"Well," remarked Baldy, slowly. "I don't want to scare you; but for a minute there I thought it was all up with you—I did for a fact."
"Some stampede!" cried Paul, as he rode up, looking almost like a cowboy himself.
"And some film!" laughed Russ, delighted that he had gotten one of the real stampede, now that his friends were out of danger.
"But I can't understand it," said Mr. Norton. "What started the cattle off the second time? They were really frightened at something."
"Did you see those men over that way?" asked the ranch owner, pointing in the direction where he had observed the retreating cowboy band.
"I saw 'em," admitted Pete, "but I thought they were some of our boys that you'd sent up to the North pasture."
"They weren't from Rocky Ranch!" declared the owner of the Circle Dot outfit.
"Well, if they were strange punchers, maybe they frightened our steers," suggested Baldy.
"They might have," admitted Mr. Norton. "But I was thinking that perhaps they were rustlers, trying to ride off a bunch, and they became frightened when they saw us all on hand."
"It might be," admitted Pete Batso. "I'll have a look around after we get the critters in the corral."