"I hope the Curlytops won't ride too far," said Mrs. Martin, coming out into the kitchen to help with the work.
She had just got Trouble to sleep after Teddy and Janet had brought him in from the haymow before riding off on their ponies.
"Oh, I guess they won't," Aunt Millie answered.
But, could Mrs. Martin and Aunt Millie have seen them, they would have been much surprised to know where the Curlytops then were.
As you know, they were riding along the trail after the Indians.
The hours went on until it was late afternoon. And then, when the children did not come back, Mrs. Martin began to be alarmed. She went to the top of a low hill not far away from the ranch house and looked across the prairie.
"I can't see them," she said, when she came back.
"Oh, don't worry," returned Aunt Millie. "They'll be along pretty soon. And, anyhow, there is no danger."
"But—the Indians?" questioned Mrs. Martin.
"Oh, they are far enough off by this time," said the ranch owner's wife. "They won't bother the Curly tops."
But Mother Martin did worry, and when supper time came near and Janet and Teddy were not yet back, Aunt Millie, too, began to think it strange.
"What do you suppose could happen?" asked Mrs. Martin. "I wish Dick were here."
"Oh, lots of little things might happen," said Aunt Millie. "The children may have ridden farther than they meant to. It's such a nice day for riding you couldn't blame them for going. Or one of their ponies may have gone lame and have to walk slowly. That would make them get here late."
"Suppose they should be hurt?" asked Mother Martin, anxiously.
"Oh, I don't suppose anything of the sort!" and Aunt Millie laughed. But Mother Martin did not feel like laughing.
At last, however, when it began to get dark and the children had not come, even the cowboys left at the ranch—those who had not ridden on the trail after the Indians—said it was time something was done.
"We'll go out and find 'em," said Baldy. "The little tykes have got lost; that's about all. We'll find 'em and bring 'em home!"
"Oh, I hope you can!" exclaimed Mrs. Martin.
"Sure we will!" cried Baldy. "Won't we, boys?"
"That's what we will!" cried the cowboys.
The men started out over the prairie right after supper, carrying lanterns, not so much that they needed the lights as that they might be seen by the lost children.
"Hello, Curlytops! where are you?" called the cowboys.
But no one answered them. Teddy and Janet were far away.
The cowboys rode as far as the pile of rocks where the spring bubbled up. There Baldy, swinging his lantern to and fro, said he thought he could see the marks of the feet of Star Face and Clipclap among those of other ponies, but he was not sure.
"We'll have to come back here and start out early in the morning when we can see better," he said.
"And what are we going to do all night?" asked another cowboy.
"Well, we'll keep on hunting, of course. But I don't believe well find the lost Curlytops."
One of the men rode back to the ranch to tell Mrs. Martin that so far, no trace of the missing children had been found. She could not keep back her tears, but she tried to be brave.
"Oh, where can they be?" she asked.
"They'll be all right," the cowboy said. "It's a nice warm night, and they're brave children. Even if they had to sleep out it would not hurt 'em. They could take the blankets that are under the ponies' saddles and wrap up in them. They'll be all right."
Though they were lost, the Curlytops were, at that moment, much better off than the cowboy thought. For they had found the big blanket and the bundle of food, and they were sleeping soundly on the prairie.
At first they had been a little afraid to lie down all alone out in the night, but their ponies were with them, and Janet said it felt as though Clipclap and Star Face were like good watch dogs.
Then, being very tired and having had something to eat and drink, they fell asleep.
All night long, though, the cowboys rode over the prairie looking for the lost ones. They shouted and called, but the Curlytops were too far away to hear or to answer, even if they had been awake.
"Well, now we can make a better hunt," said Baldy, when he saw the sun beginning to rise. "Well get something to eat and start out from the spring in the rocks. I'm almost sure the Curlytops were there."
Mrs. Martin had not slept all night, and when the cowboys came back to breakfast she said she was going to ride with them to search for her children.
"Yes, I think it would do you good," said Aunt Millie.
Mrs. Martin had learned how to ride when a girl, and she had practised some since coming to Ring Rosy Ranch. So she did not feel strange in the saddle. With Baldy and the other cowboys she set off.
They went to the spring amid the rocks and there began the search. Over the prairie the riders spread out like a big fan, looking everywhere for the lost ones. And when they were not found in about an hour Baldy said:
"Well, there's just a chance that their ponies took them to Silver Creek."
"Where's that?" asked Mrs. Martin.
"It's a stream of water quite a way off," Baldy answered. "It isn't on our ranch, and we don't very often go there. But if the Curlytops' ponies were thirsty in the night they might go to Silver Creek, even if Jan and Ted didn't want them to. I think the ponies went the nearest way to water."
"Then let us go that way!" cried Mrs. Martin.
Meanwhile Teddy and Janet had awakened. They could look right into the strange valley through which flowed Silver Creek, though they did not then know its name.
"And look what a lot of horses!" cried Janet.
"And cows!" added her brother. "I wonder whose they are?"
"Oh, I guess they live on some ranch," Janet said. "Now if we can find the ranch house we'll be all right."
"We'll look for it," suggested Teddy. "But first we've got to have breakfast. If I had a match I could make a fire and boil some coffee."
