"He didn't say," answered Mrs. Bunker. "But he wants you to come to see him."
So Uncle Fred went. He stayed a long while in the room where Sam Thurston, the strange cowboy, had been put to bed after his broken leg was set, and when Uncle Fred came out he was much excited.
"Wait a minute, Captain Roy!" he called to his partner. "I can tell you where to look for the cattle that were taken last night."
"Where?" asked the former army man, pausing at the head of his band of cowboys.
"Over in the gully by the creek. They're hidden there."
"Who told you so?"
"Thurston, the strange cowboy. And he has also told me the secret of the spring, so we won't have to do any digging, Daddy Bunker."
"We won't? Why not?" asked the children's father in surprise.
"Because the cowboy says the reason the water stops coming in at certain times is because of something that happens back in the hills, where my spring starts, in a brook that runs under ground after its first beginning. Back in the hills the men, who have been taking the cattle, turn the water into another stream. That's why it doesn't run into mine, and that's why my spring dries up."
"But why do the men shut off our spring water?" asked Captain Roy.