“Get up, you lazy creature, get up!” he cried.
And putting his big hands upon the “lazy creature’s” shoulder he gave it a violent shove which speedily brought the animal to its feet.
The change which had come over the “promising football player” within a few moments was quite remarkable. All his timidity and fear seemed to have disappeared. Now no one would have recognized in him the lad who had sheltered himself behind a fringe of bushes.
For the first time a little get up and go seemed to have crept into his nature. Faster than he had ever done so before, he saddled the horse. Then, vaulting upon its back, he rode away at a swift pace.
The gleams of the rifle barrel resting across the pommel served to give him a sense of security. Larry actually felt surprised at himself. He also began to feel a trifle ashamed. Viewing matters from a different standpoint, he suddenly began to wonder what the boys in Kingswood would think of his “desertion.”
“Thunderation!” he growled, angrily. “Maybe they’ll call me a ‘quitter.’ I was sort o’ thinkin’ the joke would be on the other side; but I guess I’ll be the one that’s going to catch it!” Growing reckless, he urged his horse into a faster gallop. “Tom Clifton was right. I’ve been a little ‘Fear-not’ who feared everything.”
Having come to this unpleasant conclusion, Larry appeared to lose all caution and restraint. His horse was fresh, the air cool, and almost as fast as he had seen the mysterious riders dash over the plain, so he rode in pursuit of them, with the breeze blowing his sandy hair wildly against his face.
And all the time he kept an eager lookout for the riders somewhere ahead. Unless they were making for some pass in the hills he felt sure his scrutiny would soon be rewarded. The blond lad regarded himself as quite a hero.
“By Jinks, I can understand now how the Ramblers feel about these trips,” he soliloquized. “I must have been asleep all the time.”
His fiery pony was pounding over the plain at a reckless rate, and the faster he went the faster he wanted to go. In the exhilaration he felt almost like shouting. With the bunch grass on every side, it seemed as though he was plunging into a waste of silvery waves.