from the quarters they had occupied. "Everybody get in on this. Whoop her up, boys!"
He leaped to his steed, flourished his hat, and began riding around in a circle, firing his big revolver at intervals.
"That's the ticket!" shouted the others, as they followed his example.
Soon two score of the light-hearted chaps were riding around the little crowd of the boys and their friends, saluting them, and saying farewell in this lively fashion.
"Whoop her up!"
"Never say die!"
"Come again, and we'll exterminate a whole band of redskins for you!"
"And have a cattle stampede made to order any day you want!"
These were only a few of the many expressions from the cowboys.
"Say, if they don't kill themselves, they'll make us deaf, with all that noise," predicted C. C.
"This isn't a funeral," declared Mr. Hadley. "It's a jolly occasion, Gloomy Gus!"
"Huh! Jolly? First you know some one will be hurt."
But no one was, in spite of the direful predictions, and soon the cowboys drew off, with final shots from their revolvers, discharging them in