"Can'twe come along?" asked Teddy, as he saw Uncle Frank lead his horse out of the corral.
"And I want to come, too!" added Janet.
"Oh, no! We couldn't think of letting you!" answered Uncle Frank. "Come on, boys! Get ready. We'll have to ride fast!"
"We can ride fast!" added Teddy. "You said, the other day, Uncle Frank, I could ride real good!"
"So you can, Curlytop."
"Then why can't we come? Jan—she's a good rider, too!"
"Why the idea of you children thinking you can go off on a hunt for Indians!" exclaimed their mother.
"We want to go—awful much!" Teddy murmured.
"Not this time, Curly boy," said theranchman. "We may have to be out all night, and it looks like rain. You stay at home with Janet, and I'll tell you all about it when I come back."
"Will you, truly?"
"Truly I will."
"And if you get any Indians will you bring 'em here?" Teddy demanded.
"No, don't!" cried Janet quickly. "I don't want to see any Indians."
"But they'retameones," said her brother.
"They can't beawfultame, else they wouldn't run away with Uncle Frank's cows," declared the little girl.
"That's right!" laughed Uncle Frank. "I guess we won't bring any Indians here, Curlytop, even if we catch 'em, which we may not do as they have a good start of us. Anyhow we'll have to turn the Redmen back to their reservation where they belong if we get any of them. We'll just take my cattle and horses away, if we can, and tell the Indians to go home and be good."
"Will they do it?" asked Daddy Martin.
"It's hard to say," answered Uncle Frank. "I'd like to make 'em stop taking my animals, though. Well, I guess we'llstart. We'll be back as soon as we can."
So he rode off with his cowboys after the Indians. The cowboy who had ridden in with the news went back with the others to show them where he had last seen the cattle thieves.
He stopped at the ranch house long enough, though, to get something to eat, and then rode away again. But he found time to talk a while to the Curlytops.
"Where did you see the Indians?" Teddy asked while the cowboy was eating and Uncle Frank and the others getting ready for the chase.
"Oh, I was giving my pony a drink at the spring in the rocks when I saw the Indians across the prairie—field, I guess you'd call it back East."
"Well, the prairies are big fields," observed Janet.
"So they are, Curly girl," laughed the cowboy. "Well, it was while I was watering my horse that I saw the Indians."
"You mean at the spring in the rocks where Jan and I found Clipclap in the cave?" Teddy asked.
"That's the place, Curlytop. I chased after them to see which way they were drivingoff your Uncle Frank's cattle, but I saw they were too many for me, so I came on back as fast as my horse would bring me."
"Was there a lot of Indians?" Teddy inquired.
"Quite a few," answered the cowboy. "Well, now I've got to go and help chase them," and he hurried through his meal and rode off with Uncle Frank and the others.
"Say, I wish wecouldgo, don't you, Janet?" asked Teddy of his sister, when they were left by themselves near the corral.
"No, I don't! I don't want to chase Indians!"
"Well, I'd chase 'em and you could watch me."
"You're not big enough," said the little girl. "Indians are awful big. Don't you remember the one we saw at the station?"
"Yes. But maybe the ones that took Uncle Frank's ponies are little Indians."
"I don't care," Janet said. "I don't want to chase after any of 'em. I don't like 'em."
"All right—then I won't go," decided Teddy. "But let's go and take a ride on our ponies."
OVER THE PRAIRIES RODE JANET AND TED.The Curlytops at Uncle Frank's RanchPage171
"Yes, I'll do that," agreed Janet, and soon, having had one of the cowboys who had been left behind at Ring Rosy Ranch saddle Clipclap and Star Face, the Curlytops started for their ride.
"Don't go too far!" called Mrs. Martin after the children.
"No, we won't," they promised.
"I wants to go wide too!" begged Trouble. "I 'ikes a wide on a ponyback."
"Not now, my dear," his mother said. "We'll go in the shade and pick flowers," and she carried him away where he would not see Teddy and Janet go off, for that made Trouble fretful. He wanted to be with them.
Over the prairie rode Janet and Ted. Their ponies went slowly, for the children had been told not to ride fast when they were alone. But, after a while, Ted got tired of this slow motion.
"Let's have a race, Jan!" he called. "I can beat you from here to that hill," and he pointed to one not far away.
"Mother said we couldn't ride fast," objected the little girl.
"Well, we won't rideveryfast," agreed Ted. "Come on, just a little run."
Janet, too, wanted to go a bit faster, andso, when her pony was in a line with Ted's, she called sharply:
"Gid-dap, Star Face!"
"Gid-dap, Clipclap!" cried Teddy.
The two ponies started to run.
"Oh, I'm going to beat! I'm going to beat!" Janet cried, for she saw that Star Face was getting ahead of Clipclap.
"No you're not!" shouted Teddy, and he touched his heel to the pony's flank. Clipclap gave a jump forward, and then something happened.
Teddy took a flying leap, and right over Clipclap's head he sailed, coming down on his hands and knees some distance off. Clipclap fell down and rolled over in the grass while Janet kept on toward the hill that marked the end of the race.
The little girl reached this place first, not being able to stop her pony when she saw what had happened to Teddy. But as soon as she could turn around she rode back to him and asked anxiously:
"Are you hurt, Ted?"
"No—no. I—I guess not," he answered slowly.
"Is Clipclap?" asked Janet.
The pony answered for himself by gettingup, giving himself a shake and then beginning to eat some grass.
"What happened?" Janet questioned further. "Why didn't you come on and race with me? I won!"
"Yes, I guess you did," admitted Teddy, getting up and brushing the dust off his clothes. "But I'd 'a' beaten you, only my pony stumbled and he threw me over his head. I went right over his head; didn't I Janet?"
"Yes, you did, Teddy. And you looked awful funny! But I'm glad you're not hurt."
"So'm I."
"What made Clipclap stumble?" asked the little girl.
"I guess he stepped in a gopher's hole," answered her brother.
