“I don’t know what I did. I was excited. I saw that man on horseback leading the other horse—”
“What man?” interrupted his chum.
“Oh, be still!” exclaimed Dig, with great disgust. “Do you s’pose I stopped to ask him his name and where he came from? I up with the gun to fire a shot to warn you—”
“That must have been what woke me,” said Chet.
“And it’s what put me to sleep,” said Dig, grimly. “I don’t know what happened after this old cannon tried to knock my head off.”
“Tell me what happened before,” urged Chet anxiously.
Dig explained how he had come to start around the pool. He had heard a noise while on this side and, stooping down, he had seen a horseman between him and the background of the sky. The rider was leading a second horse, and was moving quietly toward their encampment.
At first Dig had not known what to do—whether to return and awaken Chet softly or to keep watch of the man on horseback. And then Dig had seen a man afoot running up from the camp.
“The scoundrel was carrying something. We’ve been robbed, Chet. Is my saddle all right?”
“Yes. But he might have taken something—”