, but he had taken with him an unpleasant reminder of
Ted Strong.

CHAPTER XXIV.

WHITE FANG LEADS HOME.

Ted herded the Gray Wolves into one of the rooms and placed guards at
the door and at the outside windows.

The desperadoes were thoroughly cowed. Burk was so frightened that he
was willing to do anything Ted said, and cringed to the leader of the
broncho boys like a thrashed cur.

"What are you goin' to do with us?" he asked Ted.

"I'm going to put you where you will no longer disgrace the office you
held by the authority of the United States," said Ted promptly. "You
will get all you deserve."

"Let me down easy," begged Burk.

"You don't deserve it. You will be in jail as soon as it gets light
enough to march you to Rodeo."

The first thing for Ted to do was to get rid of his prisoners, then to
go after Mowbray, the archcriminal, and bring him to justice, and to
arrest Ban Joy, the Japanese thug, whom he was convinced was the
murderer of Helen Mowbray.

There was one more thing that demanded his attention for the safety of
the live stock as well as the people of the Bubbly Well Ranch, and that
was the destruction of White Fang, the demon wolf that was as well known
in that part of the country as a destructive agency as Mowbray, the
thief and murderer, himself.

For years White Fang had preyed upon the ranchmen, exacting a heavy toll
in cattle and sheep. Every huntsman in the country had taken to the
chase for him, but the cunning old rascal had outwitted or out-footed
them all.

The following afternoon the broncho boys, led by Ted Strong, marched up
the main street of Rodeo to the jail with a score of desperadoes bound
to their horses.

When they appeared a great many of the townspeople, friends of the
prisoners, gathered and made a demonstration to take them away from the
boys.

Ted immediately formed the boys in a circle about the prisoners.

With rifles trained upon the crowd the broncho boys held them off while
Ted spoke to them quietly, but with a force that carried conviction. He
told the people just what the prisoners had done, and what he expected
to prove against them, hinting that there were other men in the town who
would join them in jail if what he suspected proved to be true. Later in
the day a strange thing happened: Several men in high office disappeared
from the town, and were never seen there more.

Having turned his prisoners over to the sheriff, the boys rode back