws and
+braves, gathered in separate groups, were squatting about,
+gesticulating and talking.
+
+To Tad Butler the scene held a real interest.  He had never before
+seen an Indian camp, and least of all been a prisoner in it.  He lay
+down on his stomach, with elbows on the ground, chin in hands, and
+gazed out over the village curiously.
+
+"I wonder who that other boy is," he mused.  "I presume he is a
+prisoner, too.  Hello, there's my guard."
+
+An Indian, with knees clasped in his arms, was rocking to and fro a
+little distance from the tepee.  Though he was not looking toward
+Tad's tent, the lad felt sure the fellow had been placed there to
+watch him.  He understood then why Jinny had not been to the tepee
+since bringing his meal.
+
+Finally the camp quieted down, the fires smouldered and the dogs
+stretched out before them for sleep.  Tad Butler's tired head drooped
+lower and lower, his elbows settling until his arms were down and he
+was lying prone upon the ground, sound asleep.
+
+After a time the Indian whom the lad had seen sitting out in front
+rose, and, stepping softly to the tepee, looked in.  He gave a grunt
+of satisfaction, threw himself down right at the entrance and was
+snoring heavily half a minute later.
+
+The camp slumbered on undisturbed until aroused by the ill-natured
+curs at daybreak next morning.
+
+Tad was awakened by one of them barking at his door and snapping at
+him.  Suddenly pulling his flap open, he hurled his sombrero in the
+dog's face, frightening it, so that it slunk away with a howl.  Tad,
+laughing heartily, reached out and recovered the hat.
+
+"Hey, there, I want to wash," he called to a brave who was
+passing.  The redskin paid no attention to him.  "All right, if you
+won't, then I'll go without you."
+
+He stepped boldly from the tepee and headed for a small stream at
+the left of the village, which he had observed on the previous
+day.  He had not gone far before he observed that he was being
+followed at a distance.  He did not let it appear that he noticed
+this, and after making his toilet strolled back to his tepee.
+
+Tad shrewdly reasoned that if he could induce them to relax their
+vigilance over him, he would have a better chance to make his
+escape, and he determined that he would act as if he had no
+intention of leaving.
+
+He made an effort to find out where they had tethered Pink-eye, but
+there were no signs of ponies anywhere.  He knew, however, that they
+could not be far away, for the Indian always keeps in touch with his
+mount.
+
+Jinny came with his breakfast at sunrise.  He noticed the first thing
+that she was not wearing the ring he had given her, but before he
+had an opportunity to comment on it, the girl drew the ring from a
+pocket, placed it on a finger and fell to admiring it.
+
+Tad laughed and turned to his breakfast.  This consisted of a big
+bowl of corn meal, steaming hot, with some cold mutton on the
+side.  Frankly, he admitted to himself that he had eaten far worse
+meals in more civilized communities.
+
+"Good morning, Jinny.  I was so much interested in the breakfast that
+I forgot to say it when you first came in.  This is very good.  Did
+you cook it?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I thought so.  You beat Old Hicks's cooking already.  Hicks is the
+cook out on Mr. Simms's sheep ranch, where I come from.  Understand?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I thought you were going to help me to escape," said Tad, suddenly
+leaning toward her.  "Aren't you?"
+
+Jinny made a sign for silence, and then went to the opening and
+peered out cautiously.  She returned, and, placing her mouth close to
+the lad's ear, whispered, "Byrneby."
+
+Tad could scarcely repress a laugh at the tragic tone in which she
+said it.  Yet his face was perfectly sober and he continued with his
+breakfast without further comment.
+
+Jinny gathered up the dishes and left him without a word.  After a
+time the boy pulled back the flaps and sat down to watch the life of
+the camp by daylight.  The squaws were busily at work, carrying wood
+and engaged in other occupations, though few of the braves were to
+be seen.  The boy concluded that they must be sleeping.
+
+The hours dragged along slowly.  It seemed an age until night came
+once more.  Somehow he felt that the night would bring him good
+luck.  A warning glance from the Indian girl when she brought his
+supper told him that conversation were better not indulged in, so he
+said nothing to her.  She left the dishes with him and went away at
+once.
+
+That night Tad sat up until late, hoping vainly for word from Jinny,
+but none came.  When the guard approached the tent along toward
+midnight, Tad feigned sleep, and so well did he feign it that he
+really went to sleep.
+
+He thought he had been napping but a few moments, when a peculiar
+scratching sound on the back of his tepee brought him up sitting,
+every nerve on the alert.
+
+Tad peered out through the flap.  The guard was asleep.  He crept back
+to the other side of the tepee and scratched on the tepee wall with
+his finger-nail.
+
+"S-h-h."
+
+The warning was accompanied by a slight ripping sound, and he knew
+the wall was being slit with a knife.
