He turned and gave a few directions to the men, together with strict injunctions to keep the two gates between the corrals closed.

“If anything like this happens again,” he warned, “somebody’s going to get fired pretty pronto, savvy?  And do all you can for the bay.  I don’t think he’s seriously hurt, and if we’re careful we can bring him back into shape all right.”

After this, he and the boys returned to the ranch house, where they discussed the recent exciting happenings pro and con.  The boys had planned to take an exploring expedition that afternoon, but all thought of this was banished from their minds.  After a while they returned to the stables, where the stallions were having their wounds doctored.  It appeared that, as Mr. Melton had surmised, neither was very badly injured physically, but the bay stallion’s spirit seemed utterly broken.  After many days, however, he regained the pride which had been so rudely shattered in his encounter with Satan, and proved to be a valuable horse.  He was of a more gentle disposition also, and accepted the overtures of friendship that the boys made toward him, so that before their visit at the ranch came to a close they were on very good terms with him.

CHAPTER IX

The Indian Outbreak

“They seem to be having trouble with the Indians on the reservation,” remarked Mr. Milton one evening, just after his return from a trip to town; “everybody in Helena seems to be talking about it, and there was a big article in the ‘Despatch’ this morning, too.”

“What kind of trouble?” asked Bert, his interest at once aroused.  “You don’t mean there’s talk of an outbreak among them, do you?”

“That’s exactly what I do mean,” replied Mr. Melton seriously.  “The young bucks are discontented, and are continually making ‘war medicine.’  Of course, the old men of the tribes do all they can to keep them within bounds, for they know how useless any outbreak would be.  But the young men have never had the bitter experience of their fathers, and at present they seem very restless.”

“But I thought the days of Indian outbreaks were over,” exclaimed Tom excitedly; “why, they wouldn’t have a ghost of a chance if they started anything now.”

“Just the same there are enough of them to make trouble, if they ever got started,” said Mr. Melton soberly.  “Of course, as you say, the uprising would be suppressed quickly enough, but not perhaps without considerable bloodshed and loss of property.  At any rate, the prospect of such an outbreak is enough to keep people living anywhere near the reservation boundary on the anxious seat.”

“But I should think,” remarked Dick, “that the authorities would make such preparations to subdue an uprising among the Indians that it would be crushed before they had a chance to get off the reservation.”