"Two o'clock," announced Four Eyes, with a glance at his watch. The boy ranchers watched him idly as he made and drank the coffee, munching some hard crackers he carried in one of his pockets. Then, rolling up in their blankets, the quartette went to sleep. Morning came, in due course, without any untoward incidents having occurred. The boys looked across the fire-swept area to where, beyond it, many cattle could be observed grazing. There was no further vestige of fire. The heavy dew had extinguished the last, smouldering spark. "Well, I'm going back to the camp," announced Four Byes, as they got the simple breakfast. And how appetizing was that aroma of sizzling bacon and strong coffee! "Want me to tell 'em anything for you!" he asked Bud. "Tell 'em about the fire," was the request. "And say we're going on the trail of the rustlers. We'll be back to-day, though, around night, for we haven't grub enough to carry us farther." "What you going to do about your horse?" asked Dick. "What can I do?" asked Henry Mellon, in turn. "I can't spend all my time hunting him, when I've got to ride herd." "We'll be on the lookout," Nort said. "Hope you have luck," commented the strange cowboy, as he took off his glasses and wiped them on his silk neckerchief. "I'm lost without Cinder, though this pony isn't so bad," and he patted the neck of the animal he was riding. A little later the boy ranchers were taking a short cut across the fire-blackened strip, to get on the trail of the men who had driven off their cattle, while Four Eyes turned the head of his pony toward camp. "Well, it looks as if this was where the trail ended," announced Bud, several hours later. "Mighty funny, to come to an end so suddenly," commented Dick. The three boys had reached one end of the many small valleys into which the larger vale was divided. They had been following the trail of the cattle that had been driven off--it was plain enough until they reached a rocky and shale-covered defile between two small hills. Then, for some reason or other, all "sign" came to an abrupt end. There were no further marks of hoofs in the earth, and none of the ordinary marks to indicate that cattle and horses had been beyond a certain point. "It's just as Snake said," observed Dick. "They must have driven the animals here and then lifted them over the hill in an aeroplane." "They couldn't!" declared Nort. "I know they couldn't. But how else do you account for it?" asked his brother. "They may have driven 'em through the pass, and then scattered dirt and stones over the trail to hide it," suggested Bud. "Let's look a little farther then," remarked Dick. They did, but without discovering any clues. It was as though the rustlers had driven the cattle to the bottom of a rocky and bush-covered slope, and then as if the side of the hill had suddenly opened, providing a way through. "Like some old fairy yarn!" declared Bud. "This gets me!"