f ice, or a hand dipped in
cold water, had touched him.

"Hi! Who's doing that?" yelled Dick, for he had a sudden dream that he
was back at school, and some one was playing a trick on him. "Cut it
out!"

No sooner had he spoken than he realized that he had awakened Nort and
Bud, for by the flickering light of the embers of the fire he could see
them sitting up and staring over at him.

"What's the matter?" demanded Bud.

"Something tickled the back of my neck," declared Dick. "I guess a
coyote must have been picking up scraps of food, and smelled of me.
Hope he didn't take me for a dead one!"

"Coyote!" exclaimed Bud. "I don't believe you could get one to come
near you, not as long as you breathed. It must have been a----"

"Snake!" broke in Nort, without thinking of what the word might mean.

"Wow! Don't say that!" cried Dick, and he leaped up, scattering his
blanket and tarpaulin each in a different direction.

"Shut up!" commanded Bud, laughing. "Do you want to start the cattle
off again? If it was a snake it won't hurt you, and it was probably
more scared than you, Dick."

"Yes--maybe!" said the other. He lighted a stick of greasewood at the
fire, and looked about his part of the sleeping ground. But he found
nothing in the animal line.

"Guess you dreamed it!" said Nort.

"I certainly did not!" emphatically declared his brother.

"Well, go to sleep again," advised Bud. "If you feel it a second time
call me!"

"Huh! I'll do that all right!" declared Dick. He carefully shifted
his sleeping place, making a searching examination of the ground before
spreading out his tarpaulin. And he was some little time in dropping
off to slumber again.

But there was no further disturbance in the night, and in the morning
Bud looked for marks on the ground, declaring the visitor had been a
prairie dog, which Dick declared his unbelief in, sticking to the snake
theory as being more sensational.

After breakfast they started to drive the cattle again, reaching the
railroad yards and successfully transacting the business of selling
their stock.

It was the night that Bud and his cousins returned from having driven
the steers to the railroad yard that something happened which again
brought to the front all their worries and anxieties.

They were all seated about the camp fire, and Pocut Pete had just
arisen, remarking that he would get ready for his turn at night-riding,
when there was a sort of hiss