"
"How do you do it?" asked Teddy eagerly.
"Well, you just keep on riding--following the trail you know--until
you catch up to those you're after. Sometimes you can't see any marks
on the ground and you have to guess at it."
"And do the Indians ride on ahead and try to get away?" asked Janet.
"Indeed they do. When they know we're after 'em they ride as fast as
they can. That is, if they've done wrong, like taking horses or
cattle that aren't theirs. We just keep chasing 'em until we get
close enough to arrest 'em."
"It's like a game of tag, isn't it?" asked Janet.
"Well, yes, you could call it sort of like that," admitted Baldy,
with another laugh. "But it's a kind of game of tag that little boys
and girls can't very well play."
"Not even when they have ponies?" asked Teddy.
"Well, of course, having a pony makes it easier to keep on the
trail. You couldn't go very far walking over the prairies--at least
none of us do. We all ride. But I'll tell you some stories about
cowboys and Indians and that will amuse you for a while. Like to hear
'em?"
"Oh, yes!" cried Teddy.
"Very much, thank you," added Janet, a little more politely but
still just as eagerly as her brother.
So Baldy, sitting on the bench in front of the bunkhouse and resting
his lame foot on a saddle on the ground, told the Curlytops stories
of his cowboy life--of sleeping out on the prairies keeping watch
over the cattle, of Indians or other bad men who would come and try
to steal them, and how he and his friends had to give chase to get
the steers or ponies back.
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