“Into the saddle, boys,” cried Bob, springing into his own. “Jump up, Cranny—look out.”
Cranny, active, alert, his eyes shining with pleasure, had need to heed this caution. The mustang, “Whirly-gig,” apparently having no desire for a repetition of his early morning experience, was exhibiting a tendency to buck and dance.
Seizing a favorable moment, he matched his speed with the pony’s and won. Then almost simultaneously six mustangs leaped forward, soon to settle down into a steady, loping trot.
And a few minutes later, bathed in the bright clear sunlight, horses and riders became but tiny, far-off specks amid the ever-billowing grasses of the plain.
CHAPTER III
THE RANGERS
The importance of the little Texas town on the Rio Grande could not in justice be estimated by the size of its population. Situated in a thriving agricultural district, and near a stock-raising region, with ore deposits and coal lands to be found not far away, it had gradually developed into a center of trade for the surrounding country.
Founded by the Spaniards almost one hundred and fifty years before, some portions of the town still bore a faint impress of their domination in the quaint, pleasing architecture of the buildings. Others again were as characteristically Mexican in appearance as though belonging to towns on the other side of the Rio.
The demands of a rapid, hustling, up-to-date age, however, was bringing about a change. Modern buildings sprang up, overtopping their primitive, adobe neighbors, and, like the cattlemen retreating before the steady advance of the homesteaders and farmers, a certain element of charm was slowly vanishing from this frontier town.
Its inhabitants, too, were as varied in character as the streets. Cow-punchers, Mexican vaqueros and men of business, such as might be seen in any Eastern city, mingled together. The Mexicans, usually long-haired and swarthy, their costumes often enlivened by gaudily-colored sashes or handkerchiefs, furnished perhaps the most picturesque note.
The traveler who stopped here was apt to have his ears assailed by a strange jargon of tongues. Sometimes it was English, sometimes Spanish, or it might be a curious combination of the two.