Injun and Whitey to the Rescue

lot against him-returned from the affairs of his

for you t' do, an' I'm 'fraid it'll

race of suspicion or sarcasm, but Bil

was using larger words than usual. "I got a letter for t' be delivered t' Dan Brayton, up at th' T Up and Down Ranch, 'bout some business o' your father's. Really, I ought t' go

. "Where is the T Up

s no'thwest o' here, t'other side

hitey. "I'll ta

. "Dan hates Injuns, an' he'd sur

tly. "If I start early enough, Monty and I

een a rather peculiar smile cross it, but he wasn't. Nor did he suspect

n'," said Bill. "Reck'n one o' th' other cayuses must 'a

above the hock, will make the animal limp, and will not be noticeable, nor that as a part of Bill's scheme Monty had been so treated.

ide a strange horse!"

trings for th' round-up, an' everythin', it might be a good scheme for you t' go in th' stage. Be sort of a change

ys, to ride on the old-fashioned but swift-moving stage-coaches that were still th

pen to be occupied that trip. Messenger boys and telephones were unknown on the Frontier at that time. Even the telegraph lines were limited to the course of the big railroad that

ing down grade Whitey would have to put his arm around the driver's middle, because his legs were not quite long enough to reach the dashboar

d, "Well, son, here's where you have t' wear out your moccasins. There's your trail, beari

tey. "Do you mean to say that I

hit th' Zumbro before dark, an' just one mile this side o' th' Zumbro is Cal Smith's ranc

ow I had to walk,"

'n ketch a jack-rabbit an' r

of the stage road," Whitey said weakly. "Bi

iver allowed, with a grin. "Good-bye. Giddap!" And the coach whirled away, in a cloud of

spect that this was part of a deep-laid plot of Bill's. Rather he thought that, as the driver had said, this was one of Bill's jokes, and he could fancy Bill and Jim Walker and Buck Higgins and the others chuckling ove

d for several miles the trail led through rocky hills, and there the walking was even worse, for the rains had washed the earth out of the trails, leaving a seri

and a sight met his eyes that would have made almost any grown-up stand back and look a lot. She wasn't a creek, she was a river; no,

him about that, so it couldn't have been another of Bill Jordan's jokes. Whitey looked back, and saw a line of hil

inly proved so in this case, for it was dark when Whitey turned off i

that was stilled by a call from an opening door, sounded good to him. And when he was in the house, where he was welcomed by big, genial Cal Smith, and seated at a table in the kitchen, devou

oung Smiths,-five boys, three older and two younger than, Whitey,-and not a girl in sight. In that company Whitey forgot all about being tired

leep, and the boys were supposed to be asleep, those kids just wrote and rewrote a history of the West that

robably knew more about wild animals than any boy in the world; and the smallest boy never had killed any animals, except a stray mole or two, that happened to get out in the da

d not be put off any longer, they happened to be talking about dreams. Abe said that if you would tie a rope around your neck

s sleeping on the outside. And he didn't have to dream about any hanging, because he came so near the real thing. I don't have to tell you how it happened. Bill Jordan's letter c