"Think ye"d like to go on a hunting party, do ye?" asked the soldier.
"Get up yer record for marksmanship, then."
"What"s done with the game?" asked Noll innocently.
"What----" the soldier started to repeat. Then he added, dryly:
"Oh, we send the game to the hospitals in Denver and Pueblo, of course!"
"Don"t we get any of it to eat?" asked Noll, looking up.
"Say, don"t ever go off with a party that doesn"t bring back a big haul of game," advised the older soldier. "If ye do, the company cooks will lynch ye. Why, that"s what we go hunting for--to vary the bill of fare here at the post. Sometimes, when we"re all just aching for bear steaks, an officer and twenty or thirty men all hike off at once into the mountain trails. There are plenty of game dinners at Clowdry, at different times in the year."
Then the soldier climbed leisurely to the seat of his wagon and started on again.
"I wonder if he was fooling us about hunting parties," mused Hal.
Later on, however, the rookies discovered that the soldier had told them the truth. On some of the Western posts, hunting forms one of the diversions of the men.
Presently they met another soldier, this time afoot.
"How far can we go without getting off the reservation?" Hal inquired.
"The way you"re headed now you can go another mile without getting off limits," the soldier replied.
"Reservation" is a term applied to the limits of an Army post. Wherever an Army post exists it includes land reserved by the United States from the jurisdiction of the individual state. Hence the name of reservation.
It was wilder country out here, away from the well-kept roads.
"Come on," urged Hal. "I"m going to take a good walk yet."
They had gone along, briskly, for at least another half mile when some flying missile went by Hal"s head. Noll, who was just behind him, saw the missile, and watched it land on the ground beyond.
"Whoever is throwing rocks of that size--quit!" shouted Noll, wheeling to his left and glaring at an irregularly-shaped ledge some sixty yards away.
"Let"s see who it is, anyway," cried Hal, darting toward the ledge.
By the time they reached the ledge they heard some lively scrambling among the rocks beyond, but neither rookie could see anyone. All was quiet for a few moments. Then a foot slipped on a stone, at a little distance. Hal raced straight in the direction of the sound. He was in time to see a crouching, running figure darting in and out among the rocks.
"Come on, Noll! We"ve got him!" yelled Hal.
In another minute they had overtaken the fugitive, who now stood panting at bay.
"Well, you"re a nice one!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Private Hal Overton.
"Tip Branders--out here in Colorado!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Noll Terry.
"No; my name ain"t Branders. Ye"ve got me mixed up with somebody else!"
glowered the young man at bay.
CHAPTER XVI
THE MYSTERY OF POST THREE
"OH, no, your name isn"t Tip Branders!" mocked Hal Overton.
"That"s what I said," retorted the young man at bay.
"Then how do you know who we are?"
"I don"t know who ye are, and what"s more, I don"t care," retorted the other.
"Tip, I guess you"ve forgotten to write home lately," broke in Noll.
"What would you say if you should hear that your uncle in Australia had died and left your mother more than two million dollars?"
The young man"s eyes opened very wide indeed. He gasped, and then his eyes flashed eagerly.
"Has the old lady all that money?" he demanded. "Noll Terry, what else do you know about it?"
The young man came briskly forward now, all trembling with eagerness.
"I don"t know anything at all about it," retorted Noll coolly, "and I don"t believe it either."
"But you said----"
"Oh, Tip, what an idiot you are to think you can deny your ident.i.ty to us," jeered Noll, while Hal laughed merrily.
"Say, if you"re trying to have sport with me," snarled Tip, "I"ll----"
"Is it your idea of sport to shy rocks at us?" demanded Private Hal.
"I didn"t shy anything at you," a.s.serted Tip sullenly.
"Why, for that matter," Hal went on jeeringly, "I don"t suppose you"ll even admit that you"re here, at all?"
"Don"t get too festive, just because you"ve got the government"s blue clothes on," Tip retorted sullenly. "A plain, ordinary soldier ain"t such a much."
"Opinions may differ about that, of course," Hal admitted. "But being a soldier was too much of a job for you to get a chance at, wasn"t it, Tip?"
"I"m just as well suited as it is," rejoined Tip, flushing a bit, none the less.
"You haven"t told us what you"re doing out in this country," Noll suggested.
"And I don"t know that it"s any of your business, either," Branders went on. "Ain"t nothing to be ashamed of, though. You know I used to travel a bit with the political crowd at home."
"With the heelers of the city," Noll amended.