t, and, if so, it
would mean that the taking away of Uncle Fred's cattle didn't have
anything to do with the mysterious spring."

"Well, it will do no harm to take a look," said the ranchman. "Come
along, Captain Roy. We'll see what it all means."

Taking lanterns with them, they went out in the dark night to look at
the spring.

"It's just the same," called Daddy Bunker, when he had taken a look.
"The water is almost out of it."

"Then we must start, the first thing in the morning, digging at the
place where the boys made their well," declared Uncle Fred. "I must get
at the bottom of the secret of my spring."

"And I'd like to find out who it is that's taking our cattle!" exclaimed
Captain Roy. "I think, in the morning, I'll take some of the cowboys and
have a big hunt. This business must stop. Pretty soon we won't have any
ranch left at Three Star. I'm going to find the men that are taking the
cattle!"

When the six little Bunkers awoke the next morning, there was so much
going on at Three Star Ranch that they did not know what to make of it.
Cowboys were riding to and fro, Uncle Fred and Daddy Bunker were dressed
in old clothes, Captain Roy had a gun slung over his shoulder, and many
horses were standing outside the corral, saddled and bridled.

"Are we going on a picnic?" asked Vi. "Is there going to be a parade? Is
the circus coming? What makes so many horses? Is there going to be a
prairie fire?"

"Well, I guess you've asked enough questions for a while, little girl!"
laughed her mother. "Come and get your breakfast now."

"But what's going on?" insisted Violet.

"Two things," her father told her. "Your uncle and I are going to dig
deeper in the well Russ and Laddie started, to see what makes the
gurgling sound of water under the earth at the bottom of it. And Captain
Roy is going to try to find the men who took Uncle Fred's cattle last
night."

"Oh, can't we help?" asked Laddie.

"You may come and watch us dig your well deeper," his father told him.
"But it would not be safe for little boys to go hunting men who take
cattle."

Just as Captain Roy and a lot of cowboys were about to ride off over the
plain and Daddy Bunker and Uncle Fred were going to dig at the boys'
well, Mrs. Bunker came out of the bunk-house. She had gone to see if
the man with the broken leg needed anything.

"He wants to see you," she said to Uncle Fred. "He says he can tell you
a secret."

"Tell me a secret!" exclaimed t