“’Tis Sp’ings,” chuckled Tally.
“But, Tally, it can’t be! We haven’t found Meadow Fork or Grand River, yet! Have we trailed along some other way?” wondered Mr. Gilroy.
The town proved to be the Springs, and there Mr. Gilroy learned that he had been riding along Meadow Fork, had camped at Grand Lake, and then followed Grand River, without knowing it. This error in judgment gave the scouts a never-ending chance for teasing him, thereafter.
That night the horses, as well as their riders, were glad to stretch out upon comfortable town-made beds, and in the morning the breakfast was already provided for all, instead of their having to first gather it.
The first thing the guides did after breakfast was to cash in their reward for Devil-Bear. The skin proved their claim, and word instantly circulated that two Indians had killed the menace of the ranches. The scouts received the reward for the tongues of the timber-wolves which Tally had brought into town, and thus the scouting party soon found fame camping on their doorstep. The local papers made much of them, and the girls took a keen delight in mailing home copies of the papers containing the account of their exploits.
[CHAPTER THIRTEEN—A FOREST FIRE]
“Now, friends, let us get away as soon as possible, or the guides may spend all their reward money on firewater, and be unable to start for a week,” suggested Mr. Gilroy, confidentially, to the scouts.
“Why don’t you take the money and deposit it for them in a bank?” asked Julie.
“I offered to keep it for them, but they were not overanxious to part with the cash. I know the boys too well to dream that they can withstand temptations of a town when they have such easy money to burn.”
So the riders planned to leave immediately, starting away soon after the midday meal.