"Trouble?" exclaimed the boy ranchers in chorus. "What kind?"
"Bad trouble," was the reply. "Call your father up on th' 'phone, Bud," he added. "He wants t' talk t' you. Yes," he went on, musingly, as Bud hastened in to the telephone, "there's bad trouble at Square M!"
CHAPTER VII
DOUBLING UP
Nort and Dick looked at each other as Bud slipped into the tent where the telephone had been installed. Snake Purdee strode over to the water pail, and took a long drink.
"That's good stuff!" he remarked with a sigh of satisfaction, and then he led his pony to the trough, into which the thirsty animal dipped his muzzle deeply. "Mighty good water!"
"An' I hope nothing happens to it," voiced Old Billee.
"Happens! What d'yo' mean?" questioned the bearer of bad tidings. "The water's here, ain't it?"
"But no tellin' how long it'll run," added the veteran cowpuncher. "A black rabbit run across Bud's path the day he was ridin' to meet Nort and Dick, and ever since then——"