"Let's look," proposed Janet.
Brother and sister went to the place where Clipclap had stumbled. There they saw a little hole in the ground. It was the front, or maybe the back, door of the home of a little animal called a gopher, which burrows under the earth. A gopher is a sort of squirrel-like rat, and on the prairies they make many holes which are dangerous if ahorse suddenly steps into them. Prairie dogs are another species of animal that burrow on the Western plains, making holes into which horses or ponies often step, breaking their legs and throwing their riders.
This time nothing had happened except that Teddy and the pony had been shaken up. The pony might have broken a leg but did not, nor was Teddy even scratched.
Cowboys always dread gopher and prairie dog holes, especially at night when they can not be so easily seen.
"Oh, I know what let's do!" exclaimed Janet, when she found that her brother was all right.
"What?" asked Teddy.
"Let's wait here until the gopher comes up!"
"All right. Then we'll catch him and take him home to Trouble."
Janetand Teddy sat beside the gopher hole, while their ponies, not far from them, ate the sweet grass of the prairie. Clipclap and Star Face did not wander away, even if they were not tied to a hitching post. For Western horses and cow ponies are trained to stand where their master leaves them, if he will but toss the reins over their heads and let them rest on the ground.
When a pony sees that this has been done he will never run away, unless perhaps something frightens him very much. It may be that he thinks, when the reins are over his head and down on the ground, they are tied to something, so he could not run away if he wanted to.
At any rate, Clipclap and Star Face stayed where Ted and Janet left them, andthe little Curlytops watched the gopher hole.
"I wonder when he'll come out," said Janet after a bit.
"Shs-s-s-s!" whispered Teddy. "Don't talk!"
"Why not?" asked his sister.
"'Cause you might scare him. You mustn't talk any more than if you were fishing."
"A gopher isn't a fish!"
"I know it," said Teddy. "But you've got to keep quiet."
So he and Janet remained very quiet, watching the hole. Suddenly Janet gave Teddy a slight tap with her hand. He had looked off to see if the ponies were all right.
"What's the matter?" asked Teddy.
"Hush!" whispered Janet. "There he is."
She pointed to the gopher's hole. Teddy saw a tiny black nose and a pair of sparkling eyes as a head was thrust a little way out of the burrow.
"I'll get him!" cried the little boy.
With outstretched hand he made a grab toward the hole. But his fingers only grasped a lot of dirt and stones. The gopherhad dived down back into his hole as soon as he saw Teddy's first move.
"Oh, he got away!" said Janet sorrowfully.
"I'll get him next time," declared Teddy.
But he did not. Three or four times more the little animal put his small head and bright eyes out of the top of the hole, and each time Teddy made a grab for him; but the gopher was too quick. Finally Janet said:
"I guess we better go home, Teddy."
"Why?"
"Oh, it's getting late, and I'm getting hungry."
"So'm I. I'll wait until he comes up once more and then we'll go."
Once more the gopher peeped up, as if wondering why in the world those two strange children did not go away and let him alone. Ted made a grab for him, but missed and then the little boy said:
"Come on, Jan. Now we'll go home!"
"And we haven't any nice little gopher to take to Trouble," said Janet sadly.
"Oh, well, maybe it would bite him if we did catch one," reflected her brother. "I'll take him some of these pretty stones," andhe picked up some from the ground. "He'll like to play with these."
Teddy whistled for his pony and Clipclap came slowly up to his little master. Janet held out a bunch of grass to Star Face and her pony, just as he had been taught, came up to her. Teddy helped his sister get up in the saddle. It was not hard for them, as the ponies were small, and Jim Mason had showed them how to put one foot in the stirrup, and then, with one hand on the saddle and the other grasping both the bridle and the pony's mane, give a jump that carried them up. But though Janet could mount her pony alone Teddy always helped her when he was with her by holding the stirrup.
"Let's have another race home," suggested Teddy, when they had started.
"No," answered his sister. "You might fall some more and get hurt. We'll ride slow."
So they did, though Teddy was anxious for a good, fast gallop.
"Well, did you have a nice time?" asked Mother Martin, as they came to the house after putting away their ponies.
"We had lots of fun," answered Janet. "Teddy fell off his pony——"
"Fell off his pony!" cried her mother.
"He threw me!" explained Ted, and then he told what had happened.
"An' didn't you catch noffin for me?" asked Trouble, who heard his brother telling the story of his adventure.
"I brought you these nice stones," and Teddy took them out of his pocket. "You can play with them, Trouble."
Baby William laughed and sat down to play with the stones.
"Did the cowboys come back with the Indians?" asked Teddy of Aunt Millie when she was giving him and Janet some bread and jam to eat.
"No, not yet, Curlytop. I expect Uncle Frank and the boys will be gone all night."
"Will they have a house to sleep in?" asked Janet.
"No, unless they happen to be near one when it gets dark. But they took their blankets with them, and it's so warm that they'll just wrap up in them and sleep out on the prairie," said Aunt Millie.
"Won't they be hungry?" Teddy inquired, as he took a big bite of the bread and jam.
"Oh, no! Don't you remember I told youthey always take something to eat with them when they go out this way? They are used to camping on the prairies, and they know how to make a fire, broil the bacon and make their coffee," answered Aunt Millie. "You need never worry about Uncle Frank and his cowboys. They'll be all right."
And so they were. It was not until the next afternoon that the party which had gone out to chase the Indians came back. They were tired, because they had ridden a good many miles, but they said they had slept well and had had enough to eat.
"Did you catch the Indians?" asked Teddy eagerly.
"No, Curlytop," answered Uncle Frank. "I'm sorry to say we did not. They got away from us."
"Did you see them?" asked Daddy Martin.
"Yes, but they were a long way off. Too far for us to get at them."
"And did they have your cattle with them?"
"Yes, they had a lot of my best animals. I guess they must be hiding away somewhere among the hills and mountains. We came pretty close to them at one time, andthey suddenly disappeared. It seems as if they must have gone into a big hole or cave. We couldn't find them."
