"Sure we will!" cried Baldy. "Won't we, boys?"
"That's what we will!" cried the cowboys.
The men started out over the prairie right after supper, carrying lanterns, not so much that they needed the lights as that they might be seen by the lost children.
"Hello, Curlytops! where are you?" called the cowboys.
But no one answered them. Teddy and Janet were far away.
The cowboys rode as far as the pile of rocks where the spring bubbled up. There Baldy, swinging his lantern to and fro, said he thought he could see the marks of the feet of Star Face and Clipclap among those of other ponies, but he was not sure.
"We'll have to come back here and start out early in the morning when we can see better," he said.
"And what are we going to do all night?" asked another cowboy.
"Well, we'll keep on hunting, of course. But I don't believe well find the lost Curlytops."
One of the men rode back to the ranch to tell Mrs. Martin that so far, no trace of the missing children had been found. She could not keep back her tears, but she tried to be brave.