"Search me!" frankly admitted Bud. "But since we had that water fight I'm suspicious of everything. Those cigarette stubs are fresh, and were dropped last night, or yesterday. None of us use 'em, and though some of our cow punchers do they haven't been here lately enough to have left this fresh evidence. The stubs are new ones." "Well, maybe there was some one here last night," said Dick. "I'm positive of it!" declared Bud. "Let's take another look at the big door lock." Even a close inspection, however, failed to disclose any signs of the great portal, or its heavy padlock having been tampered with. Nor were there any marks tending to show where an effort had been made to force boards off the frame in which the door was set. "Well, we'll just have to wait," said Bud, as he turned to go back down to the tents. "Hello," he suddenly added, as he gazed off up the valley. "Here comes somebody, riding like all possessed, too!" The boy ranchers watched the approach of the solitary horseman, and, as he drew nearer Bud exclaimed: "It's Buck Tooth!" It was, in fact, that same Zuni Indian, who had been engaged as a sort of camp cook and ranch hand by Bud's father, later being transferred to Bud's service. Buck Tooth was devoted to the boy ranchers. "What's matter, Buck! What for you ride so _pronto_ fashion!" asked Bud as the Indian, a superb horseman, drew rein close to the boy ranchers. "You race, maybe, Buck Tooth!" "Yep--race tell you bad news!" half-grunted the Zuni. "Bad news!" faltered Bud. "Is it my mother--dad---" "Them all well," said Buck Tooth. "But got bad news all same. You see anybody out here?" and he slipped from his saddle to rest his almost winded steed. CHAPTER IV THE SCRATCHED SAFE Eagerly the boy ranchers gathered about Buck Tooth. The Indian, as if rather ashamed of the hurry and emotion that had possessed him, grew quieter as he threw the reins down over his pony's head, as an intimation to the animal not to stray. Then the Zuni turned toward Bud and his cousins. "This is the second time you gave me bad news, Buck," remarked the western lad. "Remember?" "How?" asked the Indian sharply. "I say this is the second time you've brought news of something bad. You were the first to tell me about the water stopping in the reservoir. And from then on we had some rousing times; didn't we, fellows?" asked Bud, turning to his chums. "That's right!" assented Nort. "But what's going on now?" Dick wanted to know. "You said it!" exclaimed Bud. "I should let Buck Tooth tell it, instead of keeping him gassing away about the past. What's the row, Buck?" "Robbers!" was the Indian's answer. "Robbers? At Diamond X?" cried Bud. "Did they get anything?" Dick wanted to know. "Anybody hurt?" asked Nort. "Get some money--nobody hurt only Babe--him get broken leg," half-grunted the Indian.