He was thinking how nice it would be to have a bear cub for a pet.

But it was funny that the Happy Family had never found him one, if there were any in the country.
He turned to put the question direct to H.J.Owens, I but that gentleman forestalled him.
"You wait here a minute, Buck, while I ride back on this hill a little ways to see if those fellows are on our trail," he said, and rode off before the Kid could ask him the question.
The Kid waited obediently.

He saw H.J.Owens get off his horse and go sneaking up to the brow of the hill, and take some field glasses out of his pocket and look all around over the prairie with them.

The sight tingled the Kid's blood so that he almost forgot about the bear cub.

It was almost exactly like fighting Injuns, like Uncle Gee-gee told about when he wasn't cross.
In a few minutes Owens came back to the Kid, and they went on slowly, keeping always in the low, grassy places where there would be no tracks left to tell of their passing that way.