Whenever the boys passed a pond on the prairie they stopped and grunted till the young ’gators came to the surface.  One day Dick fired a shot near enough to splash one that had come up, but in ten minutes the reptile had forgotten his scare and again answered the call.  Dick was disposed to wade in the pond and catch the little ’gator, but Ned coaxed him out of the notion and proposed that they find a cave and rope another ’gator to cheer up Dick’s pet, which he said was getting lonesome.  This pleased Dick and the boys spent half a day finding an inhabited cave, when they secured its occupant with no trouble excepting that, as the alligator came out of his hole, Dick slipped on the muddy turf and was dragged into the pond.  The ’gator was soon brought out on the prairie and its jaws tied.  It was larger than the one first captured, and Dick didn’t try to carry it on his back, but led and dragged it the entire distance.

As the boys approached their camp they saw a skiff, with two rough-looking men in it, just being pushed from the bank.  Ned called to the men, but received no reply, and the skiff was rowed rapidly away.

“That spells trouble,” said Ned.  “Those are the fellows that our outlaw warned us against.”

The boys found their stores in some confusion and a lot of them had disappeared, and with them had gone Ned’s rifle, which he had left in camp.  Ned was quite too angry to speak and walked quickly to the canoe, followed by Dick.

“What are you going to do, Ned?”

“Going to get that rifle.”

“All right.  I’m with you.”

“Dick, I’m going alone.  It’s a fool’s errand and I don’t want you mixed up in it.”

“Maybe it is a fool’s errand, I guess it is, and that’s the very reason I’m going with you, Ned.  You know I’m going, that I wouldn’t miss going with you for the world and you haven’t any right to ask me to be a sneak and crawl out of the trouble, for it is trouble and probably big trouble.”

“Why, Dick, boy, I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings, and I’m sure glad to have you with me, only you must let me manage when we find those fellows.”

“Of course you’ll run the thing and I won’t interfere, unless it becomes mighty necessary, which is quite some likely.”

As they got into the canoe Dick said: 

“Don’t you want the shotgun?”

“No.  Got better weapons than that.”

“Glad of it.  You’ll need ’em.”

The boys paddled rapidly down the narrow river for several miles before they came up to the men they were seeking, who were then just getting out of the little skiff into a larger one which had a canvas cover and was evidently used as a camp.

Dick guided the canoe beside the larger boat and Ned spoke quietly to one of the men, who was scowling at him.

“You know what I have come for.  I want my rifle.”

“What rifle?  I don’t know anything about your rifle.”