“Well, we’ll make a good try, anyhow. At least we can scare ’em so they’ll leave the cattle, and maybe we can round up the steers and save ’em.”
“What’s your plan?” asked Ned of his tall chum.
“Well, I guess it’s best to surprise ’em,” whispered Jerry. “That seems to be the only way now, for we don’t know how many of ’em there may be. Are you ready?”
“Ready,” assented the two others.
“Then out on the jump, fire in the air and give ’em the surprise of their lives.”
But that plan was not destined to be carried out, for just as the three boys, who had not awakened Professor Snodgrass, were about to leap outside their shelter there came a sharp hail and the sound of a shot. Jerry, who was at the flaps of the tent, saw a flash and sliver of flame cut the blackness of the night.
“Throw up your hands, you in there!” came the sharp command.
“What is it?” asked a second voice in the darkness, as the boys slid out of the tent.
“I can’t make out what it is, Gimp,” was the answer. “But I’ve got ’em covered. And I’m a two-gun man,” he added evidently for the information of the boys. “I can shoot as well with my left hand as with my right, so be governed accordingly. Parson, you and Gimp ride up and see what that outfit is. If I ain’t greatly mistook it’s what we’ve been lookin’ for, though how in the name of a chuck wagon they make use of that contraption is more than I can remonstrate.”