It was hastily told, bearing out what had already been learned of it over the telephone. "Pack us up a little more grub and we'll keep on," said Billee Dobb to Sam, when the narration was ended. "You'd better call it a day and stay here for the night," counseled Sam. "Nothin' doin'!" declared Billee earnestly. "We're goin' t' hit th' trail hard!" "Now listen a moment," begged Sam. "I know this part of the country better 'n what you do, Billee, though I give in to you on lots of points. This section is pretty rough, an' them rustlers won't be able to make any kind of speed with th' cattle. You can catch up t' 'em better if you make an early mornin' start than if you keep on now." "You think so?" asked Billee, who was not "sot in his ways," as he often said. "I'm sure of it," declared Sam. "Wa'al, mebby you're right," conceded the veteran cowboy. "What say, fellows?" and he appealed to Bud and the others. "I say let's stay here for th' night," decided Yellin' Kid. "As Sam says, we can make better time in th' mornin'. Th' rustlers can't drive cattle only so fast, anyhow." "Unless they stampede 'em," put in Bud. "That's what they did t' get away from where we had 'em pastured," declared Sam. "But if they get 'em that wild now the animals is likely t' break away, an' that isn't what this bunch of Greasers is countin' on." "I guess you're right," admitted Bud. "It's about a fifty-fifty proposition, and we'd better wait here over night." This decided, little time was lost in taking saddles from the horses and turning them into the corral, while their riders made ready to wash up, prepare for the evening meal and rest. As Snake Purdee turned his pony in and hung the saddle over the fence he noticed a small enclosure in one corner of the corral, in which were two rather sorry-looking specimens of horseflesh. "What you got there, Sam?" he asked, nodding toward the two sequestered steeds. "Oh, couple a' outlaws," was the answer. Snake's eyes seemed to sparkle with new light. "Reg'lar man-killers?" he asked eagerly. "Might call 'em that," assented Sam with a smile. "Can't nobody ride em?" went on Snake. "Th' last man what did has a broken leg on one side, an' a lot of skin chawed off on th' other," answered the foreman grimly. "Whoopee!" yelled Snake, "I'll ride 'em! I'll fan 'em! Wow! Now for some fun!" "Fun!" exclaimed Dick, who knew what was in prospect. "Oh, boy!" he added to his brother, "now for some rough riding!" CHAPTER XII AFTER THE RUSTLERS "Rough riding," as it is called, made up more than half the fun the cowboys indulged in among themselves. There has, of late years, been so much of this done in public, in traveling "wild west" shows, and in exhibitions of some features of the _rodeo_ in New York and other large cities, that I believe most of you are familiar with the feats of cowboys on these trained and untrained "broncks," or outlaw horses--"mankillers" some of them are dubbed.