k
announced quietly.

Olive looked relieved, but Jack shook her head firmly.

"You are awfully good, Mr. Kent," Jack protested. "But really Olive and
I can go home perfectly well alone. We would rather not trouble you."

Frank assisted Olive on her broncho and then climbed into his own
saddle, Jack being already mounted.

"Mr. Simpson thinks I had better go home with you," Frank repeated
carelessly. "And I think you might let me act as an honorary escort,
because in case you don't I shall simply ride along behind you."

CHAPTER XVIII.

A RACE FOR LIFE.

"JACK, don't you think we are going too near the corrals?" Olive
inquired timidly.

It was high noon. The cattle had been brought by the cowboys into the
open field and each ranchman had divided his own stock from the herds.
The animals had been driven into the corrals, separate enclosures made
of fence rails, one belonging to each of the neighboring ranches. In the
afternoon the branding of the cattle took place, but most of the cowboys
had now gone off to get something to eat before the real business of the
day began. Only a dozen men guarded the entire stockade.

"Oh, no, Olive," Jack answered lightly. "I believe, if we ride a little
closer, we may get some news of Jim. I would like to see him to ask him
some questions, before we start back home." Jack rode gaily ahead,
forgetting her disagreeable scene with Dan Norton. The swarming hundreds
of cows and calves, the bright sunshine, the brilliantly blue sky
overhead, the noise and splendid action of the scene interested her
tremendously.

"I think Miss Olive is right, Miss Ralston," Frank insisted gravely. "We
must not ride too near the stock, for fear of a stampede."

"Just a few feet more," Jack begged, turning half way around in her
saddle to glance back at Olive and Frank.

At this moment an immense bull burst out of one of the corrals and made
a wild dash across an open field. He was not headed toward Jack, or
Olive, or Frank, and there did not appear to be the least danger.

Two of the cowboys made a rush to cut off the bull's charge but turned
back a moment later to their companions. It was more important for the
men to keep the other animals from following their leader, than to
recapture the one infuriated beast.

Jim Colter had warned Jacqueline, when he first gave her the new pony,
that "Tricks" was well named. He had told her that she would have to
watch the little animal pretty clo