"He told me to throw out them sacks, and to be damn quick about it," went on the driver. "Then I drove home."
"What sort of a lookin' fellow was he?" asked someone. "Same one as last year?"
"I never seen him," said the driver. "He hung behind his rock. He was organized for shoot, and if the messengers hadn't happened to' a' been out of it, I believe he could have killed us all."
"What did his hoss look like?" inquired California John.
"He didn't have no horse," stated the driver. "Leastways, not near him. There was no cover. He might have been around a p'int. And I can sw'ar to this: there weren't no tracks of no kind from there to camp."
They caught up horses and started out. When they came to the Lost Dog, they stopped and looked at each other.
"Poor old Babes," said Simmins. "Biggest clean-up yet; and first time one of 'em didn't go 'long."
"I'm glad they didn't," said Tibbetts. "That agent would have killed 'em shore!"
They called out the Gaynes brothers and broke the news. For once the jovial youngsters had no joke to make.
"This is getting serious," said Jimmy, seriously. "We can't afford to lose that much."