Teddy carried the can and the flour bin toward the house. It was now about eight o’clock, and the bright fall sun brought the landscape out in bold relief. Teddy paused a moment before he entered the house and peered toward the mountains to the west, where he and Roy had lately come to grips with the gang that had run off with his sister and her two friends. Then his gaze shifted, and he looked over the rolling prairie toward the spot where they had earlier captured this same gang of rustlers, though they had later escaped to make more mischief. A grim smile curved the boy’s lips. “Did some one say the West was a quiet place to live in?” he muttered, and laughed shortly. “Seems to me we do nothing but meet trouble out here! Well, I suppose it’s all in the game. Now we’ve got a mean job to get the cows off Whirlpool River. However--” He shrugged his shoulders, replaced the flour bin, while the can he had filled he carried to the yard and fastened to his saddle. His father had told them to prepare for a journey of several days, and this flour, mixed as it was with other ingredients, made fine “pan bread.” Roy met him at the corral. “Can’t leave just yet,” he said. “Dad wants to wait until Nick comes back. He rode down to see one of the boys from Jake Trummer’s place who has been in town several days, hanging around. Dad wants to get all the dope he can on this before he goes ahead, and Nick knows this puncher pretty well and said he’d find out all he could. Nick ought to be back in about two hours.” “As soon as Nick returns we go--that the idea?” “That’s it. Unless dad wants to start sooner, and I don’t think he does. Say, is The Pup still around?” “Yep.” Teddy smiled grimly. “Around, and noisy. He had a session with Pop not over ten minutes ago. Pop told him where to get off, too. I heard part of it. Started to gas about Gus and his letter. But he got shut up quick, let me tell you. Pop wouldn’t stand for hearing Gus made fun of. Where does this bacon go--on my saddle?” “Guess so. I’ve got enough to carry. Golly, dad must expect to spend Christmas on Whirlpool River, from the load we’re packing. Bet when we get there Jake Trummer will forget his sore-headedness and invite us to keep our cows there the rest of the year. That’s the kind Jake is--quick to anger, but he gets over it just as fast. He’s a good friend of dad’s too. At least he was before this happened. That’s what made me think there’s more in this than we suspect. However, we’ll know as soon as we hit the river. Jimminy! what in thunder is that?” Roy stopped and gazed up the road that led past the ranch house. From behind the house came curious sounds--reminiscent of a load of junk being pulled over cobblestones. Now and then a splutter, like the gasp of some huge animal, made itself heard over the noise. Teddy grinned. “It will arrive in a moment,” he said.