The foreman of the Bar-20 was cleaning his rifle when he heard the
hoof-beats of a galloping horse and he ran around the corner of the
house to meet the newcomer, whom he thought to be a courier from the
Double Arrow. Frenchy dismounted and explained why he returned alone.
Buck listened to the report and then, noting the fire which gleamed
in his friend's eyes, nodded his approval to the course. "I reckon
it's Trendley, Frenchy-I've heard a few things since yu left. An' yu
can bet that if Hopalong an' Red have gone for him he'll be found. I
expect action any time now, so we'll light th' signal fire." Then he
hesitated; "Yu light it-yu've been waiting a long time for this."
The balls of smoke which rolled upward were replied to by other
balls at different points on the plain, and the Bar-20 prepared to
feed the numbers of hungry punchers who would arrive within the next
twenty-four hours.
Two hours had not passed when eleven men rode up from the Three
Triangle, followed eight hours later by ten from the O-Bar-O. The
outfits of the Star Circle and the Barred Horseshoe, eighteen in all,
came next and had scarcely dismounted when those of the C-80 and the
Double Arrow, fretting at the delay, rode up. With the sixteen from
the Bar-20 the force numbered seventy-five resolute and pugnacious
cowpunchers, all aching to wipe out the indignities suffered.
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