"Are you going to look any more?" Teddy questioned. "And if you do go, Uncle Frank, please can't I go too?"
"Well, most likely we will have another hunt for the Indians," answered the ranchman, "but I'm afraid we couldn't take you along, Curlytop."
"Why not, Uncle Frank?"
"Oh, you might get hurt."
"Well, can I see the Indians after you catch 'em?"
"Oh, yes, I guess I can promise youthat," and Uncle Frank smiled at Daddy Martin.
"And can I ask them to make me a bow and arrows?" went on Teddy.
"Yes, you canaskthem, but I don't believe they will," Uncle Frank replied. "These Indians aren't very nice. They're quite bad, in fact, and we all wish they'd stay where they belong and not come off their reservation and steal our cattle and horses."
"Well, I'm going to ask one to make me a bow and some arrows when you catch 'em," decided Teddy.
That afternoon Teddy saw his sister trying to do something with bits of string and sticks in a shady spot on the porch.
"What are you making, Jan," he asked. "A cat's cradle?"
"Pooh! you don't make a cat's cradle with sticks," said the little girl.
"Well, I thought maybe it was a new kind, or maybe akitten'scradle," laughed Teddy.
"Nope; it isn't that either," went on Janet, as she kept on twisting the strings around the sticks.
"Well, whatareyou making?"
"A bow and arrow."
"Ho! Ho!" laughed Jan's brother. "You can't make a bow and arrowthatway. Anyhow you don't need a string for an arrow."
"I knowthat!" Jan said. "But I'm making the bow first, and then I'm going to make the arrow. The arrow part is what you shoot, isn't it, Ted?"
"Yes," he answered. "I'll help you, Jan. I didn't mean to laugh at you," he went on, for he saw that Janet was very much in earnest about what she was doing. "I know how to make a bow and arrows."
"Oh, please show me!" begged Janet. "I want to know how to shoot like the Indians."
Teddy, however, did not have much better luck making the bow than his sister had had. The trouble was that the sticks Janet had picked up were not the right kind. They would not bend, and to make a bow that shoots arrows a piece of wood that springs, or bends, is needed. For it is the springy action of the wood that shoots the arrow on its way.
After trying two or three times, each time finding something wrong, Teddy said:
"Oh, I don't guess I can make a bow, either. Let's play something else."
"What'll we play?" asked Janet.
Teddy thought for a few moments. Playing out at Uncle Frank's ranch was different from playing at home. In some ways it was not so easy, for at home if the Curlytops could not think up any way to have fun by themselves, they could run down the street and find some other boys and girls. But here there were no streets, and no other boys or girls unless Teddy and Janet went a long way to look for them, and they could not do that.
"I know what we can do," said Teddy,after a while. "We can get some blankets and cookies and play cowboy."
"How can you play cowboy with cookies and blankets?"
"I'll show you," Teddy answered, as he went into the house to get the things he wanted. He soon came out with some old quilts and the cookies, which were in a paper bag.
"Now," went on Janet's brother, "We'll go off on the prairie and make believe it's night and we have to stay out like the cowboys when they went after Uncle Frank's horses."
"Oh, that'll be fun!" cried Janet, and then she and Ted rolled themselves up in the old quilts and pretended to go to sleep on the soft grass of the prairie, making believe it was night, though of course it was not, for the sun was shining. Then they ate the cookies, pretending they were bacon, sandwiches, cake and other things that cowboys like.
Two or three days later Uncle Frank and the cowboys went out again to look for the Indians, but they did not find them. From other ranches word came of cattle and horses that had been stolen, and more cowboyswere hired to keep watch over the animals that had to be left out in the big fields to eat their fill of grass. No barn was large enough to hold them.
Meanwhile Teddy and Janet were learning how to ride better each day. They could go quite fast now, though they were not allowed to make their ponies gallop except on ground where Uncle Frank knew there were no holes in which the animals might stumble.
Sometimes Daddy and Mother Martin went to ride with the children, and then they had good times together, taking their lunch and staying all day out on the prairie or in a shady grove of trees.
One day Ted and Janet saw some cowboys driving a number of ponies to the corral near the ranch buildings. Some of the animals were quite wild and went racing about as though they would like to run far off and not come back.
But the cowboys knew how to take care of the ponies. They rode around them, keeping them together in a bunch, and if one started to get away the cowboys would fire their revolvers and yell, so the pony would become frightened and turn back.
"Did you take these ponies away fromthe Indians?" asked Teddy, as he saw the little animals turned into the corral and the gate shut on them.
"No, these are some that have been running wild in a field away over at the far end of my ranch," explained Uncle Frank. "I had them brought in, as I'm going to ship some away to be sold."
"Come on, we'll go and look at the ponies," called Ted to his sister. "Are they very wild?" he asked Jim Mason, who had helped the cowboys bring them to the ranch corral.
"Yes, some of 'em are pretty wild," was the answer. "We had hard work making them come along. They want to get loose and do as they please."
Ted and Janet climbed up on the corral fence to look at the ponies. A few were somewhat tame, and allowed the Curlytops to pat them. But others were very wild, and ran about as though looking for a place to jump the fence or get out through a hole. But the fence was good and strong. It was high and had no holes in it.
"Lots of ponies!" murmured Trouble, as he toddled after his brother and sister to the corral.
"Yes, lots of 'em," agreed Janet. "You'll soon be a big boy and you can have a pony to ride like brother and sister."
"Trouble want pony now!" he exclaimed.
"Oh, no, not now," Janet said as she helped him get up on the lowest board of the fence, part of which was wooden, so he could look in better.
"What they run around like that for?" asked Trouble, as he saw some of the ponies racing about the corral.
"They want to get out," Janet answered.
"Trouble go help," murmured the little fellow, but Janet either did not hear what he said or she paid no attention, for just then two of the ponies had a race together around the corral and she and Ted wanted to see which would win.