"Let's not bother with breakfast," suggested Janet. "I'm not very hungry. And if we find the ranch house we can get something to eat there. Come on, Teddy."
They got a drink at the stream, and then, rolling up what food was left in the blanket, they got on their ponies and rode away, going around the valley instead of into it, for Teddy saw that hills closed it at the far end.
"There's no ranch house in that valley," he said.
The Curlytops had not ridden far before Janet, who had gone a little ahead of Teddy, cried:
"Oh, look! Here come some cowboys!"
"I guess they belong to this ranch—the one where we saw the ponies and cows," replied Teddy, as he saw a number of horsemen riding toward them. The horsemen began to whoop and shout, and their horses ran very fast toward the Curlytops.
"There's a lady with 'em," remarked Janet.
"They seem awful glad to meet us," went on Teddy. "Look, they're wavin' their hats."
And so the cowboys were. When the riders came a little nearer Teddy and Janet rubbed their eyes in surprise.
"Why—why!" Teddy exclaimed. "There's our own Baldy!"
"And there's mother!" fairly shouted Janet. "Oh, Mother! Mother!" she cried. "Oh, how glad I am!" and she made Star Face run toward the lady on horseback.
"Oh, my dear children! Where have you been?" asked Mrs. Martin, a little later, as she hugged first Janet and then Teddy.
"We—we got lost," Teddy answered.
"Yes, but you ran away, and that was not right," his mother told him. "Where did you go?"
"We—we went on the trail after the Indians," Teddy answered.
"Did you find them?" asked Baldy with a smile.
"No, but we found a lot of horses and cows back there in a little valley with a fence," said Janet. "And we were going to ride to the ranch house when we saw you."
"Ranch house!" cried Baldy. "There isn't a ranch house within fifteen miles except the one at Ring Rosy. Did you say you saw some cows and horses!"
"Yes. In a valley," explained Teddy.
"Show us where it was!" eagerly cried the cowboy, and when the Curlytops had ridden to it, with Baldy and the others following, the lame cowboy, whose foot was a little better, exclaimed:
"Well, if the Curlytops haven't gone and done it!"
"Done what?" asked their mother.
"They've found the lost cattle and horses!"
"You mean Uncle Frank's!" asked Teddy.
"That's just what I mean! These are the horses and cattle the Indians drove away. The Redmen put the animals in this valley and made a fence at this end so they couldn't get out. They knew the horses and cattle would have water to drink and grass to eat, and they'd stay here a long while—until the Indians would have a chance to drive 'em farther away and sell 'em.
"Yes, that's just what they did. I never thought of this valley, though I saw it quite a few years ago. I've never been here since. The Indians knew it would be a good place to hide the horses they stole, and we might never have found 'em if it hadn't been for you Curlytops."
"I'm glad!" said Teddy.
"So'm I," said Janet, "and I'm hungry, too!"
"Well, well soon have you back at Ring Rosy Ranch, where there's a good breakfast!" laughed Baldy. "Well! Well! To think of you Curlytops finding what we cowboys were looking all over for!"
"And are daddy and Uncle Frank looking for these horses and cattle?" asked Teddy.
"Yes. And for the Indians that took 'em. But I guess they won't find either," Baldy answered.
And Baldy was right. Some hours after the Curlytops were back at Ring Rosy Ranch, in rode Uncle Frank and the others. They had not found what they had gone after, and you can imagine how surprised they all were when told that Ted and Janet had, by accident, found the lost cattle and horses in the hidden valley.
"You're regular cowboys!" cried Uncle Frank.
"I knew they'd turn out all right when they learned to ride ponyback!" said Daddy Martin. "Though you mustn't ride on the trail alone after Indians again!" he said.
Teddy and Janet told all that had happened to them, from getting lost, to finding the blanket and going to sleep in it on the open prairie.
One of the cowboys with Uncle Frank had lost the blanket, and he said he was glad he dropped it, since it gave Teddy and Janet something to eat and something to wrap up in.
That afternoon the stolen horses and cattle were driven in from the hidden valley; so the Indians did not get them after all. And a little later some soldiers came to keep guard over the Redmen so they could not again go off their reservation to make trouble. All of Uncle Frank's animals, except a few that the Indians had sold, were found, and the Curlytops were the pride of Ring Rosy Ranch as long as they remained there.
"Well, I wonder if we'll have any more adventures," said Janet to her brother one day, about a week after they were lost and had been found.
"Oh, I guess so," he answered. "Anyhow, we've got two nice ponies, and we can have lots of rides. Come on, I'll race you."
The bright summer days brought more fun to Teddy and Janet at Uncle Frank's ranch. They rode many miles on Star Face and Clipclap, sometimes taking Trouble with them.
"I want to dwive," said the little fellow one day, as he sat on the saddle in front of his brother.
"All right, you may drive a little while," Teddy answered, and he let Baby William hold the reins.
"Now I a cowboy!" exclaimed the little fellow. "Gid-dap, Clipclap! I go lasso a Injun!"
Ted and Janet laughed at this.
And so, leaving the Curlytops to their fun, we will say good-bye.
THE END
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