“Well, if he wants us to get the cows off his range he’s got to help us out that much, anyhow. Besides, if that story about the landslide is true, he’ll have his hands full with his own cattle, although his herd may not be near the place where the slide occurred. Something tells me the bird who told that tale exaggerated more than a little. Still, dad believed him, so there may be something in it. We can’t afford to take a chance. Say, here’s a peach of a place to stop. How about eats?”
There was a general assent to this proposition, and Roy steered into a little cove.
“That was a nice, pleasant ride,” Teddy reflected as he seized a bundle of foodstuffs. “If it was all like that, I wouldn’t kick. But wait till to-morrow! If we don’t have our hands full then, I’m a ring-tailed doodle bird!”
CHAPTER X
A Figure among the Trees
Their meal was rather a sketchy one, for the men all felt that time was precious and that to delay longer than was absolutely necessary lessened, by just that much, their chances of saving their cattle. Nevertheless, they ate heartily, though hurriedly, and when once more they were in the canoe, with Teddy and Pop paddling, Roy gave a sigh of relief.
“Feel like a new man,” he murmured. “Now the thing to do is to give the new man some food, I suppose, but I’ll postpone that for awhile. Glad you’re doing the paddling, Teddy. I hate to work right after a meal.”
“You might leave off those last four words and be nearer the truth,” his brother grinned. “Me, I like it! Helps the food to digest. Increases the salivary activity, and, by exciting the interior of the diaphragm, it adds to—”
“Chuck it,” Roy interrupted calmly. “You’re talking Chocktaw. Here’s that bend you spoke of, Bug Eye.”
Before them the river curved gently, sweeping through a broad lane of grasses and trees. The current was swifter here, and Pop, who was in the rear, and hence occupied the position of steerer, trailed his paddle in the water and found that the boat sped along as fast as though he were paddling.
“A taste of what’s comin’,” he declared. “The banks are a little narrower below here, an’ that’s what makes the current faster. But that don’t mean we won’t have no more work, Teddy,” as he saw that the boy had followed his example and allowed the stream to carry the boat. “It broadens out pretty soon, an’ then we hit it up again.”