“Whew!” whistled Ned. “There’s something doing here, all right. He’s one of the cattle thieves as sure as guns! We’ve got to watch him close.”
“I agree to that last part all right,” said Jerry. “But I’m not so sure he’s in with the rustlers.”
“I am!” and Bob sided with Ned.
“Well, that’s one end to work on, and another is to see what happened to your dad’s cattle,” said Jerry. “We’ll have another try at the gulch, I think.”
“It’s only a waste of time,” declared Ned. “Bob and I have gone over every inch of the ground there.”
“Well, I’m a bit freshened up by my rest,” insisted Jerry, “and I want to take another look. But have you fellows formed ideas at all?”
“Half a dozen, and not one any good,” answered Bob. “Once I had an idea that they took the cattle away in a big automobile from the point where we lost trace of them.”
“They couldn’t do that without leaving marks of the wheels,” put in Ned, “and we didn’t see any.”
“Then I got a crazy notion that they floated them down a river on a raft,” went on Chunky. “Only,” and he grinned, “there isn’t any river near there.”