The Pony Rider Boys in Texas (15 page)

"Well, kid, what about it?" greeted the big cowman.

"What about what?"

"Trouble."

Tad smiled broadly.

"There does seem to be plenty of it."

"And plenty more coming. You'll see more fun before we are clear of this part
of the country."

"I don't very well see how we can have much more of it. I should imagine we
have had our share."

"Wait. We'll be here three or four days yet and mebby more," warned the
cowboy.

Tad went out with the second guard that night. Contrary to the expectations
of Big-foot Sanders and some others, the night passed without incident, the next
morning dawning bright and beautiful.

For some reason the foreman decided, at the last moment, that he would not go
to the Ox Bow ranch. Instead, he instructed Big-foot Sanders to take three of
the men with him and pick out what ponies they needed from Colonel McClure's
stock. They were to bring the animals out to camp where the boys would break
them in.

Tad set out with them, after a hurried breakfast, leaving his young
companions to amuse themselves as best they could.

"How far do we have to ride, Big-foot?" asked the lad after they were in
their saddles.

"Mile or two, I guess. It's been a long time since I was through these parts.
There's that church I've been telling you about."

"Where?"

"There, near the bedding-down ground. Seems as though the boss might have put
the cows further away from the place."

Tad surveyed the structure with keen interest. The white walls of the old
adobe church reflected back the morning light in a whitish glare. About the
place he observed a rank growth of weeds and evil cacti, the only touch of life
to be seen being the birds that were perched on its crumbling ridges, gayly
piping their morning songs.

"It looks deserted."

"I reckon it is," answered Big-foot. "Anyway, it ought to be. Ain't fit for
human beings to roost in."

"Humph! I don't believe there is anything spooky about that building. I'm
going to investigate, the first time I get the chance. Have we time to stop this
morning?"

"No; we'll have to be getting along. The ponies we are after will have to be
hobbled and got back to camp somehow. I expect we'll have a merry circus with
them. If we get back in time for supper we'll be lucky."

"That will be fun," exulted Tad. "Mr. Stallings promised me I might break one
of them. My pony having been drowned, I should like to break a fresh one for
myself."

"And break your neck at the same time. I know you've got the sand, but you
let that job out, kid. You don't know them bronchos."

"I thought you said I was no longer a tenderfoot," laughed Tad.

"Sure thing, but this is different."

"I'll chance it. You show me the pony I cannot ride, and I will confess that
I am a tenderfoot."

Their arrival at the Ox Bow ranch was the signal for all the dogs on the
place to try out their lungs, whereat a dozen cowboys appeared to learn the
cause of the uproar. The McClure house stood a little back, nestling under a
bluff covered with scant verdure, but well screened from the biting northers of
the Texas winter. Further to the south were the ranch buildings, corrals, the
cook house and a log cabin, outside of which hung any number of bridles and
saddles, some of which the ranchers were mending and polishing when Stalling's
men arrived on the scene.

Big-foot introduced himself and was received with many a shout and handshake.
Bill Blake, the foreman of the ranch after greeting the new arrival, turned
inquiringly to Tad Butler, who had dismounted.

"I didn't know you used kids in your business, Big-foot," he grinned.

Big-foot flushed under the imputation.

"Mebby you call him a kid, but if you'd see the lad work you'd change your
mind mighty quick," answered the big cowman, with a trace of irritation in his
voice. He explained to Blake what the boy was doing with the outfit, at the same
time relating some of the things that the slender, freckle-faced boy from the
East had accomplished.

"Shake, Pinto," exclaimed Bill Blake cordially. "I reckon Mr. McClure would
like to talk with you. Big-foot and I have got some business over in the ranch
house, you see," smiled the foreman.

"I see," replied Tad, though not wholly sure whether he did or not.

"He's over there talking with his boss wrangler now. Come along and I'll give
you a first-class knock-down to him."

Tad found the ranch owner to be a man of refinement and kindly nature, yet
whose keen, quizzical eyes seemed to take the lad in from head to foot in one
comprehensive glance.

