“We need an adventure now and then to give a little variety to our life,” said one of the men, after he had taken a few pulls at his pipe, to make sure that it was well lighted. “My friend and I have been on the trail of a horse-thief.”
“Did you overtake him?” asked George.
“Yes; but we didn’t get the horse, and we wanted him more than we wanted the thief. He had disposed of the animal, traded him off for a fresher one, you know, and we offered him his liberty if he would tell us where the horse was. He told us, and we started back with him to make sure that he told us the truth, and he gave us the slip. But we think we know where the horse is.”
“Is he anywhere about here?” inquired George.
“Is there anybody living about here who goes by the name of Ackerman?” asked the rancheman.
“Yes, there is,” answered George, opening his eyes in great surprise.
“Well, my horse is at his rancho. We’re going there after him, and we’re going to smash things when we get there, too.”
George was so utterly confounded that he could not say a word. He sat looking from one to the other of the ranchemen, who fortunately did not notice the expression of astonishment that settled on his face. One of them sat on the opposite side of the fire, where he could not see the boy, and the other was stretched out on his blanket, with his hands clasped under his head, watching the clouds of smoke that arose from his pipe.
“It’s a little the strangest piece of business I ever heard of,” said the latter, “and it doesn’t seem to me that anybody of ordinary common sense could do such a thing. The thief told us that he traded Silk Stocking to a young fellow who looked as though he might be going to a fancy-dress ball somewhere, for he sported a buckskin coat with silver buttons, high patent-leather boots, and so on, and we saw just such a fellow as that at Ackerman’s rancho. We stopped there and got fresh horses—those nags out there belong to Ackerman—and took supper; and when we came out on the porch Silk Stocking called to us. He was hitched under an open shed a short distance from the house. I recognised the call and so did Joe; but we never suspected anything, and so we didn’t look into the matter as we ought to have done.”
George had never been more astonished in his life. He was greatly alarmed too, for he knew that his cousin had got himself into serious trouble. The man on the blanket, who told the story, looked like one who could smash things if he once set about it, and the tone of his voice and the decided manner in which he puffed at his pipe, indicated that he had fully made up his mind to do it. He and his companion would certainly make it warm for somebody when they reached the rancho. Was there any way in which he could save Ned from the consequences of his folly? George did not believe there was, for he knew too well the estimation in which horse-thieves and everybody connected with them were held in that country; but still he determined to make the attempt. Ned was his cousin, the only one he had in the world, and it was plainly his duty to stand by him. Controlling himself as well as he could, he said: