“Nary die! You got to work fer me, young feller! No, don’t get up yet. We’ll bandage you first to stop the bleedin’. Where’s that other cripple? Pop, come over here! What do you mean ridin’ around with a forty-five bullet bouncin’ around inside you? Get off that bronc—an’ quick! You bald-headed ole hoss-wrangler!”
CHAPTER XXV
Meet the Wife
Into the ranch yard of the X Bar X rode ten men—ten tired, dusty, but triumphant men. Their job had been done. Every Durham had been driven all the way from Whirlpool River Ranch to their own range, and once more safely enclosed within their own fences. The long journey was completed. They were home again.
The whole ranch turned out to welcome them. Mrs. Manley, her eyes shining with happiness, walked down the steps of the porch. A moment later the front door opened again, and Belle Ada, Ethel and Nell came rushing out.
“Hello, Dad!” Belle called shrilly. “Hello, Roy! Climb down off that bronco and give your sister a kiss, Teddy!”
“I’ll think it over,” Teddy laughed, and slid off his pony. “Hello, Mother! Back again as good as new!”
Ethel Carew and Nell Willis were frankly delighted to see the boys again. They demanded the story of the trip “with complete details,” as Ethel said, and sat with wide-eyed fascination as the story was related.
Teddy insisted on telling of Roy’s fight with the eagle, though he had not seen it, because he said “Roy was too modest.” It lost none of its excitement by his recital.
Mrs. Manley was anxious to learn if any one was injured, but her husband, with a wink at the boys, asked her if she ever heard of any one getting hurt at a picnic.
“Of course, sometimes they fall into the brook an’ get wet,” he added, with a grin, “so Teddy an’ Roy had to do that, too. But we’re all home now, an’ hungry. Think we can stop this gab-fest long enough to eat?”