narrow bunk, unsteadily crossed the moving floor, and shook him. "Reckon
he's in a stampede, too!" he growled. "They shore raised h--l with us.
Oh, what a beating we got! But we'll pass it along with trimmings."

Johnny's eyes opened and he looked around in confusion. "Wha',
Hopalong!"

"Yes; it's me, the prize idiot of a blamed good pair of 'em. How'd you
feel?"

"Sleepy an' sick. My eyes ache an' my head's splitting. Where's Buck an'
the rest?"

Hopalong sat down on the edge of the bunk and sore luridly, eloquently,
beautifully, with a fervor and polish which left nothing to be desired
in that line, and caused his companion to gaze at him in astonishment.

"I had a mighty bad dream, but you must 'a' had one a whole lot worse,
to listen to you," Johnny remarked. "Gee, you're going some! What's the
matter with you. You sick, too?"

Thereupon Hopalong unfolded the tale of woe and when Johnny had
grasped its import and knew that his dream had been a stern reality, he
straightway loosed his vocabulary and earned a draw. "Well, I'm going
back again," he finished, with great decision, arising to make good his
assertion.

"Swim or walk?" asked Hopalong nonchalantly.

"Huh! Oh, Lord!"

"Well, I ain't going to either swim or walk," Hopalong soliloquized.
"I'm just going to stay right here in this one-by-nothing cellar an'
spoil the health an' good looks of any pirate that comes down that
ladder to get me out." He looked around, interested in life once more,
and his trained eye grasped the strategic worth of their position. "Only
one at a time, an' down that ladder," he mused, thoughtfully. "Why,
Johnny, we owns this range as long as we wants to. They can't get us
out. But, say, if only we had our guns!" he sighed, regretfully.

"You're right as far as you go; but you don't go to the eating part.
We'll starve, an' we ain't got no water. I can drink about a bucketful
right now," moodily replied his companion.

"Well, yo're right; but mebby we can find food an' water."

"Don't see no signs of none. Hey!" Johnny exclaimed, smiling faintly
in his misery. "Let's get busy an' burn the cussed thing up! Got any
matches?"

"First you want to drown yoreself swimming, an' now you want to roast
the pair of us to death," Hopalong retorted, eyeing the rear wall of the
room. "Wonder what's on the other side of that partition?"

Johnny looked. "Why, water; an' lots of it, too."

"Naw; the water is on the other sides."

"Th