in, were
very much surprised when the Curlytops came riding up to the ranch in
Doctor Bond's automobile.

"Well, where in the world have you been?" cried Mother Martin. "We were
just beginning to get worried about you children. Where were you?"

"We found a pony!" cried Janet.

"And he's sick!" added Teddy.

"And his name is Clipclap!" exclaimed the little girl.

"And he's mine but Janet can have half of him, and we got him water in
our hats," came from Teddy.

"And we got the doctor, too!" went on his sister.

"Well, I should say you'd put in quite a busy day," chuckled Uncle
Frank. "Now let's hear more about it."

So the Curlytops told, and Doctor Bond said, even if he was not a horse
doctor, he'd go out and look at the pony in the cave, if the ranch
foreman would come with him.

"Of course I'll come!" cried Jim Mason. "I wouldn't want to see any pony
suffer. And I've doctored quite a few of 'em, even if I don't know much
about medicine. Come on, Curlytops!"

Jim Mason jumped on his own swift pony, saying he could make as good
time over the rough prairie as Doctor Bond could in his automobile. The
Curlytops rode in the machine with the physician. Uncle Frank and Daddy
Martin went along, for they, too, were interested in the sick pony.

It did not take long to get to the cave amid the rocks. Jim Mason's
horse reached there ahead of the automobile, and the foreman had gone
into the cave and come out again by the time the Curlytops were getting
out of the machine.

"Well, he's a pretty sick pony all right," said the foreman of the
cowboys of Ring Rosy Ranch.

"Can you make him better?" asked Teddy anxiously.

"I don't know whether we can or not. It all depends on what sort of
medicine the doctor has for curing poison."

"Has the pony been poisoned?" asked Uncle Frank.

"Looks that way," replied the foreman. "I guess he must have drunk some
water that had a bit of poisoned meat in it. You see," he went on to the
doctor, Mr. Martin and the children, "we have a lot of wolves and other
pesky animals around here. They're too tricky to catch in traps or
shoot, so we poison 'em by putting a white powder in some meat.
Sometimes the wolves will drag a piece of the poisoned meat to a spring
of water, and they must have done it this time. Then the pony drank the
water and it made him sick."

"Will he die?" asked Janet.

"Well, I'll do my best to save him," said Doctor Bond, opening the black
case of medicine