. "Reckon he's wondering who I am,
and what I'm standing here for. It can't be one of our fellows. I guess
I'll just wait for him to come up and say howdy."

There was a faint trail, or road, which skirted Sombrero Peak, the mass
of multicolored rock at Ted's back, over which he had come on his way
from San Carlos to the Bubbly Well ranch house, which he was now facing
in the distance. But where he was now standing the road branched off to
the west, while a fainter trail lay straight before him to the ranch
house.

Bubbly Well was the ranch of Major Caruthers, an Englishman, and a
retired officer of the British army, who had come to America to pass his
remaining days in the open. He was a well-preserved man, tall, stalwart,
with white hair and a red, fresh-looking face, who could ride well and
was an excellent shot, but who knew nothing about the cattle business.

Ted had met him in Phoenix, at the hotel, and had dropped into "cow
talk." When the English major learned that Ted knew so much about the
cattle business, he told of his ranch at Bubbly Well, confessing that
his own knowledge of steers, cows, round-ups, and the like was so
limited that, instead of making the ranch pay, it had been steadily
losing money for him.

It was then that the major had invited Ted to visit him at the ranch,
look the situation over, and give expert advice how to better the
condition of things.

"I'll tell you what we'll do," said the major; "let's make up a
Christmas party for Bubbly Well. The holidays are so beastly lonely out
here, don't you know, and Christmas knocks me all of a heap. Come out
and help me make things cheerful."

"I'd like to," Ted had said, "but I'm not a free agent. I am with a
party of friends, who are also my partners in the cattle business and
other enterprises. You see, my first duty is to them. I don't know what
their plans are."

At this the major looked considerably crestfallen. Then Ted, as briefly
as he could, told the Englishman all about the broncho boys and their
plans and principles.

As he talked, Major Caruthers occasionally interjected such exclamations
as "Extraordinary!" "Very remarkable!" "Fawncy!"

He was intensely interested in Ted's accounts of some of the adventures
which the members of the Moon Valley outfit had gone through, and when
Ted stopped, with an apology for having consumed so much time in talking
about himself and his friends, the major assured him that he could
listen wi