Produced by Carlos Colón, the New York Public Library and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) Transcriber's Notes: Italic text is denoted by _underscores_ and bold text by =equal signs=. Small uppercase have been replaced with regular uppercase. Blank pages have been eliminated. Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been left as in the original. Johnny Nelson _How a one-time pupil of Hopalong Cassidy of the famous Bar-20 ranch in the Pecos Valley performed an act of knight-errantry and what came of it_ By CLARENCE E. MULFORD Author of "Hopalong Cassidy," "The Orphan," "Bar-20," "Buck Peters, Ranchman," Etc. GROSSET & DUNLAP, _Publishers_ By arrangement with A. C. McClurg & Co. Copyright A. C. McCLURG & CO. 1920 Published May, 1920 _Copyrighted in Great Britain_ PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I A Rolling Stone 1 II Bit by Bit 6 III An Objection 25 IV With His Shadow Before Him 38 V A Lesson in Medical Ethics 54 VI Information Wanted 59 VII Hunting With the Hounds 70 VIII A Man's a Man 85 IX Rolling Faster 99 X Freight for Highbank 107 XI "The Tinkling of the Camel's Bell" 130 XII "Coming Events----" 148 XIII Highbank Makes a Discovery 164 XIV Enough Is Sufficient 173 XV A Diplomatic Mission 182 XVI A Neighborly Call 207 XVII News All Around 217 XVIII Whom the Gods Would Destroy 231 XIX "Give Eternal Rest----" 251 XX Plans and Preparations 261 XXI The Message 279 XXII The Ultimatum 293 XXIII Range Activities 307 XXIV On the Trail 326 XXV Still a-Rollin' 345 JOHNNY NELSON CHAPTER I A ROLLING STONE