There was a wild whoop when they caught sight of Bert, and his comrades flung themselves from the saddle and rushed toward him.  Melton, without dismounting, reached over and gave him a bear grip that said more than words.  Then he straightened up and rode on at the head of his men to meet the rustlers.

The latter, however, did not await his coming.  They broke and ran, bending low over the necks of their horses.  But Melton’s blood was up and he rode them down relentlessly.  Rifle and revolver shots merged into one crackling fusillade.  The cornered outlaws fought to the last ditch when overtaken, and no one asked for quarter.  And when at last the fight was over, five, including the captain, lay stretched lifeless upon the ground.  One, by hard riding and his knowledge of the country, had escaped, and “Red,” still looking dazed and foolish, was a prisoner.

The cowboys were for stringing him up on the spot, but Bert, who had swung up behind Dick and been in at the finish, pleaded hard that his life might be spared.

“You win,” conceded Melton.  “You’ve done too much for me to refuse you anything.  We’ll turn him over to the sheriff, and he’ll have all the chance that’s coming to him, which, between you and me, I think is mighty little.”

Then he turned to Pedro, who, as Bert now noticed for the first time, was sitting tied upon his horse and guarded by two of the ranchmen.

“Cut his ropes,” he commanded, “and turn him loose.  I promised the hound his life if he led me to the rustlers’ camp, and I keep my word.”

Melton gathered his force together and they took up their march for home, jubilant at the success of the expedition.

“It’s all due to you, you young dare-devil,” said Melton, as he and the reunited comrades rode back at the head of the squad.  “Sandy found your pony neighing to get in the corral, and brought your note to Dick.  I nabbed Pedro and handled him some savage until the fellow wilted.  Then we saddled and started out at the first sign of daybreak and you know the rest.  And I guess, by thunder, that we got here just in time.”

And when they reached the ranch, motherly Mrs. Melton folded him in her arms with tears in her eyes, unable to speak.  She washed and bandaged the wound, which proved to be not serious, and sent him straightway off to bed.  Bert laughingly protested, but he had to yield.

* * * * *

It was with immense regret, a few days later, that the boys parted from their warm-hearted host and hostess.  But duty and the East were calling, and they had to go.  They had passed a glorious summer, full of the excitement in which their adventurous souls delighted.  Far out from the car windows they leaned and waved their hands, until the kindly figures on the platform were lost to sight.

The cowboys too had turned out in a body to bid their friends good-by, and, as the train started, they tossed their hats in the air and fired their six-shooters till their cartridges gave out.  Then they wheeled their bronchos and headed for the ranch.