"Can you beat that!" Nort ejaculated when Bud finished reading. "Nerve—that Delton certainly has his share of it!"
The feeling which the note aroused was not just one of disappointment. The Kid seemed highly amused at the turn events had taken. Billee Dobb assumed an "I-told-you-so" expression which sat comically on his grizzled features. The rest looked slightly bewildered.
"Got away, didn't he?" Dick asked in a flat tone of voice. "Through the window, I guess. Yep. Slid down the rain water leader. Well——"
"An' he took with him your wireless and your new bunch of cattle," the Kid remarked sardonically. "Never count the chickens before they scratch. Mr. Delton is a slicker article than we figgered on."
"Let's see the note a minute, Bud," Nort said. "Huh—'bed too hard—couldn't sleep!' Wise sort of a bird; isn't he? Say, he must have written this as soon as we left the room."
"Why?"
"Because if he waited too long he couldn't have seen to write—too dark. That means he's far away by this time. He probably——"
"The horses! Ten to one he grabbed one of them an' beat it!" Yellin' Kid cried.
Without further parley the boys and men filed from the room and made for the corral. The horses had been tied to a pole nearest the house, and they were not long in reaching them. They could be easily seen in the moonlight which now flooded the prairie.
"Mine's there!" Bud yelled as he came within view of the animals. "Guess you're wrong, Kid. Seems like there's—no there isn't, either! Only four! Whose mount is missing?"