claimed her chum. "But I tell you _something_ is
going to happen."

They worked so late that it was night before the company took the trail
for Clearwater Station. There was no moon, and the stars were veiled by
a haze that perhaps foreboded a storm.

This coming storm probably was what caused the excitement in a horse
herd that they passed when half way to the railroad line. Or it might
have been because the motor-cars, of which there were four, were strange
to the half-wild horses that the bunch became frightened.

"There's something doing with them critters, boys!" William, who was
riding ahead, called back to the other pony riders, who were rear guard
to the automobiles. "Keep yer eyes peeled!"

His advice was scarcely necessary. The thunder of horse-hoofs on the
turf was not to be mistaken. Through the darkness the stampeding animals
swept down upon the party.

"Git, you fellers!" yelled another rider. "And keep a-goin'! Jest split
the wind for the station!"

The horsemen swept past the jouncing motor-cars. Some of the women in
the cars screamed. Helen cried:

"What did I tell you!"

"Don't--_dare_--tell us anything more!" jerked out Jennie.

Through the murk the girls saw the heads and flaunted manes of the
coming horses. Just what harm they might do to the motor-cars, which
could not be driven rapidly on this rough trail, Ruth and her two chums
did not know. But the threat of the wild ponies' approach was not to be
ignored.

CHAPTER XVI

NEWS AND A THREAT

A stampede of mad cattle is like the charge of a blind and insane
monster. River, nor ravine, nor any other obstruction can halt the mad
rush of the horned beasts. They pile right into it, and only if it is
too steep or too high do they split and go around.

A stampede of horses is different in that the equine brain appreciates
danger more clearly than that of the sullen steer. Behind a cattle
stampede is often left an aftermath of dead and crippled beasts. But
horses are more canny. A wild horse seldom breaks a leg or suffers other
injury. It is not often that the picked skeleton of a horse is found in
the hills.

This herd belonging to the Hubbell ranch charged through the night
directly across the trail along which the moving picture company was
riding. Those on horseback could probably escape; but the motor-cars
could not be driven very rapidly over the rough road.

The girls screamed as the cars bumped and jounced. Out of the da