"Just a little while ago," answered Captain Roy. "One of the cowboys just rode in with the news."
"Well, this is too bad!" cried Uncle Fred.
"I'll tell you what let's do," said Daddy Bunker. "It isn't very late yet. Let's go out and look at the spring."
"What for?" asked his wife.
"Well," answered the father of the six little Bunkers, "I want to see if the water has run out of it this time. Perhaps it hasn't, and, if so, it would mean that the taking away of Uncle Fred's cattle didn't have anything to do with the mysterious spring."
"Well, it will do no harm to take a look," said the ranchman. "Come along, Captain Roy. We'll see what it all means."
Taking lanterns with them, they went out in the dark night to look at the spring.
"It's just the same," called Daddy Bunker, when he had taken a look. "The water is almost out of it."
"Then we must start, the first thing in the morning, digging at the place where the boys made their well," declared Uncle Fred. "I must get at the bottom of the secret of my spring."
"And I'd like to find out who it is that's taking our cattle!" exclaimed Captain Roy. "I think, in the morning, I'll take some of the cowboys and have a big hunt. This business must stop. Pretty soon we won't have any ranch left at Three Star. I'm going to find the men that are taking the cattle!"