+
+"Paleface buck, come with Jinny," whispered a voice in his ear.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+   CONCLUSION
+
+Grasping the lad by the arm, the Indian girl led him cautiously
+straight back from the tepee, guiding him in the darkness
+unerringly, around all obstructions.
+
+After proceeding in a straight line for some distance, she turned
+and made a wide detour around the camp.  He could tell this by the
+light of the smouldering camp-fires.  He dared ask no questions until
+Jinny had given him permission to speak, which was not until they
+had left the camp some distance behind them.  She paused suddenly and
+faced him.
+
+"You send Jinny ring?"
+
+"Yes, I promised you."
+
+"You send beads like white women wear?"
+
+"Of course I will."
+
+"Then come.  Ponies here.  Boy here."
+
+Not understanding her latter words, Tad followed obediently, passing
+around a point of rocks.
+
+"Here ponies.  Here boy."
+
+"O Tad, is that you?"  exclaimed a tremulous voice.
+
+"Who's that?"  demanded Tad sharply.
+
+"It's Phil.  O Tad!"
+
+"Phil!"  cried the lad, grasping the boy about the neck and hugging
+him delightedly.  "They got you too, did they?  Oh, I'm so glad I've
+found you!  You must tell me all about it, hut not now.  We've got to
+get away from here.  Thank you, Jinny.  I shall never forget this.  I_"
+
+"You send Jinny beads?"  demanded the girl suggestively.
+
+"Indeed you shall have the finest set of beads that an Indian girl
+ever wore, even if it takes all my money to buy them.  Now which way
+shall we go?"
+
+"Go river."
+
+"Where is it?"
+
+She took his hand in the darkness and pointed with it in the
+direction where the river lay.
+
+"Yes, yes, I know.  Then where?"
+
+"Find white man.  He tell um.  Jinny not know."
+
+She pressed something into his hand.
+
+"What's this?"  asked Tad sharply.
+
+"Knife.  Mebbyso brave catch um paleface buck."
+
+Tad caught the significance of her words instantly.
+
+"No, Jinny, thank you very much.  I couldn't do that.  You keep the
+knife.  I shall not need it, but you shall have the beads just the
+same."
+
+"Ugh!  Go pony.  Go quick.  Braves him follow."  She pointed back toward
+the camp, and, grasping Tad by the arm, hurried him toward the
+ponies.
+
+"When?"
+
+"Come now," she insisted.
+
+Tad felt a sudden thrill as he heard a great commotion back in the
+camp.
+
+"We've got to hurry, Phil.  I guess they have discovered our
+escape.  You run, Jinny.  Run back.  Don't you let them know you helped
+us.  Say, what will the chief do if he finds it out?"  demanded the
+boy, pausing sharply.
+
+"Huh.  Jinny no afraid chief.  Jinny laugh in chief face.  Bye."
+
+She disappeared with surprising suddenness.
+
+"Quick, Phil!  Get on your pony and follow me.  Keep close to me."
+
+"I am on," answered the boy bravely.  "It's my pony, too."
+
+"And so is this one mine.  It's Pink-eye."  "What's that noise!"  asked
+Phil in a tremulous voice.
+
+"Hi-yi-yip-yah--yah-hi-yah!"  rang out the Indian war cry, as the
+braves threw themselves on the bare backs of their ponies and tore
+from the village, going in all directions.
+
+Tad drove the spurs in viciously.
+
+"Quick!  Quick, Phil!  They're after us."
+
+"I'm coming."
+
+Both ponies sprang away in the darkness, the lads clinging to the
+saddles, none too sure of the path that lay before them, and riding
+desperately.
+
+Bang, bang, bang!
+
+Three rifle shots rang out in quick succession, and the boys
+imagined they could hear the bullets sing over their heads.
+
+"Hi-yi-yip--yah-hi-yah!"
+
+"They're gaining on us.  They're gaining, Phil.  Ride for your life!"
+
+The shrill yells of the Indians sounded much closer.  The boys
+believed that their enemies had picked up the trail.
+
+"We have got to do something, and do it quick.  We've got to outwit
+them," shouted Tad.
+
+"What--what"----
+
+"I'll tell you.  When we think they are getting too near, I'll pull
+over by you and take you on my pony.  We'll send the other one flying
+on while we turn off," decided Tad.
+
+The time for the change came a few moments later.  The Indians were
+gaining on them every second.  Now the "hi-yi-yip--yah-hi-yah"
+sounded as if it was being shrieked into their ears.
+
+Tad drove Pink-eye right against the other pony.
+
+"Jump!"  he commanded, and Phil landed on Pink-eye's back without
+mishap, while Tad, giving a vicious kick to the free pony, turned
+off to the left a little and drove his pony at a run.  They reached
+the river.  As the pony plunged in the boys slipped off on opposite
+sides of him, hanging to the saddle while the pony swam.
+
+"Hang on tightly.  Don't let go.  There is a strong current here."
