



Produced by Al Haines.




[Illustration: Dust cover art]



[Illustration: Cover]




                         Buck Peters, Ranchman

           Being the Story of What Happened When Buck Peters,
                   Hopalong Cassidy, and Their Bar-20
                       Associates Went to Montana


                                   BY
                          Clarence E. Mulford
                                  AND
                             John Wood Clay



                    WITH FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOR
                            BY MAYNARD DIXON


                             SECOND EDITION


                                CHICAGO
                          A. C. McCLURG & CO.
                                  1912




                               Copyright
                          A. C. McCLURG & CO.
                                  1912

                         Published March, 1912
                         Published April, 1912

              Entered at Stationers' Hall, London, England




                          ALSO BY MR. MULFORD

HOPALONG CASSIDY.  With five illustrations in color by Maynard Dixon.
$1.50

THE ORPHAN.  With illustrations in color by Allen True.  91.50

BAR-20.  Illustrated by N. C. Wyeth and F. E. Schoonover.  $1.50

BAR-20 DAYS.  With four illustrations in color by Maynard Dixon.  $1.35
net

                    A. C. McCLURG & CO., Publishers
                                CHICAGO




                                Contents

CHAPTER

I  Tex Returns
II  H. Whitby Booth is Shown How
III  Buck Makes Friends
IV  The Foreman of the Double Y
V  "Comin' Thirty" has Notions
VI  An Honest Man and a Rogue
VII  The French Rose
VIII  Tex Joins the Enemy
IX  Any Means to an End
X  Introducing a Parasite
XI  The Man Outside
XII  A Hidden Enemy
XIII  Punctuation as a Fine Art
XIV  Fighting the Itch
XV  The Slaughter of the Innocents
XVI  The Master Mind
XVII  Hopalong's Night Ride
XVIII  Karl to the Rescue
XIX  The Weak Link
XX  Misplaced Confidence
XXI  Pickles Tries to Talk
XXII  "A Ministering Angel"
XXIII  Hopalong's Move
XXIV  The Rebellion of Cock Murray
XXV  Mary Receives Company
XXVI  Hunters and Hunted
XXVII  Points of the Compass
XXVIII  The Heart of a Rose




                             Illustrations

So she stood, silently regarding him... _Frontispiece_
(missing from source book)

The rifle belonging to Hopalong never missed--and besides, he had made
his wish

Rose flung herself from the saddle and ran to him

As he spoke he hurled his horse against Hopalong's, while his right hand
flashed to his hip




                         Buck Peters, Ranchman



                               CHAPTER I

                              TEX RETURNS


Johnny Nelson reached up for the new, blue flannel shirt he had hung
above his bunk, and then placed his hands on hips and soliloquized: "Me
an' Red buy a new shirt apiece Saturday night an' one of 'em's gone
Sunday mornin'; purty fast work even for this outfit."

He strode to the gallery to ask the cook, erstwhile subject of the Most
Heavenly One, but the words froze on his lips.  Lee Hop's
stoop-shouldered back was encased in a brand new, blue flannel shirt,
the price mark chalked over one shoulder blade, and he sing-songed a
Chinese classic while debating the advisability of adopting a pair of
trousers and thus crossing another of the boundaries between the Orient
and the Occident.  He had no eyes in the back of his head but was rarely
gifted in the "ways that are strange," and he felt danger before the
boot left Johnny's hand.  Before the missile landed in the dish pan Lee
Hop was digging madly across the open, half way to the ranch house, and
temporary safety.

Johnny fished out the boot and paused to watch the agile cook.  "He's
got eyes all over hisself--an' no coyote ever lived as could beat him,"
was his regretful comment.  He knew better than to follow--Hopalong's
wife had a sympathetic heart, and a tongue to be feared.  She had not
yet forgotten Lee Hop's auspicious initiation as an _ex-officio_ member
of the outfit, and Johnny's part therein.  And no one had been able to
convince her that sympathy was wasted on a "Chink."

The shirtless puncher looked around helplessly, and then a grin slipped
over his face.  Glancing at the boot he dropped it back into the dish
water, moved swiftly to Red's bunk, and in a moment a twin to his own
shirt adorned his back.  To make matters more certain he deposited on
Red's blankets an old shirt of Lee Hop's, and then sauntered over to
Skinny's bunk.

"Hoppy said he '