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As the boys looked in wonderment at this extraordinary dwelling-place and its equally strange inhabitants, Billy gave an excited shout: "Great jumping horn-toads, look at that!" One of the light-colored men had emerged from his, hole and with as little concern as if he were taking a walk had suddenly launched himself into space.
Next was the canary bird, Pitty-Sing, and last, but not least, five horn-toads which were nameless, but who lived peacefully together in a box with sand to burrow in. All of these members of the family interested Jan, but he wanted to be friends with the old cat and her kittens, because he missed Hippity-Hop.
"Bein' well watered by that same crick, an' havin' good feed both in the Big Flat, as folks calls that country down below us, an' in the foothills. Rattlesnake Valley, over yonder, ain't never been good for much exceptin' the finest breed of serpents an' horn-toads a man ever see outside a circus or the jimjams. There ain't nothin' as 'll grow there outside them animals.
"Great cats!" groaned Billy to Lathrop, whose hand he held so that they could be near together in the awful blackness, "forty years without seeing a white face jumping horn-toads, what a fate!" But the old man's soft weeping stopped presently and in a firmer voice he said: "My wife and my sons? Can you tell me anything of them?"
There was hardly anybody about and they congratulated Zeb on his strategy in conducting affairs with such secrecy. But as they passed into the outskirts of the town, where the Mexicans and Indians lived, Dick Donovan uttered a sudden exclamation. "Hopping horn-toads!" he gasped. "What's up?" asked Jack, who sat beside him.
"Well, I'm doing the best I can," was the indignant reply, "here I've got it all down: Box 10 One waterproof tent, one rubber-blanket, tent-pegs, ropes, more ropes. Say, Frank, what in the name of the 'London Times' and jumping horn-toads do you want so much rope for?" "To tie up a certain young reporter named William Barnes when he gets too fresh," was the laughing reply.
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