"Absolutely not, boy!" was the reply. "They'd be all right one day, and the next they'd be dead."
"Maybe lightning struck 'em," suggested Nort.
"Lightning leaves a mark," Billee replied. "Besides, these things—I mean the deaths—would happen in clear weather. We didn't have many storms, though lightning did kill some cows and I remember one puncher who cashed in his chips that way. He was a nasty looking object, too, let me tell you. But Death Valley don't depend on lightning to get you. There's some other way."
"Well, we're going to find out what it is!" declared Bud and his cousins backed him up so forcefully that, in the end, Mr. Merkel at last consented to the boy ranchers going to Dot and Dash, at least to look the place over.
"I'm not going to ask you to try and sell it for me, so I won't be stuck," the ranchman said after his decision was made. "I'm not going to palm off a death-dealing place on somebody the way Barter, so it appears, loaded me up with it. But I don't yet admit anything is wrong. However, if you boys find there is, just close up shop and we'll forget it."
"No, Dad, we won't!" said Bud in a low voice, but with great determination.
"What'll you do then?"
"We'll find that death-dealing ghost and lay him, or her or whatever it is!" cried the lad.
"And we'll be with you from the drop of the hat until the last gun is fired," cried Nort, while Dick nodded his agreement.
"Well, I like to hear you talk that way," Mr. Merkel said. "But I do hope nothing happens," he added anxiously, when the boys left to make preparations for taking the trail to Death Valley.