The girls soon saw that she was perfectly at home with any musical instrument, and that the boys were, too.

Evelyn had the girls up with the sun the next morning. They were not in the habit of starting the day so early, but she laughed at them and told them they didn't know how to live.

She soon had them in the kitchen, where Jack had started a fire in the range, and began giving them culinary lessons.

It was great fun for her, and also for Fred and Terry.

Some two or three days later Fred left the ranch, going up by the pa.s.senger train, which was flagged for him to board it, and at Crabtree he took a train for points a hundred miles east, where he hired a team and driver to take him around among the ranches all through that section. He spent a week inspecting cattle, buying them and having them shipped down to the ranch.

Finally, in order to make up the order that he wanted, he had to drive back to the railroad and go further eastward; so he was gone about ten days. He paid for the cattle with checks on the bank at Crabtree, but in some instances the cattlemen rode down to Crabtree to see whether or not the checks were good before they would ship the cattle.

When Fred returned to the ranch he found the two girl visitors still with Evelyn, and learned from them that they were willing to stay out there just as long as Evelyn wished them to.

"You haven't gotten tired of the ranch yet?" he asked.

"No, indeed. We never enjoyed ourselves better away from home in our lives. Mr. Olcott and Evelyn are undoubtedly the finest musicians we ever heard. That piano is a grand instrument, and every evening, when the weather is fine, the cowboys dance in the yard to their playing; and, Mr. Fearnot, I really believe that every horse and cow and pig and chicken on the ranch is in love with Evelyn Olcott, while she has such influence over the cowboys that I believe she could make them do murder at her command."

Fred laughed and said:

"Yes, she has that same influence over me, too."

The girls looked at Evelyn and laughed, and she remarked:

"Didn't I tell you that every sort of animal is susceptible to kindness?"

"Why, do you mean to call Mr. Fearnot an animal?"

"Certainly. Every man and woman is just as much an animal as a horse or cow is."

Both the girls opened their eyes wide and Evelyn and Fred and Terry laughed heartily at them.

"Why, didn't you know that man is an animal?" Fred inquired.

"No, indeed. Never heard of such a thing before in my life," and then both Fred and Terry fell to explaining the matter to them. The younger of the two sisters said they made her feel "cheap" by proving to her that she was a mere animal.

"Oh, be careful with your words. Neither of us have said that you were a mere animal," said Terry. "Man belongs to the animal kingdom just as any four-footed beast does. Generally the things that will kill any brute will also kill a man. Both have flesh and blood, eat and drink; but man is, of course, the highest grade of the animal kingdom. They are divided into different tribes, just as animals are into different species. The Caucasian is the highest type, and the grades go down from this point until we reach the bushmen of Australia, who are said to be the lowest type of mankind."

The girls were highly interested in his talk, and on the piazza and on the front steps cowboys were listening with the deepest interest.

They, too, had never thought of the subject; but Fred and Terry were very familiar with it, for they had both studied it very deeply.

A few days after Fred's return from his trip, during which he had bought another thousand head of cattle, the cattle began arriving.

Then Fred and Terry and the cowboys were all very busy. The cars were run down to the stockpen, where they were unloaded and turned loose into their new home. Many of them were evidently very hungry, and had probably been kept penned up for several days before the cars which were to bring them down were sent up for them.

"By George, Terry," said Fred, "that lot of cattle is almost starved.

The ranchmen didn't feed them while keeping them penned up waiting for the train."

"Yes, and they ought to be made to pay for it, Fred."

"Oh, what's the use? They'll soon pick up on this ranch, but really I think they ought to be punished for their heartlessness. Just because they were sold they wouldn't give them any extra feed."

The girls came down and saw the cattle leave the cars and run down the gangway that led into the stockpen, from which they pa.s.sed hurriedly into the ranch.

Evelyn had seen cattle shipped and unloaded before, but her two visitors had not, so they stood and watched the process of unloading for several hours.

"Fred," said Terry, after seeing several carloads of the cattle turned out, "I think that, on an average, they are a very fine lot of cattle."

"Well, I tried to be careful, Terry, and I am glad I was, for there were quite a number who tried to pan off poor cattle on me. Their brand is already registered, just the same as ours. Of course, their calves we will have to put our registered brand on, and after a while we will have to add it to the brand of the original owners."

The addition another thousand cattle to the ranch made a pretty good display.

Both Fred and Terry made a careful count of every beef that arrived.

They both rather suspected that they would come up a little short, but to their very great gratification every carload panned out according to the bill.

They were all of the long-horned species, and some of them were very large. The train was run on a sidetrack, and as fast as the cars were emptied they were moved further down the sidetrack until every car had been emptied.

"Oh, my, Fred!" said Evelyn, "surely some of those cattle must have been hurt, crowded as they were in those cars, with such long horns."

A careful inspection was made and not one was found to be seriously hurt. Fred had stipulated with the ranchmen whom he had bought front that only a given number should be placed in a car, and Superintendent Westervelt had warned the employees of the road not to exceed the limit.

That night Fred and Terry rode all around the enclosed part of the range on the lookout for wolves, and also to let the cowboys see that they were expected to do their work faithfully.

The new cattle grazed incessantly, but nothing occurred during the night to start an alarm among them. The majority of them, as dark set in, laid down to sleep or to chew their cud.

The two boys turned in at about two o'clock in the morning.

The next day one of the cowboys came in and reported that somebody down at the lower end of the ranch had cut out a complete panel of the barbed wire, thus leaving a wide gap for the cattle to go through.

Fred and Terry hurried down there on their horses with their Winchesters, accompanied by two of their most expert and faithful cowboys and made a thorough investigation.

They could see the tracks of three men, who had probably cut the wires; but they were unable to find the trail of any cattle pa.s.sing through the gap. In fact, none of the cattle had done any grazing that far down.

They sent a cowboy back up to the ranch-house and had him bring down a coil of wire and the necessary tools to connect it with the wires that had been cut, and when that was done they detailed one-half of their force to watch the line of the fence at that end of the ranch during the following night.

They taught them a series of signals, which must be given and answered before firing at any one.

"Now, boys," said Fred, "be careful. We don't want any innocent man hurt, but if you find any one tampering with the fence give him a chance to cut just one wire to establish his guilt and then call a halt. If he doesn't hold up open fire on him, and keep firing until he comes down.

Both Olcott and I will be moving about the greater part of the night. We want all cattle thieves to understand that they can't steal any of our cattle with impunity."

That night, after singing and playing at the house with the girls, the boys mounted their horses and started for the lower end of the ranch.

When they reached there they dismounted, hitched their horses in the timber and started down the line on foot. They found the cowboys that they had stationed along the line in their respective places. They were very prompt in exchanging signals, and they spoke in whispers so that their voices might not be overheard.

By and by in the starlight they saw about a score of cattle going through the gra.s.s as though they were being driven by somebody.

Fred and Terry crouched down in the gra.s.s and watched them.

They both became fully satisfied that some one was driving them, and they ran along with the cattle in order to ascertain where they were going, and why. They were very near the corner of the fence, for, as the reader doubtless remembers, they had enclosed only twenty of the forty thousand acres, as they thought that was about as much as they would have need for inside of the next two years.