"Gentlemen, I didn't fire. I am Professor Hendryx Wright, and this is my helper, Zeb Tauth. He is the janitor at my school, and I have brought him out 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.