"Oh, you can't tell," said Billee Dobb. "Accidents will happen, and Del Pinzo is as slick as they come."
They all knew this to be true.
"Well, there's one thing in our favor," remarked Bud, as he urged his horse up between the steeds of Nort and Dick.
"What's that?" asked the latter.
"We're after the rustlers right quick," went on Bud. "Red Dugan, who telephoned in, said the gang driving off our cattle was still in sight as he was talking. So we ought to overtake them by dark."
"Not much fun fighting after dark," observed Dick dubiously.
"That's right," agreed his brother. "You can't tell who you're shooting at or who's shooting at you. How did Red come to be on the job so quickly?" he inquired of Bud.
"Well, you know dad has a lot of telephones set up at different places over his range," the owner's son explained. "He says it doesn't cost much to string a line of his own, and it's mighty handy when you want to send word back to headquarters. It proved so in this case. For Red was out on a distant part of the range, where there happened to be a branch telephone in a box on a pole, and he shot in word of the raid."
"Mighty lucky he did," observed Nort.
"Yes, for we're on the trail almost as soon as the rustlers took it," said Bud.