The Curlytops were in trouble. It was not the first time they had been lost, no indeed! But it was the first time they could remember being lost so far away from home, and in such a big place as a Western prairie. They did not know what to do.
"Don't you know the way home?" asked Janet, still keeping close to her brother. It was getting dark, and, somehow, she felt safer near him, even if he was only a year older than she was.
"I'd know the way home back to the ranch house if we could find the rocks with the cave where Clipclap was," Teddy replied.
"Let's look for them some more," suggested Janet. "If we don't get home pretty soon we'll be all in the dark and—and we'll have to stay out here all alone."
"Are you afraid?" asked Ted, looking at his sister.
"Yes. Won't you be?"
"Pooh! No!" he exclaimed, and he talked loudly, perhaps just so he would not be afraid. You know a boy always whistles very loudly at night when he is walking along a dark place alone. And if there are two boys they both whistle. What girls do when they walk through a dark place alone I do not know. Maybe they sing.
Anyhow Teddy talked very loud, and when Janet heard him say he was not afraid she felt better.
"But will we have to stay out here all night?" she asked.
"I guess so." Teddy answered. "But it'll be just like camping out. Daddy and Uncle Frank and the cowboys are going to stay out."
"Yes, but they've got something to eat," objected Janet, "and we haven't anything. Not even a cookie—lessen you've got one in your pocket, Teddy."
"No, Jan," answered her brother, after a quick search, "I haven't. I forgot to bring any."
"So did I," went on Janet. "I don't think I like to stay out here alone all night if we haven't anything to eat."
"No, it won't be much fun," agreed Teddy. "I guess maybe I can find those rocks, Janet, and then we'll know how to get home. Come on."
He turned his pony's head and the tired little animal walked slowly on and Janet's Star Face followed. But the truth of the matter was, Ted did not know in which direction to guide his little horse. He could not remember where the rocks lay. But Janet was trusting to him, and he felt he must do his best.
So he kept on until it grew a little darker, and his pony was walking so slowly that Trouble would have found it easy to have walked almost as fast.
"What's the matter?" asked Janet, who was riding behind her brother, looking as hard as she could through the darkness for a sight of the rocks, which, once they were reached, almost meant home. "What's the matter, Ted?"
"Matter with what, Jan?"
"What makes the ponies go so slow?"
"'Cause they're tired, I guess."
"Can't you find the rocks and let them rest and get a drink? I'm awful thirsty, Teddy!"
"So'm I, Jan. We'll go on a little more and maybe we'll find the rocks. Don't cry!"
"Pooh! who's goin' to cry?" demanded Janet quickly.
"I—I thought maybe you were," Teddy answered.
"I am not!" and Janet was very positive about it. "But I'm tired and hungry, and I want a drink awful bad."
"So do I," added Teddy. "We'll go on a little more."
So, wearily, the ponies walked on carrying the Curlytops. Ted kept looking ahead, and to the left and right, trying to find the rocks. But, had he only known it (which he did later) he was going away from them all the while instead of toward them.
All at once Clipclap stumbled and nearly fell.
"Whoa there! Look out!" cried Teddy, reining up the head of his animal as he had seen Uncle Frank do. "Don't fall, Clipclap!"
"What's the matter?" asked Janet. "Did he step in a hole?"
"I don't know. I guess he's just tired," and Teddy's voice was sad. For he was very weary and much frightened, though he did not tell Janet so.
"Well, let's stop and rest," said his sister. "Do you think you can find those rocks, Ted?"
"No, I don't guess I can. I guess we're lost, Janet."
"Oh, dear!" she answered.
"Now don't cry!" warned Teddy.
"I—I'm not!" exclaimed his sister. "I—I was just blowing my nose, so there, The-o-dore Mar-tin!"
Teddy grinned in the darkness, tired as he was. He was glad Janet was a little angry with him. That meant she would not cry, and if his sister started to weep Ted did not know what he would do. He might even cry himself. He was not too big for that.
"Let's stop and give the ponies a rest," suggested Janet.
"All right," agreed Teddy. "And maybe they can hunt around and find water. One of the cowboys told me his pony did that once when he didn't know where to get a drink himself."
"I wish Star Face could find water," went on Janet. "I'd drink some of it, too."
