"As hungry as if I hadn't eaten since last night," finished Alice with a mocking laugh. "There, sister mine!" and she blew her a kiss from the tips of her rosy fingers.
"Well, it's easy enough to say: 'Get after the fellows who took the reel,'" spoke Baldy Johnson, "but who were they, and where shall we start?"
"It must have been someone who knew where we kept the reels in the light-tight box," said Russ. "Otherwise he would have cut several places in the tent to reach in and feel around. And there is only one cut. So it must have been somebody who knew about this tent."
"Regular detective work, that," remarked Necktie Harry, quickly, looking admiringly at Russ.
"Say! I have it!" cried Baldy Johnson. "Those fellows who rode in yesterday to watch us work. It was one of them."
"You mean the boys from the Double ranch?" asked Buster.
"Them's the ones," answered Baldy. Just before the close of the making pictures the day before a crowd of cowboys from a nearby cattle range had ridden up, and looked on interestedly. They were returning from a round-up. Some of them were known to the boys from Rocky Ranch, and there had been an exchange of courtesies.
"'Them's the guilty parties,' as the actor folks say," sung out Bow Backus.
"I think you are right," agreed Mr. Pertell.
"But I can't see what object cowboys would have in taking a film—and an undeveloped one at that," said Russ. "I can't believe it."