“Oh, they’ll go around by the river road. But that is eight miles longer. We’ll take the hills.”
“Then maybe we can get there first after all!” broke in Fred.
“Well, we can try, anyhow,” answered the foreman of the ranch. “Do all of you boys know how to ride?”
“Sure we do!”
“Then forward it is!” And away rode the foreman with Jack and Spouter on either side of him and the others following close behind.
CHAPTER XX
AT BIG HORN RANCH
The way lay along a flat stretch of prairie bordering the river, and then up into the hills. The brushwood in the immediate neighborhood was scanty, but in the distance they could see some scrub timber backed up by a stretch of forest. Far to the westward they could see the distant mountains over which the sun was now setting.