"Hello, Bud!" presently came the call over the wire. "Hello, Billee. What about it?" "Water's there all right! Must 'a' come back in th' night! She's runnin' fine now!" CHAPTER V ANOTHER WARNING Bud Merkel was about to hang up the receiver, with a blank and uncomprehending look on his face, when Babe caught the black rubber earpiece from him. "Wait a minute, Billee!" called Babe into the transmitter. "See anything of anybody around there? Anything suspicious?" The others could not hear what the old cowboy's answer was, but Babe soon enlightened them. "He says it's all serene," Babe declared as he now hung up the receiver. "Nobody in sight, an' the water is runnin' through the pipe as natural as can be." "I can't understand it!" declared Bud. "It was almost as dry as a bone when we left last night." "But it's running in here from the river dam," said Nort. "Then there must have been a break somewhere in the tunnel natural water course," declared Bud. "Well, if it mended itself so much the better. But that doesn't explain this," and he held out the scrawled warning. "And if the water stopped once it may stop again." "Yes," agreed Babe, "but if anybody wanted to stop it they'd have to do it either at this end, where the pipe takes water from the river, or at your end, Bud, where it delivers water to your reservoir." "Unless somebody stopped the stream inside the tunnel," suggested Dick. "Then it would back up here at the river end," said Nort, quickly, "and it hasn't done that." "No, it hasn't," agreed Bud. "It sure is queer. I'm beginning to think there may be more in that black rabbit than I believed first." "What rabbit is that?" asked Babe. "The one Old Billee said would bring me bad luck," Bud answered. "Well," he went on to his cousins, "we might as well go back to camp. We can't do anything here." "If you've got water that's all you want in Flume Valley," declared Babe. "There isn't a finer place t' raise cattle in all th' world than there--if you have _water_!" "And if you haven't--you might as well quit!" spoke Bud. "You eliminated an earful that time," the assistant foreman stated. "But I reckon it was just a little break, inside th' tunnel, an' it filled itself up natural like. You won't have any more trouble." "I hope not," spoke the boy rancher. "Are you going on back to Diamond X, Babe?" "Not until I find that bunch of strays from Square M. They're too valuable t' let slip." "Especially to let Hank Fisher, or Del Pinzo, slip them away," exclaimed Bud as he and his chums left the store where they had been telephoning. "Not so loud! Not so loud!" cautioned Babe. "Why not?" Bud wanted to know, when they were outside. "'Cause one of Hank's men was in there! He'll be sure t' tell what you said, Bud." "Let him! I'm not afraid of Hank, or his tool Del Pinzo, and I'd just as soon either one would know what I think of 'em!"