ce was unusual among the
cowboys. Ned and Walter, who had followed them in, were standing aside,
equally silent and thoughtful.

Shorty Savage was the first to speak.

"What's it all about? That's what I'd like to know," he asked.

"You won't find out from me," answered Curley.

"Big-foot thinks he winged a spook," said a voice.

"Allee samee," chuckled Pong, who had been taking in the scene with
mouth and eyes agape.

Big-foot fixed him with a baneful eye.

"I said I'd forget you were the cook some day," said he. "I'm forgetting
it, now, faster'n a broncho can run!"

Pong's pigtail bobbed up and down like the streaming neckkerchief of a
cowboy in saddle as he dived for the protection of the trail wagon.

"I reckon he can understand king's English when he wants to," laughed
Shorty. "Now how about that spook, Big-foot?"

Sanders stood up, hitched his trousers and tightened his belt a notch.

"Reckon we've all gone plumb daffy, fellows. I'm the champeen dummy of
the bunch."

The cowpunchers laughed heartily.

"But was she a spook?" persisted Shorty.

"She were not. She were a woman--a friend of the boss."

Shorty whistled.

"Lucky for me I missed her. I was rattled, or I'd never taken that
shot."

"Who is she?" asked Curley.

"One of the young women from the Ox Bow. It gets me what she was doing
in that spook place alone at night. I----"

"W-o-w!"

The exclamation was uttered by a familiar voice, at the sound of which
the cowmen sprang to their feet.

"It's the gopher!" they cried.

"Chunky!" shouted Ned and Walter, running forward with a yell.

"I fell in," wailed the fat boy.

At sight of him the cowboys yelled with merriment. Chunky's clothes were
torn. He was covered with dirt from head to foot, and his face was so
grimy as to be scarcely recognizable.

Big-foot was staring at him in amazement. Striding forward, he grasped
the lad roughly by the shoulder, jerking him into the full light of the
camp-fire.

"Where you been, gopher?" he demanded sternly.

"I fell in," stammered the boy.

"Where?"

"Some kind of a well. It was in the bushes just outside the back door. I
went there to hide. I fell down to the bottom and went to sleep."

"Just like him. Have anything to eat down there?" jeered Ned Rector.

"When I woke up it was dark. Then I found another hole--a passage. It
went both ways. Guess one end went under the church. I followed it the
other way, and came out near where the