"It's just like hide-and-go-seek, isn't it, Uncle Frank?" asked Janet.

"Yes, something like that But it takes longer."

"I wish I could go to hunt the Indians!" murmured Teddy.

"Why, The-o-dore Mar-tin!" exclaimed his mother. "I'm surprised at you!"

"Well, I would like to go," he said.

"Could I go if I knew how to ride a pony, Uncle Frank?"

"Well, I don't know. I'm afraid you're too little. But, speaking of riding a pony, to-morrow I'll have one of the cowboys start in to teach you and Janet to ride. Now I guess I'll have to go see this Henry Jensen and ask him about the Indians and my stolen ponies."

"I hope he gets them back," said Teddy to his sister.

"So do I," she agreed. "And I hope those Indians don't come here."

"Pooh! they're tame Indians!" exclaimed Teddy.

"They must be kind of wild when they steal ponies," Janet said.

A little later the Curlytops and Trouble went to bed, for they had been up early that day. They fell asleep almost at once, even though their bed was not moving along in a railroad train, as it had been the last three or four nights.

"Did Uncle Frank find his ponies?" asked Teddy the next morning at the breakfast table.

"No, Curlytop," answered Aunt Millie. "He and some of the cowboys have gone over to the field where the ponies were kept to see if they can get any news of them."

"Can we learn to ride a pony to-day?" asked Janet.

"As soon as Uncle Frank comes back," answered her father. "You and Ted and Trouble play around the house now as much as you like. When Uncle Frank comes back he'll see about getting a pony for you to ride."

"Come on!" called Ted to his sister after breakfast. "We'll have some fun."

"I come, too!" called Trouble. "I wants a wide! I wish we had Nicknack."

"It would be fun if we had our goat here, wouldn't it?" asked Janet of her brother.

"Yes, but I'd rather have a pony. I'm going to be a cowboy, and you can't be a cowboy and ride a goat."

"No, I s'pose not," said Janet. "But a goat isn't so high up as a pony, Ted, and if you fall off a goat's back you don't hurt yourself so much."

"I'm not going to fall off," declared Teddy.

The children wandered about among the ranch buildings, looking in the bunk house where the cowboys slept. There was only one person in there, and he was an old man to be called a "boy," thought Janet. But all men, whether young or old, who look after the cattle on a ranch, are called "cowboys" so age does not matter.

"Howdy," said this cowboy with a cheerful smile, as the Curlytops looked in at him. He was mending a broken strap to his saddle. "Where'd you get that curly hair?" he asked. "I lost some just like that. Wonder if you got mine?"

Janet hardly knew what to make of this, but Teddy said:

"No, sir. This is our hair. It's fast to our heads and we've had it a long time."

"It was always curly this way," added Janet.

"Oh, was it? Well, then it can't be mine," said the cowboy with a laugh. "Mine was curly only when I was a baby, and that was a good many years ago. Are you going to live here?"

"We're going to stay all summer," Janet said. "Do you live here?"

"Well, yes; as much as anywhere."

"Could you show us where the Indians are that took Uncle Frank's ponies?" Teddy demanded.

"Wish I could!" exclaimed the cowboy. "If I knew, I'd go after 'em myself and get the ponies back. I guess those Indians are pretty far away from here by now."

"Do they hide?" asked Teddy.

"Yes, they may hide away among the hills and wait for a chance to sell the ponies they stole from your uncle. But don't worry your curly heads about Indians. Have a good time here. It seems good to see little children around a place like this."

"Have you got a lasso?" asked Teddy.

"You mean my rope? Course I got one—every cowboy has," was the answer.

"I wish you'd lasso something," went on Teddy, who had once been to see a Wild West show.

"All right, I'll do a little rope work for you," said the cowboy, with a good-natured smile. "Just wait until I mend my saddle."

In a little while he came riding into the yard in front of the bunk house on a lively little pony. He made the animal race up and down and, while doing this, the cowboy swung his coiled rope, or lasso, about his head, and sent it in curling rings toward posts and benches, hauling the latter after him by winding the rope around the horn of his saddle after he had lassoed them.

"Say! that's fine!" cried Teddy with glistening eyes. "I'm going to learn how to lasso."

"I'll show you after a while," the cowboy offered. "You can't learn too young. But I must go now."

"Could I just have a little ride on your pony's back?" asked Teddy.

"To be sure you could," cried the cowboy. "Here you go!"

He leaped from the saddle and lifted Teddy up to it, while Janet and Trouble looked on in wonder. Then holding Ted to his seat by putting an arm around him, while he walked beside the pony and guided it, the cowboy gave the little fellow a ride, much to Teddy's delight.

"Hurray!" he called to Janet "I'm learning to be a cowboy!"

"That's right—you are!" laughed Daddy Martin, coming out just then. "How do you like it?"

"Dandy!" Teddy said. "Come on. Janet!"

"Yes, we ought to have let the ladies go first," said the cowboy. "But I didn't know whether the leetle gal cared for horses," he went on to Mr. Martin.

"I like horses," admitted Janet. "But maybe I'll fall off."

"I won't let you," the cowboy answered, as he lifted her to the saddle. Then he led the pony around with her on his back, and Janet liked it very much.

"I wants a wide, too!" cried Trouble.

"Hi! that's so! Mustn't forget you!" laughed the cowboy, and he held Baby William in the saddle, much to the delight of that little fellow.

"Now you mustn't bother any more," said Daddy Martin. "You children have had fun enough. You'll have more pony-back rides later."

"Yes, I'll have to go now," the cowboy said, and, leaping into the saddle, he rode away in a cloud of dust.

The Curlytops and Trouble wandered around among the ranch buildings. Daddy Martin, seeing that the children were all right, left them to themselves.

"I'se hungry," said Trouble, after a bit.

"So'm I," added Teddy. "Do you s'pose that funny Chinaman would give us a cookie, Jan?"

"Chinamen don't know how to make cookies."

"Well, maybe they know how to make something just as good. Let's go around to the cook house—that's what Aunt Millie calls it."

The cook house was easy to find, for from it came a number of good smells, and, as they neared it, the Curlytops saw the laughing face of the Chinese cook peering out at them.

"Lil' gal hungly—li' boy hungly?" asked Hop Sing in his funny talk.

"Got any cookies?" inquired Teddy.

"No glot clooklies—glot him clake," the Chinese answered.

"What does he say?" asked Janet of her brother.

"I guess he means cake," whispered Teddy, and that was just what Hop Sing did mean. He brought out some nice cake on a plate and Trouble and the Curlytops had as much as was good for them, if not quite all they wanted.

"Glood clake?" asked Hop Sing, when nothing but the crumbs were left —and not many of them.

"I guess he means was it good cake," then whispered Janet to her little brother.

"Yes, it was fine and good!" exclaimed Teddy. "Thank you."

"You mluch welclome—clome some mo'!" laughed Hop Sing, as the children moved away.

They spent the morning playing about the ranch near the house. They made a sea-saw from a board and a barrel, and played some of the games they had learned on Cherry Farm or while camping with Grandpa Martin. Then dinner time came, but Uncle Frank and the cowboys did not come back to it.

"Won't they be hungry?" asked Teddy.

"Oh, they took some bacon, coffee and other things with them," said Aunt Millie. "They often have to camp out for days at a time."

"Say, I wish I could do that!" cried Teddy.

"Wait until you get to be a cowboy," advised his father.

That afternoon Trouble went to lie down with his mother to have a nap, and Teddy and Janet wandered off by themselves, promising not to go too far away from the house.

But the day was so pleasant, and it was so nice to walk over the soft grass that, before they knew it, Teddy and Janet had wandered farther than they meant to. As the land was rolling—here hills and there hollows—they were soon out of sight of the ranch buildings, but they were not afraid, as they knew by going to a high part of the prairie they could see their way back home—or they thought they could. There were no woods around them, though there were trees and a little stream of water farther off.

Suddenly, as the Curlytops were walking along together, they came to a place where there were a lot of rocks piled up in a sort of shelter. Indeed one place looked as though it might be a cave. And as Teddy and Janet were looking at this they heard a strange noise, which came from among the rocks.

Both children stopped and stood perfectly still for a moment.

"Did you hear that?" asked Jan, clasping her brother's arm.

"Yes—I did," he answered.

