Bar-20 Days

  CHAPTER XV

  JOHNNY LEARNS SOMETHING

  For several weeks after Hopalong got back to the ranch, full ofinteresting stories and minus the grouch, things went on in a way placidenough for the most peacefully inclined individual that ever sat asaddle. And then trouble drifted down from the north and caused a lookof anxiety to spoil Buck Peters' pleasant expression, and began to showon the faces of his men. When one finds the carcasses of two cows on thesame day, and both are skinned, there can be only one conclusion. Thekilling and skinning of two cows out of herds that are numbered bythousands need not, in themselves, bring lines of worry to any foreman'sbrow; but there is the sting of being cheated, the possibility of thelosses going higher unless a sharp lesson be given upon the follyof fooling with a very keen and active buzz-saw,--and it was thedetermination of the outfit of the Bar-20 to teach that lesson, and asquickly as circumstances would permit.

  It was common knowledge that there was a more or less organized band ofshiftless malcontents making its headquarters in and near Perry's Bend,some distance up the river, and the deduction in this case was easy. TheBar-20 cared very little about what went on at Perry's Bend--that wasa matter which concerned only the ranches near that town--as long as novexatious happenings sifted too far south. But they had so sifted, andPerry's Bend, or rather the undesirable class hanging out there, was dueto receive a shock before long.

  About a week after the finding of the first skinned cows, Pete Wilsontornadoed up to the bunk house with a perforated arm. Pete was on foot,having lost his horse at the first exchange of shots, which accountsfor the expression describing his arrival. Pete hated to walk, he hatedstill more to get shot, and most of all he hated to have to admit thathis rifle-shooting was so far below par. He had seen the thief at workand, too eager to work up close to the cattle skinner before announcinghis displeasure, had missed the first shot. When he dragged himself outfrom under his deceased horse the scenery was undisturbed save for asmall cloud of dust hovering over a distant rise to the north of him.After delivering a short and bitter monologue he struck out forthe ranch and arrived in a very hot and wrathful condition. It wascontagious, that condition, and before long the entire outfit was inthe saddle and pounding north, Pete overjoyed because his wound was soslight as not to bar him from the chase. The shock was on the way,and as events proved, was to be one long to linger in the minds of theinhabitants of Perry's Bend and the surrounding range.