"So you are learning the business, eh? That's right, my lad. That's the way
to go about it, and there's no place like a drive to learn it, for that's where
a man meets about every experience that comes in the life of a cowman."

Tad explained about the Pony Riders, and that their trip was in the nature of
a pleasure jaunt, they being accompanied by Walter Perkins's instructor and that
they were with the outfit for a brief trip only.

Mr. McClure became interested at once.

"I should like to hear more about your experiences," he said. "Won't you come
up to the house with me, while your man talks horse with my foreman?"

Tad flushed slightly as he glanced down over his own rough, dust-covered
clothes.

"II am afraid I am not fit, sir."

"Tut, tut. We ranchers learn to take a man for what he is worth, not for what
he has on. You have been riding. Naturally you would not be expected to appear
in broadcloth. No more do we expect you to. Had I a son, I should feel far
better satisfied to see him as you stand before me now, than in the finest of
clothes. Come, I want you to meet my family."

Tad, somewhat reluctantly, followed the rancher to his house. Much to the
lad's discomfiture, he was ushered into the drawing-room of the first southern
home he had ever entered.

"Be seated, sir. I will call my daughters. We have so few guests here that
the girls seldom see anyone during the time they are home from school."

Mr. McClure left the room, and Tad, after choosing a chair that he considered
least liable to be soiled by his dusty clothes, sat down, gazing about him
curiously. He found himself in a room that was by far the handsomest he had ever
seen, while from the walls a long line of family ancestors looked down at him
from their gilt frames.

Tad had found time for only a brief glance about him, when the sound of
voices attracted his attention. At first he was unable to decide whence the
voices came. They seemed to be in the room with him, yet there was no one there
save himself.

Turning about he discovered that a curtained doorway led directly into
another room, and that it was from the adjoining room that the sound had
come.

"You say Ruth is bad again to-day, Margaret?"

"No, mother, I would not say that exactly. Yet she does not seem to be quite
herself, and I thought it best to tell you. I feared that perhaps she was going
to have one of her old attacks."

"Say nothing to her of your suspicions. The last one passed over, I think
largely because we appeared to treat her mood lightly. Poor child, she has never
ceased to grieve for the man whom her parents refused to permit her to marry. I
think your Aunt Jane made a grievous mistake. I told her so plainly when she
brought Ruth here to us, hoping she might forget her youthful love affair."

Tad Butler's cheeks burned.

That he had unwittingly played eavesdropper troubled him not a little. The
boy rose and walking to a window on the further side of the room, stood with hat
crumpled in both hands behind him, gazing out.

The voices ceased. Yet a moment later Tad started and turned sharply.

"Well, young man, what are you doing here?"

Before him he saw a woman just short of middle age. He inferred at once that
she was the elder of the two women whom he had heard speaking behind the
curtain.

"I am waiting for Mr. McClure," answered Tad, bowing politely, his face
flushing under its tan.

"Does he know that you are here?" she asked in a milder tone.

"Oh, yes. He asked me to wait here until he returned."

"Pardon me, I"

"Ah, here you are, my dear. I have been looking for you. I wish you to meet
Master Thaddeus Butler, who, with three companions and a tutor, is crossing the
state with the Miller herd. It is the most unique vacation in these days. Master
Butler, this is Mrs. McClure. My daughters will join us in a moment."

Mrs. McClure shook hands cordially with their young guest.

"Welcome to Ox Bow," she smiled. "At first, as your back was turned to me, I
took you for one of the men. Instantly you faced me I saw the mistake I had
made. Won't you be seated?"

Under her cordial manner Tad Butler was soon at his ease. Almost before he
was aware of the fact Mrs. McClure had drawn from him the main facts relating to
the journeyings of the Pony Riders.

Mrs. McClure's two daughters, Sadie and Margaret, entered the room soon
afterwards, Tad being presented to them. Margaret, the elder of the two, was a
fair-haired girl of perhaps nineteen years, while her sister Sadie, who was
darker, Tad judged to be about his own age.

Both girls shook hands smilingly with their guest.

