Alice B. Emerson

“ Helen started the car again; but at that her brother and Ruth cried out in chorus:
"Don't run us into the herd, Helen!"
"What under the sun shall I do?" cried Miss Cameron. "I can't please you all, that's sure."
"Oh, see that beast!" shrieked The Fox, who was likewise on the back seat. "I want to get out!"
"Then the brute will catch you, sure," said Bob Steele.
"Sit still!" commanded Mr. Hicks. "And stop the car, Miss! Better to be bunted by Old Trouble-Maker than set that whole bunch off on a stampede." ”

“ Ruth, on her beloved little Freckles, rode almost as well now as did Jane Ann. The other girls were content to follow the mule team at a more quiet pace; but Ruth and the ranchman's neice dashed off the trail more than once for a sharp race across the plain.
"You're a darling, Ruthie!" declared Jane Ann, enthusiastically. "I wish you were going to live out here at Silver Ranch all the time I do! I wouldn't mind being 'buried in the wilderness' if you were along——"
"Oh, but you won't be buried in the wilderness all the time," laughed the girl from the Red Mill. "I am sure of that." ”

“ JANE ANN TURNS THE TRICK
"Oh, Ruth! that man is hurt," cried Helen, as the chums rode as hard as they dared after the flying bunch of cattle punchers.
Jimsey lay on the ground, it was true; but when they came nearer they saw that he was shaking both fists in the air and spouting language that was the very reverse of elegant. Jimsey wasn't hurt; but he was awfully angry.
"Come on! come on, girls!" called Tom. "That old steer is running like a dog with a can tied to its tail! ”

“ Jane Ann was quite excited over her home-coming; anybody could see that with half an eye. She clung to her uncle's hand and looked at him now and again as though to assure the old fellow that she really was glad to be home.
And Bill Hicks himself began to "fill into the picture" now that he was back in Montana. The young folks had seen many men like him since leaving Denver.
"Why, he's just an old dear!" whispered Ruth to Helen, as the latter steered the car over the rough trail. "And just as kind and considerate as he can be. It's natural chivalry these Western men show to women, isn't it?" ”

“ The wolf sprang to one side, snarling with rage and pain. Ruth saw a streak of crimson along his high shoulder. The bullet had just nicked him. The beast snapped at the wound and whirled around and around in the dust, snarling and clashing his teeth.
But when the girl tried to urge Freckles in closer, the wolf suddenly took the aggressive. He sprang out into the trail and in two leaps was beside the whirling pony. Freckles knew better than to let the beast get near enough to spring for his throat. But the pony's gyrations almost unseated his rider. ”

“ Jane Ann screamed some order to Ruth, but the latter could not hear what it was. Yet she imitated the Western girl's efforts immediately. No such tame attempts at controlling the cattle as singing to them was now in order. The small number of herdsmen left at this point could only force their ponies into the herd and break up the formation—driving the mad brutes back with their quirts, and finally, after a most desperate fight, holding perhaps a third of the great herd from running wildly into the stream. ”

“ And he must be saved for another reason, too."
"Why, Miss Ruth, he'll be dead long before a doctor could get here," cried Jib. "That's plumb ridiculous."
"He will die of course if he has no attention," said the girl, indignantly.
"Well?"
"Surely you won't desert him! '
"About all we can do for the poor fellow is to bury him," muttered Jib.
"If there was no other reason than that he is a helpless fellow-being, we could not go away and leave him here unattended," declared the girl, gravely. "You know that well enough, Jib."
"Oh, we'll wait around. But he's got to die. ”

“ Ruth said. "Losing money—and a whole lot of money, too, as he has—is a serious matter. Uncle Jabez could lose lots of things better than he can money, for he loves money so!"
"My gracious, Ruth," exclaimed Helen, with a sniff, "you'd find an excuse for a dog's running mad, I do believe! You are bound to see the best side of anybody." ”

“ Uncle Jabez had gone into the scheme of re-opening the Tintacker on the strength of the vacuum-cleaner agent's personality and some specimens of silver ore that might have been dug a thousand miles from the site of the Tintacker claims.
"Don't look like there was anybody to home," grunted Jib Pottoway, as they rode up the last rise to the abandoned camp.
"Why! it's a wreck," gasped Ruth.
"You bet! There's hundreds of these little fly-by-night mining camps in this here Western country. And many a man's hopes are buried under the litter of those caved-in roofs. Hullo!" ”

