Page:Ruth Fielding at Silver Ranch.djvu/41

Rh "Oh! is it really a prairie fire?" asked Ruth, of Jane Ann. "Can't we see it?"

"You bet we will," declared the ranchman's niece. "Leave it to me. I'll get the horse-wrangler to hitch up a pair of ponies and we'll go over there. Wish you girls could ride."

"Helen rides," said Ruth, quickly.

"But not our kind of horses, I reckon," returned Jane Ann, as she started after the cowboys. "But Tom and Bob can have mounts. Come on, boys!"

"We'll get into trouble, like enough, if we go to this fire," objected Madge Steele.

"Come on!" said Heavy. "Don't let's show the white feather. These folks will think we haven't any pluck at all. Eastern girls can be just as courageous as Western girls, I believe."

But all the time Ruth was puzzling over something that the cowboy, Scrub Weston, had said when he gave warning of the fire. He had mentioned Tintacker and suggested that the fire had been set by somebody whom Ruth supposed the cowboys must think was crazy—otherwise she could not explain that expression, "Bughouse Johnny." These range riders were very rough of speech, but certainly their language was expressive!

This Tintacker Mine in which she was so deeply interested—for Uncle Jabez's sake—must be