"Let him keep it, Boss."
"And lose the ranch and the cattle on it?"
"Better to lose your money than to lose your life," muttered Billee. "As for the cattle, you'll find fewer of 'em there when you go back than you left there."
"Oh, stop croaking, Billee, and spill the beans!" begged Nort.
"'Twon't take long," Billee answered. "I forget just how many years ago it is," he said, looking off toward the distant hills that bordered Diamond X, "when, in the course of my wanderings, I struck Los Pompan. There was a ranch there then, called Dot and Dash, just as there is now, but it was run by a fellow named Golas. Maybe he was a Mex. Anyhow I signed up with him and started to ridin' herd. But I didn't stay long."
"Couldn't you hold down the job?" chuckled Babe Milton, who was Slim
Degnan's assistant, and as fat as Degnan was lean.
"None of your wise cracks!" snapped Billee. "I can cut out a bunch of cattle better'n what you can any day and I'm a heap sight older 'n' wiser. No, the reason I quit was on account of what kept happenin' at Dot and Dash."
"And what happened?" asked Dick.
"Death is what happened!" said Billee, solemnly. "Mysterious death!"
"Death can happen on any ranch," observed Mr. Merkel quietly. "We have, unfortunately, had deaths here."