It was eight o’clock before Roy threw himself upon his bed and gave himself over to the blissful luxury of complete relaxation. The others who had joined in the chase, including of course Mr. Manley and Teddy, were likewise catching up on some sleep. At twelve o’clock the ranch yard presented a strangely deserted appearance. When usually the cowboys would be yelling loudly for Sing Lung to hurry up with that grub, now from the bunk-house sounded only the snores of punchers sunk deep in slumber. Those who had not gone on the night ride stayed as silent as possible, out of respect for their fatigued brothers. But it would have taken a salvo of twenty-one guns to awaken those buckers. At four o’clock Roy opened his eyes full upon a beam of sunlight that shot through his window and played upon his face. Automatically he turned upon his side, then saw that in the bed across from him Teddy still slept peacefully. Reaching over, Roy gently raised the window shade, so that the sun now shone upon Teddy. The boy moved restlessly, threw his hand over his eyes, then turned and saw his brother grinning at him. “What time?” he asked in a monotone. “Six-thirty! You going to sleep all day? I’ve been up hours. Had lunch and went for a ride with Curly.” “Curly? You mean Nell?” “No, I mean Ethel. Why?” “Oh, nothing.” Then, when he saw the grin on his brother’s face, Teddy turned to the wall with a snort of disgust. “Don’t be silly! You just woke up yourself. Six-thirty! Humph! I’ll bet it’s about twelve o’clock. Well--” as he looked at a watch on the chair beside him--“it’s only a little after four, anyway. I knew you were kidding.” “Yes, you did! I noticed that as soon as I said I’d been riding with Curly. But say, we’d better get up.” “Wait a minute. I want to ask you a few questions about Froud, Roy. You say he got sore when you mentioned Checkered Shirt?” “I’ll tell a maverick he did! There’s something up between those two. I wish we could come across that hombre in the cross-word puzzle laundry-piece!” “He probably’s got another by now. Even rustlers have got to change their shirts once in a while. But, seriously, what made you think that Harver’s Gully is headquarters for Froud’s gang?” “Because, didn’t he head right for there? And then when we got there he seemed sort of sorry he’d come. He thought I knew too much for the good of his health. Golly, Ted, when you rode by that grove of trees I sure held my breath! Froud had his gun stuck hard into my ribs, and if you had taken it into your head to ride in I’d be strummin’ a harp right now.” “Oh, well, if I had come in, Froud might have beat it off. Can’t tell. Roy, you should have seen that flivver! The top was ripped completely off. Two tires were flat. The motor was a wreck. It looked as though it had been struck by lightning.” “Wonder what they did all that for? I suppose you didn’t find the dresses Mrs. Ball sent over?”