The Secret of Shadow Ranch by Carolyn G. Keene

dressed and waiting on the portico, Tex walked up, leading Nancy’s bay. Just behind him came Shorty with a sorrel for Alice. Nancy stepped into the yard and mounted easily. With a shrill whinny, the horse reared.
    “Hang on!” Tex shouted.
    Nancy gripped the pommel tight and hung onto the reins. The horse pitched high and landed stiff-legged on all fours!
    Tex seized the bridle and held the bay down, giving Nancy time to fling herself from the saddle.
    “Hey, boy! Easy now!” Tex said as he tried to calm the excited animal.
    “Nancy, are you hurt?” Alice asked worriedly.
    “I’m all right,” Nancy replied breathlessly. “But what’s the matter with the horse?”
    Shorty had hurried to Tex’s assistance, and now the snorting steed was standing still. The red-haired cowboy’s eyes narrowed with suspicion as he loosened the saddle girth and reached up under the blanket.
    “I thought so!” He brought out his hand and held it open for the others to see. In his palm lay a nettle.
    Shorty’s eyes grew wide. “Well, what do you know about that!” he drawled.
    Tex looked at him levelly. “What do you know about this?”
    “Me!” exclaimed Shorty. “Some mean coyote pulled that trick, not me!”
    “You saddled the animals,” Tex retorted and turned to Nancy. “I was passin’ the stable when Shorty came out with these mounts. He asked me to bring this one over to you.”
    “Now hold on thar a minute,” Shorty put in. “When I went to the stable after breakfast I found this bay already saddled. I throwed the saddle on the other one and brung ’em out. That’s all I know about it. You got no call to accuse me. No sir! Not me!”
    Tex’s face flushed with anger. “If you’re tellin’ the truth, Shorty Steele, I apologize.”
    Before the stocky cowboy could answer, Nancy suggested that Tex check Alice’s saddle blanket. He did and reported that it was all right. The girls mounted and rode toward the meadow.

    “Hang on, Nancy!” Tex shouted
    “I don’t believe Shorty was telling the truth,” said Alice.
    Nancy said nothing, but she was inclined to agree. Aloud she said, “Someone has not given up trying to get me out of the picture.”
    When they finally sighted the cabin, Nancy reined up behind the clump of big boulders. She swung from the saddle and ground-hitched her horse, but was not so quick as Alice. The younger girl dashed to the cabin and knocked on the door. As Nancy ran up, it was opened by a slender gray-haired man.
    With a shock Nancy recognized him. He was the one who had put the snake’s rattle into her knitting bag and dropped the warning note into the car!

CHAPTER XV
    A Perilous Ride
    ALICE was on the verge of tears. The man in the cabin doorway was not her father!
    He scowled at the two girls. “What do you want?”
    Nancy was sure the man must have recognized her, but he gave no sign of it, so she pretended not to know him. Quickly she thought of an excuse for coming. “Are you Mr. Bursey?” she asked.
    “Yes. Why?”
    “We’d like to buy one of your pastels,” Nancy replied.
    “My what?”
    “Pastels—your pictures,” Nancy said.
    “Oh.” The man paused. “I haven’t any more. How did you know I was here?”
    Nancy explained casually that Mary Deer had told them the artist lived on the mountain. “Several days ago we happened to see this cabin and we thought perhaps it might be where you live.”
    He gave Nancy a long, hard look. “My paintings are all gone,” he said. “No use coming back.”
    Nancy apologized for bothering him, and as the girls turned to walk back to their horses, he closed the door.
    Alice was deeply upset. “I just can’t believe that man drew those pictures.”
    “I’m sure he didn’t,” Nancy replied as the girls mounted. “He’s no artist. He didn’t know what I meant by pastels and he called the pictures paintings. He should have known they’re drawings made with special crayons.”
    She told Alice how she, Bess, and