Ruth Fielding at Silver Ranch

ning following the fire scare. But Ruth, who was used to being up with the sun at the Red Mill-and sometimes a little before th

snorting and stamping at their breakfasts-great armfuls of alfalfa hay which the horse wranglers had pitched over the fence. Maria, the Mexican woman, came up from the cowshed with two brimming pails o

s at Silver Ranch being rather primitive, Tom and Bob had elected to join the cowboys in the big bunkhouse, and they had risen as early as the punchers and made thei

ate perspiration if a girl looked at him. When Ruth bade him good-morning Ike's cheeks began to flame and he grew instantly tongue-tied! Beyond nodding a greeting and making a funny noise

you know about this man they say

be choking him and mumbled that he supp

crazy, Mr. Ike?" ask

, Miss," stammered the foreman of Silver R

ans crazy?"

ed loco, and if critters eats it, they say it crazies 'em-for a while, anyway. So, Miss," concluded

pect of setting the fire is crazy he is

hangin' around yere scatterin' fire-no, sir!-ma'am, I mean," Ike

the man stays around that old camp at

agreed Ike. "The boys

eeping off the range, instead of doing him rea

the collar himself-and he might well be. L

is man they say is c

you I di

of a lookin

d, Miss. That's it; he's

an?" queried R

beginning to grin now that he had become a bit more familiar with the Eas

young fellow like that, would you?"

m up a whole lot if they chances acrost him," said

o be abused. Another thing,

nted the surp

man awfully!" said Ruth. "

nterested that he forgot it was a girl he was talking

ually sticks to that locality," replied Ruth, smiling on the big cow puncher. "Don't you

intacker, Mis

es

ony what's well broke, and I bet you'll ride him lots farther than that.

ys we're all to have ponies to ride and she maybe will be disappointed if I don't let her pick out mine for me," added R

averick, yo' let me know, Miss," said Bashful Ike. "I'll see that yuh

ding ponies. Helen, Madge and The Fox could ride fairly well; but Jane Ann had warned them that Eastern riding would not do on the ranch. Such a thing as a side-saddle was unknown, so the girls had

y the nervous little flea-bitten gray that Ike Stedman roped and saddled and bridled for her. Jane Ann declared it to be a favorite pony of her own, and although the little fellow did not want to stand

y to do that, anyway. She was not really afraid of the pony; but when she wa

e she could not speak-until she became adjusted to the pony's motion. But she liked riding astride much better than on a side-saddle, and she soon lost her fear. Ike had given her some good advice about the holdin

with the stout girl the whole party had a great deal of fun. Of course, Jennie Stone expected to cause hil

ned, as she saw the other girls choosing their ponies. "Mercy! if I got on that little Freckles, he'd squ

r hat on-a most forlorn looking bundle of bones that had evidently never recovered the climatic change from the river bottoms of Missouri to the uplan

m. "You see how he's built-the framework is great. I know

up on that thing? I thought you were a better friend to me than that, Tom Cameron. You'd deliberately let me risk my life by being tangled

and eighty pounds-solid bone and muscle-and the cayuse that he bestrode when at work was no bigger than Ruth's F

om this saddle, I'll probably want to get down quick. There's no use in hampering me. I take my life in my hand-with these reins-an

t with her. Jane Ann, however, showed remarkable skill and made the Eastern girls fairly envious. She had ridden, of course, ever since

e driven into a not far distant corral to be branded. Branding is one of the big shows on a cattle ranch, and Ruth and her chums did not intend t

Just cutting a little old cow out of that band in the corral and th

he branding was going on the big steer bellowed and stamped and tried to break the fence down. The smell of the

turned out," declared Jib Pottoway. "You goin'

ried Jane Ann. "You wait! You boys think you'r

it been possible to make her boast come true they would have seen to it

, given a five-rod start, and then the bunch who wanted to have a tussle with the steer would start for him. Just to make it interesting Old Bill Hicks had put

n shook his head at the group of mounted spectators, who were bunched farther back on the hillside. Bashful Ike stopped that idea, however, for, as master of ceremonies, he rode in suddenly and used his quirt on the big steer. With a bellow Old Trouble-Maker swung around and started for th

ow let's see what you 'ombres ai