"Did—did it sound like some one groaning?" she went on.

Teddy nodded his head to show that it had sounded that way to him. Just then the noise came again.

"Oh!" exclaimed Janet, starting to run. "Maybe it's an Indian! Oh, Teddy, come on!"



CHAPTER IX

THE SICK PONY

Teddy Martin did not run away as Jan started to leave the pile of rocks from which the queer sound had come. Instead he stood still and looked as hard as he could toward the hole among the stones—a hole that looked a little like the cave on Star Island, but not so large.

"Come on, Teddy!" begged Janet. "Please cornel"

"I want to see what it is," he answered.

"Maybe it's something that—that'll bite you," suggested the little girl. "Come on!"

Just then the noise sounded again. It certainly was a groan.

"There!" exclaimed Janet. "I know it's an Indian, Ted! Maybe it's one of the kind that took Uncle Frank's ponies. Oh, please come!"

She had run on a little way from the pile of rocks, but now she stood still, waiting for Teddy to follow.

"Come on!" she begged.

Janet did not want to go alone.

"It can't be an Indian," said Teddy, looking around but still not seeing anything to make that strange sound.

"It could so be an Indian!" declared Janet.

"Well, maybe a sick Indian," Teddy admitted. "And if he's as sick as all that I'm not afraid of him! I'm going to see what it is."

"Oh, The-o-dore Mar-tin!" cried Janet, much as she sometimes heard her mother use her brother's name. "Don't you dare!"

"Why not?" asked Teddy, who tried to speak very bravely, though he really did not feel brave. But he was not going to show that before Janet, who was a girl. "Why can't I see what that is?"

"'Cause maybe—maybe it'll—bite you!" and as Janet said this she looked first at the rocks and then over her shoulder, as though something might come up behind her when she least expected it.

"Pooh! I'm not afraid!" declared Teddy.

"Anyhow, if it does bite me it's got to come out of the rocks first."

"Well, maybe it will come out."

"If it does I can see it and run!" went on the little boy.

"Would you run and leave me all alone?" asked Janet.

"Nope! Course I wouldn't do that," Teddy declared. "I'd run and I'd help you run. But I don't guess anything'll bite me. Anyhow, Indians don't bite."

"How do you know?" asked Janet. "Some Indians are wild. I heard Uncle Frank say so, and wild things bite!"

"But not Indians," insisted Teddy. "A Indian's mouth, even if he is wild, is just like ours, and it isn't big enough to bite. You've got to have an awful big mouth to bite."

"Henry Watson bit you once, I heard mother say so," declared Janet, as she and her brother still stood by the rocks and listened again for the funny sound to come from the stones. But there was silence.

"Well, Henry Watson's got an awful big mouth," remarked Teddy. "Maybe he's wild, and that's the reason."

"He couldn't be an Indian, could he?" Janet went on.

"Course not!" declared her brother. "He's a boy, same as I am, only his mouth's bigger. That's why he bit me. I 'member it now."

"Did it hurt?" asked Janet.

"Yep," answered her brother. "But I'm going in there and see what that noise was. It won't hurt me."

Teddy began to feel that Janet was asking so many questions in order that he might forget all about what he intended to do. And he surely did want to see what was in among the rocks.

Once more he went closer to them, and then the noise sounded more loudly than before. It came so suddenly that Teddy and Janet jumped back, and there was no doubt but what they were both frightened.

"Oh, I'm not going to stay here another minute!" cried Janet. "Come on, Ted, let's go home!"

"No, wait just a little!" he begged. "I'll go in and come right out again—that is if it's anything that bites. If it isn't you can come in with me."

"No, I'm not going to do that!" and Janet shook her head very decidedly to say "no!" Once more she looked over her shoulder.

"Well, you don't have to come in," Teddy said. "I'll go alone. I'm not scared."

Just then Janet looked across the fields, and she saw a man riding along on a pony.

"Oh, Teddy!" she called to her brother. "Here's a man! We can get him to go in and see what it is."

Teddy looked to where his sister pointed. Surely enough, there was a man going along. He was quite a distance off, but the Curlytops did not mind that. They were fond of walking.

"Holler at him!" advised Janet. "He'll hear us and come to help us find out what's in here."

Teddy raised his voice in the best shout he knew how to give. He had strong lungs and was one of the loudest-shouting boys among his chums.

"Hey, Mister! Come over here!" cried Teddy.

But the man kept on as if he had not heard, as indeed he had not. For on the prairies the air is so clear that people and things look much nearer than they really are. So, though the man seemed to be only a little distance away, he was more than a mile off, and you know it is quite hard to call so as to be heard a mile away; especially if you are a little boy.

Still Teddy called again, and when he had done this two or three times, and Jan had helped him, the two calling in a sort of duet, Teddy said:

"He can't hear us."

"Maybe he's deaf, like Aunt Judy," said Janet, speaking of an elderly woman in the town in which they lived.

"Well, if he is, he can't hear us," said Teddy; "so he won't come to us. I'm going in anyhow."

"No, don't," begged Janet, who did not want her brother to go into danger. "If he can't hear us, Teddy, we must go nearer. We can walk to meet him."

Teddy thought this over a minute.

"Yes," he agreed, "we can do that. But he's a good way off."

"He's coming this way," Janet said, and it did look as though the man had turned his horse toward the children, who stood near the pile of rocks from which the queer noises came.

"Come on!" decided Ted, and, taking Janet's hand, he and she walked toward the man on the horse.

For some little time the two Curlytops tramped over the green, grassy prairies. They kept their eyes on the man, now and then looking back toward the rocks, for they did not want to lose sight either of them or of the horseman.

"I'm going to holler again," said Teddy. "Maybe he can hear me now. We're nearer."

So he stopped, and putting his hands to his mouth, as he had seen Uncle Frank do when he wanted to call to a cowboy who was down at a distant corral, the little boy called:

"Hi there, Mr. Man! Come here, please!"

But the man on the horse gave no sign that he had heard. As a matter of fact, he had not, being too far away, and the wind was blowing from him toward Teddy and Jan. If the wind had been blowing the other way it might have carried the voices of the children toward the man. But it did not.

Then Teddy made a discovery. He stopped, and, shading his eyes with his hands, said:

"Jan, that man's going away from us 'stid of coming toward us. He's getting littler all the while. And if he was coming to us he'd get bigger."

"Yes, I guess he would," admitted the little girl. "He is going away, Teddy. Oh, dear! Now he can't help us!"

Without a word Teddy started back toward the rocks, and his sister followed. He was close to them when Janet spoke again.

"What are you going to do?" she asked.

"I'm going in there and see what that noise was," Teddy replied.

"Oh, you mustn't!" she cried, hoping to turn him away. But Teddy answered:

"Yes, I am, too! I'm going to see what it is!"

"I'm not!" cried Janet. "I'm going home. You'd better come with me!"

But, though she turned away and went a short distance from the rocks in the direction she thought the ranch house of Ring Rosy Ranch should be, she very soon stopped. She did not like going on alone. She looked back at Ted.

Teddy had walked a little way toward the hole in the rocks. Now he called to his sister.

"The noise comes from in here," he said. "It's in this little cave."

"Are you going in?" asked Janet, trying to pretend she was not afraid.

"I want to see what made that noise," declared Teddy. Since he and his sister had gone camping with Grandpa Martin they were braver than they used to be. Of course, Ted, being a year older than his sister, was a little bolder than she was.

Janet, not feeling that she ought to run on home and leave Teddy there and yet not feeling brave enough to go close to the cave among the rocks with him, hardly knew what to do. She walked back a little way and then, suddenly, the noise came, more loudly than at first.

"Oh, there it goes again!" cried Janet, once more running back.

"I heard it," Teddy said. "It didn't war-whoop like an Indian."

"If he's sick he couldn't," explained Janet.

"And if he's sick he can't hurt us," went on Teddy. "I'm going to holler at him and see what he wants."

"You'd better come back and tell daddy or Uncle Frank," suggested Janet.

Teddy rather thought so himself, but he did not like to give up once he had started anything. He felt it would be a fine thing if he, all alone, could find one of the Indians.

"And maybe it is one of those who took Uncle Frank's ponies," thought Teddy to himself.

