“Dad ought to be back soon,” Roy remarked, and he slid the bit gently into Star’s mouth.
“Wish we’d gone along with him,” came from Teddy. “Say, we could ride part of the way to meet him. How about it?”
“Sure,” and Roy grinned. “The 8 X 8 is on the way to Hawley, isn’t it? Yea, let’s start to meet him. But if we reach Pete Ball’s place, we won’t stop in. Oh, no!”
“Chuck it,” Teddy replied. “You know you’re anxious to see Nell. Come on, let’s be on our way.”
CHAPTER VI
Bad News
Teddy treated the riding of the wild bronco as an incident in the day’s work. It might well have turned out disastrously for him, but, now that it was over, the youth thought no more about it except to remember that it would be well to ride him again to-morrow before the pony forgot his lesson. Thus, while the two boys rode toward Hawley, their conversation was mostly taken up with the note Mr. Manley had received and the possibility of trouble.
“Though I don’t see exactly what they could do,” Roy mused, shifting in his saddle.
The day was warm, even for Indian summer, the heat seemed to beat up from the stretch of bare ground the boys were riding over.
“I can’t understand it!” exclaimed Teddy. “Those hombres are in jail, aren’t they? What in thunder can they do? Unless they have a gang of friends around. And that isn’t so likely. Honestly, I don’t believe that Gilly Froud has a friend in the world. Why, even the men he rustled with, hate him. I guess we can count him out, anyway.”