the professor.

"I'm in a trance, sir."

"You always are," laughed Tad Butler. "I think we had better take a
rest here. The animals are tired after the climb. Suppose we lie
off for an hour?"

The boys were all agreed on this, so the pack pony was unloaded. It
now being near midday it was decided to wait for dinner before pressing
on. A meal was a "dab" down there and the boys had fallen naturally
into the vernacular of the men of the plains.

It was Ned's turn to cook the "dab," a task that never appealed to him.
Chunky at such times was always on hand while Ned was getting the meal,
that he might offer suggestions and make uncomplimentary observations.
Rector's method of making coffee came in for considerable criticism.
He never could be induced to make coffee after the more approved
methods. Ned's way was to put a pint of coffee beans in a two-quart
coffee pot and boil for half an hour. He made it the same way on this
occasion.

"That stuff would eat a hole through a piece of sheet iron if given half
a chance," declared Stacy.

"Don't worry. It won't hurt you," retorted Ned. "Your stomach is tough
enough to withstand anything."

"I guess it is or I'd have been dead long ago eating your dab," flung
back Stacy.

They had to wait quite a time for the coffee, but at last the call to
dinner was sounded in the usual way, the long-drawn cry of, "Come and
get it!"

They had just sat down when they were startled by a voice calling from
somewhere off in the bushes to the northward of them.

"Hoo-ee!"

The boys started up, thinking that perhaps some of the Rangers had
returned. Instead of the Rangers a stranger rode in on a wiry little
pony. He doffed his sombrero gracefully and sat regarding them
smilingly.

"Howdy, pardners," greeted the newcomer. "Got a smack for a hungry man?"

"Certainly, certainly. Come right over, my friend," answered the
professor cordially.

Ned stepped forward politely to take the stranger's horse.

"Never mind, lad. I'll look after the cayuse. He isn't over-fond of
strangers. You're all strangers down here, eh?"

"Yes, yes. We are," admitted the professor. "You are just in time.
We are ready for dinner and there's plenty to go round."

"I'll promise not to eat you out of house and home," laughed the
stranger. Without taking off his broad-brimmed Mexican sombrero he
threw himself down by the piece of canvas on which the dinner had
been laid, helping himself t