For a moment Bud hesitated and then, as he was about to reply, there came the sudden sound of a shot, which shattered the night with a sliver of flame, plainly visible to the boys. Instantly a band of coyotes set up their weird howling, and the startled steers lowed and bellowed as they rushed about. CHAPTER X INTO THE TUNNEL "What's that?" cried Bud. "Who's there?" demanded Nort. The hand of Dick went toward the .45 he wore in a holster at his belt, and, it might be added, the hands of the others did also. "Keep your shirts on," came the somewhat drawling voice of Pocut Pete, who, it seemed, had returned after shuffling off in the darkness. "I just winged a coyote." "Oh," murmured Bud. "You were shooting at them, were you?" he asked. "Not exactly," answered Pocut Pete, as he sauntered up out of the gloom. "I saw something movin' down among th' cattle, an' I knew it couldn't be any of you fellows, so I let go at him." "_Him!_" cried Nort. "Was it a man?" "Looked like one," drawled Pete. "I heard you'd had trouble with rustlers before I came, so I wasn't takin' any chances. I didn't aim t' hit him, though, only t' scare him, an' I must have winged one of them night-owls!" He chuckled at this characterization of the coyotes. "Let's take a look down there," suggested Bud to his cousins, their worried interest in the stoppage of the water momentarily eclipsed by the new excitement. "Oh, you won't find anyone down there _now_!" Pocut Pete made haste to say. "If it was a rustler he's far enough off by _this_ time, an' I'm not positive I really saw one--it was so dark." "It won't do any harm to take a look," declared Bud, and his cousins were of the same opinion. "Suit yourself," spoke Pete, easily. "If I did hit him let me know." Again he moved off in the darkness, and the boy ranchers, after a moment of hesitation, started in the direction whence the shot had been heard and the sliver of flame seen. Pocut Pete had gone on the opposite trail after returning to the boys, a fact which caused Dick to remark: "Wouldn't you think he'd want to see if he did wing anybody?" "He knows well enough he didn't," declared Bud in a low voice, for he and the others realized that sounds, especially voices, carried almost as clearly in the night air as across a body of water. "What made him talk that way then?" asked Nort. "Oh, he's--queer, I guess," replied Bud. "I don't exactly just like the way he acts. Did you fellows hear the tinkle of glass just before that shot?" "I did," answered Nort, but Dick was not so sure. "What do you make of it?" Nort wanted to know. "Wish I knew," spoke Bud, and then he told them about having found the small, thin, broken phial of dubious-smelling mixture in the bunk tent of the older cowboys. "Do you think he takes 'dope,' or medicine of some sort?" asked Dick. "It's hard to say," was Bud's reply. "But let's look around and see what we can find."