"Do you know what I think?" exclaimed Bud with energy.
"Well, son, I can't say I do," spoke his father. "You generally skip around so like a Jack rabbit, it's hard telling where you are. But shoot! What's your trouble?"
"My trouble is," said Bud slowly, "that I don't know enough about those professors and their gang!"
"The professors!" exclaimed Nort and Dick.
"That's what I said," went on Bud. "I think their pretended search for something is only a bluff. They're high-grade cattle rustlers, that's what I think!"
No one said anything for a few moments, and then Mr. Merkel remarked:
"Well, maybe you're right, Bud. Stranger things have happened. It might pay us to trail these fellows. Certainly there was something queer about them."
"Mighty queer," agreed Bud. "I began to suspect them after they tried to lasso Dick."
"Do you think one of those men—Professor Wright or Professor
Blair—tried to snake me off?" asked Dick.
"Well, no, not one of them, personally," admitted Bud. "They couldn't throw a rope over a molasses barrel. But they set some one up to it, I'll say!"