Ruth Fielding at Silver Ranch Part 16

"Not with the Bar-Cross-Naught outfit, Miss Jinny," agreed Bud, fervently.

"But it must be a wonderful sight to see so many steers rus.h.i.+ng over the plain at once-all running as tight as they can run," urged the innocent Helen.

"Ya-as," drawled Jimsey. "But I want it to be some other man's cattle."

"But do you really ever have much trouble with the cattle?" asked Helen.

"They all look so tame."

"Except Old Trouble-Maker," laughed her twin, who stood beside her.

"Looks jest like a picnic, herdin' them mooley-cows, don't it?" scoffed Jimsey.

"They'd ought to be on the night trick, once," said Jane Ann. "It's all right punching cows by daylight."

"What's the night trick?" asked Heavy.

"Night herding. That's when things happen to a bunch of cows," explained the ranchman's niece.

"I believe that must be fun," cried Ruth, who had come out upon the porch. "Can't we go out to one of the camps and see the work by night as well as by day?"

"Good for you, Ruth!" cried Tom Cameron. "That's the game."

"Oh, I wouldn't want to do that," objected Mary c.o.x. "We'd have to camp out."

"Well, them that don't want to go can stay here," Jane Ann said, quickly. If anything was needed to enlist her in the cause it was the opposition of The Fox. "I'll see what Uncle Bill says."

"But, will it be dangerous?" demanded the more careful Madge.

"I've ridden at night," said Jane Ann, proudly. "Haven't I, Jimsey?"

"Just so," admitted the cowboy, gravely. "But a whole bunch o' gals might make the critters nervous."

"Too many cows would sure make the girls nervous!" laughed Bob, grinning at his sister.

But the idea once having taken possession of the minds of Ruth and her girl friends, the conclusion was foregone. Uncle Bill at first (to quote Jane Ann) "went up in the air." When he came down to earth, however, his niece was right there, ready to argue the point with him and-as usual-he gave in to her.

"Tarnashun, Jane Ann!" exclaimed the old ranchman. "I'll bet these yere gals don't get back home without some bad accident happening. You-all are so reckless."

"Now Uncle Bill! don't you go to croaking," she returned, lightly.

"Ain't no danger of trouble at all. We'll only be out one night. We'll go down to Camp Number Three-that's nearest."

"No, sir-ree! Them boys air too triflin' a crew," declared the ranchman.

"Jib is bossing the Rolling River outfit just now. You can go over there. I can trust Jib."

As the rest of the party was so enthusiastic, and all determined to spend a night at Number Two Camp on the Rolling River Range, Mary c.o.x elected to go likewise. She declared she did not wish to remain at the ranch-house in the sole care of a "fat and greasy Mexican squaw," as she called the cook.

"Ouch! I bet that stings Maria when she knows how you feel about her,"

chuckled Heavy. "Why let carking care disturb your serenity, Mary? Come on and enjoy yourself like the rest of us."

"I don't expect to enjoy myself in any party that's just run by one girl," snapped Mary.

"Who's that?" asked the stout girl, in wonder.

"Ruth Fielding. She bosses everything. She thinks this is all her own copyrighted show-like the Sweetbriars. Everything we do she suggests--"

"That shows how good a 'suggester' she is," interposed Heavy, calmly.

"It shows how she's got you all hypnotized into believing she's a wonder," snarled The Fox.

"Aw, don't Mary! Don't be so mean. I should think Ruth would be the last person _you'd_ ever have a grouch on. She's done enough for you--"

"She hasn't, either!" cried Mary Fox, her face flaming.

"I'd like to know what you'd call it?" Heavy demanded, with a good deal of warmth for her. "If she wasn't the sweetest-tempered, most forgiving girl that ever went to Briarwood, _you'd_ have lost your last friend long ago! I declare, I'm ashamed of you!"

"She's not my friend," said Mary, sullenly.

"Who is, then? She has helped to save your life on more than one occasion. She has never said a word about the time she fell off the rocks when we were at Lighthouse Point. You and she were together, and _you_ know how it happened. Oh, I can imagine how it happened. Besides, Nita saw you, and so did Tom Cameron," cried the stout girl, more hotly.

"Don't think all your tricks can be hidden."

"What do you suppose I care?" snarled Mary c.o.x.

"I guess you care what Tom Cameron thinks of you," pursued Heavy, wagging her head. "But after the way you started those ponies when we drove to Rolling River Canon, you can be sure that you don't stand high with him-or with any of the rest of the boys."

"Pooh! those cowboys! Great, uneducated gawks!"

"But mighty fine fellows, just the same. I'd a whole lot rather have their good opinion than their bad."

Now all this was, for Jennie Stone, pretty strong language. She was usually so mild of speech and easy-going, that its effect was all the greater. The Fox eyed her in some surprise and-for once-was quelled to a degree.

All these discussions occurred on Monday. The Rolling River Camp was twenty miles away in the direction of the mountain range. Tuesday was the day set for the trip. The party would travel with the supply wagon and a bunch of ponies for the herders, bossed by Maria's husband. On Wednesday the young folk would return under the guidance of little Ricarde, who was to go along to act as camp-boy.

"But if we like it out there, Uncle Bill, maybe we'll stay till Thursday," Jane Ann declared, from her pony's back, just before the cavalcade left the ranch-house, very early on Tuesday.

"You better not. I'm going to be mighty busy around yere, and I don't want to be worried none," declared the ranchman. "And I sha'n't know what peace is till I see you-all back again."

"Now, don't worry," drawled his niece. "We ain't none of us sugar nor salt."

"I wish I could let Ike go with ye-that's what I wish," grumbled her uncle.

Ruth Fielding secretly wished the same. The direction of the Rolling River Camp lay toward Tintacker. She had asked the foreman about it.

"You'll be all of thirty mile from the Tintacker claims, Miss Ruth,"

Bashful Ike said. "But it's a straight-away trail from the ford a mile, or so, this side of the camp. Any of the boys can show you. And Jib might spare one of 'em to beau you over to the mine, if so be you are determined to try and find that 'bug'."

"I _do_ want to see and speak with him," Ruth said, earnestly.

"It's pretty sure he's looney," said Ike. "You won't make nothing out o'