"Yip! Yip! Hiyi! Hiyi! Kyaw! Kyeeaw! Yip! Yip!"
Despite the seriousness of the situation and the real desperateness of their position the Pony Rider Boys laughed so that they were unable to yell for a full minute. Then they let go their voices, to which the professor added his own. But his voice was almost wholly lost in the blood-curdling shouts of his young charges.
"Ready—-Chunky, aim at the moon or you'll be puncturing some of us.
Now fire!"
A volley of shots followed Tad's command. Five rifles crashed out, but their leaden missiles went high, followed by another series of wild yells, whoops and scattering shots.
About this time the Border Bandits discovered the oncoming party of horsemen. All at once they turned their rifles on the Pony Rider Boys. At the first shot in the direction of the boys Tad turned in his saddle.
"Lie low!" he yelled. "Keep whooping and keep shooting. Look out that you don't hit any one. Ride straight at them. They'll give ground."
"I hope to goodness they do," shouted Ned Rector.
"If they don't it's me for the tall timber," cried Stacy, who had overheard Rector's remark.
The bullets sang so close to the boys that the lads could hear them plainly. Had the light been more certain some of them must have been hit, for those men out there knew how to handle rifles much better than did any of the Pony Rider Boys.
With wild whoops and yells, keeping up a continuous fusillade, the plucky band kept straight on.