“ Then the calico pony came to an abrupt halt, sliding along the ground with all four feet braced.
"Zip!" the noose tightened and the steer brought up with a suddenness that threatened to dislocate his neck. Down the beast fell, roaring a different tune. Old Trouble-Maker almost turned a somersault, while Jane Ann, dancing in delight, caught off her very modern and high-priced hat and swung it in the air.
"Hurrah for Bashful Ike!" she shouted. "He's the best little old boy with the rope that ever worked for the Silver outfit. Hurrah!" ”

“ Take care of yourself."
"I'll be all right, Jib!" she responded, with more cheerfulness, and waved her hand to him as the cow puncher rode away.
But when the patter of the pony's hoofs had died away the silence brooding over the abandoned mining camp seemed very oppressive indeed. It was not a pleasant prospect that lay before her. Not only was she alone here with the sick man, but she was afraid of catching the fever. ”

“ Ruth waited for her companion to suggest their course of action. The man she had come to see—the mysterious individual whom she believed had taken her uncle's money to buy up the property known as the Tintacker Claim—was in a raging fever in that old shack near the site of the mine. She had heard his delirious babblings while Jib was in the hut. It never entered her mind that Jib would contemplate leaving the unfortunate creature unattended.
"You can't talk to him, Miss. He don't know nothing," declared the Indian. "And he's pretty far gone." ”

“ Ruth, who had scrambled up with Helen, now placed a restraining hand on the arm of the angry Western girl; but Jane Ann sputtered right out:
"No! I won't keep still, Ruth Fielding. If it hadn't been for you that Mary Cox would now be at the bottom of these rocks. And she'll never thank you for saving her life, and for keeping her from killing you and Helen. She doesn't know how to spell gratitude! Bah!"
"Hush up, Jinny," commanded Jib, easily. "You've got all that off your mind now, and you ought to feel some better. The ponies don't seem to be hurt much. ”

“ I expect Uncle Bill has got more ponies than Job had mules."
"And the men who looked after Job's cattle were a whole lot different from those fellows," cried Helen, from the forward buckboard, pointing to a couple of well-mounted punchers spurring after a score of strays that had broken away from the main herd. "Dear me, how recklessly they ride!"
"But I guess that all cowboys have been reckless and brave," said Ruth, quickly. "Somehow, herding cattle on the open plains and hills seems to make for rugged character and courage. ”

“ Hicks followed him on the jump, and Jane Ann led the exodus of the visitors. There was plainly something of an exciting nature at hand. A pony flashed out of the darkness and slid to a perilous halt right at the steps.
"Hi, Boss!" yelled the cowboy who bestrode the pony. "Fire's sweeping up from Tintacker way! I bet it's that Bughouse Johnny the boys have chased two or three times. He's plumb loco, that feller is—oughtn't to be left at large. The whole chapparel down that a-way is blazin' and, if the wind rises, more'n ha'f of your grazin'll be swept away." ”

“ He was between Ruth and her friends, and his awkward body blocked the path by which they were climbing to the summit of the natural bridge.
"Wu-uh-uh-uff!! said the bear, and swung his head and huge shoulders from the group of four girls to the lone girl above him.
"Run, Ruth!" shrieked Helen.
Her cry seemed to startle the ursine marauder. He uttered another grunt of expostulation and started up the steep path. Nobody needed to advise Ruth to run a second time. ”

“ Although not so cowardly as a coyote, the wolf seldom attacks human beings unless they are helpless or the beast is driven to desperation by hunger. And gaunt as this fellow was, there was plenty of small game for him in the chapparel.
Thus, Ruth was in a quandary. But she saw plainly that she must withdraw or the wolf would attack. She left the bucket of water where it stood and withdrew back of the nearest hut. Once out of the wolf's sight, but still holding the revolver ready, she looked hastily about. Her pony, hobbled by Jib, had not wandered far. ”

“ Ruth still stood in the doorway and now a murmur from the bed called her turn back into the shack to make the unfortunate on the couch more comfortable—for in his tossings he became more feverish and hot. When she returned to the outer air the others had decided.
"Darcy and I will remain, Ruth," Tom said, with decision. "We'll bring the water, and cook something for you to eat out here, and stand guard, turn and turn about. But you are a very obstinate girl."
"As long as one is in for it, why increase the number endangered by the fever?" ”

