"We'll be on the lookout," Nort said.
"Hope you have luck," commented the strange cowboy, as he took off his glasses and wiped them on his silk neckerchief. "I'm lost without Cinder, though this pony isn't so bad," and he patted the neck of the animal he was riding.
A little later the boy ranchers were taking a short cut across the fire-blackened strip, to get on the trail of the men who had driven off their cattle, while Four Eyes turned the head of his pony toward camp.
"Well, it looks as if this was where the trail ended," announced
Bud, several hours later.
"Mighty funny, to come to an end so suddenly," commented Dick.
The three boys had reached one end of the many small valleys into which the larger vale was divided. They had been following the trail of the cattle that had been driven off—it was plain enough until they reached a rocky and shale-covered defile between two small hills. Then, for some reason or other, all "sign" came to an abrupt end. There were no further marks of hoofs in the earth, and none of the ordinary marks to indicate that cattle and horses had been beyond a certain point.
"It's just as Snake said," observed Dick. "They must have driven the animals here and then lifted them over the hill in an aeroplane."
"They couldn't!" declared Nort.
"I know they couldn't. But how else do you account for it?" asked his brother.
"They may have driven 'em through the pass, and then scattered dirt and stones over the trail to hide it," suggested Bud.