"If you please. I should like to try the ponies that we are to
ride."

"Do--do they always kick and buck as we saw them do just now?"
questioned Miss Briggs apprehensively.

The guide shook his head and grinned.

"They don't like to be roped, that's all. No bronco does. They'll
be as all right as a bronc' can be, so long as you don't use the
spur or get the critters stubborn."

"If you say they are perfectly safe for my friends to ride, I am
satisfied, though I should like to try them out. Hippy, have you
ridden any of these animals?" asked Grace, turning to Lieutenant
Wingate.

"He tried to," observed Tom Gray dryly. "Hippy mounted one on one
side and promptly fell off on the other before getting his feet in
the stirrups. It was not the pony's fault, however, but Hippy's
clumsiness that caused the disaster."

"That's right, have all the fun at my expense you wish. I am the
comedian of this outfit anyway," protested Hippy. "Let's see you
ride one of them, Brown Eyes," he urged, speaking to Grace.

"Please have them saddled one by one and I will try them, Mr.
Lang," directed Grace. "Any pony that I can ride, the others
surely can."