"I'll tell you one reason why it's important that we should find out just who the cronies of this Ally Sloper are," continued Ned. "It would be a bad thing now if we sent the whole five out in a batch, because, believing their game was up and that it would be unsafe for them to ever come back here, chances are they would take advantage of their opportunity to run off a herd while about it." "Might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb--is that what you mean, Ned?" Jack asked. "Yes, about that way," the scout master replied. "On the other hand, if they are broken up, and only one sent out with each bunch of punchers to corral the herds, these spies will not be able to work anything crooked. We'll draw their claws, as you might say, and make them harmless." "Here comes my aunt," Harry broke in with, as a large woman brushed out of the doorway of the commodious ranch house and approached them. She was an amiable woman, they could see at first glance; but Ned fancied that, in an emergency, Aunt Mehitabel would not prove capable of gripping the reins. No doubt, during all her married life she had depended on her able husband to manage things on the outside, being content on her part to see that things moved along regularly within doors, and that meals came on time. She greeted Harry warmly and was also delighted to meet his chums, all of whom she urged to go inside the house with her. But the occasion was so serious that Ned did not wish to waste any more time than was absolutely necessary. "We've come to make you quite a little visit, ma'm," Ned remarked, after she had urged them to make themselves at home, and do whatever they pleased, "and later on we expect to have a great time riding around the country and seeing things. But it is unfortunate that neither one of Harry's uncles is home right now, because we've got some very important news." The lady of the house looked worried at once, just as Ned had anticipated would be the case. "Oh! what can it be?" she asked, her voice showing traces of nervousness. "On the way our chum, Jimmy here, happened to shoot a hawk that had pounced down on a flying pigeon. Wrapped around one of the pigeon's legs was a piece of tissue paper, and bearing a message. I have it here with me, and both the hawk and the pigeon are in one of our packs on the burros. This message was not signed, but it plainly announced that there are five untrustworthy men employed on this place who are in league with cattle rustlers." "Mercy on us, you don't say! And the colonel away, too! Whatever will become of us now?" Mrs. Haines started to wail, when Ned smilingly went on to soothe her by remarking: