"Oh, goody!" exclaimed Horace. "We may be able to go, after all.
Momsy, won't you try to make father take us?"

It was only with this last question that Mrs. Wilder understood the
purpose of her son's eager inquiries, and the disclosure did not
tend to quiet the anxiety she felt over the outcome of the pursuit.
Yet she only said:

"That is a question for your father to decide. I think, though,
that you would want to stay here and protect me."

"But you are in no danger, Momsy. Besides, Ned and Hop Joy are
here."

The thought of the Chinaman as a protector made the other boys
laugh, and realizing that they could not count on her espousal of
their cause, they went off to the wagon sheds to devise a plan to
win permission from the ranchman.

As the owner of the Half-Moon galloped up to the ranch house of the
Three Stars his horse literally dripping water, Jim Snider and his
cowboys ran up from all directions to learn the cause of such
evident hard riding.

To the accompaniment of various exclamations of anger and surprise
Mr. Wilder hurriedly told his neighbors of the raid.

"That's Megget's work!" ejaculated Snider as the story was
completed. "He's the only one cute enough and with nerve enough to
do it. I didn't suppose any one knew my herd was unwatched, yet