Ruth Fielding at Silver Ranch Part 7

"That double-eagle's mine! Got anything to say against it, boys?"

They cheered her to the echo, and after them came the party of Jane Ann's friends from the East to add their congratulations. But as Ruth and the others rode up Heavy of course had to meet with an accident.

Hard luck always seemed to ride the stout girl like a nightmare!

The pony on which she rode became excited because of the crowd of kicking, squealing cow ponies, and Heavy's seat was not secure. When the pony began to cavort and plunge poor Heavy was shaken right over the pommel of her saddle. Her feet lost the stirrups and she began to scream.

"My-good-ness-me!" she stuttered. "Hold him-still! Stop! Ho-ho-ho--"

And then she slipped right over the pony's rump and would have fallen smack upon the ground had not Tom and Bob, who had both seen her peril, leaped out of their own saddles, and caught the stout girl as she lost her hold on the reins and gave up all hope.

The boys staggered under her weight, but managed to put her upright on her feet, while her pony streaked it off across the plain, very much frightened by such a method of dismounting. It struck the whole crowd as being uproariously funny; but the good-natured and polite cowboys tried to smother their laughter.

"Don't mind me!" exclaimed the stout girl. "Have all the fun you want to. But I don't blame the pony for running away. I have been sitting all along his backbone, from his ears to the root of his tail, and I have certainly jounced my own backbone so loose that it rattles. I believe I'd better walk home."

It was plain that Jennie Stone would never take a high mark in horsemanship; but they caught her pony for her and boosted her on again, and later she rode back to the ranch-house at an easy pace. But she declared that for the remainder of her stay at Silver Ranch she proposed to ride only in the automobile or in a carriage.

But Ruth was vastly enamored of this new play of pony riding. She had a retentive memory and kept in mind all that Bashful Ike told her about the management of her own Freckles. She was up early each morning and had a gallop over the prairie before her friends were out of their beds.

And when Mr. Hicks stated one day that he had to ride to Bullhide on business, Ruth begged the privilege of riding with him, although the rest of the young folks did not care to take such a long trip in the hot sun.

"I've some business to attend to for my uncle," Ruth explained to the ranchman, as they started from the ranch-house soon after breakfast.

"And I want your advice."

"Sure, Ruthie," he said, "I'll advise ye if I can."

So she told him about Uncle Jabez's mixup with the Tintacker mining properties. Bill Hicks listened to this tale with a frowning brow.

"Bless your heart, Miss!" he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed. "I believe you're chasin' a wild goose. I reckon your uncle's been stung. These wildcat mining properties are just the kind that greenhorn Easterners get roped into. I don't believe there's ten cents' worth of silver to the ton in all the Tintacker district. It played out years ago."

"Well, that may be," returned Ruth, with a sigh. "But I want to see the records and learn just how the Tintacker Mine itself stands on the books. I want to show Uncle Jabez that I honestly tried to do all that I could for him while I was here."

"That's all right, Ruthie. You shall see the records," declared Mr.

Hicks. "I know a young lawyer in town that will help you, too; and it sha'n't cost you a cent. He's a friend of mine."

"Oh, thank you," cried Ruth, and rode along happily by the big cattleman's side.

They were not far from the house when Bashful Ike, who had been out on the range on some errand, came whooping over the low hills to the North, evidently trying to attract their attention. Mr. Hicks growled:

"Now, what does that feller want? I got a list as long as my arm of things to tote back for the boys. Better have driv' a mule waggin, I reckon, to haul the truck home on."

But it was Ruth the foreman wished to speak to. He rode up, very red in the face, and stammering so that Bill Hicks demanded, with scorn:

"What's a-troubling you, Ike? You sputter like a leaky tea-kettle. Can't you out with what you've got to say to the leetle gal, an' let us ride on?"

"I-I was just a thinkin' that mebbe you-you could do a little errand for me, Miss," stammered Bashful Ike.

"Gladly, Mr. Stedman," returned Ruth, hiding her own amus.e.m.e.nt.

"It-it's sort of a tick-lish job," said the cowboy. "I-I want ye should buy a leetle present. It's-it's for a lady--"

Bill snorted. "You goin' to invest your plunder in more dew-dabs for Sally d.i.c.kson, Ike? Yah! she wouldn't look at you cross-eyed."

