"I believe it's Bad Pete coming," declared Harry, as he made out,
a quarter of a mile behind them, the form of a man mounted on
a small, wiry mustang.

"Yep; it is," nodded the Colorado boy, after a look back.

The trail being wider here Bad Pete whirled by them with a swift
drumming of his pony's hoofs. In a few moments more he was out
of sight.

"Tom, you may have your doubts about that fellow," Hazelton remarked,
"but there's one thing he can do---ride!"

"Humph! Anyone can ride that knows enough to get into a saddle
and stick there," observed the Colorado boy dryly.

Readers of the "_Grammar School Boys Series_" and of the "_High School
Boys Series_", have already recognized in Tom Reade and Harry Hazelton
two famous schoolboy athletes.

Back in old Gridley there had once been a schoolboy crowd of six,
known as Dick & Co. Under the leadership of Dick Prescott, these
boys had made their start in athletics in the Central Grammar
School, winning no small amount of fame as junior schoolboy athletes.

Then in their High School days Dick & Co. had gradually made
themselves crack athletes. Baseball and football were their especial
sports, and in these they had reached a degree of skill that had
made many a college trainer anxious to obtain them.