ack," and Alice shook back the hair that
was falling over her shoulders, for she was to take part in several
pictures that day as a "cowgirl," and was dressed in a picturesque, if
not exactly correct, costume, with short skirt, leggins and all.

"Oh, I hope there won't be any--bloodshed!" faltered Miss Pennington.

"They'll probably only use their lassoes," replied Alice, with a smile.
"Oh dear! I hope breakfast will soon be ready. I'm as hungry as a----"

"Alice!" warned Ruth, with a gentle look. She was still trying to
correct her sister's habit of slang.

"As hungry as if I hadn't eaten since last night," finished Alice with a
mocking laugh. "There, sister mine!" and she blew her a kiss from the
tips of her rosy fingers.

"Well, it's easy enough to say: 'Get after the fellows who took the
reel,'" spoke Baldy Johnson, "but who were they, and where shall we
start?"

"It must have been someone who knew where we kept the reels in the
light-tight box," said Russ. "Otherwise he would have cut several places
in the tent to reach in and feel around. And there is only one cut. So
it must have been somebody who knew about this tent."

"Regular detective work, that," remarked Necktie Harry, quickly, looking
admiringly at Russ.

"Say! I have it!" cried Baldy Johnson. "Those fellows who rode in
yesterday to watch us work. It was one of them."

"You mean the boys from the Double ranch?" asked Buster.

"Them's the ones," answered Baldy. Just before the close of the making
pictures the day before a crowd of cowboys from a nearby cattle range
had ridden up, and looked on interestedly. They were returning from a
round-up. Some of them were known to the boys from Rocky Ranch, and
there had been an exchange of courtesies.

"'Them's the guilty parties,' as the actor folks say," sung out Bow
Backus.

"I think you are right," agreed Mr. Pertell.

"But I can't see what object cowboys would have in taking a film--and an
undeveloped one at that," said Russ. "I can't believe it."

"Maybe the International firm bribed them, or maybe one of their men was
disguised as a cowboy," suggested Mr. DeVere.

"That's possible," admitted Russ.

"Well, we'll soon find out," declared Baldy. "Come on, boys. Grub up and
then we'll ride over."

The visit to Double X ranch proved fruitless, however, except in one
particular. The cowboys attached to that "outfit" easily proved that
they had not been near the camp of the picture makers.

"B