“And I never will part with him either, if I can help it,” declared Ned, after he had taken time to think over the situation. “I was going to show him to father as soon as I got home, but now I’ll just keep still about him. It isn’t likely that he was stolen anywhere in the county, and perhaps the owner will never be able to get on the track of him. I’ll hold fast to him as long as I can, at any rate, and keep his existence a profound secret, and if his owner ever finds him I can say——Well, what’s the use of thinking about that now? I can make up a story on the spur of the moment that will get me out of the tightest scrape a boy ever got into. At least I always have been able to do it!” With this reflection to comfort and encourage him Ned hung his lasso upon the horn of his saddle, mounted his new horse and set out for home. The animal moved off at a free walk until Ned called on him to go faster, and then he broke into a rapid gallop; but his motions were so regular and easy that his rider was scarcely moved in the saddle. Ned was a little afraid of him at first, for he carried his head high and kept his ears thrown forward and his eyes roving about as if he were trying to find something to get frightened at; but he could be very easily controlled, and Ned could stop him while he was going at the top of his speed by a single word. He seemed perfectly willing to travel at his best speed all the time, but Ned, after enjoying the rapid motion for a few minutes, gently checked him, and then the animal settled down into an easy pace. He proved to be what the natives would have called a gated horse; that is, he had been broken to amble, fox-trot, pace, run or square trot, just as his rider desired. Ned knew that some of the ranchemen in the neighborhood had paid two thousand dollars apiece for just such horses. “I declare it frightens me to think of it,” said Ned, and almost involuntarily he faced about in his saddle and looked behind him, just as the stranger had done, to see if there was any one following him. “I wish he wasn’t worth so much money, for I shall live in constant fear that his owner will be along here some day hunting him up. I know that if he had been stolen from me I should never sleep soundly until I found him.” During the ride to the rancho, Ned often looked behind him, fully expecting every time he did so to see a horseman or two galloping along the trail in pursuit; but he was alone on the prairie, and to his great relief there was no one about the house or yard to see him come home with his prize or to ask him questions that he did not want to answer. He hitched the horse under the shed and supplied him with a good feed of corn, and no one was the wiser for it.