"Zeb doesn't know one end of a gun from the other," said the scientist. "As for me—I have none."
"Mighty queer!" muttered Snake. "Somebody fired all right."
"Must have been another party," suggested Bud. "Maybe you chased the wrong bunch, Slim."
"Maybe I did, Bud," admitted the foreman, "though I didn't think there was two bunches. If there was——"
He did not finish what he intended to say, for his mind was busy with several thoughts engendered by the news that the hated sheep men might come to a land so far held sacred to horses and cattle.
"Yes, it's mighty queer," said Slim musingly, as they turned in toward the corral not far from the ranch house. "Some one fired at me just as the chase began, and if it wasn't the professor——"
Mr. Merkel, followed by some of his ranchmen neighbors, came hurrying from the house. Framed in the lighted doorway stood Ma Merkel and Nell.
"That you, Slim?" asked the owner of Diamond X.
"That's me," was the reply.
"Did you get 'em?"