Again the groan sounded, this time not quite so loud, and after it had died away Teddy called:

"Who's in there? What's the matter with you?"

No answer came to this. Then Ted added:

"If you don't come out I'm going to tell my uncle on you. He owns this ranch. Come on out! Who are you?"

This time there came a different sound. It was one that the Curlytops knew well, having heard it before.

"That's a horse whinnying!" cried Teddy.

"Or a pony," added Janet. "Yes, it did sound like that. Oh, Ted, maybe it's a poor horse in there and he can't get out!" she went on.

Again came the whinny of a horse or a pony. There was no mistake about it this time.

"Come on!" cried Teddy. "We've got to get him out, Janet. He's one of Uncle Frank's cow ponies and he's hurt in that cave. We've got to get him out!"

"But how can you?" Janet inquired. "It's an awful little cave, and I don't believe a pony could get in there."

"A little pony could," said Teddy.

Janet looked at the cave. She remembered that she had seen some quite small ponies, not only on Ring Rosy Ranch but elsewhere. The cave would be large enough for one of them.

"I'm going in," said Teddy, as he stood at the mouth of the hole among the piled-up rocks.

"He might kick you," warned Janet.

"If he's sick enough to groan that way he can't kick very hard," replied Teddy. "Anyhow, I'll keep out of the way of his feet. That's all you've got to do, Uncle Frank says, when you go around a strange horse. When he gets to know you he won't kick."

"Well, you'd better be careful," warned Janet again.

"Don't you want to come in?" Teddy asked his sister.

"I—I guess not," she answered. "I'll watch you here. Oh, maybe if it's a pony we can have him for ours, Teddy!" she exclaimed.

"Maybe," he agreed. "I'm going to see what it is."

Slowly he walked to the dark place amid the rocks. The whinnyings and groanings sounded plainer to him than to Janet, and Teddy was sure they came from a horse or a pony. As yet, though, he could see nothing.

Then, as the little boy stepped out of the glaring sun into the shadow cast by the rocks, he began to see better. And in a little while his eyes became used to the gloom.

Then he could see, lying down on the dirt floor of the cave amid the rocks, the form of a pony. The animal raised its head as Teddy came in and gave a sort of whinnying call, followed by a groan.

"Poor pony!" called Ted. "Are you hurt? I'm so sorry! I'll go get a doctor for you!"

"Who are you talking to?" asked Janet.

She had drawn nearer the cave.

"There's a sick pony in here all right," Teddy told his sister. "Come on in and look."

"I—I don't b'lieve I want to."

"Pooh! he can't hurt you! He's sick!" cried Teddy.

So, after waiting a half minute, Janet went in. In a little while she, too, could see the pony lying down in the cave.

"Oh, the poor thing!" she cried. "Teddy, we've got to help him!"

"Course we have," he said. "We've got to go for a doctor."

"And get him a drink," added Janet. "When anybody's sick—a pony or anybody—they want a drink. Let's find some water, Teddy. We can bring it to him in our hats!"

Then, leaving the sick pony in the cave, the Curlytops ran out to look for water.



CHAPTER X

A SURPRISED DOCTOR

Water is not very plentiful on the prairies. In fact, it is so scarce that often men and horses get very thirsty. But the Curlytops were lucky in finding a spring among the rocks on Ring Rosy Ranch. It was not a very large spring, and it was well hidden among the big stones, which, is, perhaps, why it was not visited by many of the ponies and cattle. They come in large numbers to every water-hole they can find.

Jan and Ted, having come out of the dark cave-like hole, where the poor, sick pony lay, began their search for water, and, as I have said, they were lucky in finding some.

It was Jan who discovered it. As the Curlytops were running about among the rocks the little girl stopped suddenly and called:

"Hark, Teddy!"

"What is it?" he asked.

"I hear water dripping," she answered. "It's over this way."

She went straight to the spring, following the sound of the dripping water, and found where it bubbled up in a split in the rock. The water fell into a little hollow, rocky basin and there was enough for Ted and his sister to fill their hats. First they each took a drink themselves, though, for the day was warm.

Their hats were of felt, and would hold water quite well. And as the hats were old ones, which had been worn in the rain more than once, dipping them into the spring would not hurt them.

"I guess the pony'll be awful glad to get a drink," said Jan to her brother.

"I guess he will," he answered, as he walked along looking carefully where he put down his feet, for he did not want to stumble and spill the water in his hat.

"Look out!" exclaimed Janet, as her brother came too close to her. "If you bump against me and make my arm jiggle you'll spill my hatful."

"I'll be careful," said Teddy.

They spilled some of the water, for their hats were not as good as pails in which to carry the pony's drink. But they managed to get to the cave with most of it.

"You can give him the first drink," said Teddy to his sister. "I found him, and he's my pony, but you can give him the first drink."

Janet felt that this was kind on Teddy's part, but still she did not quite like what he said about the pony.

"Is he going to be all yours?" she asked.

"Well, didn't I find him?''

"Yes, but when I found a penny once and bought a lollypop, I gave you half of it."

"Yes, you did," admitted Teddy, thinking of that time. "But I can't give you half the pony, can I?"

"No, I guess not. But you could let me ride on him."

"Oh, I'll do that!" exclaimed Teddy quickly. He was thinking it would be a hard matter to divide a live pony in half.

"Course I'll let you ride on him!" he went on. "We'll get Uncle Frank to let us have a saddle and some of the cowboys can teach us to ride. And I'll let you feed and water him as much as you like. I'm going to call him Clipclap."

"That's a funny name," remarked Janet.

"It's how his feet sound when he runs," explained Teddy. "Don't you know—clip-clap, clip-clap!" and he imitated the sound of a pony as best he could.

"Oh, yes!" exclaimed Janet. "They do go that way."

"I haven't heard this one run," added Teddy, "'cause he's sick and he can't gallop. But I guess his feet would make that sound, so I'm going to call him Clipclap."

"It's a nice name," agreed Janet. "But I guess we better give him a drink now. He must be awful thirsty."

"He is," said Teddy. "Hear him groan?"

The pony was again making a noise that did sound like a groan. He must be in pain the children thought.

"Go on—give him your drink, Janet," urged Teddy. "Then I'll give him mine."

Janet was afraid no longer. She went into the cave ahead of her brother, and as the pony was lying down Janet had to kneel in front of him with her hat full of water—no, it was not full, for some had spilled out, but there was still a little in it.

The pony smelled the water when Janet was yet a little way from him, and raised his head and part of his body by his forefeet. Though clear, cold water has no smell to us, animals can smell it sometimes a long way off, and can find their way to it when their masters would not know where to go for a drink.

"Oh, see how glad he is to get it!" exclaimed Janet, as the pony eagerly sucked up from her hat the water in it. The little animal drank very fast, as if he had been without water a long while.

"Now give him yours, Teddy," Janet called to her brother, and he kneeled down and let the pony drink from his hat.

"I guess he wants more," Janet said as the sick animal sucked up the last drops from Teddy's hat. "It wasn't very much."

"We'll get more!" Teddy decided. "Then we'll go for a doctor."

"Where'll we find one?" Janet asked.

"I know where to find him," Teddy answered.

Once more the children went back to the spring and again they filled their soft hats. And once more the pony greedily drank up the last drops of water. As he finished that in Ted's hat he dropped back again and stretched out as if very tired.

"Oh, I hope he doesn't die!" exclaimed Janet.

"So do I," added her brother. "I'd like to have a ride on him when he gets well. Come on, we'll go find the doctor."

Shaking the water drops from their hats the Curlytops put them on and went out of the cave into the sunlight. Led by Teddy, Janet followed to the top of the pile of rocks.

"Do you see that white house over there?" asked Teddy, pointing to one down the road that led past the buildings of Ring Rosy Ranch.

"Yes, I see it," Janet answered.

"That's the place where the doctor lives," went on Ted.

"How do you know?" demanded Janet.

"'Cause I heard Uncle Frank say so. Mother asked where a doctor lived, and Uncle Frank showed her that white house. I was on the porch and I heard him. He said if ever we needed a doctor we only had to go there and Doctor Bond would come right away. He's the only doctor around here."

"Then we'd better get him for our pony Clipclap!" exclaimed Janet. "Come on, Teddy."

"If we had our goat-wagon we could ride," said the little boy, as they walked along over the prairie together. "But I guess we've got to walk now."

