Clipclap and Star Face, the two sturdy little ponies, trotted bravely along, carrying Teddy and Janet on their backs. The ponies did not wonder where they were going—they hardly ever did that. They were satisfied to go wherever their master or mistress guided them, for they knew the children would be good to them.
"Do you s'pose we'll find any Indians?" asked Janet after a while.
"Maybe," answered Teddy. "Are you scared?"
"No," replied his sister slowly. "I was just thinking maybe we could find 'em, and get back Uncle Frank's horses, even if the cowboys didn't."
"Maybe we could!" cried Teddy. "That would be great! Wouldn't daddy be surprised!"
"And Uncle Frank, too!" added Janet
"Yes, and the cowboys! Then they'd think we could ride all right!" went on Ted.
"Come on, let's hurry! Gid-dap!" he called to Clipclap.
"Where are we going first?" asked Janet.
"To the rocks, where we found my pony in the cave," answered her brother, as he patted the little animal on the neck. "The cowboy said he saw the Indians near there."
"Maybe they're hiding in the cave," suggested Janet.
"No, they wouldn't do that," Teddy decided, after thinking it over awhile.
"They'd be afraid to stay so near Uncle Frank's ranch. Anyhow the cave isn't big enough."
"It was big enough for Clipclap."
"Yes, but he's a little pony. Anyhow, we'll look in the cave and then we'll ride on along the trail until we catch up to daddy and Uncle Frank."
"What'll they say?"
"I guess they'll be s'prised."
"Maybe they'll make us go back."
"Well, if they do we'll have some fun, anyhow," said Teddy, laughing. "Gid-dap, Clipclap."
"It's a good thing we've two ponies instead of one goat," remarked Janet, after they had ridden on a little farther.
"Course it is," agreed Ted. "We couldn't both ride Nicknack, though he could pull us both in the wagon."
"Maybe he'd be afraid of Indians," suggested Janet.
"No, I don't guess he would," answered Teddy, after some reflection. "Nicknack's a brave goat. I like him. But I like Clipclap, too."
"And I like Star Face," added Janet "He's an awful nice pony."
On and on the ponies trotted, carrying the Curlytops farther and farther from the Ring Rosy Ranch house. But the children were not afraid. The sun was shining brightly, and they had often before ridden this far alone. They could look back at the ranch buildings when they got on top of the little hills with which the prairie was dotted, and they were not lonesome.
Off on either side they could see groups of horses or cattle that belonged to Uncle Frank, and Ted and Janet thought there must be cowboys with the herds.
"I'm going to get a drink when we get to the rocks," said Janet, as they came within sight of the pile of big stones.
"Yes. And we'll give the ponies some, too," agreed her brother. "I guess they're thirsty."
Indeed the little animals were thirsty, and after they had rested a while—for Uncle Frank had told the children it was not wise to let a horse or pony drink when it was too warm—Clipclap and Star Face had some of the cool water that bubbled up among the rocks.
"It tastes awful good!" exclaimed Janet, as she took some from the cup Ted filled for her.
After Clipclap had been found at the spring, the time he was hidden in the cave, one of the cowboys had brought a tin cup to the spring, leaving it there, so if anyone passed the spring it would be easy to get a drink without having to use a hat or kneel down on the ground. For horses and cattle there was a little rocky basin into which the cool water flowed.
"I wish we could take some of the water with us," said Teddy, when, after a rest, they were ready to follow the trail again.
"If we had a bottle, like some of the cowboys carry, we could," remarked Janet. "Maybe we'll get awful thirsty if we ride on a long way, Ted."
"Maybe we will, but maybe we can find another spring. I heard Uncle Frank say there's more than one on the ranch. Come on!"
The children took another drink, and offered some to the ponies, each of which took a little. Then, once more, the Curlytops were on the trail after the Indians, as they believed.
"Which way do we go now?" asked Janet, as she watched Teddy get up in his saddle after he had helped her mount Star Face.
"We've got to follow the trail," Teddy answered.
"How do we do it?" his sister inquired.
"Well. I asked Baldy and he said just look on the ground for tracks in the dirt. You know the kind of marks a horse's foot makes, don't you, Jan?"
"Yes, and I see some down here," and she pointed to the ground.
"That's them!" exclaimed Teddy. "We've got to follow the marks! That's the trail!"
"Is this the Indians' trail?" asked the little girl, and she looked over her shoulder, perhaps to make sure no one was following her and her brother.
"I don't know if it's the Indians' trail, or, maybe, the marks left by Uncle Frank and daddy," said Teddy. "Anyhow we've got to follow the trail. That's what Baldy said."
"He doesn't know we came off alone, does he?" asked Janet
"No. I guess he wouldn't have let us if he did. But we won't have to go very far, and then we'll catch up to the rest. Then they'll have to take us with 'em."
"Yes," said Janet, and she rode along beside her brother.
Neither of the Curlytops stopped to think that their father, Uncle Frank and the cowboys had started off early that morning, and must have ridden on many miles ahead. The cowboys' horses, too, could go faster than the ponies Star Pace and Clipclap, for the larger horses had longer legs.
All Teddy and Janet thought of was hurrying along as fast as they could go, in order to catch up to the Indian hunters. What would happen after that they did not know.
All at once, as the Curlytops were riding along, they heard what they thought was a whistle.
"Some one is calling us," said Janet, turning to look back. "Did you hear that, Ted?"
"Yes, I heard a whistle. Maybe it's Uncle Frank, or some of the cowboys."
