The Pony Rider Boys in the Ozarks

The Pony Rider Boys in the
Ozarks
by Frank Gee Patchin

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pony Rider Boys in the Ozarks
by Frank Gee Patchin (#4 in our series by Frank Gee Patchin)
Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the
header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is
important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how
the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a
donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since
1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of
Volunteers!*****
Title: The Pony Rider Boys in the Ozarks

Author: Frank Gee Patchin
Release Date: July, 2004 [EBook #6069] [Yes, we are more than one
year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on November 1,
2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE PONY
RIDER BOYS IN THE OZARKS ***
Scanned by Kent Fielden and Sean Pobuda

The Pony Rider Boys in the Ozarks
By Frank Gee Patchin
CHAPTER I
A MYSTERIOUS VISITOR
"Boys! B-o-y-s!"
There was no response to the imperative summons.
Professor Zepplin sat up in his cot, listening intently. Something had
awakened him suddenly, but just what he was unable to decide.
"Be quiet over there, young men," he admonished, adding in a lower
tone, "I'm sure I heard some one moving about."
The camp of the Pony Rider Boys lay wrapped in darkness, the
camp-fire having long since died out. Not a sound disturbed the

stillness of the night save the soft murmurings of the foliage, stirred in
a gentle breeze that was drifting in from the southwest.
The Professor climbed from his cot, and, without waiting to draw on
his clothes, stepped outside. He stood listening in front of his tent for
several minutes, but heard nothing of a disturbing nature.
"I believe those young rascals are up to some of their pranks--either
that, or I have been having bad dreams. While I'm up I might as well
make sure," he decided, tip-toeing to the tent occupied by Tad Butler
and Walter Perkins.
Both were apparently sleeping soundly, while in an adjoining tent Ned
Rector and Stacy Brown were breathing regularly, sleeping the sleep
that naturally comes after a day in the saddle over the rugged, uneven
slopes of the Ozark Mountains.
Professor Zepplin uttered something that sounded not unlike an Indian's
grunt of disgust.
"Dreams!" he decided sharply. "I should not have eaten that pie last
night. Pie doesn't seem to trouble those boys in the least, but it certainly
has a bad effect on my digestive apparatus."
Having thus delivered himself of his opinion on the value of pie as a
bedtime food, the scientist trotted back to his tent, his teeth chattering
and shoulders shrugging, for the mountain air was chill and the
Professor was clad only in his pajamas.
No sooner had he settled himself between his comforting blankets,
however, than he suddenly started up again with a muttered
exclamation.
"I knew it! I told you so!"
This time there could be no doubt. He plainly heard a dry twig snap
near by; whether it were under the weight of man or beast, he did not
know.

"There is something out there. It couldn't have been the pie after all. I'm
going to find out what it is before I get back into this bed again," he
decided firmly, slipping quietly from under the covers and peering out
through the half closed flap of his tent.
As before, all was silence, the drowsy, indistinct voices of the night
passing almost without notice.
But Professor Zepplin instead of waiting where he was, reached for his
revolver and then strode boldly out into the open space in front of the
tents, determined to solve the mystery, and, if possible, without waking
the boys.
The reader no doubt already has recognized in the four boys sleeping in
the little weather-beaten tents the same lads who some time before had
started off for a vacation in the mountains where they hunted the
cougar and the bobcat, the thrilling adventures met with on that journey
having been related in a former volume entitled, "THE PONY RIDER
BOYS IN THE ROCKIES."
They will be remembered, too, as the lads who, in