“I hope to goodness they do,” shouted Ned Rector.

“If they don’t it’s me for the tall timber,” cried Stacy, who had overheard Rector’s remark.

The bullets sang so close to the boys that the lads could hear them plainly.  Had the light been more certain some of them must have been hit, for those men out there knew how to handle rifles much better than did any of the Pony Rider Boys.

With wild whoops and yells, keeping up a continuous fusillade, the plucky band kept straight on.

“It’s the Rangers!” They heard the words plainly, uttered by one of the bandits.

“Yip!  Yip!  Kyeeaw!” screamed the fat boy.

“Yip!  Yip!  Hiyi!” chorused the others.

“We’ve got ’em on the run!” yelled Tad, as the circling horsemen swung out into a straight line and began racing across the plains, turning in their saddles to shoot at their assailants.

“Can you see to let them have a few shots into the ground to hurry them along?” called Butler.

“Yes, yes,” yelled the boys.

“Be careful,” warned the professor.  Bang, bang, bang, bang! answered the rifles of the Pony Rider Boys.  The horses of the bandits fairly leaped into the air.  Soon after that they faded into dark, uncertain streaks on the white of the plain.  Now the rifle of the solitary horseman began to speak again.  Joe Withem was not afflicted with any scruples against shooting to hit.  He tumbled one man out of his saddle, but the fellow’s companions scooped up the wounded bandit, carrying him away with them.  Withem thought he saw a man go down, but he could not be sure.

The boys swept past him some distance to the left of the Ranger, still shooting, their purpose being to keep the bandits going until the latter should have been driven so far away that they would not be back that night.

“Swing back!” commanded Tad.  The boys pulled their horses down, and wheeling began trotting back.  A little beyond they saw Withem galloping toward them.

“You were just in time, fellows.  They had me on the hip for sure.”

“I’m glad of it,” called Tad, “for—–­”

“What’s that?  Who are you?” interrupted the lieutenant.  Then he pulled his horse up sharply.  “Well, I’ll be jiggered, if it isn’t you.”

“That’s who it is,” laughed Tad.  “Are you hit?”

“I stopped a couple, but it doesn’t amount to anything.  Just flesh wounds, that’s all.  And you boys put the bandits on the run, eh?” wondered the Ranger lieutenant.  “That’s another one I owe you.  That’s another one the Cap’n owes you too.”

“Don’t mention it.”

“How did they happen to discover you?” asked the professor riding up beside the Ranger.

“That’s what gets me.  I don’t understand it at all.  They must have caught sight of me as I was riding out.  They surely didn’t know I had Dunk with me or they wouldn’t have begun shooting at me.  They’d have tried to pot the pony in the legs and get me afterwards, though I might have stood them off till daylight.”