The Project Gutenberg EBook of Three Young Ranchmen, by Ralph Bonehill

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Title: Three Young Ranchmen
or, Daring Adventures in the Great West

Author: Ralph Bonehill

Release Date: September 3, 2010 [EBook #33615]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Three Young Ranchmen

Or, Daring Adventures in the Great West

By Captain Ralph Bonehill

Author of "A Sailor Boy with Dewey," "For the Liberty of Texas," "The
Young Bandmaster," etc.

Illustrated

New York and Boston
H. M. Caldwell Company
Publishers

_Copyright, 1901_

By The Saalfield Publishing Company

[Illustration: HORSE AND YOUTH WENT PLUNGING HEADLONG.]

PREFACE

"Three Young Ranchmen" relates the adventures of three brothers, Allen,
Chetwood and Paul Winthrop, who are left to shift for themselves upon a
lonely ranch home situated in the mountainous region of the beautiful
State of Idaho, near one of the numerous branches of the Salmon River.

The lads, although sturdy and brave, have no easy time making a living,
and among other troubles, they are visited by horse thieves, and also by
a crafty prospector who wishes to take their claim away from them. In
the meantime an uncle of the lads has gone off to visit the city, and he
disappears entirely, adding to the complexity of the situation. What the
boys did to straighten out the trouble is told in the chapters which
follow.

In writing this story I have tried to give my boy readers a fair idea of
life on a ranch of to-day, as well as of life in the wild mountains of
Idaho, with some idea of the ranch hands and miners to be met with in
these localities. The tale has been drawn as true to nature as possible,
and I trust its reading will prove both entertaining and useful.

CAPTAIN RALPH BONEHILL.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I. AN UNPLEASANT DISCOVER