"Is it very far?" asked Janet.

"No, not very far. I've never been there, but you can easy see it."

Truly enough the white house of Doctor Bond was in plain sight, but on the prairies the air is so clear that distant houses look nearer than they really are.

So, though Ted and Janet thought they would be at the doctor's in about ten minutes, they were really half an hour in reaching the place. They saw the doctor's brass sign on his house.

"I hope he's in," said Teddy.

As it happened Doctor Bond was in, and he came to the door himself when Teddy rang the bell, Mrs. Bond being out in the chicken part of the yard.

"Well, children, what can I do for you?" asked Doctor Bond with a pleasant smile, as he saw the Curlytops on his porch.

"If you please," began Teddy, "will you come and cure Clipclap?"

"Will I come and cure him? Well, I will do my best. I can't be sure I'll cure him, though, until I know what the matter is. What seems to be the trouble?"

"He's awful sick," said Janet, "and he groans awful."

"Hum! He must have some pain then."

"We gave him some cold water," added Teddy.

"Yes? Well, maybe that was a good thing and maybe it wasn't. I can't tell until I see him. Who did you say it was?"

"Clipclap," replied Teddy.

"Your little brother?"

"No, sir. He's a pony and he's in a cave!" exclaimed Teddy.

"What? A pony?" cried the surprised doctor. "In a cave?"

"Yes," went on Janet. "We gave him water in our hats, and he's going to be Ted's and mine 'cause Ted found him. But will you please come and cure him so we can have a ride on him? Don't let him die."

"Well," exclaimed Doctor Bond, smiling in a puzzled way at the children, "I don't believe I can come. I don't know anything about curing sick ponies. You need a horse doctor for that."

Ted and Janet looked at one another, not knowing what to say.



CHAPTER XI

TROUBLE MAKES A LASSO

Doctor Bond must have seen how disappointed Teddy and Janet were, for he spoke very kindly as he asked:

"Who are you, and where are you from? Tell me about this sick pony with the funny name."

"He is Clipclap," answered Teddy, giving the name he had picked out for his new pet. "And we are the Curlytops."

"Yes, I can see that all right," laughed the doctor with a look at the crisp hair of the little boy and girl. "But where do you live?"

"At Uncle Frank's ranch," Janet answered.

"You mean Mr. Frank Barton, of the Circle O?" the doctor inquired.

"Yes, only we call it the Ring Rosy Ranch now, and so does he," explained Teddy.

"The Ring Rosy Ranch, is it? Well, I don't know but what that is a good name for it. Now tell me about yourselves and this pony."

This Teddy and Janet did by turns, relating how they had come out West from Cresco, and what good times they were having. They even told about having gone to Cherry Farm, about camping with Grandpa Martin and about being snowed in.

"Well, you have had some nice adventures!" exclaimed Doctor Bond. "Now about this sick—"

"Is some one ill?" enquired Mrs. Bond, coming in from the chicken yard just then, in time to hear her husband's last words, "Who is it?"

On the Western prairies when one neighbor hears of another's illness he or she wants to help in every way there is. So Mrs. Bond, hearing that some one was ill, wanted to do her share.

"It's a pony," her husband said with a smile.

"A pony!" she exclaimed.

"Yes, these Curlytop children found one in the cave among the rocks. It's on Circle O Ranch—I should say Ring Rosy," and the doctor gave Uncle Frank's place the new name. "These are Mr. Barton's nephew's children," he went on, for Ted and Janet had told the doctor that it was their father's uncle, and not theirs, at whose home they were visiting. Though, as a matter of fact, Ted and Janet thought Uncle Frank was as much theirs as he was their father's and, very likely, Uncle Frank thought so himself.

"Can't you come and cure the sick pony?" asked Teddy.

"He's groaning awful hard," went on Janet.

"Well, my dear Curlytops," said Doctor Bond with a smile, "I'd like to come, but, as I said, I don't know anything about curing sick horses or animals. I never studied that. It takes a doctor who knows about them to give them the right kind of medicine."

"I thought all medicine was alike," said Teddy. "What our doctor gives us is always bitter."

"Well, all medicine isn't bitter," laughed Doctor Bond, "though some very good kinds are. However, I wouldn't know whether to give this Clipclap pony bitter or sweet medicine."

"Maybe you could ask one of the cowboys," said Janet. "I heard Mr. Mason—Jim, Uncle Frank calls him—telling how he cured a sick horse once."

"Oh, yes, your uncle's foreman, Jim Mason, knows a lot about horses," said Doctor Bond.

"Then why don't you go with the children and get Jim to help you find out what the matter is with their pony?" suggested Mrs. Bond. "There isn't a regular veterinary around here, and they don't want to see their pet suffer. Go along with them.''

"I believe I will," said Doctor Bond. "I could perhaps tell what's the matter with the pony, and if I've got any medicine that might cure it, Jim would know how to give it—I wouldn't."

"We just found the pony in the cave," explained Teddy. "We were taking a walk and we heard him groan."

"Oh, I see," said Mrs. Bond. "Well, I hope the doctor can make him well for you," she went on, as her husband hurried back into the house to get ready for the trip.

He had a small automobile, and in this he and the children were soon hurrying along the road toward Ring Rosy Ranch. It was decided to go there first instead of to the cave where the pony was.

"We'll get Jim Mason and take him back with us," said the doctor.

Uncle Frank and his cowboys had come back from looking after the lost ponies, but had not found them. He, as well as Mr. and Mrs. Martin, were very much surprised when the Curlytops came riding up to the ranch in Doctor Bond's automobile.

"Well, where in the world have you been?" cried Mother Martin. "We were just beginning to get worried about you children. Where were you?"

"We found a pony!" cried Janet.

"And he's sick!" added Teddy.

"And his name is Clipclap!" exclaimed the little girl.

"And he's mine but Janet can have half of him, and we got him water in our hats," came from Teddy.

"And we got the doctor, too!" went on his sister.

"Well, I should say you'd put in quite a busy day," chuckled Uncle Frank. "Now let's hear more about it."

So the Curlytops told, and Doctor Bond said, even if he was not a horse doctor, he'd go out and look at the pony in the cave, if the ranch foreman would come with him.

"Of course I'll come!" cried Jim Mason. "I wouldn't want to see any pony suffer. And I've doctored quite a few of 'em, even if I don't know much about medicine. Come on, Curlytops!"

Jim Mason jumped on his own swift pony, saying he could make as good time over the rough prairie as Doctor Bond could in his automobile. The Curlytops rode in the machine with the physician. Uncle Frank and Daddy Martin went along, for they, too, were interested in the sick pony.

It did not take long to get to the cave amid the rocks. Jim Mason's horse reached there ahead of the automobile, and the foreman had gone into the cave and come out again by the time the Curlytops were getting out of the machine.

"Well, he's a pretty sick pony all right," said the foreman of the cowboys of Ring Rosy Ranch.

"Can you make him better?" asked Teddy anxiously.

"I don't know whether we can or not. It all depends on what sort of medicine the doctor has for curing poison."

"Has the pony been poisoned?" asked Uncle Frank.

"Looks that way," replied the foreman. "I guess he must have drunk some water that had a bit of poisoned meat in it. You see," he went on to the doctor, Mr. Martin and the children, "we have a lot of wolves and other pesky animals around here. They're too tricky to catch in traps or shoot, so we poison 'em by putting a white powder in some meat. Sometimes the wolves will drag a piece of the poisoned meat to a spring of water, and they must have done it this time. Then the pony drank the water and it made him sick."

"Will he die?" asked Janet.

"Well, I'll do my best to save him," said Doctor Bond, opening the black case of medicines he carried. "But how can you give medicine to a horse, Jim? You can't put it on his tongue, can you?"

"No, but I've got a long-necked bottle on purpose for that, and it's easy to pour it out of that bottle down a pony's throat. You mix up the dose, Doc, and I'll give it to the little animal."

This was done, but the Curlytops were not allowed in the cave when the men were working over the pony. But, in a little while, the foreman and Doctor Bond came out.

"Well, I guess your pony will get better," said the physician. "Jim gave him the medicine that will get the poison out of him, and in a day or so he'll be able to walk. But you'll have to leave him in the cave until then."

"Can't we take him home?" Teddy cried.

