Produced by Al Haines
Trailing The Yaquis
By
Author of "The Boy Ranchers," "The Boy Ranchers In Camp," "The Boy
Ranchers on The Trail," etc.
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
High and clear the sweet, western wind brought over the rolling hillsthe sound of singing. At least it was singing of a sort, for there wasa certain swing and rhythm accompanying the words. As the melodyfloated toward them, three young cowboys, seated at ease in theirsaddles, looked up and in the direction of the singer.
Thus the song.
"Oh, bury me out on th' lonesome prairie!
Put a stone under my haid!
Cover me up with a rope an' a saddle!
'Cause why? My true-love is daid * * * * * *"
It is impossible in cold print to indicate the mournful andlong-drawn-out accent on the word "dead," to rhyme with head.
"Here comes Slim!" exclaimed one of the youthful cow punchers to hiscompanions.
"As if we didn't know that, Dick!" laughed the slighter of two ladswho, from their close resemblance, could be nothing less than brothers.
"His voice doesn't improve with age; does it, Nort?" asked Bud Merkel,smiling at his cousins, Norton and Richard Shannon.
"But he means well," declared Nort with a chuckle. "Oh, you Slim!" heshouted, as a tall lanky individual, mounted on a pony of likeproportions, ambled into view, topping a slight rise of the trail."Oh, you Slim!"
The older cowboy—a man, to be exact—who had been about to break forthinto the second, or forty-second verse of his song (there being in allseventy-two stanzas, so it doesn't much matter which one isdesignated)—the older cowboy, I say, paused with his mouth open, and ablank look on his face. Then he grinned—that is the only word forit—and cried:
"Well, I'm a second cousin to a ham sandwich! Where'd you fellows comefrom?"
"We haven't come—we're just going!" laughed Bud. "We're going over tosee Dad and the folks. How are they all?"
"Oh, they're sittin' pretty! Sittin' pretty!" affirmed Slim Degnan,with a mingled smile and grin. "How'd you fellows come out with yourspring round-up?"
"Pretty f