Are you ready?" inquired Jeems in a shrill voice, and the three
admitted that they were; then he extended his pistol over his head and
fired. There was a sharp report, and away the boys leaped as though
they, too, had been shot out of a gun. Down the steep slope they went
over the tufted grass and rocks like bounding jack-rabbits. Jim was
ten feet in the lead, then Jo, and Tom five feet behind him.

My, but it was fun! I would give a good deal to be in that race. How
the boys did jump! Jim with his long legs and stride seemed to have
the advantage at first, but when they struck the long sand slide Jo
began to pull up on his brother. Even the scout who was watching the
race from a distant tree became so interested that he lost his caution
for a moment and came into view.

"I bet the little varmint beats the lanky guy," he said to himself.

It seemed so, for half way down the slide the "little varmint" had
crawled up even with Jim. They were going so fast that you could not
see them for the haze, and the gravel and sand flew from before their
feet like spray and they leaped fifteen to twenty feet at a stride. I
tell you it was exciting work. Jo drew ahead and beat Jim about three
feet, it was that close, and Tom "came tumbling after."

"I get the prize," cried Jo, as soon as he could get his breath.

"It's a silver water pitcher," said Juarez, giving him a big tin cup.

"Look out, here comes Jeems on the warpath," cried Jim.

They looked up and sure enough there he came full tilt, his long hair
streaming in the breeze and his lanky legs reaching out like they were
endowed with the wonderful seven-league boots. Here was fun.

"He's drunk!" cried Juarez.

"He is running away!" yelled Jim.

"Whoa, Mosquito, whoa!" screamed Jo and Tom in unison.

The scout who was roosting in the tree a quarter of a mile below,
became so enthused at the sight of the lanky vision striding down the
mountainside that he became convulsed with laughter. Just then Jeems,
who was half way down the sand slide, accompanied by the wild yells
of the boys who were watching him, struck, in one of his flying steps,
a partially submerged rock.

The effect was instantaneous and surprising, such was his momentum
that he bounced high into the air and sprawled out like a gigantic
flying squirrel for thirty feet or more before he came to earth, or
rather dove to sand, and was lost in a cloud of dust. The boys rushed
to pick up the remains.

[Illus