"Will y' listen to thet!" exclaimed Walker, laughing. "Ain't yer own yard big enough fer yo' all to play in? Looks to me like 't might be! Anyway, yo' jes' take my tip! An' as fer yo', young Mr. Rain-in-the-Face, don't yo' let this here kid git into no mischief, er Bill Jordan'll cut off them two ears o' your'n an' sic the coyotes onto yo'!"
With this parting injunction, the two riders turned their horses and rode away; but it was plain that Walker was not altogether satisfied with the situation; and more than once he looked back at the boys as the distance between them increased.
Whitey was not the kind of a boy to be turned from his purpose by any such admonition as this. In fact, the scent of some possible danger only added zest to the matter; and the two boys rode forward toward the creek with an increased appetite for the business in hand.
Within a few moments the boys came to the edge of the branch or creek that marked the confines of the Bar O ranch. The banks were, except at intervals, steep and high—some six or eight feet above the water—and it was manifestly improbable that the cattle had taken to the water from the top of the bank. Injun, therefore, followed the stream down; and some half-mile below where they had come upon the creek, they found a place where the bank sloped gradually down to the water's edge.
Injun dismounted and examined the ground closely, Whitey following, but not able to see anything more than that it had been somewhat trampled. Injun, however, saw a good deal more than that. He pointed out the fact that on the two outer edges there were marks of horses' hoofs; while in the middle of the trampled course leading to the river, the cloven hoofs of the cattle were visible—not plainly, but after Injun had outlined several of them with his finger, Whitey could make them out.
"Bill was right, then?" asked Whitey, excitedly; "the cattle were driven and kept close together?"
Injun nodded, and proceeded with his investigations. Leading his pinto and looking closely at the ground and the surrounding grass and bushes, he followed the trail back from the creek. Some distance from the bank the boys came upon a place where the ground was bare and somewhat softer than that near the water, and this spot Injun examined minutely, crawling on his hands and knees and measuring the horses' hoof-prints carefully with one of his arrows. At length he rose as though apparently satisfied.
Although Walker and Bill Jordan had ridden over the ground, their horses had left no traces that confused the other marks; for by this time the ground was hard and dry, while at the time of the stampede it had been wet. Whitey looked at Injun inquiringly. "Four hoss," said Injun, holding up four fingers.
"And how many cattle?" asked Whitey, anxiously.
Injun shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. "Dunno," he said, frankly; "Mebbe 'lev'n ten."