riend, Checkers."

"Not alone, Ted. You're going to get the other boys to help you, aren't
you?"

"Now is the accepted time. I'm going right away now. But it would be a
good scheme for you to ride back to the ranch and tell Bud and the boys
quietly what I am about, and have them come out in case I should need
help."

"I hate to see you ride away alone, Ted. You can't tell what there is
over there. Better let me go along."

"No, Stella, it would be no use. You know that I appreciate your courage
and skill in every way, but this, probably, will be no work for girls."

Stella pouted at this. She did not like the idea of the long ride back
to the ranch house alone.

She looked at Ted to see if he really was in earnest, and when she saw
the look in his face she turned back with a wave of the hand and a "So
long!" and started for the ranch house.

"Tell Bud to bring three or four of the boys out here with him," shouted
Ted after her. "Thank you, Stella."

But she only nodded her head and pursued her way, and Ted, after looking
after her for a moment, rode forward. He had not seen the red car for
several minutes, it having disappeared behind a rocky butte.

Having a fair horse, he gave it the gad and struck into a gallop. Soon
he entered upon the rough land, and from a rise saw a stream below and a
herd of cattle beyond, where the prairie began again; the railroad, and
a small red station house, with two or three low buildings about it.

He now understood that he had seen the red car on the far side of the
ravine, through which the stream flowed, and went down to the stream,
his horse sliding on its haunches amid a clatter of broken clay and
pebbles.

He was soon across and clambered up the other wall of the ravine, and
there in the clay found the impression of the tires of the red car.

"I'm all right now," he muttered to himself. "On the track of Checkers
and the robbers' automobile. I wonder where it will end."

He had no difficulty in following the tracks of the automobile for a
considerable distance, when the ravine ran out on that side and the bank
of the stream flattened; and he rode along it, following the trail with
ease.

Then the bank of the stream rose again, and the water flowed through a
ravine, into which the red car had entered. It could not escape him, and
Ted chuckled, and examined his revolver, loosening it well in its
holster, for he had not forgotten the warning against Checkers given him