Teddy, turning on his pillow, observed his brother. The early afternoon sun was streaming through the windows of their bedroom at the ranch house of the X Bar X. From the yard came sounds of a missing motor, interrupted by:
“Now yore hittin’ along, you ole puddle jumper. Hear that engine, Nick? Sweet, ain’t she, since I put that new carburetor on? Baby, this here lead mule—Stall on me, will yuh! Consarn yore brake-bands, I’ll blow yore piston rings clear to—”
“Bug Eye,” Teddy said, grinning. “He’s got his flivver out there. Reckon some one drove it over for him.” The boy yawned, and stretched high.
Roy observed the ceiling complacently. He seemed perfectly content to lie there, and think—think of the many things that had happened not twenty hours ago. Last night they were in Thunder Canyon, at Sholo Caves. Now they were at home, in their own room, listening to Bug Eye’s “Address to a Flivver.”
Lazily, Roy recalled that ride out of the canyon with the three girls and the two prisoners on horses they had found picketed near the cave. Clovita had gone with them, and it was lucky she had, for she showed them a short cut to the other side of the canyon, where they had met Mr. Manley and his party. His joy at having Belle back safe and sound was tremendous, as well it might be, and on that long ride home his corncob pipe was never unlit for a second. His humor kept the party in constant gales of laughter, not even excepting the two captured rustlers, who seemed a bit relieved that the whole business was over. Nick promised to visit them in jail and try to win some of his money back.
They had found Reltsur where they had left him, leaning against a tree, muttering to himself. The wound Teddy had inflicted was severe, but not fatal, and Mr. Manley, at all times considerate, even to an enemy, insisted that he take his bronco, while he rode double with Teddy. Gus shook his head at this display of “misplaced sympathy,” but, nevertheless, his admiration for his boss increased tenfold. In his own words, as he later described it to Rad Snell, “Mr. Manley is sure one white guy.”
On their way out of the canyon they had passed the hut of the old woman, Clovita’s sister. Here Clovita left them, Mr. Manley feeling that it would do no good to detain her. After all, she was but a tool in the hands of the outlaws. The last the boys saw of her she was beating on the door of the cabin with her bare fist, while within all was dark. Roy wondered vaguely if her sister had finally admitted her or whether she had to climb in a window.
The homecoming of the girls had been momentous. Mrs. Manley was waiting up, and with tears of joy in her eyes she embraced her daughter, and also Nell and Ethel.
“I knew you’d come to-night!” she exclaimed. “I just knew it! Belle, I prayed so hard for you all that you couldn’t help being safe! And now I have a suggestion. Mrs. Moore and Norine want to make some tea and toast. What about it?”
The yell that had gone up was answer enough. And after the rustlers had been put in the bunk-house, with Sing Lung guarding them with a huge knife and a ferocious frown on his face that would have deceived any one who did not know him, the rescue party sat down to a late midnight supper.