"I hope you will pardon me for appearing in such a disreputable condition,"
begged the lad. "I really am not fit to be seen."

His quaint way of putting it brought forth a general laugh.

"You need make no apology. We are all ranchers here. Even my daughters and my
niece ride, and sometimes accompany the foreman on drives from one part of the
ranch to another. As for my niece, though brought up in the East, she is a born
cattle woman. There is hardly a cowman on the place who can ride better than
she."

"Your man tells us that you are the best horseman in your outfit," said Mr.
McClure.

"I don't think I quite deserve that compliment, sir," answered Tad. "But I am
very fond of horses. I find, by kind treatment, one can do almost anything with
them."

"My idea exactly," nodded Mr. McClure approvingly. "The cowpuncher doesn't
look at it that way, however. He wouldn't feel at home on a horse that didn't
break the monotony by bucking now and then. Did you ever ride a bucker?"

"Once. I expect to break one of the animals I understand we are to get from
you."

His host whistled softly.

"You have a large contract on hand, young man. The ponies I am turning off
are the worst specimens we ever had on the ranch. Some of them never had a
bridle on, for the very good reason that no one ever has been able to get close
enough to them to put bridles on. I hope you will not be foolish enough to try
to break any of that stock."

"Oh, we'll rope them and get a headstall on, anyway. The rest will come along
all right, I think," smiled Tad.

"Ah, my niece, Miss Brayton!" exclaimed the rancher, introducing a young
woman who had just entered the room.

"With the Miller outfit?" she asked.

"Yes," answered Tad.

"Who is your foreman?"

"StallingsBob Stallings."

Tad thought Miss Brayton one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen.
Yet there was something about her that affected him strangely. Perhaps it was
her abrupt manner of speaking. At any rate the lad experienced a sense of
uneasiness the moment she entered the room. He did not stop to ask himself why.
Tad merely knew that this was true. Miss Brayton had little to say, but her
quietness was more than atoned for by the vivacity of Sadie and Margaret.

As Tad was taking his leave the entire family accompanied him out into the
yard.

"If your duties will permit we should like to have you and your companions
dine with us to-morrow evening," said Colonel McClure.

"Yes; by all means," added Mrs. McClure.

"Yes, Mr. Butler, we should love to have you," added Sadie.

"Besides, we want to meet your friends," said Margaret.

"And I am sure we should enjoy coming. It seems almost an imposition for four
of us boys to camp out in your dining room at the same time," laughed Tad.

"I assure you it will be doing us a favor," protested the rancher. "You will
bring your Professor, also. We'll have a real family party."

Tad somewhat reluctantly agreed to bring his companions, though he disliked
the idea of going to so fine a place for dinner in their rough, weather-beaten
clothing.

The boy bade them all good-bye and strode off toward the corral, where the
ponies were being roped preparatory to being taken over to the Miller herd.

"Oh, Mr. Butler!"

Tad wheeled sharply. Ruth Brayton was hurrying toward him.

The lad lifted his hat courteously and awaited the young woman's
approach.

"Yes, Miss Brayton."

"Tell me again who your foreman is."

"Bob Stallings."

"StallingsStallings. Where have I heard that name before?" mused the girl,
staring at Tad with vacant eyes.

"Are you sure it isn't HamiltonRobert Hamilton?"

"Quite sure," smiled the lad.

"Do you know a cowboy or foreman by that name?"

"No, I never heard the name before."

Miss Brayton turned abruptly and hurried away. Tad heard her repeating the
name of his foreman as she walked swiftly toward the ranch house.

"My, but that was a job," laughed Tad, after they had reached camp again,
with three wild bronchos in tow. They had staked the new ponies down on the
plain to think matters over while the cowboys sat down to their noon meal.

"They sure are a bad lot," agreed Big-foot Sanders. "Never seen worse ones.
See that fellow, over there, don't even mind the pinch of that hackmore bridle.
He's the ugliest brute in the bunch."

"That's the one I'm going to break," decided Tad Butler, his eyes glowing as
he observed the wild pitching and snorting of the staked animal.