ted and tied their mustangs to a tree. Then, with guns
ready for use, they crept off in a semicircle, coming up to within
sixty yards of the turkeys before they were discovered.

"Fire!" cried Stover, and bang! bang! went the two guns, one directly
after the other. They had loaded with large shot, and five turkeys
fell, two killed outright and the others badly wounded. Rushing in,
Stover quickly caught the wounded ones and wrung their necks.

[Illustration: "'THAT'S WHAT I CALL A PRETTY GOOD HAUL!' CRIED DAN,
ENTHUSIASTICALLY."]

"That's what I call a pretty good haul," cried Dan, enthusiastically.

"It's not bad, lad, although I've seen better. I wish I could have
gotten a second shot at 'em. We might have----" The old frontiersman
broke off short. "What's that?"

"It's a horse's hoofs on the trail," answered Dan. "Somebody is coming
this way."

He ran out of the bushes into which the wild turkeys had fallen, and
gazed along the road. Just above was a curve, and around this came
sweeping something which caused his heart to bound with delight.

It was the white mustang.

"By hookey!" came from Poke Stover. "It's him, eh, Dan?"

"Yes. Oh, if only I had my lasso!" For that article was attached to the
saddle of the mustang in the timber. Dan was on the point of crossing
the trail when Stover caught him by the arm.

"Don't scare the pony----" began the frontiersman, but he was too late.
The white mustang had caught sight of Dan and he came to a halt
instantly. Then he reared and plunged and swept by, and the last they
saw of him, he was running toward San Antonio at the top of his speed.

"We've seen him,--and that's all the good it will do us," remarked Poke
Stover, as Dan gazed blankly up the road, and then at his companion.

"Can't we catch him, Poke? Oh, we must!"

"Might as well try to catch a streak o' greased lightning, lad."

"I don't know about that. He looked tired, as if he had been running a
long while."

"You are sure on that? I didn't git no fair view of the critter."

"Yes, he was covered with sweat. Perhaps somebody else has been
following him."

"Well, it won't do no harm to go after him,--seein' as how he is
steerin' in our direction," said the old frontiersman, and, picking up
the dead turkeys, they ran for their mustangs and leaped into the
saddles.

Several miles were covered, and they were on the point of giving up the
chase when they encountered a settler with his prairie schoone