"Even discounting the black rabbit and the warnings out of the air," said Bud. It was, then, with somewhat of an ominous feeling that, one morning, as the boys and their cowboy friends were at breakfast, they saw a rider hastening toward them along the trail that led from Diamond X. "It's Snake Purdee!" exclaimed Yellin' Kid, when the rider had approached near enough to be recognized. "An' he's ridin' like he had suthin' on his mind!" added Old Billee. "I hope that black rabbit----" he murmured, and then his voice trailed off into a whisper as Yellin' Kid surreptitiously kicked him under the packing-box table. "Don't scare th' boys!" whispered Yellin' Kid in explanation, as Snake Purdee galloped nearer. The rider flung himself from his pony, which came to a sliding stop near the camp tents, and, looking first at the boy ranchers, and then at the big, peaceful valley stretching out before him, remarked: "Yes, there's plenty of room here!" "For what?" asked Bud. "More cattle!" answered Snake Purdee. "There's been trouble over at Square M, fellows!" "Trouble?" exclaimed the boy ranchers in chorus. "What kind?" "Bad trouble," was the reply. "Call your father up on th' 'phone, Bud," he added. "He wants t' talk t' you. Yes," he went on, musingly, as Bud hastened in to the telephone, "there's bad trouble at Square M!" CHAPTER VII DOUBLING UP Nort and Dick looked at each other as Bud slipped into the tent where the telephone had been installed. Snake Purdee strode over to the water pail, and took a long drink. "That's good stuff!" he remarked with a sigh of satisfaction, and then he led his pony to the trough, into which the thirsty animal dipped his muzzle deeply. "Mighty good water!" "An' I hope nothing happens to it," voiced Old Billee. "Happens! What d'yo' mean?" questioned the bearer of bad tidings. "The water's here, ain't it?" "But no tellin' how long it'll run," added the veteran cowpuncher. "A black rabbit run across Bud's path the day he was ridin' to meet Nort and Dick, and ever since then----" "Do you mean t' tell me you still believe in that old superstition?" laughed Snake Purdee, who had acquired this name because of his exceeding fear of rattlers and other reptiles. He had been bitten once, he declared, and had nearly died. "There's more'n superstition!" declared Old Billee. "Look at that!" and he brought out the board warning, and related the incident of the mysterious disappearance of the water, and its equally strange reappearance. "Oh, it's just one of those freaks of the old, underground river course," said Snake. "Of course I wouldn't put much past Hank Fisher and Del Pinzo, but if either of them sent these warnings it was t' play a joke, an' scare our boy ranchers. Guess Hank's jealous!" laughed Snake. "But what has happened over at Square M?" asked Dick. "Has Hank or Del Pinzo anything to do with that?" Nort wanted to know. "I don't see how they could," spoke Snake. "It's just that----"