nce of extra clothing.

The boys led the race by fully five hundred yards. But instead of taking
to the divide, the Indians bore down the valley, pursued and pursuers in
plain sight of each other. For the first mile or so the loose horses
were no handicap, showing clean heels and keeping clear of the whizzing
ropes. But after the first wild dash, the remuda began to scatter, and
the Indians gained on the cavalcade, coming fairly abreast and not over
four hundred yards distant.

"They're riding to cut us off!" gasped Dell. "They'll cut us off from
headquarters!"

"Our horses will outwind their ponies," shouted Joel, in reply. "Don't
let these loose horses turn into the valley."

The divide was more difficult to follow than the creek. The meanderings
of the latter were crossed and recrossed without halting, while the
watershed zigzagged, or was broken and cut by dry washes and coulees,
thus retarding the speed of the cavalcade. The race wore on with varying
advantage, and when near halfway to headquarters, the Indians turned up
the slope as if to verify Dell's forecast. At this juncture, a
half-dozen of the loose horses cut off from the band and turned down the
slope in plain sight of the pursuers.

[Illustration: THE FIRST ROUND-UP OF THE DAY]

"If it's horses they want, they can have those," shouted Joel. "Climbing
that slope will fag their ponies. Come on; here's where we have the
best of it."

The Indians were not to be pacified. Without a look they swept past the
abandoned horses. The boys made a clear gain along a level stretch on
the divide, maintaining their first lead, when the pursuers, baffled in
cutting them off, turned again into the valley.

"It isn't horses they want," ventured Dell, with a backward glance.

"In the next dip, we'll throw the others down the western slope, and
ride for our lives," answered Joel, convinced that a sacrifice of horses
would not appease their pursuers.

The opportunity came shortly, when for a few minutes the brothers dipped
from sight of the Indians. The act confused the latter, who scaled the
divide, only to find the objects of their chase a full half-mile in the
lead, but calling on the last reserve in their fagged horses. The
pursuers gradually closed the intervening gap; but with the advantage of
knowing every foot of the ground, the brothers took a tack which carried
them into the valley at the old winter corral. From that point it was a
straight stretch homewa