Comrades of the Saddle | Page 9

gave an outline of the German lad's
story.
"Phew! Chicken-hearted, is he?" commented Horace. "It won't do to
leave him in Tolopah. Luckily one of our men is in town with our grub
wagon. He can ride out to the ranch with him."
When Tom imparted this information to Hans, the poor fellow was
delighted and asked where he could find the outfit.
"I'll show him. You all ride on," said Horace. But the others refused,
declaring they would all go together.
As the cavalcade started with Hans and his valises trying to keep up
with them, many were the jests and laughs cast after them.
But the boys paid them no heed, and in a few minutes the German
youth was safe in the provision wagon.
Putting their horses into a brisk canter, the four lads set out for the
ranch.
Many were the questions the Wilders asked about their friends back in
Ohio, and so busy were Tom and Larry in answering, and in relating all
the events of consequence that had transpired since the family had left
Bramley two years before, that the twenty miles which lay between
Tolopah and the ranch seemed scarcely one.

CHAPTER V
THE HALF-MOON RANCH
As the boys drew rein in front of the broad, vine-covered piazza of the
ranch house they were greeted by Mr. and Mrs. Wilder,
"Well, it does seem good to see some one from home," exclaimed the
latter as she shook the hands of Tom and Larry.
"It sure does," asserted her husband. "Wish you'd brought your father
and mother with you. What in the world started them off to Scotland?"
Quickly the brothers explained.
"Well, well! So Uncle Darwent really had some money," commented
Mrs. Wilder. "I'm real glad, though of course it isn't as though your
father needed any more. I should have thought you boys would have
wanted to go with them."
"Not when we could spend the summer on your ranch," returned Larry.
"But we began to be afraid we would be obliged to go, and we should
have if the telegram had been any later. No time ever seemed so long as
when we were waiting for your answer."
"It was just luck we got your message," declared Horace. "Sometimes
we don't go to town for a week. But something seemed to urge me to
ride in the other morning, and when I arrived Con Brown hollered to
me he had a telegram. When I read it, I didn't lose any time answering,
and I made Con promise to rush it."
"Con's our telegraph operator," explained Bill. "Come on in and change
your duds and then we'll look the ranch over."
Nothing loath to remove their clothes, which still smelled of engine
smoke, despite their ride over the plains, as the brothers seized their
suitcases and followed their young hosts, Larry exclaimed laughingly:

"You see we took your advice not to bring a trunk."
"Glad of it," asserted Horace joyously. "There's no need to dress out
here. It's just great! You don't have to put on a collar from one week's
end to another. But if you had brought a lot of clothes, mother would
have made us dress too. That's why I mentioned the matter in my
telegram."
This explanation was given in a low tone that Mrs. Wilder might not
know her son had taken such effective measures to prevent his being
obliged to "dress up," and the boys laughed heartily at the harmless
joke.
The home of the Wilders was only one story high, but the rooms were
big and comfortable. Around three sides ran the piazza, from which
French windows, extending from the floor to the ceiling, opened,
admitting any breeze that might be stirring.
The room assigned to the boys was on the west side of the house, and
through the vines they could look across the plains to some mountains
that towered in the distance.
"Our room is the next one to yours," said Bill. "We'll wait there till you
are dressed. If you want anything, sing out."
Hastily Tom and Larry took off the clothes in which they had traveled,
and bathed, glad of the opportunity to remove the cinders which had
caused them no little discomfort.
"Bill and Horace seem just the same as when they lived in Bramley,"
observed Tom when they were alone. "Horace hasn't grown a bit."
"They are tanned up till they look like Indians, that's the only change I
can see," returned his brother. "Horace always will be short, but Bill's
tall enough for two."
"You can't wear those caps," declared Bill as Tom and Larry appeared
with the light baseball caps they had brought with them.

"But that's all we have," protested Larry, "except, of course, our straw
hats. You don't