Читать книгу Grace Harlowe's Overland Riders at Circle O Ranch онлайн

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“Here, here!” interrupted Tom Gray. “Stacy, let these men alone and pack your pony. Jim-Sam, you will stop your quarreling and do your work or we may change our minds about taking you along.”

“You understand, we wish to head for the Bindloss ranch—the Circle O Ranch, I believe they call it. We do not know Bindloss, but we propose to get acquainted with him.” Hippy grinned as he said it.

“This really promises to be a peaceful journey,” observed Miss Briggs solemnly, whereat the Overland girls gave way to the merriment that for some moments they had been restraining, then preparations for the start were resumed with renewed speed and vigor.

Departure for the Circle O was made within an hour. The Circle O was a ranch where a friend of Lieutenant Hippy Wingate had put up while on a hunting trip in the mountains some time before, and it was because of what his friend had told him of Old Joe Bindloss and his ranch that Hippy decided to take in the Circle O on their summer’s ride.

The start was accomplished to the accompaniment of shouts and yells from Jim-Sam to get the mules started and headed in the right direction as well as to keep them going. It was a task that proved too much for the old guides, who, finally, after getting well out in the valley, rode on ahead with the Overlanders. The pack-mules, finding themselves being left behind, increased their pace and soon caught up with the outfit.