CHAPTER XVII. TWO UNEXPECTED VISITORS.
Fred Sheldon did not give much attention to Bud Heyland after he started in pursuit of his runaway horse, but, turning in the opposite direction, he moved carefully through the wood toward his mother's house.
He did not forget that Cyrus Sutton was somewhere near him, and the boy dreaded a meeting with the cattle drover almost as much as he did with Bud Heyland himself; but he managed to get out of the piece of wood without seeing or being seen by him, and then he made all haste to his own home, where he found his mother beginning to wonder over his long absence.
Fred told the whole story, anxious to hear what she had to say about a matter on which he had made up his own mind.
"It looks as though Bud Heyland and this Mr. Sutton, that you have told me about, are partners in some evil doing."
"Of course they are; it can't be anything else, but what were they doing in the woods with the wagon?"
"Perhaps they expected to meet some one else."
"I don't think so, from what they said; it would have been better if I hadn't whistled to Bud, wouldn't it?"