CHAPTER XVIII.
DAN COMES TO GRIEF.
"Well, this looks as if it was going to be a long-winded search."
"So it does, Ralph; but you must remember that a wild mustang who had been shut up in a corral for a couple of weeks will feel very much like stretching his legs when he gets out."
"We must have come at least eight miles."
"It's nearer ten."
"And we haven't seen the least sign of him."
"Oh, yes, we have; we discovered that trail."
"But we are not sure it was the mustang's."
"I take for granted that it was, for I do not believe any other pony passed this way since it rained."
The boys had not gone on straight ahead, but in a grand semicircle, until the footprints mentioned had been discovered. Now they were riding over a broad patch of prairie land, with a belt of timber to the north and another to the south.
"I wonder if there are any Indians in the
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