“I’m cured,” he declared solemnly. “I wanted to be a sailor when I was young. But never again! That was some circus! What made it like that, Pop? I’ve been over here before. But snakes, that was a millpond compared to to-day. What happened?” “The storm,” Pop grinned. “I kinda thought it would be pretty bad. But we’re through now. And Jake Trummer’s place is just ahead. One more bend and we’re there.” Eagerly the boys waited until they should come in sight of Whirlpool River Ranch. The end of their trip was at hand. Would they find their cattle grazing peacefully, waiting to be driven home? Would their father be there yet? They sat tense, leaning forward. They rounded the bend. A broad vista of land lay before them, green, rolling range land. Back of the grazing fields mountains rose sublimely, fleecy clouds capping their summits. The late afternoon sun turned the scene into a picture of pastoral beauty. But on the range was not a hair, hide, or hoof of a single shorthorn. CHAPTER XX Burying the Hatchet There was tender grass to be munched. There was warm sun to bask in. There was the placid river to drink from. Yet of cattle there was none, nor any sign of them. “Just in time to be late!” Bug Eye groaned, and rested on his paddle. “They may be further on,” Teddy remarked hopefully. “Beyond the rise, there.” “Much beyond,” Roy said bitterly. “If they were there, some would wander off to this range. Yet we’ll look.” Once more the canoe went forward, this time slowly, dispiritedly. Their journey had been in vain. Their cattle were gone. As Roy had feared, once past the rise in the land, they saw that surely the herd had departed. Pop said nothing, but sat and smoked in silence, his paddle dragging. Bug Eye made a few remarks under his breath. “We’ll have to land and find Jake Trummer,” Teddy declared. “That gang we heard on the river at night has been here before us.” “They rustled ’em, hey?” Bug Eye asked inanely. “Exactly,” Teddy replied. “How far away they’ve gotten with them, there’s no telling. We’re worse than useless without broncs. We’ll have to wait for dad.” “You’ll not have to do much waitin’,” Pop remarked suddenly. “I seen General just over that hill.” “With dad on him?” Teddy questioned eagerly. “Nope. Guess he’s up at the ranch house talkin’ to Trummer. General’s been turned out to grass. We’ll beach, an’ walk over.” “How far?” Bug Eye wanted to know. “Four miles. Do you good. We can leave the stuff here. Be all right. Trummer is the only man I know who’s got his range in his back yard.” The canoe was driven ashore, and Teddy leaped out. “If we hadn’t hit that rock,” he said bitterly, “we could have been here before the rustlers and saved the cows.” “Mebby,” Pop said laconically. “There’s lots of things to be considered. We’ll see yore dad first, an’ talk later.”