“ And Bashful Ike and Sally made me promise that if ever I could get out West again I should spend a long time at their home——
"Oh, dear, me Aunt Alvirah," finished the girl of the Red Mill, with a tearful but happy sigh, "this world is a very beautiful place after all, and the people in it are just lovely!" ”

“ Tom and Bob, and Jane Ann herself had joined in it—slapping out the immature fires where they had sprung up in the grass from sparks which flew from the greater fires. But the ridge had helped retard the blaze so that it could be controlled, and from the summit the girls from the East had enjoyed the spectacle.
Old Bill Hicks rode beside the buckboard when they started back for the ranchhouse, and was very angry over the setting of the fire. Cow punchers are the most careful people in the world regarding fire-setting in the open. ”

“ Helen could not remain inactive and see a bear chase her chum over the rocks; therefore she picked up a good-sized stone and threw it at the beast. They say—at least, boys say!—that a girl can't throw straight. But Helen hit the bear!
The stone must have hurt, for the beast let out a sudden growl that was in quite a different tone from the sounds he had made before. He turned sharply and bit at the place on his flank where the stone had hit him, and then, in a perfectly unreasonable manner, the bear turned sharp around and scampered after Ruth harder than ever. ”

“ Don't you dare interfere. I'll show those boys I can beat them at their own game."
"Sufferin' snipes! You look out, Jinny! You'll be killed!"
"I won't if you don't interfere," she yelled back at him.
During this conversation both their mounts were on the keen jump. The saddle was bounding high over the plain as the steer still bellowed and ran. Jane Ann urged her pony as close alongside the steer as she dared, leaned sideways from her saddle, and made a sharp slash in the air with the hunting knife that had hung from her belt in its sheath. ”

“ It was to give Jane Ann pleasure, and because of the kindness of Ruth and her friends to his niece, that Mr. Bill Hicks had arranged this trip West for the entire party, on a visit to Silver Ranch. But the old gentleman did not want their introduction to the ranch to be a tragedy. And with the herd of half-wild cattle ahead, and Old Trouble-Maker thundering along the trail behind the motor car, it did look as though the introduction of the visitors to the ranch was bound to be a strenuous one. ”

“ Ruth slipped out of the saddle and ran to the door of the sick man's hut. She laid her hand on the latch, hesitated a moment, and then pushed the door open. There was plenty of light in the room. The form on the bed, under a tattered old blanket, was revealed. Likewise the flushed, thin face lying against the rolled-lip coat for a pillow.
"The poor fellow!" gasped Ruth. "And suppose it should be her brother! Suppose it should be!"
Only for a few seconds did she stare in at the unfortunate fellow. His head began to roll from side to side on the hard pillow. ”

“ It was scarcely more than fifteen miles to the claims which had been the site, some years before, of a thriving mining camp, but was now a deserted town of tumble-down shanties, corrugated iron shacks, and the rustled skeletons of machinery at the mouths of certain shafts. Money had been spent freely by individuals and corporations in seeking to develop the various "leads" believed by the first prospectors to be hidden under the surface of the earth at Tintacker. ”

“ Madge's ringing laugh caught Sally's ear, as the Eastern girl bore the foreman of Silver Ranch off to join the next set of dancers. The teacher did not dance that number at all.
Mrs. "Jule" Marvin, the young and buxom wife of the owner of the Two-Ten Ranch, caught Ike's hand and whispered loudly:
"I never suspected you was such a heartbreaker, Ike. Goodness me! you're dancing every dance, and with a new partner each time. I haven't got to be left out in the cold just because I'm married to Tom, I hope? He can't dance with that game leg, poor old man! You going to save a dance for me, Ike?" ”

“ And while the ponies climbed the rather steep ascent Jib Pottoway spurred his horse ahead to see if the path was all clear to the place where the canon became a veritable tunnel under the "natural bridge."
"Go slow, Tom Cameron!" shouted the ranchman's niece from the second carriage. "There are bad places when we get to the upper level—very narrow places. And the river is a hundred feet below us there."
"She's trying to scare us," snapped The Fox. "I never saw such people!"
"I guess it will be best to take care," grunted Tom. ”

“ Soon after Jane Ann and Ruth rode forth, taking the place together of one of the regular herders. These additions to the night gang left more of the cow punchers than usual at the camp, and there was much hilarity among the boys as Jane Ann and her friend cantered away toward the not far-distant herd.
"Those fellows are up to something," the ranchman's neice repeated. "We must be on the watch for them—and don't you be scared none, Ruthie, at anything that may happen." ”