5. On the Trail

5 On the Trail "Must-a been spooked by the cave-in," Calamity moaned. "I'll have to track him before he gets too far!" The boys kept a safe distance behind— Calamity didn't seem in any mood for their company. Now and then they heard her muttering, "Gol-durned show-offs!" and they dropped back even farther. Stanley and Arthur felt miserable. They had been show-offs, and they knew it now. After a while, Calamity gave a little whoop and ran into a clearing. There stood Gold Rush, snorting and lathered in sweat. The cowgirl threw her arms around her horse. "Let's get you some water, fella," she said.

Calamity looked around. "We're a ways off from the stream," she worried out loud. "And I don't see any signs of a spring…" "I can help! I have an idea!" Stanley cried. Calamity shot him a look that said she'd heard just about enough from him. But Stanley did indeed have an idea.

He lay down in the grass in front of Gold Rush and curved himself into the shape of a trough. "Pour in some water from the canteens," he directed Calamity. Calamity did, and then Stanley held very still as the horse's big lips came right down and slurped from his belly. It tickled, but Stanley Lambchop did not move. And he did not spill one drop. When Gold Rush had finished drinking, Calamity helped Stanley to his feet. She wore a big grin as she shook his hand. "Maybe I was wrong about you, pardner," she said. "Any friend of my horse is a friend of mine." "So you're not angry with us anymore?" asked Arthur.

"Shucks, no. I reckon you two aren't half bad for a couple of greenhorns. Now I better fix us some grub. We're lost, pardners. We're gonna have to figure out how we get home from here. A cowboy can't think on an empty stomach." Calamity Jasper pulled a can of beans and a pot from her saddlebags. She built a fire, and soon the beans were bubbling cheerfully in the pot. "Cowboys always carry beans for emergencies," she confided. Arthur made a mental note to carry beans with him from now on. "How did you learn to be a cowboy?" he asked Calamity. "How did you learn to follow tracks like that? We didn't see anything, but you followed right to Gold Rush." "Following tracks isn't a cowboy skill. I'm part Lakota Sioux," Calamity said proudly. "We Native Americans know lots of useful things, like which plants make medicine and how to hunt and fish and how to use— Whoa, doggie! Smoke signals!" Calamity jumped to her feet. She ordered Arthur to gather a load of tumbleweeds. When he returned, she piled the tumbleweeds onto the campfire. Immediately, a dark thick smoke streamed upward.

"What about a blanket?" Stanley asked. "Don't you need a blanket for smoke signals?" Calamity grinned. "That's where you come in, pardner!" Both boys understood at once. Arthur picked up Stanley's feet, and Calamity took hold of his arms. Together, they flapped Stanley over the fire, sending puffs of thick smoke into the clear air. Stanley very bravely held his breath and didn't cough once.

Before too long, they heard a rustling in the bushes at the edge of the clearing. The tour group! "We saw the signals," Calamity's father said. "Came to see what you youngsters were up to." "Looks like they're up to a real Wild West time!" said George Lambchop. "What a trip, eh,