Ted hurried back to the cow camp.
"Stuff's off," he shouted, when he came within shouting distance. The boys, who were lounging around the fire, resting from their arduous drive, sprang to their feet.
"What's the row?" asked big Ben Tremont.
"They insist upon our driving the herd about five miles farther into the reservation to-night, so that that lazy lieutenant who is to do the inspecting in the morning will have as little trouble as possible. I refused to do it, and they tried to run a sandy on me, but I wouldn't stand for it. If they'd been white to me I would have had the cattle in there if it took me all night."
"That duck o' a lootenant wuz a trifle gay," said Bud. "He tried to run a blazer on yer Uncle Dudley, but I told him to run along, an' I reckon he'll have no Christmas present for me this year."
"Did you tell the boss there was nothing doing in the moving line?" asked Ben.
"You bet I did," answered Ted. "That gay lieutenant who was here ran at once to the boss with his tale of woe, and the boss threw his chest out at me and tried the little-boy game on me. He thought he had me bluffed when in comes another officer, who told him that a beef issue to the Indians was due to-morrow, and that there wasn't an animal in the post pasture."
"Wow!" exclaimed Bud. "That means trouble for some one, unless they can dig up something to take its place, for an Indian who has his mouth made up fer fresh meat is lierble ter become rantankerous if he don't get it."
"I guess that's why they were so anxious to get the beef up to the pasture to-night," said Kit.
"Of course. When I heard that all my nerve came back to me, and I decided that I would give those officers a lesson."