"Oh, no!" exclaimed the foreman. "But I'll send one of the men over with some straw to make him a soft bed, and we'll see that he has water to drink. He won't want anything to eat until he gets better. The doctor will come to see him to-morrow. Won't you?" he went on to Doctor Bond.

"Indeed I will!" promised the doctor, for he had taken a great liking to the Curlytops.

"Whose pony is it?" asked Daddy Martin.

"It's mine!" exclaimed Teddy quickly. "Mine and Jan's. We found him and his name's Clipclap."

"Well, that's a good name for a pony," said his father. "But still I don't know that you can claim every pony you find. This one may belong to Uncle Frank."

"No, it isn't one of my brand," said the owner of Ring Rosy Ranch. "It's a strange pony that must have wandered into this cave after he found he was poisoned. I reckon the poor thing thought he'd die in there, and maybe he would if the children hadn't found him."

"He couldn't have lived much longer without attention," said Doctor Bond.

"Then did we save his life?" asked Teddy.

"You did, by getting the doctor in time," answered his father.

"Then can't he be our pony?" asked the little boy.

"Yes, I guess he can," answered Uncle Frank. "If nobody comes to claim him you children may have him. And if anyone does come after him I'll give you another. I was going to give you each a pony, anyhow, as soon as you got used to the ranch, and I'll do it. If Ted wants to keep Clipclap, as he calls him, I'll give Janet another."

"Oh, won't I just love him!" cried the little girl.

"And I'll love Clipclap!" said Teddy.

There was nothing more that could be done just then for the sick pony, so the Curlytops and the others left him in the cave. The children were glad he did not groan any more. A little later Jim Mason sent one of the cowboys with some clean straw to make a bed for the little horse, and a pail of the cool, spring water was put where the animal could reach it.

For two days the pony stayed in the cave, and then Doctor Bond said he was much better and could be led to the ranch. Uncle Frank took Ted and Janet out to the rocks to bring back their pet, but he had to walk very slowly, for he was still weak from the poison.

"And hell have to stay in the stable for a week or so," said Jim Mason when Clipclap was safely at the ranch. "After that he will be strong enough to ride. While you Curlytops are waiting I'll give you a few riding lessons."

"And will you show me how to lasso?" begged Teddy.

"Yes, of course. You'll never be a cowboy, as you say you're going to be, unless you can use a rope. I'll show you."

So the children's lessons began. Uncle Frank picked out a gentle pony for them on which to learn how to ride, and this pony was to be Jan's. She named him Star Face, for he had a white mark, like a star, on his forehead.

On this pony Jan and Ted took turns riding until they learned to sit in the saddle alone and let the pony trot along. Of course he did not go very fast at first.

"And I want to learn to lasso when I'm on his back," said Teddy.

"You'd first better learn to twirl the rope while you're on the ground," said Jim Mason, and then the foreman began giving the little boy some simple lessons in this, using a small rope, for Teddy could not handle the big ones the cowboys used.

In a few days Teddy could fling the coils of his rope and make them settle over a post. Of course he had to stand quite close, but even the cowboys, when they learned, had to do that the foreman said.

"Well, what are you going to do now?" Teddy's father asked the little boy one day, as he started out from the house with a small coil of rope on one arm, as he had seen the cowboys carry their lariats. "What are you going to do, Ted?"

"Oh, I'm going to lasso some more," was the answer.

"Why don't you try something else besides a post?" asked one of Uncle Frank's men, as he, too, noticed Teddy. "Throwing a rope over a post is all right to start, but if you want to be a real cowboy you'll have to learn to lasso something that's running on its four legs. That's what most of our lassoing is—roping ponies or steers, and they don't very often stand still for you, the way the post does."

"Yes," agreed Ted, "I guess so. I'll learn to lasso something that runs."

His father paid little more attention to the boy, except to notice that he went out into the yard, where he was seen, for a time, tossing the coils of rope over the post. Then Jan came along, and, as soon as he saw her, Teddy asked:

"Jan, will you do something for me?"

"What?" she inquired, not being too ready to make any promises. Sometimes Teddy got her to say she would do things, and then, when he had her promise, he would tell her something she did not at all want to do. So Jan had learned to be careful.

"What do you want to do, Teddy?" she asked.

"Play cowboy," he answered.

"Girls can't be cowboys," Janet said.

"Well, I don't want you to be one," went on Teddy. "I'll be the cowboy."

"Then what'll I be?" asked Jan. "That won't be any fun, for you to do that and me do nothing!"

"Oh, I've got something for you to do," said Teddy, and he was quite serious over it. "You see, Jan, I've got to learn to lasso something that moves. The post won't move, but you can run."

"Do you mean run and play tag?" Jan asked.

Teddy shook his head.

"You make believe you're a wild cow or a pony," he explained, "and you run along in front of me. Then I'll throw my rope around your head, or around your legs, and I'll pull on it and you—"

"Yes, and I'll fall down and get all dirt!" finished Jan. "Ho! I don't call that any fun for me!"

"Well, I won't lasso you very hard," promised Ted; "and I've got to learn to throw my rope at something that moves, the cowboys say, else I can't ever be a real wild-wester. Go on, Jan! Run along and let me lasso you!"

Jan did not want to, but Teddy teased her so hard that she finally gave in and said she would play she was a pony for a little while. Teddy wanted her to be a wild steer, but she said ponies could run faster than the cattle, and Jan was a good runner.

"And if I run fast it will be harder for you to lasso me," she said, "and that's good practice for you, same as it is good for me when I practice my music scales fast, only I don't do it very much."

"Well, you run along and I'll lasso you," said Teddy. "Only we'd better go around to the back of the house. Maybe they wouldn't like to see me doing it."

"Who; the cowboys?" asked his sister.

"No, father and mother," replied Teddy. "I don't guess they'd want me to play this game, but I won't hurt you. Come on."

The little boy and girl—Teddy carrying his small lasso—went out to a field not far from the house, and there they played cowboy. As they had planned, Teddy was the cowboy and Janet the wild pony, and she ran around until she was tired. Teddy ran after her, now and then throwing the coil of rope at her.

Sometimes the lasso settled over her head, and then the little boy would pull it tight, but he was careful not to pull too hard for fear he might hurt Jan. Once the rope went around her legs, and that time Teddy gave a sudden yank.

"Oh, I'm falling!" cried Jan, and she went down in a heap.

"That's fine!" cried Teddy. "That's regular wild-wester cowboy! Do it again, Jan!"

"No! It hurts!" objected the little girl. "You pulled me so hard I fell down."

"I didn't mean to," said Teddy. "But I can lasso good, can't I?"

"Yes; pretty good," his sister agreed. "But you can't lasso me any more. I don't want to play. I'm going to the house."

"Did I hurt you much?" Teddy asked.

"Well, not such an awful lot," admitted Jan. "I fell on some soft grass, though, or you would have. Anyhow, I'm going in."

Teddy looked a little sad for a minute, and then he cried:

"Oh, I know what I can do! You stay and watch me, Jan."

"What are you going to do?" she asked.

"You'll see," he answered "Here, you hold my lasso a minute."

Teddy ran off across the field, and when he came back to where his sister was still holding the coil of rope the Curlytop boy was leading by a rope a little calf, one of several that were kept in the stable and fed milk from a pail.

"What are you going to do, Teddy Martin?" asked the little girl.

"I'm going to play he's a wild steer," answered Teddy.

"Oh, The-o-dore Mar-tin!" cried Janet, much as her mother might have done. "You're not going to lasso him, are you?"

"I am—if I can," and Teddy spoke slowly. He was not quite sure he could.

The calf came along easily enough, for Teddy had petted it and fed it several times.

"He's awful nice," said Janet. "You won't hurt him, will you?"

"Course not!" cried Teddy. "I'll only lasso him a little. Now you come and hold him by the rope that's on his neck, Jan. And when I tell you to let go, why, you let go. Then he'll run and I can lasso him. I've got to lasso something that's running, else it isn't real wild-wester."

Jan was ready enough to play this game. She took hold of the calf's rope, and Teddy got his lasso ready. But just as the little fellow was about to tell his sister to let the calf loose, along came Uncle Frank and he saw what was going on.

