“His knife,” nodded Tad.  “It’s somewhere around here now.”

“Well, I gave him the same medicine that I had given the other.  Now we’d better go and call the others.”

“Thank you.  I’d have been in a bad fix, if you hadn’t come as you did.”

“So might I, had you not stopped the second one.  We’re quits then,” said the guide, extending his hand, which Tad grasped warmly.

“I’ll call the others, if you wish.”

“Yes.”

Tad ran over to the base of the cliff, and shouted loudly for his companions.  In half an hour the party had gathered about the camp fire, engaged in an animated discussion over the stirring experiences of the evening.

It was decided that the Indians should be placed on their ponies, to which they were to be tied, with hands free and provisions enough to last them until they reached their reservation in the northern part of the state;

The guide restored their rifles to them after first taking their ammunition and transferring it to his own kit.

“I’ve wasted nearly that much on you,” he said.  “And, if ever you ride across my trail again, I’ll use your own lead on you in a way that will stop you.  You won’t need bullets like these in the Happy Hunting Grounds, where you’ll be going.  Now, git!”

And they did.  The redskins rode as if a ghost were pursuing them.

“That’s the last, we shall see of those gentlemen,” laughed Kris Kringle.  “To-morrow morning we shall be on our way in peace.”

But the trail of the Pony Rider Boys was not to be all peace.  Before them—­ ere they reached the end of the Silver Trail—­ they were to find other thrilling experiences awaiting them.

CHAPTER XX

 Tilting for the silver spurs

Their journey led the young horsemen across the plains, over low-lying ranges, across broad, barren table-lands and down through the bottom lands until the wide sweep of the Rio Grande River at last lay before them.

After the weeks of arid landscape the sight of water, and so much of it, brought a loud cheer from the Pony Rider Boys.  The next thing was to find a fording place.  This they did late in the afternoon of the same day, and their further journey took them to the little desert town of Puraje.

They camped on the outskirts of the village.

“Here’s where we get a real bath.  Who’s going in swimming with me?” asked Tad.

“I am,” shouted all the boys at once.

The Professor and Kris Kringle concluded that they, too, would take a dip, and a merry hour was spent in a protected cove of the big river, where the boys proved themselves as much at home as they were in the saddle.

In the evening, they purchased such supplies as the town afforded.  The night passed with-out disturbance, the boys taking up their journey next morning before the sleepy town had awakened.