Trouble got down off the fence and went around to the gate. His brother and sister did not notice him until, all at once, Janet, missing her little brother, cried:
"Where's Trouble?"
"I don't know," Ted answered. "Maybe he—— Oh, look, Janet!" he suddenly cried. "The corral gate is open and all the ponies are running out!"
"Oh, that's right! They are!" Janetthen screamed. "But where is Trouble?"
"I don't know. I guess he—— Oh, there he is!" and Teddy pointed to a spot near the gate.
There stood Trouble between the fence and the big gate which had swung back on its hinges.
"Oh, look at 'em run!" cried Janet.
"They're all running out!" added Teddy excitedly. "I wonder who let 'em loose."
"Maybe it was Trouble," suggested Janet. "Oh, itwas!" she went on. "Trouble must have opened the gate and let the ponies loose!"
Troublehad done that very thing. The little fellow had not meant to do any harm, and certainly thought he was doing something to help, but really he made a great deal of work for Uncle Frank and the cowboys.
The corral, or yard where the half-tamed horses were kept while they were being got ready to send away, was closed by a large gate, but one easy to open if you knew how. All one had to do was to pull on a little handle, which snapped a spring and the gate would swing open.
Horses and cattle could not open the gate, for they could not reach the handle, even if any of them had known enough to do anything like that.
But Trouble had watched Uncle Frank or some of the cowboys open the gate by pullingon the handle; and now he did it himself. Then, of course, when the ponies saw the open gate they raced out.
"Get after 'em!" cried Uncle Frank who came galloping up on his horse to find out what was the matter. "Get after the ponies, boys! Round them up!"
"Round up," is what cowboys call riding around a lot of horses or cattle to keep the animals in one place or to drive them where they should go. Uncle Frank wanted his cowboys to ride after the runaway ponies and drive them back into the corral.
As the wild little horses trotted out through the gate, behind which Trouble stood, well out of danger, the cowboys rode after them, yelling and shouting and shooting their revolvers.
"What a lot of noise!" cried Janet, covering her ears with her hands as she got down off the fence.
"I like it!" laughed Teddy. "It's like a Wild West show!"
Indeed it was, in a way, but it meant a lot of work for Uncle Frank and his men. For all the ponies ran out of the corral and were scattering over the prairie.
"Oh, Trouble! did you let the horsesout?" asked Janet, as her little brother came out from behind the gate and toddled toward her and Ted. The runaway horses were now well out of the way. "Did you open the gate?"
"Yes. I did open gate," Trouble answered, smiling.
"What for?" asked Teddy.
"Help little horses get out," said Trouble. "Them want to get out and Trouble help them. Trouble 'ike ponies!"
"Oh, but, my dear, you shouldn't have done it!" chided Mother Martin, who had come out of the house to find out what all the excitement was about. "That was very naughty of you. See all the work you have made for Uncle Frank and his men."
"Horses run out when Trouble open gate," was the only reply Baby William made.
"Yes, I know," went on his mother. "But it was wrong! You must never again open any gates on Uncle Frank's ranch. Just think—the horses might have stepped on you or kicked you!"
"We didn't see him near the gate or we'd have stopped him," put in Teddy.
"That's true," added Janet. "The firstwe saw was the ponies going out, and then we saw Trouble behind the gate."
"He didn't mean to be bad," said his mother, as she carried him back to the house, "but he has made a lot of work. I'll have to punish him by not letting him out to play for an hour or so. Then he'll remember not to open gates again, whether he thinks he is helping horses or not."
And, though Trouble cried very hard, he was kept in the house. For, as his mother had said, he must have something to make him remember not to do such a thing again.
Meanwhile Uncle Frank and the cowboys were busy rounding up the runaway ponies. The little horses, tired of being cooped up in the corral, raced about, kicking up their heels and glad to be out on the prairie again. But the cowboys knew how to handle them.
Around and around the drove of half-wild ponies rode the yelling and shouting men, firing off many blank cartridges to scare the little animals back into the corral.
Some of the ponies, frightened by the noise, did turn back. They ran up to the corral gate, which was still open, and sniffedat the fence. They may have said to themselves:
"We don't like it, being shut up in there, but maybe we'll have to go back in, for we don't like being shouted at, and we don't like the bang-bang noises like thunder."
But, even when some of the ponies had run back as far as the corral gate they did not go in. Once again they turned around and would have galloped across the prairie again. But Uncle Frank shouted:
"Get after them, boys! Drive those few in and the rest will follow after like sheep! Get after them!"
So the cowboys rode up on their own swift ponies, that seemed to be having a good time, and then the other ponies nearest the corral gate were turned in through it. Then as the rest were driven up they did as the first ones had done and galloped back where they had been before Trouble let them out.
One after another the ponies ran back into the corral until every one was there. Then Uncle Frank closed the gate, and this time he locked it so that no one could open it without the key. But no one would try, not even Trouble, for, crying and sobbing to be allowed to go out and play, he hadbeen given a lesson that he would not soon forget.
"I'm sorry I had to punish him," said Mother Martin to the Curlytops, when they came in after the ponies were once more in the corral, "but I just had to. Work on a ranch is hard enough without little boys letting the horses run wild after they have once been caught."
"Oh, well, no great harm was done," said Uncle Frank with a good-natured laugh, "though it did make us ride pretty hard for a while. Come on, Trouble, I'll take you ponyback!"
This was what Trouble liked, and he soon dried his tears and sat on the saddle in front of Uncle Frank as happy as could be. Janet and Ted got out their ponies, and rode with Uncle Frank and Trouble around the outside of the corral, looking at the little horses inside the fence. They were quieter now, and were eating some oats the cowboys had put out for them.
Two or three days after this, when the ponies had been driven away to the railroad station to be shipped to a far-off state, a cowboy came riding in with news that he had seen a band of two or three Indians passalong the prairie near the rocks where Teddy and Janet had found Clipclap.