"Oh, my, Teddy!" cried the ranchman. "You mustn't do that, Curlytop! The little calf might fall and break a leg. Wait until you get bigger before you try to lasso anything that's alive. Come on, we'll have other fun than this. I'm going to drive into town and you Curly tops can come with me."

So the calf was put back in the stable, and Teddy gave up lassoing for that day. He and Jan had fun riding to town with Uncle Frank, who bought them some sticks of peppermint candy.

Baby William had his own fun on the ranch. His mother took care of him most of the time, leaving Janet and Teddy to do as they pleased. She wanted them to learn to ride, and she knew they could not do it and take care of their little brother.

But Trouble had his own ways of having fun. He often watched Teddy throwing the lasso, and one afternoon, when Ted had finished with his rope and left it lying on a bench near the house, Trouble picked up the noose.

"Me lasso, too," he said to himself.

Just what he did no one knew, but not long after Teddy had laid aside the lariat, as the lasso is sometimes called, loud squawks, crowings and cackles from the chicken yard were heard.

"What in the world can be the matter with my hens?" cried Aunt Millie.

Ted and Janet ran out to see. What they saw made them want to laugh, but they did not like to do it.

Trouble had lassoed the big rooster!



CHAPTER XII

THE BUCKING BRONCO

With a small rope around the neck of the crowing rooster—which could not crow as loudly as it had before, because it was nearly choked—Trouble was dragging the fowl along after him as he ran across the yard.

"Trouble! Trouble!" cried Aunt Millie. "What are you doing?"

"Playin' cowboy!" was his answer. "I lasso rooster wif my rope, like Teddy catches post."

"Oh, you mustn't do that!" cried Aunt Millie, as she ran after the small boy and the dragging rooster.

"Cock-a doodle-do!" crowed the rooster, or, rather, it tried to crow that way, but it would get only about half of it out and then Trouble would pull the rope tight about the fowl's neck and the crow would be shut off suddenly.

"Gid-dap, pony!" cried Baby William, trotting along on his short, fat legs, making-believe, as he often did, that he was riding horseback. "Gid-dap! I lasso a rooster, I did!"

"Yes, and you'll kill the poor thing if you're not careful," panted Aunt Millie, as she raced after the little fellow and caught him. Then she gently pulled the rooster to her by means of the rope, and took it off the fowl's neck.

The rooster was bedraggled from having been dragged through the dust and the dirt, and it was so dizzy from having been whirled around by Trouble that it could hardly stand up.

Aunt Millie smoothed out its feathers and got it some water. The rooster drank a little and seemed to feel better. Then it ran off to join the other roosters and the cackling hens that had been watching what Trouble did, doubtless wondering what had gotten into the lassoed rooster to make it run around the way it did on the end of a rope. But it was Baby William who made all the trouble.

"You must never do that again," said Mrs. Martin when she came out of the ranch house and heard what her little boy had done. "That was very wrong, William, to lasso the poor rooster and drag it about with a rope around its neck."

"I not do it any more," promised Trouble. "But I want a lasso like Teddy."

"No, you're not big enough for that," his mother said. "You must wait until you are a little older. Don't bother the chickens any more."

"No, I only get de eggs," promised Baby William.

"And please don't lasso them, or you'll break them," put in Aunt Millie; but Janet thought her "eyes laughed," as she later told Teddy.

"No more lasso?" asked Trouble, looking at the rope his aunt had taken from the rooster's long neck.

"No more lasso!" exclaimed Mrs. Barton, trying not to smile, for the sight of the rooster, caught the way he had been, made even the older folks want to laugh. Ted and Janet did laugh, but they did not let Trouble see them. If he had he might have thought he had done something smart or cute, and he would try it over again the first chance he had. So they had to pretend to be sharp with him. The rooster was not hurt by being lassoed.

Afterward Trouble told how he did it. With the slip-noose of the rope in one hand and holding the rope's end in the other, Baby William walked quietly up behind the rooster and tossed the loop over its head. Then he pulled it tight and started to run, as he had seen the cow ponies galloping to pull down a horse or steer that needed to be branded or marked with the sign of the Ring Rosy Ranch. The rooster was very tame, often eating out of Aunt Millie's hand, so he was not afraid to let Trouble come up quite close to him.

One day, about a week after the Curlytops had found Clipclap in the cave, Jim Mason said he thought the pony was well enough to be ridden. Clipclap was brought out in the yard and Teddy and Janet went up to him.

The pony put his nose close to them and rubbed his head against their outstretched hands.

"See, he knows us!" cried Janet.

"And I guess he's thanking us for bringing him water," added her brother.

"And getting the doctor to cure him of poison," went on the little girl. "I'm glad he likes you, Teddy."

"And your pony likes you, too, Janet," said the little boy.

Janet's pony, Star Face, certainly seemed to like her. For he came when she called him and took lumps of sugar from her hand. He liked Teddy, too. In fact both ponies were very pretty and friendly and it would be hard to say which was the better. Janet liked hers and Teddy liked his, and that is the best thing I can say about them.

No one came to claim Clipclap. Though Uncle Frank spoke to a number of other ranchmen about finding the sick pony, none of them had ever seen Clipclap before as far as they knew. If he belonged to some other ranch it must have been far away.

"So you may feel that it is all right for you to keep your pony, Curlytop," said Uncle Frank to Teddy. "If anyone should, later, say it belongs to him, and can prove it, we'll give it up, of course."

"But I don't want to give Clipclap up!" Teddy cried.

"Well, maybe you won't have to," said his father. "But you must not keep what is not yours. Anyhow, if you should have to give up Clipclap Uncle Frank will give you another pony."

"There couldn't be any as nice as Clipclap—not even Janet's Star Face," declared Teddy.

He felt bad at the thought of having to give up his pet, but there was no need to, for as the weeks went on no one came to claim Clipclap, and Teddy counted him as his own.

By this time Teddy and Janet had learned to ride quite well for such little children. They knew how to sit in a saddle, up straight like an arrow, and not slouched down or all humped up "like a bag of meal," as Uncle Frank was wont to say. They knew how to guide their ponies by pulling on the reins to left or to right, according to which way they wanted to go.

Of course they could not ride very fast yet, and Mother Martin was just as glad they could not, for she was afraid, if they did, they might fall off and get hurt. But Teddy and Janet were careful, and they knew how to sit in the saddle with their feet in the stirrups.

"They're getting to be good little riders," said Jim Mason to Uncle Frank one day.

"I'll take 'em with me the next time I go for a short ride."

"Maybe we could find the bad Indians that took your horses, Uncle Frank," said Teddy.

"Well, I wish you could," said the owner of Ring Rosy Ranch.

The cowboys had not been able to get back the stolen horses nor find the Indians who had run them off. Other ranches, too, had been robbed and a number of head of horses and cattle had been driven away.

"We've looked all over for those Indians," said Uncle Frank, "but we can't find 'em. If you Curlytops can, I'll give you each another pony."

"I'd like Clipclap best though," announced Teddy.

"What could we do with two?" asked Janet.

"Oh, every cowboy or cowgirl, for that matter, has more than one horse when he can," said Jim Mason. "Then if one gets lame he has another to ride. But don't you Curlytops go off by yourselves looking for those bad Indians!" he warned them.

"We won't," promised Teddy. "Well only go with you or Uncle Frank."

"We don't find them," said the ranch owner. "I guess the Indians sold the horses and cattle and then they hid themselves. Well, I hope they don't take any more of my animals."

But there was more trouble ahead for Uncle Frank.

The Curlytops had a fine time on his ranch, though. When Teddy and Janet were not riding, they were watching the cowboys at work or play, for the men who looked after Uncle Frank's cattle had good times as well as hard work.

They would often come riding and swooping in from the distant fields after their day's work, yelling and shouting as well as firing off their big revolvers. But neither the Curlytops nor their mother were as frightened at this play of the cowboys as they had been at first.

"I wish I had a gun that would go bang," said Teddy one day.

"Oh, The-o-dore Mar-tin!" cried his sister, after the fashion of her mother. "If you had I'd never go riding ponyback with you—never again! I'd be afraid of you! So there!"

"Well, so would the Indians!" said Ted. However he knew he was too small to have a firearm, so he did not tease for it.