"So would I—if it was clean," said Teddy.
Wearily the two Curlytops slipped from their saddles. The ponies seemed glad of this, and at once began to eat the grass that grew all about. Teddy and Janet looked at them awhile. It was not so dark but what they could see things close to them, and the stars were twinkling brightly overhead.
"They don't seem very thirsty," said Janet.
"Maybe they'll start to go after water when they've had their supper," suggested her brother, with a sigh, which, however, Janet did not hear. "We've got to wait—that's all."
The Curlytops sat down on the ground and waited, while the ponies with the reins over their heads—which was a sign that they must not go far away—cropped the sweet grass.
"I wish we could eat grass," said Janet, after a bit.
"Why?"
"Then we could eat it like the ponies do and not be hungry."
"It would be a good thing," Teddy agreed. "But we can't. I chewed some sour grass once, but I didn't swallow it."
"I ate some watercress once at home," said Janet. "But I didn't like it. Anyhow I don't guess watercress grows around here."
"No," agreed Teddy.
Then they sat and watched the ponies eating in the darkness. Clipclap was wandering farther off than Teddy liked and he jumped up and hurried after his animal. As he caught him Teddy saw something on the ground a little way off. It was something round and black, and, now that the moon had come up, he could see more plainly.
"What's the matter, Teddy?" Janet called to him, as she saw him standing motionless, after he had taken hold of Clipclap's bridle. "What are you looking at?"
"I don't know what it is," Teddy answered. "Maybe it's a prairie dog, but he's keepin' awful still. Come and look, Janet."
"Oh, I don't want to!" she exclaimed.
"Oh, come on!" urged Teddy. "It isn't moving. Maybe you can tell what it is."
Janet, making sure that Star Face was all right, walked over to her brother. She, too, saw the dark object lying on a bare spot in the prairie. It did not move. The moonlight became stronger and Janet, becoming brave all of a sudden, went closer.
"It's nothing but a bundle, Teddy Martin!" she exclaimed. "Somebody has dropped a bundle."
"They have?" Teddy cried. "Then if somebody's been past here they can find us—or we can find them—and we aren't lost anymore!"
"Oh, I hope it comes true!" sighed Janet.
"Here, you hold Clipclap—he's starting to walk away"—went on Teddy, "and I'll go see what that is."
Janet took the pony's reins, and her brother walked toward the bundle. He could see now that it was something wrapped in a blanket, and as he came closer he saw that the blanket was one of the kind the cowboys at Uncle Frank's ranch carried when they went out to spend the night on the prairie.
"What is it?" asked Janet, as her brother picked up the bundle and came back toward her.
"I don't know, but it's heavy," he answered. "Well open it."
"Maybe we'd better not," cautioned Janet. "It isn't ours."
"But we're lost," Teddy said, "and we want to be found. Maybe there's something in this bundle to help."
The blanket was fastened with a strap on the outside, and Teddy managed to unbuckle this after two or three trials, Janet helping. Then, as the moon shone down on what was in the blanket, the Curlytops gave a cry of delight, which startled even the ponies.
"It's something to eat!" cried Teddy.
"And to drink!" added Janet, as she picked up the canvas-covered canteen, or water bottle, such as soldiers carry. By shaking it she knew it was full of water.
"Say, this is good luck!" cried Teddy.
Stopping no longer to wonder who had dropped the bundle, the Curlytops took a drink from the canteen. They had not been used to drinking out of a bottle since they were babies, and some of the water ran down their necks.
But they did not mind this. And, even though the water was rather warm, they felt much better after having had a drink.
"I wish we could give the ponies some," said Janet. "But there isn't very much, and they would drink this all up and not know they'd had any."
"Anyhow I guess they're not thirsty, or they'd try to find water just as the cowboys said they would," added Teddy. "They can chew the grass."
He and Janet looked into the bundle again, and found a number of sandwiches, together with some uncooked bacon, a little ground coffee, a small coffee-pot and a tin cup.
"Oh, goody! We can eat the sandwiches," Janet said.
"And in the morning, when we find a spring, we can make coffee," added Teddy. "I know how, 'cause grandpa showed me when we were camping on Star Island. I haven't any matches to make a fire, but maybe I can find some."
