“When you stop to rest after a hard ride, always unsaddle, whether you unbridle or not, and then wipe the dirt and sweat from where the saddle has been.  It rests a pony more than anything you can do.

“At night, when you are on the plains, always use your saddle for a pillow, then no one can steal it from you.

“Those are the main points.  Any special tricks you’ll pick up from John and the boys.

“Oh, there’s one more thing:  whenever you dismount for any length of time, pull the reins over the pony’s head and either throw them over a post or else let them drag on the ground.  I don’t know why it is, but it seems to make the pony think he is tied.”

The lesson over, Bob and Hal remounted and rode on.

At the request of the latter, the boy related his experience at Ford’s ranch.  As he did so, the agent looked at him with an expression of mingled amazement and approval, and as the story was finished, exclaimed: 

“Bob, you sure are a wonder!  How you had the nerve to face that dog on foot, I don’t see.  Many a man on horseback has been forced to turn and flee.  How did you do it?”

“Oh, I don’t know.  Just looked him in the eye and spoke to him, that’s all.”

But the explanation did not satisfy the agent.

“I don’t understand it,” he said.  “I fully expected to find you lying in Ford’s cabin all chewed up.  And here your clothes aren’t even torn.  I don’t understand it.  This is the first time Chester has ever made friends with anybody.  He only minds Ford because he’s afraid of him.”

CHAPTER XXII

ON THE RANGE STATION

For some time the boy and the man rode in silence, each occupied with his own thoughts.

“Do you know why Mr. Ford calls the dog Chester?” Bob suddenly asked.

“He had to give him some name, I suppose.”

“But it’s such a queer name, Hal.  I asked him and he wouldn’t tell me.”

A moment the agent was silent, evidently debating something with himself, and finally said: 

“I suppose you had better know, Bob, that there’s something queer about John Ford.  They tell a lot of stories about him, but the one most common is that he’s waiting till he gets one hundred thousand dollars before starting on a tour of revenge.

“He told me himself, however, that when he had accumulated that amount he was going to find a man.  But more than that he wouldn’t say.

“If I were you, I wouldn’t ask too many questions.”

During the conversation they had covered so much ground that the roofs of Fairfax village were visible in the distance and as he noticed this, the agent drew rein, saying: 

“I didn’t realize we had come so far.  You’d better go back, Bob.  Suppose you can find the way?”

“Sure.  If I can’t Chester will show me, won’t you, old boy?”