VAINLY HE PUT OUT HIS HANDS TO STAY HIS PROGRESS HOLDING THE SNAKE, HE LEAPED OUT OF THE CIRCLE OF REPTILES THE THREE YOUNG RANCHMEN TALKED IT OVER THREE YOUNG RANCHMEN CHAPTER I. An Unpleasant Discovery "When do you think Allen will be back, Paul?" "He ought to be back by two or three o'clock, Chet. His horse was fresh, and the roads are very good just now." "I hope he brings good news, don't you? I am tired of waiting here." "We will have to content ourselves on the ranch another year, I am afraid. Father left matters in a very unsettled condition, and what has become of Uncle Barnaby the world only knows." "I don't care so much about the dullness--I like to hunt and fish and round up the cattle just as well as any one--but what I'm complaining of is the uncertainty of the way things are going to turn. For all we know, we may be cast adrift, as the saying goes, any day." "That is true, although I imagine our title to the ranch is O. K. If those title papers hadn't been burned up when one end of the house took fire I wouldn't worry a bit." "Neither would I. But we all know what Captain Grady is--the meanest man that ever drew the breath of life--and if he once learns that we haven't the papers he'll be down on us quicker than a grizzly bear in the spring." "Well, we won't let him know that the papers have been burned up. We will continue to bluff him off." "We can't bluff him forever. To my mind----" The boy broke off short, and coming to a halt, pointed with his disengaged hand toward the barn. "Did you leave that door unlocked?" he went on. "Certainly I didn't. Who opened it? Perhaps Allen is back." "And perhaps there are horse thieves around!" was the quick reply. "Come on." Without a word more the two boys dropped their burdens and started for the structure in which the horse belonging to each had been stabled. The boys were Chetwood and Paul Winthrop, two brothers, tall, well-built, and handsome. The face of each was browned by exposure, and showed the perfect health that only a life in the open can give. Chet and Paul lived with their elder brother Allen at a typical ranch home in Idaho, on one of the numerous branches of the winding Salmon River. The home was a rude but comfortable affair, with several outbuildings close at hand, the whole surrounded by a rude but substantial stockade, a relic of the time when troubles with the Indians were numerous. It was a warm, sunshiny day in August, and the two boys had been down to the river fishing at a favorite deep hole near the roots of a clump of cottonwood trees. Each had a nice mess of fish strung on a brush branch, showing that their quest of game had not been a vain one. For three years the three Winthrop boys had lived alone at the ranch home. Their former history was a peculiar one, the particulars of which will be given later. Just now we will follow Chet and Paul to the barn, the door to which stood half open. "Gone!"