"Here's a gentleman who needs help. He's a Mr. Bellmore from Chicago interested in irrigation. He was in the rock-grove, caught by the foot. I got him out. You look after him, Dad. I've got to get some of the boys, with fence material, and go back to relieve Pete. He's on guard there." "Say! It takes you to tell it!" exclaimed Mr. Carson with a smile. "Welcome to Bar U, Mr. Bellmore. I don't exactly understand all that boy of mine has gotten off, but it's all right. We will look after you. Sprained ankle; eh? Well, I know something about them. Come boys, one of you help Mr. Bellmore down, and make him comfortable. "You'll stop and get something to eat, Dave, won't you, before you go back?" "Yes, just a bite, Dad. We haven't much time." A little later Mr. Bellmore was comfortably installed in the ranch house, while Dave and two other cowboys, after a hasty meal, were on their way back to relieve Pocus Pete, and repair the broken fence. This work was soon under way. While Pocus Pete had been on guard a cattleman, passing, had given him an important message for Mr. Carson. "So you'd better ride back and tell him, Dave," Pete said, as he and the other punchers began to work on the fence, a snack having been brought for Pete's supper. "But I want to stay and help you," objected Dave. "You'll do better work by getting back with that message," the foreman said, and once more Dave turned his horse's head toward Bar U ranch. It was getting dusk now, but it was not so dark but that Dave could make out, after he had ridden some distance, the figure of a horseman just ahead of him. "Len again!" he murmured. "I'm going to see what he has to say, and why he's hanging around here. We may have to guard those cattle all night." At a word Crow leaped forward in a gallop, and in another moment, though Len made an effort to spur on ahead, Dave had ridden alongside of him. "Trying to see how your trick worked?" asked Dave, with a sharp look at his enemy. "Are you speaking to me?" demanded Len. "I certainly am." "Well, I don't want to talk to a nobody!" was the retort. CHAPTER X DAVE WONDERS Giving utterance to this sneering remark Len Molick began to urge his horse forward, but, though his face flushed, and a sense of anger choked him, Dave remained cool as he put out a hand and caught the bridle of the other's steed. "Not so fast, Len Molick!" Dave exclaimed. "You may not want to talk to a nobody--that's your business--but you're going to talk to a somebody right now, and that somebody is I!" "Huh! you don't even know your name!" Len sneered, but he did not try to break away. "Names don't matter," said Dave, trying to retain his calmness. "You can call me Injun Jack if you like, but I want to ask you a few questions." "Well, I'm not going to answer them," snapped Len, "and I want you to let me go! If you don't--" He raised a riding quire he carried, and seemed about to lash it into Dave's face.