, Jeems?" he inquired.

"Yes, my pony," he replied.

"He is grazing down below," said Jo. "Why don't you get up?"

"I'm grazing here," replied Jeems.

"Gazing, I guess," grinned Jo.

"Is it morning yet?" inquired Jeems.

"It will be night before you get up, if you don't hustle," warned Jo.
"Better go and get your horse and join the family council."

"There shall be no vacant chair, I'll be there," and Jeems rose by
sections.

CHAPTER XVII

A CHASE

"Are you sure you saw that fellow, Juarez?" asked Jo.

"Certainly," replied the chief.

"Of course he did," said Jim. "You don't suppose that Juarez would
exclaim at a shadow. I got a glimpse of him myself."

"What did he look like?" inquired Yankee Tom.

Jim's face took on a look of settled gravity as he answered:

"He was a tall dark-complected man, with a wart over his right eye,
and he had a ring on his middle finger with his wife's picture
engraved on it, and----"

"Oh, shut up," growled Tom, "you are just kidding."

"I didn't see anybody," put in Jeems Howell mildly. This remark was
greeted with a roar of laughter.

"I bet you didn't," jeered Tom. "All you could do was to yell 'Whoa!'"

"But he didn't whoa!" said Jeems sadly, but truthfully.

"You did," remarked Jim.

"Somebody had to," explained Jeems, "so I decided it was up to me."

"You mean," said the whimsical Jo, "down to you."

"I suppose so."

"He has made his escape anyway," said Tom.

"So have our pack mules," cried Juarez, looking back up the mountain.

"Maybe they have just grazed off," said Jim anxiously.

This was serious business indeed, if their mules should take a notion
to take the back trail with their grub and camp equipment. So the boys
lost no time in getting back to the ridge and all thought of the
stranger that they had tried to interview had left their minds for the
present. When they got to the top of the ridge they found their worst
fears realized. Juarez was the first to take in the situation, because
his little roan was the fastest in a short dash. Juarez had urged his
horse obliquely across the slope of the hill.

"They have scooted for home, boys," he yelled.

Sure enough there were the three beasts a mile down the trail and
jogging steadily along with an evident intention in their mulish minds
to go home and stay there. Now "home" was a hundred miles away, but
that made no difference with their plans.

"We have got to head 'em down this othe