Part 22 (1/2)
”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 sh.e.l.ls 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 gra.s.s 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.”
”h.e.l.lo, is this your son, Philip?” asked Tad, as a slender, pale-faced boy came toward them.