“He certainly is, Teddy! Well, for the love of Pete! how’d he get here—an’ where’s The Pup?”
“Can’t tell you that, Dad,” Teddy replied. He turned to Roy. “Now are you so sure that we’ll never see Marino again? He’s around here somewhere, I’ll bet a plugged nickel! Maybe he got thrown. If it wasn’t so dark we could have a look for him.”
“By golly, it’s the pinto!” Pop exclaimed, riding up. “Where’d he come from, Teddy? I saw that horse out yonder, but I didn’t pay no attention to him. Thought he had a man with him. The pinto! The Pup must have followed up the river from the time we saw him! Snakes! wonder if he’s around?”
“That bronc of yours is a good watch dog,” Roy declared to Nat. “It was this horse he sensed, and the lowlands had nothin’ to do with it. Pop, you’re all twisted. Nat’s pony was calling in this pinto.”
“Meybe,” Pop agreed doubtfully. “I ain’t sayin’ nothin’. Well, boss, do we camp? We can picket this hoss and come back for him later. He’ll stand, I reckon.”
“Won’t do much wanderin’ with his leg like that,” Bug Eye remarked. It was practically the first sentence he had uttered since they had left Jake Trummer’s place. “He’s got a sore there that seems as if it might have been made some time ago.”
“It was,” Teddy remarked laconically. “I brought Roy in to look at it the night he was stolen. That’s how I found he was gone. Wherever The Pup is, he’s on foot. Unless he got thrown, and is lying hurt somewhere.”
“And alone,” added Roy, with a note of pity in his voice.
The uselessness of attempting to find Marino in the dark was apparent to all, and, leaving the knoll on which he stood, Mr. Manley rode forward until he and Jake Trummer came to a spot which bordered on a group of trees.
“We can pitch camp here,” Mr. Trummer suggested. “There’s a spring in them trees, good an’ cold. In the mornin’ we can start at sun-up, and then, by golly, we’ll run them rustlers to earth. They don’t know we’re comin’, but they’ll learn soon enough. Tryin’ to lay the blame on me fer the cattle bein’ gone! Huh, I’m kinda anxious to meet Denver Smith an’ his gang!”