he might have poled
up stream a way, put the chest ashore, and then let the punt drift
down."

"Reckon that's so," grunted the foreman.

He said no more, and neither did Frances. But the brief dialogue gave
the girl food for thought, and her mind was quite full of the idea when
the crowd from the Edwards ranch came into view.

The boys were armed with light rifles or shotguns, and even some of the
girls were armed, as well as Mrs. Edwards herself.

But Sue Latrop had never fired a gun in her life, and she professed to
be not much interested in this hunt.

"Oh, I've fox-hunted several times. That is real sport! But we don't
shoot foxes. The dogs kill them--if there re'lly _is_ a fox."

"Humph!" asked one of the local boys, with wonder, "what do the dogs
follow, if there's no fox? What scent do they trail, I mean?"

"Oh," said Sue, "a man rides ahead dragging an aniseed bag. Some dogs
are trained to follow that scent and nothing else. It's very exciting, I
assure you."

"Well! what do you know about that?" gasped the questioner.

"Say! was this around Boston?" asked Pratt, his eyes twinkling.

"Oh, yes. There is a fine pack of hounds at Arlington," drawled Sue.

"Sho!" chuckled Pratt. "I should think they'd teach the dogs around
Boston to follow the trail of a bean-bag. Wouldn't it be easier?"

"Oh, dear me!" exclaimed Miss Latrop. "Don't you think you are witty?
And look at those dogs!"

"What's the matter with them?" asked one of the girls.

"Why, they are all limbs! What perfectly spidery-looking animals! Did
you ever----"

"You wait a bit," laughed Mrs. Edwards. "Those long-legged dogs are just
what we need hunting the jacks. And if we didn't have guns, at that,
there would be few of the rabbits caught. All ready, Sam Harding?"

"Jest when Miss Frances says the word, Ma'am," returned the foreman,
coolly.

"Of course! Frances is mistress of the hunt," said the ranchman's wife,
good-naturedly.

Sue Latrop had been coaxed to leave her Eastern-bred horse behind on
this occasion, and was upon one of the ponies broken to side-saddle
work. The tall bay would scarcely know how to keep his feet out of
gopher-holes in such a chase as was now inaugurated.

"Be careful how you use your guns," Frances said, quietly, when Sam and
the Mexican, with the dogs, started off to round a certain
greasewood-covered mound and see if they could start some of the
long-eared animals.

"Never fire across your pony's ne