"Will we have to stay here all night?" asked Janet anxiously.
"I spect so," her brother answered. "I don't know the way back to the ranch house. We can't even find the rocks. We'll stay here all night. It isn't cold, and now we have a blanket we can wrap up in it like the cowboys do. And we've something to eat and drink."
"But mother and daddy will be awful worried," said Janet.
"Well, they'll maybe come and find us," answered Teddy. "Look out!" he cried. "Clipclap's going off again!"
Indeed the little pony seemed to want to walk away, and so did Star Face.
"Maybe they know where to go to find water," suggested Janet.
"Maybe," agreed Ted. "Let's let 'em go, and we'll go with 'em. That water in the canteen won't be enough till morning."
The children ate nearly all of the sandwiches, and put away the rest of the food in the blanket which Teddy strapped around it. Then they mounted their ponies, Ted taking the bundle with him, and let the animals wander which way they would.
"They'll go to water if they're thirsty enough," Teddy said.
"Who do you s'pose dropped that bundle?" asked Janet.
"A cowboy," her brother answered.
"One from Ring Rosy Ranch?"
"Maybe."
"Oh, I hope he did, and that he's around here somewhere," went on Janet. "I'm tired of being lost!"
"We've only just begun," Teddy said. But, truth to tell, he wished very much that they were both safe back at the ranch house with their mother.
On and on over the moonlit prairies went Star Face and Clipclap. They seemed to know where they were going and did not stop. Ted and Janet were too tired to guide them. They were both getting sleepy.
Pretty soon Janet saw ahead of her something glistening in the stretch of the prairie. The moonlight seemed to sparkle on it.
"Oh, look, Ted!" she cried, pointing.
"It's water—a little river!" he exclaimed. "The ponies have led us to water!"
And so the animals had. Teddy and Janet slipped from their ponies' backs at the edge of the stream and then Star Face and Clipclap took long drinks. Ted emptied the canteen, filled it with the cooler water, and he and Janet drank again. Then they felt much better.
The ponies again began to crop the grass. The Curlytops, very tired and sleepy, felt that it would be all right to make their bed in the blanket they had found, dropped by some passing cowboy.
But first Ted looked around. Off to one side, and along the stream from which they had drunk, he saw something dark looming up.
"Look, Janet," he said. "Maybe that's a ranch house over there, and we could go in for the night."
"Maybe," she agreed. "Let's go to it."
Once more they mounted their ponies. The animals did not seem so tired now, but trotted on over the prairie. They drew nearer to the dark blotch Teddy had noticed.
Then, as the moon came out from behind some clouds, the Curlytops saw that they were at the entrance to a hidden valley—a little valley tucked away among the hills, which they would never have seen had they not come to the stream to drink.
The little river ran through the valley, and in the moonlight the children could see that a fence had been made at the end nearest them. It was a wooden fence, and not one of barbed wire, such as there were many of on Ring Rosy Ranch.
"This is a queer valley," said Janet.
"Yes, and look!" exclaimed Ted, pointing. "Don't you see things moving around in it?"
"Yes," agreed Jan, as she looked. "Why, Ted!" she cried. "They're horses—ponies—a lot of 'em!"
"So they are!" exclaimed Ted. "Oh, we're near a ranch, Janet! Now we're all right!"
"Yes. But maybe we're a good way from the ranch house," answered Janet. "We maybe can't find it in the dark. Some of Uncle Frank's ponies are five miles away from the stable, you know. Maybe we'd better not go on any more in the dark. I'm tired!"
"Well," agreed Teddy. "I guess we could stay here till it's morning. We could sleep in the blanket. It's plenty big enough for us two."
"And in the morning we can ride on and find the ranch, and the cowboys there will take us to Ring Rosy," added Janet. "Let's do it, Teddy."
They looked again at the strange valley in which the horses were moving about. Clipclap whinnied and one of the other ponies answered. But they could not come out because of the fence, part of which was built in and across the little river.
Then, throwing the reins over the heads f their ponies, and knowing the animals would not stray far, Ted and Janet, taking another drink from the canteen, rolled up in the blanket and went to sleep on the prairie just outside the hidden valley that held a secret of which they did not even dream.
All books are sourced from Project Gutenberg