g its
head and champing its bit restlessly.

As for the freckle-faced boy and his companion, the reader no doubt has
recognized in them our old friends, Tad Butler and Ned Rector, the Pony
Rider Boys. After their exciting experiences in the Rockies, and their
discovery of the Lost Claim, which gave each of the boys a little
fortune of his own, as narrated in the preceding volume, "The Pony
Rider Boys in the Rockies," the Pony Riders had turned toward Texas
as the scene of their next journeying. With Walter Perkins and Stacy
Brown, the boys, under the guidance of Professor Zepplin, were to join a
cattle outfit at San Diego, whence they were to travel northward with
it.

This was to be one of the biggest cattle drives of recent years. A
cattle dealer, Mr. Thomas B. Miller, had purchased a large herd of
Mexican cattle, which he decided to drive across the state on the old
trail, instead of shipping them by rail, to his ranch in Oklahoma.

It had been arranged that the Pony Riders were to become members of the
working force of the outfit during what was called the "drive" across
the State of Texas. The boys were awaiting the arrival of the herd at
San Diego on this Fourth of July morning. Though they did not suspect
it, the Pony Rider Boys were destined, on this trip, to pass through
adventures more thrilling, and hardships more severe, than anything they
had even dreamed of before.

The cattle had arrived late the previous evening, though the boys had
not yet been informed of the fact. The animals were to be allowed to
graze and rest for the day, while the cowmen, or such of them as could
be spared, were given leave to ride into town in small parties. It was
the advance guard of the cowboys whose shots and yells had stirred the
people in the street to such sudden activity.

On they came, a shouting, yelling mob.

Tad turned to look at them now.

The sight was one calculated to stir the heart and quicken the pulses of
any boy. But the face of Tad Butler reflected only mild curiosity as he
gazed inquiringly at the dashing horsemen, each one of whom was riding
standing in his stirrups waving sombrero and gun on high.

What interested the freckle-faced boy most was their masterful
horsemanship.

"Y-e-e-e-o-w!" exploded the foremost of the riders.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

As many puffs of white smoke leaped into the air from the revolvers of
the skylarking cowmen.

"W-h-o-o-o-p-e!" they chorused in a mighty yel