I am going to stop at the ranch and ask the Dean for the team and buckboard, though," he added, as he climbed painfully into the saddle.

"Adios! my children.

Don't stay out too late." Hand in hand they watched him rejoin his companions and ride away behind the two Tailholt Mountain men.
The Dean and Mrs.Baldwin, with their friends from the neighboring ranch, were enjoying their Sunday afternoon together as old friends will, when the three Reid boys and Little Billy came running from the corral where they had been holding an amateur bronco riding contest with a calf for the wild and wicked outlaw.

As they ran toward the group under the walnut trees, the lads disturbed the peaceful conversation of their elders with wild shouts of "Patches has come back! Patches has come back! Nick Cambert is with him--so's Yavapai Joe!" Jim Reid sprang to his feet.

But the Dean calmly kept his seat, and glancing up at his big friend with twinkling eyes, said to the boys, with pretended gruffness, "Aw, what's the matter with you kids?
Don't you know that horse thief Patches wouldn't dare show himself in Williamson Valley again?
You're havin' bad dreams--that's what's the matter with you.