"Yes."
"What is it?" cried the two brothers.
"They're feeling around to find the places where the quicksands are," announced Bud.
"You mean so they can jump in and get rid of themselves?" grimly asked Snake Purdee.
"I mean so they can tell where not to cross," said Bud, though this was unnecessary, since they all grasped his meaning when he spoke of the quicksands.
"I guess you're right, son," observed Old Billee, who had come back to the fort with the return of the cowboys. "They're looking for safe fords and I shouldn't wonder but what they'd find 'em."
"I wouldn't be too sure of that," said a tall lank cowboy.
"What do you mean?" Billee wanted to know.
"Wa'al, they may find the places where it's safe to cross—I ain't sayin' but what they is sich places," went on "Lanky," as he was called, "I know this creek putty well, an' I've crossed it more'n once, swimmin' a hoss over an' sometimes drivin' cattle. But th' trouble is sometimes when you find a safe place it doesn't stay safe very long."
"What do you mean by that?" asked Bud, who thought it his duty to learn all he could about matters connected with his father's ranch.