Public-domain ebook
Language: en350 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: Children & Young Adult Reading·Adventure
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #45507.
The opening · free to read
CHAPTER I--SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY A study in black and white. "I'm the Duke of Missouri." Waxed floors too much for the fat boy. "I sometimes fall off a house to give me an appetite."
CHAPTER II--BOUND FOR THE CANE JUNGLE Picking out their new ponies. Favors for the brave. Girl friends see the Pony Rider Boys in daring horsemanship. Tad ropes a pickaninny. The colored population treated to an unusual exhibition.
CHAPTER III--IN CAMP ON TENSAS BAYOU Living with the snakes in the canebrake. Barred owls make the night hideous. Stacy's slumbers greatly disturbed. Little rest for the Pony Rider Boys. Stacy lays the foundation for trouble.
CHAPTER IV--NATURE BLOWS OUT A FUSE The camp aroused by an explosion. Tents found ablaze. "The campfire has blown up!" Ichabod denies responsibility. Chunky admits his guilt. "Gentlemen, I shot a pig."
CHAPTER V--MAROONED IN A SWAMP The cook finds Tad's feet out of doors. Strange sights in the jungle. On an island made over night. Snake and bird battle on high. Pony Riders are castaway for three days. A forest of perils.
CHAPTER VI--TAKING DESPERATE CHANCES Dogs and birds welcome the sunlight. Tad blazes a trail on the cypress knees. "Have all you boys got scents like deerhounds?" Tad Butler amazes Bill Lilly, the guide.
CHAPTER VII--A SWIM IN TENSAS LAKE Chunky goes in with the alligators. Tad's bullet speeds true. A narrow escape. Stacy up a tree. Ned Rector knows a way to get the fat boy down. Lively times in camp. The Professor takes a hand.
CHAPTER VIII--WOODMAN, SPARE THIS TREE "No one can stay mad at me for very long." Chunky comes down in a heap. How they wound the hunter's horn. Stacy Brown is left behind and forgotten.
CHAPTER IX--THE FAT BOY HUNG UP "Whoa, you fool horse!" "Give the baby his horn." A narrow escape from death. Down goes the fat boy again.
CHAPTER X--IN THE HEART OF THE CANEBRAKE The bush-knife a dangerous weapon. Stacy found dangling in the air. Keeping company with an owl. Tad takes a perilous plunge. Chunky mixes it up with 'gators again.
CHAPTER XI--ON THE BIG GAME TRAILS Roped on the verge of death. It takes the whole outfit to rescue the fat boy. "That 'gator won't have any further appetite for fat boys." Bear sign in the west.
CHAPTER XII--THE QUEST OF THE PHANTOM DEER On the trail of a she-bear. Tad Butler's champion shot. A deer instead of a bear. Mighty hunters get a shock. "He's gone!" gasp the Pony Rider Boys.
CHAPTER XIII--THE MYSTERY IS SOLVED On the trail of the stolen doe. "I'll break my neck if I ride any faster." Tad meets a suspicious character. Chunky makes a discovery. "Your nag has blood on his flank!"
CHAPTER XIV--THE FAT BOY DISTINGUISHES HIMSELF "I remain right here. Stacy, wind the horn!" The stranger grows threatening. "A fellow who will steal a deer will not hesitate to lie!" The woodsman takes a shot at Tad. Chunky turns the tables on the man.
CHAPTER XV--PLUCK AND THE DEAD DOE Just a preliminary skirmish. "I'll get you yet, you young whelp!" Stacy disarms a bad man. "Now get out of here as fast as you can ride!" Traveling amid perils.
CHAPTER XVI--THE HORN POINTS THE WAY Joy and anger in the Pony Rider camp. Ichabod licks his chops at sight of Tad's doe. The story of the theft arouses Bill Lilly. "I reckon I've seen that hound before." Another day is coming.
CHAPTER XVII--WOLVES ON THE TRAIL Stacy's hat no longer hits his head. Cane bears grow savage. Hounds set on the trail. Flying, snarling, yelping heaps of fur. Dogs and wolves in a battle to the death. Tad and Stacy jump into the fight.
