LOOKING FOR INDIANS
"Can't we come along?" asked Teddy, as he saw Uncle Frank lead his
horse out of the corral.
"And I want to come, too!" added Janet.
"Oh, no! We couldn't think of letting you!" answered Uncle Frank.
"Come on, boys! Get ready. We'll have to ride fast!''
"We can ride fast!" added Teddy. "You said, the other day, Uncle
Frank, I could ride real good!"
"So you can, Curlytop."
"Then why can't we come? Jan--she's a good rider, too!"
"Why the idea of you children thinking you can go off on a hunt for
Indians!" exclaimed their mother.
"We want to go--awful much!" Teddy murmured.
"Not this time, Curly boy," said the ranchman. "We may have to be
out all night, and it looks like rain. You stay at home with Janet,
and I'll tell you all about it when I come back."
"Will you, truly?"
"Truly I will."
"And if you get any Indians will you bring 'em here?" Teddy demanded.
"No, don't!" cried Janet quickly. "I don't want to see any Indians."
"But they're _tame_ ones," said her brother.
"They can't be _awful_ tame, else they wouldn't run away with Uncle
Frank's cows," declared the little girl.
"That's right!" laughed Uncle Frank. "I guess we won't bring any
Indians here, Curlytop, even if we catch 'em, which we may not do as
they have a good start of us. Anyhow we'll have to turn the Redmen
back to their reservation where they belong if we get any of them.
We'll just take my cattle and horses away, if we can, and tell the
Indians to go home and be good."
"Will they do it?" asked Daddy Martin.
"It's hard to say," answered Uncle Frank. "I'd like to make 'em stop
taking my animals, though. Well, I guess we'll start. We'll be back
as soon as we can."
So he rode off with his cowboys after the Indians. The cowboy who
had ridden in with the news went back with the others to show them
where he had last seen the cattle thieves.
He stopped at the ranch house long enough, though, to get something
to eat, and then rode away again. But he found time to talk a while
to the Curlytops.
"Where did you see the Indians?" Teddy asked while the cowboy was
eating and Uncle Frank and the others getting ready for the chase.
"Oh, I was giving my pony a drink at the spring in the rocks when I
saw the Indians across the prairie--field, I guess you'd call it back
East."
"Well, the prairies are big fields," observed Janet.
"So they are, Curly girl," laughed the cowboy. "Well, it was while I
was watering my horse that I saw the Indians."
"You mean at the spring in the rocks where Jan and I found Clipclap
in the cave?" Teddy asked.
"That's the place, Curlytop. I chased after them to see which way
they were driving off your Uncle Frank's cattle, but I saw they were
too many for me, so I came on back as fast as my horse would bring
me."
"Was there a lot of Indians?" Teddy inquired.
"Quite a few," answered the cowboy. "Well, now I've got to go and
help chase them," and he hurried through his meal and rode off with
Uncle Frank and the others.
"Say, I wish we _could_ go, don't you, Janet?" asked Teddy of his
sister, when they were left by themselves near the corral.
"No, I don't! I don't want to chase Indians!"
"Well, I'd chase 'em and you could watch me."
"You're not big enough," said the little girl. "Indians are awful
big. Don't you remember the one we saw at the station?"
"Yes. But maybe the ones that took Uncle Frank's ponies are little
Indians."
"I don't care," Janet said. "I don't want to chase after any of 'em.
I don't like 'em."
"All right--then I won't go," decided Teddy. "But let's go and take
a ride on our ponies."
"Yes, I'll do that," agreed Janet, and soon, having had one of the
cowboys who had been left behind at Ring Rosy Ranch saddle Clipclap
and Star Face, the Curlytops started for their ride.
"Don't go too far!" called Mrs. Martin after the children.
"No, we won't," they promised.
"I wants to go wide too!" begged Trouble. "I 'ikes a wide on a
ponyback."
"Not now, my dear," his mother said. "We'll go in the shade and pick
flowers," and she carried him away where he would not see Teddy and
Janet go off, for that made Trouble fretful. He wanted to be with
them.
Over the prairie rode Janet and Ted. Their ponies went slowly, for
the children had been told not to ride fast when they were alone.
But, after a while, Ted got tired of this slow motion.
"Let's have a race, Jan!" he called. "I can beat you from here to
that hill," and he pointed to one not far away.
"Mother said we couldn't ride fast," objected the little girl.
"Well, we won't ride _very_ fast," agreed Ted. "Come on, just a little
run."
Janet, too, wanted to go a bit faster, and so, when her pony was in
a line with Ted's, she called sharply:
"Gid-dap, Star Face!"
"Gid-dap, Clipclap!" cried Teddy.
The two ponies started to run.
"Oh, I'm going to beat! I'm going to beat!" Janet cried, for she saw
that Star Face was getting ahead of Clipclap.
"No you're not!" shouted Teddy, and he touched his heel to the
pony's flank. Clipclap gave a jump forward, and then something
happened.
Teddy took a flying leap, and right over Clipclap's head he sailed,
coming down on his hands and knees some distance off. Clipclap fell
down and rolled over in the grass while Janet kept on toward the hill
that marked the end of the race.
The little girl reached this place first, not being able to stop her
pony when she saw what had happened to Teddy. But as soon as she
could turn around she rode back to him and asked anxiously:
"Are you hurt, Ted?"
"No--no. I--I guess not," he answered slowly.
"Is Clipclap?" asked Janet.
The pony answered for himself by getting up, giving himself a shake
and then beginning to eat some grass.
"What happened?" Janet questioned further. "Why didn't you come on
and race with me? I won!"
"Yes, I guess you did," admitted Teddy, getting up and brushing the
dust off his clothes. "But I'd 'a' beaten you, only my pony stumbled
and he threw me over his head. I went right over his head; didn't I
Janet?"
"Yes, you did, Teddy. And you looked awful funny! But I'm glad
you're not hurt."
"So'm I."
"What made Clipclap stumble?" asked the little girl.
"I guess he stepped in a gopher's hole," answered her brother.
"Let's look," proposed Janet.
Brother and sister went to the place where Clipclap had stumbled.
There they saw a little hole in the ground. It was the front, or
maybe the back, door of the home of a little animal called a gopher,
which burrows under the earth. A gopher is a sort of squirrel-like
rat, and on the prairies they make many holes which are dangerous if
a horse suddenly steps into them. Prairie dogs are another species of
animal that burrow on the Western plains, making holes into which
horses or ponies often step, breaking their legs and throwing their
riders.
This time nothing had happened except that Teddy and the pony had
been shaken up. The pony might have broken a leg but did not, nor was
Teddy even scratched.
Cowboys always dread gopher and prairie dog holes, especially at
night when they can not be so easily seen.
"Oh, I know what let's do!" exclaimed Janet, when she found that her
brother was all right.
"What?" asked Teddy.
"Let's wait here until the gopher comes up!"
"All right. Then we'll catch him and take him home to Trouble."