el was more or less congested along the line.

Frank, upon making inquiries, learned that they would not arrive at
their destination until about daybreak, and so he and his chums went to
their berths to secure what sleep was possible.

Frank had them up in good time, and long before dawn they were fully
dressed, awaiting the arrival of the train at the valley station with
impatience.

"Another hour now, and then I shall know," Bluff was saying to himself.

"Thank goodness!" exclaimed Jerry, who happened to overhear him. "And
for the peace of the party, I do hope the first thing you see when you
open your bag will be that awful sword."

"We're stopping, fellows!" cried Will, trembling with eagerness.

Five minutes later they jumped down from the train.

"Hello, boys! Glad to see you! Better late than never!" said a hearty
voice, and then they found themselves shaking hands with a big man,
whose gray-bearded face seemed to be a picture of good nature.

Of course, this was Mr. Mabie, the ranchman. He saw to it that their big
trunk was dropped off the baggage car, to be seized by a couple of
cowboys and hustled on to the back of a long buckboard wagon, drawn by a
couple of skittish horses.

Then they were off, not five minutes after the train had pulled out.

"Here, Reddy," said Mr. Mabie to the young driver, "let me make you
acquainted with some good fellows about your own age," and he introduced
them one after another.

Frank saw that the cowboy was well named, for he had quite a fiery
thatch; but his freckled face seemed one of the sort that invited
confidence, and Frank believed he would like the other right well. Of
course, Reddy was attired as all well-ordered cowboys should be. Will
was secretly wild for a chance to introduce him in some picture.

"It will give such a pleasing variety to our book of views, for we
haven't got a single cowboy in between the covers," he said in an aside
to Frank.

They followed up the valley for over an hour. The ranch was miles
removed from the railway, and surrounded by the wildest scenery the
boys could remember having looked upon, and that was saying a good deal,
after such a journey.

Martin Mabie was a widower, without any family. Still, he had a number
of women folks on the place, a sister keeping house for him, with a
Chinese cook to attend to the kitchen part of the establishment.

"Ain't this immense?" remarked Bluff, as he waited impatiently for the
men to c