Sometimes, when Uncle Frank or his foreman, Jim Mason, went on short rides around the ranch, Teddy and Janet went with them on their ponies. Star Pace and Clipclap were two sturdy little animals, and were gentle with the children.

"Come on! Let's have a race!" Ted would call.

"All right. But don't go too fast," Janet would answer, and they would trot off, the ponies going as fast as was safe for the children.

Teddy generally won these races, for Janet, who was very tender-hearted, did not like to make her pony go as fast as it could go. Often, perhaps, if Janet had urged Star Face on she would have beaten her brother, for Clipclap still felt a little weak, now and then, from his illness.

One day a cowboy came in, riding hard from a far-off part of the ranch.

"I guess something is the matter, Jan," said Teddy, as they saw the horseman gallop past.

"What?" she asked as they noticed him talking to the foreman.

"Maybe he's found the Indians that took Uncle Frank's horses," her brother answered.

The children drew near enough to hear what the cowboy and the foreman were talking about.

"More horses gone!" exclaimed Jim Mason. "Well, we'll surely have to get after those Indians; that's all there is about it!"

"More horses stolen?" asked Daddy Martin, coming out just then.

"Yes," answered Jim Mason. "A lot of good ones. I guess more Indians must have run away from the reservation. We'll have to hunt them down!"

"Oh, I wish I could go!" sighed Teddy. "I'd like to be an Indian fighter."

"You'll have to grow a lot bigger," said his uncle, with a laugh.

Uncle Frank and some of the cowboys rode over the prairie, trying to find the stealing Indians, but they could not. Nor could they find the missing horses, either.

"It's a good thing Uncle Frank has lots of cattle," said Teddy that night when the cowboys came back to the ranch house, not having found the horse thieves. "If he didn't have he'd be poor when the Indians take his animals."

"He'll be poor if the Indians keep on the way they have been doing," said Aunt Millie. "I hope he can catch the bad men!"

Ted and Janet hoped so too, but they did not see how they could help, though Teddy wanted to. However he was kept near the house.

"Come on and see the bucking bronco, Curlytops!" called Uncle Frank to Teddy and Janet one day.

"What is it?" asked the little girl.

"A bucking bronco jumps up in the air with all four feet off the ground at once, and comes down as stiff as a board," explained Uncle Frank. "That isn't nice for the man that's in the saddle, though the cowboys know how to ride most bucking broncos, that are really sort of wild horses."

"I'd like to see 'em!" cried Teddy.

"You may," promised his uncle. "The cowboys have a bucking bronco out in the corral and they're taking turns trying to ride him. Come along if you want to see the fun."

It was fun, but some hard work, too, for one after another the cowboys fell out of the saddle of the bucking bronco as they tried to ride him.

Now and then one would stay on the wild animal's back longer than had any of his friends, not falling when the bronco leaped up in the air and came down with his legs as stiff as those of an old fashioned piano.

"Ki-yi! Yippi-i-yip!" yelled the cowboys, as they dashed about on the bucking bronco, swinging their hats or their quirts, which are short-handled whips, in the air over their heads.

They did not mind being thrown, and each one tried to ride the wild bronco. None could stay in the saddle more than a few minutes at a time though.

"Well, I guess I'll have to ride that animal myself," said Jim Mason, when all the other cowboys had tried and had fallen or jumped from the saddle. The foreman was a fine rider. "Yes, I guess I can ride that bronco," he said.

"Give the pony a chance to get his breath," suggested one of the cowboys. "I don't reckon you can ride him though, Jim."

"I'll try," was the answer.

The bronco was led to a corner of the corral, or stable yard, and tied. Then the foreman made ready to try to stay in the saddle longer than had any of his men, for when a bronco bucks it is like trying to hold on to a swing that is turning topsy-turvy.

Suddenly, as Teddy and Janet were looking at some of the funny tricks the cowboys were playing on one another, Uncle Frank gave a cry.

"Look at Trouble!" he exclaimed.

Baby William had crawled through the fence and was close to the dangerous heels of the bucking bronco.



CHAPTER XIII

MISSING CATTLE

For a moment none of the cowboys made a move. They were too frightened at what might happen to Trouble. If it had been one of their own friends who had gone into the corral where the dangerous bronco was standing, they would have known what to do.

They would have called for him to "Look out!" and the cowboy would have kept away from the animal. But it was different with Trouble. To him one horse was like another. He liked them all, and he never thought any of them would kick or bite him. The bucking bronco was most dangerous of all.

"Oh, Trouble!" exclaimed Janet softly.

"I—I'll get him!" whispered Teddy. "I can crawl in there and run and get him before that bronco—"

"You stay right where you are, Curlytop!" exclaimed Jim Mason. "We don't want you both hurt, and if you go in there now you might start that crazy horse to kicking. Stay where you are. I'll get Trouble for you."

"Maybe if I called to him he'd come," said Janet. She, too, spoke in a whisper. In fact no one had made a noise since Trouble had been seen crawling under the corral fence, close to the bucking bronco.

"No, don't call, Janet," said the foreman. "You might make the bronco give a jump, and then he'd step on your little brother. That horse is a savage one, and he's so excited now, from so many of the cowboys having tried to ride him, that he might break loose and kick Trouble. We've got to keep quiet."

The cowboys seemed to know this, for none of them said a word. They kept very still and watched Trouble.

Baby William thought he was going to have a good time. He had wandered out of the house when his mother was not looking. Seeing Ted, Janet and the cowboys down by the corral, he made up his mind that was the place for him.

"Maybe I get a horse wide," he said to himself, for he was about as eager over horses as his sister or brother, and, so far, the only rides he had had were when he sat in the saddle in front with them or with his father, and went along very slowly indeed. For they dared not let the horse go fast when Trouble was with them, and Trouble wanted to go fast.

"Me go get wide myse'f," he murmured, and then, when no one was looking, he slipped under the corral fence.

He was now toddling close to the heels of the bronco.

"Nice horsie," said Trouble in his sweetest voice. "I get on your back an' have nice wide!"

Trouble always had hard work to sound the r in ride. "Wide" he always called it.

Nearer and nearer he came to the bronco. The animal, without turning its head, knew that someone was coming up behind. Many a time a cowboy had tried to fool the savage horse that way, and leap into the saddle without being seen. But Imp, as the bronco was named, knew all those tricks.

He turned back his ears, and when a horse does that it is not a good sign. Almost always it means he is going to bite or kick.

In this case Imp would have to kick, as Trouble was too far behind to be bitten. And Imp did not seem to care that it was a little boy who was behind, and not a big cowboy. Imp was going to do his worst.

But Jim Mason was getting ready to save Trouble. Going around to the side, where he could not be seen so well, the foreman quickly leaped over the fence. And then he ran swiftly toward Trouble, never saying a word.

The bronco heard the sound of running feet. He turned his head around to see who else was coming to bother him and then, before Imp could do anything and before Trouble could reach and put his little hands on the dangerous heels, the foreman caught up Baby William and jumped back with him, out of the way in case Imp should kick.

And kick Imp did! His heels shot out as he laid his ears farther back on his head and he gave a shrill scream, as horses can when they are angry.

"No you don't! Not this time!" cried Jim Mason, as he ran back to the fence with Trouble. "And you must never go into the corral or near horses again, Trouble! Do you hear?" and the foreman spoke to Baby William as though very angry indeed. But he had to do this, for the little fellow must learn not to go into danger.

"Don't ever go in there again!" said the foreman, as he set Trouble down on the ground in a safe place.

"No, me not go," was the answer, and Baby William's lips quivered as though he were going to cry.

"Well, that's all right, old man!" said the foreman in kind tones. For he loved children and did not even like to hurt their feelings. "I didn't mean to scare you."

But he had scared Trouble, or, rather the sudden catching up of the little fellow and the pony's scream had frightened him, and Janet's baby brother began to cry, hiding his head in her dress.

But, after all, that was the best thing to make Trouble remember that he must not go in the corral, and he had soon forgotten his tears and was laughing at the funny tricks Imp cut up as Jim Mason tried to ride him.

The foreman, after he had carried Trouble safely out of the way, went back in the corral and jumped on the bucking bronco's back. Then Imp did all he could to get the man out of the saddle.

Around and around the corral dashed the cow pony, and when he found that Jim stuck on the horse began jumping up in the air—bucking as the cowboys call it. Even that did not shake the foreman to the ground.

