"Drag him from his horse," they shouted.
"No, yer don't. Fair play fer all!" a clear voice rang out above the din, and the soldiers turned toward the hill behind the cabin.
On the summit stood Bud Morgan, his long, fair hair floating in the breeze, and on either side of him ten cow-punchers with their Winchesters trained upon the unarmed soldiers, whose carbines were stacked in the house.
"Three cheers for the broncho boys!" yelled Stella shrilly. "You can't beat 'em anyway you try."
CHAPTER XXXVI.
THE MOTHER LODE.
As the boys swarmed down the hill to where Ted and the girls were standing apart from the soldiers, who stood staring at them in amazement, they let out the Moon Valley yell, and acted as though they were a victorious army taking possession of a conquered city.
Lieutenant Barrows stood in the doorway in open-mouthed amazement at the change of scene, in which he and his men were not the captors, but the captured.
He started to bluster by ordering Hallie to get ready to accompany him back to her father.