“What, me?” ejaculated Jimmy, bristling up instantly; “is that the opinion you’ve got of your old chum, Ned Nestor? Did you ever know me to give anything up first pop? Well, I’ll break that spotted little fiend in, or else he’ll break my coco for me. And say, he’s goin’ to pay up for the run he took this night. I’ll keep him goin’ till he’s ready to drop, and will eat out of me hand. That’s Jimmy McGraw’s way of doin’ things. The McGraws never say die as long as there’s anything to eat in the house.”
“Well, let’s get back to the house, after I’ve turned my pony loose in the corral where they keep the saddle band. None of the others shown up yet?” Ned continued.
“Not yet, though I think one of the herds must be close by now, for I caught a whoop or two a while back, and it didn’t come from your quarter either,” Jimmy replied, walking beside his chum, who had jumped to the ground, glad of the chance to stretch his cramped legs after such a tedious ride, to which he was not accustomed.
“You must have made record time getting here, then, Jimmy?” the scout master observed, and if he smiled at picturing the sight of his companion hanging desperately to the neck of the frantic runaway, Jimmy was not aware of the fact.
“’Tis meself that beat the score that time,” he remarked, proudly. “When I look back, all I seem to remember is a rush, me arms fast around the neck of the flying steed, and then him entering the corral like a whirlwind. It was whist, bang, and there I was miles away from the fight with me heart near broke because I’d been cheated out of the best part of the game.”
When Ned remembered the arduous drive that followed, with his voice husky from shouting, and how his arms ached from waving his hat, and managing his lively mount, he secretly thought Jimmy had been a lucky chap, though he did not say so.
“And you couldn’t find a mount to come back on, I suppose?” he asked.
“That I couldn’t,” replied Jimmy. “The saddle horse corral was plumb empty; and there wasn’t a puncher around to lend me his broncho. I even thought to walk out and meet ye on the way, but was afraid I’d get lost and give heaps of trouble. But glory be, you won the day, and saved the prize herd, which ought to please the Colonel when he hears about the same.”
Having disposed of his mount Ned, together with Jimmy, started for the house, intending to settle down in an easy chair and not move until he went to bed.
There could be no doubt but what one of the other herds was coming in, for the clamor of the drive was in full swing. It had been thought that Chunky and his party might be the last to arrive, as they had further to go; but unexpected difficulties must have delayed the others, or else they found themselves unable to push their herds as rapidly as Ned’s party had done.