"Say, you drop out," Dave urged him. "I can manage Len all right."

"Indeed I'll not drop out! I'm going to stay in to the finish, but I'll be glad when it comes. This Western life is, indeed, rough and ready, Dave."

"Then you're not a Westerner by birth?"

"No, I came from the East. I'll have to tell you my story some day. It's rather a curious one."

Dave reflected that his own was, also, but he was not so sure he wanted to tell it. Every day had increased his admiration for Mr. Bellmore, but there are some facts that we keep even from our best friends.

They were on a downward slope now, and the going was better. Slowly but surely they were overtaking Len. Now and then he glanced back over his shoulder, as if to measure the distance separating him from his pursuers.

"Do you think he'll shoot?" asked Mr. Bellmore.

"He may," said Dave, calmly. "He's a big enough bully to do so, but he's the worst shot you ever heard of. I really believe he's afraid of a gun."

"Still, sometimes those chaps make a bull's-eye out of pure luck."

"We've got to take the chance," Dave said. "Keep well down on your horse's neck."

But Len showed no intention of drawing a weapon. Probably it was all he could do to manage his now fast-tiring steed.

Suddenly the stillness of the morning was broken by a prolonged shrill screech.

"What's that?" cried Mr. Bellmore.

"Railroad train," said Dave. "The line pa.s.ses just below us. You can see the smoke of the train in a minute. There she is--a fast freight. Whistled because they're going to stop for water I guess. Yes, there she goes up to the tank."

Down below them they could see the crawling freight. As they watched they saw it draw up to the tank and stop. Water poured into the tender of the engine.

"Why, look at Len! He's riding straight for the freight!" cried Dave.

"That's what he is," echoed Mr. Bellmore. "Maybe he's going to take it!"

"If he does--" murmured Dave.

They spurred on, but were too far away. A moment later they saw Len leap from his horse, abandon the creature, and jump on one of the freight cars.

The engine whistled, started off and rapidly gathered speed, taking Len away from his pursuers.

"Well, if that isn't tough luck!" bitterly said Dave, as they pulled up.

Len had escaped. There was no use in chasing the fast freight.

CHAPTER XXII

TANGLES

Sitting astride his tired horse Dave looked lung and earnestly at the fast-disappearing freight, as it went around a bend in the hills. He could not see Len, but he knew the young bully was aboard.

"Well, you're gone now, but there'll come a time when you may want to come back," mused Dave. "And when you do, I'll get you. I think you started the big fire, but I'll give you a chance to prove you didn't."

He sat there musing for a while longer. The freight was out of sight now but there came to his ears, faintly through the heavy morning air, the sound of the distant puffing. And he could see the trail of smoke.

"Smoke! Ugh!" exclaimed Dave. "I've seen enough, and smelled enough, in the last few hours to last me a year!"

His eyes smarted from the acrid fumes of the burning prairie gra.s.s, and his mouth was parched.

"Guess you must want a drink too, Crow," said Dave aloud, and his horse whinnied as though understanding. Dave saw Len's horse, which the young rascal had abandoned, taking a long drink from a pool that had formed under the railroad tank.

Dave's horse needed no urging toward the inviting water and soon both master and beast were drinking deeply. Dave also plunged his head down in a puddle and soused his arms and hands in it.

"There, I feel better," he said. "A heapsight better. And now what am I going to do with you?" he asked as he saw Len's abandoned horse cropping the gra.s.s near the tank. "I can't leave you here for rustlers to make off with. You're too good an animal, if you do belong to a mean skunk. And yet I don't feel like doing Len any favor. If I take you I may get into trouble with Mr. Molick, too.

"Oh, I'll take a chance though. Can't see a horse suffer," Dave went on, and when his own mount had sufficiently refreshed itself with water and food, the young cowboy leaped to the saddle and rode up to Len's animal.

He had no difficulty in catching the pony, as it was quite exhausted from the run. And thus leading his prize, Dave started back. Mr. Bellmore, who had done as Dave had, taken a long drink and a wash, was also much refreshed.

"It surely was tough luck," remarked the engineer, "but it couldn't be helped. We did our best!"

"I should say so!" exclaimed Dave. "I regard it as a pretty sure sign of his guilt--that running away; don't you?"

"Well, most people would, I think," said the Chicago man slowly, "and yet, from what you have told me, I guess Len would run from you anyhow, wouldn't he, if he saw you take after him?"

"He might," admitted Dave, with a grin, as he thought of the encounter he had had with the bully. "Yes, I guess he might. But we saw him start one fire; didn't we?"

"Yes, but of course he could claim that he was starting a back-fire, just as we did."

"Huh!" Dave mused. "I didn't think of that. But I'm sure Len did start the big blaze, anyhow. He wanted to either stampede our cattle, or burn some of them, and you can't make me think any differently."

"Oh, I'm not trying to," said Mr. Bellmore. "I'm only giving you an idea of the view a judge and jury might take of it, if you had Len arrested."

"I didn't think of that," Dave said. "I guess it won't come to an arrest, as far as that is concerned. We Western folk generally administer the law ourselves. If we waited for judges and juries we'd get left in a good many cases. But I don't believe Len will come back, in a hurry."

"Perhaps not But what are you going to do with his horse?"

"I don't know. Take it back with us for the time being. It's a good animal I might hold it as a sort of hostage until Len claims it. But I don't believe he will. Whew! That was some chase!"

"It certainly was," agreed Mr. Bellmore.

They rode back slowly. The air was gradually clearing of the smoke from the prairie fire, though far off it could be observed burning yet. But the worst of it was over. Bar U ranch was no longer in danger.

"What's the next thing on the programme?" asked Mr. Bellmore.

"Finish the round-up, get rid of as many cattle as we can, provide for the rest so they'll have plenty of water in the dry spell, and then fight the Molick crowd," said Dave.

"Plenty of room for action there," commented the engineer with a smile.