CHAPTER XVIII--A STAND IN GRIM EARNEST Wolves leap on the fallen fat boy. Tad battles with the beasts with revolver and bush-knife. Chunky sails in with a club and proves himself a hero. Professor Zepplin sees red.
CHAPTER XIX--WHAT TAD FOUND ON THE TRAIL Venison steak and boiled bayou water. Bill Lilly is excited over Butler's discovery. "The cold-blooded scoundrel!" The guide hits the trail with blood in his eye.
CHAPTER XX--MAN-SIGNS IN THE CANEBRAKE "He'll get a dose of lead if he doesn't watch out!" Tad finds a fresh trail. Lilly turns up a snaketrap. A moccasin in a bucket. Death traps laid by a bad man.
CHAPTER XXI--SURPRISES COME FAST Alligator Pete gets the drop on the guide. Bill Lilly in a tight place. "Look out, this gun might go off!" The tables quickly turned.
CHAPTER XXII--OUTWITTED BY A BOY Tad Butler ropes the enemy. "I'll kill you for that!" Pete stands on his head. A sign of surrender. The prisoner of the Pony Rider Boys. Butler takes a long chance.
CHAPTER XXIII--ICHABOD GETS A BIG SURPRISE "De 'gator done gwine away, sah." Hounds and Pony Riders take the trail for bear. "They've got her!" A strange sight. A bullet that went home. Tad charged by a ferocious she-bear.
CHAPTER XXIV--CONCLUSION In a dire predicament. Butler fights Mrs. Bruin. A hand and paw conflict. Tad's knife driven home. Laid up for repairs. Smugglers caught and punished. The triumph of pluck.
"Major Clowney, sah, at your service," answered the tall, gray-haired, distinguished-looking southerner who had greeted the Professor at the railway station in Jackson. Four clean-cut, clear-eyed young men, who had left the train with the Professor, stepped up at that juncture and were introduced to the southerner as Thaddeus Butler, Ned Rector, Stacy Brown and Walter Perkins, known as the Pony Rider Boys.
The Major regarded the young men quizzically, then shook hands with each of them, bowing with true southern courtliness over each hand as it was extended toward him.
"Isn't he the fine old gentleman?" whispered Stacy, otherwise and more familiarly known among his companions as Chunky, the fat boy.
Tad Butler nodded. The Major was a type that they had heard of, but never had known. He was a relic of the old South.
"It gives me great pleasure, gentlemen, to welcome you to Jackson. My old friend Colonel Perkins wrote me asking that I do what I could for you. I am delighted at the opportunity to serve him as well as these fine young gentlemen. You will wish to go to your hotel?"
"Yes, if you please," bowed the Professor.
The Major apologized for the humble hotel to which he conducted them, explaining that it was the best the little southern town afforded.
"I shall look for you to dine with myself and family this evening," he added.
The Professor expressed his appreciation, the boys murmuring their thanks. Tad Butler said he feared they were not in condition to accept home hospitality to which the Major replied that he and his family would feel honored to receive the party, no matter in what condition they might be forced to come.
"Did the Major fight the Germans?" questioned Chunky.
"No, they are all colonels, majors and captains down here," replied Tad laughingly.
It was agreed that the Professor and his party were to go out to the Major's home at five o'clock that afternoon, meet Major Clowney's family, and have dinner with them, after which a pleasant evening would be spent.
"You will no doubt wish to rest after your tiresome journey, Professor. At a quarter to five I shall send one of my servants to lead you to my home. My wife and daughters are impatient to meet you, my old friend Colonel Perkins having told us not a little about your young friends."
"You are very kind, sir," declared Tad.
"In the meantime, if you will give us the benefit of your advice, we shall look about us for a guide and for some horses, as I have been given to understand that we might procure all of these here in Jackson," said the Professor.
"It is all arranged, sah, all arranged," answered the Major. "It has been my pleasure to attend to all of the details. How many rooms will you require?"
The book keeps going
Reading is free forever. Sign up and watch scenes appear while you read.
Scenes Storieta drew for other classics.
New illustrated classics
Once or twice a month: the latest books to get full character casts, scene art, and free comic editions. No account needed.
