hereat the mother snatched the cracker from the
mouth of her young hopeful, cast the cracker on the floor and put her
moccasined foot on it. She launched into a volley in her own language,
directed at Chunky.

"That's all right, madam. Roast me all you wish. I don't care how much
you insult me so long as I don't understand a word you are saying."

"Do you wish the cheese done up?" asked the proprietor.

"Done up? Certainly not. I'll attend to the doing up myself." Chunky
took a large bite, then banged the end of the pop bottle against the
counter to open the bottle. The stuff was highly charged, and a good
quantity of it struck Ned Rector in the eye. Stacy waved the bottle at
arm's length before placing it to his mouth. The charge went over his
shoulder and soaked the Professor's whiskers before the fat boy
succeeded in steering the mouth of the bottle safely to his lips.

Professor Zepplin sputtered, Ned Rector threatened, but the fat boy ate
and drank, regardless of the disturbance he had caused.

"If you open any more of that stuff be good enough to go outdoors to do
so," advised the Professor.

"I wuz thinking ob doig it in here and shooting a papoose with some
ginger ale," answered Stacy thickly.

"You will keep on till you have those squaws pulling your hair, Chunky,"
warned Butler.

The other boys were by this time eating cheese, crackers and ginger
snaps. The proprietor had sent one of the Indian children to fetch the
man he had recommended as a guide, and by the time the Pony Rider Boys
had satisfied their appetites, the guide entered the store and stood
waiting to be recognized.

The boys laughed when they saw him.

CHAPTER XI

THE GUIDE WHO MADE A HIT

The guide might have been anywhere from twenty to forty years of age.
The boys were unable to say, though they decided that he was quite
young. He was considerably shorter in stature than the Indians they had
seen, and Tad wondered if he were not an Eskimo. The guide's head was
shaven except for a tuft of black coarse hair on the top, standing
straight up, while a yellow bar of paint had been drawn perpendicularly
on each cheek. He wore a shirt that had once been white, a pair of
trousers, one leg of which extended some six inches below the knee, the
other as far above the knee of the other leg. Over his shoulders drooped
a blanket of gaudy color. The guide's feet were clad in the mucklucks
worn both in summer and winter. Taking him all i