So they sought their tent, to prepare the evening meal. Of course their talk was mostly about the remarkable scene they had just witnessed, and which would never entirely fade from their minds. “And if my pictures only come out good, as I reckon they ought,” Billie went on to remark, “I’ll be able to stagger some of the fellows at home, when I get there. But there’s one thing I’m ahoping, and that is that none of them wrigglers got away. I’d sure hate to wake up tonight from a jolly good snooze, to find a big old rattler perched on my chest, and ready to jab me with his business end if I so much as moved my little finger. Wow! it makes me creep just to think of it.” And indeed, the subject was on Billie’s mind so much that he later on made sure to thoroughly examine every inch of space inside the canvas, shaking their blankets carefully, and finally getting Donald to again encircle the tent with that horse-hair lariat of his, over which he had said no snake would ever dare crawl. And so ended the great day at the Zuni village, which the Indians looked forward to each year with the liveliest anticipations; and the three chums had reason to feel thankful that the bold plot of Braddon the showman had not resulted in their being expelled from the place without a chance to see the “circus,” as Billie called it. CHAPTER XXVII. HOMEWARD BOUND. Billie was also a little bit worried for fear that Braddon and his two companions might not have gone far away; but, feeling so badly toward the three chums for having nipped their scheme in the bud, he dreaded lest they return under cover of darkness, bent on evening up the debt they thought they owed the Broncho Rider Boys. “Don’t you believe anything of the sort, Billie,” urged Donald, when the stout chum ventured to mention his fears on this score. “No,” added Adrian, positively; “they knew that the medicine man meant every word of it when he warned them that the old chief would set some of his braves on their track, after nightfall. Make your mind easy, for Braddon isn’t the kind of man to take chances, when he can get away. They’re whipping their ponies for all they’re worth, so as to cover as many miles as they can before another dawn.” As the others were so confident, Billie began to lose his nervousness. Perhaps after all this was more the result of the terrible scenes he had looked upon that afternoon, than any real fear of the three rascals whose departure from the Zuni village had been so hurried. “On the whole,” said Adrian, “I don’t think any of us will get too much sleep this same night.” “Why so?” asked Billie, as though wondering what new tribulations might threaten them now. “Listen!” said the other, holding up his hand. They had finished their supper, and were lying around taking their ease at the time this conversation sprang up.