west with me. I have a small party accompanying me and we are going to make another search for fossil bones as I did once before at Diamond X ranch. I was looking for the place in the darkness, having left my other men and supplies some distance back, when you suddenly set after us. I took you for horse thieves – "
"Just what we sized you up as," laughed Slim, who now had recognized the professor, though Zeb was a stranger. "Mighty sorry to have troubled you," went on the foreman, "but we couldn't take any chances."
"Especially with the sheep herders likely to swoop down on us and spoil everything," added Bud.
"Hello, boys! Are you there?" exclaimed Professor Wright as he recognized the voice of the lad. "You say someone had been stealing your sheep?"
"Shades of Zip Foster! Never that!" cried Bud, calling upon a sort of mythical patron saint whose identity he jealously concealed from his cousins. "When we start herding sheep, Professor, the world will turn the other way."
"We'll explain later," suggested Nort. "If you're going to stop with us, Professor, turn around and come back."
"Gladly," answered the scientist. "But I have left my men and the outfit some miles back, awaiting word as to whether or not I could locate your ranch, and – "
"I'll send a man to bring 'em up," offered the foreman. "Mighty funny, though, about you not firing at me," he added, as the horses were turned back toward Diamond X. "Are you sure your friend didn't?" he asked the professor.
"Zeb doesn't know one end of a gun from the other," said the scientist. "As for me – I have none."
"Mighty queer!" muttered Snake. "Somebody fired all right."
"Must have been another party," suggested Bud. "Maybe you chased the wrong bunch, Slim."
"Maybe I did, Bud," admitted the foreman, "though I didn't think there was two bunches. If there was – "
He did not finish what he intended to say, for his mind was busy with several thoughts engendered by the news that the hated sheep men might come to a land so far held sacred to horses and cattle.
"Yes, it's mighty queer," said Slim musingly, as they turned in toward the corral not far from the ranch house. "Some one fired at me just as the chase began, and if it wasn't the professor – "
Mr. Merkel, followed by some of his ranchmen neighbors, came hurrying from the house. Framed in the lighted doorway stood Ma Merkel and Nell.
"That you, Slim?" asked the owner of Diamond X.
"That's me," was the reply.
"Did you get 'em?"
"Well, in a way, yes," came the slow reply. "They turned out to be friends of yours."
"Friends?" questioned Mr. Merkel sharply.
"It's Professor Wright," explained Bud.
"Then you've got the wrong parties!" cried Mr. Merkel. "There's been a robbery here!"
"A robbery!" chorused the boy ranchers.
"Yes! In the excitement somebody got in the ranch house and ransacked my safe."
"Did they get much?" Dick asked.
Amid a silence Mr. Merkel answered:
"They took the papers that prove my right to lands along Spur Creek!"
"Spur Creek!" fairly shouted Bud. "That's where they're going to open the Indian holdings – where the sheep men will first head for, and if we can't control that opening our range won't be worth a hill of beans! Are you sure the papers are gone, Dad?"
"I'm only too sure, son," was the grim answer.
CHAPTER III
ON THE TRAIL
Leaving Zeb Tauth to look after his own steed and that of Professor Wright, Bud and his cousins ushered the scientist into the living-room of the ranch house, whither Mr. Merkel and his fellow ranchmen returned, followed by his wife and daughter. Slim Degnan also entered, having turned his horse over to Babe, who, with the other cowboys, went to the corral.
"Now let's get the straight of this," suggested the owner of Diamond X ranch, when the party was again sitting down, and Professor Wright had been made welcome. "Slim, you saw what happened outside. Suppose you tell us about that."
"Seems to me that something more important happened in here," spoke Bud. "If your papers were stolen, Dad, why – "
"They sure were, son," interrupted Mr. Merkel, "but I have an idea that what went on outside had a very important bearing on what took place in here. That's why I wanted to hear Slim's account first."
"Well, there isn't an awful lot to tell," said the ranch foreman. "I was sitting outside the corral with the boys, sort of planning up the work for to-morrow. We were talking about this new move of the government, opening the Indian lands, and we were sort of guessing how soon the onery sheep men would bust in on us, when one of the boys – Snake Purdee I reckon it was – said somebody was coming up the trail that leads to Happy Valley.
"First we didn't pay much attention to them, thinking they was some of Bud's boys, but they acted so funny that I hailed 'em, and instead of answering like they should, they fired. Course I fired back – up in the air – and then we boys got busy and took after 'em."
"Yes, I can understand it from there on," said Mr. Merkel. "But you didn't get the ones you went after; did you?"
"Apparently not," admitted the foreman with a grim smile. "It was pretty dark and we must have missed 'em. But finally we did see two horses streaking it over the plains, and we took after 'em, only to find they were the professor here, and his friend."
"Then the other parties, whoever they were, got away," commented Mr. Merkel.
"Must have," said the foreman. "They'd 'a' had time while we was saddlin' up. But what their object was I can't guess."
"And then we come back here to find you've been robbed," commented Bud. "Say, doesn't it look as though those first parties came around just to draw us off, so someone else could sneak in and rifle the safe?" he asked quickly.
There was a moment of silence, to give the idea time to filter through the minds of all present, and then Mr. Merkel said:
"Son, I believe you've struck it! That was a game to draw our fire on the front, while they sneaked up in the rear to frisk my safe! And the professor – "
"I hope you don't think I had anything to do with your unfortunate loss!" exclaimed the scientist.
"Of course not!" said Mr. Merkel quickly. "I was about to remark that you being on the scene was purely a matter of accident, though it may have had the effect of drawing Slim and his bunch farther away from the real thieves than was desirable."
"Shouldn't be a bit surprised," admitted the foreman. "It was so dark, before the moon came out, that we couldn't tell much where we were going. But as soon as we picked up the professor and his friend we took after them. Probably this gave the real rascals the chance they wanted."
"Perhaps I had better explain how I happened to be in this neighborhood," said Dr. Wright. "Our discoveries of the prehistoric fossils,
