For another hour while the fire crackled and shadows danced over the tents and figures around it, Jim entertained them with memories of the range lands. Valerie and Phyllis retired first. After them went the other four girls. Gale alone remained beside the fire with her cousin and the cowboy.
“Tom----” Gale began hesitantly.
“Yes?” Tom encouraged, tossing another log on the fire.
“That trail we passed just before we camped--was it the bandits’?” she asked.
Tom and Jim exchanged a fleeting glance.
“What made you think of them?” Tom asked.
“Before we started on this trip,” Gale said, “Valerie and I overheard you and your dad talking about rustlers. We didn’t mean to listen, but we did. Had that trail today anything to do with them? I thought you both looked worried when you saw it.”
“We were worried,” Jim admitted. “It was a fresh trail and the same men who held you prisoner that night in the hills, made that trail. We thought we had lost them sure, but it doesn’t look that way.”
“What are you going to do?” Gale wanted to know.
“Nothing,” Tom said promptly. “We are going to take you girls safely back to the K Bar O.”