"If we ride after them," said the cowboy, "maybe we can find where the other Indians are, and where they have hidden your horses and cattle, Mr. Barton."
"That's it!" exclaimed Uncle Frank. "We'll get on the trail after these Indians. I'm sure they must have some of my animals hidden away in the hills, for I would have heard of it if they had sold them around here. We'll get on the trail!"
"What's the trail, Daddy?" asked Teddy of his father.
"Oh, it means the marks the Indians' ponies may have left in the soft ground," said Mr. Martin. "Uncle Frank and his cowboys will try to trail, or follow, the marks of the horses' feet, and see where the Indians have gone."
"Can't I come?" asked Teddy. "I can ride good now!"
"Oh, no indeed you can't go!" cried Mother Martin. "Are you going?" she asked her husband.
"Yes," he answered. "I think I'll go on the trail with Uncle Frank."
Teddyand Janet sat on a bench outside the cowboys' bunkhouse, as their father, Uncle Frank and a number of the ranchmen rode away over the prairies on the trail of the Indians. The Curlytops did not seem very happy.
"Don't you wishwecould go, Jan?" asked Teddy, after he and his sister had sat in silence for some time.
"I just guess Ido!" she exclaimed. "I can ride good, too. Almost as good as you, Ted, and I don't see why we couldn't go!"
"Yes, you ride nice, Jan," said her brother. "But I thought you were afraid of Indians."
"I used to be, but I'm not any more. Anyway, if you'd stay with me I wouldn't be. And, anyhow, Uncle Frank says the Indians won't hurt us."
"Course they won't! I'm not afraid! I'd go on the trail after 'em if they'd let us."
"So would I. We could throw stones at 'em if they tried to hurt us, Teddy."
"Yes. Or we could ride our ponies fast and get away. Uncle Frank told me the Indians didn't have any good ponies, and that's why they took his."
"But we can't go," said Janet with a sigh.
"No; we've got to stay at home."
A little later a cowboy came limping out of the bunkhouse. His name was Sim Body, but all his friends called him "Baldy" because he had so little hair on his head.
"Hello, Curlytops!" cried Baldy in a jolly voice, for he was always good-natured. Even now he was jolly, though he had a lame foot where a horse had stepped on it. That is why he was not on the trail after the Indians with the other cowboys.
"Hello," answered Teddy, but he did not speak in a jolly voice.
"Why, what's the matter?" asked Baldy with a laugh, as he limped to the bench and sat down near the two children. "You act as sad and gloomy as if there wasn't a Christmas or a New Year's any more, to say nothing of Fourth of July and birthdays!What's the matter? Seems to me, if I had all the nice, curly hair you two have, I'd be as happy as a horned toad and I'd go around singing all day long," and Baldy rubbed his hand over his own smooth head and laughed.
"I don't like my hair," grumbled Teddy. "It's always getting snarled and the comb gets stuck in it."
"And it does in mine, too," added Janet. "And mother pulls when she tries to untangle it. Mine's longer than Ted's."
"Yes, and nicer, for that reason," went on Baldy. "Though I'd be glad if I had even half of yours, Teddy. But never mind about that. I won't take your hair, though I'd like to know what makes you both so gloomy-like. Can't you smile?"
Ted and Janet could not help laughing at Baldy, he seemed so funny. He was a good friend of theirs.
"We can't go on the trail after Indians," said Janet. "We want to go, but we've got to stay here."
"And we can ride our ponies good, too," went on Teddy. "Uncle Frank said we could."
"Yes, you're getting to be pretty good riders," admitted Baldy. "But that isn't sayingyou're big enough to go on a trail after Indians. Of course these Indians may not be very bad, and maybe they aren't the ones that took our horses. But riding on a trail takes a long while, and maybe the boys will be out all night in the open. You wouldn't like that."
"We went camping with our grandpa once," declared Teddy.
"And we slept in a tent," added his sister.
"And we saw a funny blue light and we thought it was a ghost but it wasn't," continued Teddy.
"Hum! A ghost, eh?" laughed Baldy. "Well, I've never been on a trail after one ofthem, but I've trailed Indians—and helped catch 'em, too."
"How do you do it?" asked Teddy eagerly.
"Well, you just keep on riding—following the trail you know—until you catch up to those you're after. Sometimes you can't see any marks on the ground and you have to guess at it."
"And do the Indians ride on ahead and try to get away?" asked Janet.
"Indeed they do. When they know we're after 'em they ride as fast as they can. Thatis, if they've done wrong, like taking horses or cattle that aren't theirs. We just keep chasing 'em until we get close enough to arrest 'em."
"It's like a game of tag, isn't it?" asked Janet.
"Well, yes, you could call it sort of like that," admitted Baldy, with another laugh. "But it's a kind of game of tag that little boys and girls can't very well play."
"Not even when they have ponies?" asked Teddy.
"Well, of course, having a pony makes it easier to keep on the trail. You couldn't go very far walking over the prairies—at least none of us do. We all ride. But I'll tell you some stories about cowboys and Indians and that will amuse you for a while. Like to hear 'em?"
"Oh, yes!" cried Teddy.
"Very much, thank you," added Janet, a little more politely but still just as eagerly as her brother.
So Baldy, sitting on the bench in front of the bunkhouse and resting his lame foot on a saddle on the ground, told the Curlytops stories of his cowboy life—of sleeping out on the prairies keeping watch over thecattle, of Indians or other bad men who would come and try to steal them, and how he and his friends had to give chase to get the steers or ponies back.
"Did you ever get captured by the Indians?" asked Teddy.
"Well, yes, once I was," answered the cowboy.
"Oh, tell us about it!" begged the little Curlytop chap. "I love to hear stories about Indians! Don't you, Jan?"
"I like stories—yes," said the little girl. "But if you're going to tell a story about Indians, Mr. Baldy, maybe it'll be a scary one, and I don't like scary stories."
"I do!" exclaimed Ted. "The scarier they are the better I like 'em!"
