"You'll have to make inquiry of Hicks himself if you want to find out," laughed the rancher. "Probably the same way that he knows we are talking about him now."
All eyes were directed toward the cook.
Hicks was limping around the mutton kettle, shaking his fist at it and berating it, though in a voice too low for them to hear.
"That's one of your cattle men for you," chuckled Mr. Simms. "I think he would take genuine pleasure in boiling a sheepman in his pot. But he takes the money," added Mr. Simms significantly. "By the way, where's your chum?"
"Whom do you mean?" asked Walter, glancing about the table.
"Chunky, I believe you call him."
"That's so, where is he?" demanded Tad, laying down his fork.
"Probably fallen in somewhere again," growled Ned.
"Did not Master Stacy come in with you, Ned?" asked the Professor hurriedly.
"No, sir."