“We’ll gather the remuda to-day,” announced Joel.  “While I’m gone to the Republican, you boys can trim up and gentle the horses.”

The extra mounts, freed the fall before, had only been located on the range, and must be gathered and brought in to headquarters at once.  They had ranged in scattering bunches during the winter, and a single day would be required to gather and corral the ranch remuda.  It numbered, complete, ninety-six horses, all geldings, and the wisdom of buying the majority a year in advance of their needs reflected the foresight of a veteran cowman.  Many of them were wild, impossible of approach, the call of the plain and the free life of their mustang ancestors pulsing with every heart-beat, and several days would be required to bring them under docile subjection.  There were scraggy hoofs to trim, witches’ bridles to disentangle, while long, bushy, matted tails must be thinned to a graceful sweep.

The beginning of work acted like a tonic.  The boys sallied forth, mounted on their best horses, their spirits soaring among the clouds.  During the spring rains, several small lakes had formed in the sand hills, at one of which a band of some thirty saddle horses was watering.  The lagoon was on the extreme upper end of the range, fully fifteen miles from headquarters; and as all the saddle stock must be brought in, the day’s work required riding a wide circle.  Skirting the sand dunes, by early noon all the horses were in hand, save the band of thirty.  There was no occasion for all hands to assist in bringing in the absent ones, and a consultation resulted in Joel and Dell volunteering for the task, while Sargent returned home with the horses already gathered.

The range of the band was well known, and within a few hours after parting with Sargent, the missing horses were in hand.  The brothers knew every horse, and, rejoicing in their splendid condition, they started homeward, driving the loose mounts before them.  The most direct course to headquarters was taken, which would carry the cavalcade past the springs and the upper winter quarters.  The latter was situated in the brakes of the Beaver, several abrupt turns of the creek, until its near approach, shutting out a western view of the deserted dug-out.  The cavalcade was drifting home at a gentle trot, but on approaching The Wagon, a band of ponies was sighted forward and in a bend of the creek.  The boys veered their horses, taking to the western divide, and on gaining it, saw below them and at the distance of only a quarter-mile, around the springs, an Indian encampment of a dozen tepees and lean-tos.

Dell and Joel were struck dumb at the sight.  To add to their surprise, all the dogs in the encampment set up a howling, the Indians came tumbling from their temporary shelters, many of them running for their ponies on picket, while an old, almost naked leader signaled to the brothers.  It was a moment of bewilderment with the boys, who conversed in whispers, never halting on their course, and when the Indians reached their ponies, every brave dashed up to the encampment.  A short parley followed, during which signaling was maintained by the old Indian, evidently a chief; but the boys kept edging away, and the old brave sprang on a pony and started in pursuit, followed by a number of his band.