"Never mind. You showed your grit at any rate. You didn't appear to be the least bit scared."

"I wasn't. But honest, Tad, now that I've had time to think it all over, I'm scared stiff right this minute. I believe he would have shot me."

"There is no doubt of it in my mind. So he thinks we are Rangers?"

"Who are the Rangers, anyway?"

"The Rangers are a body of men who did much toward clearing this state of the bad men that infested it for a long time."

"They don't seem to have got them all," replied Rector.

"No, there are some near the border still. The Rangers are a sort of police who range over the state wherever their services may be needed.

I understand they are paid by the state. I guess there are not many of them left. The necessity for Rangers is not what it was a few years ago."

"So I should judge from what has just happened," answered Ned somewhat ironically.

"Come, are you going to get started tonight?" demanded Tad with a laugh.

"I'm off this very minute."

Ned hurried away laughing. He bore evidences of his recent encounter with the mountaineer, but all this was forgotten now that the man had been taken and was safely tied up back there in the canyon with the ever vigilant Tad Butler on guard over him.

A short time after that Ned was riding his pony over the plain toward the camp at a fast gallop. He shouted as he neared the camp, where no fire had been lighted, uttering a subdued whoop as he rode in.

Chunky and the professor met him a few rods from the camp.

"I---I got shot again!" cried Chunky.

"Where is Tad?" called the professor.

"Over on the fork waiting for us. You are to pack up and return with me at once."

"But---but, the danger," protested Professor Zepplin.

"The danger is past. I don't believe you will have to worry."

"Explain what you mean!"

"I'll leave that for Tad to do after we get over there. Are you all ready?"

"Is Tad all right?" demanded Perkins.

"Fit as a fiddle. You can't put Tad out of business for any length of time. You are to fetch everything. We are going into camp where we originally planned to spend the night," advised Rector.

The professor, very much relieved to learn that the boys had met with no harm, but still somewhat nervous from the hours of fretting he had pa.s.sed when the lads failed to return, now hastened to get ready to accompany Ned. On the way he explained bow Stacy Brown had been fanned by another bullet when the fat boy indiscreetly showed himself on the rise of ground between the camping place and the foothills of the mountains.

"Maybe you'll learn something one of these days," scoffed Ned.

"I---I've learned something to-day."

"Have you?"

"I have."

"Well, what have you learned?"

"That these fellows down here can shoot to beat the band."

"I have observed something of the same sort myself," muttered Ned, with the memory of the mountaineer's bombardment of Tad Butler.

The party had set out at a slow trot with Ned leading the way. Ned's confidence a.s.sured them that all was as it should be, but the young man turned a deaf ear to all their questions, replying only now and then with the remark that Tad would tell them all that was to be told when they got to the camping place.

In the meantime Tad had built up a fire, mainly for the reason that he wanted to keep his prisoner well in sight all the time. Butler knew that the man was a tough customer and that were he to get free it would be a sad night for Tad Butler, and so, too, perhaps, for the rest of the party.

The prisoner had nothing to say, nor did Butler seek to draw the fellow into conversation. But the man was watching every move of the young rider who had so cleverly outwitted and captured him. The mountaineer now believed more firmly than before that these two young men were carrying out the orders of Captain Billy McKay of the Texas Rangers.

He swore to be revenged on every man of them when once he had gained his freedom. At present that hour of revenge was a long way off.

Suddenly a loud "Yip! Yip! Yahee!" sounded off on the plain. Tad smiled broadly.

"That's Stacy Brown, I'll wager my hat. I'll bet Ned is scolding him, too."

Ned was. He was at that instant threatening to break Chunky's head if he opened his mouth again before they reached the camping place.

Shortly after that Butler's keen ears caught the sound of hoofbeats.

He stepped back into the shadows, the prisoner eyeing him inquiringly.

Tad did not take the trouble to explain. Let the prisoner think what he might. Then the party rode in in single file. Tad was not in sight.

He was hiding in the bushes.

Professor Zepplin pulled up short when his glances finally came to rest on the bound form of the mountaineer; Stacy Brown's eyes grew large and Walter Perkins gasped.

CHAPTER VI

THE CAMP IN AN UPROAR

"Tad! Where is Tad? What does this mean?" demanded the professor.

"Hullo, boys," cried Butler stepping out into the light. "Did you think that was myself tied up there?"

Chunky, in the excitement of the moment, forgot to tell Tad that he had stopped another bullet out on the plain.

"What do you think of our prisoner, Professor?"

"Tad, will you be good enough to explain what this means?"

"Yes, sir. To be brief that's the fellow who shot at us. He tried to kill us both up here in the mountains."

"Are you sure?"