“Ought we to let him sneak away, Ned?” asked Harry. “Why not lock him up somehow, and keep him from skipping out?”
“Well, in the first place, it isn’t our business to play keeper to Sloper,” the scout master replied. “There are plenty of fellows here to attend to his case and I feel that I’ve done my whole duty when I warned him not to try and leave the ranch until your uncle gets home, Harry. If Chunky and Skinny and the rest think his room would be better than his company or take a notion to give him a warm coat of tar and feathers, it’s none of our affair.”
“Yes, I can see you sitting around and doing nothing while such a nasty job is on,” Jack remarked, with a shake of his head. “I know you too well for that, Ned. If you saw them taking Sloper out and carrying a bag and a kettle along, I’m justly certain you’d call a halt on the operation and stand between the skunk and the boys who wanted to give him what he deserved.”
Ned made no reply to this accusation. Perhaps he knew there was considerable of truth back of it, and that, if such a case did come about, he would be strongly tempted to try and restrain the angry and indignant punchers.
The boys loitered around all morning. No one seemed able to do any particular work, save look after the cattle in the stockade, carrying water and seeing that they had some hay to keep them quiet. When the two stockmen returned from the station they would have to decide whether it were safe to drive the herds to the feeding grounds again, and watch them for a while, so as to guard against further trouble.
So noon came and went. Jimmy had no complaint to make on the score of lack of food. He told his chums he was making up for lost time; and the grinning Chinese cook was only too well pleased to dance attendance on the scout, whom he seemed to fancy more than any of the others.
Half of the afternoon dragged away, and it was understood that possibly in two more hours they could expect the absent owners of the ranch to show up, unless detained by something not down on the bills.
It was a very hot afternoon, and as they had not been oversleeping of late, the four scout chums found themselves nodding as they sat on the shady side of the verandah. Jimmy had crawled into the one hammock and refused to budge. He declared that his sleep had been so wretched lately that he had a whole lot to make up.
Now and then one of them would arouse enough to ask some drowsy question, after which they would relapse into silence once more.
This sleepy condition of things was suddenly disturbed by loud shouts, and what seemed to be a rushing about on the part of excited cow punchers.