“Sure, I know Lem, but I don’t know these fellers and I don’t know they bought or lost a horse. I—”
“Won’t you take our word for it?” demanded Phil.
“If Mr. Hopkins were here to back us up or even Andy Howe, I guess it would make a difference, wouldn’t it?” asked Ted.
“You know Si?” inquired the old man, in less hostile tones.
“We do. These are his ponies. He loaned them to us until we get our homestead cleared.”
“So you’re entrymen, eh? Anywhere near here?”
“E 1.”
“Well now, ain’t that funny? This is E 2. I ain’t heerd of any one coming onto E 1.”
“That is not surprising in view of the fact that we got here only yesterday,” returned Phil, adding a brief account of how they happened to have lost the black.
“Come on, Pap, we’ll both go,” announced the girl, as the boy finished, and, running to the barn, she quickly returned, mounted on a big roan and leading another.