“We can eat after we’ve got those herds rounded up and safe in the corral, not before,” was Ned’s ultimatum, when Mrs. Haines spoke about supper; and this caused one long face to make itself seen among the scouts, for Jimmy dearly loved his feed.
CHAPTER XII.
NIPPING A MUTINY.
Once Chunky knew what was expected of him, and he proved that he could do things with a hurricane rush. Most cow-punchers are of his stripe, and speed is a mania on the range.
“First thing I’ll run out some ponies for you young fellers to mount,” he told the scouts, as he turned to leave the verandah where the short talk had taken place.
“Me for a piebald mustang!” called out Jimmy, “I’ve somehow had that in my mind ever since I set eyes on that speckled pony belongin’ to Amos. Fix me up that way, if you want to see me happy, Mister Chunky.”
And greatly to Jimmy’s delight, he was later on given just such a mount as he called for; though as for Ned, he did not wholly fancy the peculiar whitish eyes that were a feature of the fancy looking beast. He imagined that the animal had an ugly temper, if crossed, and hoped that Jimmy might not rue the day he yearned for a mottled cow pony.
Meanwhile the big bell had been clanged that would serve as a signal to tell all on the place that their presence was immediately desired. They came trooping out of the bunk house and from the direction of the corral, where it chanced they had been busily engaged at the time.
Curiosity could be seen stamped on most of their bronzed faces. Ned looked for the man called Ally Sloper, and who had been described to him so cleverly that he fancied he could pick him out among the throng.
Even if he had not been advised beforehand, he knew he could have settled upon the man; because, while nearly all the others seemed jolly and carefree, his face bore a dark frown.
Ned believed the man suspected something; that he feared this hasty and unusual summons might interfere with the cunning scheme engineered for that night. And while not appearing to watch the puncher at all, Ned could easily see that he made frequent signals, when he thought himself unobserved, to several others, whom Ned also marked down as the secret allies of the rustler’s spy.