Then, suddenly, the horse fell down. But it was not an accident. He did it on purpose, and then he began to roll over, thinking this, surely, would get that man off his back.

It did. But when Imp tried to roll over on the foreman, to hurt him, Jim Mason just laughed and jumped out of the way. He knew Imp would probably do this and he was ready for him.

Jim watched Imp, and as soon as the bronco stopped rolling and stood up again the foreman jumped into the saddle. This was too much for Imp. He made up his mind he could not get rid of such a good rider, so the horse settled down and galloped around the corral as he ought to do.

"Hurray! Jim rides him after all!" cried some of the cowboys.

"I told you I'd stick to him" said the foreman with a laugh.

"I wish I could ride that way," said Teddy, with a little sigh when Jim came out of the corral and left Imp to have a rest.

"Well, maybe you will some day," said the foreman. "You've got a good start, and there's no better place to learn to ride ponyback than at Ring Rosy Ranch."

One warm, pleasant afternoon, when they had played about the house for some time, amusing themselves at the games they were wont to pass the time with in the East, Jan called to her brother:

"Let's go and take a ride on our ponies!"

"All right," agreed Teddy. "Where'll we go?"

"Oh, not very far. Mother told us we mustn't go very far when we're alone."

"That was before we knew how to ride," declared the little boy. "I guess we ride good enough now to take long rides."

"But not now," insisted Jan. "We'll only go for a little way, or I'm not going to play."

"All right," Teddy agreed. "We won't go very far."

So they went out to the stable where their ponies were kept, and there one of the cowboys kindly saddled Clipclap and Star Face for the little Curlytops. Uncle Frank had given orders to his men that they were to let the children have the ponies whenever it was safe to ride, and this was one of the nicest days of the summer.

"Don't let 'em run away with you!" laughed the cowboy, as he helped Jan and Ted into their saddles.

"Oh, Clipclap and Star Pace won't run away!" declared the little girl. "They're too nice."

"Yes, they are nice ponies," agreed the cowboy. "Well, good-bye and good luck."

Biding up to the house, to tell their mother they were going for a ride, but would keep within sight or calling distance, Ted and Jan were soon guiding their ponies across the prairie.

The children had soon learned to sit well in the saddles, and knew how to guide their ponies. And the little animals were very safe.

"Somehow or other, I don't feel at all worried here when the children are out of my sight—I mean Teddy and Janet," said Mrs. Martin to her husband, when the Curlytops had ridden away.

"Yes, Uncle Frank's ranch does seem a safe place for them," Mr. Martin answered. "Lots of 'down East' people think the West is a dangerous place. Well, maybe it is in spots, but it is very nice here."

On over the prairies rode Teddy and Janet. Now and then the little girl would stop her pony and look back.

"What are you looking for?" Teddy asked. "Do you think Trouble is following us?"

"No, but we mustn't go too far from the house. We must stay in sight of it, mother said."

"Well, we will," promised Ted.

But, after a while, perhaps it was because it was so nice to ride along on the ponies' backs, or because the little animals went faster than Ted or Janet imagined—I don't know just how it did happen, but, all at once, Jan looked back and gave a cry.

"Why, what's the matter, Jan?" asked Teddy.

"We—we're lost!" gasped the little girl. "I can't see Uncle Frank's house anywhere!"

It was true enough. None of the ranch buildings were in sight, and for a moment Ted, too, was frightened. Then as his pony moved on, a little ahead of Jan's, the boy gave a cry of delight.

"There it is! I can see the house!" he said. "We're not lost. We were just down in a hollow I guess."

And so it was. The prairies, though they look level, are made up of little hills and valleys, or hollows. Down in between two hills one might be very near a house and yet not see it.

"Now we're all right," went on Teddy.

"Yes," agreed Janet "We're not lost anymore."

So they rode on a little farther, the ponies now and then stopping to crop a bit of the sweet grass, when, all of a sudden, Teddy, who was still a little ahead of his sister, called:

"Look there, Jan!"

"Where?"

Teddy pointed. His sister saw several men on horseback—at least that is what they looked like—coming toward them. Something about the figures seemed a bit strange to the children. Ted and Jan looked at one another and then back toward the ranch houses, which, they made sure, were not out of sight this time.

"Are they cowboys?" asked Jan of her brother.

"They—they don't just look like 'em," he said. "I mean like Uncle Frank's cowboys."

"That's what I thought," Janet added. "They look like they had blankets on—some of 'em."

She and Teddy sat on their ponies' backs and kept looking at the other figures. They were coming nearer, that was sure, and as they came closer it was more and more certain to the Curlytops that some of the strangers on the horses were wrapped in blankets.

"Oh, I know what they are!" suddenly cried Janet.

"What?"

"In—Indians!" faltered Janet. "Oh, Teddy, if they should be wild Indians!"

"Pooh!" exclaimed Teddy, trying to speak bravely. "Uncle Frank said there weren't any very wild Indians near his ranch."

"Maybe these ones wasn't near the ranch before, but they're coming near now," said Janet, so excited the words tumbled out all mixed-up like. "I'm going home!"

"I—I guess I'll go with you," added Teddy, as he turned his pony's head about. "We'd better tell Uncle Frank the Indians are coming. Maybe they want more of his horses."

"Oh, he won't let 'em have any!" cried Janet. "But they are Indians sure enough!" she went on, as she took a look over her shoulder.

And there was no doubt about it. As the group of riders came closer to the children, whose ponies did not go as fast as the larger horses, it was seen that they were indeed Indians, many of them wrapped in blankets. There were men, women, boys and girls, and some of the smaller children were carried wrapped tightly to their mothers' backs.

Tip to the ranch rode Teddy and Jan as fast as their ponies would take them without tossing off the Curlytops.

"Oh, Uncle Frank!" cried Teddy. "They 're coming!"

"A lot of 'em!" shouted Janet.

"What's that?" asked the ranchman. "Who are coming?"

"Indians to take more of your ponies!" Teddy gasped.

For a time there was some little excitement on the ranch, until one of the cowboys, riding out to see the Indians, came back and said they were not "wild" ones, but a band that went about selling baskets and other things they made. They did no harm, and for a time camped near the ranch, the children, even Trouble, going over to see them. But for some time the Curlytops did not forget the fright their first view of the Indians gave them.

In the days that followed Teddy and Janet had many rides on Clipclap and Star Face, their two nice ponies. Sometimes they were allowed to go a little way over the prairies by themselves. But when they went for a long ride Uncle Frank, Jim Mason, their father or some of the cowboys were with them.

"After a while maybe I'll learn how to ride so I can go off with you and help get the Indians that stole your horses. Do you think I can, Uncle Frank?" asked Teddy one day.

"Well, maybe, Curlytop. We surely must find those Indians, for I don't like to lose all those horses. As soon as I get some of my work done I'll have another look for them."

And then, a few days later, more bad news came to Uncle Frank. With his cowboys he was getting some cattle ready to ship away to a distant city, from where they were to be sent still farther away in a train of cattle cars, when a cowboy, who seemed much excited, came riding up to the corral.

He looked very tired and warm, for the weather was hot, and his horse was covered with flecks of foam, as though it had been ridden hard and far.

"What's the matter, Henry?" asked Uncle Frank.

"Indian thieves!" was the answer. "A band of the Indians have run away with a lot of your best cattle!"

"They have?" cried Uncle Frank. "How do you know?"

"I saw 'em, and I chased 'em. But they got away from me. Maybe if we start right out now we can catch 'em and get back the cattle."

"Then we'll go!" cried Uncle Frank.

Teddy and Janet were very much excited when they saw the cowboys saddling their mustangs ready for the chase.



CHAPTER XIV

LOOKING FOR INDIANS

"Can't we 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 the ranchman. "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're tame ones," said her brother.

"They can't be awful tame, 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'll start. 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 driving off 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 we could go, 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."

"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 ride very fast," agreed Ted. "Come on, just a little run."

Janet, too, wanted to go a bit faster, and so, 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 getting up, 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 a horse 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."



CHAPTER XV

TROUBLE "HELPS"

Janet and 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, and the 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 gopher had dived down back into his hole as soon as he saw Teddy's first move.

"Oh, he got away!" said Janet sorrowfully.

"Ill 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: