spoke again.

"What are you going to do?" she asked.

"I'm going in there and see what that noise was," Teddy replied.

"Oh, you mustn't!" she cried, hoping to turn him away. But Teddy
answered:

"Yes, I am, too! I'm going to see what it is!"

"I'm not!" cried Janet. "I'm going home. You'd better come with me!"

But, though she turned away and went a short distance from the rocks in
the direction she thought the ranch house of Ring Rosy Ranch should be,
she very soon stopped. She did not like going on alone. She looked back
at Ted.

Teddy had walked a little way toward the hole in the rocks. Now he
called to his sister.

"The noise comes from in here," he said. "It's in this little cave."

"Are you going in?" asked Janet, trying to pretend she was not afraid.

"I want to see what made that noise," declared Teddy. Since he and his
sister had gone camping with Grandpa Martin they were braver than they
used to be. Of course, Ted, being a year older than his sister, was a
little bolder than she was.

Janet, not feeling that she ought to run on home and leave Teddy there
and yet not feeling brave enough to go close to the cave among the rocks
with him, hardly knew what to do. She walked back a little way and then,
suddenly, the noise came, more loudly than at first.

"Oh, there it goes again!" cried Janet, once more running back.

"I heard it," Teddy said. "It didn't war-whoop like an Indian."

"If he's sick he couldn't," explained Janet.

"And if he's sick he can't hurt us," went on Teddy. "I'm going to holler
at him and see what he wants."

"You'd better come back and tell daddy or Uncle Frank," suggested Janet.

Teddy rather thought so himself, but he did not like to give up once he
had started anything. He felt it would be a fine thing if he, all
alone, could find one of the Indians.

"And maybe it is one of those who took Uncle Frank's ponies," thought
Teddy to himself.

Again the groan sounded, this time not quite so loud, and after it had
died away Teddy called:

"Who's in there? What's the matter with you?"

No answer came to this. Then Ted added:

"If you don't come out I'm going to tell my uncle on you. He owns this
ranch. Come on out! Who are you?"

This time there came a different sound. It was one that the Curlytops
knew well, having heard it before.

"That's a horse whinnying!" cried Teddy.

"Or a pony," added Janet. "Yes, it did sound like that. Oh, Ted, maybe
it's a poor horse