"No," agreed Nort, adding: "Well, then, I reckon going after this unknown shooter isn't taking such a long chance." "I'm with you!" exclaimed Dick. Briefly telling Buck Tooth what had happened, the boy ranchers rode off at a fast pace, to take advantage of what little light of day remained. They headed, as nearly as they could ascertain it, in the direction whence the single shot had come. But it is hardly needless to say they found no one, and no sign that could be construed into a tangible clue. "We'll tell Snake and Yellin' Kid about it when they come back," decided Bud, as he and his cousins returned to camp when darkness had completely fallen. For it was useless, after that, to search for the perpetrator of the joke. Or was it a joke? That is what the boy ranchers asked themselves more than once. Contrary to their half-formed expectations, the night passed quietly. There was no disturbance among the cattle, and no midnight visitors invaded the camp. But, for all this, the slumbers of our heroes were not easy. Perhaps they had premonitions of coming disaster. For disaster came, with the return, early on the morning of the next day, of Snake and Yellin' Kid. "They're after you, Bud!" shouted the cowboy with the loud voice. "They're after you!" "Who?" asked Bud, as he and his cousins came out to meet the cowboys. "Rustlers!" was the grim answer. "There's a lot of your steers missin' from that far herd! Rustlers, Bud! Rustlers!" CHAPTER VII FOUR EYES For a moment Bud Merkel seemed unable to comprehend the bad news thus brought to him by his cowboy helpers and friends. Nort and Dick, also, were shocked by the intelligence. But Bud quickly recovered. Perhaps it was because of his heritage of the west--the ability to face danger and disaster with grim courage, part of his father's stock in trade. "Rustlers, eh?" repeated Bud, and his voice was steadier than Yellin' Kid or Snake Purdee expected to find it. "Did they get many?" "Quite a bunch," answered Yellin' Bad. "We rounded up as many as we could, and--" "You mean you rounded up the _rustlers_?" asked Nort, eagerly. "No, what was left of the steers," answered Snake. "Guess we wouldn't be back here alone--that is, just us two, if we'd had a run-in with the rascals. We didn't see 'em, but we did find traces of 'em. What are you going to do, Bud? Get on their trail?" "Let's talk it over, first," suggested the boy rancher, and he looked at Nort and Dick, for they were partners with him on this venture of trying to raise cattle in Happy Valley--which would have been almost a desert save for the water that came through the strange mountain tunnel. "Tell us about it," urged Dick.