Often and often the boys traveled this road, yet each time they reached Bitter Cliff, as it was called, and looked off over that vast stretch of country, they halted, fascinated anew by the beauty of the scene before them. Down below, the whole range was spread out in a clear-cut panorama. Far in the rear rose the ranch buildings of X Bar X; the mess-house, where Sing Lung, the cook, invented the sometimes strange but always very palatable combinations of food; the high-fenced corral, now almost empty, for the cattle were out on the grazing ground; the ranch house--the home of Roy and Teddy; the “bronco-peeler’s” bunkhouse; and the Rocky Run River, like a streak of dull silver, flowing placidly through a border of cottonwoods and willows about half a mile from the ranch house. To the west, like another section of some great map, lay 8 X 8 ranch, owned by Peter Ball, an old friend and neighbor of Bardwell Manley. “She’s sure some view!” exclaimed Teddy, with a long, indrawn sigh of peace and satisfaction. “Some view! Just as good as that picture of the Great Open Spaces we’ve got hanging up in the school auditorium.” “Huh! Comparing this to a _picture_!” Roy snorted. “Why, man, this is _real_! As good as a picture! Huh!” “All right! All right!” Teddy said easily. “Then it isn’t! You can’t get me sore,” he smiled amiably. “What isn’t?” demanded his brother. “You mean to tell me you’d speak of a picture in our school auditorium in the same breath with--with--” and Roy flung out his arm in a mute and helpless gesture of finality. “All right, I said! Go easy with that arm of yours! You made General jump then! But look! Isn’t the air clear? You can almost count the horses down at 8 X 8!” “So you can. Well, we’d better be on our way. Dad won’t want to be kept waiting. He’ll be anxious to climb aboard General again, after a week of walking and flivvers in the city.” “My boy, that’s just what I’ve been thinking. You show remarkable powers of perception. As soon as you can wake up that cayuse of yours, we’ll be moving.” CHAPTER II A DISHEARTENING LOSS Clucking to their horses, the Manley boys proceeded toward Eagles. The road led downward now, and the going was easier. “Speaking of the 8 X 8, did you hear what happened there?” Teddy asked, as he pulled gently on General’s leading rein. “Yep! Twenty head of short-horn Durhams stolen; wasn’t it? Pete ought to put better men to riding his cattle.”