“That must be the place,” he exclaimed and, quickly leaving the track, started across the prairie.  But Bob found that walking on the ties was easy compared to forcing his way through waist-high grass and stubborn sage-brush.

CHAPTER XIX

AN AMAZING RECEPTION

At last, however, Bob emerged into a clearing and stopped to survey the group of buildings.  The one with the red roof faced the track and was built of logs.  It was only one story high and about twenty feet long.  The other two stood one on each side and were about twice as long but no higher.  Back of the building, toward the west, was an enclosure surrounded by a high fence.

Had any one familiar with ranches been with Bob, they could have told him that enclosure was the corral, into which the cowboys turned their ponies when at the ranch, that the long building nearest the corral was the bunkhouse for the cowboys, and that the other long structure was the eating-house and storeroom of the ranch.  But it was not long before Bob learned these facts for himself.

To all appearances, there was not a soul in any of the three houses and, as Bob stood gazing at them, trying to discover some sign of life, for he was loath to take the long tramp back to Fairfax without at least having asked Ranchman Ford for a job, he was suddenly startled to see a huge dog bounding toward him, its lips drawn back disclosing wickedly-long fangs.

Bob’s first impulse was to flee, but such tremendous leaps did the creature take that he realized it would be only a few minutes before the dog would overtake him.  Then it flashed through his mind that this might be the ranchman’s way of “trying out” strangers who came to his door, and the boy determined to stand his ground.

“I’ll show them that a ‘tenderfoot’ has some courage,” Bob said, as he braced himself for the impact when the dog should leap upon him.

All the while, he had been steadily looking into the dog’s eyes, and just as the creature was upon him the same power that had urged him to come to the Ford ranch seemed to tell him to speak to the animal.

“Steady, boy!  Steady!  I’m not going to do any harm here,” he exclaimed.

Whether in surprise at the boy’s unusual procedure in facing him—­most callers at the ranch either hastened away or yelled to Ford to call off his dog—­or what, the beast hesitated before his last leap that would have brought him on top of Bob and then, beginning to prance playfully, he approached fawningly.

“Good boy!  That’s the way.  We ought to be good friends, you and I. Come here,” exclaimed Bob, and as the dog came up, he patted his head caressingly.

The boy’s relief was so great at finding the savage beast did not attempt to tear him limb from limb that he failed to notice the door of the red-roofed cabin open and a grizzled head emerge.