The Pony Rider Boys with the Texas Rangers | Page 3

in this outfit, except for good and sufficient reasons."
"My reasons are good. I---I fell in, I did. And---say, why didn't you
fellows wake me up?" demanded the fat boy, a sudden suspicion
entering his mind. He began to understand that a trick had been played
upon him. "What'd you let me sleep for?"
"Because you were sleepy," answered Ned Rector solemnly.
"That's a mean trick. I wouldn't play that on a horse," answered Stacy
indignantly.
"But you did play it on a horse," spoke up Tad. "The horse went to

sleep with you, out of sheer sympathy I should say."
"I should think he would have. Anything would go to sleep with
Chunky on hand," declared Ned.
"You fellows are too funny! I don't care what you think. I'm going to
have something to eat. Where's the biscuit?"
"Packed."
"Then we'll unpack them again. I guess I've got as much right to the
grub of this outfit as the next one."
With that Stacy helped himself to such of the food as he was able to
find. In order to get what he wanted he was obliged to undo three of the
large packs. Once undone no one would help him lash them together
again, so grumbling and growling, the fat boy tugged with the ropes
until he had taken a secure hitch about each of the three packages. They
made him tie the three before they would allow him to eat the biscuit
and cold bacon that he had got out.
While Stacy was munching his cold lunch the others were lashing the
packs to the lazy ponies and preparing to start again, every one being
anxious to reach the mountains before night fell. But the fat boy was
surly as well as sleepy. He felt aggrieved. That his companions should
sit down to a meal, leaving him asleep on his pony, filled Stacy with
resentment and a deep-rooted determination to be even with them. He
was already planning how he could repay his companions in their own
coin.
"Better not try it," suggested Tad carelessly as he passed the fat boy on
his way to get his pony.
"Try what?"
"To get even," answered Tad laughingly.
"How do you know that I was thinking of such a thing?"

"Perhaps I read your mind."
"Humph! You better learn to read your own before you go prying into
mine. I'll show you what I'm going to do."
"Cinch up," interrupted the voice of Professor Zepplin. "We have no
time to waste."
Still grumbling, Stacy climbed into the saddle. He promptly fell off,
having forgotten to cinch the saddle girth. Now the pony woke up and
began to kick as the saddle slipped under its belly. Stacy moved more
quickly than he had at any other time during the day. Over and over he
rolled in a cloud of dust in his efforts to get out of the danger zone,
while the pony kicked and squealed, the boys shouting with laughter.
"Whoa!" roared the fat boy, sitting up after he had reached a place
where he considered it safe to do so. "Whoa! Catch him, somebody."
"Catch him yourself," retorted Ned.
Tad's rope wriggled through the air. It caught one of the flying hind feet
of the pony. Then the little animal plowed the dirt with its nose, while
Walter sprang forward, sitting down on the angry animal's head.
"Now get that saddle off," commanded Tad. "Come, Chunky! Do you
think we are going to wait here all day for you?"
The fat boy reluctantly obeyed the command of Tad Butler. After some
further trouble, Stacy's pony was properly saddled, but still stubborn
and ready for further trouble. The lad got on this time without falling
off, and with much laughter and joking, the party started off toward the
blue haze in the distance, the dark ridge that marked the Guadalupes.
It was in "The Pony Rider Boys in the Rockies" that our readers first
learned how this little private club of youthful horsemen came to be
organized. The need of open-air life for the then sickly Walter Perkins
was one of the great factors in the organization of this little band of
rough-and-ready travelers. Our readers remember the adventures of our

young friends in the fastnesses of the Rocky Mountains. These lads
speedily fitted themselves into the stirring life of the big game land,
and had other yet more startling adventures in which wild animals did
not play so strong a part as did wild men. The story of the discovery of
Lost Claim, with its accompanying battle with claim-jumpers, was fully
told in this first volume.
It was in "The Pony Rider Boys In Texas" that we found the lads
learning the first rudiments of the cattle business. The thrilling part