Baldy laughed as he said:
"Well, I guess, seeing as how the little lady doesn't like scary stories, I'd better tell one that isn't. We must please the ladies, you know, Teddy."
"Oh, yes, I know that," the little boy said. "But after you tell the not-scary story, Mr. Baldy, couldn't you tell me one that is scary—a real, terrible scary one. You can take me out behind the barn where Jan can't hear it."
"Well, maybe I could do that," agreed the good-natured cowboy, laughing at the Curlytops. "Now then for the not-scary story."
"And you don't have to take Teddy out behind the barn to tell him the scary one," put in Janet. "You could stay here, and I could cover up my ears with my hands when you came to the terrible parts, couldn't I? Is there any parts in it that isn't scary? I'd like to hearthem, Mr. Baldy."
"Well, I guess we can fix it that way," said the cowboy. "Now the first story I'm going to tell you, is how I was captured by the Indians," and the children sat closer to him and waited eagerly.
"Once upon a time," said Baldy, "a lot of Indians lived not far from the house where I lived."
"Weren't you afraid?" asked Janet.
"Please don't ask questions till he tells the story," begged Teddy.
"All right," agreed his sister, and Baldy went on:
"No, I wasn't much afraid, or if I was I've forgotten it now, as it was quite a while ago. Anyhow, one day I was out on the prairie, picking flowers, I think, for I know I used to like flowers, and, all of a sudden,along came a lot of Indians on horses, and one of them picked me up and took me right away with him, on the horse in front of him.
"The horse was a strong one, and could easily carry both of us, and though I wiggled around a good bit and yelled, the Indian didn't let go of me. On and on he rode, carrying me off, and the other Indians rode ahead of us, and on either side. I couldn't get away, no matter how I tried.
"After a while the Indians, who had been out hunting, came to where their tents were. This was their camp, and then I was lifted down off the horse and given to a squaw."
Teddy simply had to ask some questions now.
"A squaw is a Indian lady, isn't she?"
"Yes," answered Baldy, "that's what she is."
"Well, I shouldn't think she'd want to take you," went on the little boy. "I thought the Indian men always kept the prisoners, and you were a prisoner, weren't you?"
"Yes," answered Baldy, and there was a queer smile on his face, "but I guess I forgot to tell you that the time I was capturedby the Indians I was a little boy, not as big as you, Curlytop. And the reason they picked me up off the prairie was that I had wandered away from my home and was lost. So the nice squaw kept me until one of the Indian men had time to take me home."
"Then didn't the Indians hurt you?" asked Janet.
"Not a bit. They were very good to me," the cowboy said. "Some of them knew my father and mother. That's the only time I was ever captured by the Indians, and I'm afraid it wasn't very much of a story."
"Oh, it wasverynice," said Teddy politely.
"And not a bit scary, except a little teeny bit at first," added Janet. "Can you tell us another, Mr. Baldy?"
"Well, I guess I can," said the good-natured cowboy. So he told other tales of what had happened to him on the prairies, for he had lived in the West all his life, and knew much about it.
Teddy and Janet were very glad to hear these stories, but listening to them made Ted, at least, wish all the more that he could have gone with his father and his Uncle Frank on the trail after the Indians.
Then Baldy was called away by another cowboy, who wanted to ask him something about a sick horse, and Teddy and Janet were called by their mother to take care of Trouble for a while.
It was still morning, the cowboys having ridden away before dinner. They had taken with them enough to eat, even if they had to stay out all night.
"I wants a wide!" announced Trouble, when his brother and sister came in to get him.
"Could we give him a little ride on our ponies?" asked Teddy of his mother.
"Yes, I think so. But don't go far away from the stable. Are any of the cowboys out there to help you saddle?"
Saddling, which meant buckling the leather seat tightly around the pony, was something Teddy and Janet could not yet do very well for themselves. It takes strong fingers to tighten the straps.
"Yes, Baldy is out there," Janet said.
"How often have I told you not to call the men by their nicknames?" asked Mother Martin with a smile. "It isn't nice for children to do that."
"But, please, Mother, we don't know hisother name very well," said Teddy. "Everybody calls him Baldy."
"Yes, that's right," agreed Aunt Millie. "I do myself. I guess he doesn't mind."
"Very well, if he'll saddle your ponies for you, take Trouble for a little ride," agreed Mrs. Martin. "But be careful."
The Curlytops said they would, and they were soon taking turns riding Trouble on the saddles in front of them. Clipclap and Star Face liked the children and were well-behaved ponies, so there was no danger in putting Trouble on the back of either as long as Ted or Janet held him.
"But don't go riding off with him on the trail after the Indians," said Baldy, playfully shaking his finger at the Curlytops.
"We won't!" they promised.
Up and down on the paths among the ranch buildings rode the children. Trouble was allowed to hold the ends of the reins, and he thought he was guiding the ponies, but really Teddy and Janet did that.
But finally even such fun as riding ponyback tired Trouble. He wanted something else to do, and said:
"Le's go an' s'ide downhill on hay in de barn."
Teddy and Janet knew what that meant. They had learned this kind of fun at Grandpa Martin's Cherry Farm. Here, on Ring Rosy Ranch, there was a large barn filled with hay, and there was plenty of room to slide down in the mow, or place where the hay was put away.
"Come on!" cried Janet. "We'll give him a good slide, Teddy."
A little later the Curlytops and Baby William were laughing and shouting in the barn, rolling down and tumbling over one another, but not getting hurt, for the hay was too soft.
Pretty soon the dinner horn blew and, with good appetites from their morning's fun, the children hurried in to get something to eat.
"This is a good dinner!" announced Teddy as he passed his plate a second time.
"Yes," agreed Mother Martin. "I hope your father and the cowboys have as good."
"Oh, they'll have plenty—never fear!" laughed Uncle Frank's wife. "They never go hungry when they're on the trail."
