Jimmy laughed heartily.
“Thanks, uncle,” he said. “And in thinking myself a man I discovered myself to be a boy.”
“Say, if them two sayin’s ain’t pretty good, them there rustlers didn’t turn another trick the other day,” remarked Roy Cooper.
Tom Clifton’s eyes instantly sought the colonel’s. His interrogative glance brought a quick response.
“Yes, what you saw, Tom, was the work of those bandits. Quite a big haul they made, too. My cattle? No! Some belonging to a live-stock company.”
“And look here, Tom,” broke in Ranger Cole, “when are you going to join Sergeant Howell’s detail over by the river?”
“We’ll start off the very first thing to-morrow morning,” cried Tom. “Eh, fellows?”
And even Dave Brandon joined in the chorus of hearty assents that followed.
CHAPTER XXV
CAPTURING THE “RUSTLERS”
For three days the detail of Texas Rangers under command of Sergeant Howell had been encamped near the shores of the Rio Grande. They were surrounded by a wilderness of precipitous bluffs and deep ravines, in the shadowed depths of which the paths worn by wild animals, notably the peccaries, or Mexican wild hogs, could be frequently traced.