“Quite right. And goodness!” added Chet, “we are spending a lot more time in this trip than I expected to. I wonder what father will say?”
“Say! It’s been a lot different from what I expected. Whew! but we have worked, Chet.”
“Aren’t you just right?” and Chet looked sadly at his blistered palms.
They rode hard and were weary and hungry long before sundown. The chums did not talk much—they seemed to be talked out. The uncertainty of the errand they rode on, and what they had already gone through, made both boys sober. There had been excitement enough, certainly, on this journey. They had been in peril and had taken part in sturdy adventure—enough in the past few days to satisfy most boys for a year.
“We were looking for a little fun on the trail,” Chet said reflectively. “But, my goodness, Dig! we certainly have got more than we bargained for.”
“Yes, and it isn’t ended,” responded his chum, shaking his head. “Wait till we meet up with that Steve and Tony again—if we do!”
“That doesn’t bother me so much as the chances, for and against, of our meeting up with those lost deeds. That’s what’s troubling yours truly,” said Chet.
CHAPTER XXX—HOW IT ENDED
In the dim dusk of late evening the trail boys suddenly came down to the river bank. They were leading their mounts, for the way was so rough they did not want to risk a misstep on the faithful creatures’ part in the dark.
As Chet Havens expected, the stream they had followed so long—almost from the valley where they had corralled the buffaloes—fell into the wide but shallow river they had crossed several days before on the trail of the thieves.