"Bobs! You aren't going to start out to-day? In this hot sun?"
"The longer I wait the hotter it'll get and the farther I'll have to ride."
"Couldn't you send one of the Robinson boys?"
"And pay him two dollars a day? They couldn't go, anyhow. The whole family is busy irrigating and plowing for fall wheat. Don't worry, sis; that scratch on my scalp looks worse than it feels. I may find the cow right down along the creek."
Rob went up the glen to the pasture to get his saddle horse. He was gone a long time and came back looking much troubled.
"I don't understand it" he said. "The gate is open up there and all the colts are gone. My pony, too."
"Rob—who could have done it? Do you think they were stolen?"
"I don't think so. There's been no horse stealing round here since that gang was rounded up last spring—just when you came, you remember? No, I can't imagine what's happened unless Boykin opened the gate for spite. Do you know when he went out?"
"The day after he attacked you. I heard the sheep crossing the meadow in the morning when I was getting fresh water for you."