"Throw it away? Oh, no! Of course I'm not. I'm going to keep it until I can find out what it means."
"What it means is plain enough," said Bud. "Somebody doesn't want us to go on to Death Valley and Dot and Dash ranch."
"All the more reason why we should go on there and see what it means!" cried Nort.
"That's the talk!" echoed his brother and cousin.
"If they're trying to scare us away, they'll find we don't scare worth a cent," added Bud.
"It goes to prove, though," remarked Dick, "that Billee's story is likely to be borne out. I mean that there's something queer going on at Death Valley."
"Queer is right!" assented Bud. "Though whether this is a warning in our interests, sent by one who doesn't want to see any of us get put out of business with the poisoned water, or whether it's a warning to keep away so we won't discover some crooked business—that's something we can't answer."
"Not yet," said Billee Dobb significantly. "But we'll soon be able to. I've got my mind made up, now. I'm going to see this thing through to the finish!" and he smote his right fist into his open left hand with a sound like the report of a small gun.
"That's the way to talk!" cried Yellin' Kid. "I wish I'd had a sight of the fellow who dropped that warning," he went on. "He would be sitting down here now talking Turkey and tellin' what it was all about. Why didn't you call me first, Dick?"
"I raised the alarm as soon as I could wake myself up," was the answer.
"But I guess we were all sleeping pretty sound."