Bashful Ike's face flamed up redder than ever-if that was possible.

"I don't want her to look at me cross-eyed," he said. "She couldn't look cross-eyed. She's the sweetest and purtiest gal on this range, and don't you forgit that, Mr. Hicks."

"Sho, now! don't git riled at me," grunted the older man. "No offense intended. But I hate to see you waste your time and money on a gal that don't give two pins for ye, Ike."

"I ain't axin' her to give two pins for me," said Ike, with a sort of groan. "I ain't up to the mark with her-I know that. But thar ain't no law keepin' me from spending my money as I please, is there?"

"I dunno," returned Bill Hicks. "Maybe there's one that'll cover the case and send a feller like you to the foolish factory. Sally d.i.c.kson won't have nothing to say to you."

"Never mind," said Ike, grimly. "You take this two dollar bill, Miss Ruthie-if you will. And you buy the nicest box o' candy yo' kin find in Bullhide. When you come back by Lem d.i.c.kson's, jest drop it there for Sally. Yo' needn't say who sent it," added the bashful cowboy, wistfully. "Jest-jest say one o' the boys told you to buy it for her.

That's all, Miss. It won't be too much trouble?"

"Of course it won't, Mr. Stedman," declared Ruth, earnestly. "I'll gladly do your errand."

"Thank you, Miss," returned the foreman, and spurring his horse he rode rapidly away to escape further remarks from his boss.

CHAPTER VIII-WHAT WAS ON THE RECORDS

"Now, what can you do with a feller like that?" demanded Mr. Hicks, in disgust. "Poor old Ike has been shinning around Sally d.i.c.kson ever since Lem brought her home from school-from Denver. And she's a nice little gal enough, at that; but she ain't got no use for Ike and he ought to see it. Gals out here don't like fellers that ain't got sperit enough to say their soul's their own. And Ike's so bashful he fair hates hisself!

You've noticed that."

"But he's just as kind and good-natured as he can be," declared Ruth, her pony cantering on beside the ranchman's bigger mount.

"That don't help a feller none with a gal like Sally," grunted Mr.

Hicks. "She don't want a reg'lar _gump_ hanging around her. Makes her the laffin' stock of the hull range-don't you see? Ike better git a move on, if he wants her. 'Tain't goin' to be no bashful 'ombre that gets Sally d.i.c.kson, let me tell ye! Sendin' her lollipops by messenger-bah!

He wants ter ride up and hand that gal a ring-and a good one-if he expects to ever git her into double harness. Now, you hear me!"

"Just the same," laughed Ruth, "I'm going to buy the nicest box of candy I can find, and she shall know who paid for it, too."

And she found time to purchase the box of candy while Mr. Hicks was attending to his own private business in Bullhide. The town boasted of several good stores as well as a fine hotel. Ruth went to the railroad station, however, where there was sure to be fresh candies from the East, and she bought the handsomest box she could find. Then she wrote Ike's name nicely on a card and had it tucked inside the wrapper, and the clerk tied the package up with gilt cord.

"I'll make that red-haired girl think that Ike knows a few things, after all, if he is less bold than the other boys," thought Ruth. "He's been real kind to me and maybe I can help him with Sally. If she knew beans she'd know that Ike was true blue!"

Mr. Hicks came along the street and found her soon after Ruth's errand was done and took her to the office of the young lawyer he had mentioned. This was Mr. Savage-a brisk, businesslike man, who seemed to know at once just what the girl wished to discover.

"You come right over with me to the county records office and we'll look up the history of those Tintacker Mines," he said. "Mr. Hicks knows a good deal about mining properties, and he can check my work as we go along."

So the three repaired to the county offices and the lawyer turned up the first records of the claims around Tintacker.

"There is only one mine called Tintacker," he explained. "The adjacent mines are Tintacker _claims_. The camp that sprang up there and flourished fifteen years ago, was called Tintacker, too. But for more than ten years the kiotes have held the fort over there for the most part-eh, Mr. Hicks?"

"And that crazy feller that's been around yere for some months," the ranchman said.