After dinner Trouble went to sleep, as he generally did, and Teddy and Janet were left to themselves to find amusement.
"Let's go for another ride," suggested Teddy.
"All right," agreed Janet.
The saddles had not been taken off their ponies. Their mother and Aunt Millie saw them go out and, supposing they were only going to ride around the barn and ranch buildings, as they had done before, said nothing to them.
But Ted was no sooner in the saddle than he turned to his sister and said:
"Jan, why can't we go riding the trail after the Indians?"
"What! We two alone?"
"Yes. We know the way over to the rocks where we found Clipclap in the cave, and from there we can ride farther on, just like daddy and Uncle Frank. Come on!"
Janet thought for a minute. She wanted to go as much as did Teddy. It did not seem very wrong.
"Well, we'll ride a little way," she said. "But we've got to come back before dark."
"All right," agreed Teddy. "We will!"
And the Curlytops rode away over the prairie.
Clipclapand Star Face, the two sturdy little ponies, trotted bravely along, carrying Teddy and Janet on their backs. The ponies did not wonder where they were going—they hardly ever did that. They were satisfied to go wherever their master or mistress guided them, for they knew the children would be good to them.
"Do you s'pose we'll find any Indians?" asked Janet after a while.
"Maybe," answered Teddy. "Are you scared?"
"No," replied his sister slowly. "I was just thinking maybe we could find 'em, and get back Uncle Frank's horses, even if the cowboys didn't."
"Maybe we could!" cried Teddy. "That would begreat! Wouldn't daddy be surprised!"
"And Uncle Frank, too!" added Janet.
"Yes, and the cowboys! Then they'd think we could ride all right!" went on Ted. "Come on, let's hurry! Gid-dap!" he called to Clipclap.
"Where are we going first?" asked Janet.
"To the rocks, where we found my pony in the cave," answered her brother, as he patted the little animal on the neck. "The cowboy said he saw the Indians near there."
"Maybe they're hiding in the cave," suggested Janet.
"No, they wouldn't do that," Teddy decided, after thinking it over awhile. "They'd be afraid to stay so near Uncle Frank's ranch. Anyhow the cave isn't big enough."
"It was big enough for Clipclap."
"Yes, but he's a little pony. Anyhow, we'll look in the cave and then we'll ride on along the trail until we catch up to daddy and Uncle Frank."
"What'll they say?"
"I guess they'll be s'prised."
"Maybe they'll make us go back."
"Well, if they do we'll have some fun, anyhow," said Teddy, laughing. "Gid-dap, Clipclap."
"It's a good thing we've two ponies instead of one goat," remarked Janet, after they had ridden on a little farther.
"Course it is," agreed Ted. "We couldn't both ride Nicknack, though he could pull us both in the wagon."
"Maybe he'd be afraid of Indians," suggested Janet.
"No, I don't guess he would," answered Teddy, after some reflection. "Nicknack's a brave goat. I like him. But I like Clipclap, too."
"And I like Star Face," added Janet. "He's an awful nice pony."
On and on the ponies trotted, carrying the Curlytops farther and farther from the Ring Rosy Ranch house. But the children were not afraid. The sun was shining brightly, and they had often before ridden this far alone. They could look back at the ranch buildings when they got on top of the little hills with which the prairie was dotted, and they were not lonesome.
Off on either side they could see groups of horses or cattle that belonged to Uncle Frank, and Ted and Janet thought there must be cowboys with the herds.
"I'm going to get a drink when we getto the rocks," said Janet, as they came within sight of the pile of big stones.
"Yes. And we'll give the ponies some, too," agreed her brother. "I guess they're thirsty."
Indeed the little animals were thirsty, and after they had rested a while—for Uncle Frank had told the children it was not wise to let a horse or pony drink when it was too warm—Clipclap and Star Face had some of the cool water that bubbled up among the rocks.
"It tastes awful good!" exclaimed Janet, as she took some from the cup Ted filled for her.
After Clipclap had been found at the spring, the time he was hidden in the cave, one of the cowboys had brought a tin cup to the spring, leaving it there, so if anyone passed the spring it would be easy to get a drink without having to use a hat or kneel down on the ground. For horses and cattle there was a little rocky basin into which the cool water flowed.
"I wish we could take some of the water with us," said Teddy, when, after a rest, they were ready to follow the trail again.
"If we had a bottle, like some of the cowboyscarry, we could," remarked Janet. "Maybe we'll get awful thirsty if we ride on a long way, Ted."
"Maybe we will, but maybe we can find another spring. I heard Uncle Frank say there's more than one on the ranch. Come on!"
The children took another drink, and offered some to the ponies, each of which took a little. Then, once more, the Curlytops were on the trail after the Indians, as they believed.
"Which way do we go now?" asked Janet, as she watched Teddy get up in his saddle after he had helped her mount Star Face.
"We've got to follow the trail," Teddy answered.
"How do we do it?" his sister inquired.
"Well, I asked Baldy and he said just look on the ground for tracks in the dirt. You know the kind of marks a horse's foot makes, don't you, Jan?"
"Yes, and I see some down here," and she pointed to the ground.
"That's them!" exclaimed Teddy. "We've got to follow the marks! That's the trail!"
"Is this the Indians' trail?" asked the littlegirl, and she looked over her shoulder, perhaps to make sure no one was following her and her brother.
"I don't know if it's the Indians' trail, or, maybe, the marks left by Uncle Frank and daddy," said Teddy. "Anyhow we've got to follow the trail. That's what Baldy said."
"He doesn't know we came off alone, does he?" asked Janet.
"No. I guess he wouldn't have let us if he did. But we won't have to go very far, and then we'll catch up to the rest. Then they'll have to take us with 'em."
"Yes," said Janet, and she rode along beside her brother.
Neither of the Curlytops stopped to think that their father, Uncle Frank and the cowboys had started off early that morning, and must have ridden on many miles ahead. The cowboys' horses, too, could go faster than the ponies Star Face and Clipclap, for the larger horses had longer legs.
