"Well, if it ain't them kids!" ejaculated Pete, who had been on guard. "It's lucky you recognized my voice, Horace."
By this time Tom and Larry had straightened up and all three were hastening toward the camp fire, thinking only of their good fortune in finding their friends.
"Horace, what does this mean?" demanded his father sternly. "I told you to stay at home, and yet we haven't been gone but twenty-four hours and you come tagging along."
But the severity of his father did not dismay the young rancher. Looking straight at him, the boy hastily told of the ride to the pool and the discovery that more cattle had been driven away.
The information excited the cowboys greatly, and emphatic were their opinions of the daring of the thieves in making another raid and within a few hours after the men pursuing them had set out.
"They probably were watching us all the time," asserted the owner of the Three Stars.
"Probably," agreed Mr. Wilder. "But what have you boys been doing since you learned of the raid? You could almost walk your ponies from the pool to here in all this time."
Before any of them could reply, however, a long, low wail rang out.
Surprised, the men glanced at one another,
"That sounds like a coyote, but it ain't," asserted Pete.
Again the cry broke on the air and was repeated twice.