+
+They could hear the savages racing up and down the river bank,
+shouting and shooting and searching vainly for the other pony.  Every
+minute Tad expected to hear them take to the river, but for some
+reason they did not do so.  After a chilling swim, the boys at last
+reached the other bank, and, shaking the water from their clothes as
+best they could, both mounted the one pony and struck off, guided by
+the stars alone.
+
+They continued on until daylight, having heard nothing more of the
+Indians.  Both boys were shivering with cold and exhausted for want
+of something to eat after their trying night.
+
+Tad learned from his companion that he had been taken by white men
+and turned over to the Indians for some purpose unknown to him.  Phil
+described his captor as a man with a scar on his temple and having a
+red beard.
+
+Shortly after sunrise they came upon a flock of sheep, and soon
+after they were at the house of a rancher, where the boys told their
+story.  The owner of the ranch knew Mr. Simms well, and besides
+providing Phil with a pony, sent one of his own men to pilot the
+boys home.
+
+They rode into the Simms camp about midnight, rousing the camp with
+their shouts.  And the jollification that followed the safe return of
+Phil and his rescuer did the hearts of both boys good.  There was no
+sleep in the Simms outfit that night.
+
+Tad and Phil were obliged to tell the story of their experiences
+over and over again, while the other boys listened in wide-eyed
+wonder.
+
+Mr. Simms was of the opinion that, having taken Phil, the Indians
+picked up Tad so that he might not report their being off the
+reservation.
+
+"At any rate we have got the man, thanks to your description," he
+added.
+
+"What, the man with the scar?"
+
+"Yes.  He is the cattle rancher whom Luke insisted was such a friend
+of his.  I took a long chance and had the sheriff arrest him
+to-day.  He is being held until you take a look to see if you can
+identify him.  I hope you will be able to."
+
+"Where is he?"  asked the lad.  "Tied up in the chuck wagon.  I'll have
+him brought over."
+
+"Hello, Bluff," greeted Tad, the instant he set eyes on the surly
+face of the prisoner.
+
+"Hello, kid.  Never saw me before, did you?"
+
+"I should say I had.  That's the man, Mr. Simms.  There can be no
+doubt about it."
+
+"And he is the fellow who caught and turned me over to the Indians,"
+added Philip, shrinking away from the bearded face.
+
+"Then I guess there is nothing more to he said," announced
+Mr. Simms, with a grim smile.  "This man has been doing a crooked
+business for years, all up and down the trail.  Of course he had
+accomplices, but we shall hardly get them.  Nobody suspected him.  The
+frequent thefts of stock and the killing of sheep was a mystery
+until you solved it, Master Tad.  I wish I knew how to express my
+appreciation of what you have done for us."
+
+"There is one favor you can do for me if you will, Mr. Simms."
+
+"It is already granted.  Name it."
+
+"I wish you would see that Jinny gets the beads I promised her and
+which I am going to buy as soon as I get where I can."
+
+"She shall have them," replied the rancher, "and a present from me,
+besides.  I'll send one of my men to the Blackfeet Agency especially
+to deliver your present and mine to the Indian girl."
+
+"Thank you."
+
+"To-morrow we shall have to go back to town with the sheriff and his
+prisoner.  I should like to have you accompany us if you will.  The
+prosecuting attorney can take your deposition and thus avoid the
+necessity of your having to wait for the trial.  You are free to
+continue on your trip then, if you desire."
+
+"Of course he will go with you," spoke up the Professor, who, up to
+that point, had been too deeply absorbed in the developments of the
+hour to offer any comment.  "All of us will accompany you.  Boys, you
+had better get your belongings together before we turn in, as I
+imagine Mr. Simms will want to make an early start in the morning.  I
+guess you are all pretty well satisfied with what you have seen of
+the old Custer trail."
+
+"Yes," shouted the boys.  "We've had a great time."
+
+"At least some of us have," smiled Tad.
+
+At Forsythe next day Tad Butler and young Philip Simms appeared
+against the prisoner.  As the result of their positive identification
+and further testimony, Bluff broke down.  He made a full confession,
+implicating others who had been concerned with him in various
+misdeeds along the trail, each of whom was eventually brought to
+justice and punished.
+
+Their presence being no longer necessary in Forsythe, that afternoon
+the Pony Rider Boys boarded a sleeping car, loudly cheered by a
+crowd of enthusiastic ranchers and villagers, who had gathered to
+see them off.  And there, with their four smiling faces framed in the
+Pullman windows, we shall take leave of the Pony Rider Boys.  They
+will next be heard from in another volume, entitled, "THE PONY RIDER
+BOYS IN THE OZARKS, or the Secret of Ruby Mountain," a stirring tale
+of adventure and daring deeds among the Missouri mountains, in which
+the lads pass through many perils.
+
+THE END.
+
+End of Project Gutenberg Etext of The Pony Rider Boys in Montana
+
+
+
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