The children looked across the prairie but could see no one. They were about to go on again when the whistle sounded once more.
"That is some one calling us," declared Jan. "Let's see if we can't find who it is, Teddy."
So the children looked around again, but no one was in sight, and, what was still stranger, the whistling sound kept up.
"It's some one playing a joke on us, and hiding after they whistle," said Janet. "Maybe one of the cowboys from the ranch."
"Maybe an Indian," said Ted, and then he was sorry he had said that, for his sister looked frightened.
"Oh!" said Janet, "if it's an Indian—"
"I don't guess it is," Teddy hastened to say. "I guess Indians don't whistle, anyhow."
This made Janet feel better and once more she and her brother looked around to see what made the queer whistling sound, that still kept up. It was just like a boy calling to another, and Teddy was quite puzzled over it until he suddenly saw what was doing it.
Perched on a small mound of earth near a hole in the ground, was a little animal, about as big as a large rat, though, as Janet said, he was "nicer looking." And as Ted and his sister looked, they saw this little animal move, and then they knew he it was that was whistling.
"Oh, what is it?" cried Janet.
"I know," Teddy answered. "That's a prairie dog. Baldy told me about them, and how they whistled when they saw any danger."
"Is there any danger here?" asked Janet, looking around.
"I guess the prairie dog thinks we're the danger," said Teddy. "But we wouldn't hurt him."
"Does he live down in that hole?" asked Janet.
"Yes, just like a gopher," answered her brother, who had listened to the cowboys telling about the little prairie dogs. "And sometimes there are snakes or an owl in the same hole with the prairie dog."
"Then I'm not going any nearer," decided Janet. "I don't mind an owl, but I don't like snakes! Come on, Ted, let's hurry."
As they started off, the prairie dog, which really did make a whistling sound, suddenly darted down inside his burrow or hole. Perhaps he thought Teddy and Janet were coming to carry him off, but they were not. The children saw many more of the little animals as they rode over the prairies.
"But we must look for marks—tracks, Baldy calls them," said Teddy. "Tracks will tell us which way the Indians went," and so the children kept their eyes turned toward the sod as they rode along.
For a while they could see many marks in the soft ground—the marks of horses' feet, some shod with iron shoes and others bare, for on the prairie grass there is not the same need of iron shoes on the hoofs of horses as in the city, with its hard, paved streets. Then the marks were not so plain; and pretty soon, about a mile from the spring amid the rocks where the ground was quite hard, Teddy and Janet could see no marks at all.
"Which way do we go?" asked Ted's sister, as he called to his pony to stop. "Do you know the way?"
"No, I don't guess I do," he answered. "But anyhow we can ride along and maybe well see 'em."
"Yes, we can do that," Janet said.
It was still early in the afternoon, and the sun was shining brightly. They knew they were still on Uncle Frank's ranch, and, though they could not see the buildings any more, they could see the place where they had had a drink at the spring.
"All we've got to do, if we want to come back," observed Teddy, "is ride to the rocks and then we know the way home from there."
"Yes, that's easy," Janet said.
So they rode on and on.
Of course the Curlytops ought not to have done what they did, but they did not think, any more than Trouble thought when he opened the corral gate and let out the ponies.
But the sun did not stay high in the sky all the afternoon. Presently the bright ball of fire began to go down in the west, and the shadows of Teddy and Janet grew long on the prairie. They knew what those long shadows meant—that it was getting late afternoon.
After a while Janet turned in her saddle and looked back.
"Oh, Teddy!" she cried. "I can't see the spring rocks," for that is what the children had called the place where they had found Clipclap.
"They're back there just the same."
"I know. But if we can't see 'em we won't know how to ride back to them," went on Janet. "How are we going to find our way back home, Ted?"
"Oh, I can get to the rocks when I want to," he said. "Come on, we'll ride a little bit farther and then, if we can't find daddy and Uncle Frank, we'll go back."
"Well, don't go much farther," said Janet, and Teddy said he would not.
There were many hills and hollows now, much higher and deeper ones than those near the ranch buildings. Even from the top of one of the high hills up which the ponies slowly climbed, the Curlytops could not see the spring rocks.
"Oh, Ted!" exclaimed Jan, "I'm afraid! I want to go back! It's going to be night pretty soon!"
"It won't be night for a good while," he said, "but I guess maybe we'd better go back. I can't see daddy, Uncle Frank or the cowboys."
He raised himself in the stirrups and looked across the prairies, shading his eyes with his hand the way he had seen some of the cowboys do. Nothing was in sight.
"Come on, Jan, we'll go back," he said.
Clipclap and Star Face were turned around. Once more off trotted the little ponies with the Curlytops on their backs.
The shadows grew longer. It was not so bright and nice on the prairies now. Janet kept close to Teddy. At last she asked:
"Do you see the rocks?"
"Not yet," her brother answered. "But we'll soon be there."
They did not reach them, however. On and on they rode. The sun went down behind a bank of clouds.
"Oh, dear!" sighed Janet, "I don't like this," and her voice sounded as if she were going to cry.
"We'll soon be back at the rocks, and then I know the way home," said Teddy, as bravely as he could.
But they did not reach the rocks. Up the hollows and across the hills they rode, over the broad prairies, but no rocks did they see. At last the ponies began to go more slowly, for they were tired. It grew darker. Ted looked anxiously about. Janet spoke softly to him.
"Teddy," she asked, "are we—are we—lost?"
For a moment Teddy did not answer. Then he replied slowly:
"Yes—I guess we are lost, Janet!"
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