re on the back of a fast-moving
pony, riding up the trail that led over Snake Mountain.

"Who's that, Buck? See him!" yelled Bud.

"No can tell. Old Billee, mebby!" grunted the Indian.

"No! Old Billee just left me! He's back at the ranch house. But
that's a stranger, and I don't like strangers sneaking around my
ranch--especially when there's a break just happened to my pipe line!"
exclaimed Bud. "I'm going to look into this!"'

"Hi there! Hold on a minute! I want to talk to you!" he yelled,
making a megaphone of his hands and directing it at the figure on the
back of the sturdy pony that was scrambling up the mountain trail.
"Wait a minute!"

But this the stranger seemed unwilling to do. The watching group near
the reservoir saw him raise his quirt, or short whip, and bring it down
savagely on the back of the pony, which, already, was doing its best to
carry its master out of distance.

Then, with a quick motion, Bud drew his .45, and though both Nort and
Dick saw him aim it high above the man's head, in order to shoot over
him, horse and rider went down in a tumbled heap at the sound of the
report, which followed as Bud pulled the trigger.

"You've winged him!" cried Dick.

"Shucks! Didn't mean to hit him--just shot to scare him!" declared
Bud. "But we'll have to see about it now! Come on!" he cried, and he
ran down the side of the reservoir to where he had left Sock, his pony,
followed by Dick and Nort who also headed for their steeds.

"Hu!" grunted the Indian, as he came on down more leisurely. "No
water--man shot--new boys come--big time, mebby! Hu!"

And Buck Tooth was more than right. Big times impended in Flume Valley.

While Bud Merkel and his two cousins who had arrived from the east only
the day before were mounting their ponies, to ride up the side of Snake
Mountain, and seek the man Bud had shot, I shall have a chance to tell
my new readers something about the boy ranchers, and the volume that
immediately precedes this one.

The book is entitled "The Boy Ranchers; or Solving the Mystery at
Diamond X." Norton, or Nort, and Dick, or Richard, Shannon were sons
of Mr. and Mrs. Thornton Shannon, and their home was in the cast. When
Mr. Shannon, the summer previous, had been obliged to make a trip to
South America, with his wife, he sent his sons to spend their vacation
at Diamond X, one of the western cattle ranches owned by Henry Merkel,
Mrs. Shannon's brother.

Almost immedia