"That's good," said Uncle Fred. "What with the fire and a stampede these are busy times at Three Star Ranch."
"And the spring is dried up again!" said Russ. "We forgot to tell you, Uncle Fred."
"The spring dried up once more? Well, I suppose that means more trouble and more cattle missing. I do wish I could find out this puzzle. Laddie, why can't you solve that riddle for me?"
"I don't know, Uncle Fred. I wish I could," said Laddie, as he was taken off to bed.
The next day Uncle Fred and Daddy Bunker went out to look at the spring, to take some more pictures of it with the camera, and see if they could find any reason for its going dry. Laddie and Russ and Vi, who usually wanted to go where her twin did, went with them, the other children staying at home to play.
"Yes, there's hardly any water in it," said Uncle Fred, as he looked down in the rocky basin at which Laddie and Russ had taken a drink the night before. "I think we'll have to dig back of those rocks," he said to Daddy Bunker, "and see what's behind them."
"It might be a good plan," agreed the children's father. "There may be some sort of secret channel through which the water runs out under the ground. I think I would dig, if I were you."
"I will," said Uncle Fred. "I'll go back to the house now and get picks and shovels. You can wait here for me."
"I'll come with you," said Daddy Bunker. "The children will be all right here."
"I'll go with you, Daddy," said Vi. "I must look after my mud pie I left in the sun to bake."