“Say, where did you learn that trick, all that bowing and doo-dadds, and all that?” grinned Walt, as the chums rode side by side.
“Yes, old chap, you acted like a regular knight errant. Polite as a floor walker,” chortled Ralph; “there’s only one thing you’ve forgotten to do.”
“What’s that?” asked Jack innocently.
“Why, press the rose to your lips, you chump. I never read of any regular blown-in-panel knight who didn’t do that.”
“Well, I’m not one of that brand, I guess,” laughed Jack. But just the same, it may be set down here that he took particular care of that rose for many a long day.
To his chagrin, Coyote Pete only came off second best in the roping contest, but, as the boys remarked, “It wouldn’t do for these people to think we are hogs and want all the prizes.”
“That’s right,” agreed Pete, good humoredly, “an’, as somebody said, some place ‘thar’s glory enough fer all.’”
Early the next day after participating in the festivities of the evening, the lads and their elders once more took to the trail. In the meantime, the professor had attended to the renewing of their supplies and “scientific paraphernalia,” and they had decided to confide their adventures and the object of their quest to Don Alverado.
“You are on an adventurous mission,” he commented, “and I wish you all success.”