Produced by David Edwards, Barbara Kosker and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) THE BOY SCOUTS ON THE RANGE BY LIEUT. HOWARD PAYSON NEW YORK HURST & COMPANY PUBLISHERS Copyright, 1911, BY HURST & COMPANY CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. ROB SURPRISES A COW-PUNCHER 5 II. NEWS OF THE MOQUIS 23 III. THE DESERT WATER HOLE 38 IV. SILVER TIP APPEARS 54 V. AT THE HARKNESS RANCH 65 VI. A BOY SCOUT "BRONCHO BUSTER" 75 VII. THE STAMPEDE AT THE FAR PASTURE 87 VIII. HEMMED IN BY THE HERD 100 IX. THE HOME OF A VANISHED RACE 112 X. THE GHOST OF THE CAVE DWELLING 125 XI. CAPTURED BY MOQUIS 137 XII. TUBBY'S PERIL 148 XIII. A FRIEND IN NEED 161 XIV. A TOBOGGAN TO DISASTER 172 XV. WHAT BECAME OF THE SCOUT? 185 XVI. BLINKY SPOILS A SOMBRERO 195 XVII. IN THE CLUTCHES OF THE GRIZZLY 205 XVIII. THE INDIAN AGENT 220 XIX. BLACK CLOUD'S VISIT 233 XX. THE WATCHERS OF THE TRAIL 246 XXI. THE MAVERICK RAID 257 XXII. CLARK JENNINGS GETS A SURPRISE 269 XXIII. THE WORSHIPPERS OF THE SNAKE 280 XXIV. BOY SCOUTS TO THE RESCUE 291 The Boy Scouts on the Range. CHAPTER I. ROB SURPRISES A COW-PUNCHER. Northward from Truxton, Arizona, the desert stretches a red-hot, sandy arm, the elbow of which crooks about several arid ranges of baked hills clothed with a scanty growth of chaparral. Across this sun-bitten solitude of sand and sage brush extend two parallel steel lines--the branch of the Southern Pacific which at Truxton takes a bold plunge into the white solitudes of the dry country. Scattered few and far between on the monotonous level are desert towns, overtopped by lofty water tanks, perched on steel towers, in the place of trees, and sun-baked like everything else in the "great sandy." These isolated communities, the railroad serves. Twice a day, with the deliberate pace of the Gila Monster, a dusty train of three cars, drawn by a locomotive of obsolete pattern,--which has been not inaptly compared to a tailor's goose with a fire in it--makes its slow way.