CONNIE CARL AT RAINBOW RANCH By Joan Clark The Goldsmith Publishing Company CHICAGO ------------------------------------------------------------------------ COPYRIGHT MCMXXXIX BY THE GOLDSMITH PUBLISHING COMPANY MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Contents I. A HOMECOMING FOR CONNIE II. THE COMING RODEO III. BAD NEWS IV. THE FOREMAN'S BOAST V. POP BRADSHAW'S TREACHERY VI. KIDNAPING CATAPULT VII. A MIDNIGHT ESCAPADE VIII. A RESCUE IX. MR. POSTIL'S OFFER X. THE HOLDUP XI. WRANGLING DUDES XII. AN ARGUMENT XIII. OVER THE PRECIPICE XIV. A TELLTALE HANDKERCHIEF XV. AN UNPLEASANT REVELATION XVI. THE ROUNDUP XVII. A NIGHT PROWLER XVIII. STAMPEDE XIX. TURNING THE HERD XX. THE END OF THE TRAIL ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Connie Carl at Rainbow Ranch CHAPTER I A Homecoming for Connie "I'll take your luggage now, Miss," said the colored porter politely. "We'll be a-pullin' into Red Gulch in five minutes." "Yes, I know," replied the girl softly, without shifting her gaze from the window. For the past hour Connie Carl had been watching the horizon beyond the flashing telegraph poles. A faint cloud-like blue line which represented New Mexico's mountains--her mountains--had steadily moved closer. She was going home at last, home to Rainbow Ranch. At first glance a stranger never would have taken Connie Carl for a Westerner. The girl was neatly dressed in a blue suit with gray suede slippers, and a wisp of auburn-red hair peeped from beneath her jaunty felt hat. She looked for all the world like a young lady who had just graduated from a stylish Eastern finishing school, which in truth, she had. But now, at sixteen, Connie Carl had returned to the prairie land she loved, to make her home once more at the place of her birth, Rainbow Ranch. The train had slowed down for the station. Connie went quickly down the aisle, waiting in the vestibule until the train came to a full stop. "Someone meetin' you, Miss?" asked the porter as she slipped a coin into his hand. "This heah Red Gulch ain't nothin' but a wide place in the road."