Though Tad’s eyes were smarting from the blow of the sombrero, he allowed the eyelids to droop well over them, thus protecting them from the dust and at the same time giving him a clearer vision.

On his next turn, Tad tore down the narrow lane; he shot between the posts like an arrow, and the tilting peg was driven far into the narrow hoop, wedging the ring on so firmly that it afterwards required force to loosen and remove it.

Without halting his pony, Tad rode on, out a circle and came back at a lively gallop, pulling up before the stand of dry goods boxes, where the young woman who was to award the prize stood swinging her handkerchief, while the spectators set up a deafening roar of applause.

Tad was holding the tilting peg aloft, displaying the ring wedged on it.  He made the young woman a sweeping bow, his sombrero almost touching the ground as he did so.

Another shout went up when the handsome spurs were handed to him, which the enthusiastic young woman first wrapped in her own handkerchief before passing the prize over to him.  And amid the din, Tad heard the familiar “Oh, Wow!  Wow!” in the shrill voice of Stacy Brown.

CHAPTER XXI

 The fat boy’s discovery

“I saw him!  I saw him, Tad!”

“Saw who, Chunky?”

“I tell you, I did.  Don’t you s’pose I know what my eyes tell me in confidence.  Don’t you to go to contradicting to me.”

Stacy had fairly overwhelmed Tad Butler with the importance of his discovery; but, thus far, Tad had not the least idea what it was all about.

“When you get quieted down perhaps you’ll be good enough to tell me who it is you saw?”

“The man, the man!”

“Humph!  That’s about as clear as the water in an alkali sink.  What man?”

“The one we saw on the train.  Don’t you know?”

Tad thought a moment.

“You mean the one we heard talking just before we got to Bluewater?” Butler had entirely forgotten the incident.

“Yes; that’s him!  That’s him,” exploded Stacy.

“You say that fellow—­ Lasar, that’s his name—­ is he here!”

“Uh-huh.”

“Where?”

“He got off the stage down by the postoffice, just when I was coming up here.”

“Was he alone?”

“The other fellow wasn’t with him, if that’s what you mean?”

“Yes.”  Tad went over in his mind the conversation the man Lasar had held with his companion, in which the pair were plotting against some one by the name of Marquand.

“Oh, well, Chunky, it’s none of our concern.  I think we must have magnified the incident.  I—­”

“He’ll bear watching, Tad.  He will and it’s muh—­ muh—­ you understand who’s going to do it,” declared Chunky, swelling out his chest and tapping it with his right fist.

“All right, go ahead,” laughed Tad.  “It’s time some of us get into more trouble.  The Professor will begin to think we’ve got a fever, or something, if we let two days in succession pass without stirring up something.”