Jack and Harry, however, realized that Ned was about right when he said it looked as though there might be more in the message than appeared on the bare face.
“You notice that it says two bosses, don’t you?” asked Ned.
“Yes, and that must refer to my two uncles, Colonel Job Haines and James Henshaw?” Harry suggested.
“What does the W mean?” asked Jack.
“I think that must be a town on the railroad, where they ship the cattle in season,” replied Ned.
“‘Be ready to act,’ it goes on to say,” Jack continued, “which would make it appear as though the writer knew there was some sort of a raid contemplated.”
“A raid!” echoed Jimmy, “faith, d’ye mean by rustlers?”
“That’s the only kind of raid cattlemen fear nowadays, since the wild animals have been well cleaned out and the reds stick to their reservations pretty much all the time,” Harry informed him, “but just to think of what this would stand for, if it’s true.”
“A traitor or traitors employed at the Double Cross Ranch,” the scout master declared. “Well that wouldn’t be the first time such a thing had happened. In fact, these cattle rustlers usually have means for learning all that is going on with the punchers. In that way, they manage to time their raids when most of the hands are away. Seems that there might be quite a bunch of the hounds, because he mentions the fact that the party he’s sending the message to can count on five to muss things up at the time the raid is engineered.”
Harry laughed grimly.