"Don't know's I thought much about it, but, now that I have, why, of course, they did it," Bud agreed. "Unless it was the cattle rustlers," he added.
"You mean the ones we just had a fight with?"
"That's who."
"No, I don't reckon they did," Dick remarked. "In the first place we licked 'em pretty badly. They scattered, I'm sure, and they didn't head in this direction. And what good would it do 'em just to cut a wire after we'd gotten the cattle away from 'em?"
"Oh, general meanness, that's all," answered Bud.
"They wouldn't do that out of spite and run the risk of being caught—not after what happened to 'em," declared Dick, and Bud answered:
"Well, maybe you're right."
Then they rode along in silence for a while, making sure, as they progressed, that they did not pass a break in the telephone line. The thin copper conductor was intact as they could see.
"They must have gone about half way back—between the creek and our ranch, and snipped the wire there," said Bud, after a period of silence.
"I reckon so," agreed Dick. "That would be what we'd do if we had it to do; wouldn't we?"