All Teddy and Janet thought of was hurrying along as fast as they could go, in order to catch up to the Indian hunters. What would happen after that they did not know.
All at once, as the Curlytops were ridingalong, they heard what they thought was a whistle.
"Some one is calling us," said Janet, turning to look back. "Did you hear that, Ted?"
"Yes, I heard a whistle. Maybe it's Uncle Frank, or some of the cowboys."
The children looked across the prairie but could see no one. They were about to go on again when the whistle sounded once more.
"Thatissome one calling us," declared Jan. "Let's see if we can't find who it is, Teddy."
So the children looked around again, but no one was in sight, and, what was still stranger, the whistling sound kept up.
"It's some one playing a joke on us, and hiding after they whistle," said Janet. "Maybe one of the cowboys from the ranch."
"Maybe an Indian," said Ted, and then he was sorry he had said that, for his sister looked frightened.
"Oh!" said Janet, "if it's an Indian——"
"I don't guess it is," Teddy hastened to say. "I guess Indians don't whistle, anyhow."
This made Janet feel better and once more she and her brother looked around to see what made the queer whistling sound,that still kept up. It was just like a boy calling to another, and Teddy was quite puzzled over it until he suddenly saw what was doing it.
Perched on a small mound of earth near a hole in the ground, was a little animal, about as big as a large rat, though, as Janet said, he was "nicer looking." And as Ted and his sister looked, they saw this little animal move, and then they knew he it was that was whistling.
"Oh, what is it?" cried Janet.
"I know," Teddy answered. "That's a prairie dog. Baldy told me about them, and how they whistled when they saw any danger."
"Is there any danger here?" asked Janet, looking around.
"I guess the prairie dog thinks we're the danger," said Teddy. "But we wouldn't hurt him."
"Does he live down in that hole?" asked Janet.
"Yes, just like a gopher," answered her brother, who had listened to the cowboys telling about the little prairie dogs. "And sometimes there are snakes or an owl in the same hole with the prairie dog."
"Then I'm not going any nearer," decided Janet. "I don't mind an owl, but I don't like snakes! Come on, Ted, let's hurry."
As they started off, the prairie dog, which really did make a whistling sound, suddenly darted down inside his burrow or hole. Perhaps he thought Teddy and Janet were coming to carry him off, but they were not. The children saw many more of the little animals as they rode over the prairies.
"But we must look for marks—tracks, Baldy calls them," said Teddy. "Tracks will tell us which way the Indians went," and so the children kept their eyes turned toward the sod as they rode along.
For a while they could see many marks in the soft ground—the marks of horses' feet, some shod with iron shoes and others bare, for on the prairie grass there is not the same need of iron shoes on the hoofs of horses as in the city, with its hard, paved streets. Then the marks were not so plain; and pretty soon, about a mile from the spring amid the rocks where the ground was quite hard, Teddy and Janet could see no marks at all.
"Which way do we go?" asked Ted's sister,as he called to his pony to stop. "Do you know the way?"
"No, I don't guess I do," he answered. "But anyhow we can ride along and maybe we'll see 'em."
"Yes, we can do that," Janet said.
It was still early in the afternoon, and the sun was shining brightly. They knew they were still on Uncle Frank's ranch, and, though they could not see the buildings any more, they could see the place where they had had a drink at the spring.
"All we've got to do, if we want to come back," observed Teddy, "is ride to the rocks and then we know the way home from there."
"Yes, that's easy," Janet said.
So they rode on and on.
Of course the Curlytops ought not to have done what they did, but they did not think, any more than Trouble thought when he opened the corral gate and let out the ponies.
But the sun did not stay high in the sky all the afternoon. Presently the bright ball of fire began to go down in the west, and the shadows of Teddy and Janet grew long on the prairie. They knew what those longshadows meant—that it was getting late afternoon.
After a while Janet turned in her saddle and looked back.
"Oh, Teddy!" she cried. "I can't see the spring rocks," for that is what the children had called the place where they had found Clipclap.
"They're back there just the same."
"I know. But if we can't see 'em we won't know how to ride back to them," went on Janet. "How are we going to find our way back home, Ted?"
"Oh, I can get to the rocks when I want to," he said. "Come on, we'll ride a little bit farther and then, if we can't find daddy and Uncle Frank, we'll go back."
"Well, don't go much farther," said Janet, and Teddy said he would not.
There were many hills and hollows now, much higher and deeper ones than those near the ranch buildings. Even from the top of one of the high hills up which the ponies slowly climbed, the Curlytops could not see the spring rocks.
"Oh, Ted!" exclaimed Jan, "I'm afraid! I want to go back! It's going to be night pretty soon!"
"It won't be night for a good while," he said, "but I guess maybe we'd better go back. I can't see daddy, Uncle Frank or the cowboys."
He raised himself in the stirrups and looked across the prairies, shading his eyes with his hand the way he had seen some of the cowboys do. Nothing was in sight.
"Come on, Jan, we'll go back," he said.
Clipclap and Star Face were turned around. Once more off trotted the little ponies with the Curlytops on their backs.
The shadows grew longer. It was not so bright and nice on the prairies now. Janet kept close to Teddy. At last she asked:
"Do you see the rocks?"
"Not yet," her brother answered. "But we'll soon be there."
They did not reach them, however. On and on they rode. The sun went down behind a bank of clouds.
"Oh, dear!" sighed Janet, "I don't like this," and her voice sounded as if she were going to cry.
"We'll soon be back at the rocks, and then I know the way home," said Teddy, as bravely as he could.
But they did not reach the rocks. Up thehollows and across the hills they rode, over the broad prairies, but no rocks did they see. At last the ponies began to go more slowly, for they were tired. It grew darker. Ted looked anxiously about. Janet spoke softly to him.
"Teddy," she asked, "are we—are we—lost?"
For a moment Teddy did not answer. Then he replied slowly:
"Yes—I guess we are lost, Janet!"