It did not take long to throw up a rough shelter at Spur Creek. This could be improved upon as time passed, but it was necessary to make a stand there at once. So, two nights after the alarm and robbery at Diamond X, behold the boy ranchers, with some of their cowboy friends, on guard at the edge of the stream which marked one of the boundaries of the land Mr. Merkel claimed--but land to which he could not now show a legal title because of the theft of his papers. "Well, all serene so far," observed Bud, as night settled down on them in their new environment. "Yes, I don't reckon we'll be disturbed," observed Billee, who was there with them. "It'll give me a chance to pick up, an' get back in th' saddle again," observed Yellin' Kid in his usual loud voice. He had been allowed to form part of the "fort" guard, as it was thought the duties there would not be strenuous for a while, at least, and he could make a better recovery than at Diamond X. "Well, it's a good place for a fight, if one comes," said Nort, as he looked about the place. It readily lent itself well to fortification, and advantage had been taken of this by Mr. Merkel. The rough shack was an outpost fort in the land that was destined to be battled for by the sheep men on one side and the cattle men on the other. Quiet evening was settling down, "grub" had been served and the ponies were rubbing noses in the improvised corral when Yellin' Kid, who was venturing to walk around a little to "exercise his game leg," as he expressed it, came to a halt and gazed earnestly across Spur Creek in the direction of Mexico distant several miles. "What is it, Kid?" asked Billee, who was smoking his pipe. "Somebody's comin'," was the answer, "an' he's sweatin' leather," which meant that he was riding fast. The boy ranchers looked in the direction indicated. A lone horseman was approaching from the side of the creek where the enemy might be expected first to appear. CHAPTER VI THE ALARM Gathered in front of their "fort," as it laughingly had been christened, the boy ranchers and their cow puncher comrades watched the approach of the lone horseman. He had come up through the valley--the pass that, like the neck of a bag tied about the middle with a string, connected two great lands--Mexico and the United States. But one land represented law and order to a degree, while the other was woefully lacking in these essentials to progress. For a time the stranger rode on at the fast pace Yellin' Kid had at first observed, and the atmosphere was so clear that his progress was easily noticed without glasses, though Bud brought out a pair after a moment or two. Then, suddenly, the approaching horseman seemed to become aware, for the first time, of the new structure at Spur Creek--the "fort" of Diamond X.