, with emphasis.

"I guess you will have to, my boy."

"I'll ride my pony if I have to be tied on," he declared resolutely.

The foreman laughed heartily.

"Well, we'll see about that. You boys all have good stuff in you. I see
that Master Walter and the gopher are still out there looking after that
bunch of cattle."

"I told them to do so," spoke up Tad.

"And they are obeying orders. That's the first thing to learn in this
business."

"May I sit up now?"

"You may try."

Tad's head spun round when he raised himself up. The lad fought his
dizziness pluckily, and mastered it. After a little while they helped
him to his feet. Finally feeling himself able to walk he started
unsteadily away from them.

"Where are you going?" demanded the Professor.

"Pony," answered Tad.

"I protest, Tad. You will come back here at once."

Tad turned obediently.

"Please, Professor. I'm all right."

"Let the boy go. He will be all right in a few moments after he has
gotten into the saddle," urged the foreman. "Besides, he's too much of a
man to be treated like a weakling. He'll get more bumps than that before
he leaves this outfit, if I'm any judge."

The Professor motioned to Tad to go on, which the lad did, petting his
pony as he reached him, and then pulling himself into the saddle with
considerable effort.

"I'm ready for business now," he smiled, waving a hand to the foreman.

"Better look on and let the rest do the work," advised Stallings,
mounting his own tough pony and riding into the thick of the cutting out
process.

But Tad Butler could no more sit idly by while the exciting work was
going on than could the foreman himself. The first steer that was cut
out from the main herd, after Stallings went back, found Tad Butler
alongside of it, crowding it toward his own herd farther out. And this
work he kept up until all the strangers had been separated from the
Diamond D stock.

"There, I'm glad that job is done," exclaimed Stallings, whipping off
his hat and drawing a sleeve across his perspiring brow.

"Too bad I had to go and upset things so," said Tad.

"Never mind. It's all in a day's work. On a cattle drive if it isn't one
thing it's sure to be another. We have been lucky enough not to have a
stampede thus far. That isn't saying we won't, however. If you feel like
working you can ride up and join the point men. We'll make five or six
miles before it is time to bed down the herd."

To Tad's compan